My Neurodivergent Brain with Edwin Ruiz

Business owners are increasingly being pulled in so many directions, feeling like they aren't reaching their full potential in business and life despite their type a ways. With my background as a therapist, entrepreneur, and as a.com dropout with ADHD, I interview and coach high achieving business owners like you who want to stop struggling for success by using psychological systems, strategies, and the occasional carefrontation. This is the easily distracted entrepreneur your place to slay overwhelm perfectionism and shiny object syndrome so that you can get done what matters most to you. Welcome, my fellow focus seekers.

00:00:42

Happy November. We're in the last two months of the year, officially. I wonder, when you hear that, do you feel like, damn, time is running out to get everything done? Or are you like, awesome, I got two more months to achieve those goals I set for myself. Usually the answer to that can predict just how much overwhelm you're experiencing in your life right now.

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But the good news is there is still time to take stock, make a plan, and finish the year strong. Whether that is completing a big project, achieving an income goal, or allowing yourself as much downtime and rest as you need. To me, finishing strong is all about going all in on what's important to you right now. If the idea of that feels overwhelming and the thought of having a supportive community, structure, strategy, and accountability to make it feel oh, so doable, then I invite you to schedule a call with me to see if the incubator is what you have been looking for. We are filling the last remaining spots right now to book an appointment, head on over to forward slash incubator.

00:01:51

In today's episode, I had the honor of speaking to one of my most favorite people in the world, my dear friend, Edwin Ruiz. Edwin is a filmmaker, live streaming event producer, and all around Renaissance man who shares his story and approach to being a neurodivergent business owner. Hello, Edwin. Welcome to the show. Hi, Amber.

00:02:15

How are you doing? I know that was, like, our formal voice. I'm very excited to have you here having this discussion today because I love featuring all my neurospicy peeps in my life. And as I've said in the other episodes where people are coming on and kind of sharing their neurodivergent story, I think what's so helpful is often people have a view of, like, this is what ADHD looks like. This is what autism looks like.

00:02:46

This is what OCD looks like, and it's usually some extreme version from a movie. So I feel like it's always so helpful to hear from real people and how the unique blend of neurospiciness shows up in them. I love how you call it spiciness. I refer to it as the flavor that's the flavor in which I just function in, which is like, this ADHD flavor of life is my world. I love that, too.

00:03:15

I love it. Yeah. Once I heard Neurospicy, I was like, I am going to latch on to that because that's what I do. I latch onto something and I will ride that to death. And I just love it.

00:03:26

But I love the flavor. It's probably the redhead thing, like pepper, spicy. I've always been a little spicy, even before I knew I was Neuro spicy. But yeah, I'm excited for this conversation, and I've already told everyone who you are a little bit, but maybe you could share kind of your story of either getting diagnosed or kind of what your journey in figuring out your flavor has been. Well, I think it becomes very evident early on in the choices of schooling and things that I was interested in and for how long I was interested in them.

00:04:08

I come from a tech background. This is what I did in high school. I was the Nerd Nerd that also did cheerleading. I went to an all boys school. None of this makes any sense further gets explained.

00:04:20

So I had an A plus certification. I had a network plus certification just after high school was like, I know what I want to do. I know what I want to do. I want to do computer related stuff. I love it.

00:04:34

Went into computer forensics, computer security, finished that degree. Went into database administration and SQL and Oracle, which is like forever ago. And I kept picking up degrees and at the end realizing I don't really want to do that work, continuing to collect these things as if they were collectible rings or so. Yeah. And after that I was just like, I don't want to do any more computer stuff.

00:05:10

This was like at the age of like 20 something, 22, 23. I go in and they pick something that is completely 180 degrees from that. It'll work at a bicycle shop and proceed to become a scientist of how does all this stuff work? What is proper spoke tension? How do you build a wheel?

00:05:34

What is the mathematical equation of your effective rim diameter to your hub flange and all this stuff? And it's picking up skills and picking up skills and picking up skills. And I think the bicycle stuff probably I did that for a large stretch of my college. But this idea of problem solving, I love problem solving.

00:06:00

I've had historically difficulties with structures, structures that are put upon me. All of these jobs had structures that you needed to conform to. And I just didn't love it. I didn't love it, and I loved only certain parts of that job. So I feel that that's really when it comes down to how did I realize where the ADHD life?

00:06:34

How did I know I was already there, I had already been there. It was really coming to terms and really realizing these patterns that I had and realizing that I like doing things in a specific way. And my journey has really been how do I do something that I find exciting and is always changing and paid well and working with clients that really validate that because it's very easy to do two out of those three and be really sad or unfulfilled. Yeah, no, I think well, I mean, a lot of what you said, I just went through, like, ten different things myself. In my brain, I jokingly have said what I would call, like, oh, you're a Renaissance man.

00:07:28

Right. Often I find they tend to be ADHD people for the reason that you say, because it's like that hyper focus. You're into something, you become obsessed, and you like to know. I mean, you obviously get into minutiae. That not everybody.

00:07:43

That's your flavor. Right. You go deep. You're like, Let me have every I'm going to know every nook and cranny and every single thing, and then it's like, okay, I've got this. I've mastered this.

00:07:55

Now I need something different. I need something new, and I need a different challenge or a new problem to solve. Right.

