Shownotes
What if the thing that makes you feel like an outsider is actually the key to real belonging?
We spend a lot of time talking about how to build community — how to grow it, structure it, and sustain it. But we don’t talk nearly enough about what it feels like to be the person on the outside of it. The one who doesn’t quite fit, who feels like “too much,” or who has learned to edit themselves just to stay in the room.
In this episode of Find Your Freaks, Tonya Kubo sits down with Eli Trier — artist, writer, and self-described “dopamine dealer” — to explore what it means to live as an outsider and how that experience can become the foundation for something powerful. As a neuroqueer, AuDHD creator, Eli doesn’t just make art. She creates spaces where people who have always felt different finally feel seen and understood.
Eli shares how years of feeling “too much” shaped her work and her perspective on belonging. Instead of trying to fit into spaces that never quite worked, she began building her own — spaces where otherness isn’t something to hide, but something to celebrate.
Together, they challenge a common assumption about community: that belonging comes from fitting in. Because in the end, real belonging isn’t about being tolerated. It’s about being recognized.
In This Episode, We Explore
- What it actually feels like to move through the world as an outsider
- The hidden cost of trying to “pass” as normal
- Why being “too much” is often a context problem, not a personal flaw
- How Eli uses art to create emotional refuge and recognition
- The difference between being included and truly belonging
- What community builders get wrong about inclusion
- How showing up fully creates permission for others to do the same
Episode Highlights
[03:15] Why Eli’s “freaks” are the weird, creative, non-traditional souls
[09:40] What it means to be neuroqueer and AuDHD in a world built for sameness
[17:20] The experience of being “too much” and learning to self-edit
[26:10] Why fitting in can feel safer… but costs more than we think
[34:45] How Eli’s art creates a sense of recognition and belonging
[42:30] The difference between inclusion and true belonging
[51:00] Why community builders need to rethink what “safe space” actually means
[1:02:15] The power of showing up fully and going first
Meet Our Guest
Elinor Trier is a neuroqueer AuDHD artist, writer, podcaster, YouTuber, dopamine dealer, and founder of Elinor Trier Studio and Zuzu’s Haus of Cats, where she creates artwork that celebrates “otherness,” reminding you that you’re not the “odd one out,” you’re “one of a kind.” Her work lives in private collections worldwide and has been featured in multiple media outlets, including the Nautilus Silver Award-winning book Creatrix: She Who Makes. She reads ten books a week, snorts when she laughs, and might actually be a pile of cats in a sparkly trench coat.
Meet Your Host
Tonya Kubo is a community strategist, writer, and rebel with a cause: helping people find the place where they truly belong. She’s spent nearly two decades building online spaces that feel more like chosen family than comment sections, and she’s not afraid to call out the fluff in favor of real connection. As the founder of Find Your Freaks, Tonya brings together unconventional thinkers, builders, and bridge-makers who believe that “normal” was never the point. When she’s not hosting the show, she’s raising two daughters, leading client communities, and making meaning out of the mess.
Key Quotes
- “You’re not the odd one out. You’re one of a kind.” — Eli Trier
- “Being ‘too much’ usually just means you’re in the wrong room.” — Eli Trier
- “Belonging isn’t about being tolerated. It’s about being recognized.” — Eli Trier
- “The goal isn’t to become more palatable. It’s to find the places where you already make sense.” — Eli Trier
Resources & Mentions
Support the Show
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Find Your Freaks merchandise is available through Abilities and Attitudes.
Let’s Stay Freaky
What’s Next
The spaces that feel safest aren’t the ones where everyone fits in. In the next episode, Tonya explores what it really means to go first, why being the “freakiest” one in the room sets the tone for everyone else, and how showing up fully creates the kind of permission real belonging is built on.
Transcripts
[Speaker 1]
People feel safe enough to let the mask drop and I love it. I live for those moments where you see that they think like, oh shit, I've done that thing, is it going to be okay? I'm so glad that that came out of you, it's made my day.
