The Leonie Dawson Show

I've had my a*se ripped a new one on the internet approximately seven billionty times for having opinions... so I've kept very, very quiet about this one, and now Tam and I are hopping on our tiny fierce ponies and galloping straight into the spiciest topic of the year. AI. How I went from wanting to throw my laptop across the room every time someone said the word, to building a little fairy website bot, a whole meditation corner in an hour, and an email that had members writing back to say THANK YOU FOR NOT JUDGING ME.

If you've been side-eyeing AI from behind a cushion, a bit scared, a bit cross and a bit worried you're getting left behind... this one's for you. Especially if you run a small creative business on not enough hours and not enough hands, and you'd love the boring stuff off your plate without handing over the parts you love.

TOPICS COVERED

- Why I went from "zero interest" to angry AI avoider to actually using it

- The fear, grief and future-griefing that comes up when your industry shifts

- Why I moved from ChatGPT to Claude

- Generative AI vs functional AI (and why lumping it all together makes it scarier)

- Why women adopt AI later than men, and Tam's theory about packing snacks for the road

- The delete, automate, delegate process I've taught for years, now with an AI upgrade

- What I've built for Academy members: study tutors, the Sales Star Review Studio, instant custom course plans

- Why I'm allowed to change my mind (and so are you)

KEY INSIGHTS

- Making a list of other careers you could do calmed my nervous system, even though I'm doing none of them

- AI is useless until you feed it context. Budget a week or two of a couple of hours a day to teach it your business

- Decide what you WON'T automate. My newsletters, sales emails and blog posts stay in my voice

- Start with the tasks you suck at, not the ones you love

- Use it to execute ideas faster, so the fun creative bits stay yours

- Ask it to find features you're paying for and not using. That's where my re-engagement campaign came from

- Discernment is the new skill. Does it look right? Does it sound like you? Does it connect with your people?

- Save your human hours for the stuff only humans should do, like coaching and accountability

- Any chatbot you build should hand people to a human the second they ask

NOTABLE QUOTES

"I've got the tiniest pony and I've the fiercest gallop." (Tam)

"You've either got a thriving business that is profitable or you've got a very expensive hobby." (Tam)

"This is not it taking away my creativity, but now when I have ideas, I can execute them so much faster." (Leonie)

"I reserve the right to change my opinion like any fu*king time I like." (Leonie)

ABOUT YOUR HOSTS!

Leonie Dawson is a multi award-winning entrepreneur who has created over $16 million in revenue in part-time hours. She is the founder of the Unicorn Biz & Life Academy which helps over 3,000 people build unique, joyful & abundant businesses.

https://www.leoniedawson.com

Tamara Protassow is a non-fiction writing mentor + creativity coach. She's developed books with 55+ authors over 16 years, both for self-published authors as well as for Hay House UK.

https://www.tamaraprotassow.com

LINKS & RESOURCES

- Unicorn Biz & Life Academy (Meditation Corner, Sales Star Review Studio, custom course plans, Make Your Money Back challenge): https://www.leoniedawson.com/academy

- Take Action Club productivity power hours: https://www.leoniedawson.com/action

- AI First by Adam Brotman + Andy Sack

- Khan Academy

- Australian Wildlife Conservancy + Bush Heritage Australia

Loved this one? Hit subscribe, leave us a review (they really, really help), and if you want the tools I built, come play in the Academy.

#womeninbusiness #AIforsmallbusiness #creativeentrepreneur #neurodivergententrepreneur #onlinebusiness #businessautomation #femalefounders #podcast

For a huge chunk of this podcast’s life I recorded it with my phone shoved down my bra on the school run, with zero dot points and zero clue what I was going to say... and it’s now passed 250,000 downloads. So Tam and I are spilling the whole behind-the-scenes bizzo: the gear (a lil bit fancy, mostly not), the editing shortcut that saves me HOURS, and the AI prompt that writes my show notes, coz I would genuinely rather not have a podcast than write show notes. My arch nemesis, truly.

If you’ve been sitting on a podcast idea for yearrrrs because you don’t have the right mic or the right name or some imaginary organised version of yourself who plans things... this one’s for you, possum. And if you started a podcast, went quiet, and now feel weird about coming back? You too.

