When many leave traditional employment to start their own business, they dream of freedom, creativity, and fulfillment. Yet the reality often looks eerily familiar.

Even after making that bold leap, it’s easy to recreate the same patterns and pitfalls from corporate life—scope creep, burnout, and that ever-present sense of chasing moving goalposts.

For today’s guest, Jabari Allen, a tech consultant specializing in AI reliability, the early entrepreneurial road was filled with the same energy-draining dynamics he’d hoped to escape.

But what makes Jabari’s story so unique is the intersectionality at play: building a business while navigating the realities of being Black and neurodivergent in the predominantly white tech industry. Jabari shares what it feels like to be “the only one” in the room, and how owning every facet of his identity—rather than hiding or compensating—becomes the most radical business strategy of all.

This Client Success Story is a vulnerable and inspiring conversation about evolving your entrepreneurial identity and what is possible with a thought partner who challenges you to move beyond proving your worth into owning your power.

Here’s What You’ll Learn in This Episode

• Trusting Your Intuition Matters: What it really means to listen to your gut in business, especially when everyone else seems to know better
• People-Pleasing Isn’t Always Obvious: Discover the sneaky ways people-pleasing shows up for entrepreneurs—and why setting boundaries is actually better for you and your clients
• Intersectionality & Self-Advocacy: Gain insight into what it’s like to navigate tech as a Black neurodivergent professional, and how those layers shape confidence and communication
• Embracing Your Thought Leadership: Learning how to shift from “technician” to “expert”—and how the simplest offer can be both disruptive and profitable

Fun Fact from the Episode

There’s a term in the tech industry for endlessly fussing with tiny details called “yak shaving.” Turns out, it’s not just about perfecting code—but can be a major sign you’re avoiding a bigger decision. Jabari calls it circling the drain, and I refer to it as fluffing the pillows.

Whether it's the obsessive nature of ADHD perfectionism, anxiety about feeling we need to prove ourselves, or keeping ourselves too busy with the small stuff to confront the big stuff, or a combination plate of all of the above, set a limit on this tendency to keep from holding yourself back while feeling productive.

Connect with Jabari Allen: Website - Substack - LinkedIn

Is it time to redefine your success as a business owner with ADHD, and shift from proving your value to owning your expertise?

The first step is scheduling a free consultation where we talk about your goals and see if we are a good fit. Click here to book yours now.

Click here for the custom playlist of more ADHD-ish™ Method Client Success Stories

And, don’t forget to leave a comment on Spotify (I personally respond to every one) or leave a review so more ADHD-ish business owners can find THE podcast full of real talk and real solutions for neurodiverse business brains.

© 2026 ADHD-ish Podcast. Intro music by Ishan Dincer / Melody Loops / Outro music by Vladimir / Bobi Music / All rights reserved.

H: So I know I'm not supposed to have favorites when it comes to clients, but I've told you more than once, you are one of my very favorite clients, Jabari, because you are open minded, you are self aware, and you're willing to do the work to challenge your beliefs, biases, and blind spots so that you can grow. I would love to start this conversation by asking you to introduce yourself the way you do now and the version that actually feels like solid and settled and grounded. Not your credentials, not your resume, not the pitch you used to give, but just who you are and what you do like you were at a dinner party and just turn to the person next to you who are you?

G: Sure, so I'm Jabari Allen. I'm a tech consultant. I run my own tech consulting firm where I work with businesses that are in regulated industries to help them evaluate the reliability of their AI systems. My focus is on voice AI in particular, but I usually leave it at that before I start getting into the weeds with people.

H: That's smart, because even though AI is a super hot topic right now, most people know just a little bit about it. Also, as a neurodivergent person, you know how obsessive we can be. So when we get an opening, sometimes we just take way too much room with it and then the other person's like low key horrified. So it's smart to pump the brakes and wait for them to ask you more. But let's go back to where you were in your business before we started working together.

G: Yeah. So I was juggling a couple clients and I felt like I was ending up in a situation that I was really wanting to avoid when I started my business, which was nebulous scope, like not being sure exactly what we were aiming for and that changing maybe week to week and over delivering and being unsure about if what I had in my mind and what the client had in their mind and expectations and assumptions, if we were all on the same page. So I felt like I was getting uncomfortably close to that situation.

