How to overcome communication challenges and masking in order to create a genuine and appealing brand as a neurodivergent ADHD and/or autistic professional.
branding is a specific and required part of running a business
I don’t believe that this is true for every person and every business. I think I have a lot of trouble with the terms ‘branding’ and ‘marketing’ - this is something corporations do to make sure the red color of the logo and the font are always the same, and that the mascot matches the product range. Sure, you can do that, but there’s enough professionals out there who cannot be arsed and are still in business.
For example, I work as a freelancer in an industry where branding efforts would just mean extra work. Agency clients find me over a portal, ask me ‘Can you do x number of task y in such time?’ and I’ll just answer ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ with nothing but the utmost basics of ‘Please’, ‘thank you’, ‘best regards’ wrapped around. I send them the work when it’s done, and an invoice, and they pay me. I don’t even have an email signature. And I like it that way and wouldn’t want to work anywhere where more effort is required.
Making sure you don’t fail completely in your communication with clients is something every professional does, but that’s not really ‘branding’ in my book, that’s just acting professionally. The only difference I find is that as ND I have to be aware that ‘acting professional’ too much without having the freedom of making weird noises and wiggles brings me towards burnout quickly, and I have to organize my work life accordingly. And that’s where her article can be quite useful I guess, to become aware that this can be a problem for NDs.
I don’t believe that this is true for every person and every business. I think I have a lot of trouble with the terms ‘branding’ and ‘marketing’ - this is something corporations do to make sure the red color of the logo and the font are always the same, and that the mascot matches the product range. Sure, you can do that, but there’s enough professionals out there who cannot be arsed and are still in business.
For example, I work as a freelancer in an industry where branding efforts would just mean extra work. Agency clients find me over a portal, ask me ‘Can you do x number of task y in such time?’ and I’ll just answer ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ with nothing but the utmost basics of ‘Please’, ‘thank you’, ‘best regards’ wrapped around. I send them the work when it’s done, and an invoice, and they pay me. I don’t even have an email signature. And I like it that way and wouldn’t want to work anywhere where more effort is required.
Making sure you don’t fail completely in your communication with clients is something every professional does, but that’s not really ‘branding’ in my book, that’s just acting professionally. The only difference I find is that as ND I have to be aware that ‘acting professional’ too much without having the freedom of making weird noises and wiggles brings me towards burnout quickly, and I have to organize my work life accordingly. And that’s where her article can be quite useful I guess, to become aware that this can be a problem for NDs.