SuccessFULL With ADHD

ADHD, Burnout & Doing It All: Rancher-Entrepreneur Connor Coleman on Letting Go of Perfection

• Brooke Schnittman MA, PCC, BCC • Season 1 • Episode 109

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In this episode, I sit down with my friend and client, Connor P. Coleman—a ranch management consultant, entrepreneur, and Enviropreneur Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. Connor has one of the most fascinating blends of passions: land management, environmental problem-solving, and navigating life and business with ADHD. From childhood memories of kindergarten “Candy Land punishment” to building a thriving consulting business in the mountains of Colorado, Connor opens up about how ADHD has shaped his work, well-being and success.

We explore the highs, lows, and turning points that pushed him to embrace systems, routines, delegation, and self-advocacy. Connor shares what burnout taught him, how he finally built a support team, and what shifting from “contractor” to true CEO looks like for a neurodivergent mind. His insight and honesty will resonate with anyone who’s ever felt overextended, misunderstood, or unsure how to scale their brilliance.

Entrepreneur attempting to do good, better
Connor P. Coleman is an amateur philosopher and aspiring polymath based in the mountains of Colorado. Diagnosed with ADHD at an early age, he struggled to keep up in school, but through grit and determination, he was able to navigate college and graduate school successfully. Nearly a decade ago, he founded a ranch management advisory firm that serves conservation-minded landowners nationwide. These days, Connor relies more on systems and habits than pure grit to advance his mission. 

 

Episode Highlights:

[0:33] – Introducing Connor and his work in ranch management and wildfire-risk solutions
 [1:14] – What it means to be an Enviropreneur Fellow at Stanford
 [2:16] – The ADHD-entrepreneur connection and Connor’s early path to business
 [2:44] – Childhood signs of inattentive ADHD and the infamous Candy Land memory
 [5:52] – How early school experiences shaped Connor’s work-reward patterns
 [8:50] – The impact of having a parent in the medical field and receiving an early diagnosis
 [10:02] – School accommodations, testing struggles, and how support changed everything
 [13:04] – Academic Decathlon, discovering intelligence beyond test scores
 [15:29] – Transitioning into the workforce and the accidental start of his business
 [18:30] – The “ADHD tax,” missed billing, overwhelm, and finally asking for help
 [20:07] – Time blindness, doubling time estimates, and the power of realistic planning
 [22:29] – Learning to celebrate wins and build sustainable routines
 [23:41] – Burnout, lifestyle changes, and respecting energy and limits
 [27:12] – The importance of transitions, routines, and boundaries
 [29:12] – Delegation struggles, the relay-race mindset, and building a trustworthy team
 [32:08] – Tools like Trello, Monday, and Asana for getting chaos out of your head
 [33:39] – Learning systems later in adulthood and adapting them over time
 [35:04] – Connor’s advice: own your ADHD, learn the comorbidities, and advocate for yourself

Links & Resources

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Unknown:

I mean, the ADHD tax was real. It was missed deadlines and sometimes not billing people feeling guilty about billing, oh, I forgot to bill them, and then, oh, it's too late. I'm just going to not collect that several $1,000 check. Like it was ridiculous. It was absolutely ridiculous. And so I was just kind of watching my little mistakes add up, and it took a few years. It was manageable, it was tolerable, and then it was like, this is really dumb. It just took me finally asking for help, and then I'm getting better at delegating.

Brooke Schnittman:

Welcome to successful with ADHD. I'm Brooke schnittman, let's get started. Welcome back to another episode of successful with ADHD today, I have a special guest Connor Coleman in the house today, very excited to have him. He is the owner of a ranch management consulting business and based in the mountains of Colorado, lucky. He was diagnosed with ADHD back in grade school and has been fighting the good fight ever since. He's also currently an enviropreneur fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Wow, Connor, can you tell me what

Unknown:

that is? Enviropreneur fellow? Yeah, it's a fellowship that's, that's, I think, better part of a year out at Stanford University, at the Hoover Institution, and it's targeting mid career professionals that are interested in solving environmental problems through market driven solutions. And so I am currently working on how to reduce the wildfire risk on private properties through various economic drivers. So that's, that's what I am up to right now in that capacity,

Brooke Schnittman:

such a do gooder. I love it, and it has a lot to do with what you do as a rancher, too.

