This episode started as an accident. I'd recorded something earlier and decided I didn't trust my judgement on it, so instead of forcing a finished episode I sat down and had a real conversation — unprepared, unfiltered, and going wherever it went.
I'd just come back from a weekend in Frankfurt with a group of women I met through a creative business course five years ago. The weekend with these women was extraordinary, as always. All of us are somewhere on the neurodivergent spectrum — ADHD, giftedness, twice exceptional. One of them has a podcast called Gifted Unleashed. We meet every year. We've all been on a journey of understanding ourselves and this year was no different.
In the car on the way there I listened to Rick Rubin's The Creative Act: A Way of Being. I loved it. I recorded voice notes as I went.
Two days before recording this, I found out I have aphantasia — I don't hold clear images in my mind. This sent me down a rabbit hole about inner dialogue, thinking styles, and how I actually process things. Turns out I think through experience and osmosis, not narration. My bullet journal does a lot of the heavy lifting.
The thread running through all of it: we need space to think. Not more information, not more productivity hacks — actual quiet. And that space is exactly what I offer in a coaching session.
Five Key Takeaways
- Your brain needs negative space to make connections — and most of us are filling that space constantly. Walking, driving, sitting without a screen: these aren't idle time. They're when the thinking actually happens.
- Neurodivergence shows up in many different forms — ADHD, giftedness, aphantasia, twice exceptionality — Understanding how you actually process things changes everything.
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The Bullet Journal does a lot of the thinking that can't happen inside an ADHD or aphantasic brain. It's not a productivity tool — it's an external thinking organ.
- Coaching is a container. It's not about having all the answers, or following a script. It's about creating the space for someone to actually think — with structure, with warmth, and without pressure.
Watch on YouTube!