How an autistic CEO rebuilt her company culture around energy

Executive overview

Spending years in workplaces not designed for your neurology is invisible work — it doesn't show up in performance reviews, but it shows up on Friday afternoon. Cherie Clonan, autistic CEO of The Digital Picnic, built one of Australia's most neuro-inclusive workplaces after hitting her lowest point as a founder.

Her hardest year nearly cost her half a million dollars. What turned it around wasn't hustle — it was ruthlessly eliminating energy drains and rebuilding culture around two criteria: kindness and the desire to learn.

Businesses don't fail when they run out of cash — they fail when the founder runs out of energy.

What masking actually costs

• Masking means constantly monitoring every interaction, adjusting your output, and suppressing natural responses to fit neurotypical expectations.
• For neurodivergent people, a normal back-to-back meeting day costs roughly four times the energy it costs neurotypical colleagues.
• The toll is invisible to others but cumulative — Clonan describes arriving at Friday "catatonic" despite appearing functional all week.
• Masking is social too: lip-reading in noisy environments, calibrating tone in real time, suppressing sensory overwhelm while holding a conversation.
• Short bursts are survivable; 7.75-hour workdays are not — employers need to close that gap with accommodations.

Spoon theory and energy accounting

• Spoon theory: you start each day with a finite number of spoons; every demand costs some; zero spoons means crisis.
• Costs vary — an unscheduled meeting without an agenda might cost two spoons; a loud social event might cost six.
• Recovery ("reclaiming spoons") requires intentional rest, not just stopping work — for Clonan: natural light, a book, silence, her dog.
• The model applies to teams: knowing what each person's baseline is, and what drains it, is a leadership skill.
• Parents can apply it to their kids — especially useful at end-of-term when reserves are near zero.

Designing a neuro-inclusive physical environment

• The DUNN model of sensory processing maps four quadrants: sensory seek, sensory avoid, sensory sensitive, and low registration.
• A space designed only for sensory avoiders will frustrate sensory seekers — design must accommodate all four types.
• Practical changes: dimmable lighting, quiet zones, ability for individuals to choose their own sensory conditions.
• Remote work removed one of the biggest structural barriers for neurodivergent workers — it was the main accommodation missing pre-COVID.

The hardest year: what went wrong

• 2021–22: a cascade of bad decisions compounded by inaction and toxic optimism ("it'll get better").
• Clonan felt bullied within her own organisation — described as "rogue" and "loose" by people on her own payroll.
• Ended the financial year $500K down; felt she had failed her family.
• The breaking point forced action: she reclaimed visibility, named what was happening, and demanded a culture reset.
• Key shift: accepting that some people respond to hierarchy even when the leader doesn't believe in it — and using it strategically to restore respect.

Non-negotiables she rebuilt from scratch

• Vision remapping first: attract people who want to do the best work of their career; actively repel those who don't.
• Non-negotiable 1 — tryhards only: hiring people who want to learn and won't suppress others' enthusiasm.
• Non-negotiable 2 — kind geniuses: adapted from Lencioni's humble/hungry/smart framework; "kind" replaces humble, "genius" pairs hunger with smarts.
• Energy raise must outweigh energy drain at the organisational level — not toxic positivity, but a culture where friction gets named and addressed early.
• People who've hit a ceiling should be helped to move on, not left to quietly resent.

How she structures time now

• First 7 days of each month: fully remote, dedicated to deep data and client reporting — coming into the office makes no sense for that work.
• Only 6 office days per month total.
• Fridays are meeting-free and near-notification-free.
• Most of December is off-site to reduce mental load for working parents.
• Her PDA (pathological demand avoidance) profile makes her instinctively cut unnecessary demands — she treats that as a leadership asset, not a liability.
• The test: if she's ready for the work-from-home week before it arrives, the rhythm is right.