[00:00:00] Emma: I have a number of clients with ADHD. I have some that have been diagnosed and others who just suspect they have ADHD. My view?
[00:00:09] It's an absolute superpower. Why? Well, I'm glad you asked. People with ADHD, the clients that I've got, and obviously I don't work with the whole world, but the clients that I have
[00:00:20] are one, great problem solvers.
[00:00:22] Oh my goodness. Given them a problem, they know how to solve it like that. Sometimes it's not quite as quick as that, but they, They hang on to their problem, they let it rattle around in their head, they sleep on it, they think about things, and bang, they come up with a solution. Two, they act quickly. They love to act quickly.
[00:00:41] In fact, getting it off their to do list is like a game for them. It's awesome. And number three,
[00:00:48] they can focus on a fix
[00:00:50] a lot longer than what I can. I give up within five minutes. Not right. No, no fix. I'm going to go for a walk. I'm going to try and sort that out. They can focus on a fix. I thought I'd tell you a couple of client stories.
[00:01:04] I have a client and she is amazing. She runs a service based business and I don't know how old she would be. She'd be in her mid thirties, And she recently got diagnosed and recently. got medicated. The reason that she got diagnosed is because her children got diagnosed. Both of her children got diagnosed.
[00:01:26] And so she thought, why wouldn't I get diagnosed?. She decided to go on medication. Not everyone decides to go on a medication, might I say, but she decided to go on medication. And her words to me were, Emma, the medication is like a veil lifting. Like I've had foggy. eyesight for my whole life and the medication just helps me with the fog.
[00:01:52] There's lots of different medication that you can get for ADHD. I don't promote one or the other. It's up to you boo as to how you do that and what that actually looks like. For her, medication was the only option in order for her to get ultra focused. on her business and on the problems that she needed to solve.
[00:02:12] She's done a wonderful job with that. I had another, client and she had one child, her only child, and her only child got diagnosed. and then she wondered if that was her as well. So she went on this very long journey. to diagnosis. , if you're listening and depending on where you are in the world and depending on, you know, what resources you have available to you, there are long times there are not enough mental health workers, there are not enough doctors at the moment. And so she went on this really long journey of self discovery. She almost went through. The grief curve, so the grief curve basically goes an incident, something happens, you go into denial. You might resist a bit and then you come up the other side and you have acceptance of your circumstances.
[00:02:59] I feel like she went through that grief curve. She also decided to go on medication. She did try some other things but she ultimately decided to go on some medication and her ability to focus was incredible. But she would focus for very long periods of time and then she would be absolutely spent for the next three days.
[00:03:22] And so what we had to work on was her being able to use that ultra focus in a way that works for her, but also so she didn't have to recover for three days. And that took a bit of getting used to. I've been working with her for four years and we've been on a massive roller rollercoaster with it. some days she would turn up and she would be very focused. And other days you could tell that she was just struggling a bit. and when she first got tired, we talked about what it is that she needed from her coach. And we agreed on the days that she was ultra focused, that I would push and push and push and help her to level up. And on the days when she couldn't handle that ultra focus,
[00:03:58] we would back it right off, and talk about
[00:04:01] just the small things she needed to get done. Now we're at a stage where she can push herself and also she can back off and she almost knows the telltale signs because it's been four years, yeah, since she got diagnosed. I have another client who also got a diagnosis, It wasn't because of her kids this time,
[00:04:19] she just felt like she needed some help. And she went and saw the doctor and they ran a couple of, questionnaires through and she got sent to get tested. And it was a jolt to her confidence. She was like, I don't know how I'm going to work this through. But of course we all survive every single day
[00:04:37] that we have with ourselves, right? And so she did. She got the diagnosis. We went on a journey together. She went through a self discovery phase, and she medicates, Now, she doesn't just have ADHD, she has ADHD, and she has anxiety, and she has a couple of other things. So we're not just focused on one thing, but what I will say is when we meet, What works for her most in a coaching capacity
[00:05:03] is when I can break down big concepts for her
[00:05:06] and give her little minuscule steps to follow because her brain can follow the minuscule steps.
