MLMs (multi-level marketing companies) don’t actually sell you freedom—they sell you scripts plus a story. For neurodivergent people, that combination can feel like safety, clarity, and belonging all wrapped into one.

When masking is exhausting, ambiguity feels like a threat, and job environments are deeply inaccessible, the promise of “work from home, be your own boss, follow this exact formula, and you’ll succeed” lands like relief. You don’t have to invent the structure, the branding, or the messaging.  You just follow the script and buy the starter kit. For an autistic brain that craves predictability, and an ADHD brain hungry for novelty and dopamine, that promise is catnip—and also a trap!In this episode, Liora and I unpack the MLM trap as someone who deeply gets it.

💬 " The more barriers we can remove, the easier it's gonna be for a neurodivergent person to do the thing." - Caitlin Liz Fisher

🌈 Meet Our Guest: Liora Natania (she /them)
Compassionate Career Coach • Fractional Recruiter • Inclusive Hiring & Recruiting Consultant • Founder of Colorful Futures

Liora is a queer, neurodivergent career coach who specializes in helping ND and queer job seekers navigate work, burnout, entrepreneurship, and transitions with clarity, agency, and self-trust. They bring their background in graphic design, creative recruiting, and DEI-focused career development to help people find work that actually fits their brains—and their bodies. Their business, Colorful Futures, is built on the belief that neurodivergent people deserve accessible careers, supportive systems, and workplaces that meet us where we are.

Go check out Colorful Futures, their queer, neurodivergent-owned career coaching business supporting ND and queer folks with job searching, entrepreneurship, and building work lives that actually fit.

_____

⚠️ Trigger WarningThis episode includes discussion of:

• Eating disorders and disordered eating
• Intentional weight loss and diet culture
• MLMs (Beachbody, Pure Romance, essential oils, etc.)
• Chronic pain, hypermobility, and overexercise
• Abusive relationship dynamics (brief mention)
• Mental health, shame, and burnout

Please take care of yourself, friend! Pause, skip, or return later if your body needs a break. 

_____

What Liora and I Explore in This Episode

• Why autistic and ADHD folks are especially vulnerable to MLM marketing
• Scripts, “be your own boss” messaging, and the illusion of easy income
• How Beachbody turned eating disorders and overexercise into a “business model”
• Grieving the past self who did harmful things to survive
• Relearning movement as care, not punishment or performance
• Moving from all-or-nothing to all-or-something self-care
• Healing from MLM shame and rebuilding your relationship with marketing, movement, and self-trust

Today’s episode is a spicy little unpacking of something my podcast content manager, Kitty, sent me on Instagram—a post that hit me right in my autistic businessy-brain and made an entire year’s worth of thoughts click into place. As an autistic entrepreneur, scaling always felt like mimicking neurotypical business culture. Bigger. Faster. More More More! I tried it. I hated it. It almost broke me.

The truth is: The internet has trained people to expect instant access, instant expertise, and instant mastery—all for free. A free downloadable, a free training, a free webinar, a free checklist… and for what? Freebie culture teaches people to expect transformation without investment, and it teaches creators to overgive until they burn out.

💬 " Freebie culture and fake expertise feed the same illusion that wisdom should cost nothing and that mastery can be rushed. Wisdom can't cost nothing, like wisdom has to cost something. That's how it's wisdom." - Caitlin Liz Fisher

Tune in to learn about the dark side of freebie culture, fake expertise, and dissecting the belief that wisdom should be fast, cheap, and easy.

What We Explore in This Episode:
- Why the rise of “freebie culture” has created entitlement and burnout
- The pressure to scale, automate, and produce constant “value”
- What it really costs to develop mastery, skill, and lived wisdom
- Why slower, smaller, sustainable business models are the future
- How I’m restructuring my offerings for 2026 with honesty and capacity in mind

🎟️ Join The Creatives Rebellion on Patreon for bonus content, unfiltered rambles, exclusive merch, and the best little weird creative family on the internet: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/caitlinlizfisher⁠⁠⁠Join our Neurodivergent Creative Pod!🌞 Want to support heartfelt conversations about mental health, creativity, and neurodivergence?Join the Neurodivergent Creative Pod community: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.askfishfisher.com/pod⁠⁠⁠📩Subscribe to Cait’s newsletter and grab your copy of the Audacity Bill of Rights—a weekly dose of "you’re not broken, you’re brilliant": ⁠⁠⁠https://www.askfishfisher.com/audacity⁠⁠⁠🎧 Leave a comment, send a DM @caitlinlizfisher, or scream into the void (and tag us!)We love hearing what hit home for you!