And I was able to tell because I was like I was overcompensating by working longer hours, by over delivering in some things, under delivering in others. And just not feeling like the creative and intellectual stimulation that I was seeking when I started my business was really happening. I didn't feel like I was, this is usually like a term used more for people in the medical field, but like practicing the top of my license, I didn't feel like I was doing that as much. And that was kind of the whole point of leaving traditional employment and trying to work for myself.

H: You know, it happens so often that we leave traditional employment to hang out our own shingle, as they say, and end up recreating the same conditions that we were working under before, which is basically like putting out fires, being like, stop, drop and roll, whatever they need, you just do. And never really feeling a sense of satisfaction because the goal posts are constantly moving. And I remember talking about that when we first discussed working together and that is definitely not what you signed up for. One of the things we discussed quite a bit was people pleasing and people pleasing was on your list of things that you said were draining you in the consultation questionnaire.

But I don't think of people pleasing for you the way many people think of it. Like people pleasing, how did it actually look for you in real time? And like, what, what was going on not only in your business, but in your body, mind and brain when you realize you're kind of overriding your own needs in order to accommodate someone else?

G: Yeah, I think of it as I was prioritizing the comfort of others, like over my own intuition, like my own professional intuition and how it felt in my body and mind. Yeah, I think of intuition a lot, that gut feeling. And I think of an engagement I had with a client where my gut was saying that there's a certain amount of maybe anxiety on the client's end that wasn't being fully answered. And I had asked questions, made sure I understand the scope, and met with them every week.

But then it wasn't until later that a piece of information came out that did confirm that there was some part of the scope, part of the constraints that like, were not made clear. And so, like, people pleasing felt like ignoring my own gut instinct felt like anxiety. It can feel like almost gaslighting yourself in a way where it's like. It feels like we're kind of going this one direction that doesn't quite feel right. And I really think we should probably be at least turning this other way. But we'll see, maybe I'm wrong. That's yeah, I felt like doubt in myself, really.

H: You know, the odds are really against a new business owner really trusting their intuition. Because when you think about it, and I know we've talked about this, you make the audacious choice of breaking away from traditional employment and saying, I'm going to bank on me. I'm literally going to be where the buck starts and stops. I'm going to trust myself to be able to generate income off of my time, talent, effort and expertise, which a lot of people say they want to do that, but it's actually much more difficult than most folks realize and I think the difficulty is not just doing the work.

It's the mental and emotional challenge of truly learning to trust yourself. And at the same time, we kind of do have to please the customer. I mean, I grew up during the years where the customer was always right, even when they were wrong. And you do I mean, there's the reality that if the customer doesn't like you, doesn't like the way you communicate, doesn't like what you have to offer, doesn't like your price point, doesn't like the communication cadence you offer, whatever it is, there's a very real possibility that you're not going to get the contract or that they're going to cancel it or even threaten to ruin your reputation.

So I think the notion that people pleasing is a problem and that we can and should eradicate it is not really realistic, especially in the beginning. Like, in truth, we do need our customers to be pleased with us. We do need them to be satisfied with us. We do need them to see us as competent and trustworthy and capable and easy to work with and appropriately priced and all that. I think it just makes it so much harder to trust your intuition when it feels like all that is at stake.

G: Yeah, yeah, it really does and you're totally right about. At the end of the day, it is about pleasing the customer and the client. And what helped me a lot was figuring out how to marry the ideas of me having boundaries, but those boundaries, not just being for my own sake in terms of my energy and my time, but also so I can deliver what the client needs. Like, they're coming to me because they view me as having some skills or expertise that they need for a goal they have. And it's incumbent upon me to then help be that guide that gets us to where we want to go. And that can include having boundaries, sometimes saying things that they will find uncomfortable. But all of it is in service of me working with them and helping them reach where they're trying to go.