In this episode:

• Why this show was first called “Leonie Dawson Refuses To Be Categorised” (and when a niche name helps you grow faster)
• My goals workbooks have had about six names, and why renaming stuff is totally fine
• Starting with just your phone or laptop... no studio, no ring light, no fuss
• The Rode NT-USB mic Tam’s husband talked her into, and why I copied her
• Editing in Riverside by deleting words straight from the transcript
• Our fortnightly yap sessions, the 200-idea Google doc, and our new 30-minute experiment
• The Claude prompt that writes my show notes, micro-content and title ideas
• Why about half our listeners WATCH us on YouTube (Chris has a theory)

Key insights:

• Better done than perfect. A quarter of a million downloads and I still don’t perfectly edit the intros
• You don’t have to be beholden to yesterday’s decisions... names, formats and schedules all get to change
• Make it doable for YOUR brain. If “record at my desk every Tuesday” won’t happen, record on the school run
• Stretch the budget a little for one good mic and you won’t need another for years (Tam’s is six years and counting)
• Edit from the transcript instead of scrubbing through audio looking for that one bit
• Social media is short form, podcasts are long form, and long form is where people really get to know, like and trust you. One good clip a week plus a comment-for-the-link automation does the job
• Pop the video on YouTube even if it’s just two people talking in a room. People love the company
• Gone quiet for months? You don’t need an apology episode. Just come back and hit publish

ABOUT YOUR HOSTS!

Leonie Dawson is a multi award-winning entrepreneur who has created over $16 million in revenue in part-time hours. She is the founder of the Unicorn Biz & Life Academy which helps over 3,000 people build unique, joyful & abundant businesses.

https://www.leoniedawson.com

Tamara Protassow is a non-fiction writing mentor + creativity coach. She’s developed books with 55+ authors over 16 years, both for self-published authors as well as for Hay House UK.

https://www.tamaraprotassow.com

Links & resources:

• Grab my podcast show notes prompt: https://www.leoniedawson.com/podprompt
• My free shit page (meditations, colouring books, zines, keynotes + more): https://www.leoniedawson.com/free
• Unicorn Biz & Life Academy, including How To Start A Podcast In A Weekend with Michelle Rohr and Grow Your Audience With Podcast Guesting with Lou Hamilton: https://www.leoniedawson.com/academy
• Take Action Club: https://www.leoniedawson.com/action
• Rode NT-USB microphone
• Riverside (recording + editing)
• Spotify for Creators (distribution)
• Fiverr (where we found Anne, who made our intro music)

Leave us a review! If this one gave you a kick up the bum to finally start your podcast, please leave us a five-star review. Aunty Leonie once cried over getting an A+ instead of an A+++, so honestly, five stars or nothing, babes.

#podcasting #howtostartapodcast #podcasttips #womeninbusiness #creativeentrepreneur #neurodivergententrepreneur #smallbusiness #contentcreation #donebetterthanperfect #theleoniedawsonshow

She copied my planner. Same questions, same structure, new font. When I called her on it she told me she'd never heard of me. Reader, I had her receipt. Tam and I are going through every copycat, copyright kerfuffle and internet pile-on I've survived, including the time a button company tried to get me cancelled in my sleep.

For every creative who's hoarding ideas because someone might nick them. Spoiler: none of my copycats are still in business, and I'm still selling the original every single year.

WHAT'S IN IT

• Copycats vs copyright, and why they're two different problems
• The planner copier who denied everything (until the receipt came out)
• The person who lifted Leonie's entire Amazon book description
• What SARK said when she was told Leonie was copying her
• Fan art, derivative work and where the line actually sits
• Trademarks, copyright notices, T&Cs and cease-and-desist letters
• Tam's self-addressed envelope trick for US copyright
• The viral mug that made a small company thousands, and the button company that lost its mind

