SuccessFULL With ADHD

How to Run a Neurodivergent Coaching Business: AMA with Marc Ronick

• Brooke Schnittman MA, PCC, BCC • Season 1 • Episode 71

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I’m joined in this Ask Me Anything (AMA) session by my dear friend, podcast coach, client, and colleague, Marc Ronick. We answer insightful questions from our wonderful community, addressing some of the most pressing concerns faced by neurodivergent business owners. Marc and I tackle topics ranging from the challenges of delegation to finding the right business coach and avoiding burnout. If you're looking to optimize your business strategies and enhance your ADHD management, this episode is a must-listen!

 

Episode Highlights:

[01:33] - Why Delegation is Challenging for ADHDers and Solutions

[05:05] - Marc’s Hacks for Effective Delegation

[08:55] - Importance of Hiring Right and Delegation Systems

[10:02] - Benefits of Having a Business Coach

[11:35] - How to Know You Found the Right Business Coach

[20:42] - Introduction to the Business Coaching Collective

[29:41] - Differences Between Being a Solopreneur and Running a Team

[33:54] - Avoiding Burnout and Staying Fresh as a Business Owner

[41:26] - Dealing with Major Business Pivots and Decision Fatigue

 

Links & Resources:

·         Submit your questions for future AMAs by joining my newsletter: https://www.coachingwithbrooke.com/newsletter or email at info@coachingwithbrooke.com 

·         Join the Business Coaching Collective

 

Thank you for tuning into "SuccessFULL with ADHD." If this episode has impacted you, remember to rate, follow, share, and review our podcast. Your support helps us reach and help more individuals navigating their journeys with ADHD.

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Brooke Schnittman:

I would ask for like two to three reviews from people who are similar to you who have gone through this person's coaching. I would see if there was a way that they could sit in on a potential coaching session or webinar that you have to see what you do. I would have a conversation and we have really good spidey senses with ADHD. So trust that intuition. But also, going back to the experience, if you need help with X, you're likely going to want your coach to have gone through x so they can teach you X. Wealth into successful with ADHD. I'm Brooke Shipman. Let's get started. Hi, everybody, and welcome back to a another exciting episode of Ask Me Anything for successful with ADHD. I have my podcast coach, friend, client, colleague, all the things Mark asking me the amazing questions from our community from my newsletter, which you can go subscribe to, what we do is we send out a forum every month with questions related to a topic, and people type in the questions that they have. And Mark is here to ask me those questions. So thank you, Mark.

Marc Ronick:

You're welcome. I love doing these. Now. I'm looking forward to these. We after our first one, I thought the first one went really well. So hopefully, we'll do just as well this time around. Yeah.

Brooke Schnittman:

I agree.

Marc Ronick:

I agree. It was great. Cool. You want to just dive right in?

Brooke Schnittman:

Bring it on. All right. All right. Cool. Well, I,

Marc Ronick:

I got these questions from you ahead of time. And I wanted to start with this one because it's close to my heart as a business person who continues to deal with delegation. Okay, so I'll ask you the question first, and then we can dig into it. This is from Sarah t, in Austin, Texas. Sara says, I know that delegating is an extremely important aspect of scaling a business. However many ADHD ears or neurodivergent, alike fear delegation. Why do they fear it? And what can they do about it?

Brooke Schnittman:

Yeah, I've heard this question a lot. So as an ADHD person, we, first of all, need to get ourselves planned. We need to have the metacognitive skills, which very often it's a deficit with ADHD, because that's part of our executive function. So like, looking at that bird's eye view of how we're going to get things done, when are we going to do it? How is it going? So we need to plan ourselves to then delegate to someone else? And if you don't have a system in place that works for you? How are you going to then offload it to someone else in preparation? So that's one of the things another thing is sometimes we our ego gets in the way, and we can say, oh, yeah, we know better than everyone else. So I should just be doing the thing, right? Yeah.

Marc Ronick:

So far, you're listing all of my things. So continue. Yeah.

