Latest / Travel Agency in a Year / DAY 299 | ADHD Can Be a Strength for Travel Advisors
Transcript
- Rachel: Welcome to the Travel Agency New Year podcast. I'm your host, Rachel K. I'm a travel agency owner helping you become a travel agency owner. And let's all make multiple six figures. Okay, let's get there. This podcast is totally free for your entertainment, enjoyment, reflection, learning. It's all my experience with my degrees, books I've read, then the travel agency I've built, and other businesses I've built, just like This is just me helping you with what I know. All right? I do offer custom one-on-one mentoring. I do also have group coaching on a quarterly basis. You can head over to elevate with rachelk.com for more info. Until then, it's day 299. The entrepreneurs who succeeded because of their ADHD and or neurospiciness, not despite it. Why am I talking about this? I'm talking about this because We're all a little divergent in the neuro I don't know how to finish that. We're all a little insane in the membrane. And business culture okay, let's get into it. Elementary schools, ding goes the bell next class, ding goes the bell, next class, ding goes the bell, recess, ding goes the bell, back to class, ding goes the bell, lunch. That was all set up in the public school system or in the school system in general to condition students to work in the factories. Okay? To make people little worker bees. And we still have that today. However Our society manufacturing in the United States is essentially goose egg. and those who do manufacture things, I feel like it's like artisans, you know, for the most part. Like I'm sure there are manuf there are manufacturers? I don't know why I blanked on that word. In the United States, however, it's a much, much smaller proportion than what it was when public school systems were implemented during the Industrial Revolution. But that has carried on to into corporate culture. Ding goes your next meeting. Ding goes stand by the water cooler. You know what I mean? Like ding there's no bell, but it's like That's like deeply ingrained in our culture. And my personal thinking is due to epigenetics, with a lot like our experience is and our development is based on every ancestor from the beginning of time up until our birth. Like everything that they went through, nutritional abundance or deficiencies, any kind of traumatic wars. All of that affects us, and that is how we evolve as humans because your parents pass down the best traits. And also, we are evolving, I think, to be a little more neurospicy naturally, and it could be a reflection of past. generational things that have happened. Like, you know, World War One, World War Two, the Great Depression, like that back to back to back from the nineteen tens to the nineteen forties. That's only 30 years. And that's a lot for someone to take on. And then you think about like I'm kind of a Xennial. I used to be told I was Gen X until all of a sudden in like 2010 it was like you're a millennial and I was like what? But anyway We haven't had the best time either. And that can trigger certain genes. So I love to study I'm not a doctor, I'm not a scientist. I love to read about genetics and how our environment influences genetics and RNA transcriptions in our cells, and our cells are constantly turning over and everything we put into our environment, whether it's like emotional or chemical or Like food, it affects the RNA transcription for a cell tone turnover, not only affects how we age, but also affects certain things turning on and off. That's why I think we have a significantly higher proportion of people who are neurodivergent. There's also the advancement of neuroscience that is pointing out this was a thing a long time ago, but we would just be like, that's a weird person. Okay. If you maybe lean a little ADHD or ADD, this episode is a counter to the narrative because I hear this a lot and I've shared articles about how it is not a hindrance, especially if you are an entrepreneur. But everyone tells you it's a limitation because you aren't meant for the factory worker. Ding goes the bell, go do your next task. Some of the most successful entrepreneurs in modern business openly credit their ADHD as the driver of ADHD? ADHD as the driver of their success. So, JetBlue Airways. you work and travel, you're probably familiar with JetBlue. Pretty much on the East Coast, if I my understanding is correct. But David Neilman, the founder of JetBlue, Has spoken openly about his ADHD diagnosis for years. He said he wouldn't trade it away, even if he could, because he credits it directly with the creativity and the quick nonlinear thinking that shaped Jet Blue's distinctive customer focused approach in a crowded airline industry. And I know you're all also thinking the travel industry is crowded in general, like travel advisor industry. He's also been super candid. That this hasn't meant ignoring the challenges. He has spoken about surrounding himself with people who can handle the routine and the detail heavy tasks that do not play to his strengths. So in yesterday's episode, I did talk about that where you need to, when you start as a travel advisor, regardless of where, like if you're neurodivergent