Latest / The Scene Projects / Peter Shankman on Community, Connection, and Harnessing ADHD for Success

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Peter Shankman on Community, Connection, and Harnessing ADHD for Success · The Scene Projects

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  This program is part of the Scene Projects podcast network.
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  Scene Project features interviews with independent musicians, comedians, and artists
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  from across the Midwest.
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  Become part of our community and support local art wherever you are.
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  Welcome in to another exciting episode of the scene.
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  I'm your host Bubba Starts, and with me today from Source of Sources, Peter Shankman.
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  Peter, welcome to the show.
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  Good to be here.
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  Thanks for having me.
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  Well, I'm excited to chat with another community builder.
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  I've been using your platform for the last couple of weeks.
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  It's really been a game changer for us here at the SCENE projects.
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  But before we get into all of that, I'd love to just kinda give you the floor and, let you give
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  us a little bit of your backstory.
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  Sure.
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  So, you know, I it's always interesting.
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  I wasn't supposed to be doing any of this.
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  I was in I grew up born and raised New York City kid, grew up with two musical parents.
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  I went to high school performing arts, was in graduate school studying fashion and portrait
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  photography, lost my financial aid.
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  Government said, your parents make too much money.
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  We're taking away your financial aid.
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  I sent I sent them back a letter.
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  Said the government or my parents do make too much money.
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  However, they keep it.
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  Government didn't find that funny.
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  So, moved back home to New York City.
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  Was hanging out.
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  It was the mid nineties, hanging out in a chat room, that part of something called America
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  Online, which if any of your listeners are 35, they're not gonna know what that is.
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  I went, someone in that chat room said, hey.
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  My company's trying to build a newsroom.
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  I said, sure.
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  I have no experience.
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  I have a journalism degree from Boston University.
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  No experience.
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  That'll be great.
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  Wound up getting hired to launch the AOL newsroom down in Virginia, and that was my
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  first and only real job.
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  I worked for AOL for about three years.
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  Moved back to New York City in the late nineties when the .com boom was taking off,
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  realized that I could move a lot faster than a lot of the stoic sort of sort of old agencies.
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  Launched a PR firm, blew it up in the .com boom, sold it a couple years later, did wear
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  roll, tried to take a year off, lasted about a week, realized I didn't know how to relax,
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  Blamed my parents.
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  Started consulting for several years running around in my late twenties, early thirties.
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  Sort of just having fun, working for, different companies all around the world.
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  Eventually realized that I talked to everyone.
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  A lot of that's because I'm massively ADHD.
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  And when I, in talking to everyone, I have a huge Rolodex, just people who know me, people
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  who, you know, I I meet and on the airplanes.
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  Finally, journalists just started saying, hey.
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  You know everyone.
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  I'm doing a story on whatever.
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  Who do you know?
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  And that led to my building a a database, called, at the time, Help A Reporter Out.
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  Now it's Source of Sources.
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  And, essentially, this database was filled with hundreds of thousands of people I've met over
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  the years, and it kept growing and growing.
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  And when a journalist needed a source on deadline for any media outlet, New York Times,
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  Wall Street Journal, Oprah, whatever, they'd use my service.
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  And it was totally free on both sides.
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  Still is.
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  Eventually, I sold it and took some time off, wrote some books, got married, had a kid, got
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  divorced, still have the kid.
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  Journalists kept calling me and sources kept calling me, hey.
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  That thing you built, it's not as great anymore now that you're not running it.
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  Would you ever consider starting it again?
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  I said, no.
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  No.
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  No.
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  And eventually, I they bothered me enough that I said yes.
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  So now in addition to the several other things I do, I have another full time job.
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  I run sourceofsources.com, which is about a 50,000 person mailing list, where twice daily
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  we send out emails to, to entrepreneurs, small businesses, marketing firms, PR firms,
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  whatever.
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  And these emails have queries from journalists all over the world.