00:08:05

The most recent thing that I've approached, obviously not career wise, but as a challenge or as curiosity that quickly became a challenge. So I have a good friend of mine who's been staying with me. We're working on a project together, and he told me of how he cooks eggs, how he slow cooks eggs, which is he's like, I raised the temperature, and it does this thing to the metal. And then you have to lower the temperature, and you put the butter in, and then make sure you doesn't burn the butter. And then you can put the eggs in.

00:08:39

So I watched him do it three times, and I was just like, there's a pattern to this. I went out and got an Led infrared temperature sensor so I can measure the temperature of the pan at the point where it seals the pores, and then I can put the butter in. And I've been making breakfast now for three days, and he's just like, you're incredibly good at this. And I'm like, I'm just applying the scientific method, and I love the fact that this is repeatable and consistent. It makes me happy, and that stuff is fulfilling.

00:09:18

It's fulfilling to do these little small things that you're just like, I'm really good at this, and I don't really now have to think about it, and it's now, like, second nature of, like, I can give you a 90% certainty that your eggs will be perfect. Flawless. Flawless. That's what I do appreciate about your approach. Like, your version right?

00:09:40

Your version of neurospiciness is that you love breaking down those patterns and making things repeatable, because then it's, like, comforting. Right? There's a comfort to that and knowing I've done a good job, whereas other people are, like, with the ADHD are. Very, like, okay, cool. And they just kind of wing it, and it's, like, chaos all the time, but that's their version, like their version of creativity.

00:10:03

Neither is right or wrong, but I really always love when you tell me.

00:10:09

I hate to call them, like, life hacks or whatever, but your way of hacking things, like when you talked about striping, when you're reading stuff, I remembered that. I was like, oh, I love it, because, yeah, your brain works in a specific way, and then it's just honoring I have to do it in that way, in that pattern. Right. I find it funny you mentioned this once again. Striping is something that I've coined.

00:10:33

I don't know if it works for anyone else but me. And I learned this on a trip where I needed to get through a book. And it wasn't a storybook. It was like some sort of methodology of how to do something. And I was like, all right, I can't read five chapters of this.

00:10:53

My attention span can't hold on to this for that long. There's this other video course on domestica, which I love. If you're ADHD beware, you will want to do everything and spend a ton of money and maybe not even watch them ever again. But I was watching this one, okay, on the plane. And what I started to do is I would read a chapter and then watch a chapter of this instructional video.

00:11:24

So now I'm consuming learning content from two different ways, and it becomes sticky. I'm able to remember it better and I'm able to maintain my tension span to both of these because I'm cycling between them. Finish one, go to the next, go to the next, go to the next. And by go to the next means, like, switch. Yeah, back and forth.

00:11:48

And I feel that with me, at least, and I'm sure that with hundreds of thousands of other people, you start to make these wonderful associations where you're like, oh, well, that and that have similarities, and that and that have similarities and there's patterns in this and this. What happens if you can these things be connected? What would a smoosh of this and this apply? And I think it was like, one was on title design for video, and then the other one was something more like marketing. And it's just like, oh, I wonder how these two things can interrelate.

00:12:29

How can the approach to this and the approach to that, how can they coalesce together in a way that maybe I've never seen before? And if you have enough time afterwards, it can percolate something new that whether you haven't seen it or the world hasn't seen it, even though I feel that the world has seen almost everything. It's really interesting where the ADHD superpower really comes into creating this pattern recognition on two separate things that really have a very light thread, but you can add enough threads to it where you're just like, no. There is a strong association between this and the magic can happen from that. Absolutely.

00:13:13

And I think that's know, when we talk in general about ADHD strengths, often it's the innovation. And, like, I think about people like Richard Branson and actually, I don't know if Seth godin is ADHD, but his process, when I've heard him talk about is exactly what you said about the like, he doesn't drink coffee. But he's become obsessed with how to make a perfect cup of coffee just because he enjoys that and his friends and family enjoy it. But it's that same kind of thing of really dissecting how things work and then looking yeah, finding patterns or finding connections in things that on the surface don't seem to have any connection at all. Right.

00:13:54

And that is part of the strength and asset of ADHD, in my opinion. Now, for other people, how they get there can look very I would, I would almost say it's the difference between an know painting picture and Jackson Pollock. It's like one person's version, it looks like chaos, but that was their version and the other one is very calculated and methodical. I don't know, that's where my brain went in. I do.

00:14:27

It's so nice to hear from people who think of whose brains work in that way to really dissect and break things down. Because I think we miss that is people can be accused of being too obsessing or being singularly focused and blocking everything else out. But also that's where a lot of innovation comes from.

00:14:53

Having that ability to hyper focus and do these things.

00:14:59

At least I'm going to be realistic. Some of these things that I do are my way of holding on to the thought of control. Like, I have control over this thing because there are other things in other systems that they just feel so like, oh my God, how do I tackle that? And so you tackle these small things to give yourself these wins of like, yeah, I can do this well. I can do this well.

00:15:32

Don't get me started with the coffee. Breakfast. I got breakfast down you're like in. My seventy s. I plan on getting to dinner.

00:15:43

I'm finally using a bread maker. I'm feeling pretty good. Nice. I bought mine at the beginning of the pandemic. It is still in the box in my little pantry.

