Launching while neurodivergent 🚀
How I launched my group programme, while 1) being neurodivergent and 2) not getting completely sick
Hi friend,
If you’ve been here over a month, chances are you’ve been pestered. Quite a bit. (Thanks for sticking around anyway!)
In September, I launched the second version of my course, Bold Type.1
Bold Type is a 12-week group programme all about inclusive language and accessible communication. We’re just over half way through and it’s going great.
The first time I launched the course, I didn’t post about it much.
The second time, I adopted the #MarketingMantra of “showing up consistently” - in other words, flooding the internet with content until people either buy into your idea or block you.
Both times, I picked up really useful lessons. But there’s still a ton of things I’d do differently.
So whether you’re creating your first course, you’ve already run a few or you never, ever want to.
I’m sharing these lessons to help other business owners and freelancers - especially neurodivergent ones- who are wondering how on earth to market themselves.
How to possibly sell their creations. And how the heck to receive feedback without sobbing.2
I’m sharing these lessons to help other business owners - particularly neurodivergent ones - who are wondering how on earth to market themselves. How to possibly sell their creations. And how the heck to receive feedback without sobbing.
Sections
I slammed into 4 big hurdles which will make up this post’s 4 sections:
Hurdle 1: creating the course
Hurdle 2: asking people to pay
Hurdle 3: marketing myself
Hurdle 4: getting feedback
1. Creating the course
Building a course with an ADHD brain is incredibly easy.
At least, it’s incredibly easy, right up until it becomes impossibly hard.
ADHDers tend to love novelty; we get a burst of dopamine when approaching something fresh, different or challenging.
In my case, I became hyper-focused on my love of each topic.
My daily screen time sky-rocketed as I researched all there is to know about LGBTQIA+ inclusive language.
I lived off chocolate and went an alarmingly long time without drinking any liquids, prioritising creating over basic bodily functions.
ADHD-ers tend to like novelty; we get a burst of dopamine when approaching something fresh, different or challenging.
This happened with both versions of Bold Type.
For September’s cohort, I doubled the course length to 12 weeks,3 which meant I got to dig even deeper into each topic.
I was completely engrossed. Until I wasn’t.
“The first 80% of an idea can be much easier for ADHD-ers than the last 20%, because we have an interest based nervous system. Without this interest, the energy required is HUGE.
The secret to this is focusing on the 80%, and accessing support for the 20% instead of beating myself up for not being able to do it. Stay in your zone of genius, and find someone else who's a genius in that 20%.” - Leanne Maskell
PDA (Pathological Demand Avoidance) (or, as some neurodivergent folk have reframed it: “Persistent Drive for Autonomy”) is when something is required of us, which then makes us less capable of doing it.
For me, having a launch schedule was a recipe for PDA.
It was a constant struggle between creating The Best Possible Programme (“oh I just remembered one tiny detail about how to write accessible hyperlinks! I should completely rewrite the accessibility training now”) and remembering to actually tell people about it.
PDA (Pathological Demand Avoidance) (or, as I like to think of it, “Persistent Drive for Autonomy”) is when something is required of us, which then makes us less capable of doing it.
Advice for past/future me:
Break down big tasks into smaller chunks
“Review the entire course”? Ehh. Sounds scary. But when I change this task to “re-read the worksheet on LGBTQIA+ inclusive language”, now I’m in. It’s small and manageable.
And once I do that small task I realise it’s… interesting. So now I’m re-reading the worksheet from anti-racism week And now I’m having an idea about how I can make links with disability week. And while I’m doing that… Oops, I’ve just reviewed the entire course.
Tool tip: use a free tool like Goblin Tools to break down tasks into sub-tasks.
(Chat GPT can do this too).
Schedule breaks in, not just work
I know, it’s so obvious. But unless it says “breakfast” and “lunch” in my calendar there’s a 99% chance I’m going to have anxiety for breakfast and a giant bar of chocolate at 4pm for lunch.