I really, really love it. I really love getting to the heart of somebody and really finding out who they are because nine times out of ten, the stuff that you're like pushing down and trying to hide and gloss over, that's the stuff that makes you radiant. It's the stuff that makes you most interesting.
It's the stuff that makes you shine and I want to see that in everybody, you know? I hate that we live in this world that makes us feel like we have to squash down our individuality and our personalities and become these slickety perfect versions of ourselves.
[Speaker 2]
We're wired for connection, but most of us are faking it to fit in. I'm Tanya Kubo and this is Find Your Freaks, the podcast that flips the script and spotlights the quirks you thought you had to keep quiet. Subscribe now and head to findyourfreaks.com for show notes and extras because around here, what makes you weird makes you wonderful. Normal was never the point. We love to talk about community, how to build it, grow it, sustain it, but today we are talking about what it feels to be an outsider and how powerful it can be to create spaces where being different is not just allowed, it is celebrated and I can't think of a better person to have a conversation about celebrating your own differences in addition to the differences of others than our very own Ellie Trier.
Ellie is an artist, a writer, a podcaster, and my favorite term that she has ever used for herself is dopamine dealer and she loves working with weirdos and misfits and what I would say is her work is a virtual love letter to all of us. And so Ellie, I'm just going to let you kick it off by telling us who are your freaks and what do you love about them?
[Speaker 1]
Oh, first of all, what an incredible introduction and thank you so much for having me. It's an utter delight to be here. I've been looking forward to this conversation very much, so thank you.
And my freaks, ah, my freaks are generally literal freaks as in people who are outside of the mainstream and I don't really differentiate beyond that because I find it's quite a good sort of self-filtration system. People either feel like they're a freak or they don't. For my purposes, I mean, I come at it from my own sort of freakery, which is as a neurodivergent person, I'm ADHD, which is autism and ADHD smooshed together.
I'm a queer woman. I'm an expat living in a foreign country. I am just generally out of step with the world and I find that I speak most clearly and most resonantly when I'm speaking to other people who may have different sort of identifiers but have that same feeling of being out of step with the world.
[Speaker 2]
Yeah, well, and you know, I'm thinking back to when we first met and you were a communities expert, which is how we got connected. But what I loved is you specialized in communities for introverts because of course people used to tell me all the time, oh, you're my hired extrovert. And I would laugh because I'm like, I am so not extroverted.
If I was extroverted, I would do in-person events, not virtual events. But that was another piece where I remember being inside your community and so many people feeling that there was no other community for them because everything else was built around the extroverted nature. And you made it safe to be an introvert who still wanted to build a space of people.
[Speaker 1]
Yeah, absolutely. There's a common misconception that if you're introverted, that's somehow synonymous with antisocial. And I think the clearest definition that I've come across is that extroverts get their juice, get their power from being with other people and introverts get their juice from being by themselves.
So a lot of us love being out there with people. We love talking to people. We love that feeling of connection, but because it costs us, it has to be worth it.
It has to be more valuable.
[Speaker 2]
Right. Well, I love what you said. It has to be worth it, which is why I think a lot of introverts suffer with small talk, right?
Because there's no value exchange to small talk and they don't actually leave feeling like they made that connection. So I love that you're able to put words around that because I think the average person really can't. So what I like about you being a communities person and your focus on anybody who just doesn't feel like there's a place for them is that you understand finding your freaks better than most.
[Speaker 1]
Yeah, absolutely.
[Speaker 2]
So what do you think we should talk about today?
[Speaker 1]
Well, something that I have been really excited by lately is this idea of, of being a beacon for people, of being, I think it was a, there's a Lady Gaga quote. I was looking it up just before we started to talk and I couldn't find the exact quote, but there's something that she says where it's like, I had to show that I was the freakiest freak so people would know that it was safe to be a freak around me.
[Speaker 2]
I can't remember the exact words, but yes, but oh my gosh, I resonate with that so deeply.
[Speaker 1]
Exactly, exactly. And this has been something that's been sort of percolating in my brain for a long time. And it wasn't until very, very recently.
