Happy birthday Unleash Monday! How it started and where it’s going…

00:00:08 And welcome to unleash Monday, where we talk about the brain, especially the gifted brain and how does it affect our thinking and experience of the world differently. There are a lot of stereotypes and stigma around giftedness, and I'm here to challenge those. I'm here to raise awareness and to have a conversation around this topic of what does it mean to be a gifted adult common experience among gifted folks is that they feel out of place.
00:00:34 They don't quite fit in. They are too sensitive, too intense, too. Emotional two over excitable, and two deep thinkers about the world and about themselves. So if you have been called too much of about anything, then this show is for you. My name is Nadia. I'm too loud, too colorful, too bodily, too bossy. And I love to talk too much.
00:00:52 So welcome to my world. And I'm so happy you are here. Hi. Oh And happy Monday. I'm so excited. You're here because today we have a very special day today marks the first year anniversary of unleash Monday exactly a year ago on the 17th of August, 2020. I officious launched this podcast and I could not have imagined where we're going to be today. And now one year later we had incredible guests.
00:01:28 This is episode number 29, and we're almost at 10,000 downloads. Wow. I could not have imagined where this journey is going to take me and you as a listeners and what incredible people I will gonna to meet along the way on the podcast, but also off the podcast and this community of gifted adults. It's just been amazing. So I just want to take this time to say thank you.
00:02:01 Thank you. Thank you. If you're listening to this, you're supporting this podcast and I hope you get something out of this. And I want to acknowledge you the listeners and say thank you to all of you, because you have given me momentum. You have made this all possible by showing up and listening. And I hope you also got a little bit of transformation over the last year.
00:02:27 And if you're just dialing in today for the very first time, I would like to use this episode as a little bit of a special episode. I usually don't do solo shows. I love to cure rate and to invite amazing guests who I call the experts. You know, either they are working in this field or they're are gifted themselves. And I invite them to share their stories because I feel it's more powerful if first of all,
00:02:58 to learn from a collective viewpoint. So it's not just me saying, oh, giftedness is this. Or this is what I experienced, but really by the volume of similar stories, people who don't now identify as gifted my, be able to see that this might be some of the answers they were looking for in their lives. And the reason why maybe sometimes they felt like out of place or misunderstood.
00:03:28 And so I really want to create awareness and fight a little bit, those stereotypes about the term, especially giftedness. And what I learned talking to my guests over the last year is that this term does not resonate in any language, be it in English, German, Dutch, Norwegian, Spanish, French, everybody tells me that in their culture, the term is not embraced and it has this elitist notion and this eminence component to it.
00:04:07 So we're trying to create a new narrative and changing those perceptions. So this is really what I'm trying to do, but before we really go into this, what I really wanted to do today is kind of like recap in this one year anniversary episode of how unleash Monday actually started, why I chose this name and what happened over the last year in terms of who did I meet and also what happened in my own personal journey,
00:04:43 because this is something I would like to share with you, even though it's a little bit scary and very vulnerable, but as I have guests on my show that shared their story, I felt I should also share a little bit what happened on my end. And then at the very end, I would also like this opportunity to cast a vision of what I envisioned unleash Monday in year two,
00:05:10 two B, and to become, and so stay tuned for that. It's a little bit for me, scary announcement, but I'm just going to do it. I setting all these imposter syndrome's aside and putting all the perfectionism aside and I will just going to do it. So how did unleash Monday start? So over the last couple of years, I joined a few networking events and other trainings that were targeted for business women.
00:05:43 And I'm usually in a very academic setting, even though I left the academic trail, I'm surrounded by a lot of women in academia. And I realized that in the corporate world, there's more conversations about personal development, mentorship, also other tools that people use, for example, strengths, binder, and other, you know, coaching and really decent professional networking events,
00:06:14 which I wasn't really aware of are exposed to. And I was like, wow, I need to share this with my friends. And I wanted to create a podcast to empower women like me. And at a time I didn't really know what that meant. So I wanted to curate a podcast and to empower women and basically curating self-development topics and resources. So I have this idea for a few months and then the pandemic hit and suddenly all my evenings and all my weekends freed up because we're all advised to stay home.
00:06:52 And I thought, well, that's now the perfect opportunity to start art and kind of like try this out. So I invited my friend, Nicole, what does incredible story of learning about her own giftedness at the age of 36? And I was like, wow, that's such an incredible story, Nicole, why don't you come on the podcast or better yet the soon to be podcasts as a Guinea pig.
