Matt Bandy – Fork in the Soup | Coaching & Personal Branding for Creative Thinkers

I'm Matt Bandy, a qualified ADHD and AuDHD-informed coach with a BSc in Psychology and Philosophy, 20 years of corporate experience and a background as a Creative Strategist and start-up founder.

I HELP CREATIVE, ENTREPRENEURIAL THINKERS GET UNSTUCK

• People with big ideas and busy minds who find themselves caught in self-doubt, overthinking, procrastination or fear of failure.
• Unconventional, ambitious, entrepreneurial thinkers.
• People in career transition or reinvention.
• Generalists and multi-potentialites outgrowing narrow specialist roles.
• People who feel they can't see the wood for the trees.
• People who have felt like a 'Fork in the Soup' for too long!

I know this feeling well because I lived it.

In my own creative work, I often felt:

• Overwhelmed by choice with difficulty getting started
• Loss of interest mid-project and the subsequent shame of leaving them unfinished
• Difficulties self-promoting, without over-complicating and procrastinating.
• Carrying the sense that I was capable of more, but not quite able to get out of my own way.

A FORK IN THE SOUP!

For 20 years, I worked in corporate environments with a mind that didn't quite fit the mould.

I knew I had more to give, but I couldn't find a role or environment that fully fit.

After my diagnosis in 2016, I began to understand why I had struggled in ways my colleagues often didn't.

I stopped trying to force myself into systems that weren't built for me and I started working with my natural wiring - not against it.

That shift changed everything.

I began to see divergent thinking as a strength, not a problem.

I started building my own roles by combining my interests, ideas, and experience - creating unique work that felt more true to who I am.

I began to understand how my mind worked and became more forgiving of myself with less self-applied pressure.

Like many people with ADHD, the idea of spending a whole career in one narrow specialism can feel limiting and outdated.

In a world being rapidly reshaped by AI and technology, curious, intuitive and exploratory minds are becoming even more valuable.

WHAT I BELIEVE

• No one wins when talent goes untapped.
• Some people aren't meant to fit neatly into boxes.
• Having an unconventional mind is not the obstacle, it's often an advantage - it's just a struggle in the wrong environment.
• It IS possible to define a sustainable, grounded position that reflects your talents, interests, experience and way of thinking.

HOW MY COACHING WORKS

I help clients 'get out of their own way'

Together, we re-frame difference as strength, explore how your natural wiring shows up and build a clearer sense of your unique value.

My coaching takes a strengths-first approach and together, we unpack the self-doubt and internal barriers that hold you back.

We unlearn old patterns of judgement and reconnect with the original spark that often gets buried beneath years of trying to fit in.

WE WORK ON:

• Understanding how your ADHD / AuDHD mind works.
• Understand self-doubt and recognise when 'self-sabotage' kicks in.
• Reframing differences as strategic advantages - understanding your creative talent and how to make it work for you
• Working through spiky profiles, skill gaps and consider mixed-cognitive collaboration
• Clarifying your value-proposition and 'personal brand'.
• Turning ideas into practical, sustainable action.
• Breaking patterns of overthinking, rumination and self-criticism
• Finding clarity and direction when you have multiple interests or paths
• Building self-trust after years of misfitting or masking
• Developing strength-led, natural resilience
• Navigating a world designed for the 'neuro-majority' without compromising yourself

WHY THIS MATTERS

I've worked alongside many incredibly talented, original thinkers who were often:

• the least likely to fit in
• the most likely to mask
• the most likely to burn out in the wrong environment.

Masking can erode identity.

Performing to unclear expectations can leave us feeling disconnected from ourselves.

Over time, we can internalise differences as failure.

But often, the traits we once saw as deficits are the very things that make our contribution distinctive, valuable, and hard to replace.

CONTACT

Please drop me an email if you'd like to arrange a free 20 minute chat about how I might help

Matt@forkinthesoup.com

SESSION DETAILS

• Strengths-first coaching.
• Available Monday to Friday, 10am-6pm, with some flexibility outside those hours.
• £95 per hour, with reduced rates available in cases of hardship.
• Free 20-minute consultation by phone or online.

WORKSHOPS AND TRAINING

I also run training and workshops for mixed-cognitive workplaces - forkinthesoup.com

My 'Different Minds at Work' sessions introduce neurodiversity and cognitive diversity in a practical, accessible way, with a focus on mixed-cognitive collaboration - helping teams understand how divergent and convergent thinking can complement each other to improve productivity, creativity, and communication.

SPECIALISMS

• ADHD and entrepreneurship
• Fulfilling work
• Creative blocks
• Multi-potentiality
• Mixed-cognitive collaboration
• Burnout
• Self-doubt
• Strength-led resilience
• Social interaction
• Breaking negative patterns