Unknown:

Yes, yeah, I'm a ranch management consultant, and I've been in this space for the last 10 years. I started my business back in 2016 when I was at a career change and or kind of a job change, and couldn't really find something that fit my needs. So like any good ADHD or I created my own business and made my own little niche in the market.

Brooke Schnittman:

Yeah, I'm glad that you said that, because we know the stats out there say that 30% of entrepreneurs have ADHD, although I think it's way higher at this point, right? Exactly. But what drove you to be an entrepreneur? Let's fast let's fast forward. Let's rewind back many years before you became an entrepreneur, how did you find out in childhood, you had ADHD

Unknown:

classic little boy who couldn't sit still and focus in school? I can remember back to kindergarten being, you know, given assignments and the whole classes working on coloring or whatever, counting whatever, something simple. And I was always the last person done with the task. And I'll never forget, I won't say her name, but my kindergarten teacher, I just remember saying, Connor, if you don't finish earlier, you can't play games. And I wanted to play Candy Land so bad, and I never played Candy Land, because I was always the last person done. And then it was like this, okay, well, Connor's done. Now let's move on to the next thing that was kind of when I started getting frustrated with it. That was pretty early, you know. And then, as you know, first, second, third grade went on, and just kind of those basic assignments, I was always struggling, and so my mom took me in, and, you know, this was back in the late 80s, and was was diagnosed with, then add and started getting accommodations and medication and things like that, which helped. But, you know, it's, it's not something that you just kind of get rid of, at least in my case, and kind of went through college and grad school dealing with it, and then thought I kind of shook it, and then I would say, a couple of years ago, really realized how much it was impacting me, and I didn't realize it. And so kind of, and that's when you and I crossed paths, and I reached out and started engaging with you and coaching with Brooke and started my adult ADHD journey more intentionally.

Brooke Schnittman:

Yeah, it's interesting because you said the classic boy in the classroom. And when you think of the classic boy in the classroom getting diagnosed, you think of the boy out of their seat, hyperactive, can't sit still calling out. That wasn't you, though?

Unknown:

No, it was. It was very much the inattentive you know I was, and perfectionism, you know, you're coloring and trying to stay perfectly in the lines and all all those things. So both. Perfectionism and kind of wandering mind really took over.

Brooke Schnittman:

Yeah, so your teacher didn't allow you to play Candy Land because you weren't done on time. So all the other kids were playing Candy Land and you were finishing your work. So it was kind of a punishment for you because you couldn't finish in time. She was probably looking to stall until you were done, but still, like, What a bummer. Yeah, and I'm sure you thought to yourself, like, oh man, like, I am not good enough, right? Like I don't fit in. I'm not getting that chance like that for you to tell me now that your kindergarten teacher, that happened in kindergarten,

Unknown:

that you remember that, yeah, and it definitely translates into that, that work reward cycle. You know, so many ADHD ers, and especially myself, you know, you finish a project, and for so long, I didn't let myself celebrate. It was just kind of like move on to the next thing and starting to break that habit. And I will say, though I finally at like, 40 years old. A couple of years ago, I played Candy Land for the first time, and it was very anticlimactic. It was, it was a big lead up. And then I was like, this game is kind of boring, but I guess if I was a kindergartener, it would have been a lot more exciting. But so I stuck it to her. I got it, I got it done many, many decades later.

Brooke Schnittman:

So, oh, wow. So yeah, your narrative for so long was that you just not reward yourself. You as soon as you were done, you would move on to the next thing, just like in kindergarten. Now, I find it interesting because so many inattentive students do not get diagnosed, and more often we see inattentive in girls in the classroom than boys. Not to say that boys clearly are not inattentive you were and lots of others are. But what kind of background did your parents have that said to them, all right, we got to do something. We got to look further with Connor, he's not just that kid who takes longer, right?