Brooke Schnittman:

Another thing is, we might not have the time or energy to hire the right person. So how do you stop yourself? When you're in motion? To take a step back? Do the whole hiring process hire slow? They say, right, I do three interviews. And then onboard, the person that you're going to be delegating to, and get into a system that works for both of you, because it's not just what works for you, you have to get to know their strengths and weaknesses as well. Yeah. And then also, on top of that, you need to figure out what are the things that you want to delegate because yeah, you might really enjoy some of the things that you're doing. And it could be bringing you a lot of value, and your company a lot of value, and it could be a high money role. So those are some of the things that you might not want to delegate. So with analysis, paralysis, and metacognition, and stopping ourselves in action when we're hyper focusing in knowing when we actually need to delegate and then trusting someone else, and being able to then go back and actually look at their work and then have that accountability. There's a lot of factors in play, and that's why it is very hard for people with ADHD ticket delegate. Yeah.

Marc Ronick:

And I actually, I mean, you know this, and I deal with learning to delegate all the time. And I've definitely found some hacks that worked for me, and I wanted to share them with you, you know, just to kind of get your take, and hopefully they they'll be helpful to somebody helpful to Sarah. So one of the things that I was dealing with was not wanting to sit down and take the time to teach, say, I hiring a new editor, especially my first editor that was going to work for me and my company. I didn't want to take the time, even though I knew she knew how to edit. But I wanted her to edit like me, right? Because my whole thing was, people are hiring me, for me and for the great work that I do. So how can I then get somebody to hire me and then hand it off to somebody else? Right? I got myself, so I convinced myself, okay, so the way to do that is to train somebody how I do it, and then taking the time to actually do it and sit down with that person and go through it. It felt daunting, it felt like it was going to be a lot of work and time. And I finally it clicked with me. So I basically recorded myself doing the things and talking out loud as I was doing it as if that person was sitting across from me. So now I'm still getting my work done. Yes, maybe a little slower, because I'm stopping to talk about it. But it, it really made all the difference, because now I'm doing it on my time I'm doing it because I have this work I already have to do. And my editor really appreciated it. Like she actually was telling me we would talk about it. And she was telling me I was loving just sitting back, it was like, she's like I got my popcorn. And I'm just watching because it's fun to watch how other people do the things that you do. Right. So it ended up working out. Great.

Brooke Schnittman:

Now, I love pressing the record button when I'm doing something that I don't enjoy doing. And I know I want to delegate it, I just press the record button on Zoom. And I do the same thing. I actually had my business coaching collective, which is my new group for neurodivergent, coaches, consultants, therapists who are trying to scale their business with neurodivergent, coaches, consultants, therapists. And that was one of the things that came up, like how do you do it? And what I like about not just doing the video, but you have a database for if that person ever leaves, or if you decide to let them go, you put those videos in a project management system, where you have your processes like Asana, Trello, Monday, even Google Drive, so they're all there for when you need to use them again.

Marc Ronick:

Yeah, that's brilliant. I love that. And I was thinking also about this question and some of the things you were saying, and I was thinking about, you know, that part you were mentioning about hiring other people, and how that in itself can be daunting. I would I when I finally got used to that a little bit. I hired my first after my editors, I hired my first virtual assistant. And she got to know me so well that when the time came that I felt like maybe we could use another virtual assistant. I asked her to do the research for me, and she found the candidates, and she even weeded through some of those candidates so that I was only going to be able to sit down with the ones that were most likely a good fit. And that was that just man was that a load off my shoulders.

Brooke Schnittman:

I do the same thing with Rhiannon go on Indeed, here is exactly what I'm looking for. Only Show me 10 candidates or five candidates for your future like the additional assistant or digital salesperson or whatever. And you know what's great, too, it's like a pyramid. Right? So not a pyramid scheme. But right. So Rihanna and my assistant, right, you know her, she videos herself with a task because she has way too much on her plate now for another assistant that we brought on because she's training that assistant now. So of course there's accountability as a business owner to make sure all the processes are being done. But now she's overseeing this new assistant, and teaching her the skills that Rhiannon already knew because we had done it before. So she's using that process as well. Yeah.