00:15:53

I've had my bread maker since before the pandemic, didn't touch it during the pandemic. And it's really not until the last three weeks that I've dusted it off and said cool. I even purchased a book two years ago on how to use this. Let's get to it. That's what I sometimes say is it'll be there for us.

00:16:14

I've said that about my course buying addiction. And I know it would be smarter to buy it as I need it, like just in time learning. But I'm always like that knowledge is safe there and I know it's there for me when I am ready for it. But I try to justify it. But yeah, the bread maker.

00:16:33

In one day, what will happen is I will wake up and somebody will be making bread on a cooking show that I'm watching. And then I'll become obsessed with, I have to make bread today, and that's. When I'll pull it out. Let's talk of impetus, right? What triggers you to touch it?

00:16:49

Right? I grew up as an only child, and so to me, it was like watching people. That's what I had, right? Because I didn't necessarily have other kids to play with. My parents were home and that's it.

00:17:04

So watching people do something and watching the process of someone do something would allow me to if I saw it three times and someone talked, if I could talk to them while they did it three times, I would be able to move in and replicate what they did to an acceptable amount. And from there, then it's my ADHD that just kicks in and it's just like, well, how do you improve this? How do you make this better? How do you make it your way and better and different? And so it took going to someone's house who had a bread maker that used a bread maker, and I got to ask them questions, and they were just like, oh, yeah, it's super simple.

00:17:49

You just put this and this, and it's just all sequence. It's all sequence. Let me show you the sequence. And did the sequence. And I was just like, I can do that.

00:17:58

And then got home and boom, started making bread. I love it. Just took that being around someone, doing it to allow what I'll assume, allow myself permission to not explore it blindly. But now have seen the process of someone starting it, doing it and then the final result and saying, I can probably get half that result on my first try and not feeling like you're going to be a complete, utter failure and just be like, I don't get it. And then fall into the YouTube searching, start looking up bread maker, and end up looking at muscle cars and being like, what was I looking at?

00:18:46

Why am I looking at how to do a Valve job on a V eight? And what was I looking for at the beginning? Oh, yeah, a bread maker. Don't know how to do that, but I know exactly the lash on a V eight. Well, and it's key to know where you could possibly go Awry and get distracted by other things.

00:19:08

I hadn't thought about it until you said it just then, but I actually do a similar thing where I'm like, even people will say, oh, I'll record you a Loom video, and if push comes to shove, I'll watch it, but can you just do it with me? Even on zoom? Can you just do it and talk to me as you do it? And then once I understand how, then like you said, okay, I can do it again, no problem. I can recreate that or I can fix it or finish it.

00:19:36

And I think that's why I got into the tech world as well because I was able to say, oh, yeah, I can do that, and then just make it happen. Right? Because it was easy to figure out technology. But yeah, it's hearing something verbally because there are things I'm like, okay, I really should learn to do this, or I really want to learn it. And then I'm like, can somebody who does it just come and do it on me?

00:20:02

Or do it for me or show me whatever that thing is. I was thinking of a smoky eye. That's why I said, do it on me. I just realized that sounded really bad. I've asked my daughter, I was like, can you learn how to do a smoky eye so I don't have to watch a YouTube video on it?

00:20:16

Don't ask. I don't know random stuff. But yeah. It's interesting though, once you understand this is how my brain works the best, it just makes it easier. And this is the thing we'll avoid something very simple because it's like novel in the way of like, I don't even know how to approach that.

00:20:37

And sometimes you're in the mood to figure it out, but then sometimes you're like, okay, I just need to see it once and then I'm golden. Right? Yeah.

00:20:47

I can learn off a video. I can learn off watching enough YouTube. I can say, okay, I can approximate that. Probably out the gate, maybe 20%, 30%, I can get close to that. But having someone that I know that is doing it next to me, it's no longer this like, I need an expert to show me.

00:21:12

It's like, oh, yeah, like David right over. Like, David and I eat breakfast together. He's showing me how to do that. I can do that. That's not a big know the hurdle is so much smaller, right?

00:21:22

It's just like a finite amount of information rather than this entire body of knowledge that needs to be like, you need to absorb it's. Just like, oh, I just need to follow these simple steps. And now I feel good and now I feel empowered and now I can do so much more. And I feel that that's where having a really awesome set of diverse, as in neurologically diverse, but then also business wise diverse really ends up creating a really fun community if you're fortunate enough to have that. Because you're all kind of being curious of different things and all of a sudden it's just like, I found out how to do this and everyone's just like, well, share the secret and you do this.

00:22:16

And all of a sudden everyone is like, nerding out over this little process and how fun and rewarding it is. And hopefully you don't do that enough where you are putting off doing other really important things. I was like, that's a great segue because I was literally going to say, so when does that tendency to obsess over something and break it down? And yes, the therapist in me was like, well, yes, this is a control thing, right? I want to account for all variables and make sure that it can be done just so.

00:22:53

But when does that then become problematic for you in the work you do as a business owner or in your life? I mean, it's so easy to fill your day with these simple wins and lose sight of the fact that you're a business owner. You do a thing and you get paid for it to the people who've hired you. But with that in mind, you should also be thinking of like, okay, well, who are new clients? Where is this business going to grow to?

00:23:27

Am I going to bring other people in? And all of these things, there's weight to these decisions and it's very easy to say, well, I'll figure it out tomorrow. Tomorrow will be a better day. I'll be in a better mood tomorrow. And that tomorrow can stretch for days, weeks, hopefully not months, to some years.

