Hey possum blossums,

I’m absolutely buzzing with excitement to share the latest episode of Leonie Dawson Refuses to Be Categorised podcast with you! This one is especially close to my heart as I dive deep into what it’s like to navigate the world of business with a neurodivergent brain. Yes, we’re talking all things ADHD and autism, and how they can be both a challenge and a superpower in biz & life. Of course I’m joined by my darling co-host, Madi Beaufort.

Grab you headphones, babes. This episode is NOT for kiddo ears!
And **TRIGGER WARNING: If you’ve got alien phobia (like me and Madi), tentacle phobia (like one of my besties), or you’re not interested in hearing about outerworldly sex toys, skip ahead to minute 7!!! It was just the usual ADHD side adventure!

In the rest of this episode, we chat about:

🧠 How to get work done when you’re constantly distracted by things
🧩 My ADHD and autism diagnosis journey
🚗 What it means to have “Ferrari Brain”
🏗️ Creating structures & systems that work for my neurodivergent life.
🐉 Making friends with a water dragon
😭 Madi making me cry at Scorpiofest

We kick it off in true ADHD fashion with a wild and unexpected side quest into alien talk ((GAG! BARF!!!!🤮 shudderrrrr)) . 

Don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, and share with your fellow unicorns! 🦄💕

Do you have something you’d like us to chat about? DO share, darlings!!! Send your episode requests here.

Tune in now and let’s refuse to be categorised together!

You can either listen to or WATCH today’s episode! HEAPS OF CHOICES!

Watch:

Listen:

You can also subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, PocketCast.

Transcript

Leonie Dawson 0:03
Leonie Dawson she refuses to be categorized

Madison Beaufort 0:07
Yeehaw

Leonie Dawson 0:08
Because she’s a fucking legend all around the places

Madison Beaufort 0:08
Yeehaw

Leonie Dawson 0:08
Yeehaw Yeehaw! She comes from a farm and she likes to talk shit!

Madison Beaufort 0:17
sorry, everyone,

Leonie Dawson 0:18
actually like I was like, Are you related to me? Like what’s happening? Daddy

Madison Beaufort 0:28
yummy, yummy.

Leonie Dawson 0:31
Babes! Welcome to the new era, the Leonie Refused to Be Categorized podcast. Oh, with my darling friend @madisonbeaufortart, you don’t have any name there, you’ve got like a tag

Madison Beaufort 0:43
Yeah just a tag.

Leonie Dawson 0:45
Yeah, that’s all you are

Madison Beaufort 0:46
@madisonbeaufortart

Leonie Dawson 0:47
Ah, yes. And we are talking about all manner of things. But today we’re gonna be talking about ADHD and autism in business.

Leonie Dawson 0:03
Leonie Dawson she refuses to be categorized

Madison Beaufort 0:07
Yeehaw

Leonie Dawson 0:08
Because she’s a fucking legend all around the places

Madison Beaufort 0:08
Yeehaw

Leonie Dawson 0:08
Yeehaw Yeehaw! She comes from a farm and she likes to talk shit!

Madison Beaufort 0:17
sorry, everyone,

Leonie Dawson 0:18
actually like I was like, Are you related to me? Like what’s happening? Daddy

Madison Beaufort 0:28
yummy, yummy.

Leonie Dawson 0:31
Babes! Welcome to the new era, the Leonie Refused to Be Categorized podcast. Oh, with my darling friend @madisonbeaufortart, you don’t have any name there, you’ve got like a tag

Madison Beaufort 0:43
Yeah just a tag.

Leonie Dawson 0:45
Yeah, that’s all you are

Madison Beaufort 0:46
@madisonbeaufortart

Leonie Dawson 0:47
Ah, yes. And we are talking about all manner of things. But today we’re gonna be talking about ADHD and autism in business.

Madison Beaufort 0:56
Yes.

Leonie Dawson 0:57
And how to use it for, like, as your superpower to turbocharge your business growth.

Madison Beaufort 1:03
Yeah, absolutely. Oh, and well, you only found out what you’re not too long ago.

Leonie Dawson 1:09
So I self diagnosed autism in 2014. And I had no fucking clue. At that point, it was just that I had a whole bunch of my female friends get diagnosed with autism in this kind of six month span. And I was like, What the fuck is going on? These are all my favorite people who make the most amount of sense to me in the world, I don’t understand what’s going on. So it’s been an epidemic epidemic really. And then I was like, nope to be a good friend, what I’m going to do is look up what it means, especially like autism female checklist, because it’s very different how it presents in females. And I just did it to be a good friend. And then I read the female checklist, and I was like, Oh, Holy fuck, I it felt like somebody had just written out like the deepest, darkest secrets of my life into a checklist.