In fact, it was just last month as we're talking now, where that thinking has kind of culminated in a big sort of fuck it moment, really, if you don't mind the swearing, because what happened was I was just so fed up of everybody telling me what to do and how to be in order to be an artist on the internet. I was so frustrated with, oh, you have to have an Instagram account, you have to present your website like this, you have to talk in this way, you have to do this, you have to do that. And I just said, you know what, I don't want to be told what to do anymore.
None of it's really like gelling for me, it feels formative, it feels wrong. So what I'm going to do is just go all out at building the home on the internet that I want to inhabit, something that feels really juicy and really fun, and sticks two fingers up at all of, you know, the rules, what you're supposed to do. And I did it for myself just as a like a pure like cathartic what would happen if I did this.
But the response that I have had from people has blown my mind. I have never done anything in my entire career of bringing people together that has had such resonance and such stickiness and such capacity for personal connection.
[Speaker 2]
So can we talk about the validation that comes from that? Because so many I mean, I get this all the time, right? People want to hire me because they want to build their community, right?
They're so afraid of spending time and energy investing in something that doesn't pay off, which I get, right? Because there's a cost of time, energy, money for everything. But so much of it is, well, so and so said this, and so and so said that, and this other person said this, and I can't filter who's right.
So here, just do it for me. And, you know, and I always this is why we get along so well is like, okay, well, what do you want? Because if you hate it, it doesn't matter if it follows best practices.
So for you to build this space that you love, you enjoy, and for people to actually show up despite, or maybe because it's so different from what everything else is or should be. What does that feel like?
[Speaker 1]
It's absolutely incredible. And it sort of feels like magic. I think because I have been I mean, I'm an autistic person, I love rules.
And I will internalize those rules. And I will follow those rules to the letter, even if you know, sometimes it's not working. But it took a lot to push me to the point where I was ready to throw those rules out of the window.
And I know that that's always a magic place where you get to that moment where you're just like, all right, enough, no more. And I made it for me. I think this is the real difference.
Like I set out to make something that if no one's going to be watching this, if no one's going to be, you know, reading what I post, if no one's going to be looking at my photos, what do I want? What makes me laugh? What makes it feel like this lovely, fun, happy place for me to hang out in?
I don't want to make content anymore. I want to write about the stuff that is coming up from inside me, even if it doesn't fit into a content pillar. I wanted to be I love this.
Yeah, I wanted to be a 360 degree human person on the internet rather than condensing my brilliance into, you know, three catchy buzzwords that are easy to understand. And I never expected this is the magic part. I never expected that to be the thing that people really cottoned on to.
And I found that the places where I have been weirdly like completely specific to the point where I've thought like, oh, this is going to be the bit that completely alienates everybody. This bit's just for me. Those have been the bits that people have glommed onto and have been like, oh, my God, this makes me think of this really personal story in my own life.
This makes me feel like this. I had one of the pieces on the website is a page where I share my outfits. You know, it doesn't have anything to do with selling art or anything like that.
But it feels like an important piece of the puzzle for me as a form of self expression. And I thought this is like, who cares? You know, it's silly.
It's fun. It's just for me. And somebody sent me a nine minute voice message, like just this week, saying that it had reminded her of her grandparents who were this really dapper couple and they love to go out and get dressed up.
And and she was almost in tears as she was telling me the story of her grandparents. And I realized, like, this is this is what we mean when we say that the specific is universal. Like the more specific you can get, the more universal your message becomes.
And weirdly, the more it can connect with more people.
[Speaker 2]
Yeah. Well, and it's a part of the specific, I think, is the permission you get.
[Speaker 1]
Yeah, right.
[Speaker 2]
Like, I mean, like, I'm not surprised people want to know what you're wearing, because I love to picture the people who I read from, right? Whatever author, like, on one hand, do I care what Stephen King looks like? No.
But when I'm reading something authored by Stephen King, I do like to have this like mental picture of seeing him in an interview or something.
[Speaker 1]
Right.