00:07:19 So I, I can try out my equipment and we're just going to use zoom and I'm just going to press record, but we're not gonna, we're not going to put this out there in the world. You know, this is just for me to kind of like get acquaintance with equipment with my interview skills, because as a perfectionist, I would like to do this,
00:07:38 you know, right at the beginning. So I need people to practice my interviewing skills. And so we do this like a pre-recording and then we're going to do like a real recording later. So that was how we went into this recording. And if you're curious of how that sounded, then go back to episode number one, and you hear Nicole's incredible story.
00:08:00 So once we started talking and luckily I pressed record button, Nicole shared her story. And the more she's shared about what she learned, what it means to be a gifted adult, I was like, well, but doesn't everybody feel this way. And that's like, how I do it, two things. And this is how I see things. So I could relate more.
00:08:22 And I started like digging to really learn my interviewing skills. So I, I dog and I, I kind of like, you know, poked and I could just relate more. And Warren, it was starting again getting very emotional. I was like, but Nicole, that, that's how I feel. And she's like, yeah, but I know,
00:08:40 I think you are also one of those gifted adults. I was like, well, can, I mean, no, I was not good at school. Like I even had to like repeat multiple years. Like by the time I finished my master's degree, I was 28 years old. Like I did so many like loops and detours, and I don't have this passion for physics or math.
00:09:04 You know, I'm not a genius. I'm curious. And I love learning, but I don't think I'm, I'm what they say would gifted adult should look like I'm not, I'm not a genius. I'm not Sheldon Cooper from the big bang theory. So the more she talked and the more I could relate, I was like, wow, there's something there.
00:09:26 And I started Googling, I started looking a little bit into w what does it mean to be a gifted adult? And it blew my mind that it was not what I expected. And immediately I was like, wow, why has nobody told me this before? Not about myself. That was then in the second step, but more about like, if I know all of these self development tools,
00:09:52 and if I know so much about personality types and personality tests, but giftedness was never a topic. Anybody ever mentioned two me. And I was like, wow, I think I need to pivot this podcast and make it about gifted us and adults. And at the time I didn't do such a great Google search, but I quickly checked and I didn't see yeah.
00:10:14 Anything out there as a podcast. So I was like, okay, I'm just going to do this. I don't know where to start. I'm just going to try. And I reached out to Marie Lee's because she, he had this article when she was at a conference. And she said, why you shouldn't call it gifted? Because exactly like that it's off putting and people really cannot identify.
00:10:37 So I was intrigued by this title of her talk. And so I reached out and asked her if she would be willing to share her story and how she stumbled across this and her insights. And she was so gracious to do that. And then I also so Google a little bit more and I stumbled across inter gifted. And I just sent Jen an email saying,
00:11:01 this is what I found. This is what I'm going to do. I have no podcasts yet, but are you willing to share a little bit about giftedness? And Jen also agreed to come on the show and shared what she knows, obviously, you know, in an hour we can only cover so much, but that actually having Jen on the show catapulted me in two,
00:11:25 the giftedness space, because then Paula reached out to me and said, Hey, have you come across my work? And I was like, yes, by now I have, but I was a little bit, you know, intimidated to reach out to all these people working in the gifted field for so long that I was going to wait until I have a few more shows out there before I reach out.
00:11:49 And she was like, no, no, I'll come onto your show. And so Paula also agreed to call on my show and through Paula mark and his team learned about it and he's director of the G word movie. And so, or came onto this show and then Julie and Sophia and all of these amazing people, you know, working in this field for years that call into this show and shared their insight.
00:12:16 And so I also want to say a huge, thank you for everybody that came onto this show in this last year, even though my podcast was small, was tiny and it grew together with these amazing guests and also the people that came and were brave enough to share their own personal experience, even though they are not, you know, working in the gifted field as a professional,
00:12:46 but they just shared their very intimate and personal stories, how they learned about their giftedness and had their navigating life as a kid, a gifted or even two EE adult. So I just want to say thank you to all my guests from Nicole, my release, Jen Craig, Paula Saskia, Dan Aurora, Lawrence Pascal, mark Pasco, Julie Sophia, femcare Nadia,
00:13:12 Aaron Ben, Lucinda Canaan, Isabel, Gabriela cliff, Tracy, Liz, Carrie, and Natasha. So thank you for coming and spending time with me. And I already interviewed a few other people. And so I hope you keep listening to this podcast because it's just going to get so more amazing in year two. So also a little thank you to you at this point.
00:13:38 So happened on my end in this year, when I went through this journey journey, I learned a lot. We learned Gabriela shared about dyslexia, and I learned about what it means to be a two E adult, if you have autism or if you have ADHD. And then I asked myself, well, am I just gifted? Did I really give them out the first place?