Unknown:

Yeah. So my parents, my dad is now. Both of them are retired, but they were firefighter, paramedic and a police officer. My dad and then my mom was a nurse, so she was in the medical field and kind of aware of all of these different conversations that were being had. And, you know, ADHD was, or add then was, was kind of a different or a newer conversation. So I was very fortunate that she was at least aware of that possibility. Took me in to get tested. And I've been tested a few times since. I know I had to get retested in like grad school and all these things. But still have

Brooke Schnittman:

it better. Comedy, still have it Yeah, doesn't go away, folks. It's a lifelong thing. I find it fascinating though, that because your mom was a nurse and she was in the medical field, she had the education to say, Okay, I need to get him tested. This might be ADHD or ADD back then, but so many of us who took longer to get things done were not diagnosed at that time because people didn't really see ADHD or ADD or really understand it at that point, unless the teacher said, Okay, I think you should get him tested, because there might be add at them at that time.

Unknown:

Yeah, I could not imagine being now an adult and getting diagnosed at this point in life. And I certainly empathize and feel for all the adults who either have been recently diagnosed or believe they have it, whether they're diagnosed or not, just to go through life and being like, why am I different and and I think the conversation over the decades has changed significantly, and I'm really loving right now the utilization of neurodivergency more than anything. I just I love that we're reviewing this diagnosis as something that is more of just a different way of looking at the world, and I've really leaned into that in

Brooke Schnittman:

recent years. So what kind of supports did you get? Then once you receive that diagnosis.

Unknown:

So in school, I was fortunate to be able to do testing like on my own, I would get extended testing periods. Most of it revolved around testing. A lot of the anxiety that kind of went with that thinking back to kindergarten. You know, it was like. I gotta fill out the bubbles. I gotta,

Brooke Schnittman:

oh, my god, the Scantrons were the worst, absolute worst.

Unknown:

And so, you know, you're filling in bubbles. You're, you know, kind of spending more energy looking around, seeing where everyone else is. You know, there's plenty of times where I'm just filling out straight C's down the Scantron because, you know, time's almost over. And then was fortunate enough to get the accommodations to either take tests by myself, take as long as I needed, not do Scantrons, I just would circle stuff. So it was it was great. It's a little harder to take that into college and grad school, and I felt kind of less than going into and being like, hey, teacher or sorry, Professor, can I circle instead of do Scantron? And unfortunately, I was, you know, there was a advocate at my undergraduate who worked with students with learning disabilities and needing accommodations, and so she was hugely important in my success and undergrad.

Brooke Schnittman:

So did she advocate for the accommodations to transfer over into college?

Unknown:

Yes, yeah. So she got them in college. So I would go over to her. All my professors would send my tests over to her, and I would take tests in her kind of auxiliary room. And yeah, and it was so much easier, because she would just be like, take your time, you know, do what you need to do, if you have to go the bathroom. It was just so much less stress than in that classroom setting. And yeah, I was, I was very fortunate for that

Brooke Schnittman:

many people don't know that if you have a 504 accommodation plan in high school, it doesn't necessarily transfer over to college. You have to apply and work with someone there so you can get those accommodations again. And in college, it's more so just accommodations, not necessarily services. If you had an IEP, that's amazing that you were able to get that and just going backwards for a second, you made me think of something I was talking this week with someone about, I remember Scantrons and in seventh grade my I would study forever for social studies. I was not a good history person. I loved math, I loved science. I hated history. I was not good at English either and but I would study for so long in history, and I would constantly get, like, 60s and 70s. And I remember this in seventh grade, the teacher said, Hey, don't use the Scantron. I'm going to give you a piece of paper with lines on it, and I just want you to put your letters of the answer on there, and I'll grade that. I said, Okay, I kid you not. That test, I got a 94 Now it didn't transfer for every single test, but my grade went up significantly that quarter in history because of the way that I was testing differently, and I didn't know I had ADHD at that time.