[Speaker 2]
So I get the whole outfit. I also can imagine where somebody looks and they're just like, they see things, I think, sometimes that they don't like about themselves in someone else. And they're just like, huh, that person's okay with that.
Like, that's what I get all the time, right? People because I don't, you know, I don't wear a lot of makeup anymore. I used to wear a ton of makeup.
I'll wear clothes like I'm very comfortable with the fact that I'm extremely pear shaped. And people will say, well, you don't Photoshop your images, do you? And I was like, not if I can help it.
I mean, sometimes I can't control a photographer. And they're just like, huh? Oh, well, I wish I had that confidence.
So I'm like, well, you know, it's okay that you don't. Right. And so I can see how you showing up as yourself, whether somebody completely identifies with that representation or not, still makes it feel very safe for them to be themselves.
[Speaker 1]
Exactly. And we're back to the freakiest freak thing, you know, that right, if you can show up in the, in the complete Eunice of you in all the you Eunice, then you give other people permission to show up fully as them. And I think that's really magical when people feel that like, oh, if they're okay to be them, then I can be okay to be me.
And that's really what all of my work is all about.
[Speaker 2]
Yeah. So I'm going to ask this question. Has there ever been somebody in all the years that's just been way too freaky?
And you're just like, wow, I have found my limit.
[Speaker 1]
Oh, that's fascinating. That's a really interesting question. I don't know that there has, I think.
I mean, I'm, I'm just fascinated by people of all stripes. Like, I always say to people, like, whatever you've got, just bring it. Like, it's fascinating.
I might not want to be best friends with you. But I think you're fascinating and I want to hear your stories, you know?
[Speaker 2]
Yeah. Well, that's, I agree. Like, I find people to be fascinating in general.
And I find the interaction of people to be fascinating. One of the things that I find most interesting in talking to people about what they view as their weirdness and their freakiness is so often what people think makes them really extremely strange. Like doesn't even register on my stranger.
So they're like, there's times I remember one time sitting with somebody and I'm and they were like, like, like, did I shock you? And I'm like, No, I'm just waiting for the show. Is there more?
And they just kind of looked at me and we're like, uh, that wasn't shocking enough. I'm like, Oh, oh, that was it.
[Speaker 1]
Oh, okay. It's so true. It's so true.
I think if you're open to people, like, if you're if you're open to people, and you keep this, like, I don't want to say non judgmental, because I think we are all judgmental to a certain degree. But certainly just a willingness to accept whatever comes at you. Yeah, there is very little that can actually shock you.
[Speaker 2]
Yeah, and all that talk. So you said accept. Do you see a difference between acceptance and tolerance?
[Speaker 1]
I think so. But I think it's semantics, really. I mean, tolerance means putting up with something, to me, and acceptance means just allowing it to be.
That's the sort of distinction.
[Speaker 2]
No, I agree. Totally. I feel like tolerance, it oftentimes presents as But yeah, and acceptance is just a declarative statement.
Yeah, this is my friend and they are right. And it's, there's no buts about it. There's no ands there's no in spite of it just it just is exactly, exactly.
So talk to me about what community is looking like for you now, now that you've kind of come out and you're loud and proud in who you are, and all the pieces of who you are, you're not trying to box yourself in, who's in your circle, some of the most interesting people I've ever had the pleasure of being connected to.
[Speaker 1]
It's amazing. Like when you do that, when you step up and say, Look, this is me, what's at all 360 degrees, you get the people who really click with you coming out of the woodwork, I think, because people are responding to who you actually are, rather than who your avatar is, or who it is that you would like them to think you are. And I think it makes the depth of relationships so much more compelling.
And I think it's worth stating at this point, like, my community is, we're not talking about a group or a membership or anything like that. I'm not on social media anymore. I don't do Instagram, I don't do Facebook, I'm a little bit on Substack, but very sporadically, and I'm not really interested.
And a little bit of on YouTube, same kind of thing. My community really sort of is congregated around the people I know, and most of them are on my mailing list, where I send love letters really to weirdos. But it really is about one to one communications with me, like my happy place is being one to one with people.