00:23:51

And to our detriment, we find these other little small wins through the day and we're just like, oh, it's a good day. We figured out how to whatever I can make do a smoky eye.

00:24:10

But this is where having really good accountability, the value of having a business coach, you need to be accountable to someone. And when you're by yourself and it's your business and it's like, I make all the decisions and I handle all the money and it's just like, that's great. You are the adult. Congratulations. A teenage version of you would be so proud.

00:24:35

You can eat sugary cereals all morning long. But that's great. But now what? Now what are you going to do with what does growth look like?

00:24:47

How are you marketing yourself? Are you marketing yourself? How are you marketing yourself? And so all these questions quickly start to stack up and it becomes super overwhelming of like, how do I master marketing in this marketing? How does social media play into it?

00:25:05

And which one do I start with? Do I start with TikTok or do I start with YouTube or Instagram or whatever happened to Facebook? It becomes this very overwhelming thing to process and it's just like you can quickly wake up one day and say, hey, I need more clients.

00:25:30

Why aren't they finding me?

00:25:34

Why am I not getting calls? Why is my phone not ring off the hook? I am so great at things. Look at you either think that or. You think, oh, I must suck at this because my phone isn't ringing off the hook.

00:25:46

Right, right. I'm sure that changes like day to day, hour by hour, for sure. But I struggle with that sometimes. Where I struggle with that due to my wanting to transition from something I did in the past to where I am right now, which is more on the consulting side and building strategy. And tech solutions for media, for live streams, for content that requires a very different looking looking for clients that are doing for that or looking for clients that are looking for that.

00:26:29

Service requires a very different process than just like I'm service based, like you're doing this, I can provide a that and schedule the day and it's done. Yeah. And I think there's just so much you may want to edit out some of this stuff. No, because actually there was two things that you said that I think were interesting that I see a lot with neurodivergent people, business owners. One is we can be successful, we can grow a business.

00:27:03

But then there's a point in which it's like, what is our level of consistency in growth? Right. Or scaling? Because without any kind of accountability, because there's that initially often we're like we want full autonomy. We don't want to be told what to do.

00:27:17

We're sick of being in the job that wasn't built for us because we work differently. Right? And so it's like exciting and fun and you're doing it, you're bootstrapping it and then eventually you're like, oh, I'm freaking tired and whatever. And so then it's like, oh, I don't feel like it's today. Right.

00:27:32

Like you're saying. And our brain is seeking dopamine constantly. It needs it. We're deficient in dopamine. And so it's like wanting that so it goes through those quick wins and then yeah, it's like we're not choosing the most important things.

00:27:47

And I think that's where whether you have somebody you've hired or I've always talked about like Melissa Morris, she does operations for me and she would be the person that kind of helps me. It's still me running the show but thinking through things because I will overwhelm myself. Or like, oh shit, I forgot all about that thing. Or having a coach or something like that. Where it's the consistency, I think is the difficulty in that.

00:28:15

How do I honor my creativity and my desire for novelty without then just flitting around and never finishing things, right? Absolutely. It's having the structures and accountability. I think it's truly what it distills down to. I believe we're both saying the exact same thing, which is like, who is there to say to give you the polite tap on the shoulder and be like, hey, have you gotten that done for you to be like, Dang, I put it off for two days, I need to get it.

00:28:55

You know, whether you have true accountability people or you build that accountability in processes. So me and the Apple talking infrastructure, the Siri, I'm not going to trigger anyone's Siri by saying completing that sentence. But that's truly how I try to maintain accountability to myself. Which is like, hey, such and such, set up meeting for this, set up a reminder for that set up a second reminder on this day and then going into the computer and then things that are really important, I set it to daily notification. If there's a grant, I need to apply for it's.

00:29:45

Daily notification and I need to see that and say, okay, I need to get that done. I've seen that three days in a row and get to it just because it's very easy to just push it off till tomorrow until you realize the deadline was coming up at midnight or already happened yesterday. And you're like, I should have. And now you feel bad and now. You feel like you dropped a ball and you've let yourself down, right?

00:30:23

It's all the sadness that then further sinks you into this like, I need to do something for a win. I need to do something for a win. And now you're researching all sorts of other how to make the perfect sphere of an ice cube for cocktails. I don't know, like something random where you're just like, you're great at Jeopardy or parlor tricks, but that doesn't mean you're good at business. And if you're not, hustle for your own stuff.

00:30:53

I feel that also listening to quite a few podcasts sometimes will just remind me in those moments where I just don't have a friend to call, that I'm not alone in the journey of I am not neurotypical and I don't need to. Aspire for the four hour work week, I don't have to do it that way, but I can create my own version of that. And hearing other people's stories of how they've approached that is invaluable. And the research behind entrepreneurs and ADHD is so high that if you search for entrepreneur or something else I was searching for, which is like, MBA podcast, you'll find a lot of stuff where, as you start listening to, you're just like, well, you're doing things in a very different way. And I like how you're doing things.

00:31:53

And maybe that podcast is just long enough to be like, while you make breakfast. And then you're just like, oh man, I'm so pumped. I'm so energized. I just talked to a friend that I'm so inspired. Yeah, well, I love learning from people's stories as well.