Madison Beaufort 1:58
Wow.

Leonie Dawson 1:59
Like all the things that I thought was like unique about me. It was like, oh, no, that’s the teaser.

Madison Beaufort 2:06
Wow,

Leonie Dawson 2:07
So like I knew from that moment on, like, Oh, that is me. And it took a little while to wrap my head around it but it made so much sense. It felt like such a fucking relief. I was like, oh, it’s nothing wrong with me. Like the reason I struggled so much socially and why didn’t understand things why I felt like an alien. Sorry. And it was a trigger word for both of us. We have a fear. We do mean many boys have the same phobia and we haven’t met anybody else who’s got a phobia no boys have like,

Madison Beaufort 2:34
I don’t even saying the word that I don’t like it and like it makes me ugh.

Leonie Dawson 2:38
especially like

Leonie Dawson 2:39
disgusting. Not for us

Madison Beaufort 2:43
No, like abductions You know? You know what I you know what actually gets me about it?

Leonie Dawson 2:48
What?

Madison Beaufort 2:48
It’s something else coming into my body.

Leonie Dawson 2:51
Ew

Madison Beaufort 2:51
Yeah, cuz that’s what the movies are about. They’re always like, this alien. That human is taken over by an alien. Ill Oh, and also aliens are always depicted as like these like, well recently leaves like starfish like monster T things. Have you seen that?

Leonie Dawson 3:05
No.

Madison Beaufort 3:06
Oh, you know watch movies.

Leonie Dawson 3:07
Yeah, no

Madison Beaufort 3:07
Yeah, every single movie I gotta watch, even if it’s not like an alien thing, suddenly there’s an alien that looks like a starfish that wants to chuck you into its middle hole. Oh, it’s awful. Just yeah, I don’t like it at all.

Leonie Dawson 3:20
No, I mean, either. We should add a trigger warning on this.

Madison Beaufort 3:23
oh sorry, I’m talking about it

Leonie Dawson 3:26
So if you’ve got a tentacle phobia if you’ve got a alien phobia. Do you know what I did do though?

Madison Beaufort 3:35
What?

Leonie Dawson 0:03
Leonie Dawson she refuses to be categorized

Madison Beaufort 0:07
Yeehaw

Leonie Dawson 0:08
Because she’s a fucking legend all around the places

Madison Beaufort 0:08
Yeehaw

Leonie Dawson 0:08
Yeehaw Yeehaw! She comes from a farm and she likes to talk shit!

Madison Beaufort 0:17
sorry, everyone,

Leonie Dawson 0:18
actually like I was like, Are you related to me? Like what’s happening? Daddy

Madison Beaufort 0:28
yummy, yummy.

Leonie Dawson 0:31
Babes! Welcome to the new era, the Leonie Refused to Be Categorized podcast. Oh, with my darling friend @madisonbeaufortart, you don’t have any name there, you’ve got like a tag

Madison Beaufort 0:43
Yeah just a tag.

Leonie Dawson 0:45
Yeah, that’s all you are

Madison Beaufort 0:46
@madisonbeaufortart

Leonie Dawson 0:47
Ah, yes. And we are talking about all manner of things. But today we’re gonna be talking about ADHD and autism in business.

Madison Beaufort 0:56
Yes.

Leonie Dawson 0:57
And how to use it for, like, as your superpower to turbocharge your business growth.

Madison Beaufort 1:03
Yeah, absolutely. Oh, and well, you only found out what you’re not too long ago.

Leonie Dawson 1:09
So I self diagnosed autism in 2014. And I had no fucking clue. At that point, it was just that I had a whole bunch of my female friends get diagnosed with autism in this kind of six month span. And I was like, What the fuck is going on? These are all my favorite people who make the most amount of sense to me in the world, I don’t understand what’s going on. So it’s been an epidemic epidemic really. And then I was like, nope to be a good friend, what I’m going to do is look up what it means, especially like autism female checklist, because it’s very different how it presents in females. And I just did it to be a good friend. And then I read the female checklist, and I was like, Oh, Holy fuck, I it felt like somebody had just written out like the deepest, darkest secrets of my life into a checklist.

Madison Beaufort 1:58
Wow.

Leonie Dawson 1:59
Like all the things that I thought was like unique about me. It was like, oh, no, that’s the teaser.