So that's helped me a lot, like over this the past year and since working with you, of just really centering the fact that, you know, you think of the metaphor of like putting your own kind of oxygen mask on first. It's kind of like that a little bit, I almost view it more as like, if you're going on a long road trip across the country and you need to spend a couple weeks like getting your car fixed up, it makes sense to spend that time getting a car fixed up. And if you realize like, oh, I can only drive maybe 200 miles at a time or something like that, I don't know, it's again, it makes sense to be honest about those things and communicate them and to like, hold steady to those boundaries so you can make it to the end of that journey. So that's when I've, yeah, been internalizing a lot.

H: Yeah. And I think a lot of people, especially neurodivergent folks, we talk about the people pleasing tendencies a lot. We talk about our perfectionism, we talk about imposter syndrome. And I think those things are all true and they apply the rejection sensitivity, it all applies. But in your case, I think there's a couple of other variables that made what you accomplished in the last year to me really meaningful, significant and impressive and inspiring. And that is most engineers and most people who hire engineers are not at the top of the charts, in my not so humble opinion, in terms of self awareness. And in terms of communication and in terms of like knowing what they need and what they want and establishing accurate and appropriate expectations of the consultants and contractors that they hire.

And so it is kind of up to you then to literally own that expert status. And when the customer is asking for something that really isn't doable or really isn't doable in the way they think they want it, especially in the AI space because it's so new, it's so hot, and everybody's wanting to jump on board and that, that just makes their expectations even more wildly unrealistic than they would probably be. But as a young man who's probably getting hired by people who are twice your age in most cases, and feeling the confidence to push back or to set limits or to override what they think their problem is and say, well, actually, it's this.

But there's one more variable that I think we really have to talk about because intersectionality is something that just isn't talked about enough in the ADHD space. Now, I happen to be white, you happen to be black. And at some point during our work together, you started sharing with me how it has felt to navigate your career as a black professional in predominantly white spaces, which you continue to do, and how being neurodivergent adds just another layer of complexity to that. I'm really curious to know what made it feel safe for you to go there with me and what can you talk about that, how that intersectionality feels now?

G: Yeah, I'm thinking of the first question of, like, what made it feel safe to go there and I'm trying to think if it felt unsafe to go there with you, I don't think it did. So I think it felt safe because I'd listen to your podcast, I listened to episodes with other clients, and I had heard and just through my work with you, that sincerity and vulnerability and not really wasting your time on talking about bullshit, for lack of a better term, is one of your values. And it's unavoidable, like, for me to not bring in the fact that, like, working as like a young black man in tech is integral to my experience across my career and in my life and what's that been like. I think a big part too, about the comfort is I've been a tech nerd. I've been just a nerd in general on a lot of my life and grew up in suburbs, a lot of the spaces.

I was a black face and a white space. And for better or worse, I've gotten accustomed to navigating those spaces and feeling what it feels like to be othered, not even necessarily by any individual person, but just by the atmosphere. Like, it's always salient and so, yeah, it's made it easier for me to it's unavoidable, I guess, is how I would really say it is, because it's unavoidable. It feels like me kind of talking about the water around me and like it's not a problem for me to talk about that. It doesn't mean I'm talking about it all the time at work or anything like that, because it's also something where I'm only gonna be interested in talking about, like, bringing up race with my just experience of moving through the world in places where I think people who I'm talking to want to listen to it.

Because I have no interest in kind of talking about my own experiences with people who are interested in maybe denying it, casting aside whatever it may be. Now to the point of the intersectionality with race and with neurodivergence, they really come together in this way where being in tech especially, and maybe I shouldn't even say being in tech especially, because I would say there's actually a lot of neurodivergence in tech, but tech is also very monolithic in terms of the types of people in certain positions in certain roles. And sometimes it'll be like, okay, do I feel like I might be kind of being delegitimized because of a race thing or because of the neurodivergence thing.

And it's never something where it's like there's a specific thing that happens. Sometimes it is, but that's often not the case. It's more about the fact that it's even a question in the first place that if I feel like I'm not being heard or I am questioning my own expertise and the fact that it's even a question that I have to bring up of like, oh, did I kind of info dump a little bit too much? Was I acting a little weird? Was I fidgeting? Do they not think I have the expertise? Do they not think I know what I'm doing? Are they shocked that I actually know what I'm doing? The fact that those can be ascribed in any shape or form, just hypothetically, to aspects of my identity.

