Latest / Coconut Justice / CJP #35: Adam Smith

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CJP #35: Adam Smith · Coconut Justice

• speaker-0: Hey, what's good? Adam Smith is a business and self-leadership coach for ADHD powered coaches, personal brands, and entrepreneurs. He supports change makers in creating more impact and producing more revenue without burning out. That's all fine and good, but if you know me, you know he had me at ADHD. This is my conversation with Adam Smith. Before we get into it, remember to go to Coconutjustice.com to get you some clothes that I think would look good on you. Let's go. On this channel, I talk a lot about how my brain is like a computer processor, but instead of just one, I get six and I'm all over the place. So and I talk to a lot of my friends and family that say that they have ADHD and they curse ADHD. Then I met my buddy, Adam Smith. So he's gonna help us. Figure out. Well, like what's going on in our heads and how we can leverage this stuff to get things done. Hey, how's it going, Adam? speaker-1: It's going fantastic. How are you? speaker-0: I'm doing good. I'm doing good. a little bit cold, but I know that I have zero ⁓ base to stand on. ⁓ because I'm in California and then we're gonna we're gonna top out at about fifty-eight degrees today. And I understand that you're ⁓ a little more a little more chilly than that. speaker-1: Yeah, we're like maybe, maybe in the double digits today in Cleveland, Ohio. ⁓ last night was extremely, extremely cold. So I think we're at like twelve twelve degrees or something like that. But the sun's out. Cold as shit, but the sun's out. I guess I guess I'll take speaker-0: Well, people don't realize ⁓ in Chicago, I would I would, you know, whether you're home or at work or whatever, and the sun was all nice and bright, and everyone you can tell who's not really from Chicago. Cause you're like, ⁓ my God, what a beautiful day. And then they run out and they freeze. speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's one of those I mean, Cleveland's right up by the lake, so just kinda like Chic how Chicago is you get a lot of that wake that lake wind and stuff like that. Yeah. And it's just brutal. Brutal. speaker-0: Yeah, yeah, that's one thing that I don't mess of from home. But I always say, you know, I always I always say Chicago is the coolest town like ever. And then everyone's like, well, why don't you live there? I said because the weather, like the weather protects it, it Chicago weather protects Chicago from douchebags. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: And then people are like, Well, you don't live there, so that means ⁓ it is what it is. Yeah. I'm a warm weather douchebag. speaker-1: So sometimes you just gotta bail for for good weather. I my wife and I we've been together for fifteen years, but prior to my grandpa passing seven years ago or something like that, we were thinking about moving and her parents are here and they're getting they're a little bit up in years. And it's like one of those things where it's like you can't we just didn't feel right like leaving family and stuff like that. And ⁓ speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: It's funny because I decided to stay because my mom was here. My my parents are separated, but my dad lives lives close to me too. My grandparents were here. And then my mom was like, you know what? I think I'm gonna take grandpa and we're gonna move down to South Carolina and then go to Florida. And then I'm like, what the fuck? Like we decided to stay here. I went to college here and now you're just gonna dip out. And go to the warm weather and they like talk all the time. They're like, ⁓ yeah, it's like 85 degrees. We're in the pool today. I'm like, it's speaker-0: Gotta brand. Sure. ⁓ speaker-1: Like I wanna I don't wanna hear this like cruise you're about to go on or anything like that. I stayed here to make sure that I was around my grandparents because they're getting up there in age and you fucking left me. No, I love I love my parents, but it's it's just funny. It's like ⁓ we we just like you with Chicago, there's there's no place like I love living in Cleveland. There's just something about the people, there's something about like the hard noseness of it. Right. ⁓ we're like super walkable city that we live in. ⁓ I can get downtown Cleveland to a Cavaliers game in 15 minutes. Wow. Park, walk. Like we walk over a bridge to get to Cleveland Guardians games. We're constantly in the city every single like weekend in the summer. And the summers here are actually like really, really pleasant. We just have to like endure about a Three months of freezing our bones every time we go outside. speaker-0: Does it how hot does it get during the summertime? speaker-1: Like in the high eighties, low nineties. So like Jan like July is like fuck it's bit hot. Yeah. But yeah it's speaker-0: Yeah. Chicago's like that too, man. Like it'll be it'll be ninety-five in the daytime, summertime, but then like at nighttime it'll still be like 87. Yeah. You get no breaks. Yeah. And people don't realize that. Like, yeah, Chicago's cold as hell, but it's hot as all hell. Yeah. speaker-1: Yeah. In the summertime. Yeah, that's the thing. It's it flips, right? So you don't get you get the cold, cold and it stays cold. And then you get the hot, hot and it stays hot. So you get like there is, I would say the majority of the time, just probably just like Chicago, is like nice mid to high seventies, which is like great with some breeze coming off the lake and like you it's still warm. You can you can lay out and be in the sun and all of that stuff. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: But yeah, we get the ex we get the extremes for sure. speaker-0: I say everything including the weather from Chicago is bipolar. The people are either super happy or they're super angry. Or stuck in traffic or something. speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. At least the Bears had a good season. speaker-0: They did. They did. And even though we lost it in a close game, like we overachieved. You can't be mad at we have a new coach. We went 0-2 to to begin the season, and then we just went on an incredible run. It was it was fun. It was fun to be to be able to see that. But Cleveland looks like Cleveland is starting to get their head on straight and they're giving Shadur the ⁓ the keys to the bus. speaker-1: We'll see. We'll see what the new head coach wants to do. I'm not a huge fan of the new ownership. They're like moving the stadium from downtown Cleveland to place called Brook Park, which is probably about a Brook Park is where Cleveland Airport is. So it's clo they're wanting to get it closer to the airport and have a covered stadium. ⁓ just so that they can have more events and stuff like that. Which yeah, covered stadium's great, but you're moving Like the RNC was in Cleveland, I don't know, eight years ago, 10 years ago, something like that. We did a lot of renovations to downtown Cleveland proper. And huge excitement. New restaurants, new hotels, new like reviving the city, even like ⁓ it happened through like when LeBron was here too. really, really like elevated the city. And then now they're moving one of the biggest attractions. which is Browns games, out of out of downtown into like It's not quite farm. I we c we kind of call it farmland, but it's like it's like big open space, but they're they're wanting people to come in for big concerts, which will probably happen, but then they're gonna stay within Brook Park. They're not gonna be they're not gonna disseminate out into like downtown Cleveland or anything like that, because it's about twenty five minutes from downtown. And so it's just a it's just a bummer. And then I don't like their speaker-0: Okay. speaker-1: I don't like their politics either. They're like they're giving Trump handies and stuff like that. So I don't know Yeah. Not not into that. But ⁓ speaker-0: Similar to Cubs ownership. Very similar to that. Like he was the Trump's like head fundraiser for whatever the I'm like, bro, son. Ugh. speaker-1: Yeah. That's right. Like I'm fully in. I've always been fully in on the calves. Dan Gilbert has done a ton for the city. he's also owns like rocket rocket mortgage and does a ton of stuff for Detroit, also, just like revitalizing the cities and pumping tons and tons of money into it. Yeah. And his whole ethos, he's obviously a billionaire, but his whole ethos is like I'm don't want to die with this money. I want to pump it into the cities that I love and obviously have enough left over for like my family to be good, but I don't need like billions and billions and billions of dollars when I die. I would rather increase the infrastructure of the cities that I love. And I got Cav seas season tickets this year. Fantastic experience, like through and through. They really, really take care of the season ticket holders. and it all comes from like his ethos of generosity. speaker-0: Which is amazing. speaker-1: Cuban are the only two that I'm like you two buildings are like kind of you're like kind of doing it right. speaker-0: Like if you're gonna be a billionaire, be a cool one like this. speaker-1: Yeah, yeah. speaker-0: This global domination thing, it's not gonna happen. We gotta we gotta cut that shit out. Nobody wants to live that way. What is it about Ohio politics that it it's always been a toss up between Ohio and Florida to try to figure out who's gonna run the United States? What is it about Ohio politics that always makes it so interesting? And it's speaker-1: Right. speaker-0: Mm. speaker-1: Well, I think I think really it's like kind of like five big cities that vote blue and then all of the farmland votes red. Mm-hmm. And so like Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati are the three biggest, then Toledo and like the Akron Canton area. and it's gerrymandered to fuck, man. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: Like some of some of the districts are the wonkiest shape you've ever seen in your entire life. Just to like pull like Yeah, just to k just to keep it to keep it ⁓ red. And I mean, I think just from like the sheer population, I think we're what is it, seventh or something like that in population in the US? Like we have a lot of sway. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: So I think we have like 20 electoral votes or something like that. And ⁓ so it is a it is a big chunk, but Ohio is one of those th like if you're in the city, you're in the city. And when you're as soon as you get outside of the city, it's like completely flipped. Like even so Cuyaga County is huge. Cleveland's the big city in Cuyaga County. And Even the the county itself is like a wonky shape that like kind of jets down south a little bit more. And if you go out of Cleveland, like the Cleveland proper and like just the the suburbs of it, it's like instantly Trump country. So like my city that I live in voted eighty five percent Democrat in the last election. So we're like very, very liberal here, but the city that my ⁓ speaker-0: Mm-hmm. speaker-1: mother and father in law live in, which is twenty minutes down and in the same county, was like the op the was flipped. And so it's like this like this weird it's like ⁓ speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah. speaker-1: For whatever reason, Democrats just haven't found the way to like get the vote out in Ohio. And Obama was for whatever reason the only person, at least in my recent memory, that has been able to like get people moving, like get people off their ass in Ohio. speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah. Huh. And and It's disturbing to me to see or to hear some community not necessarily leaders, but certain community members that say, I don't vote because it doesn't matter. You know. and then when you had Obama running, there was a clear difference. And that clear difference might have Activated some folks to go out and vote or or ⁓ even just to see some like a different shade running running the country, I think mob could have mobilized. I don't know. I didn't I haven't broken that stuff down or even tried to understand it. I just know when I was around and listening to people talking about that time. A lot of it was, yeah, we need to we need to do something different. And if it's something as different as just having a black dude run the bus, we just need that. speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah. I think obviously there was a ⁓ that was a time in history that like change like needed to happen. And I think it's like we're kind of in it in it again where it's like we've over whatever side you're on, like we've we've kind of like over corrected it. And it's like now we're just like ping ponging back and forth between like Super left, super right, super left, super right, even though don't think Obama was super left by any means. They made him out to be very, very super left. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: But yeah, it's like an interesting ⁓ I would have to dive back into the data. I'm not like a huge data guy or like a overly political data person anyway. speaker-0: Yeah, neither am I. speaker-1: But it's it there I I just think it like the energy and that Obama's first term was the first time I was able to vote. So I think ⁓ there was a lot of and so I was I'm thirty n I'll be thirty nine this year. So there's a lot of like millennials and the mid mid to end millennials like kind of getting riled up and like kind of sick of the government. We've been we were through a couple wars. We're through nine eleven, like all of that kind of stuff happened. And then it was like we wanted change. speaker-0: I think speaker-1: I think we got it. I don't know, like in hindsight looking back, like some of the policies, I'm like, what the fuck were you doing, Holmes? Like it just didn't didn't like kind of make yeah. Didn't kind of make sense. ⁓ mostly I would say mostly on like the immigration piece, but he was kind of ⁓ speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: Now looking back at it, that's one of my I I have a buddy that's libertarian and we kind of like go back and forth and I try to call him out because he only talks about like what the Democrats are doing or saying and like is talking about Obama's immigration policy now with all the stuff that's going on with ICE. And I'm like, Yeah, he was kind of a dickhead when it came to immigration policy and like deported a a lot of people and whatever. But We were his whole thing, my buddy's whole thing was that ⁓ Democrats weren't saying how bad that was at the time. And I was challenging him on that. And just a quick Google search, I pulled up a bunch of stuff about ⁓ just like people basically saying, like, your legacy is gonna be ruined if you really go through with these deportation quotas. And like speaker-0: Mm. speaker-1: I remember how bad the conditions were in some of those camps, especially like in Texas with like the heat and the AC not working and stuff like that. We're like so removed from it now, and so much has happened in the political sphere since then that and social media is completely different. And like there there wasn't the 24-hour news cycle. Like it was just kind of starting at that point when Obama was was really getting big, but there wasn't like speaker-0: ⁓ I think so. Yeah. speaker-1: Nick Fuentes talking about stuff every like for hours and hours a day on his podcast or Joe Rogan or Aaron Part, like there was there wasn't this like constant like breaking news, breaking news, breaking news, social fear that was happening now. Back then it was like you had to get your news from like news sources, and it was probably just as corrupt as it is now. speaker-0: Like ⁓ speaker-1: Where yeah, they don't wanna they don't wanna show that the Democrats are in fighting. They don't wanna show that Republicans are in fighting, they don't wanna show any of that stuff. But I remember and I had kind of checked out at the like towards the end of that in like the twenty thirteens, fourteens, like That was a huge piece of what a lot of like the progressives now were talking about. And like the progressiveness didn't even get to that point, like was nowhere near what it is now, where Democrats are I feel like more left now, or maybe even maybe just the ones that I'm paying most attention to, where they were probably saying the same thing back then, like. Deporting all these people in this way is not the right way to do it. Gotta figure out a di we gotta figure out a different way. Mm-hmm. And so it it's it's funny how hindsight's 2020, I think Obama was one of at least he w it gave me a lot of pride that he was like my the first president that I was able to vote for and really get behind. I went to one of his rallies here in Cleveland and ⁓ speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: I wish I still had the picture, but I have a picture. He's on stage looking down, shaking my hand, and I had my c camera in one hand and shaking his hand in the other hand. He's that big smile. It's like one of the f my favorite pictures I've ever taken. ⁓ and like all in all, I really like what he did. But looking back, there's like some stuff where I'm like, Come on, dude. What were you doing? speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'll go as far as to say I understand why. Well, this is where it gets complex. And this is where the ADHD thing, because it I I'm I'm always able to, if there's a if there's a line that I'm trying to follow, I can like split it off and like investigate a bunch of different things and then come back to the main line, right? And then I talk too much and then I lose my point. But ⁓ I don't mind limiting immigration to the point where we can we can optimize our process. But it's ridiculous to think that we're as a country, we're gonna go bomb all these countries, we're gonna go ruin their their way of life. And then we get upset that these folks are coming to us. I don't mind grabbing folks and taking them back to where they come from or whatever, if they did it illegally. But if they're this is what makes me both sides of my family are not from here. So when they got here, they were able to obviously stay here. So for me, that's where the conundrum shows up is. There's political unrest all over the place. That's the United States' fault. These people are coming to us because we've ruined the way that they live. And then when they get here, technically, technically, you're supposed to be able to participate. Technically. I understand that we have an inundation of people and we're spending money on what people call illegal aliens and and And again, we're struggling to buy books for kids and right. So if our resources are being mismanaged and one of the reasons is because we're, you know, we're renting out these hotels to put illegal aliens, like that needs to be fixed too. I don't necessarily I don't necessarily the wall like ⁓ Trump's wall, ⁓ well, it's not it's bigger than that. It's been up there, but I understand why people want to build that wall. It's kind of like saying, All right, we need a breather. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: Both sides have wanted the wall, both sides have wanted to address immigration, both sides. The frustrating thing for for me is ⁓ if both of you want it, why is it so hard? speaker-1: Yeah, I think I probably because the the other one wants the other one to pay for it. speaker-0: You want the credit? Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot of credit to be the to be had. speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah, ⁓ I I feel like maybe I'm a little bit more I don't care if you're here illegally. To me that doesn't matter. If you're a piece of shit, I don't want you here. Right. Right? Like if you're whether Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yes. But like if you are speaker-0: or not you're from here. speaker-1: Like, yeah, I don't want murderers and and exactly all of that stuff in here, but how they're going about the deportations to me is like such a crazy they're not addressing what the actual issue is, which is for two hundred and fifty years, the US has beat their chest about we're the best place for any any human being to come. Come on, come on, come on, look at us. We're the fucking best. ⁓ USA, USA. Like for a large part of the history, like, yeah, it's been a really, really great place to live. I love being a being an American. I hate a lot of the stuff that we're doing in the world right now, but we've beat our chest saying we're the best, we're the best, we're the best. Of course, people are gonna want to come here. ⁓ like that's i if Why beat your chest about it if you're not wanting to like bring people here? And you're gonna bring, unfortunately, you're not just gonna bring the people that have 180 IQ. You're gonna bring, you have to like understand that more people are gonna come through. And some of them are gonna be super hard workers that have never been in trouble. Some of them are gonna be people that aren't. working super hard and have never been in trouble. There's also going to be the flip side where there's going to be a bunch of people that have done some heinous shit. And if the process to becoming a citizen or gaining legal status was set up in a better way, none of this would be an issue. And I think like back to your point, it's like we aren't using tax money in a way that is actually effective to helping that. Right? Like we just sent whatever billions of dollars over to Israel again. This is not regard regardless of where you stand on that, if you're an American, like we don't need it, we shouldn't be funding other countries. That doesn't make any sense. speaker-0: Period. I and I don't even care what they're using the money for. speaker-1: No, it shouldn't it should be speaker-0: Or you're bombing or you're eating or you're whatever, we got problems here too. speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah. And I saw I saw some something about It would the money that we just sent over would erase all medical debt and like every single American's medical debt and like fund a universal healthcare system for like 18 months or something like that. I'm like, why the fuck are we not doing that? That doesn't make any that doesn't make any sense to me. I understand allies, I understand all like speaker-0: Yeah. Exactly. speaker-1: Whatever. But we can't be like mama and papa USA to everyone when I don't know, that's like it's like donating a bunch of money to a charity and your and your own house, you're not you're like going to the food bank also. Like what are what are we doing here? Right. Like if the money's coming in, like I don't really like Jordan Peterson very much. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: I used to a little bit. I don't know if you know who that is. He's like the philosopher. But one of the things that one of the philosophies that he has is this idea of like cleaning your own room. And it's based the idea is basically like get your own mindset, mental health, physical health, all of that stuff in line first. And then by doing that, if everyone decided to do that, and if we decided to do that as a nation. And everyone is good and healthy and clean and water and energy and all of that stuff, then we're able to go. If we have a surplus, we're able to go out and help other people. And I think we need to just keep with that ethos. And obviously, if if like we don't need to be the like Daddy war bucks of the world either. Like if there's conflicts that are happening out there, and like obviously if our allies are pulled into it, then we kind of have to do that. But Why are we doing like why? Like the more and more I get and again, I'm not a political person. I've been I've been trying to get more into more into the politics of it and like be informed, but I just I I'm constantly like throwing my hands up in the air and shaking my head of like what are what are we actually what are we actually doing? speaker-0: it's a it's it would be so much easier to spread democracy if if we had our act together, right? How are we gonna tell you how to live your life? How are we gonna tell you how to run your household if our house is dirty? Yeah, I if we had everything figured out, if we're supposedly the richest and all this stuff, but yet we have our a lot of our citizens are undereducated, they're malnourished, they're you know, ⁓ like it's nothing but challenge after challenge after challenge. And then our the our people, the leaders and all the people that have that have figured it out, they don't let you learn. unless you kick in. You have to pay a membership to get the knowledge that you need to then go and be successful. But yet again, we pay taxes. That's our membership fees. That's our membership dues. We're not getting that education. We're not getting those nutritions. We're not, you know, we're we're paying a membership to eat fast food and catch diabetes. speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah. And watch other people eat steak. speaker-0: Yeah. And throw parties in a ballroom. speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah. Well and I guess like my thing is too, even like regardless of what you think about the let's just say education policy or whatever. I know they're trying to get rid of Department of Education, whatever. Fully fund that then. Like it at le at least you know I mean at least like at least fucking get after it. Right. In instead of like Like sp use the money to do that. Like use our tax money to like do ⁓ an ⁓ America first ⁓ agenda, yeah. Which is like what they're saying, but I mean, I don't know. It's just so frustrating. It's so frustrating on both sides because like obviously I don't like a lot of the stuff that the current administration is doing, but at the same time, we've been sending money overseas for other for other people forever. speaker-0: Forever. Ever and ever. speaker-1: Yeah. And like veterans are still homeless. Yeah. They're still like struggling. And no, I don't love the war the wars that they're veterans of because that was like that was basically sending money out of the United States anyway, also. But if they fought, they like no veteran should be homeless. If you've ever if you've ever been in a boot camp and stood in stood in a line and had any sort of US patch on your chest, you should not be struggling right now. And that money that's speaker-0: Guys that let these rich guys do whatever the hell it is that they want. speaker-1: Yeah. And then they just Turn their back on ⁓ and I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. speaker-0: Leave ⁓ homeless. Quite literally. speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah. It's just insane to me. But I think one of the things that I've found in like all in all of this in the turmoil and everything like that is just like trying to control what you can control like in your own life from a how much media you consume. speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah. speaker-1: How deep you are into the rabbit holes of all of this different stuff. Like making sure that you're taking care of your body in whatever way that you possibly can, like whether that's just walks or whatever. Like when I first got into the this whole ⁓ like world of politics and everything like that, with some of these candidates that we we've both come to know over the past couple of weeks and months, is ⁓ Some of them just aren't paid, like they're not taking care of themselves. And like then from a like you take that group of people and then you look out, and there's so many, just everyone