or not, you are like in a state of flow. because you're doing all the things that you love about travel, right? And you're getting a dopamine hit because you're learning how to be a travel advisor as well. So how can you share this with the world? But then reality kicks in and there's all these other tasks that you have to do and you're just like, this is my nightmare. So you have to understand how quickly you can delegate those detail heavy tasks. If you're like me, details aren't fun. Details are not fun. I'm very much I see the forest, I don't see the trees. And I'm just like, this is what we need to do, and then I'm like, figure out the details later. Example, I'm switching to a new CRM and I'm like, I like this CRM, this is what I'm doing. Then I'm like, I'll figure out all the little nuances of how I want it set up later. And I would love to just delegate all of that piddly admin stuff to somebody else. Okay. Kinko's founder, Paul Orphelia, Falia, can't pronounce that name. He has ADHD alongside dyslexia. And he's written and he's ex like even spoken extensively about how these differences shaped his entrepreneurial path. So he's described his restlessness and his distractability as an asset. Because I know many of you are like, I have ADHD, I have squirrel brains. Distractability and restlessness is an asset for the founder of Kinko's because he could see across the whole business rather than getting stuck in any single department's details. Which he attributes the rapid growth of Kinko's to this big picture orientation paired again with hiring people whose strengths complemented his specific challenges. Another one is Richard Branson. So aside from Kinkos, we got Jet Blue and Virgin. Virgin Voyages and some other stuff. Air I don't know what they do. Records. Remember Virgin Records? That's I think what started all this. He has dyslexia. and he's talked about it and his struggles in school, traditional school settings. he's often included in like broader conversations about neurodivergent entrepreneurs for the way that his nonlinear and unconventional thinking shaped virgin groups' willingness to enter wildly different industries, like I just mentioned. Didn't they start out as Virgin Records and now it's like Air and cruises. What? From music to airlines to space travel. That's what's in my notes. Confirmed. Confirmed virgin records with my notes. but he has a very, very high risk tolerance. And that's another indicator for like big, big success is being able to like tolerate the risk, and seeing that the reward is much bigger than the risk, if that makes sense. And he has his own creative restlessness. That's we all know who he is. Like, if you know, you know. Like, I think the movie Along Came Polly. The dude that Ben Steller was assessing for life insurance was a parody of Richard Branson. So beyond these three, there is a growing body of discussion among researchers and clinicians who work with entrepreneurs about the certain ADHD associated traits, including the comfort with risk. But I do see a lot are afraid of taking the risk fully, as like in travel side, a drive towards novelty and stimulation, and that's something I see needs to be like. reined in and like focused on and the capacity for intense hyper focus if it's j if it's like really really engaging for you. All of those traits are broadly associated with entrepreneurial success. Hmm, that's weird. That's weird. Maybe our hundred or so years of institutionalized like let's get you ready to be a little worker bee school systems leaking into corporate America systems. Has filtered out those who aren't supposed to be the worker bees because of the ADHD. This doesn't mean that you're automatically going to be successful. Like you can be successful regardless of where you are with any diagnoses, right? And it doesn't guarantee that, you have ADHD. You should go into business. It's just an interesting correlation, documented pattern. So if you ever feel like that, that If you have that diagnosis, or you're like, maybe I have this diagnosis, and you feel like that that is a hindrance. It's not. There are strong associated patterns. Just recognize the traits in how you operate. These aren't stories suggesting you need to overcome a diagnosis in order to be successful. These stories in this episode are of people who built significant businesses with these traits, actively fueling their work, not in spite of them. And the travel industry in particular, which we're gonna talk about tomorrow, benefits from exactly this kind of innovative pattern breaking thinking. Ooh, and I wonder if that's why so many travel advisors can't make a lot of money, because they won't. Do their innovative pattern breaking thinking. By the way, the success circle, we always have the coolest ideas. We talk about the craziest ideas. there's some there's a few agents who have joined in recent months where I'm like, You guys are gonna do something totally awesome to disrupt the industry and I'm very excited. All right, so in tomorrow's episode we're gonna talk about that some more. and the harder side of ADHD or ADD neurodivergence for travel advisors and harnessing your real strengths. Have a wonderful day. I'll see you tomorrow.