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  And if you can answer any of the queries in these emails, you do directly to the
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  journalist, and you can get quoted, the same day, next day in major newspapers.
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  You can go on television, whatever, and it's totally free.
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  So that, in addition to a 100,000,000 other things, is is is what I do on a daily Yeah.
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  Well, like you, I wasn't supposed to be doing this.
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  So finding that database and introduced to it from another, you know, podcast guest or just
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  someone that I had a discovery call, shout out to Paige.
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  Thank you.
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  And, it it means a lot.
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  Right?
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  I I was, you know, equating to you off of, off camera and our followers who know me.
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  You know?
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  I was a welder a few years ago and quit my job to to pursue this because I saw a need for
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  especially in the music community, even though I was a musician myself, like, there there's
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  nobody out there that was really pumping those up.
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  I had released the song and, you know, I did the local radio.
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  I live in rural South Dakota, so not a lot of media outlets anyway.
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  And so I did, like, the the radio, the two news stations, and and then, like, the media tour
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  was over.
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  And it was like, well, there's gotta be more than this.
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  And I was a big podcast fan, obviously listened to a a lot of Joe Rogan, but also followed kill
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  Tony and Tony Hinchcliffe's program.
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  And to that, I was like, man, he's doing nothing but helping independent comedians.
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  Why couldn't you be doing that in the music world?
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  And granted I wasn't doing the live show, although I have developed some form of that we
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  call the songwriter showcase now.
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  It was just getting on, getting reps and starting to talk to people.
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  You know, one of my first handful of interviews was Bill Payne from the band Little Feet.
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  You know, someone who's
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  Of course.
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  Yeah.
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  Been in the music business forever, and they were coming through Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
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  And they found me because I was one of the only media outlets focusing on the music business.
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  So it was really, it took off very fast.
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  We did a 100 episodes in nine months.
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  Now we have over 400 episodes out there, 1,500 uploads on YouTube, 350,000 views.
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  So it really took off on me before I knew necessarily what I was doing.
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  So to stumble into all of this, I've needed these networks and these different places to
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  kinda fall into to get my bearings and to kinda find out what I'm doing.
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  It's not necessarily always about the stories or or what we're doing, but it's about
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  communicating with people who have been in, publicists and all of these people.
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  And I'm kinda working in a lot of these spaces that I have no idea and no experience with.
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  Right.
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  So
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  it's been nice just to kind of, you know, throw a line out there.
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  I equate it to fishing.
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  You never know what you're gonna get, but you cast your line out there.
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  If this email gets sent through, the first one I did, I got three, four responses at that same
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  day, and now you're having conversations.
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  And do I need you know, am I looking for a story every week?
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  No.
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  But once a month, I throw my line out there.
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  Hey.
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  This is kinda what we're looking for business or or media professionals that are willing to
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  talk to us.
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  At the very least, they're gaining another contact in the media world and having a story
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  put out about them.
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  And I'm gaining some valuable experience and knowledge from people who have maybe been doing
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  it a lot longer.
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  The the phishing analogy definitely confirmed that you are from South Dakota.
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  So we're good.
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  Well and and without the Internet and without meeting people like you who have been, you
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  know, working to build these communities since, you know, the the late nineties in the tech
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  boom, I would never have gotten as far as I have.
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  Now AI has had a bit to do with that as well on, you know, the editing side and helping us,
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  you know, craft media pitches and decks and a lot of things like that.
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  Obviously, I have no problem talking.
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  I knew this on camera part was going to be very easy for me.
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  It's really been all the stuff that nobody else sees that's been my education and and what's
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  taken time to kinda get used to.
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  It is crazy how, you know, turns of events happen, and the next thing you know, you're
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  doing something completely unrelated.
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  You know, not a day goes by where I I don't think back to, like, high school.
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  I went to high school of performing arts.
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  Right?
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  I graduated with Marlon Wayans, with Omar Epps, with Jennifer Aniston, with Adrian
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  What happened to your career?
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  Yeah.
