Pattern-Seeking Entrepreneur Podcast

In first grade, David Pichette felt like he wasn't on this planet. At five, the violin brought him back.

In this episode, host Jonathan Domsky sits down with David Pichette, founder of Mainstage Multimedia, a touring musician who now runs his agency like a band.

His takeaway isn't that he needed fixing, but that kids need to know they're wired differently, not weird. Violin at five gave him something to hold onto, and by 2011 that same wiring pulled him from touring into founding an agency built to run like a band.

This conversation goes deep, from finding structure inside chaos, to what an artist's path costs the people who love him, to how AI is amplifying creativity rather than replacing it.

If your mind works differently, is that something to fix, or to build a life around?

In this conversation:

• Why kids need to know they're wired differently, not weird
• How violin at five became his stabilizing anchor
• From childhood creativity to a professional music career
• Why 2011 brought the shift from touring to founding his agency
• What touring taught him about real production work
• Why his team operates like a band, in sync
• Finding structure inside chaos and messy ideas
• The selfish side of art and its cost to family
• Teaching his kids to follow purpose over safety
• Learning AI as a way to amplify creativity, not replace it

Timestamps

01:54 - Why kids need to know they are not weird for thinking differently

04:02 - From childhood creativity to a professional music career

05:01 - Why a creative agency felt like the next chapter

07:39 - The musician's skill of listening and translating ideas into collaboration

10:05 - Finding structure inside chaos and messy ideas

10:53 - Why his brain rejects "that's impossible" thinking

12:25 - The selfish side of art and what it costs the people around you

14:16 - Teaching his kids to follow purpose instead of safety

15:59 - Learning AI and why it can amplify creativity

17:05 - A parent using AI to write custom songs for his kids

18:28 - Tools making creativity more accessible to non-experts

21:13 - The cocooning phase of personal growth and inner transformation

22:24 - Why modern life has more convenience but also more anxiety and loneliness

23:43 - Why schools and culture can unintentionally suppress creativity

26:24 - Growth, plateaus, and why cocooning matters before reinvention

27:22 - Normalizing midlife reflection and the urge to rethink direction

28:21 - Permission to stop performing for others and ask what you actually want

Connect with David Pichette:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidpichette-director/
• Website: mainstage.pro

Connect with Jonathan:

·       LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/business-personal-growth-coach/

·       Website: https://untangled-coaching.com/

·       YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThePattern-SeekingEntrepreneur

Tamara Loehr grew up the black sheep in an Australian mining town — and turned that into a source of pride, not shame, building businesses that drive profit and purpose.

In this episode of The Pattern-Seeking Entrepreneur, host Jonathan Domsky sits down with Tamara Loehr, an entrepreneur whose zone of genius is challenging conventional business assumptions.

Tamara reverse-engineers strategy from the true why and the North Star, and she's using that instinct to bridge the gap in female entrepreneurship — acquiring established businesses and creating paths for the women already operating them to gain equity, the "first lady syndrome" she often finds hiding in plain sight.

This conversation goes deep on why so few women-led businesses cross seven figures, her "work-life blend" philosophy from her book Balance Is BS, and why she believes business can be a force for good in a rapidly changing world.

If you've ever needed permission to step fully into what you're capable of — or wondered whether you're the "first lady" in your own business — this one's for you.

• Being labeled the "black sheep" early on became a source of pride, not shame
• Her mission: bridge the gap in female entrepreneurship by acquiring established businesses and creating equity paths for women operators
• "First lady syndrome": women who effectively run a business but don't own the equity
• How support, infrastructure, and mentorship move women from operator to entrepreneur
• Her "work-life blend" philosophy — integrating family, travel, business, and personal life
• The cost of masking, and why embracing creativity and authenticity matters
• How business can be a force for good in a rapidly changing world

00:00 — The black sheep origin story
04:49 — Creative thinking as her zone of genius
06:11 — Reverse-engineering from the North Star
07:51 — Bridging the gap in female entrepreneurship
08:59 — How Enterprise Growth Systems drives growth
10:00 — Finding the "first lady" already inside
12:19 — Cultural pushback and stepping into worthiness
13:45 — Why women thrive with support and permission
15:31 — Balance Is BS and redefining work-life blend
18:34 — The power of being a courage-giver
22:27 — The cost of suppressing creativity
27:00 — Growth, transition, and knowing when to move on
29:37 — Using business as a force for good

Connect with Tamara Loehr:

·      LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tamaraloehr/

·      Website: www.egrowthsystems.com   

Connect with Jonathan:

·             LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/business-personal-growth-coach/

·             Website: https://untangled-coaching.com/

·             YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThePattern-SeekingEntrepreneur

Ennis Olson saved his team $600,000 in a week with a tool he taught himself to build. It took until his early 40s to understand the mind that built it.

