I’m excited to introduce you to my client, Robyn Rosenberger, the passionate founder of Tiny Superheroes.  Robyn is a founder with a heart,  and decided to work with me on the advice of her therapist so she could learn to balance passion, purpose and profitability in her business.  

You’ll hear Robyn open up about her unique journey as a twice-exceptional individual, facing the challenges and triumphs of running a mission-driven business that empowers children with disabilities to see themselves in a positive light, as well as a vibrant community for their parents. 

We’ll dig into Robyn's struggles with managing others, the emotional rollercoaster of taking big risks that don’t always work out, and the often-lonely path of a visionary entrepreneur who is striving to balance business ambition and mental health. 

Join us as we explore the nuances of thinking differently, the quest for sustainable success without burnout and the profound impact of truly understanding and embracing one’s giftedness. 

Here are some of the highlights:

• Techniques for balancing collaborative and solo work 
• Leaning into your intuition as a twice-exceptional founder
• Building trust and effective communication in a neurodiverse team.
• Tips for finding the perfect business coach for your unique needs.
• Exercises to align mental health with business growth.
• Strategies for creating sustainable peace and financial stability 

Meet Robyn Rosenberger

Robyn Rosenberger is the founder of Tiny Superheroes, a mission-driven business dedicated to changing the way the world views disabilities by empowering children with superhero capes and creating a supportive online community for their parents. Robyn is a twice-exceptional entrepreneur—both gifted and ADHD—who has built a thriving business while addressing the unique challenges that come with her exceptional mind. 

Tiny SuperHeroes 

Connect with Robyn on Linkedin or Instagram 

Mentioned during the interview: 

ThinkUp! App 

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H: Robyn, we have so many exciting things to talk about to recapture and share our work together. But why don't we start with this? I love the mission and the purpose of your business, and I would love it if you would introduce that to our listeners.

G: Thank you. It's called Tiny Superheroes and, like, my deep rooted mission in it is changing the way the world sees disability so that, children can walk into school confident with who they are, and the people who are meeting them are curious instead of judgmental. And that's kind of like the end goal, but the process of getting there is, through superhero capes and community. So we empower kids with any diagnosis or challenge with superhero capes and they earn patches for their capes, and we have an online community for their parents. And I really just believe that if kids can feel capable and worthy and loved, and this goes for all children, that they have within themselves what it will take for the world to change because when we show up comfortable with who we are, people receive us differently. That's a short answer.

H: Oh, it but it's a really, really powerful message. And when we first connected, I thought, I really wanna work with you because I love the mission. I love working with people who are driven by a sense of passion and a sense of purpose, and you have both. And, of course, I worked at Children's Hospital for 10 years. And if I had known you back then, what a powerful partnership that would have been because I was working with 100 of kids with a variety of illnesses and disabilities. So it's a cause that's near and dear to my heart and you have a couple of kiddos of your own.

G: I have 3 boys. They're 12, 10, and 7. Interestingly, 6 years no like, 5 years into this journey with Tiny Superheroes, my 3rd son was born with a birth defect in both of his feet. So it was like, people assume it's why I must have had a child and that's why I started this, but, like, no. It happened 5 years later and, what a different experience it was than it would have been without my experience of Tiny Superheroes so I'm very grateful for that.

Grateful that my kids don't know life without tiny superheroes, and, it's kind of like proof to me that exposure to differences is all we need to treat people better because my kids, being around kids that look or act or talk or breathe different is normal, and their behavior is different than other kids who have not had that experience. And that was the only difference was that they were exposed regularly.

H: You know, it's a really good point because I've certainly known many, many adults, parents, typically mothers, who may get involved with a cause as a result of 1 or more of their kids having a diagnosis. It sensitizes them. It wakes them up. It galvanizes them. It motivates them and they wanna help other people because of everything they've gone through and learned from it but you didn't have that kind of story.

G: No, I didn't. It's interesting, isn't it?