Marc Ronick:

That's so cool. That's so cool. And I'm trying to think Yeah, I think that's yeah, I think we've got her question right. I think we gave her some some answers. There's there anything else you wanted to add?

Brooke Schnittman:

No, I love the video concept.

Marc Ronick:

Okay, cool. Well, then let's move on to David L from Portland, Oregon who asks, Why is it important to get a business coach or a mentor as a neurodivergent? Business Owner with ADHD?

Brooke Schnittman:

Yeah, so I've had a business coach from after year one of business that has helped me be accountable. And of course, it teaches me what I didn't know it didn't know. And it helps me stay accountable to operations and numbers and things that a lot of us coaches are no divergence. We love what we do, or else we're not going to keep doing it. So we sometimes forget that we're getting paid for what we do, right. So we just are so in the weeds about doing what we do and what we love to do that we forget about the financial piece and the business piece. So for me, my business coach has helped me with accountability has helped me make sure that I'm focusing on the right things in business that I'm tracking metrics that I'm looking at my marketing spend, that you know, the clients who come in, I'm not overspending in marketing compared to, you know, what they end up paying to be coached. So looking at all of those details, those fine details that I wouldn't have thought of otherwise?

Marc Ronick:

Yeah, well, that's something that you speak to all the time, the that accountability, that as people with ADHD, that really helps us move the needle. So yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Having that coach to not only hold you accountable, but also show you the important things for your business to help it continue to grow and thrive, that that makes all the sense in the world. Yeah. Yeah.

Brooke Schnittman:

And not only like financial stuff, but hiring too. We lead with our heart so often and our intuition, sometimes we forget about the other pieces in business, even with hiring and scaling. So we have to think about the head, the heart, the feet, the hands, all the pieces of who we're hiring, and put it all together and make sure that we're doing it the right way that we're doing it over time that we have processes in place, that we don't do it impulsively, and then keep the person there. So it's like body doubling, but also, you know, making sure that you're not doing impulsive things just because you feel like it.

Marc Ronick:

The Right, right. And, you know, I was just about to ask you a follow up question. And then I realized we have a question very similar. So I'm going to Emily Kay, she's from Denver. She she her question is, how do you know you found the right business coach or mentor? And I'm going to add to her question, is it important as somebody with ADHD to find a coach that either has ADHD or is trained to work with people that deal with ADHD?

Brooke Schnittman:

That's a good question. So I've had two different business coaches, one of them does not have ADHD. And she helped me with my copy when it came to my three C activation program helping me see the value in it, which so many clients have seen, but I didn't, you know, obviously, impostor syndrome, so she did not have ADHD. So she helped me in that the current business coach that I have is not diagnosed with ADHD, but we think he does have it. I think it depends on what you're focusing on your business. Yeah, so not necessarily. But I think when it comes to you operating a business with other neurodivergent brains, then it can be helpful to have a neurodivergent coach coaching you who's experienced it? Because if you don't have that, how are they going to know those nuances?

Marc Ronick:

Right, right. And the example you just gave, I think makes a lot of sense. As far as what you're saying now, is there probably different coaches that are going to serve you better as somebody with ADHD depending on what you're looking for? Like you said, if it's things like copy, yeah, maybe that's going to be somebody who doesn't necessarily have ADHD or isn't trained to work with people with ADHD. But then yeah, when it comes to like, holding you accountable for looking at the books or hiring people, etc, that feels like it would be a better fit perhaps. And ultimately, I guess it it Matt just really comes down to you and what you being the person looking for a coach and what you're looking for in a coach

Brooke Schnittman:

Exactly. And I think that experience is also very valid. One of the coaches I worked with didn't have as much experience in what I was looking for in growing my business and scaling. So there was only so much I could get out of that coaching relationship. Right. So it was good for a certain time and place. And then once I started scaling, I needed to seek different counsel. And that's okay,

Marc Ronick:

too. Yeah. So let's make sure that Emily is served here. And because I kind of hijacked her question, how do you know that you've found that right business coach or mentor,

Brooke Schnittman:

when you feel good in the coaching relationship, and you walk away from each session, saying, Wow, here are actual metrics that are showing me that I'm moving the needle, right. My numbers are moving this way, or I'm getting this result that I signed up to get? Yeah.

