Neurodivergent Mates
“Neurodivergent Mates is a podcast delving into Neurodiversity and Mental Health, hosted by neurodivergent professional – Will, the ADHD and Dyslexic host. Will candidly shares his personal experiences, discussing topics like relationships, dating, addiction, trauma, sex, education, careers, parenting, the workplace, and more.”
Neurodivergent Mates
The Power and Purpose of Building a Community - 15 minute chat
Neurodivergent Mates presents: "Stronger Together: The Power and Purpose of Building a Community" 🌟
In this episode, we explore how building meaningful connections can transform your personal and professional life—especially as a neurodivergent individual. 💡 From fostering resilience to creating inclusive spaces, community is the key to growth and success.
🔥 Here’s what we’ll cover:
1️⃣ The role of community in personal & professional growth
2️⃣ Fostering resilience through support networks
3️⃣ Creating inclusive spaces for neurodivergent individuals
4️⃣ Overcoming barriers to building meaningful connections
5️⃣ Practical steps to start building your community today
Whether you're looking for support, opportunities, or a space where you truly belong, this episode is for YOU. 🙌
🎧 Tune in now!
#NeurodivergentMates #Neurodiversity #CommunityBuilding #Inclusion #Resilience #Networking #SupportSystems #StrongerTogether
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You're listening to NeuroDivergent Mates. Hello and welcome to another episode of Neurodivergent Mates. I'm your host, will Wheeler, and today it's actually been quite an interesting day. We're meant to have our full podcast today, but unfortunately our guest who is coming on today messaged me last minute and we weren't able to get her on. But don't stress, we will be getting her on shortly.
Speaker 1:But I thought, well, rather than just leave today what's the word I'm looking for without anything, let's do a little bit of a 15-minute chat. You know I love getting on and doing all this type of stuff, so I thought let's get on. At least we're being productive, we've got something going on. I might be able to share a little bit about some of the things that we're going to be up to this year, but more than anything, I did want to sort of go over the topic of the power and purpose of building a community, but before I do get stuck into that, I might just do a little bit of housekeeping, as normal. So if you haven't already done so, please subscribe, like and follow to all of our social media pages. We're available on TikTok, facebook, instagram X, twitch, youtube, linkedin and, if you haven't already done so, wherever you listen to your podcast, please. We're on every podcasting service you can think about. Please subscribe to our, to our podcast, and maybe rate some of those. The more you can rate, the more you can interact with them, the better it is for our algorithm. So so, please, any support is fantastic. Also, too, please check out the work we're doing with Neurodiversity Academy by visiting neurodiversityacademycom.
Speaker 1:Some really cool stuff coming out of there today. Now and I always do this just a bit of a warning some discussions may be triggering. If you need help, please reach out to a loved one or call emergency services. We are not doctors. This is a space for sharing experiences and strategies. Also, too, while while I'm speaking and I'm on the live version. I'm only on for 15 minutes today, so if you catch me, great. If not, please just put your questions into the comments there, and I should be able to answer them if I'm live online, which I am right now, but cool, so let's get stuck into this. Some really interesting stuff.
Speaker 1:Happy New Year everyone, and, like I said that in the last podcast, this is my first sort of 15-minute chat with everyone, so I thought, all right, let's get on, especially with the work that we're doing with Neurodiversity Academy. We've got some really big plans happening there. Also, too, for everyone who joined my webinar uh that I held, gee, only about roughly about two hours ago now, or less than an hour or bit over an hour ago now, I think it was so I did a um, uh, a webinar today on um supporting neurodivergent people in the vocational education sector and where to begin. So that was a really cool thing to really get to see and see lots of cool people interacting with what we were doing and all of that. So it went really well. So thank you very much for everyone who came along to that. It was really cool.
Speaker 1:But, with that being said, we want to do more of them. We want to be this. This is the year. This is the year okay. So what we really want to try to do this year is and and this is sort of ties in beautifully to to what we're talking about by building a community and all of that so, um, this year we're really working hard in getting into a lot of the schools here in Australia and more trying to do some short events to work with or to help parents and neurodivergent students in regards to their career development. Okay, I think the biggest thing that I sort of take away from when I'm doing a lot of presentations at conferences, all of that I get a lot of parents coming up to me after my talk and talking to me about their child. Sometimes it could be how worried they are about what their child's future is going to look like and all of that. So you know, what we really want to try to start doing with Neurodiversity Academy is start creating some, you know, after-school events, like in the evening, all of those types of things where we can start speaking with parents and all of that to, you know, help them to be able to help their children, and all of that to start helping with that career direction.
Speaker 1:I think the biggest thing from when I was in school it was like, look, if you don't achieve this, you won't be able to do that, but really you can. If you don't achieve something, you can achieve something else. Okay. So we want to really try to help people to find what that pathway looks like. So you know, we want to be creating some events with, like I said, the schools. We want to be working with a lot of the tertiary education providers to really help them to get ready for a lot of neurodivergent students who we, we really want to help uh, connect with the right organizations. And then also, what do those jobs look like? What do those workplaces look like that um will have, um that are going to be perfect for a lot of these neurodivergent candidates, and so forth. Okay, so a lot of stuff that we're working on this year with Neurodiversity Academy, but let's get stuck into this and have a little bit of a chat.
Speaker 1:So the purpose of building a community so what I want to start with is the role of community in personal and professional growth. Okay, so I've got a few notes here and I always write a few things and I'll sort of just sort of build off from that type of thing. So how building connections can lead to new opportunities, mentorship and personal development. So I think this is really, really important, especially at a young age, or even any age. Okay, I think for myself, when I left school and I've shared this a million times I didn't have that direction, I didn't know what to do. I felt very lonely, okay, and that can be a lot of people.
