Æ Group | Autism & ADHD Entrepreneur Program Eagleby | Slim Gym.

Æ Group — Entrepreneurship Program for Neurodivergent Adults

The letter æ (called "ash") is pronounced like the "a" in the English words cat, "dad", or "apple". So with a little twist, it will phonetically sound like æ (our) group

Can't

That is a word I hear so often with the young fellas with ASD that I work with. I started out just doing personal training, and I saw they were missing certain things, so I didn't have a choice — I had to help.

A big part of what I see is that the 'Can't' is ingrained early, and a lot of these guys absolutely can, but trying when the brain sees can't as the rule means we can either give up or try to reframe. I have found proof is how we fight fire with fire.

At some stage, there was proof that they can't do something, so now they can't do it. We need to create a situation where we have proof they can.

I read a study (no, I read a Facebook post about a study) and I found it quite interesting. (So below is a Google AI reply to a 'what was that study again' search)

It was a social psychology experiment on belief perseverance

The Experiment Design

• The Task: Participants were given a task, such as distinguishing between real and fake suicide notes or evaluating social sensitivity.

  
  

• The Split: As they worked, half the room was randomly given false success feedback (told they did very well) and the other half was given false failure feedback (told they failed miserably).

  
  

• The Reveal: Afterwards, the researchers explicitly confessed to the participants that the feedback was entirely fake, predetermined, and bore no relation to their actual performance.

  
  

Key Findings on Belief Perseverance

• The Persistence: Even after a standard "outcome debriefing" where the deception was fully explained and documented proof of the fakery was shown, participants who had been told they succeeded still rated themselves as significantly more skilled at the task than those who had been told they failed.

  
  

• The Mechanism: People automatically formulate internal, cognitive explanations and narratives during an event (e.g., "I am good at spotting tone because I am an empathetic person"). Once those causal explanations are built in the mind, they survive even total destruction of the original evidence.

  
  

• The Solution: The study found that standard debriefing fails to clear the bias. The only way to eliminate the lingering effect was "process debriefing" — specifically warning participants about the psychological tendency of belief perseverance and forcing them to actively deconstruct how their own minds generated supporting reasons.

I hope you found that intriguing as well... belief perseverance remains widely accepted as a valid, reproducible psychological concept, and the study was from 1975.

Interestingly enough, success feedback creates incredibly stubborn belief perseverance. People love believing they are naturally talented. (Thank you, thank you very much) While failure feedback is slightly less persistent, because as humans we are motivated to maintain a positive self-image, our brains are more willing to drop the belief that we "suck" once we are told the test was fake.

Pretty cool, right... Now, are you wondering if this still fits with neurodiversity... coz we are a different critter, right?

There is often more cognitive rigidity with ASD, meaning if we took this, that one time, as a rule... then it is now, forever has been, and will be ...fact, and the world will end before change (have you experienced that? I have). And why oh why do we get the negative ones stuck in like that instead of the positive ones, right?!?!

Did I mention I go off on tangents?

I actually really want to go back and read more about this stuff right now, but if I don't write this now, then it will be 2 a.m., and I will have forgotten.

Anyway... Can't.

Yes, you can... and I want to help you prove it to yourself. Anecdotally, with my clients I have seen that me proving it to them does not have the same impact as them proving it to themselves, and I have no problem with them needing to be alone in these moments as there can be feelings. (I've had this myself with clients as I'm explaining something to them and my brain goes "Jase, you need to wear that too"... then I need a few moments as my brain implodes as I realise another of my own self-limiting beliefs was not actually fact.)

You are good at stuff, and we all have strengths and weaknesses, and a big part of Æ Group is helping neurodiverse people see the value they inherently have.

Autism Entrepreneur Program

This will start as a 12-week program, and from there we'll reassess — whether we continue, restart with a new group, or both.

To join, participants will need some base skills:

• Able to read and type — or have transferable skills, like using AI tools to speak and copy/paste

• Over 18

• Able to get an ABN

• Access to social media and basic ability to use it (we can teach the whats and wheres)

• Open to working with others — our group will be max 5, either working together or alongside each other

• A laptop or tablet at home (I may have a couple of ex-govt computers available for use with us, but everyone will need something of their own outside sessions)

You don't need a formal diagnosis — if you identify as neurodivergent, that's enough for us.

Most other things, I believe we can work with. And if you join and it turns out you've already done some of this before, you're welcome to help the others until we're all at a similar level. Believe me, I know how much more you get out of something when you're the one helping someone else. (Helping them is already proving something)

This is not a get-rich-quick scheme, multi-level marketing, or any other thing like that.

We'll be learning things like setting up a Facebook business page, writing ads, and getting out into the community, identifying opportunities in ourselves, our community and online. There will be some level of interaction with other people. (they have the money) How much and how often depends on the sensitivities and needs of the group. We adapt.

What is the Intent of the group

The intent behind all of this is to prove we can make money on our own if we need to.

We'll discuss ideas together, and the participants themselves will be heard and making their own decisions on the specifics — with the chance to win and to lose, because that's the nature of business. That's why our first goal is turning $0 into $100. If we use that $100 on an opportunity and fail, we just start again and get better and faster each time.

There are no out-of-pocket costs for the business ideas themselves ...they're funded by the $0–$100.

We'll run alternating Saturdays and Sundays, daytime, at Eagleby Neighbourhood Centre. Some ventures might need early or late sessions — that'll be up to the group, depending on what we're working on.

This round starts once we've got our 5, so if this sounds like you, get your Expression of Interest in now. The sooner we're full, the sooner we start.

If this sounds like your kind of thing, flick us a message. Jase will text you to sort out a time, then call for a proper chat — pricing, questions, whatever you need to know before jumping in.

Can't? Let's go find your proof.