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• In 22 years, copyright drama has cost Leonie about 0.01% of her attention and almost no revenue
• Copying a concept is usually fair game. Copying the questions, the copy or the files is a violation.
• Keep your receipts. Most copiers bought from you first!
• No lawyer needed. A plain cease-and-desist email has fixed every case.
• Put your name on your images and videos so it travels when they're reshared.
• In Australia copyright is automatic. © + your name + the year
• Every copycat Leonie has ever had is now out of business
• Being copied means you're at the front of a trend


"I will not die with all of my jewels still inside me." — Leonie

LINKS
The Midas Touch (11-day meditation program): https://www.leoniedawson.com/midas

My Unicorn Year Goals Workbooks: https://www.leoniedawson.com
SARK: https://planetsark.com

ABOUT YOUR HOSTS!

Leonie Dawson is a multi award-winning entrepreneur who has created over $16 million in revenue in part-time hours. She is the founder of the Unicorn Biz & Life Academy which helps over 3,000 people build unique, joyful & abundant businesses.

https://www.leoniedawson.com

Tamara Protassow is a non-fiction writing mentor + creativity coach. She's developed books with 55+ authors over 16 years, both for self-published authors as well as for Hay House UK.

https://www.tamaraprotassow.com

If this one loosened something in you, hit subscribe so the next episode finds you. A review helps other creatives find the show too. Big love.

#womenentrepreneurs #creativebusiness #neurodivergententrepreneur #copyright #copycats #onlinebusiness #adhdentrepreneur #spiritualbusiness #createandshare #leoniedawsonshow

copycats, copyright for creatives, small business copyright, intellectual property small business, creative business, women entrepreneurs, online business Australia, neurodivergent entrepreneur, trademark small business

Wake up at 4am. Hustle harder. Say yes to everything. Fuck that. This episode is the replay of Leonie's Unhinged Productivity Hacks webinar, and it's the anti-bro-marketing guide to getting your shit done without wrecking your body, your brain or your family time. Sixteen million dollars in revenue, hundreds of workshops, 3,000+ articles, all in 10 to 20 hours a week. Here's how.

If you've tried every productivity system and ended up feeling like the broken one, this one's for you. If you're a creative, a caregiver, neurodivergent, or living in a body that runs on cycles instead of a straight line, most productivity advice was never built for you. Leonie hands you a wild, unhinged menu of possibilities instead of a prescription.

TOPICS COVERED

• Why mainstream productivity advice fails mothers, caregivers, creatives and neurodivergent folks

• Working with your energy seasons, hormonal cycles and life eras instead of against them
• Primitive reflex integration and how it expanded Leonie's nervous system capacity
• Protein, supplements and medication as brain support
• Accountability, body doubling and "sparkle time"
• The Take Action Club and how it's built around all of this

KEY INSIGHTS

• Unless a task makes you money, is promised to a client, or is legally required, it's optional. Cross it off without guilt.
• Pareto's principle in practice: 20% of your tasks create 80% of your results. Find the 20% and put your energy there.
• Every yes has an opportunity cost. Leonie has said no to conferences, travel, 95% of networking and most podcast invites, and it's why she has spaciousness.
• Playing dead is a legitimate strategy. You don't owe everyone a reply.
• Consistency is a myth for cyclical bodies. Plan gentler days around your cycle and treat fallow periods as integration, not failure.
• Unresolved primitive reflexes keep your startle response firing all day. Resolving them took Leonie from "nonverbal after a one-day event" to four hours of calls a day.
• Sleep is non-negotiable. Sacrificing it shrinks your brain capacity and messes with your hormones.
• Sparkle time (an hour a week doing something that lights you up) is a calendar item, not a treat.
• Body doubling works online too. Add another body to the room and the thing you've dreaded for weeks gets done in 15 minutes.
• Sharing your task list publicly is rocket fuel. It's why Leonie pre-sells her courses and books before they exist.

NOTABLE QUOTES

"Most productivity advice is written by white, able-bodied, neurotypical men who are not primary caregivers. They're either single or they've got a fucking wife."

"Unless it makes me money, unless it's something I've already committed to deliver for my clients, or unless it's something the government requires of me, the rest can just go fuck itself."

"So often the way to speed up is to slow down."

ABOUT YOUR HOSTS!