00:32:10

It's that vicarious learning and I think I love it too because it's not like, oh, I have to do it this way, but here are other ways of approaching something and like you said, make it your own. But it gives us that permission because I think going back to what you were talking about when you missed that deadline, then you've got to find a quick win because our value can be we can get caught up in our value as in our output. Like what we're doing, what we're outputting is how we're being judged. That's what we're thinking, right? And so that's why the emotional roller coaster of the highs and the lows as opposed to.

00:32:49

Well, you were inherently valuable and no one can do all the things and you're going to have to just figure out the way that you want to do it and what's really important to you. And I think that's the thing that I see that helps with people's consistency is really identifying. Truly not because I would listen to a podcast episode and I got super excited about a topic, or I went to my friend's house and they made bread or whatever, but because you're like, no, this is the thing that in my bigger picture. My bigger why? Why I want to do this?

00:33:23

And I think when you get in alignment with that and then you have that clarity, it does help, right? But you still sometimes need, whether it's technology and I'm an advocate of using technology as reminders or a friends. I mean, I love my biz besties having friends for accountability or you hire somebody, I think creating those systems to support us so that we don't lose sight, because whatever is top of mind is what we're focusing on so that you getting that daily reminder. Otherwise you would forget. I mean, we can forget like crazy things.

00:33:56

And you think, how could I forget that? You're like, well, no, because in a way it's kind of ironic because it's always like the squirrel thing and I'm like but in a way, we're so present in that moment that that's all the reality that's happening, right? And nothing else. It computes.

00:34:17

Suffering of looking at a blank page. If you have to type something, you're there with your word processor of choice, watching the cursor blink. I don't even know if the cursors blink anymore. I don't think they do anymore. I love that you pulled out SQL and Berlinking cursors though.

00:34:37

Way to represent. Yeah. Dos 6.22, the last version I'm really interested, speaking of hacks, is like we've all heard so much about AI. Like AI is doing this with art and AI is doing this with writing papers. And right now the controversy that I hear most of is like, college students are doing this to try to game the system and have AI write papers for them.

00:35:09

And how are the teachers trying to mitigate that and catch whatever? That's obviously like the most sensational of approaches. But I look at it as, man, it's going to be really powerful when we can't type in some string of like, I need to write a paper about this, right? Like I need to do a research paper about this. And by research paper means for business owners, it's like a case study of what is this versus this?

00:35:42

How do you explain that? Do that, put it in it, spits something out at you. Great. Now your job is no longer the blank sheet of paper. Your job is now reading it and understanding.

00:35:55

Does that make sense? Does that align with my viewpoint? And now you're actively problem solving rather than trying to create from nothingness and create your entire framework from just what you've read in the last week to here's information. Now I get to qualify. What information do I feel is most valid to the point I'm trying to illustrate?

00:36:21

For my newsletter, for my website, or just for your own curiosity? I was exploring how to write some code and I was just like, I wonder if AI can put any of this together. So I typed in a search query of like, if I want to do this, how would this happen? Using Python. And it gave me script and I was like, oh, I wonder if this works?

00:36:48

And reading through it, I was like, oh, this might work, this might work. And I think that really moving forward, moving the ADHD life hack forward, it's like you're no longer starting from how do I do this? You're instantly in problem solve. Like, does this work? This is an interesting way, but I would do it this way.

00:37:16

And now you're at a launching point of allowing all of these abilities that we've already talked about, just allow you to just plow through it. And if this is work, if this is what your business is, I need to write a newsletter today and you can at least get it to output something that triggers you to go I think I can go deeper. You could spend a whole day on it. And maybe that was your entire objective, but it would have taken you like 3 hours of coaxing yourself to start writing rather than you've been writing it for 5 hours. And you loved it.

00:38:01

You didn't have to like time flew by because exactly. Because you were in a different space. And that's part of that is we can struggle with activation, like getting started. And sometimes it's because people don't know where to start or it's so overwhelming. Like you said that blank page and then it's like you have too many thoughts, especially when you're an expert in something.

00:38:23

You do sometimes have all those. But I do agree that having some kind of when I say framework or outline, it's not like a framework framework, but you have something to work off of, then all those random associations kind of come in and you make it your own. And I think it does get people started. Whereas I obviously work with a lot of people who can struggle and be stuck on something because of that. Essentially that blank page syndrome, I'll call it.

00:38:55

I think there is definitely potential in that for everyone who's finding themselves in that space. Are there other things that you so besides setting reminders? I do think it's funny though, because when you said, oh, like three days in a row, my thought is, well, once it's gone past a day for me, I'm blind to it. So my things for the day have to be the things that are effing happening that day. Otherwise I start to ignore it.

00:39:24

So other than those things sorry, I very ADHD tangent right there, but what are some other things that you do and the work that you do with people that kind of help you with some of the struggles that we tend to have? I feel most days, if not almost all, every day that I meet with different clients. I feel so incredibly lucky because what I do, in essence, my job is to be a personal problem solver for an organization. We want to repurpose this content here and then refine it and then put it back out for a different audience or for the same audience. How do we do that with 20,000 miles of distance between one audience and the other audience?

00:40:17

And it's like, oh, let me solve that for you some time, and let me solve that for you. Let me present you options. And then from there we can have a discussion of which direction is best suited for the strategy the organizations put in place. I just feel like the most fortunate person just because of my line of work. I get those wins so consistently.

