Weird, Wild, & Profitable: How ADHDers Can Build a Career Around PASSION
⏰ Read Time: 6 Minutes
Your Natural Passions Aren’t Random, They’re the Chords You Were Born With 🎉
Most of us are born with a few strong chords: interests, instincts, and skills that hum with energy when we pay attention to them. But the world doesn’t always reward those chords right away. At its worst, the world can bully us for being unique and shame us into a box.
So we pivot. We choose jobs that feel safer, more “practical,” more socially acceptable. And little by little, we bury the parts of us that feel most alive.
But what if you let those chords grow wild instead of trimming them down? What if your deep love for something weird, wonderful, or wildly specific, like obscure dinosaur facts or organizing color-coded spreadsheets, could become the foundation of a career that fits you?
Not a traditional job you try to force yourself into, but a life you build around what you’re best at and what lights you up.
TL;DR:
Society often pressures us to choose “practical” careers, leading to burnout and boredom.
Instead of forcing a fit, you can build a business around your natural passions, no matter how niche.
Try a 90-day experiment: explore one passion without pressure to monetize, just to see where it leads.
Your career doesn’t have to look like anyone else’s—embrace your chords, and your people will find you.
Amazing Andy and His Wonderful World of Bugs
I want to tell you about a moment from a TV show that never left me.
It was from Parenthood, a storyline centered around a young boy who had recently been diagnosed as autistic. As his parents worried for his future, they hired an eccentric party host named Amazing Andy.
Andy was autistic himself and had his own business where his needs were accommodated. He had rules governing how much noise the kids could make, how close people could stand, and so on. He even drove around in a bright green car with a giant grasshopper on top. The moral of the story was that there was hope for a unique career for a unique man.
That idea lodged itself in my brain and never let go. It made me ask myself:
“What would my life look like if I only did what I excelled at? What if I built a life around what comes naturally to me, instead of trying to fix everything that didn’t?”
Looking back, that one television episode from 2011 shaped a self-concept that took years to bloom. It instilled in me a fire to learn, explore, and understand how to make neurodivergent lives more enjoyable in late-stage capitalism.
Twelve years later, I found that my own version of Amazing Andy actually involved helping other ADHDers harness and monetize their unique magic.
What Are Your Natural Chords?
We’re each born with a few “chords” of interest and skill. By that, I mean we’re all born with things we naturally enjoy and things we’re naturally good at. For better or for worse, those things are not mutually exclusive. There will be things you enjoy that you don’t automatically excel at, and things you’re great at but dislike doing.
For example, I love to sing. I can lose myself in it. The same goes for giving speeches. When I practice, I’m outstanding and energized. But even so, when I stand in front of a mic stand with an audience, my voice shakes, and I forget how to breathe.
On the other hand, I’m excellent at collecting on past due invoices. It’s niche, I know, but I’m so good at it that my former company let me change all the rules to do it my way. I barely have to try; it comes naturally. But I literally quit that job out of boredom.
But some chords - some patterns - feel both natural and energizing. When you find those, it feels like standing in the sun.
Are you scrolling through a million different ideas in your head about what that chord could be? I have a free course called Find Your Focus that will help you connect those dots and start playing.
Real-Life Examples of Turning ADHD Interests Into Income
What if your “job” or purpose was to embrace the chords you were given? To learn as much as you can about them. Become the go-to girl for that weirdly specific thing. Isn’t it possible that’s a path to the most fulfilling career possible? That ever elusive “never work a day in your life” job that fills you with meaning and pays the bills?
Let me give you some delightfully niche examples:
🐰 You can hyperfocus on YouTube rabbit holes: You become the go-to researcher for true crime podcasters.
🗄️ You’re obsessed with organizing sticker collections: You design a niche planning tool for ADHD sticker lovers with a built-in reward system.
🦄 You love planning fantasy birthday parties, so you become a consultant for overwhelmed moms who want Pinterest-level parties but have no time.
🎼 You love rewriting song lyrics for fun? You offer custom parody songs for weddings, podcasts, or quirky brands.
😉 You hate regular jobs but love giving advice? You build a coaching business helping other misfits figure out their path, just like you did.
Every one of those could become a real business (trust me, I would know!) However, only if the person stops dismissing their interest as “just a hobby” and starts experimenting with it as a possible path.
How to Turn Your ADHD Superpowers Into a Business: A 90-Day Experiment
If you have no idea how to start, here’s what I recommend: Choose one chord and give it 90 days.
Not to make money. Not to go viral. Just to play.
90 days is perfect for ADHD brains - enough time to make a significant impact, but not so long that we forget the goal exists or the finish line feels too far away to care. What could you learn, build, try, or share in 90 days?
Maybe it’s recording a podcast about your favorite animal behaviors. Perhaps it’s writing a blog series about retro horror movie tropes. Maybe it’s testing your ability to lead small group workshops for other ADHD creatives.
The goal is not perfection. The goal is participation.
If you’re unsure how to spend those 90 days, check out Momentum Mapping for a customized action plan.
Because when you participate in your chord, you start to sharpen it. You notice where it overlaps with real needs in the world. Eventually, you will become known for something weird, wonderful, and uniquely you.
Your Career Was Never Supposed to Look Like Everyone Else’s
If you’ve struggled to hold down traditional jobs, struggled in interviews, struggled with consistency, what if that’s because you’re not supposed to be in those rooms?
What if you’re here to lead, not follow?
To create, not fit in?
To combine your beads of weirdness into a pattern no one else has ever seen?
You’re not too late. You’re not too much.
You’re just wired for a different rhythm.
Once you start playing your chords, the people who need your music will hear it, so give them something to listen to.
For years, I tried to squeeze myself into the jobs that were available to me. I interviewed for roles I didn’t want, where I didn’t fit. I got rejected a lot. But later, I realized: people weren’t rejecting me; they were rejecting the version of me that didn’t fit in a box.
When I started coaching and leading projects, something clicked. People wanted me to be in charge, to guide the room. They didn’t see me as an employee; they saw me as a leader. And I never would’ve figured that out if I had kept forcing myself to fit.
Eventually, I came to this: I’m here to help others find that freedom. Especially neurodivergent dreamers who’ve spent most of their lives trying to become “more consistent” or “less scattered.”
But what if the magic is in the chords you already have?