Leonie Dawson is a multi award-winning entrepreneur who has created over $16 million in revenue in part-time hours. She is the founder of the Unicorn Biz & Life Academy which helps over 3,000 people build unique, joyful & abundant businesses.

https://www.leoniedawson.com

LINKS & RESOURCES

• Take Action Club (half price until 25 September): leoniedawson.com/action
• Unicorn Biz & Life Academy: leoniedawson.com
• Wintering by Katherine May
• The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron
• David Elliott breathwork introduction
• Get Dopa ADHD supplement blend
• The Seed Cycle

• Dr Sophie Toland, naturopath, Noosa
• Dr Sharon Williams, chiropractor, Canberra (primitive reflexes)
• Search "primitive reflexes" + your area to find an OT, osteo or chiro with training

Loved this one? Subscribe, leave a review, and send it to the friend who's still setting a 5am alarm. If you want the support system that makes all of this stick, Take Action Club is $495 for the whole year until 25 September, then it doubles.

#womenentrepreneurs #neurodivergentbusiness #adhdentrepreneur #audhd #creativebusiness #productivitytips #antihustle #spiritualbusiness #soulfulbusiness #worklessearnmore

A shop owner DM'd me for advice. Ten minutes later I was standing in her store.

She runs a health food shop here in Canberra. She'd been working SEVEN days a week, she was exhausted, + she didn't know where to turn. When I got her message, I knew I had to help.

Two hours later we'd found four magic money opportunities hiding in plain sight in her business. The first had three people lining up within 24 hours. Another took a chalkboard + a whopping great big arrow.

And every single one of them is probably hiding in YOUR business too.

(Unpaid + unsponsored, by the way. Gen from Go Vita Dickson said a big yes to me sharing all of it.)

WHO THIS IS FOR

You're working your butt off + the money isn't matching the effort. The to-do list is longer than your arm, + there's a sneaking feeling the thing that'd fix it is already ON that list, buried at number 47. This works whether you've got a shopfront, a website or an Instagram account + a dream.

IN THIS EPISODE

- The DM that made me ditch my whole day

- The empty room that was instant cash waiting to be harvested

- The puzzling reason a chocolate protein bar was her number one seller (+ how she can repeat it every month for free)

- How we fixed her street signage in half an hour with stuff she already owned

- The one news article that told me she was ripe for way more media

- The influencer night we cooked up, + the neighbour she can team up with

- How I used Claude to get the big scary tasks done in minutes, in between customers

- The message she sent me 24 hours later (I almost came to completion)

- What I worked out lying awake that night about why advice doesn't help overwhelmed people

- Where my 2027 Goals Workbook signing is happening!

KEY INSIGHTS

- Your to-do list never ends. 20+ years in business, over $16 million in revenue, + I have NEVER finished mine. Find the tasks that make money + move them to the tippity top.

- Look for instant cash that's already sitting in your business, waiting on a task you keep putting off.

- Find out WHY your number one product sells. Then do more of that.

- Is it immediately obvious what you sell? Check your shopfront, your website + your socials.

- Use what you already have before you spend a cent.

- Got five minutes? Hand a task to an AI assistant + let it work while you do.

- A big list of advice doesn't help a time-poor business owner. Doing the thing with someone beside you does.

NOTABLE QUOTES

"I just had this gut intuition, like, fuck your plans for today, Leonie. This is what is really needed."

"Behind me is a long-ass list of unfinished things that I didn't get around to doing because they just weren't that important."

"Money in the hands of women is a fucking great thing."

LINKS + RESOURCES

- Take Action Club (half price until midnight, 25 September 2026): https://www.leoniedawson.com/action

- Unicorn Biz & Life Academy: https://www.leoniedawson.com/academy

- Go Vita Dickson, 2/5 Dickson Place, Dickson, Canberra. Instagram: @govitadickson

- Wellness practitioner in Canberra? Jen has a room to fill + a big client base. Get in touch with her!

- Soma Women's Wellbeing, Dickson

- HerCanberra: https://hercanberra.com.au

- Claude: https://claude.ai

WANT ME TO CRASH YOUR BUSINESS TOO?