Unknown:

Yeah, it was, I'd say, part of what helped me too, is I was invited onto the Academic Decathlon team in high school, which was like, Oh, wow. Wait, wow. What? Like? They're like, you're intelligent. It's not that anyone said you're intelligent, you're not smart, but it was just kind of how I felt. Like, I know this stuff, I just can't translate it into the testing. With academic decathlon, they kind of have you tiered with, like, the A students, the B students and the C students. And I was kind of that C student, but like, placed very high in the state in multiple categories, just because I was smart, but I couldn't fit in the box. And I actually, I think I took third or fourth in the state in ecology and the academic decathlon, which is ultimately what I went on to study in college. And that that really helped my ego and kind of my confidence going okay, like you're just different, you know, and there's something out there for you. And going into the ecology and environmental sciences was just where I belonged. And I don't think I would have found that out if it wasn't for various factors, including that opportunity,

Brooke Schnittman:

yeah, but so you were on the academic decathlon as a C student, and obviously you did really well, but like, you were only a C student because you weren't a good test tape or not because you couldn't remember what was being taught, yeah, so that ended up working out in your favor. But I mean, what was that message for you getting the C's, even though you really could have been an A student easily,

Unknown:

yes, yeah, that was, I felt like a bit of a sleeper, you know, coming in and doing well in the statewide competition, but in that category, and it's amazing how many things you. Even as an adult, I still recall from learning in high school like it's all in there. It just I was, you know, always rushed and just took longer to convey it than than most people,

Brooke Schnittman:

yeah, so took you longer to convey it, but you got it. So how does that translate with the processing time and the time it takes you to retain information when you fast forward into

Unknown:

work life, like I said, 10 years ago, I started my business, and it was kind of an accident. I was working, you know, the 40 hour work week, doing conservation work for a nonprofit. Had worked for other nonprofits in a similar capacity, and was really just struggling with the nine to five sitting at the desk, doing managing a variety of tasks, and, you know, feeling like I was constantly being watched. So my boss and I realized this just wasn't working for me, and we had some conversations and said, All right, let's, let's wrap up some projects, transition out and move on to something else. And it my heart wasn't in there. So it was, it was, it was a good decision. Out of naivete, I started my own consulting business. I was like, how hard could this be? I'm pretty good at managing land and understand how ecology works. Let's throw spaghetti. Yeah, let's, let's start my own business. And I had some potential clients lined up, and I incorporated and just started doing it, and was like, Oh, this is pretty easy. Totally not understanding the business side of it, or really even paying attention to the business side of it. Was just advising landowners and feeling great, like, I can, I can make a living out of this. I was getting paid. And then kind of came to the realization, oh, you're an entrepreneur. There's more to this than just being a subject matter expert. You have to run the business, you have to market, you have to, you know, you have to pay the bills, you have to do the books. And so classic ADHD didn't ask for help. Tried to do it all myself. Got completely overwhelmed, and then eventually woke up and said, Let's get an accountant, let's get an attorney, let's let's get help. And now, you know, have, in addition to those professional resources, have a couple different contractors that I use, and a project manager, and so these collective of team, this, this team of individuals, is what helps me be successful now, is knowing I can't do this on my own.

Brooke Schnittman:

Yeah, you know, you and I have read a lot of the same business books, and we know, like, there's such a difference between the contractor position and the entrepreneur like, yeah, you can work in your business as a contractor, but you still need to be the CEO, the CEO, especially in a small business, until you start asking for help. But if you don't ask for help, you're never going to grow, right? You're just always going to be a contractor in your own business. I'm curious when, at what point did you ask for help? Was it when you were over capacity? Was it when you were like, 70% so at that point, it's like, super hard right to then delegate, oh

Unknown:

yeah, it was, I mean, the ADHD tax was real. It was, you know, missed deadlines. And, you know, actually sometimes not billing. People feeling guilty about billing, oh, I forgot to bill them, and then, oh, it's too late. I'm just going to not collect that several $1,000 check, like, and it was, it was ridiculous. It was absolutely ridiculous. And so I was just kind of watching my little mistakes add up. And it took a few years. It was manageable, it was tolerable, and then it was like, this is really dumb, and the my accountant is one of my favorite people. I mean, she easily pays for herself many times over, and how she sure makes me more efficient with my books and everything. So it just took me finally asking for help, and then kind of the floodgates open after that, I'm now looking at my team as just contractors I use. I try not to burden myself. I still do, but I'm getting better at delegating.

