Hello, podcast listeners. Welcome to the show. Welcome back. If you have been listening for a little while, welcome if you are new. Today, I am speaking to those of you out there, coaches with ADHD, speech pathologists with ADHD, business owners with ADHD. If you are any of those and you keep thinking, I know what I'm supposed to be doing. I know what I'm supposed to do with my business. I know what I'm supposed to do at home to run a household and family. So why am I not doing it? Then this episode is for you. The problem might not be that you need a different strategy, another strategy, a better business. The problem might actually be that so much of the traditional business advice, productivity tips and strategies assume that a brain and a schedule and a life that follow the plan. They assume that you have a neurotypical brain. The typical productivity advice assumes that you have a simple, relatively straightforward schedule. It assumes that you have a life that is well-managed and super organized and structured, and that might not be the case. So if you know that you should be posting consistently in your business, if you know that you should be reaching out and following up with leads, if you know that you should be planning out your week and batching your content up, Updating your website, sending emails to your email list, creating the offer, checking in with past clients, organizing all the back end things within your business, and you aren't doing it. Or maybe you do it for a few days and then it disappears. Or you get a burst of motivation late night, 10, 11 p.m., midnight, and you rebuild your entire system only to abandon it by Thursday. Then this is for you. And here's the thing. Most coaches with ADHD are not struggling because they don't know what to do. A lot of the time, they know exactly what to do, but the issue is that knowing what to do and then doing it consistently. Are not the same thing. And that's the gap that I'm talking about today. That's the gap where ADHD shows up. That is the gap that has held me in, you know, stuck and has tried that I have fallen victim to or it's not even the way I think about it, but the gap that I have fallen in, if you will, so many times, right? So, for example, and this is true when I was running a private practice as a speech pathologist, this is also true, the same scenario, also true for running a coaching private practice. I would hear these tips and strategies of how to create some structure in my work and how to know what to work on and what strategies to put in place so that I could run my business, work in. My business and also work on my business. Right. I was listening to all the podcasts. I was following all the leaders in the small business speech and or coaching world. Right. I was consuming lots of content that I believed were would be helpful in me running my business. And it all made sense. The things that they were saying, the advice that they were that they were giving made sense. And it sounded really great. Except that my brain doesn't easily make decisions. It doesn't stay focused very easily. It doesn't tolerate me sitting with a task that is challenging or maybe feels boring for an extended period of time. That's just not how it works for me. And I didn't know the role. So whether you have a diagnosis of ADHD, or you suspect that you do, or maybe you just fall into that category of I've tried all the things and they just don't work, then I want you to listen to what I'm going to share today because I'm going to walk you through how I have tweaked what I do. In my own personal and really today we're talking more so about business but in my personal in my business world to make things feel easier and get some actual progress. Okay, this is something that I've been thinking about a lot lately. Because I work with so many high achieving women who describe themselves as like overachievers. High achievers, moms, business owners, the problem is not that they don't know what to do. The problem is not, even though some of you may think it is, the problem is not that they don't have enough time, right? And honestly, as somebody with ADHD myself, I too had to stop asking, why am I not doing this? I had to start asking better questions. And if you are a coach or if you've worked with a coach, you may have heard someone say that the quality of your life is determined by the quality of the questions that you ask. So I had to start asking better questions, okay? I'm going to walk you through a very simple lens that I have found to be very helpful that you can try. To apply to whatever it is that you know you need to do, but you're not doing it, okay? And I'll give you an example, an actual tangible example of how this shows up for me, okay? One way that this shows up for me. So that regardless of what it is that you are trying to do, like what it is that you're trying to take action on, these questions and these strategies will apply to any task that you are, for whatever reason, not taking action on, okay? So there is a bit of content and tangible things, tangible concepts in this episode that you might want to come back to. A couple tips for those of you who, like me, might consume a lot of information but struggle with putting the information into place. Right. I mean, how about Hello Meta? Like that is what this episode is about. But if you're listening to this episode and this is a topic that resonates with you, chances are you probably listen to a lot of podcast episodes and hear a lot of like, oh, good ideas in your mind. Right. And