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October 6, 2025
What happens when doing everything "right" still leaves you miserable? You start asking better questions.
Shell Mendelson was a successful CEO of KidzArt, an international children's art franchise she founded, when everything fell apart. Despite looking accomplished on paper, she was disconnected, dysregulated, and drowning in work that no longer fit. At her lowest point, she found an ADHD book a therapist friend had sent years earlier, opened it, and finally understood why she'd always felt like an outcast. Diagnosed in her fifties, Shell realized the masking, hypervigilance, and constant feeling of being "off" had been ADHD all along.
Now, after 35+ years as a career coach, Shell helps ADHD and neurodivergent adults stop job-hopping and start building careers that actually fit. She's the author of Unlock Your Career Path and creator of the Career Galaxy framework—a process that helps people define their must-haves in writing so they never forget what they need to thrive. In this conversation, Shell and Tracy explore why career assessments fail neurodivergent people, how DEI rollbacks are pushing ADHD professionals into hiding, the rise of workplace surveillance, and why people who need accommodations are often just in the wrong job.
Shell also shares her recent move to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, where she's building a life by the beach with her two dogs—a story about reinvention, clarity, and refusing to stay somewhere that doesn't serve you, even when it looks successful from the outside.
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“When you're starting to feel miserable and when things start going south in your work, it's time to take a look and ask, is this the right fit for me?”
- Shell Mendelson
“We have to love what we do. For neurodivergent people, it’s not optional. It’s survival.”
- Shell Mendelson
“Quick fixes don’t work because they don’t ask the right questions. You can’t take a test to find your path. You have to go through a process that turns off the noise and helps you really see who you are.”
-- Shell Mendelson
People who need accommodations are often just in the wrong fit. When you’re in the right job, everything changes—your anxiety, your confidence, your energy.
-- Shell Mendelson
Employers who treat people like machines are destroying creativity. You can’t surveil someone into doing great work.
- Shell Mendelson
Now is the most important time to do a self-reflective process. You need to define what you want, down to the last detail, in writing so you don’t forget who you are.
-- Shell Mendelson
- Shell was diagnosed with ADHD in her fifties as CEO of KidsArt when she realized she was no longer doing work aligned with her purpose, causing severe dissatisfaction and feelings of being an outcast among neurotypical colleagues.
- Years earlier, a therapist friend sent her an ADHD book she dismissed as "for kids," but at her lowest point she found it and experienced the typical late-diagnosis epiphany—understanding she wasn't alone while grieving the years spent not knowing.
- Her trauma history created hypervigilance and masking through academic achievement, allowing her to appear high-functioning while hiding ADHD symptoms, which led to initial dismissal when seeking diagnosis.
- Shell developed the "career bubble" process requiring clients to turn off all outside noise—including spouses—to identify authentic must-haves through completely self-centered work, because ADHD brains cannot sustain unfulfilling work regardless of pay.
- She reveals 50% of current clients have been placed on PIPs, and discusses how DEI rollbacks have put neurodivergent people "back into hiding," creating fear around asking for accommodations and increased anxiety across the disability community.
- Shell emphasizes people needing workplace accommodations are often in the wrong job fit, and when ADHD individuals find aligned work, productivity increases, anxiety decreases, and they excel without special accommodations.
[00:52:00 - 01:19:43] AI as Tool, Mexico Move, and Sustainable Career Design
- Shell uses AI to help neurodivergent clients quickly identify career possibilities within their interests, replacing traditional resources while emphasizing staying "uniquely yourself" to remain relevant as AI automates routine tasks ADHD brains struggle with anyway.
- After feeling disconnected in San Antonio, she moved to Puerto Vallarta within months of deciding, finding a heart-centered culture where she met more people in three weeks than seven years in Texas.
- Her 35-year career coaching business remains sustainable because it allows constant creativity, is never boring, and serves as a model for clients to find work they love, tweaking it over time rather than abandoning it during difficult periods.
ADHD isn’t a productivity problem. It’s an identity problem.
That’s why most strategies don’t stick—they weren’t designed for how your brain actually works. Your ADHD Brain is A-OK Academy is different. It’s a patented, science-backed coaching program that helps you stop fighting your brain and start building a life that fits. 👉Learn more here
- Website: www.careercoachingwithshell.com
- Facebook: CareerCoachingwithShell
- LinkedIn: yourpassiontocareer
- Website: unlockyourcareerpath.com