It's heavy, I guess, is how I would describe it. It's just something that, yeah, I've been there my whole life, and I think it's something that can, it definitely adds another element to starting your own business. But at the same time, it's been very affirming to start my own business with this intersectionality because I get to experience affirmation and validation in all these different ways by me just being myself and people choosing to want to work with me, choosing to want to seek me out for expertise solely because of me and all of me.

H: I think two of the things that were such massive growth edges during our work together were your ability to trust yourself, your ability to honor your intuition and really own your expertise. And I won't say in spite of, but kind of alongside some of these challenges, one of the things we talked about a lot was analysis paralysis. And, you know, with other conversations I've had with other clients that included intersectionality. It's like, you know, the imperative to avoid looking bad or bringing negative attention to yourself or making mistakes felt like such a heavy weight.

And you described your version of analysis paralysis as circling the drain and I love that image. It probably doesn't happen as much now because you have so much more clarity about what you're doing and owning your expertise. But can you describe because you're really good with analogies and metaphors when you are inside that circling the drain. And, you know it, like, what does that experience feel like for you and how do you get yourself out of it?

G: Yeah. And for the record, I definitely do still struggle with it, but I catch myself a lot quicker and way more often. So, you know, I pick myself up before I get too close to the drain. So what it feels like when I'm in it is, I mean, you just said kind of like working twice as hard. And that is this element to it as well and what's so funny about that is it's not just the worry of resentment. Like, that drain can represent, potential resentment. It also represents to me kind of like nothing. As in, like nothing fruitful will come of it, but also I don't know what's down that drain and it's hypothetical. So, like, I can work twice as hard, I can fall down the rabbit hole. Keep trying to, kind of in tech, we have this phrase called yak shaving, where it's like, you have a project and you're pretty sure it's done, but you're like, you just keep shaving that yak.

Like, you just keep going after the little details here and there, and that's kind of what it is. But I can work, I can do all that. I can work twice as hard and all of it can be for just like a hypothetical idea of approval or affirmation or, you know, just a rubber stamp, whatever it is and there's no guarantee of that. And part of me knows that very deeply and at the same time, as I'm trying to, I call it, sometimes prematurely optimize. You know, I don't really like the term perfectionist so much because I am actually very okay with things not being perfect while doing all of that. I can at the same time be stuck in it and also know that I'm really just doing it to avoid an uncomfortable choice.

Because at the end, that's what I actually have to do, is make a choice on something and stand by it and feel comfortable with it and not feel like I have to create mountains of evidence to justify it, that it's fine for me to just feel confident standing by my own decisions, choices, outputs, and not assume that it's going to be litigated all the time and if it is litigated, that's not my problem. That can sometimes be someone else's problem, whether it's their problem in understanding it problem and just having a bad day, whatever it is. But yeah, circling the drink and definitely feel like it's pulling yourself out of a tailspin.

H: You articulated that so well, as you typically do. And I think honestly having this tendency, whether we want to call it perfectionism, analysis paralysis, overthinking, second guessing, ruminating, all of the above. I think it's even more frustrating when we have this tendency and we can name it and claim it like we see ourselves doing it, like we're having an out of body experience. We know we're doing it, we know that there's nothing good can come from it. We know it's a massive waste of time and to your point, we even know it is actually functional. I think my philosophy, as you know, is all behavior is functional.

What is the function of this analysis paralysis? What purpose does this circling the drain serve? And almost always, you nailed it, Jabari. It's something we need to be doing that we are avoiding with the drain circling or yak shaving, I call it fluffing the pillows. You've made the damn bed, now walk away, stop fluffing the damn pillows. But it's always because there's something else that a decision that needs to be made, an action that needs to be taken, a conversation that needs to be had, something that needs to be shipped that we don't want to deal with the consequence of.

And it's just so frustrating to see yourself doing it and know you're doing it anyway. But to your point, yes, you do still struggle with these things. And I want to be really, really clear about the expectations. Whether you work with me or someone else, you will still do the things that people with ADHD do because at the end of the day, you will still be adhd. However, you will be more aware, you will do them less often, you will catch yourself quicker, you will release the pattern faster, and you will have much less agonizing as a result of the fact that you engaged in something when you know better anyway, that is winning.