In this episode, host Jonathan Domsky sits down with Ennis Olson, who spent years leading innovation at companies like Google and now champions what he calls neuro-convergent leadership.

People always called Ennis creative, imaginative, and smart. It took his first job after college to see how differently his mind actually worked. He followed his interests, spotted opportunities in the data, and moved toward problems worth solving. Then an ADHD and autism diagnosis in his early 40s explained the masking, the social exhaustion, and the subtext he kept missing. His conclusion: neurodivergence isn't a niche issue. It's a large part of normal human variation.

This conversation goes deep — from curiosity versus deliberate creativity, to the tone shift that changed how people treated him and the line between adapting and self-erasure, to building the Neurodiversity Network inside Google.

If you've ever wondered whether the answer is to fit the room or to find your people, this one's for you.

In this conversation:

• Why smart, capable kids still need coaching and direction
• Teaching himself SQL and saving $600,000 in a week
• Curiosity vs. deliberate creativity: why innovation takes discipline
• Neuro-convergent leadership: bringing neurotypes together
• Late diagnosis, masking, and taking things literally
• When adapting helps and when it becomes self-erasure
• Relationships, unwritten social rules, and intensity as focus
• Leading by understanding what motivates people

Timestamps:

1:58 Why smart kids still need coaching and direction

3:15 Following curiosity into business opportunities

4:56 Why innovation requires deliberate creativity

6:09 Neuro-convergent leadership and the 30 to 40 percent stat

12:28 Finding community at Google through shared experience

13:53 A tone shift that changed how people treated him

15:01 When adapting helps and when it becomes a compromise

17:07 Building the Neurodiversity Network inside Google

20:41 Relationships, texting, and unwritten social rules

25:53 Intensity as focus in professional settings

30:09 Leadership as understanding people, not just executing tasks

Connect with Ennis Olson:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ennisolson/
• Website: [email protected]

Connect with Jonathan:

·       LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/business-personal-growth-coach/

·       Website: https://untangled-coaching.com/

·       YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThePattern-SeekingEntrepreneur

Kristina Proctor spent years being told her instincts were wrong. Now she teaches others to trust theirs.

In this episode, Jonathan sits down with Kristina Proctor, who turned a childhood of being misunderstood into a business helping others reduce shame, build structure, and create environments where they can thrive.

Kristina grew up feeling "dumb" or "aloof" — delayed reading, repeating first grade, punished for asking clarifying questions. That mislabeling distorted her relationship to her own intuition, until therapy, coaching, and what she calls a "care team" helped her rebuild self-trust.

Her father's death pushed her toward entrepreneurship, where she finally had the freedom to build systems that work with her brain instead of against it. Today she coaches clients on executive functioning — planning, organization, emotional regulation — helping them replace "should" with "what can I do now?"

This conversation goes deep on the difference between deficient and different, the real cost of 17 years of masking, and what it took for Kristina to stop performing for others. They get into the everyday places shame hides — mail, hygiene, bills, follow-up — and how hobbies like painting and meditation became her way back to herself.

If you've ever built a version of yourself just to feel acceptable at work, this episode is for you.

Topics

• Early school experiences that led to feeling "dumb" or "aloof"
• How shame and rejection sensitivity distort a person's relationship with their own intuition
• Entrepreneurship as freedom to design systems that work with her brain
• Executive functioning support: planning, organization, emotional regulation, follow-through
• Replacing "should" with "what can I do now?"
• The emotional and physical cost of 17 years of masking at work

Timestamps
01:27 – The story she told herself about being "dumb" or "aloof"
03:08 – Learning to trust intuition alongside data
09:18 – Why her father's death pushed her toward entrepreneurship
11:57 – Realizing she had already become an expert in her own struggles
15:04 – Real-world examples: mail, inboxes, and practical support systems
16:50 – The cost of 17 years of masking
20:36 – Painting, writing, and quiet as a path back to self
26:07 – Scheduled unstructured time and letting the "ADHD beebopping" happen
27:56 – Working with clients who resist structure
31:05 – When excitement gets misread as force or aggression
32:41 – Why she uses an always-on out-of-office message

Connect with Kristina Proctor:

·      LinkedIn:  linkedin.com/in/kristinaeproctor

·      Website: www.neurodivergentventures.com

Connect with Jonathan:

·       LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/business-personal-growth-coach/

·       Website: https://untangled-coaching.com/

·       YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThePattern-SeekingEntrepreneur

Sammi Ford spent 30 years proving she could build almost anything — then walked away from her most successful venture the moment it stopped being effortless.

