In this solo episode of the Overgivers Anonymous Podcast, host Angela Mondor (The Geeky Girl) explores learning styles, especially through the lens of neurodivergence. She shares personal stories of struggling in school, how she leveraged her strengths—verbal book reports, public speaking, and audio‑fast‑forward—to succeed, and how those experiences inform her current approach to a certification program. Mondor explains the four classic learning style categories (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, reading/writing), emphasizes that neurodivergent individuals (ADHD, autism, dyslexia, etc.) often have unique, non‑uniform preferences, and argues that self‑awareness of one’s style can boost focus, reduce overwhelm, improve retention, and empower learners. She introduces a downloadable 10‑question quiz and worksheet designed to help listeners identify their preferred style, reflect on past learning experiences, and generate actionable strategies (e.g., requesting audio tracks, transcripts, captions, adjusting playback speed). Throughout, she stresses that learning preferences evolve, encouraging regular re‑assessment. The episode concludes with calls to visit the show notes, download the worksheet, and join the Overgivers Anonymous community on Facebook.
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Welcome to the Overgivers Anonymous Podcast. My name is Angela Mondor, also known as The Geeky Girl. In this podcast, we're gonna be talking about some amazing things to help you get over overgiving. Hi, and welcome to this episode of the Overgivers Anonymous Podcast. My name is Angela Mondor. I'm also known as The Geeky Girl. Today I wanna talk to you about your learning style. And here we are at the end of the year, and this could be fun. This could be a neat little thing for you to do right at the end of the year to You know, spur you on and get you ready for the upcoming 2025. So this is being released at the end. You might be watching it later. Either way, there's gonna be some fun stuff in here for you. And we're talking about your learning style. What's really important is figuring out yours. We all learn differently, and sometimes it's impacted by our stories that we've told ourselves, or it's impacted by the way we were treated when we were in high school or junior high or elementary. Some of that stuff. Also our neurodivergent brains. Sometimes it's in regards to how our brains actually function. And just because you might have ADHD or autism or dyslexia or some other form of neurodivergency, neurospiciness, doesn't mean to say that your learning style is gonna be the same as somebody else with a similar diagnosis. So it's important for you to really kind of do some inner work on this one and to really think about what is it that has worked for you in the past or what really hasn't worked for you in the past. Okay, let's— I will just say I did not do well in school. I was— I wasn't necessarily a problem child, although I kind of was. My teachers expected me to do things. They knew I was smart, but I just never put the effort in from their perspective. What they didn't realize was that I was neurospicy. We didn't have that when I was going to school. There was a lot of things that I needed to modify on my own, and I'm grateful that I was able to own those moments. As a kid to figure out the different way that I could learn my own learning style. I was great at participating in group conversations. I was not great at reading the books for those group conversations, but I was great at participating in the conversations. How I did it, I don't know, but being part of the conversations allowed me to learn about the book without actually reading the book. It got me by. I was also not great at writing, putting together essays and those kinds of things. However, I was a great public speaker, so I would say to my teacher, can I give the book report as as a verbal book report as opposed to writing it down. Now, let's, you know, get really clear here. Kids generally don't want to stand in front of their peers and present things verbally. So the teachers were floored. They're like, yeah, please, this is awesome. We can't get other students to do that. It was my way of being able to still manage to get the grades I needed to get through the system the best way I knew how. I look back and I think, wow, that's amazing that I came up with those ideas. Today I can say that, you know, I'm, I'm right now going through a certification, and I was kind of nervous about going through the certification because it's very— they're very rigid in how they do things. However, I was able to— I am able— I'm still, still in it as we speak at this moment. I'm able to actually use my own learning styles for my benefit to be able to not only retain the information but also be able to write The tests. That's the one thing I struggled with the most in school was the tests. I was cool as things were happening, but if I had to recall all these things from previous, I really had a hard time, especially when it was multiple choice because things were always so close. Even in my driver's test, we have this one question on our driver's test before you become— before you— it's your pre-driver's license. And the question is, when are you supposed to turn on your headlights? Is it's, you know, and it's always a multiple choice and I always mess it up. And I still— these things get messed up in my brain even today. So it's like half an hour before sunset and a half hour after sunrise. Okay, so look how that took me so much to get it through, even though I understand that I know I need to turn my lights on before it gets dark, and I know I need to turn my lights on after it's been bright for a little while, right? I understand the logistics of it, but to put it down on paper and to actually use those befores and afters, difficult for me. So if you struggle with these things, then start thinking about what is it that you struggle with and how. So then you can start to look at what is it that you can do for yourself to make things better. So this certification, I am so grateful. There is written data. They also have an audio that I can also make faster. So I listen to the audio at 2x speed while reading the words on the screen at the same 2x speed. That works for me. It might not work for you. Maybe you need to slow it down. Maybe you