Delegate the difficult bits
I’m lucky enough to be able to hire people to do a lot of the stuff I struggle with (tasks like gathering feedback, uploading course content to the learning platform and sending out reminder emails).
But support doesn’t have to cost money. You could try a skill swap with someone else (bonus points if the thing they hate is something you find hyperfocus-worthy).
Add in buffer time
When you’re powered by hyper-focus, you can get a lot done, and fast. That gives us unrealistic expectations about how long tasks take in general, when we’re not being powered by the motor of obsessive interest.
While I welcome my hyperfocus when it comes to writing or creating, I do not trust it when it comes to timings.
When I’m deep in hyperfocus, I can create. But personally, I can’t assess or analyse very accurately. So I don’t let hyperfocus-me set deadlines. Usually, I pick a deadline, then move it back, then move it back again.
Then I ask someone else to review that deadline. They ask me “is this actually realistic?” and I shyly admit that in no universe is that deadline realistic unless I give up sleeping, and so we push it back again, before committing to it.
Schedule the invisible tasks
There are things you have to do everyday, that you might not have in your schedule.
Do you have a dedicated time for checking emails, remembering to drink water, or feed yourself? These days, I do. Because unless I’ve factored that time into my plan, it’s just not going to happen.
(If you manage to do these things without scheduling them, then 1. congratulations! and 2. you obviously don’t need to block them in your calendar unless you’re struggling to find the time for them).
Find the level of flexibility that works for you
For me, that’s a skeleton schedule, with a few essential elements that are in the calendar for the times they really need to happen. Plus lots of free spaces around that, so I don’t feel hemmed in. (PDA shows up when my calendar is rigidly time-blocked).
I’ve got a weekly schedule, listing out key milestones. But it’s up to me when and how I get to those milestones, and there’s room to move things around and be guided by what I want to work on.
However you approach your schedule, I recommend you:
Build flexibility into your timeline - give yourself room to adapt when the pressure feels too intense.
Give yourself permission to move deadlines if you need to.
Plan time to rest, too. Schedule some empty weekends (bonus points if you can stay off your phone and laptop most of the time) in the lead-up to launching your course.
Do whatever makes life (admin) easier. Takeaway food? Online groceries? Whatever works for you.
2. Asking people to pay
Bold Type costs £3,000. That is a lot of money.
(And even at this high price point, I‘ve lost money from running it.4 Delivering a group programme costs money!)
Launching a much bigger - and more expensive - course than before was terrifying on so many levels.
Firstly, I’m English. That means, culturally and possibly genetically, I’m incompetent when it comes to talking about money.
I’ve never sold anything in my life. This was unfamiliar territory.
Many companies have limited (or nonexistent) learning and development budgets.
Asking people to pay (a lot of) money made me feel demanding and unreasonable - which put me into a dysregulated state.
It felt like my fight-or-flight system was activated for 3 months solid. Not ideal, when you’re supposed to be confidently launching and promoting a course.
Important reminders:
You’re offering something valuable.
People are investing in themselves.
Being paid for your expertise and hard work is part of running a business, not something to feel guilty about.
Being paid for your hard work is part of running a business, not something to feel guilty about.
Suggestions:
Keep a “nice words” folder full of positive feedback. Refer to it whenever you feel a bout of imposter syndrome.
Challenge self-doubt with facts. (Your course has real value, you’ve put in the work, and feedback shows it's worth paying for.)
You can offer tiered pricing, payment plans and free spaces to those who need it. (This eases the discomfort around asking for a lot of money upfront.)
3. Marketing yourself
This was - and continues to be - the trickiest part for me. Without a doubt.
I don’t care about talking about the fact that I'm doing this course. I care about the content of it.
Having to show up again and again on social media and Substack. Recording and editing videos, repurposing content. Posting the same (but slightly different) advice in some sort of effort at #ThoughtLeadership…
For my dopamine-seeking brain, that wasn’t just boring. It was physically painful.
My biggest blunder? Following mainstream launch advice to post daily.