Brooke Schnittman:

Yeah, yeah. We often wait until we're at like, 120% capacity, than 70% capacity when we're supposed to delegate. Because what does that actually feel like? Oh, yeah, we can just do it ourselves, right? We have that 30 extra percent. Let's just do it. Let's save money. Let's do this or own, you know, like, I'm just so laser focused with my ADHD, I can't even think about doing that. But then. It just, you know, it hits you like a ton of bricks, and at that point you're basically drowning,

Unknown:

yeah, and it's and, of course, everything takes longer than expected, and I've done a pretty decent job of scheduling out my days and my weeks and my quarters, but realizing that I need to at least double the time that I think something's going to take. These time allotments were comical that I was giving myself. And so, so yeah, now, now being more of a realist and and breaking down quarters, and I kind of have now a word I use every quarter. And now that we're in q4 here my, my word is completion, I want to just wrap up projects and go. I'm not usually a, you know, New year, new me kind of person, but I have really embraced the these blocks of times, the quarters, the years, the months, and yeah, and I just want to wrap up this year and work with my team and these resources so that I can feel like I'm going into the new year with clean slate and enthusiasm and not being burdened by things from the past.

Brooke Schnittman:

Yeah, it seems like you've really been on the up and up, you've been figuring things out like you've been scaling your business. You're not a solopreneur anymore. You're like you said, an entrepreneur. And really amazing that you brought out the point that you put a 2x Window for every task that you do with ADHD. I can't even tell you how often people will come to me and say, Oh, I just can't get everything done. And it's not that, like you don't necessarily have the tools to get it done. It's just the time distortion, the future myopia, the now or not now, the you know, not being able to understand time, especially for tasks that you don't know or haven't done before we our time perception can very much often be the window can be very small, so 2x 2.5x and then you can feel like, all right, if I get it done in less than 2x now I have this break. Now I have this other small task I can put in there, right? Like it definitely lowers your stress levels, and I would imagine, reduce some shame as it relates to tasks.

Unknown:

Absolutely, absolutely, yeah, even if it takes me the full time or I go over, still taking that break and acknowledging and scheduling a buffer to celebrate your wins. I'm now every Friday spending time celebrating the wins and looking back and yeah, because it was just so boom, boom, boom, onto the next thing. Work through the weekend. Don't take a break feeling like the things that are so important, like getting out and moving and walking, going on a hike, going to the gym, were rewards that I can only achieve. They were my candy land that I can only achieve once I finished my assignments. And it's so easy to be like, Oh, I'm going to put that off. And so now incorporating all of these wellness aspects so that I have a better balance. It's not easy. I'm not perfect at it, but definitely getting better with a lot a lot of intention.

Brooke Schnittman:

That's amazing. And you had said you were working weekends. You were working nights. What did that do for your business? What did that do for you personally, at that time,

Unknown:

I don't think it was helping my business. You know, it was just I was burned. I was burning out, and I was unable to see that I was burning out. I think it was about two years ago, I totally burned out like was, was trying to get drops out of an empty cup here, and there was, there was nothing left, and it was, it was really tough. And that's when I came to realize you have to get eight hours of sleep, you have to drink your water, you have to, you know, eat lunch. Lunch is just, somehow always comes around four o'clock and then it's like, oh well, it's dinner. No, you know, so getting better at being intentional and paying attention to the clock and setting reminders is has been very helpful. But, yeah, just working non stop was not productive. I have a sign somewhere in my home that says action over motion, and I was constantly in motion, but I wasn't necessarily taking action. And so was was becoming intentional and saying, You know what, if you've got a good four hours in you today, then use that. If you've got 20 minutes, use. It. But you can expect to show up every day, certainly not with eight hours, consistently and contiguously. So I, you know, I want to have lunch and watch a YouTube video I do or go for a walk or whatever it is, perfect.

Brooke Schnittman:

Our brains are not meant to focus for eight hours in a day. And you know, optimal focus time is 10 to 40 minutes, right? And then after that, it's diminishing return. So if we don't take the break, our brain is just going to go off somewhere, as if, I'm sure we've all experienced it in reading, right? When our brain just kind of like, goes to La La Land, and then we come back to the reading, and we're like, what did we just read? That happens when we're doing work, when we're trying to focus on something else. If it's over your optimal focus time, you have that diminishing returns, and then it finally comes back. But during that time, you've just missed so much, you might as well just take the break right and nourish the