then never to be seen again. Ask me how I know because hello, I do that too. A slight detour, but I swear it relates. I just recently discovered a podcast related app called Snipped. I think it's spelled S-N-I-P-D that kind of addresses this problem where you're able to, as you are listening to podcast episodes, you're able to capture little snippets from the episodes, collect notes. It's super cool. There's a free version and a paid version. I've just recently started exploring with it, so I don't know a whole lot about it yet, but just felt like it was relevant here. If you are a podcast listener, it might be worth checking out. But the other thing I was going to say, if you struggle with, you know, taking the information that you consume and then putting it into action, you can come to the transcripts and you can use AI to plug it in, plug the transcript in and generate notes, right? So at least then you have that information to come back to. Or you could book a call, book a call to talk with me. I can give you some more nuanced, customized strategies that will support you in exactly this challenge. The link to book a consult is in the show notes. OK, so I've got six questions for you that will help you work through this challenge of doing the thing that you, quote unquote, need or have to do when you are struggling. So the very first question to ask yourself is this, what is. is this business strategy or this, you know, productivity strategy? Like, what is it asking me to start? Okay, so for example, let's say I'm, I'm trying to think, let's say I'm, I'm planning to sit down on a Friday morning and map out my content, right? Like, I'm going to sit down Friday morning and create my content for the, you know, upcoming week or month or whatever, okay? And I'm like, okay, I know I've got to start creating my content. And this, you know, strategy that I heard is like, okay, just put it on your calendar, right? Put it, put it on your calendar. So then what's on the calendar is what gets done, right? I've heard that before. I've given that advice before. And it's not that it's false. It's just that it might not always be true, right? So let's say the strategy is saying to Put this on your calendar and you see on your calendar that Friday, you need to start creating content. But if you're not doing it, right? If starting is the hard part, the challenge might not be about the content that you are trying to create. The challenge might not be the thing. The challenge might be the starting. Okay? So the real issue isn't, I don't know what to talk about in my content. The real issue might be that there isn't a very specific, clear first step. So an ADHD informed tweak to this might be decide the very first tiny action ahead of time, like such as open my very messy list of ideas and choose one time. So now, instead of seeing on your calendar, Friday 9 a.m. create content, you have on your calendar, Friday 9 a.m. open idea list, choose a topic. Okay? So that's the first question. What is this strategy asking me to start? Number two, what is it asking me to remember? So, for example, if it's asking you to remember all those content ideas that you had during the week, right, the things that you wanted to say, you need to not just remember what those ideas are, but you might also need to remember where they are. Like, where did I write that down? Where are they saved? You might also want to or need to remember what you are promoting right now in your business. You might need to remember what platforms you use. To create your content, where do I go to log in? Do I go directly to the social media platform? Do I go to an app that helps me create social media content, like schedules out my content? Where do I need to go? So what is it asking me to remember? What is the information that I would need to know in order to do this? And if all of that is living in your brain, of course, you're going to avoid the task because it becomes really challenging. It becomes murky. It becomes big, right? So an ADHD informed tweak to this would be keep one visible content capture spot so that all your ideas are waiting for you when that time on Friday morning arrives. Side note, if you are listening to this, please keep... These are specific examples, but they're not rules. I am not trying to tell you that these are going to solve all of your problems. I'm just trying to give you some context to help you visualize and imagine what this is looking like. That's why I love coaching. When I'm coaching clients, we get to really figure out how to apply this in your particular business with your particular neurotype and brain style in your particular life so that it works for you. Number three, what is it asking me to stop or start? What is it asking me to switch out of and then switch into? Think about or look at what else is happening before and or after. The task that you need to do. And how is that playing a role in your avoidance or in your struggle to do what you quote unquote need to do? So, for example, I'm recording this podcast episode on a Friday midday, but immediately before this episode, I was running around the house doing some like doing some cleanup and trying to get the house back in order so that, you know, before the kids come home so that things are running smoothly. And right after this episode, my kids are home. My kids will be home. And I also have a meeting with one of my coaches. So that's a lot of context switching. It's asking me to switch in and out of, you know, household CEO, if you. Well, mom mode, client