The rule of 7 says customers need to see your brand at least 7 times before they commit to a purchase decision.
Thomas Smith reckons it’s 20 times.
Sprinklr recommends 1-2 Instagram posts a day to increase your reach.
We can challenge the assumption that posting daily is the only way (or the right way) to promote something.
Challenge the assumption that posting daily is the only way (or even the right way) to promote something.
With my first launch, I did almost no marketing.5 (A couple of emails, a few social posts.)
I posted a lot more promotional content the second time around. We’re talking reminders in every newsletter, and almost daily LinkedIn posts.6
If I was judging success by how much money I’d made, then er… it’s whatever the opposite of success is. 👀
Not just in the number of paid participants, but also because:
Constantly posting promotional material was unbelievably draining.
I felt like I’d repeated myself a million times over, to the point I was certain that everyone who’s ever met me must hate me.
(And only then was I even close to having done “enough” marketing.)
I felt huge pressure to post, which created friction against my even huge-r drive for autonomy.
The result? I was tense, irritated and annoyed non-stop. (And that’s before you add in all the everyday challenges of work, life, and fun side quests like moving house).
Churning out (promotional) content daily just isn’t realistic. Not for me. Especially when you’re facing ADHD challenges of demand avoidance, Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria, and a dopamine-seeking nervous system.
Ask yourself: “what’s realistic for me?” Not “what can I force myself to do, through gritted teeth” but “what can I motivate myself to do, while still feeling free?”
Churning out (promotional) content daily just isn’t realistic. Especially when you’re facing ADHD challenges of demand avoidance, Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria, and a dopamine-seeking nervous system.
Social media marketing tips:
Create templates for social posts that you can reuse again and again.
Batch-create content when you’re in the hyper focus zone.
Schedule posts ahead of time. (You can mostly do this in-app, but Metricool is another handy, cost-effective tool. Side note: I never post direct to social media platforms, because I instantly get distracted when I log in and see my news feed. Scheduling ahead makes sense for me, on so many levels).
Reuse posts - I’m planning to run Bold Type again (from Tuesday 14 January to Tuesday 1 April 2025). And I’ll definitely repost some of the content I made for this launch next time.
How can I make marketing efforts easier?
Find what feels good: then do more of that.7 Don’t try and force yourself into the things that don't come easily. Lean into your strengths and, if possible, outsource everything else.
Experiment with a quieter style of launch: use existing relationships. Neurodivergent (particularly autistic) folks may be less comfortable with schmoozing online or “shouting into the void” (broadcast-style posts sent out to an unknown audience).
Consider having more one-to-one conversations - focus on the quality of your relationships rather than the quantity of likes.8
4. Getting feedback
Launching is about learning.
I harvested a lot of feedback from the first round of Bold Type, and used it to improve the second cohort.
Getting feedback when you experience Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD) can feel rough. It may feel deeply personal or shame-inducing, leading to self-criticism and feelings of worthlessness.
Getting feedback when you experience Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD) can be debilitating. It might feel deeply personal or shame-inducing, leading to self-criticism and feelings of worthlessness.
Even quite neutral feedback (“I wish the course was longer” - said by 8 different people) can get me panicked and anxious.
Constructive criticism (“This session could be clearer”) sometimes makes me want to close my business, change my name and disappear forever.
If I had to go through the feedback myself, I don’t know if I’d launched a second cohort.
So, I worked with a client experience consultant who interviewed past participants.
She went through all their feedback forms and gathered the learnings - creating action points for me to put into practice.
(Yes, this was expensive. And, for me, it was worth every penny).
Tips for getting feedback:
Outsource the feedback process - finding somebody else who can take on the bits that are more RSD-provoking for you.
Paying someone to gather feedback won’t be an option for most of us, so consider doing a skill swap. You could review someone else’s feedback and rephrase it constructively, while they do the same for you.
Remind yourself that feedback is about the course; it’s not about you as a human being.