I can't drive to all of you (I would fucking love to). Take Action Club is how I get to be your magic money-making angel from wherever you are in the world. You get clear on what'll bring the money in, then you get the time, support + accountability to actually friggin' do it. It's half price for one more week: https://www.leoniedawson.com/action

If this episode lit you up, please subscribe + leave a 5 star review.

#womeninbusiness #smallbusinesstips #canberrabusiness #neurodivergententrepreneur #adhdentrepreneur #businesscoach #getyourshitdone #moneymindset #localbusiness #creativeentrepreneur

This one's a live masterclass, recorded with a room full of gorgeous humans asking me absolutely anything they wanted. We pulled a tarot card, did a meditation, and then got into the real stuff: money fear, pricing, creativity, and what happens to your whole life when you stop making things.

If you're a creative human building a business and you've hit that weird squeamish feeling about earning more, this is for you. Also for you if you're booked out with one-to-one clients and can't see how to get out, or if your art has fallen to the bottom of your to do list.

Topics covered:

⭐️ The money fear that hit when my business approached $150K a year

⭐️ Why I put prices on the website instead of hiding them behind a discovery call

⭐️ Moving from one-to-one work into group programs, courses + get-it-done days

⭐️ The nightly gratitude practice that actually shifts your nervous system

⭐️ Being visible, making public mistakes, and changing your mind in front of everyone

⭐️ What my kids do when they can tell I haven't had creative time

⭐️ Energy work + letter-burning for releasing a relationship that's dragging

Key insights

💓 Money fear usually isn't about money. Mine was about becoming the wealthiest person in my family, which felt as unnatural as outliving my eldest brother

💓 Draw the version of you who earns the number that scares you. Who is she, what does she wear, what does she do with it

💓 Hiding your price loses you the enormous chunk of your audience who will never book a discovery call

💓 If you're fully booked, that's a pricing signal, not a scheduling problem

💓 You don't need to preemptively nail a new offer. Run it as an experiment and learn what you like

💓 Gratitude works because it softens the body, and a softened body can see possibilities again

💓 Nobody on earth is liked by everybody. Pretzeling yourself into the right shape for each person is not available as a strategy

💓 Creative time isn't a reward for finishing the work. It's the thing that makes the work possible

Notable quotes

"What a beautiful gift it is that a woman gets to become the wealthiest person in her family of origin."

"I am an explorer of life, and I'm going to make the best decision I can in the moment I'm in."

"If I don't create, if I don't fill my world with delicious things, my business suffers. My soul suffers. My family gets a cranky sad mum."

Leonie Dawson is a multi award-winning entrepreneur who has created over $16 million in revenue in part-time hours. She is the founder of the Unicorn Biz & Life Academy which helps over 3,000 people build unique, joyful & abundant businesses. https://www.leoniedawson.com

Links + resources mentioned

Take Action Club - enrol now for half price -- https://www.leoniedawson.com/action

Unicorn Biz & Life Academy, $99 for the year, 100+ programs including Money Manifesting & Multiple Streams Of Income -- https://www.leoniedawson.com/academy

The Lightseer's Tarot by Chris-Anne

Biddy Tarot, founded by Brigit Esselmont

The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel

Hiro Boga, my mentor for over a decade (now retired)

#womeninbusiness #NeurodivergentEntrepreneur #CreativeBusiness #MoneyMindset #ADHDBusiness #SoulfulBusiness #TarotReading #SmallBusinessAustralia

Leonie's recording from outside, and there's a reason. Operation De-SADify is underway after a week of crying at random, including weeping twice in one day about Cathy Freeman winning gold in 2000. Tam has found the Slavic shamanic teacher she's been hunting for years and is running a literary festival. We're both reading fabulous books that we want to tell you about. Also: the autistic Olympics. Census night, baby.

WHO THIS IS FOR

If you're a neurodivergent creative running a business while also holding kids, ageing parents and your own wobbly nervous system through the last month of winter, this one's for you. Especially if you can't tell whether you need a strategy or just more sunshine and a nap. Two women talking honestly about widening to hold it all.