Marc Ronick:

Okay. So what something you just said, when you feel good? And, again, being somebody that deals with these kinds of things, when you feel good about it? So I get the analysis paralysis when I'm even looking for a coach. Right. So I, and then what I'm going to say to myself is well, I don't know like, Yeah, sure. This felt good with this coach. But, you know, I don't I'll end up just sitting there debating because I don't have a good feel yet, because I don't know them yet. know them well enough. So how do you respond to that? What's the best way that someone with ADHD can feel good about a decision they're about to make hiring on this coach?

Brooke Schnittman:

Yeah, good question. So I would ask for like two to three reviews from people who are similar to you who have gone through this person's coaching, I would see if there was a way that they could sit in on, you know, a potential coaching session or webinar that you have to see what you do. I would have a conversation, and we have really good spidey senses with ADHD. So trust that an intuition. Yeah. But also, going back to the experience, if you need help with X, you're likely going to want your coach to have gone through x so they can teach you X. Yeah,

Marc Ronick:

I feel that and I think giving yourself permission to make a quote unquote, mistake in your choice is it's okay. Right? Like some it's just like dating in some regard, right? It's, you're gonna date somebody, and you're gonna figure out whether or not they're a good romantic fit for you or not. And I think the same can be said about finding the right coach. And again, as somebody who's sometimes struggles with those decisions, I feel like, I feel like that's going to getting that permission to know that, okay, it might not work out. It's okay. You'll find you've got others on your list of coaches that you can go back to that happened to me, right. And I ended up coming back to you. Right, so but I think it's just it's okay, if you're not 100% sure if it feels right, if that spidey sense is tingling, good. And it's okay, if it doesn't work out, you can move on and find somebody else.

Brooke Schnittman:

Yeah, I think the biggest thing that we need to know ahead of time before having that discovery call before talking to the person is what do I want to get out of business coaching? Have the questions written down ahead of time and know how you're going to be tracking those results? And if you're not seeing those results, as you mentioned, no one has time to get out? Like you said, Yeah,

Marc Ronick:

I like this idea. Also, what you said previously, that they've had some similar experiences of what you're going through. I think that's, that's, you know, I was thinking about, I was going to ask you, like, what are the best types of questions to ask, but I think that's it right there. It's like, understand what are your needs, and then ask that potential coach, you know, have you gone through this and then hear what they have to say about it? What and how they dealt with that. Right? Yes,

Brooke Schnittman:

yes. Like, they say in coaching, right and true coaching. It's about asking the right questions, I get that. But when it comes to executive coaching and business coaching, for a specific niche that you're looking to get out like you I'm sorry, but you can't just be like 10 steps ahead as the coach to coach a person, even if you haven't done it, like you have to legitimately have done the thing to give the biggest impact. And sometimes the client doesn't know what they don't know. So like, they might say, What did you do? How did you grow? What have you done here? And if you don't have an answer, how are you supposed to business? Coach them?

Marc Ronick:

Before? Right? Yeah. Yeah, good point. Yeah. So let's, let's go on to the next one. And this is from Michael S. of Miami, Florida. Not too far from you. Yeah.

Brooke Schnittman:

All around the country. Yes.

Marc Ronick:

And Michael's asking, and actually, you mentioned this a moment ago, Brooke, he's he's mentioning your business coaching collective? And asks, Can you tell me a little bit more about it? I guess, Michaels may be interested in pursuing it. So yeah. Tell us about it. What is it? And how do we get involved with it?