00:14:05 And yeah. So is there anything else because I was scolded a lot as a child for being too chatty, too bossy. So over this year, I try to figure out a little bit more about myself. Like, who am I and what is my profile of this giftedness and how has it formed? And it's not an easy journey. So if you're listening and you're struggling to even grasp it,
00:14:29 like welcome to the club, it's not, it's not so straight forward. There's not enough research. There's not enough resources. There's obviously a lot out there, but how does it come together? And as you can realize, now, as I'm talking like, oh my thoughts going all different directions. But also what I want to say is that it's not just giftedness,
00:14:53 right? Obviously that is one part. But then if you have a learning disability, if you have trauma, if you have overexcitabilities these all four together, as I will learn from Jen from into gifted. So, so this kind of makes it at a unique kind of profile. Wow. So this last year, I'm also on my own journey. And I just want to share and say,
00:15:24 if you reach out to professors who do not understand giftedness, but you suspect you're gifted hold, please always take everything. You learn with a grain of salt. So I did get an ADHD assessment and I went there and I said, I believe I'm a twice exceptional adult. And, and they did not take me seriously. First of all, I think they didn't really understand what giftedness mean,
00:15:53 or they never heard the term twice exceptionality. At this point, I had to kind of like explain, but I, I didn't felt taken serious seriously. And it was this kind of like misunderstanding that I carry along from my childhood. You know, when you say something and people just don't take you seriously, you, you know, you know, and at the end of the day,
00:16:21 I did get an ADHD diagnosis. And I, so, and this is why I, they invited Jen back for a second episode and we've got two right talk about assessments and testing, but I had a very bad experience with an IQ test. Yeah. And I don't want to make excuses here, but I just also would like to share, to say,
00:16:47 yes, there are people that call themselves gifted like me. And I'm not saying I'm highly or profoundly gifted. I'm calling myself mildly to moderately gifted, but I did fail this cute test if you cannot really fail an IQ test, but I didn't hit the score that I thought would reflect my giftedness, but there were also some, some other issues going on at the time I had,
00:17:17 for example, Canada, back on one eye. So my visibility was very much impaired before I had my surgery. And I have visibility on one. I have 10%. If you're then asked to do these paths, you know, where you should see these spatial awareness task, it's difficult. And my IQ test was done in German for example. But the last year I mostly spoke English in my private life with the podcast,
00:17:47 but I was at work. So I'm really immersed in the English language. And then on the IQ test, you're asked questions in German and also about the German vocabulary, which was very difficult because I think in two languages. So this was not taken into account and I'm not saying IQ tests don't measure certain things they do. But I also know that at that day I did not perform at my best.
00:18:21 I know that at a different day, I could have performed differently. And I also know that all the tasks that were handed to me, they're not playing to my strengths. I have other strengths. And especially if you're like working memory seems to be a little bit impaired, then doing good on a IQ test. Yeah. I think it should be taken into account.
00:18:45 And especially if they in the end, give me an ADHD diagnosis. Shouldn't that be taken into account? I don't know. So again, I'm not a psychologist, I'm not a gifted professional at this point, but I found it a little bit strange. And if I are somewhat now more trained that the average person on this topic has such a bad experience doing an IQ test,
00:19:14 doing an ADHD test. I was just thinking, well, what about all the other people who have never come across this topic? If I just gone there and not knowing what I know now, I really don't know what would have happened if I got this diagnosis of ADHD without having the knowledge that I have now. And it scares me because I know a lot of people get these diagnoses,
00:19:43 but they're not told about giftedness. So I really don't know what would have happened if I did not know what I know now about giftedness. And I'm still struggling to make all sense of this whole diagnosis and this whole experience. And I also don't want to trash talk, or I don't want to kind of like talk myself out of this and saying like,
00:20:08 oh, even though I failed this IQ test, I'm gifted. Yeah. I struggle accepting it. I still struggle to say, okay, I think I'm gifted because I can just relate to all the stories that I'm hearing, even though I didn't manage to do these math examples that they threw at my head. So I just want to share my story and be really vulnerable and kind of like,
00:20:37 even when I didn't pass, quote, unquote, this IQ test, I hope you still trust me on this journey of me trying to provide you with giftedness information. And I just want to share this with you so that in case something similar happens to you, you don't get thrown off. If you can relate to the stories, if you can relate to what Paula or Jen or Julie or anybody working in this field is saying,
00:21:09 if you can relate, you don't need a test to tell you, like, it's always in context. So that's basically my main story. And this is my main point. And this is also the reason why after this horrible experience, I still have the motivation to continue. I was like, okay, if this even happens to me, it must happen two other people as well.