I'm fine in a group if I can be the leader. But otherwise, it's just not a place that I shine. And I think that one of the things that I do when I'm sending out emails, I suppose you could call them their newsletters.
But what I do is I make a point of addressing them to the group to the community, which again, is completely anti email best practice. But one of the reasons I do that is because I want people to know that they're shoulder to shoulder with all of these other freaks and weirdos who are also connected to me. And that you're reading this, you're in a group, like it might be just you reading an email in your inbox.
Also, it's incredibly disingenuous to pretend that it's just going out to one person. But that's a very autistic thing of mine. But I also I love the idea that you're reading this and you're feeling alone, you're feeling like I don't know, maybe you've had a bad week or someone's called you a freak or something's happened, like what's happening in the US at the moment where you feel like you don't know anyone in your actual real life community who has your back.
But you can this is so grandiose, but you can read an email from me and know that you're not alone. There are people who are also in this community. We're all in this together, you know, and that feels really important, even though it's such a tiny, silly little thing.
[Speaker 2]
Yeah, well, so because I'm on your email list, I would say what I've always appreciate because they've always all the years, they've always felt like love letters to me. They've always felt like, oh my gosh, like Ellie sits down and she cares. This isn't, oh, must write Sunday email check.
Oh gosh, it's 6am. What am I going to write today? I better get something out.
It has always felt very personal, very intentional. But what I've noticed recently, there's a feeling of safety. I feel like I am safe with Ellie, I am safe in this community.
And it doesn't matter like who I am or what I am. You know, I told you before we started recording that my daughter who's 15 and also autistic with ADHD and has a hard time with the social structures, loves cats more than people. We go to your website, like, and we go to your website on bad day.
She has a rough day. And I was just like, do we need to go to Zuzu's house of cats? And she's just like, and she never wants to say yes, because she doesn't want to be needy.
Right. But she's like, well, maybe. And I'm like, okay.
And so you know, she just pulls up her chair next to me, because I have a large monitor. And we just go and we click around. And I'm like, just tell me when you're ready for me to keep clicking.
But it's that whole, like umbrella. And it's not a maternal safety. That's what I think is different.
Like it's people tell me all the time, they associate me with a mother, right? Like I am maternal, I am nurturing to them. That's not what I feel.
It's just like, you're my safe friend. And I think that's what you provide. And I think a lot of people have a hard time with that.
We know how to present safety as a caregiver. We know how to present safety as a rebel advocate. But just like no, come sit next to me.
You don't have to talk. We can just be that's hard, Ellie. And it goes back to your statement of performative.
[Speaker 1]
Right?
[Speaker 2]
You can only accomplish that because you're not trying to Yeah, exactly.
[Speaker 1]
Exactly. The thing that I'm sorry, I'm all choked up now. I'm so moved by that story.
I can't even tell you. But I think the website just fell out of me like it literally just came out the end of my fingers. It's the first draft of everything.
Like it's literally what just came out. And there was this sort of sticking point afterwards. And I remember talking to my mastermind about it was like, this was so effortless.
But now I want to keep in touch with people. And I'm worried that I won't be able to like maintain that tone. And they all sort of rolled their eyes at me.
And they were just like, well, just do what you did with the website. Like just, just, just do the thing you do. And as soon as I kind of got over that hurdle, and that's just what comes out.
Like I don't, it's all me. I don't have an editor. I don't have anybody else.
It's literally me sitting down to write to you. Because I genuinely do care. Like I really, I'm so moved by you saying that you find it a safe space and your daughter finds it a safe space.
Because that is literally the point of every single thing I do with the art that I make with the writing that I do with the communications and the marketing and all of it. It's all to celebrate people who feel like the world is not a safe space for them and to give them somewhere where they feel like someone's got their back, you know, because it's so hard to go through life feeling like it's a hostile place. And so many of us who have whatever identifier of difference you have.
