Propel your career by empowering your neurodivergence

Reframe your differences as superpowers

Work smarter, not harder

Belong without having to “fit in”

I’m looking for 12 neurodivergent professionals who are ready to work with me and each other over 2 neuro-affirming and sensitivity-supportive days to set the foundations that will transform their professional life into something they can enjoy for many more years to come.

20-21 March 2025

A world first professional development program designed specifically by atypical professionals for atypical professionals

Hands meeting through glass

This program is for you if...

I believe you can belong without fitting in

Empowered is an autistic-led, neuro-affirming and strengths-based approach to empower you to:

Be

Explore and define what it means to be your unique, amazing and neurodivergent self in a professional setting.

Your

Learn to better manage your energy to prevent (or recover) from burnout and avoid making career limiting mistakes at work.

Unique

Become your own anthropologist so that you can fit in without having to "fit in" and save compromising your personality and your values.

Self

Develop practical skills and strategies to work smarter, not harder, so that you don't need to work those crazy long hours.

By the end of the program you will have...

Two empowering days

Sensitivity-supporting

Held virtually in your unique comfort zone, weighted blankets, fidget toys and cameras are all optional. End each day feeling energised not exhausted.

Bite-sized and break-filled learning

Engage with concise, evidence-based lessons. Each module is less than 30 minutes, split into quick 5-7 minute segments delivered over two full days. Plenty of time for reflection breaks.

Practical empowerment

Self-evaluation tools and tailored templates enable you to architect your own transformation to thrive in your professional life.

Inspiring conversations

Gain insights from intimate discussions with other participants, sharing lived experience, personal journeys, strategies, and success in overcoming work-related obstacles.

Results you can expect

Reframe your differences as superpowers

Work smarter, not harder

Belong without having to “fit in”

Spend considerably less time and energy masking or camouflaging around others at work

Have more energy to bring your most creative, insightful and productive self to work

Feel more efficient and effective in the way you work to save time and deliver better quality outcomes

Increase your satisfaction with what you set out to achieve each day and improve your career prospects

Be more confident to authentically support and lead yourself and others at work

Leave a positive legacy for the unique and amazing neurodivergent women who follow

Enrol now!

20-21 March 2025

AU$1997

plus GST

How the program works

Empowered is a unique program for unique professionals that delivers self-acceptance, self-management and self-advocacy outcomes that lead to professional success.
 
Over two days we will immerse into the key strategies for creating a sustainably successful career. A career that is not punctured by regular burnouts but enables you to realise your full potential.
Artistic doors depicting opportunity ahead

Highlights of our Explore module

Define what makes you uniquely you

  • Learn about the different types of neurodivergence and how they often co-exist together and correlate with auto-immune and mental health challenges
  • Better understand what is uniquely you versus what are your coping mechanisms you’ve adopted
  • Craft a concise description of who you are, how you think, feel and behave so that you can have more meaningful conversations with family, friends and colleagues
Artistic doors depicting opportunity ahead

Highlights of our Energy module

Overcome and avoid burnout

  • Learn about energy and what makes it go up and down
  • Explore and define your own energy cycles so that you can better align work to time
  • Identify and implement strategies that optimise energy, positive emotions and engagement with work
  • Craft a concise description of reasonable adjustments that you can share with your leader and colleagues to help them help you to be your best
Artistic doors depicting opportunity ahead

Highlights of our Environment module

Optimise where and how you work

  • Understand how the physical environment affects your productivity and wellbeing
  • Identify the ideal physical environment/s for you to perform as effectively as possible while still meeting the needs of your employer
  • Develop a plan for implementing changes to your physical environments, including a business case (if necessary) for securing your leader’s support

Highlights of our Effectiveness module

Get things done

  • Learn about Getting Things Done®, a personal productivity methodology that redefines how you approach your life and work
  • Understand tools and techniques for capturing, clarifying, organising, reflecting and engaging in tasks
  • Implement a wide range of strategies and hacks that make you more productive everyday
Artistic doors depicting opportunity ahead

Highlights of our Etiquette module

Belong without having to ‘fit in’

  • Learn about social aspects of the workplace and how to recognise what is really necessary to engage in
  • Set yourself some social boundaries so that you fit in without losing yourself
  • Learn how to better manage workplace conflict and difficult scenarios
Artistic doors depicting opportunity ahead

Highlights of our Embrace module

Own your authentic career

  • Overcoming societal and cultural expectations to embrace your true self in the most authentic way
  • Celebrate your personality type and superpowers 
  • Find your true purpose and align your professional and personal life to this
  • Celebrate belonging to a community of brave, intelligent and compassionate women
hi there, I'm joey

Your coach

For 20 years, I worked at an executive level in a wide range of organisations all around the world.
  • Formally qualified in business, communications and executive leadership
  • A seasoned management consultant with the Big Four
  • Former commercial diplomat in Washington DC

I built an enviable LinkedIn Profile and reached the lofty heights of Qantas Platinum Frequent Flyer!