In this episode, Caitlin breaks down the 2025 Mass Blackout—a coordinated economic and labor strike happening from November 25 to December 2, 2025. This blackout overlaps with some of the biggest consumer spending days in the United States—Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and pre-holiday shopping—and asks participants to pause their participation in capitalism for one week.

💬"We collectively have the power people, people joining together with a shared mission have huge amounts of power." - Caitlin Liz Fisher

Caitlin shares the origins of the blackout, how it connects to worker rights, the political landscape, and the collective power we hold when we withdraw our labor and our money. They also shares personal reflections about navigating employment, healthcare, and consumerism, and offers a preview of the community events happening throughout the blackout week.

Give yourself a week away from capitalism. Just one. See what happens to your nervous system.

What We Explore in This Episode:

• What the Mass Blackout is and why it's happening now
• Key blackout dates: November 25 – December 2, 2025
• How to participate through non-shopping, non-working, and non-scrolling
• The realities of labor, healthcare, and privilege in American activism
• Community events, queer entrepreneur spaces, anti-capitalist education, and mutual aid offerings happening during blackout week

Caitlin's curated list of activities during the nationwide blackout:
https://www.askfishfisher.com/blackout

Not everything in life has to spark joy. Sometimes, joy simply lives in having what you need—clean underwear, a steady paycheck, a safe home, a quiet moment to breathe. It doesn’t have to be perfect to be enough. Because “Good enough” isn’t the same as settling for harm; it’s about recognizing what supports you right now. The wisdom lies in knowing when something’s serving you and when it’s time to lovingly let it go.

 💬“You don’t have to be thrilled about your underwear—but it’s important to have underwear. The joy can simply be, I have underwear. Fold them up, put them away, and thank them for covering your butt all day. You don’t need every pair of briefs to spark joy; sometimes it’s enough that they just do their job.” - Caitlin Liz Fisher, The Neurodivergent Creative

In this episode, Caitlin reimagines Marie Kondo’s “spark joy” philosophy... their version: "you don’t have to love your underwear, you can appreciate that you have underwear." In a culture obsessed with chasing passion and perfection, Caitlin reminds us that contentment is also joy. Not every job has to be your dream job. Sometimes the joy is that it pays your bills, fits your schedule, and gives you space to rest or create outside of work. You don’t have to force enthusiasm or romanticize every moment. Sometimes joy is practical. Sometimes, it’s just realizing—you’re okay.

What We Explore in This Episode:

• Why joy doesn’t always have to be ecstatic to be meaningful
• The difference between contentment, gratitude, and performative happiness
• “Good enough” jobs, homes, and routines as valid forms of stability
• How to find joy (or at least acceptance) in daily necessities
• Updates on U.S. elections, new creative projects, and small wins

📺Caitlin's New writing vlog YouTube channel:https://www.youtube.com/@caitlinfisherauthor

🎟️ Join The Creatives Rebellion on Patreon for bonus content, unfiltered rambles, exclusive merch, and the best little weird creative family on the internet: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/caitlinlizfisher⁠⁠⁠

Join our Neurodivergent Creative Pod!🌞 Want to support heartfelt conversations about mental health, creativity, and neurodivergence?

Join the Neurodivergent Creative Pod community: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.askfishfisher.com/pod⁠⁠⁠

📩Subscribe to Cait’s newsletter and grab your copy of the Audacity Bill of Rights—a weekly dose of "you’re not broken, you’re brilliant": ⁠⁠⁠https://www.askfishfisher.com/audacity

⁠⁠🎧 Leave a comment, send a DM @caitlinlizfisher, or scream into the void (and tag us!)We love hearing what hit home for you!