Unknown:

brain, respecting your energy throughout the day, especially if you're on medication, I am optimal in the morning, no doubt about it. I have a routine, a very dialed routine, that you know, from making my bed to making my coffee to sitting and reading in the morning. And just that energizes me in that sense, those little wins, hey, I made my bed, I, you know, made breakfast, I did this. And it was routines like that that my parents instilled in me. They instilled it in all of our children, but it was really important in my just, I don't want to say success, but just survival. In in school, like if I didn't have a routine, it was game over. And so routines and habits are so vital to me, we hate routine, but thrive on it at the same just don't tell me what my routine is. Let me come up with it. We might have the same ideas, but if you tell me the same thing, I'm game over. I'm not doing it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Brooke Schnittman:

It sounds like so everyone gets into flow states differently. You could be a hard charger. You could enjoy solitude. Sounds like you really enjoy solitude in the morning to come your day so there's less chaos coming and like, slow roll it into the work.

Unknown:

Yeah, I need to both kind of on board, on ramp in the morning and off ramp at the end of the day. You know, it's, it's, I can't go to bed like I hard stop, don't do work after 8pm like, I cannot wind down if I shut the computer and then, like, try and go to bed. Just can't do that. So wind down. Start reading a little bit. And that's fine. My mind will wander, but I read things that don't require so much focus, like poetry or one pagers or something like that.

Brooke Schnittman:

Yeah, love that. So your stimulation break after work is reading. Stimulation to get into work is reading. So you have those boundaries and those barriers before and after these transitioning is really hard, right? As you mentioned, going from work to bed.

Unknown:

Yeah, absolutely. If it wasn't for transitions, I would probably be an insomniac.

Brooke Schnittman:

I know you said that you have help, and that's so important. But even with the best systems, with ADHD, going from solopreneur to a team is still challenging to people listening out there who would love to be in a situation like yours. Going from working from someone else, then to solopreneur, then having a team of people, what would you say the biggest thing to pay attention to while you're working with your team of contractors, your team of employees.

Unknown:

Delegation is not easy, especially if you're used to doing it all. I write notes to myself every day and kind of daily goals and delegate is quite often on that list. It's and don't be hard on yourself or too hard on yourself, because it's not an easy thing to pick up, especially when you've had possibly a whole lifetime of feeling like you had to do it on your own. I have to stop and go. Can this be delegated? How would this be delegated? Actually, was having a great conversation with Michael Dickey, like, a month or two ago, and we were talking about this delegation kind of issue that I've been struggling with. And he said, instead of thinking of is just completely like, you know, drop. Putting it in the mail, and it's gone. Think of it as more of like a relay race, where you have a baton and you hand it off, and then that person runs a lap, and then they hand it back to you, and then you run a lap. It's like, oh, that that feels a lot more tangible to me, that it's not just completely out of my hands. I'm still involved just letting someone else excel in parts that I kind of have struggles with. And I'll say, of course, you know me. I've I've got my stack of books here, and I'm always which one are you gonna recommend? Always recommending books to Brooke, but I had a friend recommend rocket fuel, which is part of traction. And I read this and learned about how there you've got your visionaries and your integrators, and these entrepreneurs, like you said, 30 plus. I'm definitely going to say like 50 plus percent of entrepreneurs of ADHD, we're good at coming up with the ideas and being creative and then getting excited about the next thing, but that first project still needs to go somewhere or be completed, and that's this book kind of talked about how there's systems to come up with to solve these problems and hand it off to people who blew my mind when I found out that there's people who like to do mundane, remedial tasks. Like, I was like, Wait, oh, yeah, what? But where's the dopamine? Why? Why do you enjoy this? And they're like, No, give me, give me your grunt work. Give me just the the report writing, the things I hated doing. And it was honestly through that book that I kind of had that realization that it wasn't just neuro typical versus neurodivergent, that there was just different types of people and the type of work they like to do. So once I discovered that, and I'm still working on my delegation abilities, but kind of that all paired together allowed me to write this, not necessarily write the shit, but make sure it was pointing in the right direction.

Brooke Schnittman:

There are people out there that enjoy your weaknesses, who knew, yes, like you're doing someone a favor. Blows my mind whenever I read that, and I love the baton passing, because you are not just never touching that task again and saying, okay, run with it and that's it. You're not micromanaging either, but you're checking in, having accountability meetings maybe once a week, making sure it fits with your brand, making sure that you guys are communicating the same language, so it does make your life easier, but you still are a part of that these it was your vision. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Unknown:

And there's so many tools out there, like, I use Trello and Monday to kind of organize and share information. I know there's, there's plenty

Brooke Schnittman:

of them. I use Asana, all right, same thing, yeah.