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  And, you know, what's funny because, in the grand scheme of things, I I I make this joke.
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  It's funny.
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  I use South Dakota as an example.
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  I say that, you know, if thirty five years after I graduated, I could still if I was
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  living in South Dakota and thirty five years after I graduated, I could still see my high
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  school from where I was living, it might mean, you know, you might wanna get out and and do
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  something with your life.
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  I live in Midtown Manhattan.
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  I can still out of my high rise window here, can still see my high school thirty five years.
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  That doesn't mean I've done nothing quite the opposite.
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  You know?
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  So it's just it's just so funny how how everything comes full circle and how things
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  work.
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  It really it really always always cracks me up.
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  I'm very lucky with what I do.
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  Yeah.
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  And I don't live in my hometown, but we live in my wife's hometown.
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  And now she works at the school that she went to school at.
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  She's a special education teacher and, you know, and she loves it.
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  And and for me, I've been all over.
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  I I might have grown up in South Dakota, but, you know, at 18, I read Kerouacs on the road
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  and already being a guitar player at that point, I was like, yeah.
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  I think I'm just gonna throw this thing on my back and hit the West Coast.
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  Love done that, and I was selling magazines door to door.
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  And, you know, I spent a year in Mexico, you know, on the run from some legal troubles.
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  And I've done like, I've lived this massive life.
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  And for me to kinda come back now and to live the small town life where I get to walk my wife
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  to school, you know, my kids to school, my wife to work every day, And and to be very small,
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  but I still get to go out on the road and tour, and I get to visit these major markets and hang
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  out.
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  I would never wanna live there.
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  You know, our mortgage is $600 a month.
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  I prefer that.
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  I I was hoping you wouldn't tell me what your mortgage is.
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  Yeah.
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  And you probably have you're probably recording this in your podcasting room, which is a
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  separate room with a door.
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  You know?
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  I I I can there's my dog.
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  There's my couch.
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  There's my kitchen.
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  You know?
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  I mean and then you're in my in my detached
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  my detached garage in my backyard, which I know that no one in New York City knows what that
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  is.
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  Well, we do have Central Park.
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  There you go.
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  Everybody's backyard.
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  No.
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  It's a it's a different lifestyle.
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  And, you know, because of things like what you've built with source of sources and, you
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  know, obviously, with your previous, which also a member of that one, but don't get nearly the
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  traction there as I did with I I did not expect a response that quickly.
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  I did not expect it, and I really wasn't sure of how it did.
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  I was just like, well, I I'm in this group.
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  I wanna submit a query.
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  You know, I'm always looking for entertainers to talk to.
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  And it was within minutes.
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  Yeah.
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  Within minutes of seeing the email go out with my query in it and immediately getting
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  responses like, oh, this thing works and works really well.
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  Be good.
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  This is a powerful tool.
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  Be careful how you use it because, you know, you already have a busy schedule, sir.
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  So let's not and not to flood what you're doing, but it's incredible.
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  It's incredible to see it work.
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  You know?
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  The daily emails that go out and to see everyone who's looking for it, and I'm going to
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  be more than willing to answer any of those for, you know, things that I fit in.
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  And it's really become a a really, you know, a vital part of my morning to kinda get out there
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  and to see and to see what other people are talking about, right, from a national
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  perspective because my local paper isn't covering a lot of lifestyle and different
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  things.
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  You know?
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  I mean, obviously, they're covering the town and what's happening at the high school sports
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  and and that.
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  So it's nice for me to kinda tap into what's happening at the national level.
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  What are people interested in for these major publications?
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  And then when we're ready to kinda put ourselves out there for, when we have something
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  big to share, I imagine that someone can use it in that aspect as well.
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  Yeah.
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  I mean, there's it's it's it's really sort of more one way from journalists to source for the
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  for the the journalists looking for the source.
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  But the nice thing is once you start using it, you start to get an understanding of what these
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  journalists are looking for, and you can go directly to don't have to use my service to
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  pitch to them directly.