In this episode of The Pattern-Seeking Entrepreneur, I sit down with Sammi Ford — serial entrepreneur, mentor, poet, artist, and host of From Start to CEO — to talk about curiosity, tenacity, and what it takes to build a life around how your brain works, not against it.

Sammi was the kid who kept asking why until the adults ran out of patience — the one who was called "weird" for struggling with imaginative play and relating more easily to grownups than to other kids. That same wiring carried her through the Air Force and Air Cadets, into translation work in French and German, and eventually into founding SPCB UK Limited, an industrial air filtration and wastewater business she's run for three decades.

This conversation goes deep on masking, late diagnosis, alexithymia, and the moment Sammi realized burnout has a shape — one others can often see before she can. We talk about how diagnosis changed the way those closest to her know when she needs rest, needs to say no, or needs to stop pushing.

If you've ever been told you were too much, too curious, or too intense — and built your whole life trying to prove that was actually your edge — this one's for you.

Topics covered

• Being labeled "weird" as a child for asking why and struggling with imaginative play
• Generational trauma and the message Sammi wishes she could give her ancestors
• Joining the Air Force and Air Cadets, and being excluded from flying gliders as a girl
• Tenacity and curiosity as the throughline across every venture
• Burnout, late diagnosis, alexithymia, and asking others to help notice the signs
• How diagnosis reshaped Sammi's relationships and the support she gets at home
• Running SBCB with flexible hours, work-from-home, and a non-hierarchical culture

Chapters

(03:51) What Sammi wishes adults had understood growing up

(04:45) "It wasn't your fault" and generational trauma

(04:58) Building SBCB UK through translation, language, and industry

(10:19) Refusing to join the Air Cadets when girls could not fly

(11:03) Tenacity as the thread across military, language, and business

(16:07) Burnout, unpredictability, and late neurodivergent diagnosis

(22:13) Building in male-dominated industries and doing the hard thing anyway

(31:50) Posting about burnout and the response it triggered

(36:21) Learning to accept rest as part of the cycle

(41:35) Imposter syndrome and wanting her grandmother's approval

(44:55) Defining success as learning to say no and managing energy

Connect with Sammi Ford:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samanthaford
• https://www.sammiford.com

Connect with Jonathan:

·       LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/business-personal-growth-coach/

·       Website: https://untangled-coaching.com/

·       YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThePattern-SeekingEntrepreneur

Holly Fowler describes building her company the way she describes her own brain: jumping out of a plane and building the parachute on the way down.

In this episode, Jonathan sits down with Holly Fowler, founder of Wable, a social networking app built for the neurodivergent community to find friends, dates, jobs, and support.

Holly grew up realizing school wasn't built for how her brain worked — she could hyperfocus for hours on what interested her, but subjects like math exposed the gap between her attention and her ambition. What got labeled as laziness turned out to be ADHD, and years later that same wiring became the engine behind Wable.

She left a broadcast radio career, moved from Melbourne to New York, and built the company at night while keeping her day job secret — driven to prove she was committed, not distracted. Days before launch, pressure caught up with her: a burst cyst sent her to the ER.

This conversation goes deep on what it costs to build something while your brain works against — and for — you. We get into OCD as both a strength and a strain, and what it took for Holly to grow from solo founder into a leader who could slow down instead of outrun her team.

If you've ever been told your brain is the problem you need to manage instead of the advantage you need to use, this episode is for you.

Topics

• Realizing in high school that hyperfocus and struggle could live side by side
• Why ADHD got mistaken for laziness — and why that label never fit
• Turning hyperfocus, storytelling, and multitasking into founder skills
• OCD as both a strength and a strain under startup stress
• Building Wable to solve loneliness and unemployment in the neurodivergent community

Timestamps
02:21 – Why ADHD was mistaken for laziness
03:24 – Turning hyperfocus into a strength instead of a flaw
05:04 – Storytelling, multitasking, and the founder skill set
06:55 – OCD, detail, and the daily habit of checking everything
10:09 – The team's role in helping Holly slow down
11:08 – Running as the only time her brain fully switches off
12:34 – What Wable does for the neurodivergent community
16:46 – Leaving radio and choosing the startup leap
19:24 – Building Wable at night while hiding it from her day job
23:01 – The ER visit after a burst cyst right before launch
29:49 – The investor who told Holly to take a CEO course
30:08 – Why founders are hired by belief, not credentials
35:13 – Learning to become a leader as the team grows
38:14 – Building community in New York as an outsider
41:09 – What people misunderstand about Holly's confidence

Connect with Holly Fowler:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/holly-fowler-3b36b9163/
• hellowable.com

Connect with Jonathan:

·       LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/business-personal-growth-coach/

·       Website: https://untangled-coaching.com/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThePattern-SeekingEntrepreneur

Stella Yann spent years feeling like the odd one out — studying abroad, writing in ways nobody understood. Now she helps people find clarity in that confusion, using pattern recognition instead of pushing it away.