Madison Beaufort 2:06
Wow,

Leonie Dawson 2:07
So like I knew from that moment on, like, Oh, that is me. And it took a little while to wrap my head around it but it made so much sense. It felt like such a fucking relief. I was like, oh, it’s nothing wrong with me. Like the reason I struggled so much socially and why didn’t understand things why I felt like an alien. Sorry. And it was a trigger word for both of us. We have a fear. We do mean many boys have the same phobia and we haven’t met anybody else who’s got a phobia no boys have like,

Madison Beaufort 2:34
I don’t even saying the word that I don’t like it and like it makes me ugh.

Leonie Dawson 2:38
especially like

Leonie Dawson 2:39
disgusting. Not for us

Madison Beaufort 2:43
No, like abductions You know? You know what I you know what actually gets me about it?

Leonie Dawson 2:48
What?

Madison Beaufort 2:48
It’s something else coming into my body.

Leonie Dawson 2:51
Ew

Madison Beaufort 2:51
Yeah, cuz that’s what the movies are about. They’re always like, this alien. That human is taken over by an alien. Ill Oh, and also aliens are always depicted as like these like, well recently leaves like starfish like monster T things. Have you seen that?

Leonie Dawson 3:05
No.

Madison Beaufort 3:06
Oh, you know watch movies.

Leonie Dawson 3:07
Yeah, no

Madison Beaufort 3:07
Yeah, every single movie I gotta watch, even if it’s not like an alien thing, suddenly there’s an alien that looks like a starfish that wants to chuck you into its middle hole. Oh, it’s awful. Just yeah, I don’t like it at all.

Leonie Dawson 3:20
No, I mean, either. We should add a trigger warning on this.

Madison Beaufort 3:23
oh sorry, I’m talking about it

Leonie Dawson 3:26
So if you’ve got a tentacle phobia if you’ve got a alien phobia. Do you know what I did do though?

Madison Beaufort 3:35
What?

Leonie Dawson 3:37
At one point

Madison Beaufort 3:38
I wonder if we’re thinking about the same thing go.

Leonie Dawson 3:40
At one point, I’ve got a friend and I didn’t realize that she’s got tentacle phobia. And I sent her and a couple of my other friends a squirter one from Rosie raised but it’s shaped like a tentacle. And we were

Madison Beaufort 3:58
thinking the same thing, right?

Leonie Dawson 4:01
Jesus Christ, and then I was like, Oh, I’m gonna send you guys this crazy thing. And I’d like already paid for everything. And one of them was like, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, I don’t want that anywhere near me. I’m sorry I had to immediately like email Rosie I’m like I’m really sorry about wouldn’t be able to swap that out just for like a basic bitch like crystal dick instead because tentacles are not working the situation deeply,

Madison Beaufort 4:26
deeply uncomfortable. Because they have like really full on little sex toys now that are like alien sex toys.

Leonie Dawson 4:33
Yeah. And then like me, I mean, obviously.

Madison Beaufort 4:38
Hey, no judgement

Leonie Dawson 4:39
No judgement

Madison Beaufort 4:39
like if that’s for you, I’m like, its not what gets me kinky. It’s not aliens. Unfortunately. I just said no. My nipples invert further.

Leonie Dawson 4:53
Oh, they just go.

Madison Beaufort 4:55
Like conversation, my clit is actually gone. Yeah.

Leonie Dawson 4:59
It’s just decimated. So It’s like just just a dried up little nub

Madison Beaufort 5:02
no there’s no nub

Leonie Dawson 5:03
oh it’s like withdrawn

Madison Beaufort 5:05
it is hiding

Leonie Dawson 5:06
hiding it’s like I don’t know when a dude gets really cold I guess and it just goes

Madison Beaufort 5:10
yeah yeah there’s all these books about like an alien coming in like I love yeah but little like

Leonie Dawson 5:14
octopus sex which is like very like into like it’s it’s to like we’ve got phobias

Madison Beaufort 5:21
sometimes I get afraid of getting in the ocean in case an octopus is going to come at me. Oh,

Leonie Dawson 5:26
did you know though the best way that I have heard of doing Kegels episodes. Have I told you this?

Madison Beaufort 5:32
Are you a kegel girl?

Leonie Dawson 5:33
Not really. But I do like to know this information. So I don’t

Madison Beaufort 5:37
Tash that I’ve been thinking about Kegels.

Leonie Dawson 5:39
Oh, is Tash public about her Kegel information?

Madison Beaufort 5:43
Oh I don’t

Leonie Dawson 5:43
Okay, well, maybe won’t say her last name.

Madison Beaufort 5:46
We’ve a beautiful friend Tash and she kegels and I just think she has a strongest vagina. I would love that.