can't read at all. Maybe— not that you can't read, but maybe reading it isn't what works for you. Figure out what works for you, and then that way it'll help you to define what your learning style is. Okay? So there is debate all the time on the rigidity of what kind of learning style you have. But there is still value in the self-awareness and understanding what the learning styles are. So we typically say there's visual learners, audio learners, kinesthetic learners, and reading and writing learners. And you may have some from each, or one's more strong than the other. That's okay. I've put together this really cool quiz that'll allow you to be able to take, ask yourself some questions. It'll help you give you more information. I know myself, sometimes it's difficult for me to see things from my perspective, and sometimes I need help from another friend or another coworker, entrepreneur, somebody that can help me to see things the way I need to. But this quiz should help you to be able to suss some of this stuff out. Now, the benefits of learning your style is that it's gonna improve your focus. That's true because you're gonna be learning, you're gonna be able to change things and learn the way you want. So therefore it's gonna be less distracting, right? So your focus will be better. Obviously it'll remove some overwhelm for you as well because you're not going to be so overwhelmed by things that aren't making any sense to you. You're gonna be able to figure out how to make them how to make these things make sense to you. And of course, aligning these methods with your natural preferences, those, that's the best case. This is what we're trying to go for here. Of course, it increases your retention, your application of that knowledge. It's gonna avoid some frustration for you and, uh, it's gonna empower you to take control and to really personalize these strategies for yourself and own them for yourself. So us as neurodivergent people, we often thrive when we can trick, when we can tailor these learning situations for ourselves, when we understand our unique needs, when we understand what it is we want. And I'm just gonna put the caveat here, just because it works for you this month, this day, doesn't mean to say it's gonna work for you the same way later, depending on how you evolve and change. So check in and really look at these things. So this, there's an entire worksheet. This tool will help you because it'll help you decide who you are. Then it'll also, there's, like I said, there's 10 questions, be able to help you define your preferred style. And then it'll allow you to be doing some reflection inside there to help you to connect with that style of yours. And then giving you some key takeaways on how you can strengthen your learning abilities and help you to be more productive in that. So it's going to provide you with some actionable strategies, allow you to be able to apply this to your daily work. And hopefully, if you go through this, it'll help you to adjust things for yourself so that you can be more confident when you're asking for things. When you're applying for a class, for example, someone like me might say, is there an audio that matches the words on the screen, and can I 2x it? Or if there's a video, is there a way for me to see the transcript? Can I make the video go faster or slower? These are all questions that are important for me. Some people might need captions on the screen. So asking the content provider and saying, hey, are these things available with your course? Because there's nothing worse than buying a course that you can't consume simply because it just doesn't make sense to you, or you're unable to soak up the knowledge that's there in the course. So it helps you to be able to get more out of everything that you're doing inside your business. Okay? So it's going to help you to decide what your learning style is, give you some thoughts on what that feels like for you. Of course, with that practical application, you're going to be able to download this. We're gonna have it in the show notes for you so you can go ahead and get a copy of it for yourself. Give you some actionable tips, and then of course it'll allow you to be able to apply this to the rest of your life and your business. And you'll always have this on hand in case things start to change or evolve, move differently, uh, what's available to you. And it could even be how your neurodivergence Actually presents itself based on your environment. When my kids were younger, it was difficult for me to work while they were around. Okay? And so a lot of times I had to work after I'd put them to bed where there was more quiet, when there wasn't as many things going on. I was much more distractible by visuals than I am now. I'm more distractible by sound nowadays. I'm still distracted by visuals. Not gonna kid you, but it's easier for me to ignore the visuals and harder for me to ignore the audios. But it hasn't always been that way. So allow yourself to grow and evolve and change and stop shitting all over yourself. Evolve and change and allow it to work itself out. And as you grow and as you change, you can come back to this worksheet over and over again, and it'll allow you to adjust. What you need to in order to get the most out of everything that you want in your business and your life. I hope you have a fantastic day, and I hope that you take some time to think about who am I as a learner? How does this work best for me? And think about the different courses you've taken, different things that you've done, that you participated in, what worked really well for you and what didn't. Even if you don't download this, just take a moment to sort of reflect and go through what is it that I have found has been successful or helpful in my life, and how have I been able to retain that information because it's there. There's something. I hope you have a fantastic day. I look forward to talking to you next week. Bye now. Thank you so much for listening to the Overgivers Anonymous podcast. Your support means the world to me. You can find show notes for this episode and other goodies at overgiversanonymous.ca. And if you enjoyed this episode or you enjoy the podcast in general, why not join us in the Overgivers Anonymous Facebook group where you can connect with overgivers from all over the world? Head on over to geekygirl.ca/group.