We’ve been conditioned to see our needs as inconvenient, to shrink ourselves, to avoid asking for help until we’re at a breaking point. But community care isn’t about convenience; it’s about compassion.

In this episode, Caitlin Liz Fisher explores what it means to allow ourselves to have nice things—to believe we are worthy of care, comfort, and support. Through a vulnerable story about buying new glasses and unlearning shame around “being expensive,” Caitlin invites us to reflect on the deep conditioning many of us carry about being a “burden.”

 “Don’t talk to people who act like your burdens are a huge inconvenience to them. We are here, in this human life, to be a little bit of a burden to other people — that’s part of being alive. That’s what community care is: showing up and doing something even if you don’t really want to, because it matters, because it’s important, because people deserve the help.” - Caitlin Liz Fisher

PS - We’re not meant to do life alone. Ask for help. Offer help. Be a little bit of a burden—and let that be okay. That’s how community care works. That’s how we heal!

What We Explore in This Episode

• The internalized shame of being “too expensive” or “a burden”
• How family dynamics and scarcity mindsets shape our self-worth
• Why it’s hard for many of us to accept care or spend money on ourselves
• Community care as an antidote to shame
• Doing things before it becomes an emergency — emotionally, physically, or financially

🎟️ Join The Creatives Rebellion on Patreon for bonus content, unfiltered rambles, exclusive merch, and the best little weird creative family on the internet: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/caitlinlizfisher⁠⁠⁠Join our Neurodivergent Creative Pod!🌞 Want to support heartfelt conversations about mental health, creativity, and neurodivergence?Join the Neurodivergent Creative Pod community: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.askfishfisher.com/pod⁠⁠⁠📩Subscribe to Cait’s newsletter and grab your copy of the Audacity Bill of Rights—a weekly dose of "you’re not broken, you’re brilliant": ⁠⁠⁠https://www.askfishfisher.com/audacity⁠⁠⁠🎧 Leave a comment, send a DM @caitlinlizfisher, or scream into the void (and tag us!)We love hearing what hit home for you!

Not every discomfort is harm. That’s where this conversation begins—with the messy, necessary process of learning to tell the difference between what’s uncomfortable and what’s truly harmful.

💬 “Not every discomfort is harm. There’s a line—you need to figure out your own line. Honestly, we’re labeling a lot of our own discomfort as harm so that we don’t have to sit in it—and that’s keeping people from growing.” - Caitlin Liz Fisher

In this episode, Caitlin unpacks how our modern “therapy-speak” culture sometimes mistakes emotional discomfort for danger, how that confusion can stunt our growth, and why learning to tolerate discomfort is essential for healing, creativity, and community care. Caitlin reminds us that being human (especially a neurodivergent human) means navigating sensory overwhelm, emotional nuance, and social tension—and that learning to sit with discomfort helps us build resilience without self-betrayal.

What We Explore in This Episode

• The difference between harm and discomfort (and why that distinction matters)
• How moral superiority and “therapy-speak” can prevent honest self-reflection
• The Minnesota Starvation Experiment and what it reveals about recovery and nourishment
• Relearning how to eat, move, and rest without punishment
• The role of discomfort in growth, community care, and creative courage
• How labeling discomfort as harm can block vulnerability and connection

🎟️ Join The Creatives Rebellion on Patreon for bonus content, unfiltered rambles, exclusive merch, and the best little weird creative family on the internet: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/caitlinlizfisher⁠⁠⁠Join our Neurodivergent Creative Pod!🌞 Want to support heartfelt conversations about mental health, creativity, and neurodivergence?Join the Neurodivergent Creative Pod community: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.askfishfisher.com/pod⁠⁠⁠📩Subscribe to Cait’s newsletter and grab your copy of the Audacity Bill of Rights—a weekly dose of "you’re not broken, you’re brilliant": ⁠⁠⁠https://www.askfishfisher.com/audacity⁠⁠⁠🎧 Leave a comment, send a DM @caitlinlizfisher, or scream into the void (and tag us!)We love hearing what hit home for you!