That saves an unbelievable amount of time, energy, effort, and mental fatigue. There was a time during our work together where you had kind of were going into this phase of maybe I'm making this too hard. Yes, you are. Maybe I'm trying to justify my fees, my position, my authority. Maybe I'm just trying, as you called it, a mountain of evidence. I'm trying to prove my value and you suddenly went and we had a, I don't know if you remember this. We were talking about, wouldn't it be cool if you could just be like, deployed into a situation like a SWAT team. Do you remember that?

G: Yeah. Special ops.

H: Special Ops, exactly. Like, we're just gonna drop you in, you're gonna diagnose the problem, you're gonna fix the problem, and then you're just gonna get yanked out of there by helicopter. And you were like, what, if I could just have an offer where hire me and I'll tell you if your voice AI system works. Like, and I remember you thinking, because you had been so long in the pattern of justifying and explaining and like adding and adding and adding so that people would be just absolutely convinced of your value and you're like, what? Or I could just say, I can tell you if your thing works or not. And you even laughed at it because it seemed like it's so freaking obvious, why didn't I think of it before? What do you want to add to that?

G: Yeah, when it came to me, I was literally like driving and having conversation in my own head with myself, of course and, like, I had to pull over because I was like, wait, what, like this? And I was like, no, that makes sense and what also made it feel like it was the right answer is because not just like parsimony, it was simple, a nice, tidy answer, but also from that one simple answer position, I was able to then see all the different possibilities that can come from it. Like, the different offers, the way I can position myself. And it felt like it better aligned with what I want to do with my business and myself professionally. Like, what I'm doing with education around AI literacy, all of it. And yeah, it's funny because like you were saying, there's the idea I was having before that was the whole kind of drop in mechanic or drop in special ops.

And like, because I've been working with these systems very closely on the ground with companies. And so I understand their internals, I understand how the models that are used to stitch them together all work. And I was centering all that, like, technical expertise a lot and viewing myself through the lens of, therefore you can hire me to help you build it. And so I kind of realized that's still me kind of performing my expertise in a way of how I think is the only way it can be viewed as valuable. And then I kind of arrive at the answer of like, well, I love fixing things. I had part of my career as like a support engineer and I would in alternate universe, I'd have like an electronics repair shop. And so I kind of landed the idea of like, drop in repair type of guy, you need me in a pinch.

But then that still felt like it was performative in a way. It still felt like it was about me trying to think of like the most desirable way I can dress up my technical expertise to garner like interest from clients, from prospects. And I had to do so much kind of just like sketching it out, all the different phases of how it would work. And at a certain point I'm like, this doesn't feel right and so I just kind of took a step back from it and then was like I was saying, just doing what I do, thinking about it. And then I realized that on the side with all my consulting, I also really love diving into the scholarship around some AI systems and the tech itself, and then also adjacent fields as well as. And I realized that this idea of like, reliability, like, how reliable are these systems?

Like, everyone's very focused on their capabilities like, oh, they can do this, they can do that, and there's not as much talk about, but can you actually put it in your business and rely on it? Can you trust it? Are you a healthcare organization where you have to actually worry about regulations and fines? And I realize that simple question is just a lot of businesses can't figure out, does this AI system, does this voice agent we hooked up to our telephone system, just does it work and what does work mean and does it work with our specific scenario? And yeah, it felt like a nice, elegant answer and I felt excited about wanting to help people answer that question. I felt excited about being able to talk about it, maybe go to conferences and talk about that idea. And the simplicity of it and how generative that idea alone felt made me realize like, this is probably the right answer.

H: It's such an amazing transformation in not only a business, but in the business owner when you can evolve in really a short period of time Jabari, this happened over just, just a few months. And where from my perspective, how I saw it was you evolving from seeing yourself as a technician, consultant and service provider to an expert and emerging thought leader. And I think for a young person in a very rapidly developing field to be able to claim that status if it had come easily to you. If the first time I mention, well, do you see yourself long term more of an entrepreneur or more of a thought leader?