00:40:53

I'm giddy most of the time. But that's the best thing to do, right, is to figure out what are those ways that you work or the things that light you up and make you so happy. Because then it is so much easier, right? And then it feels effortless. You can lose time in it.

00:41:14

And it's not stressful. It's just very different. And I think sometimes it's as business owners, we may start somewhere, but then it's like figuring out, okay, well, but how can I do this that both meets my clients needs but also in a way that I work well. Right? And I think that's part of what you're saying is you found that sweet spot, like you figured out the way, just like I hear I mean, you touched on a little bit, but I've heard many people say, like, well, I just can't imagine every day being the same.

00:41:45

I can't do the same work day in and day out. And sometimes we're doing that and spreading ourselves too thin with shiny objects. But sometimes it's about can you have a business or a business model that allows you to have that variety, right? And that novelty? Absolutely.

00:42:07

This came with a lot of trial and error in what jobs I would love. And once again, this is like iteration, like 1000. I went to school, I went to grad school for film film production, which was wonderful, wonderful era. And I thought, that's awesome. I get to be in a new place every day or at least every few days, and it's the right environment.

00:42:42

And doing it as a full lifestyle of like, I'm on set every single day, or I'm on set most of the time was more than I really enjoyed because it's like a new location. It's getting there. It's all of these things that to me are barriers, are barriers of my happiness. I never thought in my entire life that I would enjoy working from home as much as I do now. And the idea of leaving consistently to a place is just like it's a deal breaker for many projects.

00:43:32

Now there's a fine print to will I live in Chicago? I will not go to the suburbs. I will not go to the suburbs, but I will fly across the country for work. You are such an elitist.

00:43:51

Which, once again, the absurdity of it, right? It takes me 45 minutes to get to the airport and then from the airport, wherever I got to go, that, to me, is more enjoyable than a commute to the suburbs for a week. I would rather fly out somewhere, stay in a hotel, work on a project inside of a hotel, fly back to me. That's the right amount of commute. Even though I'm sure if you stack this like, commute time to commute time, it would be the same thing as going to those suburbs.

00:44:26

I just don't enjoy it. Once again, if you look at it logically, it should be the same, but it completely fits differently. It feels differently in my heart, in my soul, and mentally, maybe not, but in my heart, in my soul, it feels different. To me. That's what work it needs to fit in a very specific place.

00:44:50

And the idea of working in a way that I now make use of this tech background and this film background and this communications background and this post production background, all of these things stewed together have made me kind of a very unique amalgamation of skills, which is the superpower. That's what makes me me, and that's what makes me an invaluable tool for certain organizations. And so as much as in your early years, you're just like what you feel is meandering and just like, what does the wind blow you? And whatnot if you're able to pull it all together? Once you reach a certain age, it can be the most empowering thing that you could have ever imagined and bring you happiness.

00:45:57

I love my clients. I love what I do. There's that adage, I do it for free. And it's like there's times where it's just like, I just so enjoy it. And I'd love to see other people enjoy their job as much as I do.

00:46:16

And once again, this is also at the same time, there's moments of high stress of like, this needs to work flawlessly, but that allows the ADHD turn it up to 100, turn it up to beast mode and turn it 200, and that's exactly what that job needs. And so it's magical. It's magical. And I feel like all I do is just smile and talk about what I do. I love that I've had that conversation with so many clients, and even like therapy clients.

00:46:53

And I think about especially people in their 20s when they talk about that meandering or, oh, and I'm doing this, or even early thirty s, I would say. And I'm like, that's what makes you well rounded and special and unique. You're talking about your unique value proposition, right? Like all of these experiences and all of this education and everything, no one else is going to show up like you for consulting and doing those kinds of events. And I feel the same way, even though does feel like there's a lot of therapists doing some of the stuff.

00:47:26

But I think, like, having my tech background and becoming a therapist and being the other things that I've been into, like a smoky eye, I still don't have that. But that's the thing where it's like honoring we think like, oh, we're supposed to be efficient, or go like, I'm go to here and I just got this great education and now I'm not using it, so I feel like it's a waste. And I think it's like no honor that there was a reason you went down that path. Now, maybe you would have chose differently when you figure it out, but at the same time, it is like collecting knowledge and experiences and then figuring it out. And sometimes you need to do stuff you don't want to do or you don't like.

00:48:11

Like you said, you think, oh, this will be great. And then you do it and you're like, this fucking sucks. I don't want to keep doing this. So you find that balance of how. It does work for you.

00:48:20

So I have two teenage daughters. One is in first year of college, the other one's in a senior. And what I tell them is like, you only know what you know, and the careers that you know are the ones that you know, right? Like the reason that little kids want to be a fireman or they want to be a nurse or they want to be this is just because it's the little books that they've read and those are the characters that they know or maybe their parents do something. But if your parent does tech, it's like, how do you explain that to a child?

00:48:55

It's easier to say, I'm a fireman, right? Mommy's always on meetings. So you only know what you know. You only know of the jobs that you are told of or witness. And so as you progress, you need to go through these jobs of like, I think this is cool, I'm going to try this.

00:49:19

And though it's meandering or just like your parents may say, pick a career, if you're just always looking and always curious, you will eventually find something where it's like, oh, it's a mixture of this and this and this. And you happen to have those skills and you're just like, whoa, wait, that's a job. Wait, it pays. How much can I apply for? That, do I have the five years experience?