Welcome back to The Neurodivergent Creative Podcast, the cozy, chaotic corner of the internet where we unpack creativity, shame, and the messy process of making art while living in a neurodivergent brain! In this week’s episode, host Caitlin Liz Fisher takes us along to their annual writing retreat—a gathering of writers, friends, and creative misfits who have built a community rooted in kindness, curiosity, and care. Between murder mysteries, unhinged PowerPoints, and chocolate tastings, Caitlin dives deep into what it really means to write your story—even when it doesn’t all make it into the final draft.

What We Explore in This Episode

- The difference between story and plot, and why not everything you write needs to “fit” the final version
- How writing can be both emotional processing and artistic craft—and the freedom that comes from separating the two
- Reflections on creative community, self-trust, and being loved without fear of punishment
- Why neurodivergent writers often fear being “too much,” and how shared space can heal that
- The joy of creative play: unhinged PowerPoints, ramen nights, and the art of just having fun again

💬"Anything that you write while you are working on your story IS story, but it's not necessarily plot. It might not end up in the final draft, but that doesn't mean you wasted it."

🎟️ Join The Creatives Rebellion on Patreon for bonus content, unfiltered rambles, exclusive merch, and the best little weird creative family on the internet: ⁠⁠⁠
https://www.patreon.com/caitlinlizfisher⁠⁠⁠
Join our Neurodivergent Creative Pod!🌞 Want to support heartfelt conversations about mental health, creativity, and neurodivergence?
Join the Neurodivergent Creative Pod community: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.askfishfisher.com/pod⁠⁠⁠📩
Subscribe to Cait’s newsletter and grab your copy of the Audacity Bill of Rights—a weekly dose of "you’re not broken, you’re brilliant": ⁠⁠⁠https://www.askfishfisher.com/audacity⁠⁠⁠
🎧 Leave a comment, send a DM @caitlinlizfisher, or scream into the void (and tag us!)We love hearing what hit home for you!

In this episode, I chat with Praxie Osong, a Cosmic Psychology Practitioner who uses astrology as a radical self-reflection tool. Praxie specializes in blending Astrology and Positive Psychology to challenge the status quo.

We get into the messy, glorious, and exhausting reality of being a late-diagnosed neurodivergent adult. We talk about perfectionism and how it’s one of the hardest masks to drop.

"We’re just a bunch of coping mechanisms in a trench coat by the time we hit 30." - Caitlin Fisher

It's all about trying to figure out "what's me and what is something that I created so that I could   get through".

Praxie walks us through her journey of realizing her special interest was astrology and how she now uses her company, Divergent by Design, to help people move past shame and step into their authentic, non-conforming selves. This episode is a firm, two-middle-fingers-up rejection of the capitalist, individualistic mindset that pushes us to assimilate. Consider it your permission slip to yeet the meh of "normal," let your freak flag fly!

“We all have strengths in different places, because we were all meant to have different roles in a functioning community, but we're so enmeshed in this individualistic mindset, this capitalist mindset, this get-ahead mindset that we've gotten to work with people around us and work with their strengths, and it's created this atmosphere that leaves out neurodivergent people. I'm all about the fact that you came into this world intentionally whole." - Praxie Osong

You'll totally learn:

• Why perfectionism is such a major boss fight for neurodivergent advocates and creatives

• The concept of Scrupulosity OCD (compulsion to be morally perfect) and how it shows up in daily life

• How Praxie realized her deep dive into astrology was actually her special interest, and how it helped her figure out her unmasked self post-diagnosis

• Why the phrase "Everyone has a little bit of [ADHD/Autism]" is deeply harmful and prevents people from getting the serious help they need

• Our shared philosophy: you don't have to reflect on yourself just because someone didn't like your conversation—it's okay if they think you're a weirdo

• The power of being a "whimsy person" and finding work that celebrates your neurodivergence instead of demanding conformity

🎟️ Join The Creatives Rebellion on Patreon for bonus content, unfiltered rambles, exclusive merch, and the best little weird creative family on the internet: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/caitlinlizfisher⁠⁠⁠Join our Neurodivergent Creative Pod!🌞 Want to support heartfelt conversations about mental health, creativity, and neurodivergence?Join the Neurodivergent Creative Pod community: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.askfishfisher.com/pod⁠⁠⁠📩Subscribe to Cait’s newsletter and grab your copy of the Audacity Bill of Rights—a weekly dose of "you’re not broken, you’re brilliant": ⁠⁠⁠https://www.askfishfisher.com/audacity⁠⁠⁠🎧 Leave a comment, send a DM @caitlinlizfisher, or scream into the void (and tag us!)We love hearing what hit home for you!