It's brutal. It's brutal. And sometimes all you need is somebody else to sit down beside you and go, Hey, this sucks.
Do you want to watch a cat video?
[Speaker 2]
Well, and you know, I can say this to you because you get it like the average person doesn't but masking is exhausting.
[Speaker 1]
Oh, completely.
[Speaker 2]
You know, that's what I see on my own children, like at the end of the school day, right? I'm just like, you can see that it's like they have run a marathon without a water break. And so anytime I've talked to you, it's just like, Oh, you are somebody anybody can drop their mask with.
[Speaker 1]
And people do. Right.
[Speaker 2]
So maybe tell us like another story, if you can think of one of maybe it's somebody who dropped their mask with you. But where it's just another evidence point that this is exactly what you Ellie should be doing right now.
[Speaker 1]
The first thing that comes into my mind is that I've been recording the second season of my podcast, which is Susie's house of cats presents. And so often, I will do this interview. And they're wonderful.
We go into all sorts of different places. Ostensibly, it's about the creative process, but it's never actually about that. It's always about something completely different and wildly interesting.
And nearly always afterwards, I get an email from the guest saying, I don't think I really meant to go that deep. Like I didn't mean to say that or very, very rarely, they'll ask me to edit something out because they feel like they've gone a bit too far. But nearly always, it's like, Oh, I don't know how I ended up saying all of that.
That wasn't what I intended. It just sort of came out. And I love that it happens in my day to day life as well with friends and things like people feel safe enough to let the mask drop, they'll be a bit sillier than they usually are.
Or they'll, I don't know, they'll just be a bit funnier or a bit more risque or a bit more inappropriate. And I love it. Like I live for those moments where you see that they think like, Oh, shit, I've done that thing.
Is it going to be okay? And they're just like, Oh, you know, great, brilliant. I'm so glad that came out of you.
It's made my day. And it's just, I love it. I really, really love it.
I really love getting to the heart of somebody and really finding out who they are. Because nine times out of 10, the stuff that you're like pushing down and trying to hide and gloss over. That's the stuff that makes you radiant.
It's the stuff that makes you most interesting. It's the stuff that makes you shine. And I want to see that in everybody, you know, I hate that we live in this world that makes us feel like we have to squash down our individuality and our personalities and become these slickety perfect versions of ourselves.
[Speaker 2]
Yeah, well, and you know, back to your earlier point about you don't really enjoy community unless you're the leader. I think it's because whether it's conscious or unconscious, it would probably be very painful for you to see somebody else in charge who doesn't honor the full presentation of who somebody is.
[Speaker 1]
I do like to say that out loud, like no shade to other people. But yeah, it's okay.
[Speaker 2]
You don't have to say that. Because I just said it for you very much how it doesn't sound nearly as egocentric.
[Speaker 1]
It's true. It's true. I hate when people in positions of power, people in positions of influence.
And I don't mean like, you know, running countries and stuff like that, although that also applies. But I mean, you know, we all have certain degrees of power and influence and things. And I really hate it rubs me up the wrong way when people are out of integrity, when they talk down to people, when they feel like they're better than somebody.
There's a lot of guff about follow accounts. And that is an indicator of worth that has happened over the internet over the last five years. And it's something that I think most of us know is absolute tosh, but we still sort of buy into it to a certain degree.
And I think that there's all sorts of like things that muddy the waters and get in the way of one human being standing in front of another human being and trying to have a connection.
[Speaker 2]
Yeah. So to the person listening, we're just about to wrap up, which is painful for me, because I would have three hour long podcast with you. I don't know that anybody else would want to listen, but we would have fun.
To the person listening, though, who's like, Oh, my God, first of all, I can imagine a lot of people are going, Oh, my gosh, I didn't know you could not do what everybody tells you. And number two, wait, how do I do that? What would you advise them?
[Speaker 1]
Oh, I think it's a difficult one to give advice on because everybody's journey is going to be so incredibly unique. And that's kind of part of the thing. You know, me telling you how to be yourself is not it has to come from you.
