ADHD Entrepreneurs: Design a Business Around Your Brain

Hello.

Hello.

Thank you for joining us for ND Out Loud. I have Michelle Bouchard here with me today, and she is a PGI certified coach and digital doula. So she has a co-creator program that helps people take their passions, lived experiences, and home skill sets and develop a natural for them. natural for them online offer with technology to automate and create all kinds of focus in their lives. I'm so happy to have you here with me today, Michelle.

Thank you very much for having me. It's an honor and a privilege.

So we're going to be talking about designing a business ecosystem and why it actually helps you live naturally and just creates and restores So tell me what that means.

Okay, so I am undiagnosed, but I am definitely ADHD, and I have a daughter who's ADHD, and I have a son who is nonverbal on the spectrum and self-injurious. And I have basically— we've, we've had to, as we do, craft our lives in ways that can accommodate all of those pieces. Great. And I had, if you mind, I'll give you a little bit of backstory, like why I do, and that might explain things. I'm a biologist by formal training. My mom is a nature— was a nature artist before she passed. And so, yeah, there's nature and I love nature and I love all things sort of system. So when I think of business systems and I think of natural systems, the part that I love about working as a digital doula and about what I've crafted to be able to manage my family's needs is that it's not a monoculture. Like, in, in right now in nature, we've got agriculture that kind of like monocrops everything, and it's not very biodiverse. And I think business is sort of like that too. And so business has created these, you know, large companies. And what we need to diversify business and bring it on home is to really listen to who we are individually and craft individual offers that fit around our lives so that we can live our soul's purpose. And I learned that from my son. So it sort of like comes full circle because everybody has a gift inside them. The school system, the medical system, all the systems didn't seem to really appreciate that he had a gift inside of him because they couldn't see it, they couldn't hear it. But I knew it was in there. And in the same way, I work with business people who are interested in doing online business to be able to craft And speak what their purpose and what their online business is. Just the way he has gifts inside of him, I think everybody has a gift inside of them. And what I do is I help people bring their gifts out and get it online so that they can earn money in a way that's natural for them.

So I think this is so cool. And this is something that we actually talk about a lot around here, is doing things the way that work for your brain. We have to do things the way that work for ourselves, which is why she's perfect to have on here and be talking about this. So when you're working with somebody who's chronically Overwhelmed, on the verge of burnout, and they're like, say, a coach or a VA or something. What's one of the first things that you walk through with them to help get them out of that overwhelmed burnout space?

Yeah, well, and typically what I find is there's people— there's 2 kinds of people that I work with. One who have never had— never taken any of their interests or passion or anything and done anything online. Like, they just had never thought that they would want to do anything with that, and they're a little worried about the tech. So I help people with that. But for the people who have done it and maybe are a coach and maybe are burnt out, what they're facing is like, you know what you're doing to serve the world and make it better. You're connected with a bunch of clients, but you're topping out. Like, you can't keep up, right? Like, you want to help the clients, but then you have to do the paperwork and you go to do the paperwork and then you lose the client's cash. And so you have to— there's this whole doing the work and then there's all the business infrastructure around doing the work. And so what, and some people like that and some people don't like that. And so what I do is I listen to, you know, what you do, how you do it, who you do it for. And we go through an offer ecosystem assessment and we assess what it is that you do, how you do it, and what you need technologically to be able to fill in the parts that you hate so you can play at the things you love. And so basically I listen to that and then I say, okay, these are the things you have. And everybody's business is unique. You know, some people like to do podcasts, some people don't like to do podcasts, some people like to have online courses, some people like to have communities. You know, it just, it depends on what you're selling and who you wanna reach and how you like to do things. So after I've listened to you, I say, okay, well you'll need one of these, one of these, one of these. And I custom build with you the technology to support and automate So like if you love talking with people and having a sales call and you do a really good job of like landing people into your program and then you forget to send them a contract and you don't have any, you know, like follow-up or nurturing, or you start to talk with someone about it and then you forget, the system, the technology will automate a lot of those pieces for you. So then I build out all the things that, you know, like Yeah, if you magically, you know, like let's say you get a client, yay. When you hit the button, then all of the things that happen happen and your business doesn't fail because you're not holding everything and you're burnt out. So it helps alleviate paperwork, it helps attract clients, it helps you be more consistent in your social media posting. It's whatever, wherever you are struggling, you can design the technology to come in and support your business. And then you can design it the way that you like to see it.