Leonie Dawson 5:51
It’d be incredible. Yeah, no, I’m like, I just, you know, it’s too much for me to think about. But the best way I’ve heard describe to like, get your kegels in is if you think your..Oh god this is gonna be so triggering for you. I’m so I’m sorry. But it’s gonna work so hard. You’re gonna have the just the strongest muscles. You’re in a bathtub, and it’s full of eels. And you just got to stop those eels from going anywhere. I can write days we could keep this coin shut forever.

Madison Beaufort 6:21
That’s actually a really good one.

Leonie Dawson 6:22
It’s really good. It’s very visceral, isn’t it?

Madison Beaufort 6:28
Still ew

Leonie Dawson 6:29
right. Anyway, strong live strongest machine muscles in town.

Madison Beaufort 6:34
Hey, why don’t we get on to this? Because we’re gonna be talking about oh, you know what? ADHD. This is?

Leonie Dawson 6:41
Oh, my God. Like,

Leonie Dawson 6:45
this is exactly what happens. This is exactly what happnes

Madison Beaufort 6:48
so first question. How do you get any work done when you’re constantly distracted by things?

Leonie Dawson 6:53
When you end up accidentally talking about kegels. Obviously I’m gonna mark this as fucking explicit. Because I’ve never released a podcast that’s not explicit. I’m so glad we got to have this talk. This is actually the part where like, you know, the best part of the podcast? As far as I’m concerned.

Madison Beaufort 7:15
Yeah.

Leonie Dawson 7:16
Okay, so alien child, that’s where we got. That’s how we got there. Okay, so I felt like real alien, Grant, all that kind of stuff. Anyway, so ah, so autism, decided to formally get diagnosed with autism like 2020 ish, just because I’m public about being autism, autistic. And I just want to make sure that I was correct in it, even though I knew for fuck sake. Of course I am. So I went through that process. It’s very long, very expensive. But she was like, oh, surprise, surprise, you’ve got autism. And I was like, great, cool. And she’s like, how do you feel about that? And I was like, fucking relief, because if it wasn’t autism, I’d be like, what the EverLiving fuck. And I was also like, dealing, I got bipolar or anything, because I do have Bipolar people in my family. I have like strong history of mental health and my family. They live really long lives, like very strong bodies with redox.

Madison Beaufort 8:13
super strong,

Leonie Dawson 8:14
super strong. So if it was like anything else, I just wanted to keep checking out other brands. Like, I’m fairly self aware.

Madison Beaufort 8:24
Yeah,

Leonie Dawson 8:24
You know what I mean, and I don’t have any of the indicators of bipolar people often, like on the internet, I have had trolls be like you, you’re so bipolar. And it’s like, what because I’ve got an excitable personality. And because I feel my feelings and I can get really excited. And I could also, like, get sad sometimes. That’s, that’s, that’s just called, like knowing what your feelings are.

Madison Beaufort 8:45
Yeah, yeah.

Leonie Dawson 8:46
And if I do have Bipolar cool, then I would treat it like no biggie.

Madison Beaufort 8:49
Yeah.

Leonie Dawson 8:50
My grandfather had bipolar. And yeah. So anyway, what was I talking about? ADHD, holy.

Madison Beaufort 8:59
God, what is happening?

Leonie Dawson 9:01
This is the greatest example ever

Madison Beaufort 9:06
Oh, so. Okay, so

Leonie Dawson 9:08
and then, as part of that process, she was like, Oh, by the way, you said her poor executive functioning that could indicate ADHD and then later went on to get an ADHD diagnosis because it goes through to separate people. They’re different ones, a psychiatrist for ADHD, and one’s a diagnostic psychologist for autism.

Madison Beaufort 9:25
Did you like getting the diagnosis. Hey, you, you like getting the diagnosis? Do you or the

Leonie Dawson 9:30
ADHD diagnosis I struggled with a lot more than the autism because I wasn’t like I hadn’t been as emotionally aware. Like I didn’t I didn’t think it was me. Because I also don’t present like the normal way that ADHD we see ADHD and this is the issues with ADHD and autism is where all of the literature and all the cultural awareness that we have is around young white boys, and how they experience it, not how you girl was experience it not how adults experience it and how women experience and not how people of color experience it. So if that’s the diagnostic framework, and we’re like, oh, well, like Sheldon is our autism person. And the boy who can’t sit still is the ADHD person who doesn’t perform well in school and was for me as like a high achiever academically, that doesn’t fit. Yeah, absolutely. So it was a bit of a head fuck. What you do need to be aware of with an ADHD diagnosis as well is that you will have when you get diagnosed, and this is the most fucked up thing, your symptoms increase. Oh, really helpful.