I could just see in your face how uncomfortable you are with that. It's like, who am I you know, who am I to be a thought leader? But because you are a relentlessly curious person like myself, you noodle on it, you journaled about it, you talk to yourself while you're driving and taking long walks and you're like, well, it's kind of like, why me? Well, why not me? I mean, why not? I mean, someone's going to be a thought leader in your field in your specific niche, why not you?

And you realize, I've got the chops, I've got the experience, I've got the unique perspective and even been able to have all the skill that's required to literally be deployed like a special ops mission into a business and be able to know what to look at, what questions to ask, what buttons to push, what tires to kick, to literally solve the problem before it becomes bigger. The value of that, not only to you in your business, but to the companies that hire you, I think one of your future challenges is going to be pricing for the actual value.

And you know how I feel about value based pricing rather than working by the hour, which keeps us feeling like we have a job and not a business, but really being able to own your expertise. Do you have any idea where the original idea or belief came from that, you know, I could just charge for identifying the real problem, like why you couldn't do that, why do you think it was difficult and do you think it's difficult for everyone or is there some reason why it was more difficult for you?

G: Yeah, I think it was difficult for me in part because the obvious kind of answer for me, like with what I wanted to do with the business and what I wanted to offer, it has felt, and this is maybe true or not, but it's felt that runs a bit counter to a lot of the narratives in my industry in particular. Like, encouraging businesses to question the reliability of AI systems is not a popular thing right now. When there's a lot of narratives that require individuals and businesses and governments to like, believe in the inevitability and like overwhelming capabilities of the technology.

And so there, that was an element to it of like, who am I to go against the grain, even though that's not the point, but like, who am I to be disruptive and that was a huge element of making it feel like I'm not allowed to do this and I definitely do think the we're talking about intersectionality earlier, that's a huge element of that too. Because it's one thing to feel like you're going to be putting out a message that may run counter like to the popular ideas in your industry is a whole another thing to do that. While also feeling like there is very acceptable reasons for people to delegitimize me just for no reason, for no reason at all.

H: Or if they're looking for a reason to delegitimize you or just ignore or deny the truth of what you have to say, they can just pick the low hanging fruit there. And disruptive people in any industry are usually met with criticism and rejection and alienation because most people want to feel comfortable and most people want to truly believe that what they're thinking, feeling and doing is the right thing and disruptors challenge that, they literally make them uncomfortable.

G: Yep. And there's always been a bend in me, I guess, since I was young to be a contrarian, which is not something I'm proud of, but it's also something I do cherish about myself. Like in kindergarten, I remember they're asking us what's our favorite color? And I could see that, oh, the boys are not supposed to like, you know, pink and I was like, oh, I'm just gonna pick. And I had no problems with the color pink, but it was not my favorite color then. And so I've always had a kind of inherent skepticism about like the default script and it's been very useful.

And I think that's something I've definitely seen a lot more neurodivergent folks and that's why I love working with people who are neurodivergent. And yeah, but it can feel hard sometimes because it feels like, hey, you have this perspective or understanding of situation and it can feel like there's a responsibility to not deny that. And even if that path is possibly going to be a little bit more difficult or a lot more difficult, you don't know.

H: Well, I think when we can create safety in ourselves, like neurologically, when you are able to create conditions, and we've talked about this, like what you decide to share in your content, how much of this you decide to share publicly. Now you're doing some public speaking and consider this a form of public speaking, you're gaining practice. Maybe not even saying these are my divergent opinions, but just owning that as part of your identity. You might even think of that as even another type of intersectionality where you are comfortable not going with the norm, you are comfortable not, as I say, conforming to the norm.

You are comfortable with actually saying, well, sometimes I just allow myself to run in the opposite direction just to see where it takes me. And because I want to build the part of myself that can hold space for myself when everyone else is going the fuck you know, because that, that feels like freedom and independence and autonomy and you don't need to be popular or approved of in order to own your own mind. I mean, I think honestly, when it feels safe, when you can create the conditions that make it safe for you to be contrarian, to be a disruptor, to be divergent from the status quo, I think it can also be the fastest way to grow a thought leader career.