in general in the United States, 95% of them aren't ri aren't actually like really, really taking care of themselves in a in a way that is controlling what they can control. And they're so wrapped up in speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: the social media aspect of it and the outrage and holding on to anger and all that stuff every single day, which then just deteriorates mental and physical health all over the place. speaker-0: And that's something that folks need to realize that if you're consuming all of this negative content, negative energy, that's going to exhaust you. Yeah. So instead of going to the gym, you just want to go lay on the couch because you're exhausted. I'm not saying don't pay attention to what's happening, but not everything has to be a glorified headline. Not everything is a glorified headline. So stop paying attention to everything. speaker-1: Well, and it the social media sites have made it hard because that's how the algorithm is set up because they want you on the sites more. The more you're on social media, the more ads they can send to you, the more money that they that they make. Right. And then they put that money back into their algorithms to like hook you in hook you in even more. And I think we talk you talked about at the beginning of the the recording, like ADHD and like I have ADHD. I work with a lot of people that have ADHD. I think ⁓ it is a very real thing, but there's also social constructs now and belief systems that are ingrained into us, along with the our nervous systems not being regulated enough and not being even. We're not even supposed to have a fraction of this information going into our brains. And so when we wake up and get on our phones and we go to sleep on our phones and we check our phones however many times a day, of course, you don't have something to you don't have any willpower or any energy to focus on anything past that. Yeah. And that's going to be the most sensationalized part of your day, which is going to be the social media piece. So of Of course that's gonna be what your brain craves more of. Especially as somebody with when you have ADHD, which is technically like a dopamine deficiency, you're like kind of searching for that dopamine. And what's more dopamine filling than outrage? speaker-0: Yeah ⁓ speaker-1: So yeah, of course. speaker-0: Never even thought about that. Is that ADHD is a a lack of dopamine? speaker-1: Yeah, so it's it's there's a bunch of different like s kinds of ADHD, but for the for the most part, it is your brain, different parts of your brain not getting blood flow, essentially. And a lot of it is like that the front the front part of your brain doesn't get doesn't get what it needs. And so your brain's ⁓ You're like the chemical makeup of your brain is a little a little bit wonky. That's why ⁓ the the general ⁓ medical, hey, we're gonna put you on a script is stimulants because stimulants help with the blood flow and help like amp you up. That's also why ⁓ like the hyperactivity in ADHD. is technically your your brain telling your body, Hey, amp me up, dude. My brain's not firing in the way that I want it to fire. S and the only way that it knows to do that is to have your body move around more. speaker-0: That's interesting. That's interesting 'cause When I grew up that was one of the first things or that's one of the one of the main things I would get in trouble for is will you sit still? I'm like, I can't ⁓ move something. I don't know what it is. I just speaker-1: Yeah. Right. Well I'm moving. I'm over here, my hands are low, but I'm fidgeting around. I'm playing with my heater over here. You know what I mean? But yeah, the like that's what helps ADHD brains. That's why like talking with your hands a lot. You'll see people with ADHD like talk with their hands a lot. They their brain is telling their body, like, I need to move in order to stay like focused on this thing. Like I need so I need something else to do. Yeah. ⁓ in order Basically, like in order for this to be stimulating enough for me to stay in this conversation or to stay doing this work or whatever. ⁓ which is why I think a lot of people like walking on those walking pads and treadmills when they work and stuff like that, because it's like increasing blood flow. It also all of the good ⁓ exercise chemicals get released in your brain and all that stuff. Now, I do want to say I'm I A lot of my ADHD knowledge is not from like an overly scientific, I'm gonna do a bunch of research about whatever. I've just found that for my specific ⁓ ingredients of of ADHD that I know the certain things that work for me. And it's always been like if I can stay as body first as possible. So if I feeling like I'm not focused. speaker-0: Right. speaker-1: Being able to move my body in some way is always gonna is always gonna help. And so I got in trouble all the time too, like leg taps or like fidgeting or moving around or like the compulsion to like talk in class or whatever. It's like, yeah, that's your brain telling you like I need something more from the situation in order for me to pay attention to it. speaker-0: Yeah. I can see that. I can see that. And then so the medication that they give you is a s stimulant? speaker-1: Yeah, it's a stimulant. So like Adderall, Vivance, Concerta, all of that stuff is a is a stimulant. speaker-0: It stimulates you, but but that stimulation helps you focus. Okay. speaker-1: Yeah. Because technically from what from what I understand in some of like the brain scans and stuff like that, it is a ⁓ an ADHD brain, the frontal I don't know if it's the frontal cortex, I just remember it being in the in the front, has has like less activity. And so what what do you do when you have less activity? You like try to stimulate that part that part of your brain. So ⁓ I also have to say I've been unmedicated for fourteen years. I've been diagnosed for almost twenty. but like that's why they put you on stimulants so that your brain activity increases, which then allows the the different chemicals to regulate themselves. speaker-0: Okay. Why is it that well, I don't know if this is the right question to ask, but I've seen a lot of folks with some type of ADHD or whatever. ⁓ and they take this medication, they're like, I don't, I don't feel as creative on that medication, or it just doesn't, I don't like who I am on that medication. I don't like how it makes me feel. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: Is that something that you've talked to people about? speaker-1: I s I see that all the time. I have firsthand kind of knowledge of that. it does I think I think it's at least for me it was twofold. So the when they first started me off, I was on ⁓ Adderall. And Adderall made it very easy for me to study. Like I could read something once and it was I was I remembered it. I could go take a test on it. I can like verbatim, go back and forth. And I wasn't able to do that prior to. Right. So it's like that really, really worked. But the side effects of Adderall are, and I think this is where like the creativity piece kind of drops off and like all of that other stuff is because it keeps you up so you don't sleep. So you're chronically underslept. Also kills your appetite so your under your nutrition is pretty shit and it kind of makes it made me like the combination of all of that stuff made me such a fucking asshole. So like when I started it, I took it for a while, ended up getting into like I was in college basically when I started my meds, crushed it, became an asshole. speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah. speaker-1: Came home one day and all my friends were interventioning me in my living room with my with my parents. Whoa. Like, hey man, like your personality has changed. You're like kind of mean, you're really short. And because I think what it does is it takes a brain that is normally, dare I say, like slowed down and amps it up. And if you don't have the right dosage, speaker-0: Mm-hmm. speaker-1: It's going to either amp you up too much. And what that does is it makes you super impatient. Yeah. Because ADHD brains, like the thought process is always fast, and we can jump between a bunch of different things and we are able to hyper focus on certain things that are really, really important to us or or ⁓ have our attention. But we don't, it's almost like ⁓ it turns the patient patience switch off in our brains when we're on meds. Or like if somebody if somebody's talking too slow or whatever, it's like speaker-0: That one gets me all the time. Will you hurry up? That's a long ass sentence. speaker-1: Well, and that's that's also a thing with people with ADHD are very, very intelligent and we are able to jump from like you just starting to talk about something to the like the most logical conclusion of what you're about to talk about. So we almost know what you're about to say before you say it. So we want you to like be done. Yeah. Like just like come on, okay, like I got it. Right, right. I already know what the speaker-0: You're wasting both of our times. Get to the final punctuations. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: Yeah, I can see that. I can see how that and I don't even I don't try to do that. I do try to be aware of my impatience and stuff. ⁓ I've never been medicated for this, with the exception of, you know, my own herbal ⁓ solutions. You know, you know, you heat it up kind of thing. Yeah. ⁓ For me, that's that's really the only thing that I use, but I've been really focusing on on patience for something as insignificant as how fast someone can get through their sentence. speaker-1: Right. Yeah. Yeah, it's it's interesting the more well we can say medicinal ways of like for me that regardless of the different type, yeah, it just puts it put puts me out. It makes me so so so sleepy. I have another friend also diagnosed when he partakes, he's focused as hell. And is like it like really gets it like kind of quiets the noise of of everything else, which is like kind of what the stimulants are supposed to do. but it's really interesting. I don't I don't know necessarily the science behind that, but it is interesting where like something like marijuana is supposed to like kind of calm you down and make you a little bit more creative and kind of like drop you in, if you will. Like that helps some people also, and also the stimulants really, really help. Some people I found that when I was medicated, I like speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: ADHD you can hyper focus on stuff. speaker-0: Mm-hmm. speaker-1: When you're not medicated, when I wasn't medicated, when I'm not medicated, it's almost easier for me to, if I'm down a path that I don't want to be on, to switch out of that path. As soon as I would start to take medication, I would be so locked into that path, regardless of whether it was a good path or not. So it could I could be ⁓ speaker-0: Mm-hmm. speaker-1: Like now, let's just say I'm scrolling on social media. I could recognize and have the self awareness like I've been scrolling for like an hour, I need to stop. Medicaid, it's hyper focusing you in on whatever it is that you like whenever it kicks in when you're doing it. So if you're on your phone, you're gonna be locked on your phone forever. And so that's the piece for me that why I I tried to get back on meds probably a year ago. speaker-0: Mm-hmm. Yeah. speaker-1: And I was like a month in and I was like, I'm less productive on this stuff because if because it it has not it just locks you in on whatever you're doing. So it it's not a good that wasn't a good solution for me. And I'd built my whole business and gone through most of college without the meds or anything like that. So I've learned different ways of being more productive on it and speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: morning routines that get me back to a a baseline of doing what I need to do and how much I need to work out and yoga and meditation and all that stuff to like regulate myself enough that it's like, okay, now I have the wherewithal and willpower to like dive into each of these different things without with be able to be focused on it, but not overly hyperly focused on the bad stuff. And if I were to end up scrolling on my phone, I could get myself out of it. speaker-0: Yeah. I think that when you said routine, I think when I I excel in routine and I excel when you know expectations are set and and there's there's a formula to follow. Yeah. In my routine, my daily routine, I'm I I I've basically broken things down into different sections. And when I'm in this part of the day, I know that this is what I'm focused on. Whatever else is happening on the planet, it doesn't matter. I'm either having breakfast or I'm exercising or I'm walking the dogs or, you know, ⁓ There's a scaffolding to my day. Yeah. And I know what should happen. And so I'm able to force myself to focus on that thing. That's more of a tip for ADHDers that are listening to this episode. Try to figure out a a routine that works for you. And then that way, you know, ⁓ again, in the morning, I do all everything. I put away dishes, I have breakfast, I do all the things. It's kitchen time. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: And when I'm done, I come up here. When I'm in this room, it's work time. And then I have a list of all the things that I want to have done, a list of all the things that I can get done, possibly get done, wanna get done, might not get done today. You know, I have a list and then I just focus on that list. And then when it comes, when it turns into a different part of the day, I know that that's the time to focus on that other thing. speaker-1: Right. speaker-0: Just another way to let the outside world stay in the outside world if you're within your own scaffolding. speaker-1: Mm-hmm. Yeah. And I think the the one thing that I'll s I'll say with that and why it probably works so well with you is because each each area and each part of that routine is it has the that context. Right. So I think what what some people fall in line or where they falter with some of this stuff is they will have Like the same like their office isn't just for work, it's for like they do other stuff in it. And that that ends up being like a super slippery slope because if that room ends up being an all-encompassing, I can do anything in their room, that's really hard to like break out of. Right. So you know, and I don't know if you use so I have something called a block. There's also something called a brick that you can like turn off certain apps on your phone. And speaker-0: ⁓ cool. speaker-1: It makes it so you like you can't get those apps back open unless you scan this and it's like an RFID, whatever. And I've been starting to recommend that for a lot of the people that I work with, ⁓ coaches, entrepreneurs, people that have ADHD. And it's like if you have an a office set up specifically for you to work where you don't want to scroll, you don't want to do any of that other stuff, like lock your phone before you come in. speaker-0: Yeah. ⁓ speaker-1: Because as soon as your brain says that that's an area that you can fuck around in, you start fucking around. Yeah, you fuck around in that area. Right. And then ⁓ the context of your office isn't just productivity getting shit done, hyper focused for a couple hours and just rock things out. It ends up being this like, ⁓ that room's just for like whatever the fuck I want to do. Great. And so people with ADHD, those like environmental contexts are really, really big. speaker-0: Mm-hmm. speaker-1: One thing there people with ADHD struggle with like the routine. It seems like you have kind of like a a good one, but one of the differences between an ADHD brain and somebody else is the reward system in an ADHD brain loves novelty. It loves change. And so when I talk about morning routines with with people I've been doing personal development for over twenty like I've been meditating since I was 16. So over 20 years. Personal development started right after that, started getting into routines and stuff like that because I felt like every day I was starting over brand new with something. And it's like I'm not regulated, I'm not at a baseline or anything like that. So I have through all of my years of doing and trying different things. Like a set of like 15 things that I can slate into a morning routine that allows it that allows me choice, which is really great in an ADHD brain. Like I want choice of what I can do, but I also want novelty. So there's a I can basically like mix mix and match all of these different things for my different morning routines. And it has to do with what I have to do. Later that day, if I have a bunch of calls, I'm not going to go work out super heavy in the morning. Maybe I'll have a meditation or do some breath work or something like that. So anybody that's struggling with routine from that has ADHD, or even people that that don't, and they're kind of struggling with routine and they're like, ⁓ I just want to get my morning routine going, going, going. Go through a bunch of different variations of it. Find and you're gonna have to track, like, ⁓ I felt like a two before and I feel like a 10 after. Felt like a two before, I feel like a seven after. And like write down everything that you could possibly do and like mix and match whatever it is that made you feel seven or higher and do three of those one day, five of those the next day, based on what you what you feel like you need. Has a lot to do with self awareness of like, ⁓ I'm looking at my schedule and I have five hours with the calls today. I should probably not do anything that's like super taxing in the morning that I'm gonna be wiped out for those calls. speaker-0: Right. little rewards that you're talking about when it comes to work, think of the novelty of getting something done that you like to do. So I'll generally start with the stuff that's like, ⁓ I really I let's just get through this. And then I reward myself by doing something that I like to do. You know, just to keep the wheels rolling. speaker-1: Mm-hmm. Yeah, I th I think there's there's something to be said about doing it each way. I've found that I have to get momentum first. At least and this is why I think it's so there's such a spectrum of ADHD that this is like the issue where if somebody's talking like anybody that talks in absolutes is you probably shouldn't listen to them. speaker-0: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Literally everyone is different. speaker-1: I and I can only talk from my experience. Yeah. And like so that for you, that totally works. Like you like eat the grossest frog first, where I need to get a little candy or a little bit of sweets in there first. And then once I get those sweets, then I'm like, ⁓ I'm feeling good enough to tackle this stupid shit that I gotta do. ⁓ that dumb shit. ⁓ now I'm gonna reward myself. So I almost have to go like back and forth. With like something that's fun and something that's not fun. And speaker-0: I'm like that too. I'll switch it up too. I'll switch it up too. speaker-1: But that's just how that's just how I work. And I think I work. And I think I just said about talking about absolutes, but I really do think that anyone's blanket statement of every single person in the entire world should have some sort of meditation practice. Because the self-awareness that you will gain from having a mindfulness practice, meditation practice, whatever you want to call it, that'll that you start to tap into. More knowledge about yourself, more self-awareness about yourself of what it actually feels like to be productive, to be happy, to be sad, to have whatever different emotions, to feeling like what it what it does mean to absolutely crush it, and what it means to like have a not crush it day. And so speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah. And and being comfortable saying that it not every day has to be crushed. speaker-1: Right, right. And so for me Yeah. Well and I think there's so much knowledge out there about let's just say productivity. And if you don't have the self awareness within yourself to know, ⁓ that productivity tip, I tried it and it just didn't work for me. I'm not gonna like speaker-0: Yourself that much grace. Mm-hmm. speaker-1: Shit on myself because it didn't work for me. I just know that I need to like take a look at that and maybe it needs a tweak or two for it to actually work for me. speaker-0: Yeah. And don't give up on yourself. Right. There's a lot of folks. I'm assuming a a lot of ADHDers might be like this, where again, going back to the point where we're waiting for people to get through their sentences. Yeah. We tried something and it didn't work and we think we're busted. And you're not broken. No. You just have to figure out, you know, you just have to figure out what works. speaker-1: Well, and I and I think the from my perspective, one of the things that hurts the most, especially, and I'm just coming out at this from an entrepreneurial perspective, is most of the advice out there is from these big entrepreneurial accounts that are successful, that don't have ADHD, that try to tell you that grinding it out is the way to go. And sometimes you have to look at yourself in the mirror and say, I'm not fucking doing enough to get my business to where I needed to go and I need to do more. And like that more doesn't necessarily mean like always like working more. It could be like more meditation or more whatever. But we see people out there, they're like, ⁓ yeah, I'm I wake up at five and I grind and grind and grind and then I work 12 hours and blah blah blah. Like ADHD doesn't that doesn't work for an ADHD brain. And so we see speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: What the idealistic, like this is how you should be as an entrepreneur out there. And we try that and it feels like shit. And then we're like, wow, if that's what it means to be a successful entrepreneur, that feels like shit. I don't want to do that. So we resist against it, or we say, fuck it, I can't do that because that's crazy. But oftentimes it's one small little tweak that could change it all. speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah. speaker-1: And for instance, one of the most highly sought, like if you want to set up your day like this, this is the most productive thing. They've done a lot of tests and all that stuff on it is time blocking your day. Right. So I have mine color coded out based on like different activities and all of that. speaker-0: Mm-hmm. speaker-1: A lot of people with ADHD don't find that to be novel because they it's all set in stone. And while we're visual people, it's set in stone. So that doesn't really work for us. And then we're then we almost get like anxiety about sticking to the the time blocking. Yeah. So the two twe the two tweaks that I always talk about are give yourself a little bit of space between it. Let the people know that are on the calls. Hey, I'd like to end five minutes early or five minutes like start five minutes late. Give yourself like get say what you need. And two, so that you don't get burnt out, put how much effort you think you're gonna need into that task. And that's gonna be very personalized to you. So this it's a two hour meeting, effort wise, a fucking zero because it's fun, right? But if I have speaker-0: Thank you. Yeah. speaker-1: An hour worth of where I'm not talking, I'm not using energy, I'm not doing any of that stuff, but I'm sending out invoices. That's like a five on the effort scale. Yeah. And so I don't know if you've ever played video games or D D or anything like that, but for my gamer people out there, I always equate it to like mana. So you start out the day with a certain amount of mana and you have to figure out what that is yourself. So go meditate, figure out like get Build the self-awareness to figure that out. But then you have a certain amount of points every day that if you expend those points, you're gonna be no fucking good to anybody. So say I have 20 points, I need to make sure that my schedule only allows me to use those 20 points or less so that I know I can end the day and I can feel really good about the amount of capacity that I have left over after and also the amount of things that I got done. speaker-0: Okay. Mm-hmm. speaker-1: And so time blocking for somebody without ADHD is great. Time blocking for somebody with ADHD is going to feel like hell unless you make a little bit of a tweak to it that allows it to be to work with your brain a little bit better. And I think that's the I made a piece of content ⁓ a couple weeks ago about like speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: Do something about your ADHD. Like learn more about it. Learn more about yourself. Stop just blindly leaning into the beliefs that like people at ADHD aren't focused or whatever. I think you you may have commented on that one also. And to me, that's the biggest change that I've made in myself over the past couple of years is like I try not to joke about the funny, quirky things about ADHD because that gets into your subconscious and just allows that programming to just keep continue to run. I'm not going to accept that just because I have ADHD that I'm going to be unfocused or less successful than somebody else. I just know that I have to update the tools that have been proven to work for other people in a little bit of a different way that allows it to work with me. Because I'm not accepting speaker-0: Mm-hmm. Yeah. speaker-1: Like, ⁓ you're just you have ADHD, you're unfocused, and you're gonna like just gonna be this wonky guy all the time. Like, no, I'm going to be successful. I am successful. And the only way to do that is to actually believe that that can happen and believe that your ADHD is a superpower that allows you to do all of these wonderful things, that allows you to think in a different way than other people. That's the only way. You can't just sit there and be like down on yourself about it. speaker-0: Yeah, and and hating this thing about you is not is not the solution. It's just not. Like if you learn to leverage again, spending time with yourself, meditating, and actually putting yourself in different situations to see how you're going to react, all of that is valid information that you can leverage to optimize all of this stuff that Adam is talking about. Yeah. You know? It's a it literally is a superpower. I dare anyone that knows me that has known me for longer than a few months, all of those people will be like, This dude's a workaholic, and he just does nothing nothing but produce and all this stuff. I've I've learned and I've put myself in different situations, whether it be in corporate America or out in public, just to see how I would react to different things. And once you get to know yourself, you're gonna know. You're gonna know, ⁓ maybe the afternoons isn't the best time for me to edit a video. Maybe I should do that in the morning. And then you just, you know, you move these blocks into place, and all of a sudden you're out there just crushing it on accident. speaker-1: Right. Yeah. Well, and I that's a hu that's a really, really great point because some people aren't willing to experiment when they do certain things during the day. That's one of the reasons why I think ADHD or entrepreneurship is really good for people with ADHD. Because you can set up your schedule how you want. Now I have a wife that works a nine to five. Well, she normally gets home at four. And so like my evenings aren't as open as they normally are, which obviously I'm super happy to hang out with my wife. ⁓ for most of our for most of our relationship. When you really