Madison Beaufort 10:41
To your like to I do it do I not?

Leonie Dawson 10:44
Exactly. Because you start headfucking yourself over everything. And it started like your executive functioning can go that much further down. So it took me like six months to six to 12 months for me to like, get over it and be like, No, fuck it. I’m not gonna think about this and hyper fixate on this so much that it’s actually taking all my executive functioning away. Like, it’s not for me. So here’s where I’m at in terms of my autism, ADHD in terms of business. It is how I made up fucking great. I’m going to run with it. And I’m going to recognize that entrepreneurs by large have ADHD, it is the like, if you’re if you if you have ADHD, you are likely to be an entrepreneur. If you’re an entrepreneur, you likely have ADHD, when they have done diagnostics, like assessments on like the top CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, they will like 60 to 70% of them have ADHD traits. They may not have diagnosis as yet, but they have the traits however, and it’s all about the impulsivity it’s about the trying new things, looking for new patterns, being willing to explore being willing to try things out. So yeah, that’s where the ADHD brain comes in really handy superpower. Yeah, absolutely. There’s a fantastic book as well. By Peter Shankman called something about the fast brain I can’t remember because I have ADHD. Peter Shankman book anyway, it’s fantastic because he’s talking about okay, like, yes, you have a Ferrari brain, and you also need to do certain things in order to keep that Ferrari on the road. It’s gonna need more tuning like the way I like to say it is like it’s gonna need more tuning than just a basic bitch Camry Brian, like a neurotypical Camry veins, just gonna, like require just a bit of maintenance to keep going. A Ferrari brains are capable of great speeds and great innovation and great ideas. But you also need to have like a whole fucking team and mechanics working on it.

Madison Beaufort 12:38
So brilliant. Yeah.

Leonie Dawson 12:40
So that means you need to get you know, make sure you’ve got support, you’ve got like some kind of coaching or good way to work with it working out what works for you. So things like medication might be life changing for you. Your nutrition is really important. Your sleep quality is really important. How you set yourself up for success is really important. Like doing things like body doubling so at the moment, I’m running the get shit done mastermind and it’s just where people turn up online, and they put the little camera on and they all work with each other because clever, it makes your your brain work better in those situations.

Madison Beaufort 13:22
Ad break

Leonie Dawson 13:27
Precious sunflowers I have another freebie for you. If you want to know the 10 productivity hacks that I’ve used, in order to create over $14 million in 10 hours a week, you need to go check out this beautiful colorful like like little hand illustrated cheat sheet I did sharing the exact productivity hacks I use. Go to Leonie dawson.com/ten to go grab it now. Come on, who doesn’t want to make more money in less time? We’ve got this I make magic

Madison Beaufort 14:05
ad break done.

Leonie Dawson 14:07
I like so if you guys wondering what the fuck is happening here. My husband collects musical instruments and so I just went into the box and just got the weirdest shit out that I could find. I was like that is gonna be perfect

Madison Beaufort 14:18
for someone if you’re a record label. Somebody just hit us up.

Leonie Dawson 14:21
Yeah, we’re here for jingles.

Madison Beaufort 14:23
Where did you go? Yeah, we do all manner of things to cover. Yeah, we do songs we could create our own. We send

Leonie Dawson 14:29
incredible in these mics do so. So autism I recognize that my autism is also like an enormous blessing. And it also means that I need to protect a whole bunch of myself in order to keep the autism on the road. So that means for me I don’t really leave the house that much. It means that I don’t travel I don’t go to conferences very regularly like I went to conferences last year, that was my first ones in seven years. One was 20 minutes from my house and I had a drive. Yeah. And it was,

Madison Beaufort 15:11
it was great. I loved it.

Leonie Dawson 15:14
I also recognized like that I like I just don’t do meetings, like I have talked about, like, we had a videographer, the film tree for recording our academy commercial last year, which you were doing with me. And the way I picked him was I emailed a whole bunch of people, I gave him the full brief, I was like, this is the kind of video I’m looking for. Because I’ve already created something like it. This is the script I want to follow. It’s going to take this amount of time. And, you know, I have all of the assistance. This is where the where we’re going to be filming it. Can you give me a quote? Like I had every bit of information they needed in order to give me a quote, and all of them, like, emailed me back and was like, that sounds great. Let’s jump on a call.