Speaker 1:So this is where I think being a part of a community and I think even right now, especially with, say, my professional career and all of that I would definitely have to say that the most valuable thing, to say, the knowledge that I have with a lot of the work we're doing at Neurodiversity Academy comes from connecting with others in that community and it's not and you know, some of them might be doing similar things to myself and that's great, but I don't see them as competition. I see that as people I can learn from or people who can learn from me. So you know, I think this is where you know, as part of a community and being in a community or part of helping build that community, it can open a lot of opportunities. If I look at it for myself and this was actually interesting so I actually got asked to speak at a oh gee, what was it? An event at a school at the end of last year and I didn't get to share it.
Speaker 1:But one of the coolest things I think that, especially once I've sort of like been very open about neurodivergent and all of that, is how many neurodivergent people have really come out of the woodwork and connected with me, for example. Now, some of these have been very, very successful people. You know people at one point in my life, I would never have thought in a million years that I'd be able to connect with those types of people. So and I think the biggest thing about being able to connect with those people have been because we've got that similarity of being neurodivergent there. So this is where and the cool thing with a lot of people is that they want to help. You know, if I was to become a billionaire tomorrow, I would still be doing what I'm doing. I wouldn't turn around and go no, see you later. I've achieved what I've achieved. See you later. No, that's not how it works, and you'll find with a lot of these other people that the same thing happens. Okay. So that's where you know, being a part of a community can really help build that.
Speaker 1:Now let's have a look at this one fostering resilience through support networks. So the importance of having a community to lean on during challenges and how it helps build with confidence. So I think that's a big one as well. I think that when, especially when, especially, you know, at one point, even in business for myself and I was talking to my business partner about this the other day you know, business can be very lonely at times, even when you have business partners and all of that, because you know you feel like there's a lot of pressure on you all the time. So this is where being able to reach out to the community and this is the other thing. So we've got advisors that help us with the advising on a lot of things within Neurodiversity Academy to really hone in on certain areas, things like that, and that has really helped me in certain situations where I've and this is the thing, when you're sort of in business for example, it could be your career or whatever it feels like this you have those up and down periods. What's going to help you get on, that uprise again type of thing. And this is where the community has been very beneficial for myself and I can see how it now plays such a role for not only myself but for everyone involved now creating inclusive spaces for neurodivergent individuals, so how communities can promote understanding, acceptance and neurodiversity inclusion, all right.
Speaker 1:So I think you know when we can bring people together, it's like we've got like a similarity, all right. And it's hard to see that when you're on your own, but when you're around, others who have maybe lived a similar life to yourself have sort of same opinions as yourself, or maybe some of the struggles you have. You've got that in common and you're able to really grow and develop around. That. I'm not saying that we should don't get me wrong. I think there's still really important to have positivity, not just coming in and ragging on everything. I sometimes see that.
Speaker 1:So I think this is where you know, especially with the parents that I'm talking with. A lot of the time you can see that they just want to. They're asking for help. You know, and I don't blame them, because I think the journey, especially with their child's journey in regards to a career, it can be very difficult and when you're not dealing with people who don't really understand what your son or daughter has been going through, it makes it even more challenging.
Speaker 1:So, once again, this is where community plays such a huge role in that. Hence why we really are going to start developing a lot of stuff, and I think the big reason I want to share that with people is not to promote it, it is to promote it a little bit. That's not why. But for others to go look, man, how do I get amongst this? How can I be a part of this? You know, we're open with, we're ready with open arms if that makes sense. So you know it's. I can do a lot, but without the help of others it's just not, it's not never going to happen.
Speaker 1:So this is where I'm really big on that now overcoming barriers to building meaningful connections. So you know it can be hard when you're first meeting people. So what can we do to really help people feel more comfortable in being certain situations? Do Do we create events where people you know you don't have to come in person, or there's sensory accommodations in place or things like that? So this is where I think this is really important, especially when we're building a community being understanding of each other. Why do we need to do this? Okay, understanding that, okay. It was actually interesting.
Speaker 1:I had a webinar today and we were talking about neuroinclusion in the vocational education space and someone's like why can't we just like maybe put all the neurodivergent people in their own classroom and it's like it's a bit like not inclusive? So I think that's a really good point in regards to even if you're not neurodivergent and you want to be a part of the community as an ally or something like that. That's gold as well. And, to wrap, you know practical steps to start building your community. So you know, things that we could probably look at is, you know, connecting with our social media, for example. Okay, and yes, I'm talking it up because I'm trying to look for followers and stuff like that but what I'm sort of getting at is that when people start connecting with your social media, you start connecting with others who are connecting with that social media, you start connecting with others who are connecting with that social media, and so forth, and then what you're able to do is you might see who's at events and stuff like that, and you've already got that connection involved. So a big thing that I do a lot of the time, especially if I'm going to an event, I will see who's going and I'll connect with them on, say, social media, for example. All right, and I'll already know people before I get there, okay. So this is where social media can play such a huge role in the development and growth of feeling more comfortable around people.
Speaker 1:Building your building your what's the word? What they call it like your crew building a crew or something like that, I don't know. Um, but no, it can be so helpful, uh, but look, that's 15 minutes right there, look. Thank you so much for listening to me. Just a short one. Like I, I said the podcast that we were meant to have on today. The person just had to postpone it due to a few things happening. But we will have that on maybe next week or the week after. But, like I said, I wanted to do something just to share something with everyone, just to keep you up to date and everything like that. So, look, if you haven't already done so, please subscribe, like and follow to all of our social media platforms. Reach out if you want to ask some questions and that in the future, or come on the podcast if that's something you're interested in as well, and we'll go from there. But look, thank you so much. My name's Will Wheeler and this is NeuroDivergent Mates. Till next time time.