H: It really is and it's fascinating that your 2 older boys saw you kind of deep dive into this and rally forth and build this social entrepreneurship business as a founder for a cause that you didn't have a personal connection to, but you just felt really passionately about it and, yeah, it's absolutely fascinating. You know what else is fascinating is that because you are a female founder, and I love working with female founders, many women have their partner working with them in the business. They may be a cofounder, yhey may be a business partner. Your case is a little bit different and I wanna talk about two parts of it that I think are really, really interesting. One is that you are the business owner. You are the founder of Tiny Superheroes, and your husband, Joe, works for you. But one of the things you told me when we first met was that you are, like, violently opposed to managing people so let's unpack that, this is very fun.

G: Yeah. So the business has gone through, like, different stages with employees, without employees. So, like, right now, we're in a new stage of it just being my husband and I. This is the first time that that's ever been true. And, maybe I, okay, like, I literally feel like my husband most definitely has to manage me because my brain is, like, so all over the place and his is not that, like, in no way does, like, him working for me resonate, nor does me working for him resonate. I think we're it's something I appreciate is we're very much a team, but there's no animosity at all about ownership or credit. Like, he doesn't care about that, and he would be the 1st to tell you he would never be an entrepreneur. He's still surprised he works here you know? So I think we have a really great thing where there's very little conflict. There's no conflict around it, actually, and, it's been fun having this time just us because, people are hard, and we have an easy thing together. So at the moment, we're both breathing a lot easier.

H: It was one of the things that we worked on was rightsizing your business, which required you to let go of someone who you had hired for a very specific purpose, absolutely necessary and transformational at the time. But further down the road, it was like, we're kind of scrambling around looking for something for this individual to do. And what we're paying him is kind of eating up our profits, especially since we don't have something for him to do. But I think one of the reasons you don't wanna manage people is because of how difficult it was to make that decision and carry it through.

G: Yeah. And that was not my first time doing that, not even my second time doing that. And it's fascinating, like, it does not get easier for me. I get more equipped, but it doesn't get easier, and, like, I find it so awful that, like, it's makes you terrified to hire people because I also am someone that I like, I'm kind and friendly, and so I don't really know how to be different than that. And so my relationships with employees and we're small, and we're doing something, like, emotional and, you know, it's like they attach pretty quickly you know and that makes it so much harder because I care about them.

H: Yeah. And I think too many people refer to this as people pleasing or poor boundaries. And I know we talked about those things and we worked on those things and there was some work to be done on those things, but I think that really makes it sound much simpler than it is.

G: Yeah. It's human. It's very like it's…

H: Like a human and also I think because I work with neurodivergent entrepreneurs, I think we tend to be even more sensitive, even more empathic, are more affected by the emotions of others, tend to be more concerned about the well-being of others. And I think that just adds so much to just sort of the generic level of feminine conditioning that makes us care more about other people than we care about ourselves. And it's an absolute liability as a business owner because when you're caught between doing what's best for the business and what makes you feel like shit, that's really, really that's really challenging.

G: Yeah. I'm also pretty quick to think it's my fault that I didn't guide them well enough or lead them enough or give them what they needed or have a clear enough vision, you know, in some cases, harder than others, but it's like, that's kind of where I go first is like, well, it's not really their fault like you know and it's not always even their fault right? But that's not the point, but it is torturous. I think it's the worst part of the whole thing.

H: Well, like most women who are gifted and women who are ADHD, and you and I are both 2E, twice exceptional, both gifted and ADHD as are many of my clients. I think we have a knee jerk reflex, automatic default of assumption that we are responsible for everything that happens. And it's not like this magnanimous, you know, I wanna be in control. I don't wanna be in control.

G: No. I don't wanna be in control.

H: Please, no. But I do feel responsible.