Madison Beaufort 16:04
No, that’s not what I said. It’s not

Leonie Dawson 16:07
what not was asking for. And Adam Bless his heart. He saw my email and he was like, This sounds like somebody who doesn’t want to talk on the phone. That’s fine. I’ll just work with her communication skill, like her communication needs. And he reckons, like, sounds great. So happy to do that for you. I just need to know this one piece of information. I’ll give you the quote. He emailed me the quote, and I was like, great, you’re done. I didn’t even wait for anybody. Like I didn’t wait for anyone to post because I’m not gonna talk to them on the fucking phone. Yep, not for me. No.

Madison Beaufort 16:38
Which is surprising, because you, you love to talk and we talk on the phone. Yeah, it’s I get you, hey, yeah, it’s not so much easier when you can condense it.

Leonie Dawson 16:45
Yeah. Like, I’ve given you all the information. I have the ADHD. So I don’t know what all the things I’m going to say to you. I’m also a chronic people pleaser. So if you set tell me something that doesn’t feel right, I’ll just go along,

Madison Beaufort 16:55
say yes. anyway, yeah, I’m committed to a videographer I don’t like.

Leonie Dawson 16:59
Exactly,

Leonie Dawson 16:59
exactly. So that’s why I chose Adam. I don’t like, I don’t care if you pay it, like if I paid more for it. Like, just, I’ll pay more in order to not talk to people.

Madison Beaufort 17:09
Yeah,

Leonie Dawson 17:10
I’d also just don’t do meetings very regularly. Yeah, I just keep everything contained, because I need to keep my equilibrium. And in terms of the focus, one, I fully embrace the fact that when we have when I do recordings, and things like that, I am going to talk about other things. And I’m very open about that. I’m really open about the way who I am as a person, always people find it really fucking funny. And then some people were like, Hey, can you remember to talk about this again? And I was like, oh, yeah, I’ll try for sure.

Madison Beaufort 17:42
unless I don’t want to.

Leonie Dawson 17:45
But also, like, if I’m recording a workshop or whatever, I have everything written down beforehand, so that I don’t forget any of the important stuff. So creating enough structure for me to thrive and flourish is is really important.

Madison Beaufort 17:58
Yeah, within that structure, what are your your nos? Like? What are your boundaries? Your your things that you’re like, No, this is having a strong no list protector? Autism? Yeah.

Leonie Dawson 18:11
You know, like, so. A lot of people really thrive around the social stuff. And that’s amazing, but it’s not for me. You know, a lot of people do masterminds, especially in person, they travel a lot. Like, no, no, thank you. And like, I’ve even like, contacted people like, oh, you know, I want to do just the online part of the mastermind. What price would that be? If I’m not fucking going to Mexico for three days or whatever? Like, three days? No, no, no, no, it’s not like I have children that I don’t particularly like leaving. They don’t particularly like me leaving. So I’d rather just stick out at home because I’m running an online fucking business. And, yeah, it’s strange, because there’s not a huge amount of like online, high end masterminds. Everyone wants to get in person and it’s just not for me. And I also recognize, like, I’m actually not great at being like one to one coached by a person. What’s best for me is realizing I’m an autodidact. I really like to learn in my own time, so I’ll just buy a course or a workshop. And or, like, I love when conferences have like it filmed and recorded, and then I’ll go through, go through that and it might take me months to go through but it’s so much better than me actually going there. Like when I went to Osmo and perennial conference as much as I loved it. I actually couldn’t really sit in the room for most of it because it was too overstimulating. I ended up just having a walk around Sydney, just trying to keep my autism self calm, because there was so much noise happening and like, traffic and I thought I felt like a hillbilly Yeah. Hillbilly I did, I’d like I thought, like, I thought we lived in quite a cosmopolitan area. I mean, we live on Sunshine Coast. So like, I thought we were like, you know, it’s more cosmopolitan than living up north Queensland in remote areas. But then going there and then there’s like, you know, I line eight lane motorways and stuff. And then there’s like you go under things and it’s traffic going over the top of you and I couldn’t understand it. I could understand what the fuck is going on here. Much

Leonie Dawson 20:14
smarter

Madison Beaufort 20:16
Look at me in my Bob Lane boots

Leonie Dawson 20:21
All right, so uh, yeah, I It’s okay for me to say no to that and one of somebody else who has autism at it when I was like saying like, Oh, it fucks me up to be in this room, like, I’m really happy to talk on stage, but sitting and like, all the lights and the music, everything, it’s too much for me. So I wasn’t there for 90% of it was totally not worth my time to be there. And when I told somebody with autism who was there, and she was like, Thank fuck, because I’ve been sitting here feeling like such a miserable failure thinking, What the fuck is wrong with me? Why can’t I do this? And I’m like, No, fuck no, you know what I did? I went to like, they have these beautiful Chinese gardens. And I went down there and I made friends with a whole bunch of water lizard like these Water Dragons, and these massive carp. And I was just like bilious, just like, Oh my God, and I named them all names. And I came up with these vast stories about them, and mainly sent videos to my husband or husband felt like he was there with me. And it was just beautiful. Like, that was the peak moment of the conference. Honestly, making friends with the water dragon and watching the carp. It looked like a beautiful painting.