00:49:46

And it's just like, well, kind of, yeah, you actually do. You actually do have those five years experience. You just didn't realize that it was five years that you spent doing that or doing things that are similar to that. And so it's like trusting in the process and then also knowing how to sell yourself or how to advocate for the skills that you have and also advocate for your superpower. Your ADHD is your superpower of like, well, yeah, I may not have ten years experience, but I got five years experience, and guess what?

00:50:20

I am an incredible problem solver. And letting that sink in in that interview, is it right? Because people will bank on what your potential is just as much as what your work experience is. At least my two cent on that. Well, yeah.

00:50:46

And as entrepreneurs, it's like, do they perceive that you could help them regardless of what your experience is? Do they have a perception that you can help them with whatever that they're there to be helped with? Right. And having that trust and yeah, I think honoring that superpower and then being like, it's okay to say, no, I don't do it this right? Like, I'm thinking back to I had Kara Steinman on I think she was on just in December, and she talked about her consulting business, the way she structures.

00:51:20

Like, people would request certain things, like, I want to see your plan, or what's happening. She's like, that's not how I work, because she's ADHD, and she has a very specific way, and she gets results. And literally, she's like, you're paying for the results. Right? So you either do it this way or you don't.

00:51:35

People can take it or leave it because everybody else has their own thing, too. But I do think it's important to figure out and I don't think we believe that we can do that, that it's like, you can figure out the way that actually works for you and then stay solid in that, and then people will either say yes or no. Right? Absolutely.

00:51:59

Advocating for your ADHD superpower, as you said, allowing people to say yes or no, do they subscribe to that, or are they down with that flavor or that spicy? Can you pull out the result?

00:52:18

Unlike math, when you're in school and you have to show your work in business, it's not like that. It's like, well, you got to the answer. Congratulations. You didn't have to show your work. You didn't have to show results are all that matters.

00:52:33

People want to pay for results. Yes. No, I know. And that's why so many people go into entrepreneurship. I mean, one of those pieces, right?

00:52:41

You get to decide how it looks, how you do it. Although a lot of people fall in the trap of just recreating the old structures. Like, they leave corporate, and then they run their business. Like, corporate and then realize this sucks and they do it differently, right? So we can get caught up in that.

00:52:57

But it is great when you can realize, oh, a lot of us were always afraid of being fired, or, oh, I can never make it to work at 09:00 in the morning because I'm just not a morning person. And that kind of like, constantly late. But if you can structure your own business in a way that that's not happening, right? It's so freeing. And yet sometimes we build those boxes right back up.

00:53:25

So I'm like, we've all been there, done that. I can work whenever I want and I don't know when I want to work. And it's just like, both ways. I know. Well, that's where I've said for years.

00:53:42

It shifted now because it does shift over time, but I would never see clients before 01:00 in the afternoon. And then people act like, you're so lazy. I'm like, dude, I'm up. But I don't want to have to think and be in work mode because once I turn it on, it doesn't turn off, right? So I'm in that space.

00:54:00

And so I just found, like, that's honoring my biorhythm. And so that's what we need to do. We just need to honor who we are, how we approach, how we think about things. And yeah, it goes so much better, right? What you just mentioned, which is like, you obviously know for yourself how you work best and how you work best, and how does that interface with you as a human outside of work.

00:54:31

So knowing that how you work with time and your example of what makes you optimal for you as a human and you as a business owner or a professional, I have learned that there are certain projects or parts of projects that I can handle back to back. I can shift between this client and this client and this client if we're doing this very specific routine thing. But if it's anything that's like heavy problem solving, like, okay, well, I need to create a workflow of how does this interface with this and how does this interface with that. I need to dedicate X amount of days.

00:55:21

That's the only task I want to take on. So if I need to give that two to three days, it needs to be two to three days. And that means that any other problem solving needs to be shelved for another day. I don't want to figure out how to do anything during that time. And I think there's quite a few entrepreneur stories of CEOs who only take on one project or one major task at a time, and they won't move forward until that specific thing is resolved.

00:55:57

And whatever we want to call it, chunking time or blocking time. And to me, that is invaluable. And if I had to cycle between projects and, like, this is at this place and not this other project is at this place, I wouldn't be able to deliver the quality of work that I offer by being able to just hold on to that space just for that project or for that task or for that segment of the project. And now for other projects that are outside of that scope that are more on the film side and the creativity behind it. It's all about where is that space for me to function optimally for that project?

00:56:45

And then also where is that time that I need for me? Where's my recharge time, where do I cut off time? Something that allowed me to really separate. That is, I worked and lived in the same space for years and so it was very hard to separate what was work time and what was me time. So much so that I just felt like I was perpetually working every second of the day because I would be seated in one of the three places in my apartment.

00:57:23

So creating that separation between that where do I work and then the other location where I live really just changed how I interface with work. And when I'm working, I am working. And when I'm not working, I am definitely not in the space because that's the purpose of this space. This space is to work and this is where all of the work happens. And in my home there's only a laptop.

00:57:53

There is no other tech, there is no other gadgets. It's just a laptop. It allows me to be more creative. My creativity has gone up by not having all this stimuli. And what else?