G: Well, a 100%. And even recently, I had, like, a conversation about this of, like, we, like, I do. I feel 100% about everything like, the success of not actually. I feel a 100% of responsible for everything but the success, isn't that fascinating you know? Definitely, I feel responsible for the failure, but, we had a we like, our ads stopped working right? And, like, the money stopped coming in. And then, like, we had to, we changed the ads and, like, the money started coming in. And it was like, I actually had nothing to do with the money going down or the money going up there. Like, I had influence in the ads and whatnot, but it was like, in my mind, the effort I put in the day is reflective of the money that comes in, which is a heavy lift right? And that's not actually true.

H: No and you're right. You were all too quick to take responsibility for anything that went wrong. But anything that went right, it was either luck or a fluke or, I don't know, just the universe thing or like, don't get too used to this idea because then, you know, the other shoe will drop. And I think learning to trust yourself as a business owner, you know, head of household, the financial support for a family of 5, that's a big deal. And we need to be responsible. But not being able to recognize our own contributions to success, first of all, it's not accurate and secondly, it makes business very painful and not fun at all.

H: You said that again and again and again. You know, when we talk about, okay, what are your values? What are your goals? What are we trying to accomplish with this business? Do you wanna sell it? Do you want this to be your legacy? You know, what benchmarks do you want? And what's working now? What's not working now? And you were a 100% consistent in saying, I want peace. I want peace. I want peace because you were not feeling it. You were not feeling peace when things were good. You were definitely not feeling peace when things were challenging. And I think that that's really from the very beginning what led you to me because you didn't understand what was going on with your brain, much less your business.

G: Yeah. And that was not for a lack of effort. I feel like I've been trying to, like, get I've been trying to understand why my system works differently than I logically understand it should or could for decade my whole adult life you know? And, I am so grateful for my determination to figure it out because I've gotten farther towards peace than I towards, like, sustainable peace right? Like, I think prior to now, money was the missing part, I thought. And while I would love financial stability and all of that, I am confident that's actually not the missing part for the piece I'm looking for. And so it's totally how I found you, and I feel like I keep taking leaps right and my time with you was a huge leap.

H: You found out that you were gifted when you were a little girl. But as we've talked about, it's really interesting because most women that I meet and work with who are gifted either think, oh, yeah, I was when I was a kid. Like, you don't outgrow this just like you don't outgrow ADHD, just like there's no such thing as adult onset ADHD. If you're gifted, you've always been gifted. If you're ADHD, you've always been ADHD, but you may be more aware of these things at different stages under different circumstances. And so you were in gifted classes, but it wasn't talked about at home. So you didn't get the message that many gifted girls get, which is, okay, now you're really gonna have to deliver the goods. Now you're in the special classes, the expectations are being 10 x, and you should do well at everything. You didn't get that message at all.

G: But I already had it, so maybe that's why.

H: Oh, they didn't need to say anything because you were already on it?

G: Oh, I mean, perfection was…

H: There is no other option?

G: There’s really no other option. Yeah, so it was like, no one needed to put any pressure on me for that because I was already under that pressure myself. So, like, the gifted part didn't add anything. It's fascinating, which is why I have a really hard time saying I'm gifted because I'm like, I don't is there a test I can take so we can validate it because I'm not totally confident you know?

H: Yes. I know it's something that I know some of my clients get annoyed with me because, you know, when I realize I'm working with a gifted individual, I talk about it so much. Not because I necessarily wanna convince them also, although sometimes that's necessary because they thought they outgrew it, or they never really accepted it or they do not understand the significance of it. But also, I wanna normalize it just the way you want to normalize disability for children. Because what I find is if you are I think it's easier for us to acknowledge we have ADHD, which is, at least in paper, a disorder and a deficit. It's right there in the name. It's easier for us.

G: I'm like, yeah. I'm fine with saying that out loud then.