Madison Beaufort 21:28
Oh, a painting just for you.

Leonie Dawson 21:33
In the fucking moment, it was perfect. So just being like, Yep, this is me and I can’t do what other people do. Still. More than enough. It’s still okay. I’m still fucking perfect. And I just had such ecstatic bliss. Anyway. Just going to do the things that were actually good for me. Yeah.

Madison Beaufort 21:55
Time for an ad break.

Leonie Dawson 21:56
Oh my god. Oh my god.

Madison Beaufort 21:59
What are we gonna do?

Leonie Dawson 22:08
Guess what? I have a free gift for you today, my loves! If you are just having a really shitty time, if things just feel a bit rough right now. Or if you just want to feel a little bit better. I have a gift for you. It is the Instant Uplift Meditation. This is a 10 Minute Meditation that I’ve made. And it is from my heart to yours, a sacred soul offering. This has been listened to 1000s of times by people. And people are constantly emailing me and telling me how much joy and solace brings this up. So go to Leonie dawson.com/instantuplift now and download this free meditation. Keep it on your phone, keep it on your computer and just use it whenever you need that little bit of revitalization. You’ve got this Leoniedawson.com/instant uplift completely free Oh my God, live the dream!!!!

Madison Beaufort 23:05
Hey, any good resources for people with autism with ADHD with any other stuff, you know that the feeling is prohibiting them or like, it’s just a challenge, and then wanting to start a business or they’re just wanting to live and thrive in life?

Leonie Dawson 23:19
So Leoniedawson.com/autism, I collect all of my autism and ADHD resources there

Madison Beaufort 23:25
that is brilliant,

Leonie Dawson 23:26
I know, I know happy fixation perfect. And then I also have I’ve got all my stories here about how I got diagnosed the full process for people who want to know that and they’re my favorite books and tick tock teachers in its categories because TikTok can be an amazing resource.

Madison Beaufort 23:45
I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say that’s. So I love. I love that you

Leonie Dawson 23:48
yeah tiktok can be an amazing educational resource and things

Madison Beaufort 23:52
wisely. And like purposefully Hey,

Leonie Dawson 23:55
yeah, yeah,

Leonie Dawson 23:55
and um, of course, you have to make sure that your dopamine doesn’t get attached to it.

Madison Beaufort 23:58
Which one does.

Leonie Dawson 24:00
Mine also does I also got attached to fucking Star Stables. You are really into though Mario Kart at the moment.

Madison Beaufort 24:06
Do you play it on a Wii or what do you

Leonie Dawson 24:08
I play it on Nintendo Switch but we play it on the big screen and the whole family plays together.

Madison Beaufort 24:14
Can I come and play?

Leonie Dawson 24:15
Yeah

Madison Beaufort 24:15
oh my god,

Leonie Dawson 24:16
do you have a favorite character or

Madison Beaufort 24:17
No so I used to play it we used to have these like amazing exchange students who would come and stay and they were all Norwegian and and beautiful. They just like treated me like I was like the you know, acquaintances. Yeah. And I loved them. And we used to play a we soak up every morning and the holidays and like, they play Mario Kart with me. This is living I still think back to that title. Like that’s the only part of childhood I would ever go back to. Like that was just like so nice. Yes. So yeah, I’m gonna come play okay. We mainly only also have like a shared interest in games a lot like you and your family love games.

Leonie Dawson 24:48
Board games and card games.

Madison Beaufort 24:49
Big Catan lady.

Leonie Dawson 24:51
Oh my god.

Madison Beaufort 24:51
We have different rules we found out.

Leonie Dawson 24:54
Yeah, like Maddie plays by the actual rules of the game and the way it’s supposed to be played. And we have the game there rules of we can’t be bothered reading the rules. So we just like had a rough look and an estimation and they made up the rest.