TOPICS COVERED

• Seasonal affective disorder, micro-depresso and Operation De-SADify
• A Laufey concert with a teenager, and discovering there's room for all of us
• How healing primitive reflexes changed Leonie's capacity for big overwhelming cities
• Tam's Slavic shamanic training and coming home to your own lineage
• Emotion as a pathway to the divine, instead of sitting still and being decorous
• Parenting your kids as they are, not as your ancestors assigned them
• Sandwich generation life and the tragedy-comedy of caring responsibilities

• Census night as competitive sport

KEY INSIGHTS

• Random crying is a useful depression indicator if you're not ordinarily a weepy soul. If you're welling up at nothing at the end of winter, up your light, your vitamin D and your outdoor hours.
• Nervous system work has profound effects.. Leonie went from wanting to hide in a bush in Sydney to happily sitting through an arena concert.
• The way you see your child can be an inherited story rather than a true one.
• Keep people around you who'll aren't afraid to tell you you're wrong. Leonie's husband told her she was misreading one of their kids, and he was right.

• Don't break under the pressure. Widen. That's what every grandmother before you did.
• Making money and keeping money are two different skills. A leaky container drains a great income.

NOTABLE QUOTES

"I don't want to be the mother that just gets all her feathers ruffled just because she's gotten some feedback." — Leonie

"Instead of feeling like I'm going to break under that pressure, I just keep thinking that I need to widen so I can hold it all." — Leonie

LINKS & RESOURCES

• Unicorn Biz & Life Academy, $99/year: https://www.leoniedawson.com/academy
• Join Leonie's mailing list for the illustrated book notes: https://www.leoniedawson.com
• Dandenong Ranges Litfest, programme launch 27 August, tickets 28 August: https://dandyrangeslitfest.net/
• Tam's Slavic shamanic teacher, Vlasta: https://www.tiktok.com/@thevlasta
• Iris Meyer, shamanic practitioner: https://brightshaman.com/

BOOKS MENTIONED:

• Indistractable by Nir Eyal
• The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
• Unnatural Habits (Phryne Fisher) by Kerry Greenwood

If this one resonated... make sure you hit subscribe pretty pls! A review takes 40 seconds and helps other gorgeous souls find us. And if you want the whole toolkit, the Academy is $99 a year for 100+ programs, monthly coaching, and the Make Your Money Back Challenge that pays for your membership before you've finished your cup of chai!

ABOUT YOUR HOSTS!

Leonie Dawson is a multi award-winning entrepreneur who has created over $16 million in revenue in part-time hours. She is the founder of the Unicorn Biz & Life Academy which helps 3,000 people build unique, joyful & abundant businesses.

https://www.leoniedawson.com

Tamara Protassow is a non-fiction writing mentor + creativity coach. She’s developed books with 55+ authors over 16 years, both for self-published authors as well as for Hay House UK.

https://www.tamaraprotassow.com

#WomenInBusiness #NeurodivergentEntrepreneur #AuDHD #CreativeBusiness #SpiritualBusiness #MidlifeWomen #SandwichGeneration #PersonalGrowth #SoulfulBusiness

At 8pm one night I got that look in my eyes. The one my husband knows means I'm about to ride the wild donkey.

By 4am I'd sent an email every hour, illustrated cartoons to go inside them, invented offers I'd never sold before, and slapped a 24-hour expiry on every single one. I also let people email me their OWN offers at their own price. Total made in that 24 hours: just over $42,000.

This episode is the full blow-by-blow. What I offered, what sold, what broke, and why I'd absolutely do it again.

Who this is for:

If you're a creative, neurodivergent business owner with twelve half-planned launches in your notebook and a nagging feeling that you need a proper strategy before you're allowed to sell anything, this one's for you. You don't need a funnel. You don't need a launch runway. You need permission to act on the wild idea while it's still hot.

