The Anxious Achiever Podcast - Review
Anxiety and the Achievement.
Creative Battles is a series of reviews of books and podcasts that we found recommended to support Artists, Creatives, and small businesspeople in their businesses, as well as dealing with the common struggles of being a solo enterprise. Dealing with loneliness, isolations, imposter syndrome and self-doubt that are so common and challenging. The Anxious Achiever podcast is a prolific podcast with over 350 episodes that posts weekly with interviews and hosted discussions. The episodes vary in length from 30 min to an hour and are hosted by Morra Aarons- Mele, who has a range of corporate experience that is the baseline for her strong participation in the discussions with her guests. Additionally, Aarons-Mele often refers to her own neuro divergence and the opportunities and challenges that it presents to her professional and personal history and life.
This review was based podcasts on Apple Podcast of episodes, released 1/9; 3/9; 8/9; 10/9; 15/9.
Representation and Information
The Anxious Achiever podcast has a format of what I think I would call participatory interview and discussion. Each episode we reviewed had a guest, most were authors, who had books coming up, where the interview and discussion where our host, participated into a larger degree then some of the other interview podcasts that we’re previously looked at as part of this review series. The small business sessions had a host that largely prompted the interviewee to continue their story. In this podcast we get a lot of participation from the host and that makes it better. The host has a range of experience both professional and personal that they support and challenge the conversation with that makes it feel more real and gives more perspective. I appreciate the human stories and ideas part of these podcasts a lot and with that having just one voice speak for 40 mins is less interesting than someone with a strong experience and point of view, as our host does.
The podcast leans into its name’s sake and has a focus on Neurodivergent aspects of professional work, corporate participation, and work. The focus comes from the hosts own self-declared experiences and that of the guests that either also are neuro divergent or work with and around that community. The episodes were full of good commentary and discussions of personal experiences, coping and managing methods and stories of how the business world and employees are learning more and evolving with the developing experience with neuro divergency.
The representation of successful people who were able to work with through and around their own situations I feel is a great resource for those who are entering, or working in traditional framed jobs where corporate structures and models are not made with this in mind. Hearing how others have both been able to manage and work with their situation as well as acknowledging that it is and can be difficult is very important. Additionally, one episode spoke of how companies and businesses now can be and should focus on how to include their work environments for those with other needs and perceptions was very educational for me, in considering many elements that I usually take for granted and privilege.
Most of the episodes I felt had strong content, with people in various industries and backgrounds giving good perspective and interplay with the host. Some episodes seemed to drift a bit in point, content and were perhaps not a relevant to the theme or as focused on message, leading to some length or lack of focus that was noticeable. The ability to skip this or listen at a higher speed can remedy that bloat to a degree. Additionally, I feel it´s worth noting that there was a lot of ads on the podcast and while I appreciate that shows the success having pre-roll, two sets of mid roll ads were disruptive. You can skip them, so I don´t think it was too bad, but It was a lot.
Summary
The Anxious Achiever has a great host, with a good focus on being neuro divergent in a professional, employed career. The guests and the discussion they bring is great and leads to some real interesting opportunities to learn new things. I recommend this podcast for those who may have or are interest in neuro divergent impact, on themselves or people around them in a business and professional context. The representation that this podcast brings is very important.
If you´re looking for support in your career development or find that you want to explore how to build your business and professional situation, why not reach out to us on DM or by email today and schedule your first free consultation. We´ll work with you to build up a plan for your journey from today to your dream.
Thank you.
Tim H.
Lead consultant.