mode, business owner mode, right? And so suddenly, it's like, we're trying to take these hats on and off. That is not something that happens automatically or seamlessly for an ADHD brain. That's not even something that happens automatically or seamlessly for a neurotypical brain, I would I would argue, but it's especially challenging for somebody with an ADHD brain. So if this were, you know, in this case, with this example, a tweak that you could use would be building in a transition cue. So some sort of transition practice, very simple thing that you can do before you, you know, to end one of those activities or roles, and then transition into the next one. So maybe it's five minutes to review the ideas. of the, you know, my ideas for content. And then at the end, it might be five minutes to reset my, you know, my desk and close the windows on my laptop, something like that. Okay. Question number four, what decisions does this require? So for example, it's asking me to decide the topic or the topics of the content that I'm creating, the angles, the platform. Is it going on Instagram? Is it going on Facebook? Is it on my Facebook profile, my Facebook group? Is it going in my email list, right? The caption, the call to action, you know, these little detail oriented pieces that are built into this example of content create. Right. Those are the little invisible steps, the hidden steps that absolutely weigh on our brain and our ability to take action because they are so challenging for an ADHD brain. OK. In other words, Friday, 9 a.m. content creation is not just Friday, 9 a.m. content creation. It's a giant pile of decisions that you can't even see listed out there. They're in disguise, basically. Right. So tweaks for something like that might be including in your Friday, 9 a.m. content creation. It might list out what some of those decisions are like deciding ahead of time or it might be choosing a subset of content. That you're going to create and sticking with that. OK. To sort of. Reduce the cognitive load make it easier on your brain. Question number five, what energy level does it assume I have? Oh my gosh, this changed so much for me when I was able to recognize my natural rhythms throughout the day when I feel creative when I have the bandwidth to do something that's very taxing or challenging for my brain, when I feel kind of fatigued and need a little bit of a break, my mind needs a break. Being able to recognize that what energy level you have, what your energy patterns are, and also being flexible because we're not robots. And although you may have patterns of natural patterns of energy rhythms, we're not necessarily counting on that or relying that to run our business. So being able to be aware of it and know how to tweak it when needed. Okay. And when you can, Match your tasks to your energy levels, more power to you. That has so much that I just can't stress that enough. I have really gotten so much benefit out of doing that in my own business. And by the way, if this is resonating with you, like if you're listening to this and you're thinking, okay, yes, this is exactly what's happening in my coaching business or this is exactly what's happening in my small business, I'm hosting a free workshop in September specifically for coaches with ADHD. So make sure you check out the link in the show notes so that you can get on the list to be updated with the details once they are ready. Okay. That way you can save your spot. All right. So what energy level does it assume? And then last but certainly not least, the question that I will leave you with is what part of my real Life does this ignore, right? If this strategy is telling me map out content or create content every Friday morning at 9am, maybe that's a great strategy, but it ignores things like school drop off is longer or challenging on a Friday or the client call that ran over or the laundry that's backed up. And it's staring you in the face, right? So sometimes these strategies assume that we have a very quiet, uninterrupted business owner life, which I do not. I don't know about any of you, but I really don't. So being able to make the plan smaller, more realistic, and more resilient. That way, it works for your real life, not your ideal life. Okay. All right. So those. Those are the six questions that you can go through to help you apply some tweaks to the traditional strategies for small business owners that will actually help you as a neurodivergent business owner make progress in your business. I'm going to give you three lastly very three very quick tweaks that you can use very much related to what we just talked about but something that I can leave you with that I believe is tangible to take with you tweak number one lower the decision load okay make very make it very clear what decisions you need to make and make those decisions very small tweak number two make it visible build very visible cues so that it's in your face and tweak number three don't just plan for the task plan for transitions as well Think about those transitions. This connects to business and home life and ADHD, right? All across the board. All right. That is it for this episode. I hope that it was helpful. And I hope that you will join me, if it was helpful, mid-September, Tuesday, September 15th for that workshop that I mentioned. It is all about these exact strategies and concepts, how to run your business smoothly when you have ADHD. I will see you there, I hope, and I will talk with you all next week.
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