Last month, we spoke to the director of No Limits Community Café and explored the issue of accessibility in employment from young people diagnosed with complex needs. Today, we’d like to turn your attention to Sarah Field, the Devon-based entrepreneur behind Infinite Ability who received her diagnosis for autism, ADHD and dyslexia later in adulthood.
Since her diagnosis, Sarah has made it her mission to support neurodiverse teens and women. Infinite Ability has plenty to offer people, from her maths tutoring service, one-to-one mentoring support, and her recent Find Your Tribe support group for neurodiverse women, whether or not they’ve had a formal diagnosis.
Sarah shares her journey of how she formed Infinite Ability and how she’s been able to help women like her through Find Your Tribe.
How did Infinite Ability start?
How did Infinite Ability start?I always thought I’d just be a teacher forever. I went straight from my A levels to university and taught maths in a secondary school in 2014, so once I achieved that, I thought I was set. I have always done unofficial mentoring even when I was working in mainstream schools. I was quite often that teacher young people could come and speak to if things were tricky, they needed a sounding board, or if they just needed a safe space for quiet.
For various reasons, I left the education system in 2020 and started maths tutoring, which was a really bizarre time to start a business since we went into lockdown. I got stuck in that in-between phase where my business wasn’t up and running, so there was no business support, but I also didn’t have an employer so there was no furlough. However, when the schools closed, the tutoring really took off.
The mentoring became a lot more formal when I joined Gecko Community, a charity which provide alternative education and mentoring for neurodiverse young people. Beginning of 2024, I formalised my business, came up with a name and had a logo made. It wasn’t until the Women in Business course at Newton Abbot Library that I had this light bulb moment where I could also help adults, which is where the Find Your Tribe support group came from.
How have your lived experiences being neurodivergent fed into starting Find Your Tribe?
Diagnosis in females is much harder to come across than diagnosis in males for a lot of reasons. For young people that are diagnosed, there are lots of support systems, but once they turn 18, there’s this idea that some magic happens and you don’t need that support anymore. What that means is that when we hit adulthood and become aware of your neurodiversity, your whole world is turned upside down.
I was undiagnosed while I was teaching in schools. Being aware at a younger age allows you to understand that you are viewing the world differently, whereas I just assumed that everyone was viewing the world the same way as me. Therefore, I was permanently confused because other people aren’t responding or interacting in the way that I would’ve done.
I struggled because I didn’t know what support I needed, so I couldn’t go to any particular organisation for help, and therefore you’re left until you figure it out. That’s the gap I’m trying to fill with Find Your Tribe where you can rock up to the group and see what happens. I’ve always been resourceful and put a lot of energy into figuring out how things worked for my brain, so bringing together late diagnosed, undiagnosed and misdiagnosed women, I’m able to guide them to approach things in a different way.
How have neurodivergent women and entrepreneurs benefited from your group?
How have neurodivergent women and entrepreneurs benefited from your group?The biggest thing that people come away with is an unmuddled brain. When they arrive with 600 million things spinning around in their head, we try to figure out what’s taking up their headspace the most. For example, clearing out my handbag just needs to be done on a regular basis; it’s not going to affect my business, but if I’m wandering around all day knowing I haven’t done it, that stresses me out. So what I help people do is to figure out what’s actually bothering them the most and do that first.
The other side of the group is when someone comes to me with a big idea but doesn’t know how to execute it. There’s that paralysis of doing such an enormous task. We try to break it down by working out what the individual steps are; not breaking the whole thing down in one go since that’s still overwhelming, just breaking down one little bit at a time.
One person who’s been coming to Find Your Tribe, Heidi Slatter, is a massive advocate in the autism community, and recently won an award from Vic Williams. She wanted to put together a video on the work she does, who she supports and why it’s important, so over a number of weeks, we did little bits at a time. When she eventually posted it, it was amazing, so it was really nice to help facilitate that.
What difficulties have you faced maintaining Infinite Ability?
One of my biggest barriers is the inaccessibility of bigger workshops and networking events unless you have someone to go with. Attending the Women in Business course with a support worker alleviated a lot of stress. I probably would’ve forced myself to go alone, but I also would’ve been in such a state of anxiety that my ability to comprehend and process whatever was going on in each session would have disappeared.
If there’s a big event run by a particular host, they’ll probably be busy delivering their event and won’t have the capacity to support me at the door. It’s difficult to know who is going to be supportive in that moment as well. When you approach someone to say you need accessibility support because they’re a high chance of having a meltdown, it’s still viewed as something within your control.
If somebody is autistic and has to go into a room full of people walking around in different directions and making a lot of noise, they’re still expected to make small talk. The view is that you need to be able to network as a business owner, but that’s not where my skillset lies. My business isn’t dependent on my ability to network.
What exciting things have you got lined up in the future?
Now I’ve got an office, I’ve had a 100 million ideas for what to do next. I really want to grow the support side of Find Your Tribe, because a lot of people who come are self-employed or work from home, and I’d like to expand that so it’s not just businesswomen or business owners. I would also like to run craft workshops and un-networking groups, which have the same outcomes but cuts out the awkward small talk.
Do you have any advice for people wanting to start their own business as a neurodivergent entrepreneur?
Find your tribe. That’s obviously the name of my group, but if there’s one thing worth putting your time and energy into, it’s finding people that just get you. Find people that you can be completely, unapologetically authentic with as a support network. Those are the people that you can count on for help or go to events with or bounce off the ideas in your head that sound like ridiculous questions.
In my support network, there are certain people who just always let me be me, and they are the people I turn to when I can’t figure out where I’m going with this business. It’s not going to make those tasks or barriers easier, but it’s going to help with feeling isolated and remove the feeling of not being able to achieve this thing.