If feedback is too overwhelming to handle all at once, break it into smaller pieces. You can ask the person gathering it to share only the most critical points, or space out their findings over time, or you could store the feedback in a folder and put a note in your calendar to come back to it in a few weeks.
When reviewing feedback, don’t just focus on the negative. Make sure you take time to absorb the positive comments as well. Humans are built to notice negatives more than positives, so block out time to read and re-read the glowing feedback that you might be tempted to skip over.
Remember that feedback is about improving the course, not a reflection of your worth as a person.
Focus on actionable insights. If I can change this, and it’s going to benefit people on my future courses, I’ll pay attention to it. But if you just don’t like me, or my taste in dungarees (impossible) then there’s nothing I can do about that. I’m not going to focus my attention there.
Don’t feel pressured to react immediately to feedback. Give yourself time to process it before responding or making any changes.
Recap: advice for neurodivergent business owners
To sum up:
There isn’t “one way” or a “right way” to launch - do it on your terms.
Lean into what you love. Outsource the rest.
Build wiggle room into your timeline.
Batch-create content when you’re in hyper-focus.
Schedule unplugged weekends to recharge around launching.
Get someone else to gather feedback (and summarise it) for you.
Keep a folder of positive feedback - return to it whenever you feel a smidge of self-doubt.
It’s okay to do whatever makes life (admin) easier, like ordering online groceries or takeaways.
Want to join Bold Type in 2025?
I’m planning to run Bold Type again in 2025.
If you want to apply for a place, make sure you’re subscribed to my newsletter (the one you’re reading right now!)
Newsletter subscribers will be the first to hear about how to apply.
Dates and times will be: Tuesday 14 January to Tuesday 1 April 2025. Our weekly live calls will be from 10am to 12pm UK time.
I created this programme to help folks confidently talk about topics that matter, develop practical skills for creating accessible content, and be the best communicator they can be.
I did enough crying, so you don’t have to. You’re welcome.
I took on the feedback that a lot of information was covered in a short space of time.
I didn’t know whether to say this. On the one hand, I'm anxious that it’ll look awful, that no one will ever take me seriously. It seems unprofessional, somehow, to share that I made a loss on this course. Then again, I am on a mission to be as un-professional as possible, because I don’t like what professionalism does to us. And actually, I’m not ashamed. (Is it shameful to have got 32 people signed up for a 12-week course? Or to have given away a ton of free and reduced price places? I don’t think so - I feel really good that I've been able to give out free and reduced price places. It feels like an important resource to share with the world.)
Note: I don’t mean to come across like “do no work and customers will flock to you”. But I do want to encourage you to challenge the hustle mindset.
I don't want to imply that this is a realistic benchmark. It certainly wasn’t for me.
I remember reading an article years ago about New Year’s resolutions. It was about how people often give up the things they enjoy, or aim to do more of what they dislike. But instead of saying “I hate running. This year, I’m going to do a marathon”, the author said: do more of what you love. Like: “I love Chinese food. In 2025, I’m going to eat even more Chinese food”. Resolve to have more of the good stuff that you love. For example: Pasta Quest.
Even more so with my first launch, I had one-to-one conversations with several people who either bought themselves a place or got a place for a colleague on the course. The people who know you, and who’ve been following your work for ages, are the ones who will jump at the chance to buy your offer.
This section: "Experiment with a quieter style of launch: use existing relationships" !!! I feel so resistnant to the school of marketing thought that says we have to show up consistently adding more fluff and repetitive content (fluff) into the void. I want to post meaningful, interesting and valuable content, not just spam people's feeds until they're fed up! Thank you for saying this. It validates what I already knew to be true but didn't yet have the words to articulate!
This is gold, Ettie. Thank you so much. I'm in the early stages of my own adhd journey and there is soo much that resonates here. I've shamed myself so much over the years for that surge of focus and then inability to finish. So now understanding why that is very freeing. I definitely want to think about how to get help for that last 20%. This has gone straight into my saves!
Congratulations on such an amazing achievement putting your course out into the world and making such an impact.