Brooke Schnittman:

Awesome. Well, hi, Michael. You're not too far. And the business coaching collective was created for neurodivergent business owners who are trying to create a boutique business like a neurodivergent coaching business and neurodivergent therapy business and neurodivergent consulting business. The reason why I did it, because for a couple of reasons. One was because I had one on one clients, or people who wanted the information but couldn't afford my one on one prices. And too, because I had a lot of people asking me, How do you do it? How do you do it? How do you do it? And I just honestly, I don't have the time to have my brain picked or have coffee. Sorry, you know, and I even went to the international ADHD conference, and I was so overwhelmed. And there's not to say anything bad about that. It's just, there's so many new coaches out there, the coaching business industry has grown 60%, from 2019 to 2023. And then, in 2024, this year, it's projected to grow to 145,000 active coaches, which is 20,000. More coaches from Wow, 2023 Yeah, so in coaching alone, I saw that the ADHD coaching industry was expanding significantly. And people wanted to get out of the solopreneur business people were great coaches, but didn't mean that they were great business owners, and a lot of them failed, right? A lot of them couldn't make it, because they didn't have those business senses. So I wanted to give great coaches the opportunity, and great consultants opportunity for therapists to expand, because they deserve that, but I couldn't do it in like, you know, 20 minute talks here and there or one on one coaching for everyone. So I did it in this business coaching collective. And what's great about it is that there are like minded professionals in there, from different types of coaching or consulting fields, we actually also have an educational therapist in there. And most of them have ADHD, or have symptoms of ADHD. So that is some sort of bonding experience. And we come at it from a neurodivergent lens. So it's not like, Okay, this is what I learned in business school, like, this is what you need to do. It's like, okay, no, here are how you're going to do yesterday, we had systems and operations, it was less than one. This is what you need to consider when making your goals, your vision and all that. But it doesn't have to be so black and white, you can create your vision with a vision board, because we know that for ADHD as a lot of us are more visual. So you don't have to get into the specifics of writing three to five yearly goals. Like you can even have a word for your yearly goal. So we put that neurodivergent and ADHD lens on to the business coach and collective because we know that that's super important. There's differences from neurotypical business owners, HD and neurodivergent business owners.

Marc Ronick:

Okay, so that example you just gave I'm curious, do you have any other examples like for you specifically, as far as changing the lenses right, like from the typical way it's done? What was something for you? That was kind of like a lightbulb moment, like, oh, I can look at it that way now. Oh, yeah. That feels much better. Do you have any examples like that?

Brooke Schnittman:

You Yeah, yeah. So I love the fact that this year, I was just focusing on one word. So that was the year legal. So that was one thing. What's the word? Connection?

Marc Ronick:

Okay, cool. That's one of my big values. Yes.

Brooke Schnittman:

Last year was visibility. And we started the podcast, the book, all of that. So that made sense. This year was connection. So it's reflecting on the numbers in my business. But it's, it's this right? It's really staying focused on that connection piece and staying connected to me staying connected to my family staying connected to my clients and connected to the ADHD community. Another thing that I would say, for ADHD business owners that has helped me is body doubling with my cautious, you know, knowing that coaching is such an isolating business. And with ADHD, body doubling and accountability is everything. I mean, we can't talk about it enough on this podcast, when I need to get certain things done. I do it in a body doubling setting. Yeah, sometimes I'd even do it with my clients. Yeah,

Marc Ronick:

right. And that is something that I'm just going to fully admit, that's something that I avoid, I avoid it at all costs. I mean, the coaching stuff I'm all all about, and I get a lot of that accountability through getting coached. But what kind of advice could you give somebody who, here's why I'm avoiding I avoid it, because I know it's forcing me to do the work I don't want to do so I don't want to body double. I don't want anybody around to then hold me accountable for it. So like, what advice could you give to somebody like me, who knows that it probably would help but avoids it at all costs?

Brooke Schnittman:

Yeah, for you specifically. And I think we talked we touched on this last time, too, is that like, sometimes you we know, you have limited beliefs about yourself and your ability. But at the same time, we also need to see the lens and I don't recommend this for every one, but the lens of like, what is the consequence? Yeah. Yeah, that that will happen if you don't do it. Yeah.