In this episode, I sit down with Stella Yann, who works at the intersection of astrology, brand strategy, and self-awareness to help people find their North Star.

Stella's early experiences of feeling different weren't a problem to fix — they were data she hadn't learned to read yet. Once she did, everything shifted: helping clients embrace imperfection and "dance in chaos," using natal charts and pattern recognition to shape brands and decisions around who someone actually is.

This conversation goes deep — spiritual awakening during burnout, outgrowing relationships that don't fit anymore, and why guarding your alignment sometimes means leaving people behind.

If you've ever sensed there's a version of your life that would feel less like effort and more like alignment, this one's for you.

Topics covered:

• Finding clarity in confusion by embracing imperfection and pattern recognition
• The North Star: using a natal chart to guide life and career
• Shaping brands around someone's unique identity
• Lessons from a failed Kickstarter on trust and co-creation
• Guarding your alignment, even when it costs relationships
• Balancing hyper-independence with real connection

   

Chapters:

• 03:12 — Dancing in chaos through pattern recognition
• 05:37 — Shaping brand and impact around identity
• 09:39 — What the failed Kickstarter taught her about trust
• 11:16 — Self-guardianship and grounding through hard times
• 12:36 — Spiritual awakening during burnout
• 16:29 — From silence to speaking her truth
• 23:22 — Forging your own path, even when it means leaving others behind
• 28:38 — Authenticity and presence as what draws real connection
• 45:24 — Authenticity in leadership — influencers, politicians, CEOs

Connect with Stella Yann:

·      LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stella-yann-yanakieva/

·      YouTube: youtube.com/@STELLA-YANN/

·      TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@newearthstella

·      Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/newearthstella/

·      Website: https://www.stellayann.com/

Connect with Jonathan:

·       LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/business-personal-growth-coach/

·       Website: https://untangled-coaching.com/

·       YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThePattern-SeekingEntrepreneur

John Barrows got fired — and instead of spiraling, he treated it as a redirect. That's the thread running through everything he's built since: sell a company, hit a wall, and come out the other side closer to the career he actually wanted.

In this episode, I sit down with John Barrows, a sales trainer and entrepreneur who's built his career on authenticity, resilience, and figuring things out as he goes.

John's path wasn't a straight line — selling a company, navigating a leadership shakeup, getting fired — but each turn pushed him closer to a career genuinely built on his own values instead of borrowed ones. What he's landed on is a recalibration: values over culture, honesty over branding, and real confidence that his instincts — intuitive, direct, occasionally unconventional — have been an asset the whole time, not a liability to manage around.

This conversation goes deep — from what it actually costs to be authentic in business, to leaning on community and mentorship instead of white-knuckling it alone, to how he's thinking about AI's role in a field that runs on human connection.

If you've ever wondered whether being fully yourself is compatible with being taken seriously, this one's for you.

Topics covered:

• Recognizing his own thinking style and intuition as a strength, not a workaround
• Aligning core values with both career and personal life
• How AI augments human connection in sales rather than replacing it
• Getting fired — and using it as a redirect toward real purpose
• Leaning on community and mentorship instead of going it alone
• Storytelling and self-awareness as tools for growth and influence

Chapters:

• 03:47 — Lessons from selling a company and a leadership shakeup
• 06:11 — The mindset shift after being fired
• 19:37 — Teaching resilience and independence to kids
• 23:26 — Aligning core values with career decisions
• 33:49 — When authenticity costs you opportunities
• 40:16 — Human connection alongside AI's evolving role
• 63:15 — The human touch in sales and leadership

Connect with John Barrows:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnbarrows/
• Website: jbarrows.com

Connect with Jonathan:

·       LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/business-personal-growth-coach/

·       Website: https://untangled-coaching.com/

·       YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThePattern-SeekingEntrepreneur

Jonathan Meier looks at systems most people never question and asks: does this actually make sense? That question took him from hacking onto a TEDx stage to rebuilding how education should work.