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  So there's definitely sort of a win on both sides.
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  It's incredible.
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  I mean, obviously, I I know that you never saw your life panning out like this thirty five
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  years ago, but you seem very happy with with what you've built.
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  And and, obviously, you wouldn't have done it again.
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  Having built it, sold it, you you obviously enjoy the community the community building part
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  of it.
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  Right?
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  Is there kinda talk about that because I I'm the same way.
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  I I don't even really know what I'm doing.
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  It's just it it's who I am.
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  I'm always talking to someone.
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  My wife laughs because she's not like that at all.
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  And she's like, like, you will find someone to talk to everywhere we go.
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  And, you know, now it's kinda part of my job.
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  But talk about that aspect and the passion for that specifically.
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  Well, I'm a I'm a, you know, massive ADHD.
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  Right?
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  So because of that, I talk to everyone.
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  And when I realized that I actually could be a gift if I just shut up for a while and
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  listened, That's where things started really blowing up.
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  When I understood that I could actually you know, I that's what created this amazing
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  database.
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  That's what gets me the people in my lobby.
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  Know, oh, call this guy or call that guy.
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  You know, everyone wants to be that guy that has a guy for whatever it is you need.
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  I have a lot of guys and girls, you know, people who I know who have I've met in one way
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  or another, usually in an airplane or, you know, in a hotel, a lobby, or whatever.
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  And and and from that, it's nice to have those connections.
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  And my logic has always been if you've had any modicum of success in your life, you have a
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  responsibility to send the elevator back down.
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  And I truly believe that.
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  And so I've always tried to do that.
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  My first company all my companies have really been trying to help people.
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  I've written several books on ADHD and sort of how I use it to my advantage.
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  And one that I wrote about nine years ago is still in print and still being printed called
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  faster than normal, published by Random House.
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  And at least two or three times we get an email from people.
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  Oh my god.
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  This the first book I've ever read that tells me I'm not broken, and thank you so much.
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  You know, I just there's enough, pardon the expression, bad shit in the world.
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  You know, if you have the ability to put out some good stuff, you really you really should.
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  I couldn't agree more.
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  I mean, obviously, I'm running this show, producing it myself on StreamYard.
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  I do this.
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  I have 13 shows on my four networks.
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  You know, I'm probably doing too much, and a lot of people couldn't handle one of these.
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  But it's very important to me to kinda use that as a superpower.
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  If you have the ability to do all of these things you know, this morning, I was editing a
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  video for a show we have coming up on Valentine's Day and doing that, and then I'm
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  getting behind the camera and doing this and producing the show.
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  And later today, I'll have meetings on this.
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  Like, I I'm wearing many hats all the time.
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  I'd never considered a detriment.
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  Now I've never been diagnosed ADHD, but they put me in gifted classes when I was in second
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  grade because they're like, look.
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  You can't just talk to everyone.
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  You know, tested in the top one percentile on our standardized testing in second grade, and
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  they were like, look.
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  Okay.
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  This boy and they called us gifted back then.
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  They didn't call us.
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  They didn't put a label on it and try to pump us full of drugs in the nineties.
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  They were like, hey.
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  We're gonna give him algebra homework in second, third grade.
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  And so and then when we moved to South Dakota, probably and the reason I started getting you a
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  lot of trouble is that I went back to, like, remedial classes, and there wasn't those
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  resources then to push me where I needed to.
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  I I'm finishing my homework in two minutes.
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  Everybody else is still working on it, and and I'm not being challenged.
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  And I I feel like it's so important these days to let people know that, like, you are not
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  broken.
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  Just because you operate differently than what the standards of society are, it's just that no
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  one's told you that you're special in a good way, not like, you know
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  Not short but special.
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  Off the wall.
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  So I wrote a kid's book, called The Boy With the Faster Brain.
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  And the premise behind that is exactly that.
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  It's about a 12 year old kid named Peter who keeps getting sent home with notes from the
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  teacher and constantly in trouble and all that.