Topics covered:

• What "riding the wild donkey" actually means, and why people still talk about it 15 years on
• The full list of offers I made (encouragograms, business audits, VIP days, 60% off Take Action Club)
• Letting my audience make ME offers, and how I decided yes or no
• Doing it all on PayPal links because setting up Kajabi properly would have killed the momentum
• The Kajabi outage that hit in the final hours, and how we handled it
• Why I don't track unsubscribes
• Decision fatigue, an inbox stuck at 86 emails, and needing a team who can run with chaos
• The full revenue breakdown
• The one offer that surprised me enough that I'm making it permanent

Key insights

• Speed is a feature. The idea arrived at 8pm and was live within the hour. Waiting would have flattened it.
• "Basic bitch" your systems when the alternative is not launching. I lost the Kajabi analytics and gained $42,000.
• A ticking 24-hour expiry does the persuading for you. No convincing required.
• Inviting people to name their own offer and their own price removed the ick from both sides. Some got a yes, some got a counter-offer, some got a no, and everyone stayed friends.
• Say no to discounting the thing that's already radically generous. The Academy stayed at full price all day.
• Things break in every launch. The checkout went down. I laughed, extended the deadline, and gave anyone who emailed us a 24-hour extension.
• Your team's tolerance for wild ideas is a hiring criteria, not a personality quirk. I've had assistants get cranky about unplanned launches. I need people who wake up delighted.
• Watch what people get unreasonably excited about. The annual Take Action Club option lit people up so much it's becoming a permanent offer.
• Fun is a business metric. Encouragograms recorded in the backyard and down by the river. Cat photos in the inbox. Offers to walk around an art gallery. That's the actual return.

Links and resources

• Get on the mailing list so you don't miss the next party: leoniedawson.com/love-letters
• Free illustrated Ride The Wild Donkey ebook
• Unicorn Biz & Life Academy: 100+ programs for $99 a year
• Take Action Club: weekly Productivity Power Hours and monthly Biz Planning workshops

• Courses mentioned: Sales Star, Money Manifesting & Multiple Streams of Income, Work Less Earn More, Midas Touch
• 2026 My Brilliant Year goal workbooks

• Still keen on offering more in-person VIP days in Canberra. Email [email protected] if you're interested!

If this made you want to go do something ridiculous, do it. Then come tell me about it. And if you're not on the mailing list yet, that's where the actual chaos happens: leoniedawson.com/love-letters

#WomenInBusiness #NeurodivergentEntrepreneur #ADHDBusinessOwner #CreativeBusiness #OnlineBusiness #MarketingExperiment #IntuitiveBusiness #SoulfulBusiness #WomenSupportingWomen #MoneyMindset

Ever been told the only way to "fly at the pointy end of the plane" is to hustle 24/7, live away from home 340 days a year, and barely see your kids? Leonie's response: are you fu**ing stupid?

This week she pulls back the red velvet curtain on her quarterly planning retreat — the rituals, the lake ceremonies, the non-alcoholic botanical wine, and the exact process she runs to help women plan a whole quarter in a single day. And Tam shares what it was like for her to be in the receiving seat for it... and what changed for her business from doing it.

Who this is for: If you're a creative, healer, or coach who's so deep in the to-do list you can't see your own business clearly anymore — and you're craving strategy that doesn't smell like bro-marketing — this one's for you. Especially if you're neurodivergent, sensitive, and done with hustle culture telling you to JUST DO MORE! WORK MORE HOURS! HUSTLE HUSTLE!

Topics covered:

• How Leonie structures a full-day quarterly planning retreat
• Why reviewing last quarter matters more than vision-setting
• Letting-go rituals, lake ceremonies, and celebration circles
• Hot-seating: why other people see your business clearer than you do
• The anti-patriarchal case against hustle culture
• Choosing a venue by energy, nature, and grounding (not corporate boardrooms)
• Introducing Content Blast — a month of content done in one day

Key insights:

• There's gold to mine in what just happened — review before you plan, every time
• Celebration shifts your identity: you plan the next quarter as someone who's already made miracles
• Brainstorming for OTHER people's businesses builds the muscle to see your own clearly
• Hustle's only answer is "more" — but we live in a finite world, and the "more" gets stolen from your kids, your body, your relationships
• Most hustle bros have someone (usually a woman) holding everything else together
• You can fly business class without burning your life to the ground
• You don't have to use everything in the Academy — one thing makes your money back
• The easiest business model on earth: serve, over-deliver, and people stay for decades

