When Willpower Was Never the Problem: and what taking control of your business actually takes

Overview

You get results for everyone else. Clients, kids, the people who rely on you — all handled. Then you open your own banking app and something tightens in your chest.

Most advice says the fix is discipline. Try harder, get organised, push through. You have tried all of that, and the numbers still get avoided, the pricing still sits too low, the tax still falls behind.

Here is the reframe for this hour: willpower was never the problem. The way you work is wiring plus an environment that never gave you the right tools. That is not a character flaw, and it is not fixed by another productivity system.

Mel Stibbs has spent 25 years in business and was diagnosed with ADHD, then autism, in her forties. She helps women build businesses that work with their brains instead of against them. Shaye Thyer joins her with the money lens — what taking control actually looks like once you reach pricing, structure and reserves.

Together they will walk through why capable women avoid their own numbers, why "business is last" is the right order and not a failure, and what one honest step looks like this week.

Details

• Date: Wednesday 21 October 2026

• Time: 1:00pm AEDT Sydney · 12:30am ACDT Adelaide

• Platform: Zoom (link sent on registration)

• Duration: 60 minutes, including live Q&A

• Recording: Yes — register and we will send you the replay, even if you cannot make it live

Your panel

Mel Stibbs — ADHD Village. Mel is the founder of ADHD Village, where she helps women with ADHD, autism, or both build businesses that work with their brains rather than against them. She spent 20 years in corporate finance, then co-founded a recruitment business with her husband and grew it to a team of 15. Diagnosed with ADHD in 2020 and autism in 2023, she finally understood why conventional business advice had always felt so hard to follow. Her Bandwidth, Brains & Business framework starts with a woman's energy and capacity, then how her brain actually works, before it ever touches strategy. She believes women should not have to exhaust themselves or hide who they are to succeed.

Shaye Thyer. Shaye is a Chartered Accountant who spent two decades inside the finance world before building a practice for the women it kept leaving out. She works with founders and CEOs who are brilliant at what they do and quietly avoiding their own numbers. Her line: I help women take control of the money, and build something they cannot take.

You'll walk away with

• A clear name for the pattern you have been fighting, and why it is not about discipline

• The bandwidth → brain → business order, and why your money is the last thing to fix, not the first

• A diagnosis-agnostic way to work out where you actually are right now

• A plain look at where avoidance shows up in your numbers — pricing, tax, reserves

• Language for what you will no longer tolerate in your business

• One practical action to take this week

Format

A relaxed, honest conversation — practical and easy to follow, with time for your live questions at the end.

If you've ever thought…

• "I can sort out everyone else's business, so why not my own?"

• "I will look at the numbers when they feel less scary."

• "I just need to try harder and get more disciplined."

• "Everyone else seems to find this easy."

This hour is for you.

Register

It is free, and it is recorded. Save your spot, and if the time does not suit, register anyway and we will send you the replay.