[00:05:13] So she has a detailed plan every time she leaves a session with me that she can enact in her own way. And I think as a business coach, as someone who is supporting people, you have to find a way that works for every single client and make it tailored for them, regardless of whether they have ADHD or anxiety, or some other condition of some sort, everyone's got something going on,
[00:05:38] even when you have good mental health. There are seasons in life where kids are hard. There are seasons in life when you have aging parents
[00:05:45] and as a business coach,
[00:05:46] one of my core values is to be kind.
[00:05:49] And so that means meeting them where they're at.
[00:05:52] All of these ladies are successful in their own businesses. A diagnosis does not need to stop you. I have other clients who ignore the fact that they have it. So they will openly say to me, I think I've got ADHD, Emma. And I'll go, yeah, I think you might. But they also say, well, maybe I've got it. Maybe I don't.
[00:06:15] What's the difference? I figure I've got this far. Why not keep going? They do make adjustments. Some of the things that we've done is we've gamified the work.
[00:06:25] I love gamifying the work because
[00:06:27] it makes it fun as well. We set targets that sees them hyper focus for a small period of time and then allow their brain to rest and reset. So it might be that we set them a challenge for a couple of weeks and then they back off or a couple of days, and then we back off.
They might avoid the work that they don't want to do. So in that case, we outsource the work. Again, no different to someone who does not have ADHD. If you don't want to do the work, you procrastinate. So get rid of that work and start outsourcing, yeah? One thing that is common for all those who have been diagnosed is that in each of their sessions, they all fidget.
[00:07:02] It's taken me some time to get used to this as a coach because I'm like, are they paying attention? Are they listening? They're just fidgeting. I do most of my calls on zoom. So we make sure they've got something to fidget with something in their hands that they can play with that keeps their attention and also helps them process what we're talking about.
[00:07:18] We've started to offer recordings of the session so that they can go back and listen. And they've told me that this is really helpful because sometimes our sessions cover a lot and can feel a bit overwhelming. So we want to make sure that we allow that overwhelm to leave them and they record the session and they re listen to it.
[00:07:37] And also for those clients who need a bit of extra help, when we put the process in the recording, then they're able to rewrite it and they're able to listen to that again.
[00:07:44] There's a really good article, that will pop in the show notes. It's called ADHD, the entrepreneur's superpower. When you start to look at the amount of entrepreneurs, successful entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs, nonetheless, that have ADHD, there's a lot of them
[00:08:01] and they all use it as a super power. And I absolutely see how it is a superpower.
[00:08:07] We love supporting people in business. They don't have to have ADHD. It just so happens that recently we've had more people come out and be diagnosed with ADHD. And so we support them in whatever way we can. I try and, educate myself on extra support, if they need any extra support, what they might need.
[00:08:28] I talk to them about what works best for them in sessions. I talk to them what works best when they get bored, when they've got routines, when they've got proposals to write, when they've got deadlines to hit. What does that all look like? It's different for everyone. There is not a one size fits all.
[00:08:43] So, if you think you have ADHD or you've been diagnosed with ADHD, can I encourage you to really look into it
[00:08:50] and figure out the superpower that's there? Because there is absolutely a superpower that's there. We're also seeing our children be diagnosed a bit more with ADHD. Absolutely a superpower.
[00:09:01] Absolutely a superpower. This has been a different one for us because we're seeing it more and more in business. We're seeing people need, reaching out and need different kinds of supports. Of course, it's not just a business coach you need when you've got ADHD, right? You need a team of people, a team of support people.
[00:09:18] They might be psychiatrists, they might be psychologists, they might be support workers, whatever it is, find the support you need and get on the list because If you're anything like me trying to find support for my clients, sometimes there's a bit of a wait list and that all takes time. have you been diagnosed?
[00:09:34] Are you thinking about getting diagnosed? What will you do with the diagnosis
[00:09:38] once you get diagnosed, if you get diagnosed? What does it even matter?
[00:09:41] Or are you just like, who cares? If I'm diagnosed or not diagnosed, nothing changes in my world. I would love to hear. Until next week, enjoy.