Notable quotes:

"I can fly at the pointy end of the plane, and I am away from my children zero days of the year." — Leonie

"Does he think that's a flex? Let me show you a fuc*ing flex." — Tam

"I just serve and over-deliver and make it so exceptional that people stay for years, decades. It's the easiest business model on earth." — Leonie

Links & resources:

• Content Blast (free inside the Academy, sign up in the next week): leoniedawson.com/blast
• Unicorn Biz & Life Academy — 150+ programs, under $100/year
• Grow Mastermind — next quarterly retreat is in September
• New member? Email [email protected] for your handmade "start here" list

Subscribe and review: If this episode lit you up, hit subscribe and leave a quick review — it helps more glorious humans find their way here. And if you want to actually get your content DONE with us in the room together, come to Content Blast!

#WomenInBusiness #NeurodivergentEntrepreneur #AntiHustle #CreativeBusiness #SpiritualBusiness #ADHDinBusiness #SmallBusinessOwner #ContentCreation #WomenSupportingWomen #ConsciousBusiness

Settle in with a cup of tea, because this one's a saga. Leonie and Tam get into what actually happens when you criticise someone's cult, and it's messier than you'd think.

Why does a cult follower treat your concern like a personal attack? What's DARVO and how do you spot it mid-conversation? Leonie shares losing a business friend over speaking up, how she's holding compassion without leaving herself open to abuse, and why she'd do it all again tomorrow.

Then it goes properly wild: the very real energetic backlash they both copped after publishing their last cult episode and the nature-based clearing ritual that fixed it (wombats, kangaroos, bees, chestnuts, and a dead brother with hail-room access, all included). We're not even kidding. I swear to the Great Goddess these podcast descriptions keep getting more unhinged and yet they are 100% factual.

Topics covered:

• What really happens when you raise cult concerns with someone you love
• Why criticism of a cult leader feels like a personal attack to the follower
• DARVO explained (Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim & Offender) and how to spot it
• Holding compassion for people stuck in the dynamic without opening yourself to abuse
• Losing a business friend over speaking up, and choosing growth over a burnt bridge
• The very real energetic backlash Leonie and Tam experienced after publishing
• A full nature-based energy clearing: wombats, kangaroos, bees, chestnuts and all
• Why gossip and "telling the bees" actually serve a purpose

Key insights:

• People rarely react well to "I'm worried about you" — not because they don't love you, but because their identity has merged with the leader's. The defensiveness is proof of the dynamic, not their true self.
• Sunk cost is brutal. The deeper the money, time and identity invested, the harder the reaction. "If she's right, then I am wrong" is unbearable, so the brain fights it.
• DARVO is designed to destabilise you. If you feel like you're in a washing machine, step back, ground, and name it: "That's not what's happening here."
• You can leave a door open for a restorative conversation without leaving a door open for abuse.

• Speaking the truth can cost you relationships AND be 100% worth it if it helps even one person spot the dynamic sooner.
• Coming back to nature, your body, and the land dissolves the distortion. Cult energy is a miasma. The earth reminds you what's actually real.

Links & resources mentioned:

• Previous episode: Ep #243 My $30,000 Cult Mistake → leoniedawson.com/my-30000-cult-mistake

• Unicorn Biz & Life Academy → leoniedawson.com
• Leonie's new offering: Content Blast! Get a month of content done in 1 day → leoniedawson.com/blast

Who this is for: If you're a sensitive, spiritual, often-neurodivergent creative who's watched someone you love disappear into a "coach" or "program" that feels a teeny bit culty, this one's for you. Especially if you tend to absorb everyone's energy, second-guess yourself when someone turns the blame around, and need permission to protect your peace without going full scorched-earth.

If you've got a soul in your life who needs to hear this podcast, please share it along. It means the world to us!

#LeonieDawson #CultRecovery #DARVO #NeurodivergentEntrepreneur #EnergyProtection #WomenInBusiness #SpiritualBusiness #ConsciousEntrepreneur #HealingJourney #ADHDinBusiness