Marc Ronick:

That because that is a big one. For me. That is a big driver for me that does kick that dopamine in when I recognize Yeah, if I don't do this, that's going to happen. And I don't want any part of that. Yeah, exactly. That makes a lot of Exactly.

Brooke Schnittman:

Like you and I have anxiety. And that actually works for me too. And Dr. Ayman talks about like that, like obsessive type of ADHD, where you're, like, ruminating on things. For me, I know if I don't look at my calendar on Monday, though, and I just do that quick. Like, I've been doing it for five years. Now. Just write my week out. If I don't do that, and it's not in front of me on my desk. I'm like, oh, gosh, yeah. Oh, gosh, what am I getting myself into? Yes, I need to do it. So the consequences, I'm going to miss a meeting the consequences, I'm going to double book, the consequences. I am going to be working my you know what off until all hours of the night or thinking that I have to do every single thing that comes my way by email. If I don't write out my calendar, because when I write out my calendar, and I know everyone says, oh, yeah, you know, all these coaches, they just have another calendar. But for me, I know that if I write out my week, and I don't get something done, I just transferred to the next day or wherever blocks. Yeah, works for me. Otherwise, I get so overwhelmed and consumed with all of the notifications and everything that's going on.

Marc Ronick:

Yes. Okay. That's fair. I gotta, I gotta, I gotta work on that and keep reminding myself to do that a little more often. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. So that in that business coaching collective, if somebody wants to get more information, what's the best way to do it?

Brooke Schnittman:

You just got my website coaching with brooke.com. And then forward slash business coach and collective. It's under the coaching tab.

Marc Ronick:

All right, cool. And since we're talking about business here, we've got one this is from Brian from Las Vegas. Brian says, what are some differences from being a solopreneur and running a business with multiple coaches or consultants? Yeah.

Brooke Schnittman:

So as a solopreneur, you are doing everything right. You were pretty much and let me take that back for a second. You are doing the contractor work. You're doing the service provider, you're providing services Right, like you are the person, you can come in and out whenever you want, you can like, but it all falls on you to serve. Yeah, you might get to a point where you say I love this solopreneur thing, I trust myself, I know the value that I'm giving the clients. And this is great. But you also might come to a point where you're at a capacity issue. And that's why I started growing my business only because I was at a capacity issue. And then when I did that, I noticed, you know what, it's nice not to have 25 clients a week, I can actually focus on growth and expansion and giving more value to my clients by having less clients and more coaches. So it really just depends on what you feel best with. But with solopreneur ship, you provide the service, and you could still hire executive assistants and other you know, contractors for helping with delegation, but you're not going to have other service providers to coach or consult or do therapy. If you have multiple coaches. Then you have different niches where these coaches or therapists or consultants, so that's kind of nice to to be able to serve a greater community by having coaches that specializes in different things or consultants or therapist, right, or different sex coaches, right. So some people might feel more comfortable with a male, female or a them you know, whatever, right? Also, you have a team, like a real team, where you can collaborate with and you can do case collaborations and you can help each other grow and expand. And with ADHD, it can be very isolating having Yeah, being the only person providing services in your business. Absolutely. So I love being able to have multiple coaches. And what I will share with all of you listening to, and I've shared this before is just because you have multiple coaches or consultants, or therapists doesn't necessarily mean that your net profit is going to be more. Thank

Marc Ronick:

you, Brooke. And I should address to the audience. If they're noticing maybe things look a little bit different, or maybe sound a little bit different, or you're just feeling like something might be a little different than the rest of the the interviewer here. The rest of this asked me anything. That's because right as Brooke was wrapping up the answer to her last question, you had a power outage, right? Brooke,

Brooke Schnittman:

there was a tornado. Oh, in South Florida, no big deal.