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  And what he finally his parents finally take him to see a therapist, and the therapist
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  learns that, you know, the kid is incredible in math, you know, the stuff that he loves,
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  English or whatever.
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  But when it comes to subjects he's not he doesn't love, he's not that great.
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  And he determine he discovers his brain works a little faster.
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  Right?
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  So it was a great way to sort of teach these kids, hey.
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  You're not broken because, you know, I've been I was told by teachers that I was broken from
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  age five.
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  That it wasn't wasn't called ADHD in the seventies and eighties in New York City public
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  school systems.
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  It was called sit down, you're disrupting the class.
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  And so when you spend the first twenty years of your life being told you're broken, you spend
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  the next thirty in therapy trying to undo that.
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  So if I can help one kid not have to do that and maybe start a little earlier and to
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  understand they're great, that's a win all around.
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  So that's kinda why I do what I do.
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  I think my cat has ADHD.
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  She's knocking over everything.
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  She's getting all sorts
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  of crazy.
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  All cats all all cats have ADHD, but they also don't give a shit.
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  I I've I've had cats my whole life, and and, you know, I I've they they literally they they
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  watch you, and they get like, I'll be sitting there, and the cat will be right on the counter
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  staring at me as she knocks a glass mug off the counter and watches it shatter.
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  Just stares at like, what are you gonna do?
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  You're not gonna do anything.
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  Sit there.
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  You know?
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  And what are you gonna do?
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  Throw me out?
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  Yeah.
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  You're gonna not feed me?
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  Now I have now thanks to my daughter, I have a I have a dog.
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  I have a rescue dog who has been trained by the cat.
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  And, essentially, he I've never met a dog who when you get out of bed, pulls the covers up
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  and stays in bed.
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  He's a cat.
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  It's it's he's literally sleeping on the couch right here.
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  It's amazing.
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  So great.
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  Well, I I know that you're doing, you know, you're a public speaker.
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  You obviously have all the books and everywhere.
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  Is there a website that people can find out about that and then obviously, pitch Source of
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  Sources as well?
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  Sure.
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  So Source Sources is just sourceofsources.com.
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  You can sign up there.
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  It's totally free.
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  My life is at shankman.com, shankman.com, just my last name.
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  I'm at Peter Shankman on all the socials except for, Twitter.
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  I gave that up about three years ago because it's ick, but I'm everywhere else.
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  I have a pretty big Instagram, which tend to be either me complaining about training for some
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  triathlon or marathon or bodybuilding something or or reels of me traveling with my daughter.
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  So I I try to have a lot of fun, but, yeah, I'm I'm very easily available online.
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  You can find me.
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  I I do respond to all my own emails.
• 18:37
  My assistant doesn't let me book my own calendar, but I do respond to all my own
• 18:40
  emails.
• 18:41
  Fantastic.
• 18:42
  Well, Peter, I I appreciate Source of Sources.
• 18:45
  I think it's a great platform.
• 18:46
  I appreciate you taking some time out of your busy life to chat with me and, you know, just a
• 18:51
  little podcaster here in rural South Dakota, but I'm really appreciative of what you've
• 18:56
  built.
• 18:57
  And I was so happy to have just a few minutes to let you share a little bit of your story and
• 19:01
  to talk about your platform.
• 19:02
  So any of our media people that are watching, musicians and stuff as well, who I'm always
• 19:08
  encouraging to start their own podcast to get out there.
• 19:11
  And this is how you build your career by building a network of people that, you know,
• 19:16
  will care about you.
• 19:17
  And and that's what's been so exciting about working on Source of Sources is there's some
• 19:21
  really interesting people on there already that are interested in what you have to offer to the
• 19:26
  world, and it it's been a blessing to me.
• 19:28
  So, Peter, thank you for, taking some time for me today, and thank you for being part of the
• 19:33
  scene.
• 19:33
  My pleasure.
• 19:34
  Thanks so much for having me.