H: Yup, we can double down on that. Like, it's easier for us to acknowledge that we have a disorder, that we have a deficit, than it is for us to acknowledge that in some respects, we have an unfair advantage. And what's really confusing is when you're both, it's like, well, so is it too much or not enough like, I'm so confused. It's actually both, and it's very nuanced, and it's very different from one person to the next. And I find that one of the biggest struggles we have is turning to people who are not like us for answers they couldn't possibly give us.

G: Which is what I in terms of business, you are the first person I'd ever met you know? So it's like none of

H: First person you’ve met that’s wired like you.

G: Yeah, who understood me so it's like any business advice, you know, it's like it never settles. It never it's like, but then I feel like I'm just making excuses, but it's like, no. Like, it doesn't it never felt good right and I didn't know why so then, obviously, it must have been my fault.

H: I see the cycle, the cycle here. The problem here, the conventional wisdom is not working. It's got to be on me. What the hell is the matter with me and around and around and around we go okay. So how do you feel differently now as a result of the time we've spent together and, frankly, it's not just the work we did together. You also have a wonderful therapist.

G: Yeah, who led me to you accidentally. Like, she didn't know you, but I'd never heard of Twice Exceptional like, I'd never heard the word. So I was like, what is like, anyway, I left the appointment. I was like, I gotta figure this out like, am I ADHD? Anyway, it was like your podcast about that, and I listened to it, and I was like, can I talk to her? That's like, what happened you know? But now I'm still not comfortable, like, I'm still not comfortable talking about it with people for one day.

H: I'm not I'm not really people and everybody listening isn't really people either.

G: Yeah. No. I know. They wouldn't understand anyway right? But, like, now it's kind of like I now know what things I'm like, what tools are there right? Like, I've always had a toolbox, but it's like I don't even know what's in there. And all of it is helping me process, like, my beliefs about myself, which I think is, like, one of the roots of all of these problems, which that ThinkUp app that you introduced me to, I mean, that alone is huge, but it's like, now I'm understanding why I believe what I believe because of how my brain works and because of, like, how I grew up and all of these different things I'm learning.

It's like, well, if I can understand why I believe that, now I'm willing to explore that it might not be true. But if you don't know if you don't have a reason that would have happened, then the only resolution in my mind is that it's true. But if you're like, oh, actually, I can explain to you why you believe that you're a problem, then now and maybe this is how our brain works. Now I have, like, an open door of, like, am I a problem you know like, I don't know.

H: Like problem, and what if it wasn't and if it's possibly not a problem, how could I think differently about it? This is one of those conversations like when you know, you know kind of thing because I just don't think this is how most people think. In fact, I've certainly been on this planet long enough to have an abundance of evidence that this is not how most people think. Most people don't actually need to have a deep, nuanced, comprehensive level of understanding about why they operate differently.

G: That explains my entire day yesterday why the people I was talking to didn't understand why it mattered.

H: Let's talk about that. What happened?

G: So I'm in a forum and it was like, my share, I was talking about this, like, what I'm learning about why the beliefs are there even, like, all the way back to being a baby right? And most of them weren't dismissive, but didn't understand why I needed to understand where it was coming from. And to me, I can't understand why you wouldn't wanna know where it's coming from. Like yeah why would you not want to know everything you could because that is, like, the only way to freedom for me and for them, it was made it's a burden.

H: It's a burden. Like why the hell like, you are you so obsessed with all this world of it?

G: And creating your own problems.

H: And that, Robyn is so painful and so isolating because for us, and this is the twice exceptional existence. We need to understand why we're feeling the way we're feeling, why we're thinking the way we're thinking, why we're having the struggles that we're having because we can't even begin to understand that there could be a solution, that we could choose it, that we could learn it, that we could master it, that we could create that peace of mind for ourselves. We can't even get there when we don't know how we got here. Other people, like, they go to the doctor, for example, and say, oh, I'm not feeling well. I'm tired all the time, I can't sleep through the night, whatever. And the doctor says, okay, we'll do some tests. They get back the results and say, oh, you have a hormone imbalance or your thyroid or whatever.