Marc Ronick:

Wow. Well, I'm glad you're safe. And here we are. And I think what we can do is let's let's go with this last question, which is kind of near and dear to my heart to it comes from Jen s and she's in Virginia. She asks, How do you avoid burnout and stay fresh and informed as a business owner, and I want to pile on to that too, Brooke, maybe you can help me too. Because I feel like sometimes when I'm feeling burnt out and maybe questioning everything. Sometimes I stop and ask myself, Is this really burnout? Or is this more of an ADHD symptom? Like maybe I'm having a low dopamine day or week? And I'm and I'm assuming that means I'm burnt out. But really, it could be just a dopamine issue. So I'm curious what your thoughts are on that as well.

Brooke Schnittman:

Yeah, well, I would pause about the is it a low dopamine day or burnout and to say, what is going on in my life? Or what have I been doing? Where it is a low dopamine day? Usually, something happened to build up to that low dopamine day, right? Maybe you had a bad night's sleep, maybe you didn't take your medication, maybe you've been getting a lot of stress, maybe you have been rundown, maybe you're getting sick. So it's kind of sometimes like the chicken or the egg. Some some of the time you can do things that deplete your dopamine, and then cause burnout. But it could also look like a low dopamine day or at the same time, you could have a low dopamine day because maybe you aren't feeling well. Right? And it has nothing to do with the fact that you've been working your you know what, off way past the time that you should be doing or you've been stressed out and motivated. Right? You just have hoping to catch a cold, right. And it's just impacting your ADHD symptoms and perhaps decreasing your dopamine. So there are things that you can do to increase your dopamine, right? I have a dopa menu in my book, and you can go for those things. So like, stop, pause, evaluate the situation, say, Did I forget to take my medication? Did I have protein this morning? Do I need to take my omega? Whatever supplements? Do I need to go for a walk? Or have I been pushing myself more than usual? And if it's that, then have your quick toolbox of what do I do in times of burnout? If you're pushing yourself more than usual, and you are having a low dopamine Day, which also can be burnout. Maybe you need to take a break and really take a break.

Marc Ronick:

What does that mean?

Brooke Schnittman:

Stop pushing yourself. Stop pushing yourself. So your body is depleted. Feed your body, get the sleep, attend to your hierarchy of needs, eat, drink water, go for a walk to stop working, if you have that luxury to do that for a little bit and attend to what has put your body in this state currently.

Marc Ronick:

And maybe really, and I appreciate what you're saying about if you have that luxury, and and you can feel free to correct me. But I feel like even if you don't have that luxury, right the time? Yeah, you have to make that time or else you're just going to keep banging your head against the wall, right?

Brooke Schnittman:

Yes, I remember when I used to work at school, or you know, as an administrator, or a special education teacher, like, there were times where I experienced burnout. And I would try to push through it. And I remember that my productivity was not any better when I tried to push through it and just you know, so if you are working for someone else, and you aren't your own boss, or you aren't working from home, and you don't have the quote unquote, luxury to like, literally go take a nap or whatever, figure out a way that you can take some sort of break, even if it's a five minute break. Because that will give you something at least for the time being. And then when you get home from work, say to yourself, What can I do now to support this. And it it might be hard to remember the the feeling of that burnout from three hours ago. But do yourself a favor and set some sort of accountability measure or reminder to give your body the source of nutrients that it needs.

Marc Ronick:

Yeah, thank you for saying that. And I, I know for me what works well. And it oftentimes takes me a few minutes or maybe longer to remember taking that break, like you said, and going outside. And it just taking in the fresh air, being able to ground myself literally sometimes taking off my shoes and socks and just walking in the grass. But doing anything I can to distract myself from what's going on with the work stuff. And just to reset. That helps me a lot. And even sometimes it might be taking a walk with my wife and venting to her. Right because then I'm outside, I'm away from the day to day at my desk, and I'm unloading. And that tends to clean things out for me, and then give me a better perspective. I can't say it's perfect all the time. And it does give me a better, more fresh perspective. When I step away and get outside,