00:58:07

Sometimes obligation. Yeah. No, I love that. First of all, I'm aware we have gone really far over time wise. So we're going to either have to make this two parter or edit.

00:58:20

But what you said, there was a couple of pieces that I think are important. One is delineating workspace. And for certain work tasks I do think it is important because that's where especially now, as more people work from home, they end up in burnout, right? Because there is no like oh, I shut off now and so many people will talk about like my mind stays on work and I can't think of anything else. And there are those little ways of training the brain just like we do toddlers for their bedtime routine, right?

00:58:52

It's saying I do this kind of work here. So for me, when I'm writing, I actually don't ever write in my office because I see clients in my office. I'll do other kinds of things or I might put together like a presentation or something. But writing has to be done somewhere else and I have to be in a comfy chair and usually somebody bringing me a beverage of coffee or something.

00:59:20

And I think that's the thing figuring out for yourself where do I work optimally in certain other areas of your business and then the other piece that you had talked about earlier, which is understanding that even not just where we work, but how we approach our work based on what kind of work it is. And I think people get caught up in like, oh, this works well for me and thinking it can be like the whole across the board. But like you're saying, if you're going to be in problem solving or having to do deep work or deep thinking, there's a certain kind of you need to have that space for that to happen. And then there's the other things where you're just kind of like checking off the boxes and those things can be kind of mixed up and you can kind of task switch easily. But I do think it's important for people to think about that where do I do my creative work?

01:00:14

Where do I do my business? I would say administrative CEO type tasky things and where do I do these other pieces? If you are somebody who provides some type of service, even if it's consultation, it's like that's you're in your work. You're not working on your business. Right.

01:00:37

You're in the business doing I just forgot what he called. See, now we're both doing that now. My brain the E Myth Revisited, where Stephen Gerber, I think it is he's talking know, he makes that distinction between working on your business and in your business. And I think that's where people need to get creative too. It's like figuring out how do you structure your time based on the type of things you're doing and also where are you doing those things?

01:01:03

Right? And also after that analysis, it's like, well, what can you bring someone else to do to just make it feel like you're not the only that your repercussions of how well you're pushing your business forward or how not well you're pushing your business forward, how that has repercussions to someone else. And sometimes it's that, like, I need to make payroll for that person rather than just thinking of just yourself and the ways that you can ride out the storm in case business isn't strong for one quarter. And how. You can make up for it the next quarter and just thinking like, but I need to keep this person still employed because they take care of those tasks, and I don't want to do those tasks because blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

01:02:00

Right? Yes. How do you leverage your motivations or values to keep yourself on your toes and being more consistent? Right. We are so good at all or nothing.

01:02:11

Like, we are so good at that. Okay, well, we are really far over and I thank you for staying with me. But I guess for anybody out there who's like, okay, I do this. I also am neurospicy or this is my flavor. They have the ADHD flavor.

01:02:30

Is there any either piece of advice or something that you've done in approach in your business and how you work that you think has been particularly helpful given the way your brain works. I think most importantly, it's whatever line of work, find the clients that you resonate best with. And I think everything kind of falls better into place than trying to fit a what's that phrase? Like round peg, square hole.

01:03:05

You don't need a specific client because they have a certain level of quote unquote prestige, if that's going to be just incredibly hard. And you can take maybe on two clients that you connect well with and their mission statement connects to what your business mission statement is. And you're just like, wow, we're working as colleagues and almost as friends, and there's this work moves so much faster and with so much more happiness and joy and fulfillment than like, oh, yeah, I'm making this much money with this company and I'm on pins and needles the entire time.

01:03:57

Pick your allies. Yeah, no, that's great. It's understanding the true cost of not working in alignment, I think, because when we're in alignment with our clients and with how our best way to work, like you said, there's such an ease to it and joy and I love that. And you don't have to keep telling yourself, like, don't be weird, don't be weird, don't be weird the normal way. Why is it so hard for you to do things the normal way?

01:04:25

Get past that sort of negative talk of the ADHD, negative talk of it's easy for other people to do it. Why isn't it easier for me? It's like build the ecosystem to be a supporter for you. And that really starts with the clients. I love it.

01:04:47

Well, thank you. Thank you so much for coming on and sharing your story. I know somebody's going to connect to it and especially, like I said, having for more than like, 14 years of working with clients, especially in Silicon Valley, lots of neurospicy people, not everybody has that thing where they deep dive the way you do. And I love it. I just love that we need people that do that and it's fun to see and somebody is going to be like, oh, I do that too.

01:05:18

I love it. So thank you. Where should people go if they would like to find out more information or connect become that clients of alignment with you? So my website is Mondomachine.com. That is one way that's on the more business side.

01:05:40

And LinkedIn, Instagram, all the cool places where the hip business people hang out, I don't even know where those are. Instagram and LinkedIn, obviously.

01:05:56

I love it. All right, thank you so much.

01:06:01

I love having these conversations where we get to see all the different flavors of neurodivergent people out there. If you want to connect with Edwin, all of his links will be in the show notes. If you enjoyed this episode, I'd be so grateful to you. If you could rate and. Review the podcast.

01:06:17

Wherever you listen to podcast, it helps people find the podcast and connect other easily distracted business owners to the content meant to help them stop struggling for success and also find acceptance and empowerment in their own narrow, spicy ways. With that, until the next episode, I encourage you to focus on what matters most to you.