You have adrenals problems and say, okay good. Well, it's good to know that there's a cause for it and so now what are you gonna do about it? You're gonna have this procedure. You're gonna take this medication. You're gonna have this whatever and then they're, like, good to go. Most people don't know the name of their diagnosis, don't know the name of their medication, might not even know the name of their doctor unless they look it up in their phone, and they are totally happy about it. There's a problem. There's a name for it. There's something I can do about it. We're good. And you and I would be, like, on the Internet at all hours for me.

G: This is resonating because I have very weird sleep disorders right? And we have thank God, literally, like, thank God, like, found treatment. And, like, I'd have to do a lot of treatment and medicine, but I'm good. But now I'm like, well, there you don't just randomly have weird sleep disorders. Like, now I'm like, let's figure this out because I'm not the only one it's affecting right? So it's like, now I'm like, okay well, how does child brain development affect sleep you know because I feel like I wanna know.

H: But this is so hard. I love this so much, but it's so hard to explain to people who are not similarly afflicted.

G: Well, now I'm only now understanding that not everybody feels this way.

H: And this is so crucial for a business owner, and especially because you had had to go through a number of employees before you and I met. And it's like, I think we need to talk about rightsizing this business so you don't have to manage people and you can still grow your company. But I think one of the unique challenges for women like us in managing people is that it can be really hard to recognize that other people don't see what we see. They don't perceive what we perceive. They don't solve problems in the way that we do. They don't entertain different solutions. They don't carry things out. It's not and I mean, sometimes I can feel like I can't tell you how many times I thought to myself is, am I the only person that sees the emperor and it has no clothes?

And to me, what seemed perfectly obvious, and I'd say, well, I don't know why we're having such a big discussion at it. What why don't we just do this? And they're looking at me like I just popped out of a spaceship or something came from the future and I'm like, why is this such a big deal? And it's like you do really, it's really hard to realize when your brain works differently. And this is true if you are gifted, if you are ADHD, if you're twice exceptional, if you're autistic, if you in whatever way you are neurodivergent, you do not think, feel, perceive, solve problems, create solutions, and implement them in the same way neurotypical people do.

Now that doesn't mean that we all have to be outliers and in a cave by ourselves and not trying to work with other people. But when you are a business owner, trying to calibrate expectations for others. And are they realistic? Am I expecting too much? We either tend to go too far in expecting the same things of other people we expect of ourselves, in which case you're gonna have constant turnover because they're gonna think you're abusive. Or because we're so afraid of that or maybe we've done that for a few cycles, we go to the opposite extreme and we either refuse to set expectations because, oh, they'll figure it out, or we set them so low that people think that we don't trust them or we think they're stupid, it's really challenging.

G: Yeah. My husband and I had a good, like, reveal of this, which was helpful for us because, like, in meetings, like, I was really not sure why we were having meetings because…

H: I am always not sure why anybody's having meetings.

G: Well, I'm starting at the end of the meeting, but, like, people need the meeting to get to the end of the meeting, you know?

H: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's so good.

G: I my husband and I talked about something and then the next day, I, like, went back to it and he was, like, super frustrated and he finally put words to it. He said, so we went from a to b yesterday, and today, I'm on c, but you just came back at z. And I did, and I actually didn't even know that the other letters existed right?

H: And that they didn't exist for other people because your brain kept on going and everyone's like, meeting's over. Bye.

G: Yeah. And so and it's not like I'm having these solid thoughts that I should communicate. It's like, no, I don't even it's not even happening that way. It's just like I'm at the end you know?

H: It's the unconscious assumptions, Robyn. And I think that's what really, you know, you and I unpacked a lot of that. When you finally come to the conclusion I mean, I think let's put it this way, I'm gonna back up a little bit. When you're a little kid, you just wanna fit in. You just wanna be accepted. You just wanna be like everybody else. And the degree to which you realize you're not like everybody else, you struggle and you suffer.