like when you like the person you're with. Yeah. Yeah. and for most of our relationship we worked opposite schedule. So I was on a nine to five and she was like serving or something like that at night. So we obviously cherish the the speaker-0: The relationship so much better. speaker-1: evenings now, but I get really creative in the evening. Like I like when I've kind of like burned some of my energy out and like my mind calms down a little bit, like I can get a fuck ton of stuff done in the evening. And so like just knowing that about myself. I don't necessarily have to do that in the evening, but if I burn off energy in the morning, I know that my afternoons are going to be like that. And so, like, ⁓ shit, should I try that? Should I try working out in the morning? Should I try meditating? Should I try jumping around? Should I go for a run? What is a what does a lifting workout versus a running workout do for me? And it's you have to do that experimentation. What does it feel like? ⁓ great. I'm I have a A certain way that I like default to, but how do I tweak my day so that I can actually like get stuff done? speaker-0: Mm-hmm. speaker-1: 'Cause for me, like I know I need a little bit of time to kind of ramp up and I need to get like some motivation in the morning. And then once I do that, I'm at baseline and I'm off to the races. speaker-0: Yeah, get a running start at the day. Yeah, breaking your day down. ⁓ and then and then giving yourself enough grace to to know, all right, this time I'm gonna do business stuff or I'm gonna do creative stuff and then being able to flip things because sometimes I wake up and I don't want to do anything but draw. And I give it to myself. Sometimes sometimes I can't draw to save my life. So I leverage that and I start editing because editing is pretty repetitious. You just cut here, move it over, and you know. leveraging leveraging the information that you've learned about yourself is is hu and this that's basically for everyone, but specifically for my ADHD folks. speaker-1: Mm-hmm. speaker-0: It's going to make you feel less lost. It's gonna help you feel like you're you know I've been leveraging technology like reminders and calendar and and and just my iPad is my favorite piece of technology ever because I can draw, write, do you know, ⁓ write a script, do whatever, watch, do research, all the things. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: But it for my brain, it needs to happen at a certain time or maybe even in a certain way. But I know for I know exactly it depending on when you talk to me that time of day, I know what I'm gonna be working on. And I've changed my I've changed my reward system instead of a paycheck. This is the entrepreneur, instead of the paycheck, instead of whatever it is that's coming from the outside world, I have learned that I love to deliver on projects, whether it's a little post that someone's gonna put on Instagram, or if it's like delivery of a huge project. For me, it's all the same feeling. I feel accomplished and I feel great about finishing things. Then I just lean into it. I'm like, yeah, I did all of that, and nobody told me that I had to do it. I did it because I wanted to. So now I feel independent. And I just keep it's probably part of this ⁓ part of the meditation part is for me, is letting myself know. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: that it doesn't matter what's happening chemically in my brain, I know for a fact I can track the things that motivate me and that's delivery. So I can track that and then I give myself high fives all the time. speaker-1: Yeah. That was a one of the most life changing things that I started doing was celebrating and sometimes forced celebration of little little things. Right. Like even down to sometimes I know I'm like not in the mood to have X amount of meetings or whatever. At the end of that meeting, just being like forcing like Yeah, like nail and I think the the compounding effect of that is that your body, your nervous system, your brain gets in into the habit of like constantly finding those little wins. Like one of the a lot of people when they if you're into manifestation and woo-woo, blah blah blah blah, they talk about like celebrating any little piece of money that you get. Because the more you celebrate something, the closer you are to that frequency. And that frequency then becomes like part of you. And then you're just out there just being this abundant being. ⁓ and so that was one thing that like I try not to let a I try not to waste a good moment. I try not to waste a invoice coming in. Or a yes to a service or a like or a favorite or my content getting a couple more views or what like literally everything can be a celebration for you. And the more you get in a habit of doing that, the better you're gonna feel about your life because you're gonna see, ⁓ I picked this up, there's still ice in my cup. Fuck you. speaker-0: Nailed it. Yeah. speaker-1: I put the right amount of ice in there because I'm so fucking smart. Right? speaker-0: I'll go as far as to say I was a genius because I knew I wanted to buy that cup. Yeah. Why? Because I know that ice lasts a little bit longer in that cup. speaker-1: Right. Yeah. speaker-0: ⁓ I love on myself all the time. speaker-1: Yeah, I think that that's one thing that has I I go to the negative a lot. And I and I you and I think that ⁓ no like noticing that and like really changing it is like one of the biggest acts you can do for yourself to make a a more positive impact in your life. It all comes down to like you have to be self-aware enough. Meditation again of like anybody watching this, go download some sort of meditation app and start doing it. But if you when you recognize that you're that you're saying a shitty thing to yourself and you say that's not how I that's not how I want to operate. That's not how I want my experience or my reality to be is me just Constantly shitting on myself. I need to change that. Then you say, Mm, not gonna happen. And you learn how to put a positive spin on stuff like that. speaker-0: Yeah. Whatever you tell your brain about yourself, your brain will believe. If you think that ADHD is a chore and it's just grinding you down and all this stuff, your brain is gonna is gonna believe it. Whereas I've been telling myself ADHD is a superpower and I will put my brain and my skills up against anyone on this planet. You know, my chest gets a little bit puffier, you know? Yeah. I can feel I can feel the little cape coming out the back. speaker-1: Well, and I think I mean That's how you wanna live life. Right? You don't wanna live life with all of this negative shit and and experience it and experiencing it in a way that makes you feel bad or and obviously you're gonna get into fights, you're gonna have bad experiences, people in your life are gonna die, like all of that stuff. But what is the experience that you wanna have? You wanna have I wanna have an experience that and I'm gonna do my damnedest to have it that speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: It's fucking great. And that my ADHD is that superpower that allows me to be so interested in all of these different things and so knowledgeable in all of these different things and hyper focused in all of these different things that builds this wealth of knowledge that I believe that I have, whether s other people out there believe it or not. And it's like that's the experience that I want to have. And I need to set things up in my belief systems, in my thoughts, in my actions. to support that or it's gonna be run by some program, somebody stupid stupider than me, which is gonna be the outside world because they don't know me as well as I know myself. speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah. It's the frame of mind. Yeah. Don't let anybody, don't let anybody tell you who you are. You know, I can't tell you how many times I I consider myself somewhat confident. Sometimes people call me cocky. But it's not. I'm not trying to be an asshole about it. I just know I got it that way. I've learned enough. I've put myself in. So many different situations and have somehow gotten and listen, Chicago's not easy. speaker-1: I imagine. speaker-0: Getting out of Chicago or or ⁓ not even getting out of Chicago, but but going through you know going through high school in Chicago without I can't remember getting in one fight. I've gotten into arguments, I almost got jumped, and I like there's a bunch of stuff, you know. ⁓ but being able to maneuver all of that now that we're on that, like environmentally speaking, how does the environment And I know I'm switching the subject, but how does the environment affect the chemistry that's happening in in the ADHD brain? speaker-1: And from an environment perspective, I don't know that it's necessarily like changing it, but I think our brain, at least for me, my brain like locks into a certain environment for a certain thing. speaker-0: Mm-hmm. speaker-1: Right, like we can make an environment more supportive for an ADHD brain, like having a walking pad or making sure that you click off your phone or whatever, leave your phone outside of your office or something like that. But from I don't know that that necessarily changed the changes the chemistry, changes the context of what you can do within that space, which is the the biggest piece. speaker-0: Mm-hmm. Yeah. 'Cause I read somewhere Where the the the thesis was you everyone has the same brain. ⁓ it's made out of the same chemicals, it's made out of the same meat, it's made out of the same materials. But then depending on your experience as a human, the way that you maneuver life or the whatever life is serving to you at the moment, there's a certain chemical reaction that continues to change your brain. So you could have you could have twins, but you put one in say in a ⁓ in a household that might have some violence to it and the other one just has a nice standard home and everything is cool, you know. The but those experiences wash your brain and whatever chemicals and changes you and it makes you into whatever it is that the environment is is. Thrusting upon you, I guess. speaker-1: Yeah, I g I guess I don't I don't think that's necessarily like ADHD specific. I think that's like the whole like nature versus nurture like argument as well. I believe that What we are actually seeing out in the world, the experience that we're having is is only that experience because that's how we perceive it to be. I don't necessarily like and I think that's why two people can have like the same horrible or same great experience and tell two different stories. Of what it is, because our belief system and our perspective of which of how we are seeing life is the like the complete story of how we were raised, what things happened to us when we were younger, all of those belief systems that go into it. And that is not a set in stone thing. Which same, which is why we talk about, I like to talk about like experience like what do you want your life experience to be and change your beliefs, your thoughts and your actions around that so that those things become inevitable. Because there were I've I wish I knew like the exact study. But when I was first learning about memories and belief systems and stuff like that. I remember reading this paper about it was something like fifty percent of your actual like memory is just like the story about what that happened and not like the actual truth or something like that. Like that really stuck with me and maybe I should go try to go back and look at it a little bit more. But that stuck with me. It's like technically we could tell our brains that any situation meant anything. speaker-0: Mm-hmm. speaker-1: And why not make it the most positive side of things? One of there's a guy named Dave Meltzer and he has this like ⁓ I think he calls it like the th thank you theory. And so his whole thing is like saying thank you, even if it's like an seems like an inconvenience, right? You gotta go someplace, you gotta be there in like five minutes, and it's ten minutes away, and you hit every single red light. You could either be like What the fuck? Red light. ⁓ my gosh, this is shit. Say, like, thank you for that. Thank you. Thank you for this red light. Thank you for this moment to to take a a breath. His example was say you didn't hit that red light and you go through, you don't know if that car still pulls out in front of you and T bones you or not. So believe that ⁓ speaker-0: Yeah. Breath. Yeah. speaker-1: Life is like working for you to keep you safe. Whether you believe in God or a higher spirit or anything like that, I don't really subscribe necessarily to that stuff, but I do think like things in the world kind of have a way of setting themselves up for you, if you will. Like, yeah. Thanks for that red light. It's gonna give me like now. I can finish that song that I'm listening to. Or speaker-0: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. speaker-1: What like it's all about how you perceive the things out in your world versus sometimes the default reaction that you have to them. speaker-0: Mm-hmm. And that red light, maybe it gives you a couple extra moments to go over what you're gonna say at this meeting. You know, maybe you're doing a presentation, maybe you needed a two extra minutes to feel really confident about it. But at the end of the day, who cares? You caught red lights. It it happens. It happens all the time. Don't you beat yourself over it. Don't beat yourself over it. speaker-1: Yeah. You could choose to be pissed about it and then maybe ruin your mood for that meeting and be like in a hyped up state when you get there. Or you could just say, Yeah, thanks. Great. Now I got a couple extra I get to slow down and take some actual intentional breaths now. speaker-0: Yeah. You've gotten into business coaching. How