Unknown:

And it's just one of those things where, and I love that it's on your phone and in your computer and

Brooke Schnittman:

and it'll, and I'll task you. And then if for Asana, if you check it off, there's like a little unicorn that jumps like you finished the task. So talk about a dopamine,

Unknown:

oh, yeah, chasing the dopamine, for sure.

Brooke Schnittman:

Chasing the dopamine, but you see when your team member checks it off as well, and then you have those accountability means, like, it gets out of your head and it's on to a project management board, which is great for people with ADHD, because you don't have to keep it there. You get that chaos out and onto the screen or

Unknown:

and like I said, At the onset of this, this conversation, my awareness or my recognition of my ADHD as an adult, just happened a few years ago. It's like, you know, oh yeah, I know I have it, but knowing that I have to work at it to be successful has just been the past few years, and coming up with all these tools and resources. It was both novel. It felt a little cliche. Like, oh, let's try a new thing, and then I'm probably going to drop off of but it's that, that persistence, and you know, those 21 days, or whatever it is, to stick to a habit paid off. And it's like, okay, we're not always in a flow state, but, you know, the waves aren't as choppy because I've put these systems in place. And yeah, I fell off plenty of times. I still fall off, and then kind of get back on and go, oh yeah, that's why I do it. It makes my life a lot easier. And you sleep better, you feel better, pay less, ADHD tax and yeah, so it's, it's kind of that, knowing that it's an ongoing challenge and implementation of these strategies, and sometimes you have to completely start over or change change systems.

Brooke Schnittman:

Love that such good information today. What would be one piece of advice that you want to leave the audience with?

Unknown:

Ah, man, I would say, kind of own. It own, own the ADHD and do your work. As far as researching a lot of the comorbidities, I always have a hard time saying that comorbidities, comorbidities, yeah, comorbidities of ADHD, because those were things that were creeping up on me that I didn't realize. You know, whether it was just like, Oh, I'm just stressed, it was like, No, I was becoming depressed or I was becoming anxious, or I was on the wrong medication and experiencing a lot of side effects and didn't realize it. I was, I mean, I was experiencing pretty much every negative side effect with my previous medication, but didn't realize it, and then it was starting to do the homework and going, Oh, that's why the lows are so low, or that's why I don't feel like eating, or that's why I'm not sleeping, or my OCD is through the roof, and change medications, and it didn't solve all the problems, but if I didn't advocate for myself and do my homework, I would have never known, and I don't know where I would be right now. So knowing that you still have to put in the work and that it evolves, and your environment evolves, and you have to change with it, is something to keep in mind. And my ADHD at 10 is different than it was at 20 is different than it was at 30, as it is at 40. So it's, I've had to refine these systems. And you know, we're in this era now. We're so fortunate to have resources like you and so many of these other ADHD coaches and YouTube channels to not just understand yourself, but to be able to share with the people around you. I can't tell me tell you how many of your posts or podcasts or other ADHD or neurodivergent podcasts, posts I've shared with friends and loved ones or even co workers, you know, be like, Hey, this is how I function. I'm I don't know how to explain it, but look at this little five minute video, and it can give you insight into what's going on in my brain. 99 plus percent of the time, I get a positive response, like, great, thanks. We'll work with you, not against you. And it's, it's, it's really night and day from when I was in grade school, when I first got diagnosed and felt like I could play Candy Land any day if I wanted to.

Brooke Schnittman:

I love that. Thank you so much for being here. Connor. Where can people find you if they want to reach out?

Unknown:

I'm on Instagram at Connor. P Coleman at, yeah, on Instagram, and then my business is resiliency lands so resiliency lands calm. Is my website, and there's contact information there. Great.

Brooke Schnittman:

We'll put that in the show notes too. Thank you for being here today. It's always a pleasure. Thank you, Brooke, 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 an E, thanks again for listening. See you next time you.

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Brooke Schnittman MA, PCC, BCC

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