But I think fair. Yeah, I think if I could say anything, it would be like, trust yourself, like cultivate self-trust and self-compassion and learn your own voice, like pay attention to the things that bring you joy, the things that make you laugh, the things that make you feel like you're, you know, all the way up against the edges of yourself and you're not chopping pieces off or trying to be more palatable. And I think if you create anything from that place, you can always edit later, although I would, you know, advise doing that with caution.
But if you if you can really cultivate the practice of going within and understanding yourself as much as possible, then you're much better suited to be able to show that to other people. And it's a process. I mean, I'm in my mid 40s now and this is it's been a journey.
This is probably the most well expressed, well actualized I have ever been in my entire life. And it has come about through a very long, often painful process of self-examination and that complete, you know, fuck it point of I just cannot do what everybody else is telling me to do anymore.
[Speaker 2]
So yeah, I don't know if that's helpful, but that's All our listeners said, I was like, I think that's great advice, but we'll see what the listeners say. They can tell us if it's helpful or not. That's the nice thing about having a show, right?
People get to respond. So we are going to put all your contact information in the show notes. We'll make sure that it's shared out when we share the episode, but would it be fair to say that email is probably your favorite form of communication?
[Speaker 1]
Absolutely. You can come to the website, you can come to Zuzu's House of Cats and that's house, H-A-U-S just to be really complicated dot com slash keep in touch. And there you, I mean, you can sign up for the email everywhere, but that'll give you a little update of what the emails actually are and why you might want to get them, sign up and then come and say hello.
Like introduce yourself, send me pictures of your cat. I love it when people do that.
[Speaker 2]
Oh, well then you're going to get a lot of cat pictures because we just rescued a kitten. You are so going to get it.
[Speaker 1]
Yes. Give it to me.
[Speaker 2]
So sweet. Okay. So now we're at the rapid fire segment.
We call it freak flags fly. It's five questions.
[Speaker 1]
Hit me.
[Speaker 2]
No wrong answers. Just answer best as you can. I love that.
So finish this sentence. You are my kind of freak if...
[Speaker 1]
You feel like a total fucking weirdo most of the time in your life.
[Speaker 2]
Love it. What is something you love that your friends just don't get? Oh God.
So many things.
[Speaker 1]
I've got very eclectic tastes. Probably the film team America world police. It's one of my absolute favorites.
I think it's a cracking piece of satire.
[Speaker 2]
Okay. I'm going to look that up. What community would you infiltrate just to understand it better?
[Speaker 1]
Ooh, these are good questions. I'm not very good at the rapid fire thing though. What community would I infiltrate?
Ooh, I'd like to be Lady Gaga's inner circle. I think she's got some very interesting ideas.
[Speaker 2]
Now, what tool ritual or practice helps you stay connected to your people?
[Speaker 1]
Email.
[Speaker 2]
Okay. And then this one could be a thinking one too. Who is someone doing freakishly good work who you think deserves a bigger stage?
[Speaker 1]
Ooh, excellent question. Excellent question. There are so many people, but my mind has gone completely, completely blank.
You know what? I'm going to come back to you on that one. And we can put it in the show notes.
[Speaker 2]
Yeah. I was going to say, you know what's awesome? Yeah.
You can just, we can just circle back to that at another time. That's the beauty of pre-recording. Nice.
So Ellie, okay. Thank you for being here. Thank you for being so unabashedly you being honest and demonstrating that though it probably doesn't feel courageous to you.
It is okay to have the courage to just be yourself because what you've really done is invited all of us to just lean all the way into our weird. And so anybody listening, if you've ever felt like you're too much, you're not enough. I hope Ellie and this episode has reminded you that you're really not the odd one out.
You're one of a kind. And there are others who are just enough like you that if you show your true colors, they'll feel comfortable showing theirs. Thank you.
That's it for this episode of find your freaks. To help more weirdos find their way here, subscribe, rate, and leave a review. And if you're craving connection, join the freak show at findyourfreaks.com.
What makes you weird makes you wonderful. Normal was never the point.