And most of us will mask and hide and suppress the most unique and wonderful and creative aspects about ourselves because they make us stand out. And standing out, you know, because you know, tiny superheroes. You work with kids who can't help but stand out one way or the other and how much suffering that causes them. So you're wanting to turn that into, well, if you're gonna stand out anyway, let's make it a celebration and a cause for celebration. But that's a very intentional like, it's a pattern interrupt. It's an intervention and we, you and I, had to do interventions on ourself to realize I cannot go on autopilot. I cannot make assumptions that other people think the way I do because they don't.

And if I fail to take that into account and make whatever necessary adjustments I need to make, I'm going to feel shitty. I'm gonna doubt myself. I'm gonna question my leadership. I'm gonna wonder why the hell I'm even in business. I've done all that, it causes all of our symptoms. Our ADHD symptoms get worse, any anxiety, depression, all of that gets worse. So we have to take control of the brain that we have, not the brain we think we should have. And something you were talking about earlier, I mean, I want to go back to because it cracked me up. It's like other people, neurotypical people have nice to know and need to know. Everything is need to know for us and that's it's not only for us, it's fun. We get a lot of dopamine from it but for other people, it's either perverse or annoying.

G: Well and then it's interesting because when it comes to details, I find a lot of people need to know, and I want none of it so it's like…

H: Not like you're gonna remember them anyway right?

G: Right.

H: You and I both talked a lot about forgetfulness.

G: Yeah. And, like, it there's some weird dichotomy there about needing to know, but then there's a category of things people seem to need to know that I literally, I'm, like, angry if we spend time on it you know?

H: Especially if it's in a meeting, especially if it's a meeting that's repetitive. I can't literally, like I know I can't either. That's where I got a lot of my negative feedback when I was still working for other people is because I was inevitably in environments and I was an administrator. I would get so impatient and so frustrated and so annoyed with meeting after meeting. And it seemed like the purpose of the meeting was to be a meeting. Like, the purpose of the meeting does it was to consume a chunk of people's day and to give them something to do and to fill the seats in a conference room and I'm like, this is the dumbest thing ever. Well, it's like, why are we still talking about this you know? They don't like that.

G: I don't know. Tell me if this is typical for people like us. I can't get any of this working with these people here. Like, for me, it's like none of that is ever gonna function in a group. So, like, if we wanna get something done, I need to go be by myself because this thing works alone.

H: Yeah. No, I see what you mean. You make really good use, especially where you live, you make good use of, like, going for walks in the woods and stuff because you need a lot of time to process because of that need for a deep level of understanding and you are no stranger to decision making. You are inherently a risk taker. Starting a business, any business, is it just running a business like yours and not everything pans out. And I think that's the other thing I'd like us to talk about. Because during our few months working together, which just ended, like, a little over a month ago, so it's really fun to reconnect so soon, you had taken a big risk. And the risk was based on something that any other entrepreneur would have seen as a tremendous opportunity, almost a once in a lifetime opportunity or certainly an opportunity that would have opened doors to other opportunities. And so you went all in on it, but it did not pan out the way you thought it would.

G: It did not. We were on national television, and you would never know it from the effects it had on our business and not to negate there's some assets that you can pull from it. You know, like but in terms of I mean, we ordered inventory and, I mean, we spent money. We you know, it's like and then noing. I was very grateful to have you. You also, like, gave me permission to be disappointed you know? Because but it was I still actually don't understand it. Like, it doesn't actually calculate in my head how that can be. But, no, it didn't go at all like, I don't think most people expected, you know?

H: I mean, I certainly had high hopes for it. I was certainly looking forward to it being a breakthrough. I was looking at being able to help you navigate a huge growth spurt, growth in visibility, which comes with all of its own challenges, things I'm very familiar with and love helping other people with. But instead, it was almost like not just a disappointment, Robyn. It was it was more like deeply confusing because and I'm gonna take a hunch here. I'm wondering if for the reason why it's still confusing and why you're like, it doesn't compute is because the mistakes that were made that were not on your end, the mistakes that were made that led to this being a huge missed opportunity were not on your side. And had you been in charge of the whole thing, I'm sure you can confidently say that would have never happened.