In this episode, I sit down with Jonathan Meier, a young entrepreneur reshaping how we think about learning, dopamine, and disruption.

Jonathan sees the world through a rational, systems-first lens — one that lets him spot loopholes in education, networking, and event-building. He's founded businesses on overlooked inefficiencies and pulled off a TEDx event on strategic, low-effort outreach.

This conversation goes deep — the low-dopamine trap of classrooms, why critique feels more respectful than praise, and the uneasy truce between his rational detachment and the parts of life — fatherhood, faith, connection — that don't run on logic.

If you've ever felt the systems around you were built for someone else's brain, and started building your own workaround, this one's for you.

Topics covered:

• Why traditional education produces a low-dopamine, passive learning experience
• Using AI, gamification, and brain science to redesign how people learn
• Engineering a TEDx event through strategic, high-leverage outreach
• Extreme sports and risk-taking as a way to stay energized and sharp
• Preferring critique over praise as a marker of real respect
• Fatherhood, human connection, and the limits of pure logic
• Faith, purpose, and staying disciplined without a fixed timeline

Chapters:

• 01:40 — How autism shaped his learning and passions
• 03:09 — Where traditional education falls short
• 04:47 — Low dopamine in school vs. video games
• 08:15 — Building curiosity-driven teaching
• 09:46 — AI, gamification, and brain science in learning
• 12:02 — Founding early businesses through loopholes
• 12:35 — Navigating legal and systemic barriers as an entrepreneur
• 16:33 — Hacking together a TEDx event
• 18:25 — How to pitch influential people with low-effort asks
• 23:49 — The thrill of solving meaningful problems
• 24:03 — Extreme sports as a source of vitality
• 29:50 — Unconventional habits that serve focus
• 32:47 — Where analytical thinking meets emotional appreciation
• 35:05 — Finding fun through work and problem-solving
• 38:36 — The joy of fatherhood despite logical skepticism
• 42:24 — Why he prefers critique over praise
• 48:43 — Pursuing goals aligned with a higher purpose
• 50:14 — Faith and purpose through life's challenges

Connect with Jonathan Meier:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jmeier-me/
• Website: jmeier.me

Connect with Jonathan:

·       LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/business-personal-growth-coach/

·       Website: https://untangled-coaching.com/

·       YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThePattern-SeekingEntrepreneur

His grandma Esther gave him the one thing that couldn't burn. Everything else was lost in the fire.

In this episode of The Pattern-Seeking Entrepreneur, I sit down with Jay Wilkinson — founder of Do More Good — for a conversation about purpose, presence, and what it actually means to build a business that serves more than shareholders.

Jay's story starts with his grandmother Esther, whose confidence shaped how he moves through the world long before he had language for it. It runs through the quiet difference between motivating people and manipulating them, the outsider's habit of reading a room before speaking in it, and a shift — hard-won — from performing success to actually being present for it. Then the house fire. Then the grief. Then the rebuild, not just of a home, but of what capitalism owes the people inside it.

This conversation goes deep — into breathwork, ownership as an ethic, and legacy as the only metric that survives you.

If you've ever built something impressive and still felt like the people closest to you were paying for it — this one's for you.

In this episode

• Motivation vs. manipulation — and where the line actually sits
• Curiosity, social skills, and growing up feeling like an outsider
• Losing everything in a house fire — and learning to hold grief
• Why Jay believes capitalism needs to change
• A purpose-led ownership model that protects employees and communities
• The personal cost of ambition — and being present in marriage
• Being misunderstood as distant while actually deeply observing
• Defining legacy — what all the work is really for

Chapters

• 01:14 — Seeing yourself as "different" — and learning to value other people's gifts
• 02:49 — Grandma Esther's influence and the confidence she instilled
• 06:03 — The difference between manipulation and motivation
• 07:42 — Curiosity, social skills, and feeling like an outsider
• 11:22 — The shift from performance to presence
• 15:51 — Losing everything in a house fire and learning to hold grief
• 23:49 — Building a purpose-led ownership model for businesses
• 27:46 — Sharing profits with employees, communities, and future growth
• 32:17 — Reclaiming capitalism through stakeholder value
• 39:43 — The personal cost of ambition and learning to be present in marriage
• 42:38 — Being misunderstood as distant while deeply observing and caring
• 50:30 — Defining legacy: what all the work is really for

Connect with Jay Wilkinson:

LinkedIn:    https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaywilkinson/

Websites:     www.firespring.com

www.jaywilkinson.com

Connect with Jonathan:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/business-personal-growth-coach/

Website: https://untangled-coaching.com/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThePattern-SeekingEntrepreneur