REFRAME 9: Building From Your Truth
The Creation
Six months after I left AFSCME, I built Flower Street Strategies.
Not as someone who had it all figured out.
But as someone who understood what had broken her and was determined to build something different.
What's Different
I could have tried to fix myself and go back.
Could have gotten better coaching. Better boundaries. Better self-management.
Could have found a different institution and performed the same performance in a different place.
But I didn't.
Because I understood: the system was the problem, not me.
So I built a system designed differently.
The Foundation
Flower Street is built on one core principle:
Stop asking people to be someone they're not.
We don't teach neurodivergent leaders how to manage their symptoms so they seem neurotypical.
We teach them how to build systems where their actual neurology is an asset.
We don't ask people to mask.
We ask them to understand.
We don't offer strategies for becoming more palatable.
We offer frameworks for becoming more strategic about who they actually are.
Everything we build starts with one question:
How do we create environments where people's nervous systems can actually regulate instead of constantly being in threat?
What That Looks Like in Practice
The neurodivergent leaders who come to work with us have usually spent years trying to fix themselves.
Trying to perform. Trying to manage. Trying to shrink.
Most of them have been labeled "too much."
Most of them have internalized shame.
Most of them have forgotten their own story.
But the moment they realize: I'm not the problem. The system is.
Everything changes.
They stop apologizing for how they work.
They start building teams around their actual strengths.
They stop trying to be "flexible" in service of everyone else's comfort.
They start being strategic about where they invest their energy.
They lead.
What This Means for You
Your experience isn't a liability.
It's your credential.
The years you spent trying to fit into systems not designed for you?
That's the knowledge you need to build something different.
The narrative that got twisted?
You get to write your own story now.
The fog that nearly broke you?
You get to use that understanding to help others find their way out.
The freeze that told you something had to change?
That's the signal that says: build from here.
The Choice
You can keep trying to fit into spaces that aren't designed for you.
Or you can build spaces where you actually belong.
You can keep performing someone else's narrative.
Or you can start living your own.
You can keep mistaking survival for strength.
Or you can finally, actually, reclaim your life.
The Question
What would you build if you trusted that your story was worth telling?
What kind of space would you create if you built it from your actual truth instead of from what's supposed to be palatable?
Who would you become if you stopped performing for people who don't get you?
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