G: Yeah. And I assumed this is a problem I have. I assume that people are good natured and competent.

H: Well meaning, well intended.

G: Yeah, and, you know, you can't figure out all the reasons why it happened the way it did, but, like, to me, it's basic. And so, like, part of you quickly, I wanna be like, well, we should have demanded it from the start. But to me, it was like, but I think it's assumed. You know what I mean?

H: But this is exactly what we've been talking about, my friend. I think it takes some time, and I've been working on this a little bit longer than you have. I think I've definitely accelerated your learning curve. But this notion that we cannot assume that other people think like us, we cannot assume that other people perceive things like us, that other people would make the same decisions like us. The things that I call no brainers other people and it's not like, oh, I'm the smartest person on the planet.

It's just our brains work differently. And the things, as we've talked about, that seem obvious to us, we might not necessarily even be able to break down and explain in detail to someone else because it's nonlinear thinking. 100%. If it was linear thinking, neurotypical thinking, it would be like, well, first you do this and then you do this and then you do this. And maybe you need to double check and make sure 123 are all good, and then you go on to 4. But when it's more like what I think of as matrix thinking, like three-dimensional thinking, multidimensional thinking, the way our brains work for better or for worse, it can actually be dangerous to assume a shared body of knowledge with others, which I think is one of the reasons why we really don't like having business partners.

Most of them women I've worked with and men too. They're like, I can't explain why, but I really don't want a business partner. Or I've attempted to have a business partner multiple times and it is always horrific and regrettable. Because you can't assume that shared body of knowledge. And when you say something and they go, oh, yeah, you're absolutely right. That they actually mean the same thing that you said. And that takes a while to really, really understand and not make it mean anything.

G: Yeah. It's lonely.

H: Hello? Not make it mean like, oh, I have this super special brain and nobody else can be at my level. That's not what we're talking about. It is incredibly lonely. It is incredibly isolating. I refer to twice exceptional women as being ambitious outliers. But make no mistake when you're an outlier, you feel like a lone wolf. And it's not like you're obviously, you're connected to the parents in your membership. You're connected to your husband. You're connected to people like me. You're connected to your therapist. But it's much more isolating and lonely than people who are not 2 standard deviations from the mean. Because they do have a shared level of understanding and, like, a shared assumptions that are I mean, it's not like you don't have to discuss things. But, like, when somebody says something and the other person says right, and it's like everybody's in on the inside jokes. We have to make up our own jokes.

G: Yeah. Yeah. It's so good to know it, though, because things make more sense.

H: Things make more sense, and I think, that's nice. That's a good outcome. But if you're gonna hire a business strategist and a business coach like me and not a therapist, or in your case, working with a therapist and a coach, what do you think is I didn't even plan to ask you this, but I realized it's really it's a good and important question. When you're twice exceptional and you're working with a therapist and you have a business, what is the role that I fill that's different because I'm also a therapist.

G: Yeah. Which I think is why it works really well because, you know, because just a coach doesn't go over very well for me, but in fact, I've I feel like I'm a failed mentee, like, over and over and over again, but I don't talk business. Like, my therapist doesn't understand business right? But for me, business is also me. So to separate it from mental health at all or my brain, that's where the advice doesn't work you know? It's like, yeah, if it was that easy to just call 20 people and then that's not my problem. You know what I mean? Like it's like, okay but why can I not pick up the phone? Like, why am I blocked fully here? And so to me, like, I think that's probably why other coaches didn't work is because I need to understand why I am or I'm not doing what I should or shouldn't be doing, you know? And it's like you don't have other people to throw things at that really know what you're saying. So, I don't tend to trust them.

