The client who changed everything
So. You want to know how this became the ND focused thing it is now.
Fine. Let’s do the real version. Not the one where I sat down in early 2023 with a beautifully considered niche strategy and a five year plan for becoming an ND specialist.
That version would be lovely. That version would be wrong.
The general VA days (short but formative)
When I first started my business, I thought I’d found my niche with counsellors.
It just felt right. I’d been on the other side of the room. I’d experienced counselling myself and knew how much those spaces could change someone’s life. I loved the idea of giving something back by taking the admin off therapists’ plates so they could spend more time doing the work that really mattered.
So that’s where I started. Or should I say, thats where I tried to start…..and I failed. Quite massively
I kept telling myself that businesses take time to find their feet. That everyone feels a bit unsure in the beginning. And that’s true.
Just not the whole truth.
Then came July 2023
An associate role came up. ADHD client. Working through another VA agency.
I said yes because I needed the work. Not because I had masses of experience with supporting someone with ADHD. But I DID have experience (and big love) for admin.
The first call, I remember thinking “oh.” That kind of oh. The one where something clicks before your brain has caught up with what clicked.
She seemed shy. A bit reserved. Unsure how this was all going to work…..she wasn’t the only one.
I’d never worked with someone like her before, and I remember thinking, I really hope I get this right.
It wasn’t too much. It was, in a weirdly specific way, the easiest client conversation I’d ever had.
I don’t know how to explain the click except to say this. None of the things she was apologising for felt like problems to me. They felt like how brains work. How this brain works. How a lot of us work when nobody’s watching.
I told her to stop apologising. I told her the voice notes were fine. I told her I’d catch the thread she’d dropped three topics ago and we’d come back to it. We did.
The lightbulb
Here’s the bit that took me a while to articulate.
The things my ND clients find hardest are the things I happen to be quite good at.
Holding fifteen half finished threads and knowing which one to pick back up. Absorbing a chaotic brain dump and finding the actual task inside it. Reading between the lines of “can you just sort of, you know” and turning it into a plan. Sitting with someone while they think, whether that’s out loud or in silence. Not rushing them. Not finishing their sentences. Not making them feel silly for how their thoughts came out.
None of that was on my “VA services” list. It was just how I worked.
Turns out that thing IS the job.
Communication is the job
Something I’ve properly landed on since. For the people I work with, HOW I communicate matters as much as what I get done.
Some clients want voice notes only. Some want bullet lists so they can process at their own speed. Some need me to send the “hey, just checking in, no pressure” message on a Tuesday because otherwise the task will vanish into the shame pile until Friday. Some need me to never mention it again until they bring it up.
None of that is niche extras. That IS the service.
The tasks matter, obviously. Someone’s calendar still needs running. Someone’s inbox still needs taming. But if the way I show up while I’m doing those tasks doesn’t work for their brain, then I’m just another bloody thing they have to manage. Which is the opposite of the job.
Not tied to one industry
The unexpected joy of all this. I’m not locked into one sector.
Me and my team have worked with Therapists, Doctors, Midwifes, Recruiters, Coaches, Systems Specialists, Social Media Executives, Lawyers, Fashion Designers, VAs, Teachers, Consultants, Mediators, AI specialists and even people who just need lifestyle support….. the sky really is the limit.
What ties each client together isn’t the industry. It’s how their brains work. Which means my day can go from a therapist’s Go High Level system, to a copywriter’s launch calendar, to a recruiter’s inbox chaos, without any of it feeling disconnected. Because underneath, the support is the same.
That’s the version of variety I actually wanted. Not “a bit of everything for everyone.” A specific kind of everything for a specific kind of person. Turns out that’s not narrower. It’s deeper.
What it taught me about support
Proper support doesn’t start with the task list.
It starts with knowing how someone’s brain is set up. What times of day they’re sharpest. What kind of check in feels supportive versus what feels like pressure. Whether they need me to hold the structure or hand it back to them. Whether they want me visible or want me to just quietly make things happen.
Get that bit right, and the tasks land easily. Get that bit wrong, and it doesn’t matter how tidy your Asana board is. The support won’t feel like support.
That’s the whole difference. From “here’s your finished to-do list” to “here’s your finished to-do list AND you don’t feel like a burden for having needed help with it.”
So that’s how it happened
An associate placement. One client. One “oh.” moment on a call. And a business that quietly re-shaped itself around the people I was always meant to be working with.
I didn’t pick the niche. The niche walked in on a Tuesday afternoon and made itself at home.
If you’re a neurodivergent business owner, freelancer, founder or just a person who’s tired of explaining yourself to people who don’t quite get it. If you’re apologising for voice notes and half finished sentences and the way your brain does its thing. You don’t have to.
That’s what we’re here for.