In this episode of The Neurodivergent Creative Podcast, Caitlin Liz Fisher admits they’re already living in October, even though the calendar hasn’t caught up yet. Their brain has skipped ahead to spooky season, soup season, and—let’s be real—seasonal depression season (ugh). Which means now is the time to talk about planning ahead!
But not the hustle-y, “crush your goals before January” kind of planning. This is the gentler version: stocking up on comfort, finding ways to move through family gatherings without losing your mind, and yes—buying enough Marie Callender’s apple pies to survive the dark months without paying retail.

💬 “So we know going in that this is gonna be a season of sort of slowing down, maybe some mental health sliding into that seasonal depression area. So while there still is a little bit of sunlight out there, now is the time to start planning. What are you going to do in the fall and winter? How can you preserve your mental health? How can you take care of yourself?” - Caitlin Liz Fisher

What We Explore in This Episode

• Why Caitlin is “living in October” and how seasonal thinking shapes creative rhythms
• The balance between impulsive decision-making and overthinking every idea
• Preparing early for holiday stress, family dynamics, and the onslaught of consumerism
• Using simple joys as survival strategies

🎟️ Join The Creatives Rebellion on Patreon for bonus content, unfiltered rambles, exclusive merch, and the best little weird creative family on the internet: ⁠⁠⁠

https://www.patreon.com/caitlinlizfisher⁠⁠⁠

Join our Neurodivergent Creative Pod!🌞 Want to support heartfelt conversations about mental health, creativity, and neurodivergence?

Join the Neurodivergent Creative Pod community: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.askfishfisher.com/pod⁠⁠⁠📩

Subscribe to Cait’s newsletter and grab your copy of the Audacity Bill of Rights—a weekly dose of "you’re not broken, you’re brilliant": ⁠⁠⁠https://www.askfishfisher.com/audacity⁠⁠⁠

🎧 Leave a comment, send a DM @caitlinlizfisher, or scream into the void (and tag us!)We love hearing what hit home for you!

This week, host Caitlin Liz Fisher shares their surprisingly emotional, magical story of a monarch caterpillar who set up camp in their front yard. What started with planting milkweed became a three-week vigil of checking on a chrysalis daily, doubting it was alive, and finally witnessing the miracle of wings unfolding.

Tune in as Caitlin nerds about the lessons of resilience and becoming that this small, winged teacher has to offer, and discover how you might find a reflection of your own journey in hers.

 💬"We don't have to put the pressure of the calendar and the clock on our own personal growth—it takes as long as it takes. You don't have to go fast. It's not a race because people just take as long as they take, like butterflies take as long as they take." - Caitlin Liz Fisher

What We Explore in This Episode

• Why personal growth takes as long as it takes, and why that’s not a failure
• The “goopy middle” of transformation and why it feels so uncomfortable
• How to follow your instincts even when they don’t make logical sense
• Detachment as an act of care: loving enough to let go
• Creating stable, supportive spaces for your own growth

🎟️ Join The Creatives Rebellion on Patreon for bonus content, unfiltered rambles, exclusive merch, and the best little weird creative family on the internet: ⁠⁠⁠

https://www.patreon.com/caitlinlizfisher⁠⁠⁠

Join our Neurodivergent Creative Pod!🌞 Want to support heartfelt conversations about mental health, creativity, and neurodivergence?

Join the Neurodivergent Creative Pod community: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.askfishfisher.com/pod⁠⁠⁠📩

Subscribe to Cait’s newsletter and grab your copy of the Audacity Bill of Rights—a weekly dose of "you’re not broken, you’re brilliant": ⁠⁠⁠https://www.askfishfisher.com/audacity⁠⁠⁠

🎧 Leave a comment, send a DM @caitlinlizfisher, or scream into the void (and tag us!)We love hearing what hit home for you!