00:21:34 So yeah. I just wanted to share this with you so that you also know things like that happen to the ones you think, oh, they have it all figured out. No, I have not figured it out. That's why I kept talking to people. That's why I joined conferences. That's why I'm joining other people's podcasts. And that's also why I chose to go and get more training whenever I can and get some hands on a training in the field of give them this,
00:22:06 I'm jumping on it. So currently I'm training with, into gifted and I'm taking some of the courses in assessments, but also in giftedness psychology 1 0 1. And it's really interesting and powerful. And I'm so happy and grateful for Jen for sharing all her knowledge. So this is also a little shout out to Jen and the whole team at inter gifted. And I also got my own assessment with inter gifted because I needed some answers.
00:22:38 And I was like, okay, this is IQ test cannot be the end. So I reached out to Jan and ask if it's possible to have an assessment for myself. And what I learned was really that there are different components that go into such a gifted profile. So Jen works with her own gifted model and it's connected to the browse skis. Overexcitabilities from that,
00:23:03 I was able to overcome my insecurities from this bad experience I had and learning about my own profile in terms of, okay, where's my giftedness level. Are there any, twice exceptional entity? Is it really ADHD? Or could it also be overexcitabilities? And so I'm working on this, but again, this is a journey and I haven't figured it all out.
00:23:30 And so that's, that's where I'm currently at. That's where we are now. And I'm going further on this journey. This has not given me all the answers I was looking for yet. And I think this is a young field relatively and so much more is going to happen in the coming years. And I'm here for it is I'm here for this ride and to learn more and to be there on the front and sharing all the stories.
00:23:59 So unleash Monday, the name I haven't shared that yet, then name on leash Monday was formed in a way, because I felt that I don't want to say giftedness into title because I put people off, especially if you don't know what giftedness means, and if you've never been identified as gifted as a child, you don't resonate. And my friend, Nicole,
00:24:27 when we talk about, I know we, wouldn't never listen to a podcast that says giftedness in the title without knowing what we know now. So I thought Mondays are kind of like a new start, right. Start into the week. And it's a new start and it's empowering. It's really unleashing this new found inner potential that we didn't know. And we thought there was something wrong with us.
00:24:50 And so this is why I call it unleash Monday, we unleashing and empowering and it's a new start and I hope you like it. That's exactly where it came from. So where does unleash Monday go from here? Well, going to keep going and I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing and I hope you're here and listening, but there's also something I would like to mention here and share a little.
00:25:22 So there's also something I would like to do two, and it's very scary to come on here today. And publicly announced is what I've been thinking about. So over the last few, two weeks, even months I've been thinking, and I had a lot of people telling me that like, when they found out about their own giftedness, they see community,
00:25:47 they want to talk to people and usually their spouse or their friends, they don't know about this topic, or they're not even interested in the topic. So it's hard for people to find somebody to talk to, yes, you can find and reach out to a gifted coach or a gifted psychologist. But sometimes this hurdle is quite high. Like somebody just needs to chat or hear about other people's experiences.
00:26:14 So I would like to create a safe space, a community where gifted women can come together and learn about their own giftedness and really getting acquainted with the topic about self-discovery. And self-development along the way in this new found space. So this is what I'm thinking about creating, and it's not so much about being a woman or being, I don't want to be exclusive,
00:26:44 but I really want to mention two this now that as a society, women have a different experience. So this is why I'm targeting women or anybody that identifies with the women experiences in the world. So I invite you to join as the worry first members. And this is so scary to say, because as I said, this community does not exist yet.
00:27:10 This is a community I want to create together with you. And if you decide to jump onto this opportunity, you will be able to help and shape this community from the ground up. So I'm offering this community for the very first members at obviously a founding member price, and that price will then be locked in for you. So even if the price will raise in the future,
00:27:39 you will be able to have your founding member price and you will be able to help shape it from the very beginning. So that's the benefits that you will get from joining this. Dave, you are interested and think that such a community will be something you would like to join. Then please send me an email@helloatunleashmonday.com. And I will then reach out to you with more details.
00:28:08 So, yeah, please send me an email. If you're interested again, that's hello@unleashmonday.com and tell me why you would like to join. So this is the vice Gary announcement, and I wasn't even ready to announce this yet because as a perfectionist, as a procrastinator, I'm like, oh, but I need to have this community ready before I announce it to the world and have everything planned out.
00:28:34 But actually if I mention it, now there's a chance for you to help shape it with me. So I'm like, okay, I'm putting all my scariness aside. Is that even a word I'm putting all my doubts and self doubts and imposter syndrome aside. And I'm announcing this to the world. If you want to have such an online space, please join me.
00:29:01 Okay. So this is it for now. There's no guests joining today, but we Will be back in two weeks and share with you another amazing story from Somebody in the gifted sphere. So thank you so much for listening and I wish You a wonderful week. Bye