Brooke Schnittman:

correct, if you are emotionally charged or burned out your executive function shut down and you can't think so if you could stop and ground yourself, like you said, or do something that restores a little bit of energy and executive function, then you can figure out what's causing it and how to possibly move forward with it. Like it might not just be that you're working hard. It might be that you have some stress at home. How do you deal with that? Right? Maybe with that stress at home, you need to take even more proactive measures. And you have to do more meditation, you have to do more mindfulness, you have to do more exercise, like speak to someone do what you can to work through that before. You are depleted. And that's so hard with ADHD. I know it's easier said than done. Because our metacognitive skills to recognize and to stop and think are usually not strong, but we can train our brain and get those removed. renders to actually do that, because we've talked earlier about the consequences, right? And if you continue to feel those consequences, those consequences will impact you significantly in a negative way. And sometimes, it's really hard to bounce back from it like some burnout can last months. We're not just talking about five minutes a day. So we have to really think about that. Well,

Marc Ronick:

let me Let me chime in. What if it's somebody what if somebody is at the point where it not only is it burnout, but it is, they're at the point where they recognize this isn't for them anymore? Right? Whether it's their business, or their career, or what have you, they, they just don't feel it anymore. They've tried all the things and they just they recognize, I've got to pivot. And the reason why I'm bringing this up, because again, as somebody with ADHD, look that that can be a big thing for anybody, right? That's a big decision to have to go through and make. And with ADHD, and when your executive functioning skills aren't as strong, it's, it can cause you to freeze. Right? So what what advice do you have for somebody who has made that decision? I know it's time to move into a different direction. And I'm terrified to do it. What do you say to them?

Brooke Schnittman:

Yeah, that analysis paralysis is debilitating and can give you burnout just from the decision fatigue. So surround yourself with people that can hold you accountable to the decision that you made, create that y funnel, you know what that is? Because you and I have done it together. But getting to the core root of why you've made that decision. So when you're you second guess yourself and you say, oh, no, it's easier to do this and not make that hard decision that might give me more of an impact of what I want. You go back to that visual reminder of why you did make that decision. But having your community of people that you share you share your decision with and they can hold you accountable to that is huge. I in my opinion.

Marc Ronick:

Yeah, yeah. I get that. And I want to find out now. That's the last question that we have. For now. Anyway. And we talked a little bit about your business group coaching. And we even I believe, pardon me, because I've forgotten since we had the power outage, I believe you've shared a little bit about where to go. But why don't we wrap up with a little bit about that program again, and more. So where do people go if they want to be a part of it?

Brooke Schnittman:

Yeah, thank you. So they can go to coaching with brooke.com with any, and then just go to the tab on the top of the screen that says coach. And there's two options one is three see activation for coaches. And another one is business coaching collective, it's that one so you can scroll, you can look see all the topics that are presented in the program. And there's a button that says register now it's rolling admission. So you can literally register whenever and it will show you the steps to check out and then once you check out, it will tell you exactly what those next steps are to join and where to go. And then you get instant access to our communities.

Marc Ronick:

Thank you, Brooke. I appreciate doing this. I'm glad that I that I got to do it again with you looking forward to the next one. I know where you already have another one plan. So thank you for allowing me to be a part of this with you.

Brooke Schnittman:

And thank you for being a part of it. It's really helpful I think as a fellow ADHD or to get inside the brain of the people asking those questions and even taking it a level further for some people who didn't get that opportunity to ask questions. So if you are someone who wants to ask questions for next Ask Me Anything, subscribe to my newsletter, go on coaching with brooke.com forward slash newsletter, or you can email me at info at coaching with Brooke. And we send out a survey every month for questions based on topics that are of interest to you guys. Awesome.

Marc Ronick:

Well, I remembered thanks to you. And something you said earlier. I did not take my omega today. So I'm gonna go do that now. Thanks for the reminder, Brooke. It's

Brooke Schnittman:

all about accountability. Mark. Thanks for listening to this episode of successful with ADHD. I hope it helps you on your journey. And if you need any additional support for you or a loved one with ADHD, feel free to reach out to us at coaching with brooke.com and all social media platforms at coaching with Brooke and remember, it's Brooke with any Thanks again for listening. See you next time.

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