H: And I think, honestly, when we do trust other people who are not wired like us too easily, we end up following advice that isn't really suited for us, which will most definitely not work for us. But we, like, kind of blindly and trustingly not appreciating deeply enough how different we actually are. Even when we're doing the same things as other people, we're doing them differently because of the way we think differently. So trying to follow sort of the step by step guidance, the cookie cutter approach, that this works for everybody. It'll work for you and thinking, oh, great. It's worked for, like, 100, 1,000, 1,000,000, whatever. It'll work for me too.

And then when it doesn't, we're either gonna blame them, but more likely we're gonna blame us no matter how many times it happens. So I think, to me, that's one of the reasons why I'm really grateful to be able to partner with women like you. Because I think, inevitably the thing that's most difficult is the insidious loss of self trust. And not realizing the source of it is that we're trying to follow advice that's not meant for us.

G: Yep. And I just always assume they must know better right? And so it's like that's why I keep doing it because it's like, well, like, if you don't really know you're different, which, like, I didn't really know I was different, then definitely I and what I'm doing isn't working, then definitely they would know better.

H: Yes. I must be doing it wrong and if this has happened multiple times, obviously, there's something wrong with me. Like, no matter who I'm trying to get to help me, it never turns out any better. So, clearly, I'm, like, beyond help and, I mean, I've even known people who've really thought maybe I'm not cut out for entrepreneurship.

G: mean, I definitely feel that.

H: Those dark nights. Those dark nights. And yet, like, towards the end of our time together, we just had a 3 month engagement, action packed, with all kinds of ups and downs. Towards the very end, you created a lovely membership community and, which I think is really, really well suited to your business model. You rightsized your business, so now it's just you and Joe. You don't have anybody else and what's coming up next? What can we look forward to for Tiny Superheroes in the future?

G: It's a great question. You know, tomorrow, actually, we have to do patches for capes, so it's like, you know, if you have surgery, you get surgery patch and all this. But we have a small subscription, like, it's not a subscription box, but that's, like, the concept. And tomorrow, we're, like, adding to that in a meaningful way, because I do want to feel more confident in people coming back you know? So, like, I think that…

H: Repeat business, you mean? People sticking with you and…

G: Yeah, like because I know that the more they're engaged in the community, like, the more that I know that it's impactful and meaningful, but I also know it's hard to start. So yeah also, like, recurring revenue would be really helpful. So it's like, I feel excited about that step, and just I'm really continually trying to, like, lean into why I'm doing it because when money is tight, I tend to, like, go into a different mode of, like, you need to make money, which isn't what I'm about, but, like, that's where my brain goes. And so I'm trying it differently where even in that time, keep leaning into why I'm doing it. See that could maybe work, I don't have proof yet in this instance.

H: But well, I think your passion and your purpose is what got you started. That's a renewable resource for you that you could plug into like a Tesla charging station. And I think given that, you know, the slump was as a result of you making a wise business decision based on the information you were given and then an unfortunate outcome that had nothing to do with you. And I think it I can't imagine anyone going through what you went through, not making the exact same decisions that you made right?

And the fact that you're like, okay, that was a big hit. That was scary. That put us a little bit underwater, but you didn't give up. You didn't lose faith. You didn't lose faith in yourself. And you're like, okay, I'm gonna keep plugging in to the renewable energy source that I know works for me and that is my own drive, my own passion, my own sense of purpose. I trust Joe. I trust me. We don't have any excess people that we have to worry about supporting and I have a really good feeling about where things are going.

G: Well, I'm gonna borrow that. Thank you.

H: Robyn, thank you so much for coming back and for recreating some of our story together. We will definitely be linking to Tiny Superheroes in the show notes, and people can find you on LinkedIn and on Instagram. And it would be really cool if somebody wants to get a Tiny Superheroes cape for a special kiddo in their life as well.

G: Well, thank you. I am forever grateful to have spent time with you and, yeah, I really am just very grateful.

H: Thank you, sweetie.