And I'm definitely betting on that with you. You had another experience during our time together, where to me it was a big inflection point in your growth. You were working with a client that you had worked with before, and you realized you were starting to do what you came to think of as unnecessary compensating. And right as you were about to just do the thing that you always did, what I think of as our default script, you're like, wait, no, I'm not going to do that. What was that experience like for you? Was it scary? Was it easy? What emotions were you tapping into that enabled you to, to take that action?

G: Yeah. So yeah, is with a client where I felt like I was reaching an impasse with like the timelines we agreed upon originally and feeling like I wasn't able to deliver at that. And I felt like I was kind of at a fork in the road where the more familiar and comfortable path would be to try and give an answer that I felt like I could satisfy me and them, which always meant then over promising past my own, like, capacity, so saying, you know what? I think I'm gonna need a little bit more extra time in me, I'll need another two weeks or something. Like that's the more common path. And then the other one was to actually use this as an opportunity to kind of reset and to, you know, the idea of radical candor, like to be very sincere, honest and vulnerable, like with how I felt about the whole status of the project and where things stood and what my expert opinion was of how we could reorient and then be honest about, like how that creates a much longer timeline.

And so I had to sit with that because that felt like a new. That was the inflection point of something that a hard decision I hadn't had to make yet. And so I chose the path of let's use this as an opportunity to reset and it went well. And then also, it ended up with the client feeling like, you know what, this actually feels like we need things at a different pace or something. And also information about the scope that I wasn't aware of, which is something I was talking about earlier as well. But basically what I'm saying is that the opportunity to reset and taking that led to what was important across the whole time, working with the client, which is we're on the same page.

And so it was also very difficult because it led to us mutually agreeing to prematurely in the engagement. And it also meant that, like, this was me having boundaries around the way I worked and communicated, and also just an opportunity for me to learn about how I can be better, about communicating and, yeah, it was difficult, and it felt right at the same time. And, yeah, it's been a really important part of me feeling, like leaning into myself or figuring out how I want to run my business is not to be dramatic, but, like, it's an existential thing when it comes to being able to run a successful business.

If I don't do this properly, then that means I burn out. It means I overextend myself. It means I don't deliver on what I promise clients. And, yeah, like, that is an existential threat to me being able to have that freedom, like you're saying, and being able to have a business. And I want to run this in a way where I can bring other people on board, and I can't do any of that, though, if I'm constantly choosing that other fork in the road that's more familiar and more comfortable.

H: Yeah. One of the goals you stated that you were looking for and that you had achieved during our time together is you wanted and I don't think I've ever heard anyone say it quite this way, Jabari, you said, I want to be comfortably seated in myself. And from my perspective, working with neurodivergent entrepreneurs for many, many years and being one myself, you have most certainly accomplished that. And because you're also a humble human, every time I would point out something or compliment you on something or state something that I recognize as a moment of growth, you were always keen to say, yes, but I'm still struggling in this way. And I think it just it keeps you human. It keeps you grounded, it keeps you vulnerable.

And I think when we lose that, we lose contact with some of the most unique attributes that come with being neurodivergent and I think all of our clients certainly benefit from that. So I fully believe that you are at the very beginning of many, many great things. For those of listeners who've been following this story and think I want to pay attention to what this is doing now and doing next, what's up next for you and where would you like people to find you online.

G: Yeah. So what's up next is well, at this point it'll be done, but like rebranding my business, people can find me at Inside Voice.AI and I write about my ideas on the industry with a focus on demystifying the technology, bringing more people in, having people feel like they have more understanding and control and realizing like even if you're a non technical person, like there is still a place for you to experiment, play, try out AI and also to be skeptical of it, to oppose a data center in your community. I want people to realize that they're able to hold all of those things and pick for themselves. So yeah, I write about that also at my website so in my plan is to keep doing that and to find more people who are interested in hearing what I have to say.

H: Well, I'm definitely here to continue the conversation and to share it with others and I'll make sure that we link to your site and your Substack in the show notes. Jabari, thank you so much for spending this time with me and for just being the amazing client and human that you are.

G: Thanks, Diann.