Drudgery and Dreams, Podcast for Neurodivergetn Weirdos and Queers
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Stimagz with Kody Lukens

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Molly and Angela are joined by Stimagz founder, Kody Lukens. They start the episode off right nerding out over Mandalorian – don’t worry, no spoilers – and the Millenium Falcon before jumping into the creation of Stimagz, Kody’s ADHD experience, how cool squirrels are, motivation, entrepreneurship, and the need to just go ahead and embarrass yourself. Grab your favorite stim tool or fidget and get ready to rock (if that’s your thing) as you enjoy this fun-filled, guest episode of Drudgery and Dreams.

I’ll take The Quadruple Whammy with a side of Rabbit Hole, please 

Like Angela and so many others, Kody wasn’t diagnosed with ADHD until he was an adult. He says, “a lot of the sort of emotional aspects and the other areas that it can affect your life weren’t really known, or if they were known, they weren’t talked about publicly” (5:11). Also like many other neurodivergent folks, Kody has several diagnoses that interact with each other to create his unique lived experience: ADHD, OCD, Depression, Anxiety. 

Kody’s diagnosis led to jumping down the proverbial rabbit hole to learn everything he could about ADHD – and that led to TikTok! “That’s when I really started learning a lot more about the more anecdotal ADHD experiences” (Kody, 5:50). He goes on to express, “I realized, wow, this really affects me a lot more than I thought it did.” 

Mission Possible: Create Value for ND People

“My sort of personal mission statement is to create value for neurodivergent people…my focus is creating that value for people (Kody, 10:40). A true ND entrepreneur, Kody took his love of something and turned it into something valuable to the community. And the community certainly validated that Kody is achieving his mission! His Kickstarter campaign for Stimagz earned nearly $90,000 which went straight into the business of producing Stimagz and getting them into our hands. Kody says, “I’m someone that’s passionate about helping people, not just some random businessman trying to make a quick buck off of neurodivergent people” (14:40). 

And let’s not forget that Kody Lukens provides so much value to us on all of his social channels—if you don’t already, follow @kodylukens on all platforms!

A Cup of Motivation

Let’s talk about Executive Function for just a minute. We all know that motivation affects how we do—or don’t do—ALL THE THINGS. Kody shares the acronym, INCUP, coined by Michael Dodson, to help us understand how ADHD brains are motivated. “…you being interested in the numbers, Molly, or Angela, you being interested in Stimagz and then going out and trying to reach out to me” is an example of how interest trumps importance (Kody, 35:25). We can know that something is important, but that interest will usually win our attention. So will Novelty, Challenge, Urgency, and Passion. 

Kody is a phenomenal guest and there are just too many nuggets of magic—RSD, self-care, community-care, embarrassing yourself, the power of swearing to name a few—in this episode to add into the notes. Take a moment and listen in or check out the transcript. You won’t regret it!

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*Stimagz – this is a referral link. The podcast will receive 20% commission on purchases made through the link and the user will receive 15% off the entire purchase with the coupon code DNDDSTIMAGZ