September 30, 2026
Implementing Life & Work: A Conversation with Jodie Herbert
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Show notes
In this episode, I’m joined by Jodie Herbert, a neurodiversity mentor, lifelong carer, disability advocate, and the founder of Ability Pathways. Jodie has one of those rare brains that can take chaos, complexity, and bureaucratic nonsense and turn it into actual support, actual progress, and actual hope. She’s spent decades navigating disability from every angle: as a parent, a partner, a carer, and now as someone helping adults and the invisible labour neurodivergent people carry every day.
And because I can’t help myself… I also dive into my own past. While digging through old family documents for Ancestry, I found my high‑school report cards, those 80's classics where teachers wrote things so blunt they could strip paint. I read out some of the worst ones on the show. If you’ve ever been called lazy, unfocused, or “destined for ruin,” this episode is for you.
If you enjoy the podcast and want to help me keep it going, please consider supporting me on Patreon. It’s literally the price of a cuppa a month, and it means the world, helping me cover hosting, equipment, and the time it takes to make these conversations happen.
#Neurodiversity #ActuallyAutistic #LateDiagnosedAutistic #AutismAcceptance #Neurospicy #ADHDAwareness #InvisibleDisability #WorkplaceInclusion #ExecutiveFunction #NDInTheWorkplace #AccessibilityMatters #SupportThatWorks #NDIS #NDISAustralia #LateToThePartyPodcast #AutismPodcast #NDStories #RealTalkND #PodcastLife #AustralianPodcasts #80sSchoolSurvivor #ReportCardRoast #TheyWereWrong #NeurodivergentKidsGrowUp #MisunderstoodAndThriving #SupportIndependentPodcasts #PriceOfACuppa #PatreonCreator
About Jodie Herbert
Data-Driven Disability Advocacy & Inclusive Employment Consultant
113 pages Evidence-based NDIS submission to the Australian Senate21 years Executive-function barriers and advocacy experienceFounder Ability Pathways Australia20+ years Market analytics experience
Jodie Herbert is a disability and neurodiversity advocate, workplace inclusion strategist and founder of Ability Pathways Australia, helping organisations, carers and people with disability bridge the gap between policy, intention and real-life implementation. After more than two decades in market analytics, Jodie combines her professional expertise with a lifetime of lived experience as a carer, including supporting family members with complex disabilities, to develop practical solutions that help people thrive at work and in everyday life.
Known for combining compassion with rigorous analysis, Jodie does not rely on opinions alone. She has produced detailed evidence-based reports that have contributed to national disability funding discussions, including a 113-page submission to the Australian Senate examining the economic and human impact of proposed National Disability Insurance Scheme reforms. Her work focuses on turning complex challenges into practical systems that organisations, leaders, managers and support networks can realistically implement and sustain.
Central to Jodie’s work is The Implementation Gap: the often-overlooked space between what has been promised, planned or agreed and what is required to make it work in practice. Informed by Implementation Science, she examines the less visible conditions that determine whether workplace policies, inclusion strategies and reasonable adjustments succeed or fail during delivery.
Jodie is a public voice on autism, neurodiversity and support pathways for people with significant disabilities.
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Living With an Invisible Learning ChallengeBridging the Gap: From Diagnosis to Real-Life SupportAug 2026Play episode →
Resilience UnravelledBridging the Implementation Gap: Neurodiversity at Work and Australia’s NDIS Under ThreatAug 2026Play episode →