But, my success had came from profound masking and camouflaging that led to a lifestyle of micro burnouts and a couple of macro burnouts.

The upside is that throughout my career I have coached dozens of CEOs, leaders and managers to improve their productivity, find purpose at work and go for and get those promotions.

Now I am bringing that knowledge and toolkit to our community so that our talents are leveraged at work.

I established Grit n Grace Collective as a place where I could belong without having to fit in, and you can too.

maybe you resonate with my story?

Throughout my career, I got up, dressed up and showed up as the typical workplace expects.

  • I got up when all I could do was sleep
  • I dressed up in the corporate outfits that made me look like a man and made it difficult to breathe
  • I showed up and took the “opportunities” to work longer and harder, give the presentations, take on the big roles

But I knew I could never bring my whole self to work; and I didn’t want to either. There were standards, expectations and narrow guardrails. To be ‘successful’ I needed to mask and camouflage most of the time.

I arrived at my mid 40s feeling confused, anxious, angry and then completely exhausted.

Turned out I had autistic burnout which led to chronic exhaustion, a loss of skills, reduced tolerance to stimulus and a loss of self-belief.

My mission is to embrace my authentic self and unique superpowers to continue to succeed professionally, but on my own terms, and help others to do so too.

Joey with dozens of trade show lanyards hanging around her neck
Headshot of Joey looking serious!
my autism experience

I think, feel and act differently

I see things in a way that others can’t. I create order out of chaos, whether it is information, plans or pantries. I think logically and incredibly literally. And I Get Things Done.

I’m big picture and detail-oriented at the same time. For the right topic, I can hyperfocus and fixate until the sun goes down. I make up my own words and can be quite entertaining. And I can have childlike enthusiasm that doesn’t always sit well in a business setting.

I can miss the social cues at work and appear aloof or aggressive. Or, I try so hard to be liked that I can come off inauthentic. I fight too many fights, seeing inefficiency or injustice everywhere.

I ask lots of questions and can interrupt inappropriately. I fidget, squirm, pick and scratch. And I bump into things, a lot.

I’m not always confident in my own abilities but I love helping others to see and achieve their unique potential.

Enrol now!

20-21 March 2025

AU$1997

plus GST

Frequently Asked Questions

With any investment in your professional development, it is natural to have some questions. Here are just a few, but please feel free to book an informal chat to ensure this is the right program for you.

No. From my experience, the diagnosis path is a daunting, comprehensive and expensive process. It is not necessary to be clinically diagnosed to self identify or self diagnose as neurodivergent. You are welcome to join this program if you experience the challenges of fitting into a typical work environment yet you still want to achieve in your professional life.

The content of the Empowered program has been developed in a neuro-affirming way and does not specify specific strategies for specific forms of neurodivergence. You will find the program to be a comprehensive suite of strategies, tips, tricks and techniques that apply to anyone who experiences marginalisation at work. We welcome your participation! 

Yes. Additional coaching sessions with Joey are available for you to explore and develop in a private and personalised format. Or, choose to participate in Empowered Private which replaces the 12 group coaching calls for six private 1:1 coaching sessions within 12 weeks. 

For this two day program it is not feasible to offer a payment plan. A payment plan is available for my 12 week Empowered Experience which you can learn about here.

The NDIA recognises the importance of capacity building and it’s your Choice and Control if you choose to access our help.

There are a couple of relevant line items in the price guide:

10_016_0102_5_3  Employment Support

This support item provides workplace assistance that enables a participant to successfully obtain or retain employment in the open or supported labour market. This support can be supplied to any working age participant with an employment goal.

09_008_0116_6_3  Innovative Community Participation

This support item is designed to enable providers to offer new and innovative services to participants and is for mainstream providers who want to enable participants to access mainstream activities.

The NDIA always refers to these 3 three criteria:

1. Is it reasonable and necessary?  We are a professional development program designed specifically to retain neurodivergent women in the workplace. 

2. Is it good value for money? You get access to 6 hours of practical and applied coursework, 12 weekly group coaching calls and a collaborative platform where you can develop relationships with other women in your situation for support.

3. Does it work towards the participant’s goals? We work towards practical and productive workplace skills and behaviours. As long as you have something similar to one of these in your plan you are OK. 

It is possible to purchase spaces to the Empowered program for your staff under a number of the existing Australian Government panels. Please contact Joey to arrange an invoice.

Of course! I’ve designed Empowered for a very specific talent pool that is underestimated and often under-utilised or mis-utilised. I’d welcome the opportunity to discuss how this program will help your staff to thrive at work and best contribute to your organisation’s performance. 

I also offer workshops for managers about neurodivergence in the workplace and ways to lead neurodivergent staff. Please make a time with me and let’s have an informal chat.

Enrol now!

20-21 March 2025

AU$1997

plus GST

Acknowledgement of Country

We acknowledge the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples who are the traditional custodians of the Canberra area in which we work. We pay respect to the elders, past and present, of all Australia’s Indigenous peoples.