Madison Beaufort 25:07
it stressed me out. I was actually stressed out like,

Leonie Dawson 25:10
Maddie is like one of the most chilled out people I’ve ever seen and she nearly had a fucking aneurysm. At one point she snappily said, Okay, now I see that you just live by different rules. We’ll just play by your rules, I guess. I’d like I’d like to, I want to I do want to be clear here that I am also very competitive person. Yeah, it’s likely a real asshole. And guys,

Madison Beaufort 25:34
I know. And that’s yeah. So I’m just saying like, for some reason, just my non chill side comes out when it comes to games. Yeah, yeah. And yeah, it affected me. Or,

Leonie Dawson 25:43
or we went away for Scorpiofest.

Madison Beaufort 25:46
Have you told them about Scorpiofest?

Leonie Dawson 25:48
Well like, not in great detail. But it was pretty. Like, yeah, this will be

Madison Beaufort 25:51
Scorpiofest is the best.

Leonie Dawson 25:53
Yeah, Scorpiofest is where like, I go away for my birthday. And I used to just go by myself, which was also super fun. I just read books for 24 hours, because, well, God, she really lives up. And then I started doing it with friends. And then it just started getting wilder and wilder has progressed. And for my 4oth we went away, Maddie and me and some other of our friends, and we just had incredible time on this beautiful chalet looking over the coast. And then we also played card games. And at one point fuck I’m such a bitch. I was playing against Tash Corbin, and it was tight. And so I thought I play mind games with her and I asked I asked her her leaving score is like when she left school. And like she had she’s got a really high one. And so she thought she had me, right. And she was like, Well, okay, so what happened was Oh, that’s amazing. Well done ducks. School. And then and then I was like, Oh, I noticed that you didn’t actually ask me mine. Like oh yeah, no, I fucking annilated her. Okay,

Madison Beaufort 27:00
There goes that so self confidence. God, I made Leonie cry during actually when we’re playing games.

Leonie Dawson 27:06
Oh babes. Look we were under the influence of stuff as well. You were playing pig.

Madison Beaufort 27:10
Well, either way I still won that game

Leonie Dawson 27:13
It was worth it. I did, I cried

Madison Beaufort 27:22
only our other friends, right? I love God with my entire heart. So I can’t I’m just this. I’m ruthless. But all our other friends are like, Oh, we should stop playing like, she’s upset and I was like, whatever. I was like, No, I was like, she’s just she’s just doing something like, let’s keep going. Like

Leonie Dawson 27:40
We’ve got onereally sweet friend Jody, who’s so empathetic and so kind.

Madison Beaufort 27:44
She and angel

Leonie Dawson 27:45
She is like she really like

Madison Beaufort 27:46
Oh no, we’ve really hurt her

Leonie Dawson 27:47
And she came out to me and the whole point of the game in pig is like you’ve got to try and get someone to pay attention to you. And so yeah, so I was crying in the fridge and she was like, Honey Are you okay? And I turned around I was like ha! You paid attention to me! I got you you fucking bitch!

Madison Beaufort 28:05
she’s like oh ok

Leonie Dawson 28:06
And meanwhile there’s tears streaming down my face. Oh my god. Anyway, it’s like schoolie’s week but for mature-aged women

Madison Beaufort 28:17
It’s much better than schoolies. It’s so much better than school is like without a doubt.

Leonie Dawson 28:22
I need to we’d need to do it again. I missed not doing it in

Madison Beaufort 28:26
We don’t have to do it in school week.

Madison Beaufort 28:28
We could do it anytime we actually before Mandy moves away I think we should just even if we just go to the manor for a night or something

Madison Beaufort 28:34
Even if we just go to the manor

Leonie Dawson 28:39
Oh yeah, I love it you like talking to me and if you’re you guys watching the video podcast or you just do it looking at me like and there’s like two sets of eyes looking at me because you’re in this frog hat

Madison Beaufort 28:53
Hey, so I think we’ve accurately summed up ADHD and autism just at doing this

Leonie Dawson 28:59
Fucking magical that’s what it is. Look just focus on the gifts and the strengths of it. Know that of course you have fucking ADHD or autism. You’re an entrepreneur, you’re a creative, of course the cool people do, like, of course. Like you’ve got a Ferrari brain and yes it’s going to take tinkering, yes its going to take ore maintenance, but you don’t have a basic bitch Camry brain. You are capable of incredible things, such as building your success. So know that it’s totally possible. Totally doable and you’re not alone in this. Fucking hell, all of us have got it.

Madison Beaufort 29:45
Yep

Leonie Dawson 29:45
She refused to be categorized,

Madison Beaufort 29:47
categorized.

Hooray!

That was FUN! Thank you for being here! Thank you for being you!

Big love,