do you how do you come about that? speaker-1: I went to school for design and marketing. ⁓ so college college, good old college degree that they say isn't worth shit anymore. I I beg to differ I beg to differ because I think I think it set me up for what it's good what it would take to like work hard enough at different jobs and the problem solving and studying and like learning a learning speaker-0: I agree. speaker-1: Just general how to learn shit. And ⁓ speaker-0: Mm-hmm. And dare I say how to work with people? speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah, especially if you're doing like a group project or something like that. So ⁓ did that, went out into the world, ⁓ had to do an internship for like marketing graphic design. That internship started me I had to do three hundred hours. After that three hundred hours, they were like, Hey, congratulations, you're a designer. Do you want to freelance now for us? That's sure. So basically graduated, started freelancing while looking for jobs, ended up getting a job and continued to freelance on the side. And I always worked at really small agencies where I was able to get into the sales process and ⁓ like the back and forth with clients and how to keep people happy and how to talk to them about this sales piece and this sales piece and what happens if This goes south and blah blah blah. So I was like kind of integrated into all into all of that. And so from like the marketing piece and everything, I I decided that I wanted to continue to like learn more about marketing and ⁓ came across somebody talking about Facebook ads. And so going through the whole process, started learning about Facebook ads, Facebook ads, Facebook ads. More marketing, copywriting, more design, then job that I was like super comfy in was like, we're kind of running out of money. Like and so I don't know if we need three designers anymore. We might need just two designers. And so I ended up getting laid off. And instead of keeping up my portfolio and everything like that. I was like, you know what? I've kind of always wanted to own my own thing. Mm-hmm. I've been freelancing for all of this time. Let me just fucking go out and get clients. And so I started in s instead of putting all my time into putting out resumes, I decided, hey, I'm just gonna start messaging and emailing local businesses, friends that have businesses, stuff like that, ended up with a couple different ⁓ clients and built my Facebook ads agency to a pretty good clip. ⁓ I was within like the first three months I had like five or six different clients. I was at like 15 to 18 K a month, just cranking out like fifteen hour, sixteen hour days, seven days a week, and then just got drop kicked by by burnout and just like wasn't able to like do anything. My brain this is where like I started really working in like the nervous system regulation and like anti burnout stuff. ⁓ but essentially like burned out speaker-0: Mm-hmm. speaker-1: Still still like built that business back up. ⁓ and then had a mentor say to me, like, what would you think about doing this coaching piece? And ⁓ he's like, A lot of people that I know that have like agencies that have been working in marketing for a long time and freelancing for as long as you have, kind of like transition into having coaching as a side hustle and a side gig for themselves, along with like some of the agency style work, if they still like doing that. And I like, yeah. And he's like, you also understand what it means to be an entrepreneur and how to not burn out. And you've been meditating for X amount of years and been into personal development. And a lot of the pieces and parts, like all of that meshes together into somebody that knows a whole lot about the the business side and marketing side and how to get sales side and all of the and the intricacies of the tech, along with The person behind the business, the entrepreneur themselves. And he's like, You're kind of uniquely positioned as somebody that like knows both sides of it. Why not see if you can get some people to bite on a business coaching kind of package? Nice. And within the first month of that, I had like two clients sign on for super cheap, even though I had been selling out 5K. 8k contracts for like marketing services. Yeah. ⁓ I think my first coaching client I signed it was a three-month package. She paid over six months, and it was like $300 a month for six months or something like that. Just to like get my, you know what I mean? Like 'cause it was like a totally new offer. And I did like the first couple sessions and just fell in love with. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: the the process and then started digging into like, okay, what does it mean to be like a coach? What does it mean to be like a better entrepreneur? How do I like my business coaching isn't like I'm gonna get you like here's the LOC that you need and here's like how to do your taxes and like what expenses you should take out and stuff like that. It's more of How do you operate as an entrepreneur? Yeah. And have a ton of fun running your business, put out great content, be who you are, really lean into like your personal, the personal brand side of things and like make enough money and have enough freedom in your life to like do the shit you want to do and have enough money to kind of do all that stuff out in the world. And that just like kind of opened up my eyes of like this grander vision of Helping people live out their dreams. And for some people, their dreams are their business. For s other people, dreams are freedom and vacations and all of that kind of stuff. Yeah. I kind of came back to this like idea of ⁓ marketing is building somebody's dream, which is their business. And coaching kind of meshes in with that. And so like secretly I call myself like this dream maker. speaker-0: Mm-hmm. speaker-1: kind of kind of person which has kind of like an some egotistical piece to it, but I help people make more money in their business, which supports their dream and not doing it in a way that makes them feel like an asshole or burns them out. And they can have fun and do a lot of good in this world. Yeah. And so for me it's like the impact driven entrepreneurs that are also coaches that allow my ripple in the water to just continue out is what really like kind of gets me up and gets me going. ⁓ and I've been doing it, I've been freelancing my whole career. speaker-0: So speaker-1: It's been fourteen years of kind of like getting my own clients and managing all those invoices and that kind of stuff. So yeah. speaker-0: Which is funny because going back to the the beginning of this conversation, we're talking ADHD and all that stuff. ⁓ the have you spent much time in corporate America at all? speaker-1: So I was seven years in like what I would say, like is more traditional nine to fives going into an office. This was before I mean my first job had to wear a tie, even though I was a designer and like marketer, had to wear a tie. I had the Blackberry. Hey, you need to respond to an email or answer a call within 15 minutes, 24 7. I stayed there was times I was at the office over twenty-four hours changing changing ties and shirts while I was there. I had the the outfit in my in my desk. So about seven seven years of about half I'm actually been an entrepreneur longer than I was in nine to five corporate America now, but yeah, for nine years of the fourteen fifteen or seven years of the fourteen fifteen, I was in like Other working for other people in in an office, kinda. speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah. Every time I've had a corporate job, it's been you show up at this time, this is exactly what you're gonna do. Don't do more, don't do less. This is exactly what they and again, let's go back to the point where I like doing a lot of things all at the same time. I can't sit still. All these things. So it's almost like that entrepreneurial life is is way more. My brain is built to be an entrepreneur. I don't necessarily need people to tell me what to do. I just need to know that there's a task that needs to be done. And just let me be. I'll be right back. You know. So it's fun. It's fun to talk to you and and and you're like, Yeah, no, that's not for me. I wanted to come and do this thing. I want to do, you know. And then the added fact that you you enjoy helping people. Like we don't we don't hear that all the time. speaker-1: Yeah. Well, I think there's something to be said. Like one of the things that's h probably held me back the most is I'm probably too flexible on like the pricing piece. Yeah. And I think like for me, it's almost like I would rather help somebody and like update my and like reduce my pricing a little bit. I always reduce like the deliverable also, so it's like speaker-0: Yeah, that's the creative part of us. speaker-1: I'm not gonna do four calls with somebody if I'm reducing price four calls a month with somebody if I'm reducing pricing, right? ⁓ but I think Like that part of it has been like the hardest part for me, which I like I want to help people a lot. And this sounds like me like being like, ⁓ my god, I'm such a nice guy. Like I still charge a good amount, but I'm not like so stick in the mud of like this is what the exact pricing is. But I will say that's probably gotten me into a cycle. several times where and you might have been in that place too where it's like you're not charging enough to give yourself like full freedom and also but you all your bills are paid plus some but you're always kind of on the edge of if one client drops kinda fucked and I have to like but I'm not making enough money to like hire somebody. So luckily I've gotten out of that cycle, but there was a long time, especially through COVID, where I'm like, I fucking need money. Like throw a ham sandwich at me and I'll s and I'll say yes. Because I just needed I just needed to pay my mortgage. I needed to pay my bills. ⁓ so that that's probably you didn't really necessarily ask for a challenge, but that's probably been one of my biggest challenges has been speaker-0: Congratulations. Yeah. speaker-1: One, just staying in the game. I'm past the point of where they say like most businesses or entrepreneurs like go back to corporate America within the first three years. I'm past that point. Yeah. I've been in the game, but it's like, yeah, the pricing piece, making sure that you have enough coming in and then realizing, ⁓ shit, 35% of that's going to tax is also like shit. So luckily I'm out of that cycle now, but it was a slog to get out of that. speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah. Creative folks need to realize ⁓ stop doing things for free. Stop doing things on specs. Stop stop your life will get so much easier when you play the game properly and don't let business people talk you into some bullshit. They're going to try to they're going to try to ⁓ get more bang for their buck. That's their job. That's what they're trained to do. Yeah. That's what they're trained to do. You're trained to do the creative stuff. And they're gonna try to convince you that you're, you know, do it for the do it for this is they're trying to convince you to do it for the exposure. And let me let me let me let me toss in some stuff here. So the speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah. speaker-0: The businessman in charge of the United States right now has notoriously whittled small businesses down to nothing. He comes in, he convinces you, ⁓ it's the Trump name and all this stuff and it's gonna look wonderful on your resume. But there are so many times, so many ways that people have come out and said, yeah, especially designers. ⁓ he had one designer start a book. They did the design and they're doing whatever, but then they got to a certain point. And if you're creative, generally speaking, you're gonna ask for like half up front and whatever. So they he would pay the half up front or whatever percentage up front. And then at the when you're getting close to wrapping up the project, he would take it away so he doesn't pay the ⁓ other half. And then he goes to another designer that says, Well, this book, this book is almost done. I'm just gonna give you a little bit of money to finish it if that's okay. And it's gonna look good on your resume. As a designer looking at a project that's almost done, you're gonna be like, ⁓ this is easy work. You but you don't know that the businessman has ripped off a person in your own community. Their company is struggling now because again, they're not making the money that they're supposed to be making. You know, and that's the trick. And creative folks get so excited. We're we're gonna be designing stuff anyway. We're gonna be doing things, we're gonna be drawing things, we're gonna be we so we might as well do it for someone who's gonna give us a little bit of just a little bit of exposure, a little bit of money, whatever it is. speaker-1: Yeah. I think ⁓ speaker-0: Creatives need to knock that shit out. They need to go ahead and tighten it up. And I know a business person, if you if you hire her for one hour and she gives you the information that you need, and then you need like the next day, maybe you need 15 minutes, she charges for 15 minutes. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: And and that's just business. She she don't care. You might be a nice guy. You might be all that. Yeah. You're gonna pay fifteen minutes. speaker-1: I'm I'm luck I had I had very good luck with my with the design school that I went to and I had one teacher in in specific. His name was Tony Samanji. He is one of the he's in Akron U now. I think he's one of the like head professors there. And he one of his things was do not do spec work. They're gonna try and get you On this, like you're a new designer, you need to build your portfolio. It's going to be a good portfolio piece for you. You got it, you gotta do it, you gotta do it. Like, there's going to be people that are not going to want to pay your rate, and they're going to tell you that it's in your best interest to do so. And I'm letting you know right now, it's never in your best interest to do so. Because it creates the habit of doing shit for free that doesn't get you paid. speaker-0: Mm-hmm. speaker-1: that keeps you stuck where you're at. And that's why most he's like, this is why most freelancers don't actually ever get ahead, is because yes, you need that portfolio work, but go create something, create some logo for a nonprofit or something like your own project, yeah. Yeah, or your own project. That's the great part of like digital now is that you can just create shit. You can make up a company and build a website for it and put it in your portfolio. speaker-0: Project. Mm-hmm. I've seen people go as far as saying this isn't already an established brand. If I were to be given creative freedom over this established brand, this is what I would do. speaker-1: Yeah. And for me it was like When I first came out, luckily the the place that I was freelancing for wanted they were like, We're not gonna not pay you. Like, here's I think I started at like 85 an hour or something like that. That that's what they were paying me. And which is great for freelance, right? Especially right out right out of school. I'm like, this is this is great. And then I realized I had to pay like half of it in tax. It was they were really only paying me like I was really only taking home like thirty five dollars. Yeah. but then like moving forward when I was trying to go get clients out of my o on my own, it came up so much. ⁓ you want to do this for free? And that's why I l a lot of the times I see ⁓ like these logo contests or like the they even like the Cleveland Guardians when they changed their name from the Indians to the Guardians they had like a logo contest kind of thing at first. And I'm like, there's gonna be some poor designer both like not making a lot of money poor and like speaker-0: Right. speaker-1: getting taken advantage of, poor guy. Like and he's gonna put in forty hours to this design because he loves Cleveland sports and he just wants and all they're gonna do is take those designs and find a direction to then pay some New York City design firm to flesh out the final logo. And you may get speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: A thousand bucks and that design and branding firm is probably gonna get fifteen thousand dollars to do that work. speaker-0: And then the ball club is gonna make all kinds of money because of the merch that they just got done redesigning. Mm-hmm. speaker-1: So I don't I don't know who submitted what or anything like that. And if they if they truly did that, that would be real very, very shitty if they did that. But I know that they wanted to they said that they wanted to keep it in Cleveland and then then decided to go with an outside of Cleveland. I'm pretty sure they went with an outside Cleveland like branding firm, but It just ⁓ they you can't get taken advantage of. And it's easy to wanna do stuff for the portfolio and as spec work and because it's like you don't have to think of a prompt yourself, but it is never worth it. It is never worth it. The one the this is an interesting thing because I'm so adamant about that. But on the other side, in my coaching business, I give away free coaching calls all the time. Because I think that's the best way to experience coaching is to actually be coached by the person that you're potentially going to hire. and so it's it it was really hard for me at first because I've found that if I coach in a quote quote unquote sales call, I'm much more likely to actually get the client than if I just do like a sales script or something like that. ⁓ so it there's like a Such a like a juxtaposition of Don't do spec work. Free coaching is the best way to make skills. And so it's like, I know it's like it seems a little bit hypocritical. It's obviously two different, very, very different ⁓ industries, but it's it's really funny because I struggled with that for a really, really long time. And when I kind of finally realized, like, ⁓ a lot of my coaching calls and like connection calls are ending up with people, and I actually just made a piece of content about this today. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: ⁓ ended up with people asking me to work with them longer term when I'd like just strictly coached on a call versus when I was like, When do you want your revenue to be? Okay, well, can I have your credit card right now? ⁓ and so the the it broke my brain a little bit because I was like, I'm firmly planted in the don't do design work for free. But the coaching for free in like a sales context is So good and works out so much better. speaker-0: Yeah. But that's relationship building though. Like when you're doing when you're doing when you're doing design, you're working on a specific product. Whether it's a logo or website or animation, whatever, you're working on the thing and you're handing it off to someone that's going to then take that and go make a run at their bag. Whereas coaching, you're hoping speaker-1: Yeah, true. speaker-0: You're hoping that you're building a relationship that's going to continue to last throughout time, however long that is. So I can see I can see I get it. I get I get I understand the conundrum. Yeah. Don't give anything away for free. And the first thing you do is give something away for free. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, I think the relationship building is really important. And hopefully, hopefully in return. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: whatever your clients are doing, if they can pay it back or pay it forward in a way, you know, to make it hopefully the coaching is making hoping hopefully the coach is the coaching is making the your client ⁓ you're adjusting their their way of thinking to not be that much of an asshole that they're gonna, you know, well, you know, ⁓ thirty seconds here, we're gonna go ahead and we're gonna take thirty seconds off of the bill or something. You know what I mean? I don't know what I'm trying to yeah. I'm trying to come up with a ⁓ a situation where ⁓ where they would they would have to pay you back, but you know, whatever it is. At the end of the day, it's relationship building. And that's and that's what's important to move forward as a team more than, all right, well, there's your coaching. Good luck. speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah, I mean it is it has been very effective. It was one of the biggest shifts in my actual coaching business was when I when I went from using a script and having barely any luck getting clients. I don't like saying getting clients. I like I I think clients are created. You don't get them, you don't convert them, you create them, which is like the whole relationship building piece. ⁓ But yeah, when I switched to like how can I make this call as close to a coaching conversation as possible with a little bit of time to talk investment and money and how we're gonna work together long term at the end, like blew the doors off my business, basically, because ⁓ to me you have to ex you have to experience a coach and in a coaching conversation in order for them for you to For the prospect to really be like, Yes, this person can hold the space for me. They can really I think that's why so much of the coaching industry now is like people get on calls and they don't coach somebody and they're really good at like the marketing sales persuasion piece. And then they get into the prospect gets into a coaching container and they're like, This isn't what I wanted. I'm not really like happy with this space. And Because they didn't actually get coached by the person first. So they never experienced what it would be like to be a client of theirs. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: So there's a we I could we could spend two more hours on just the coaching industry and how like wonky it is, how wonderful it is, but also how how wonky it is. Maybe that w maybe we can schedule another day just for that. speaker-0: Yeah. I would love to. That's I at at the end of the day, coaching and and even running a business is all about managing relationships and building that trust. I trust that I'm gonna come to you, Adam, and I trust that you're gonna give me some helpful insight. So then turn around, I'm gonna go kick some ass. speaker-1: Right. Yeah. speaker-0: ⁓ so if you're not a people person boy. speaker-1: Yeah, it might be hard to be an entrepreneur. I don't know if I don't know if you've seen, but there's there was something that came out it was over COVID and then it kind of like ramped up. It was called digital marketing. Not the digital marketing that you and me think of, like websites and social media and stuff like that, but they kind of like took over the term digital marketing, which was essentially people speaker-0: Sure. speaker-1: Taking a course that they were allowed to resell and reselling that course. It was called master resell rights. And one company basically like made this and it was kind of like pyramidy scheme kind of thing. And it's now starting to die down because what people are realizing is that the how it was framed at first was like, you don't need to know anything about the course. You can go through it. speaker-0: Mm-hmm. speaker-1: But we'll tell you how to sell it. We'll tell you how to do it. And you can even do it in a in a faceless way. So you don't have to like show up and you don't have to build rapport. You just have to be, you just have to like post these tweets and post this social media and post this this and post this this. And ⁓ it turned into like a bunch of people selling other people this dream of making a ton of money without actually building any relationship with it. And a lot of people got like super burnt out of Just like trying all of these things and it not working and it not working. And they forgot the number one key to actually making sales and building a business, which is what you've talked about at length, which is building relationships. And if you can't, if your business model takes that away, it's never going to actually be something that's long term sustainable. It's always going to be a flash in the pan. speaker-0: Mm-hmm. speaker-1: It just is. There's no there's no way around it. speaker-0: Yeah. Folks need to folks need they they love teachers. Whether or not whether or not you wanna believe it, I'm not even necessarily talking just school teachers, you know, Mrs. McNamara that teaches English. You can sit here for the most part. You can sit here and just blab on and on about this information a lot, like what you're talking about. This company that went out and did this thing, and they just kind of put you out there, and then you're out here learning by yourself. People connect to people. This is who we are. It's it's it's a natural thing. We belong and it's a social thing. That's why social media is huge. Everyone is following everyone because we have this necessity of tapping in with each other and linking with each other. And to your point, if you take out that link, you're just feeling lost. And there's no there's no customer service rep. There's nothing the first thing we do is reach out to more people. So I could see where that business plan is just horseshit. We're gonna put all this information out there, but we're not gonna tap in with you. We're not gonna connect with you as a human. You kind of deserve you deserve to fail. speaker-1: Yeah, and I think I think what it I think the the dream of it is great. Make money without doing a lot. And it like it like leans into the desperate like people being what they're desperate for, which is like making a lot of money, making ends meet, having a side hustle while still being able to like have family time and all of that. speaker-0: Only rich people get to do that. speaker-1: Yeah. Only only which people only rich people can get to do that. And what I think the thing that pains me the most, because I love digital marketing, I've been doing it for fifteen years. It's gotten me to where I was where I am now, the knowledge behind it. If those people took what was in that course and reached out to local businesses to do that stuff for them, they would be able to charge speaker-0: Mm-hmm. speaker-1: Between three thousand and five thousand dollars a month to do that service for them. speaker-0: Mm-hmm. speaker-1: And they would need two clients and probably be making more than what they make at their nine to five. But instead, they did a bunch of fucking work to remain faceless or remain whatever and resell something that wasn't technically theirs. And so in that, they're making themselves a commodity. They're not bringing any of their personality into it because they don't want to actually show up to do anything. So I do feel bad that because I I do believe that everybody. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: Could and I don't know, should necessarily be an entrepreneur because I think there's like a freedom piece to it that is awesome. But they were preyed upon by somebody else in this dream of making money easy. When if it was easy, everyone would do it, and we wouldn't have this disparity in wealth that we have now. We wouldn't have people struggling. And you have to You have to put in the work. You have to look at yourself in the mirror and be like, this is too good to be true. And it's and I gotta like if I really do like this digital marketing thing, I need to find a different way of of using these skills for it. speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah. I've never heard Mark Cuban ever say, Yeah, there was this one class that I took that said you could be rich if you just follow these steps. And then I didn't even follow those steps. speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah. speaker-0: Rich people don't do that. Rich people work. As much of you if you you might love or hate Jeff Bezos, whatever. There's a picture of him with a rat ratty tatty sign as at Amazon and he's sitting in this office by himself. speaker-1: Yeah. And they were speaker-0: Love him or hate him. He put in the work. Love him or hate. Yeah, and I understand thirty thousand dollars, forty thousand dollars if you're Trump, whatever five million, ten million dollars. I understand that that's helpful. But As someone who likes to make things and trying to make money off of my creativity, I know for a fact I can go to a bank right now and say, hey, I'm thinking of this thing to do. Can you give me some money? Versus I have this thing. Here's the prototype. Can I get some money to make more of these? I know that that's a night and day conversation. Right. You know. Yeah you gotta put in some you gotta put in some of some of that labor. It's not gonna happen for yourself. And if it did happen for yourself and it was that easy, do you trust that it's gonna stick around? speaker-1: I think peop yeah, people are just sold sold the dream on stuff sometimes where they where it's like I don't know, there's not an easy road. speaker-0: And and how I see, you know, I'm gonna start shifting into politics, from what I from what I can see is all these get rich scheme artists are the ones that are in office now. And then and then it's not like we're gonna put in the work to actually make an educated populace that's then gonna help us think our way out of all of these problems. No. What we're gonna do is we're gonna bomb Venezuela and then try to take over Greenland. speaker-1: Yeah. It's it's such a wild Yeah. It's just a wild ⁓ A wild world we live in right now, and it's just unfortunately we're having to just endure. speaker-0: ⁓ do you are you able to leverage some of your coaching and all that stuff? Cause I you said that you're starting to get more into politics and stuff. Are you able to leverage some of that coaching ⁓ experience in the political world? speaker-1: Yeah, so most of mostly from like a candidacy perspective, helping them with social media, helping them build out their personal brands. ⁓ I've had some conversations, have a couple of clients that are that are candidates. ⁓ I'll keep those private for for now, but it is My my dream well the facts are that some people are going to win their positions and some people aren't. And they're going to work really, really hard to potentially not get a nomination, not win their primary, not get elected. But what they're what I'm hoping that I'm helping them build is an asset that allows them to do something after that. So if they do get elected, great. Now they're making money as an elected official. They can still use that social media account as like a news for their constituents kind of thing. But if not, maybe they have enough following where they can get brand deals or they could. speaker-0: Hmm. speaker-1: start their own podcast or YouTube channel or whatever and make money that yeah. Or maybe there's ⁓ enough of them that all believe the same thing that are such a s thorn in the side of their the person that they're running against that won that that person has to like actually listen to their constant constituents. speaker-0: that way. Yeah. Yeah. speaker-1: So for me it's all about like can they build a big enough personal brand that allows for whatever the outcome of their election is that it that is a positive asset for them. speaker-0: Have you seen or have you noticed if building your brand on social media, la la la, how has it differed today since from say when like Ronald Reagan was running and you know? Because like Ronald Reagan had well, Ronald Reagan was an actor, so he had a following from when he was. Acting and then he turned into a governor of California and then the president. Yeah. so he had a bit of a following. Have you noticed any kind of weird dynamics from like what social media introduces? speaker-1: Well, I th I think like that is a good example of personal brand. Right. Examp another example of personal brand is the guy that's the president right now. Right? He had there's there's no way he's where he is right now if he didn't strategically think of the apprentice, get the recognition there, and all of that stuff. There's examples of it in the past. speaker-0: Mm-hmm. speaker-1: that aren't as crazy as like social media now. But I think more so it's not necessarily getting I mean this this past election was won because of personal brand. Maybe not Trump's personal brand specifically, but Joe Rogan, Alex Jones, Nick Fuentes, Sneeko, all of like the stream like the video game streamers that started leaning leaning towards the right, and Ben Shapiro, right? They've all built a personal brand which is basically just using yourself as in as influence as marketing. speaker-0: Shapiro. speaker-1: To the point where there was e even a huge conversation of like who's gonna be the left leaning Joe Rogan, so that we have like media companies that are like talking about left leaning stuff in a way. And like, yeah, we have Hassan and like all of that stuff, but he's not like big enough to carry all of that himself. So I think Moving f moving forward and even there's there's even been some I can't think of like a politician off the top of my head that has used their social media I forget who the what his name what his name was. But he was on TikTok for a while and would talk about he was a sitting senator or congressperson and would like talk about stuff all the time of like what was going on. And now I think he got redistricted out and now he's like starting his own like podcast network or something like that. It's like to me, somebody building their personal brand is like the most important possible thing that you could do, even if you're not wanting to use it as your own business asset, even if it's just you're gonna stay in nine to fives, you know you're gonna do that. But if somebody goes to your if a potential employer goes to your LinkedIn and you are super knowledgeable and like get a bunch of engagement on all of the things that you're talking about that they're wanting to hire for, you're you're way ahead of the curve in terms of anybody else that's gonna apply. So for me, it's the single most important asset that you could be using, leveraging, building is your is your personal brand right now, regardless of if you're a candidate, you're a coach, you're a creative, you're Joe Schmo off the streets that wants to climb the corporate ladder. speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah, 'cause folks need to realize that AI is coming. And it's democratizing everything. and so it's basically turning into every man for themselves, every person for themselves. ⁓ I had a conversation with a guy who was he's an old Disney animator back when they used to draw pictures. And his, you know, he's worked on his personal brand and and and he gets work through social media. And then he'll also go through exactly what you said. He'll go and he'll try to network through social media and he'll look for knowledgeable people or people that are ⁓ that the the instance he was talking about was when he's looking for voiceover talent. And he's like, Everybody's just everybody. But I'm not I'm not gonna go out and just hire you just all willy-nilly. You you know, do you need to show me that if I don't already know you, if I'm hiring you and I don't already know you, I need to see something more than you just wanna be a voiceover artist. People again, people tap into each other and they're building this network of people that they know. And I know for a fact there's so many different designers, so many different web developers, so many animators, so many all these things. It comes down to who you are. And America turning into that. America is no holes barred every man for themselves. speaker-1: Yep. Well I and especially with the rise of like influencers and stuff like that, I mean if the diff the differentiator between a lot of a lot of different people. So like there's a bunch of other business coaches out there. Some work with AD people with ADHD, some don't, right? There's only me that has my lived experience and has my knowledge and loves the Cleveland Cavaliers and has two dogs and loves to go on vacation with my wife. And you know what I mean? So there's no people we talk about competition all the time in business and everything like that. I truly and saturation also, I truly don't believe in any of that. As long as I'm showing up every single day, showing that I can do the job and showing who I am. I don't have any competition. There's nobody like me. There's nobody that has the same lived experience as me. Yeah. They might have same some of the same ideas. They might know how to market or copyright or speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah. speaker-1: run ads or whatever the same or better even better than me. Yeah. But I'm gonna show my personality because that's more fun. I'm not gonna fit into a box. I'm gonna be who I am. And that's the only way to build something that's like competitionless or saturated or ⁓ anti-saturation. Because there's always gonna be more designers. There's always gonna be more coaches. There's always gonna be more people coming out. There's always gonna be people that know how to leverage AI better than you or speaker-0: Right. speaker-1: use Photoshop better than you or whatever. But they're not and if you don't shut up, if you if you completely shut up about your actual lived experience, nobody's gonna know that you're unique. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: And so if you're not unique, then you're commodity. And sure, if you want to go out and be a commodity, that's totally fucking fine. But I'm gonna tell you what, I'm gonna be loud about my lived experience, about who I am. Yeah. That's why I'm in a position that I am today where I've been in business for myself for ⁓ it'll be nine years in in July. Right. And I've various different means. Yeah, I've had referrals. Yeah, I've created clients myself. Yeah, I've had people like damn near hand me like a whole set of clients, right? Like, but it's all because I've unapod unapologetically over the last nine years just showed up as who I am. And if you do that, it's inevitable that you're gonna be you're gonna find some level of success. speaker-0: Mm-hmm. It's not what you know, it's who you know. And who you know gets you in the door, what you know keeps you in the door. So yeah, and and even if you're introverted, letting people know that. So then that way when you walk in the room and you're quiet in the corner, I don't think it's something that I did. It's something that I said. Because again, I have ADHD. I don't know what the hell is going to fly out of my mouth. speaker-1: Yeah. Sometimes it's not appropriate for that room, but yeah, it happens anyway. speaker-0: Coach, Adam Smith. give the folks one last headline about you and what you wanna do with your life. And even if you wanna inspire someone with these words, whatever it is, give them one last ⁓ message and then let them know where they can find you online. speaker-1: Yes. Yeah, of course. that's like a that's a big ask. But I think I'll I think I'll go back to You have to decide how you want to experience your life. It can't be this vague thing. You need to have clarity of it. Even if you know what you don't want to happen in your life, that's a piece of the clarity. But you can't just allow things to happen. You actually have to go out and do it. You have to say, I want my life experience to be this way. Even with the small things, if you don't like the experience of sitting at your desk scrolling on your phone, and that's not getting you to where you want to go, and that's not inspiring to you, you need to change that. So explore how you want to experience life. And then work to build the actions around that experience. And if you do that over a long enough time frame, it's inevitable that your life is going to turn out to how you want it to turn out to. You're going to eventually be the person and become the person that allows that thing to happen. speaker-0: Mm-hmm. speaker-1: So don't just Let things happen by happenstance. You need to actually go through and experience the life that you want to experience and set set your life up in that way. speaker-0: I love it. speaker-1: And then I'm mostly on Instagram, Adam T Smith at Adam T Smith. ⁓ AdamTylersmith.com, but I hardly ever update my website or anything like that. But if you want to DM at Adam T Smith on Instagram, it's probably the best place. speaker-0: Excellent. Thank you for coming on and having a having a conversation. ⁓ I know there's a lot of folks out there that think ⁓ ADHD is a is a hurdle. It's not. It doesn't have to be. It's not. And if you need help trying to figure it out, it's wonderful to know that people like Adam are here and he's willing to coach you and he understands you probably a little bit better than someone without a DHD. So give him a give him a give him a follow. Take a look. Go see. He's per he's building personal brands all over the place. speaker-1: Doesn't have to be. Well thank you. Appreciate you. As always. Let's set up another time to do this in the near future. We can talk more about the coaching industry and how that ⁓ I I feel like how it affects us all and how it affects all of like even what's going on in the political sphere too. So speaker-0: Yeah, I would love to. Doors open. speaker-1: Awesome. Appreciate you. speaker-0: ⁓ appreciate you. Thank you again for coming on. And everybody, and with that, we're out. speaker-1: I