That's amazing. Now, when you are neurodivergent, I'm gonna tell you, this is the person you need on your side if you're just struggling with all of these things. And why do I know that she's the person you need on your side? I used to do what she does now. I used to do this. I don't anymore. And it is such an amazing thing to have so many things automated in your business to not have to do them yourself. And it takes so much pressure off of you, but What is one of the biggest complaints, excuses that you hear from business owners when they first come to you?

Either I have too many different softwares that I have to sign in for. I have to have Mailchimp, I have to have Kajabi, I have to have Eventbrite, I have to have all of the pieces of software. And it's like, okay, and then I got all my passwords and everything like that. And it's just like, and they all cost money and it's adding up and it just makes it overwhelming and confusing. And so I harm harmonize all of that into a single place so that you've got all of the contacts for all of your business all in one space with your website and your funnels and your courses, and they're all interlinked. So then you can set it up so if someone signs up for your newsletter, they automatically get, oh, they're on the newsletter list, and they automatically get, oh, they might need to know about my course. Oh, they've received the course, now I'm going to send them the information about this. And so you can just set it up so that you're nurturing Your clients through your service, and you can provide them the transformation that's your gift that you're here to give them.

And not work on all the stupid BS in the background and be stuck in admin hell. Sucks.

And I need that myself. And so I love to enable people in what really lights me up is that once they're out there, giving their gifts and shining in the world for who they actually are, it makes everybody's life better. So if I can help people build that, then they get to be who they best are, and that makes me happy.

So basically what it comes down to is you take all of the complicated things that we get stuck on the rabbit trails for as business owners that we can't decide what's the perfect program. But I'm going to remind you, you've heard me say this before, there is no such thing as the perfect program. Or the perfect whatever. There is no such thing. But you help them what works best for them, something they're going to use, something they're going to enjoy using, and make sure it all works for them so they don't have to do the work.

Yeah. And really, yeah, there is no ever silver bullet. But what the important thing to me is and why I talk about naturalness is that it has to be built around you. So you can either build it yourself and that takes a buttload of time and a whole bunch of frustration and adds to the admin piece. Or, you know, you can hire, you know, a $30,000 to $50,000 a year marketing agency to build all the things and do all the stuff, and then you still can't actually, like, manage it yourself. And so I just saw that there was this place in the middle where it's like, okay, if I can build you the car and hand you the keys, you can drive. You're smart. But, and we get everything set up, so it should be working. And then if you need tweaks or maintenance or upgrades, or you want to change this out for that, we can, we can work on that later, but you have everything that you need. And really, through this, I went through this process over, oh, 5 years learning, oh, okay, if I want to do this, I have to have that. If I want to do this, I have to have that. And really, it took so long. I'm just interested in saving people the time and the money that it takes to go for that process. So what took me 5 years, I now have down to like a 3-month process where we, at the end of it, you have all of your tech built. You have your audience built, your socials are coordinated, you have content laid out, and everything is working for you and you're working on what you want to work on. So that's— and I do this because here's my why. So how did I get into this? Digital doula is not something I ever thought I'd say. I'm a science geek by formal training, and I basically never thought that I would do anything like this. And I hate sales, or at least I thought I did until I learned that Until someone transacts with you with money. You can't serve someone unless they honor you too.

Mm-hmm.

So I never thought I would get into this, but what brought this up for me is I was actually helping my son and I was coordinating his caregivers and I had to do that because the agencies weren't helping him. And then I realized, oh, other parents needed this too. And so I started helping other families. So at one point I ran a team of like 8 people helping 15 families in my local area. Area, you know, visit with respite and homeschool delivery because we needed to do our homeschool naturally too because the school system just isn't built for us. And so when, when I did that, it really worked and it worked for the parents, it worked for the kids, it worked for the workers, but it as a business, it wasn't working. But I am adamant that it should not be easier to order a pizza than it is to get help For, you know, us neurodivergent folks. And I said, no, there has to be a way to make enough money to subsidize and keep this respite and homeschool delivery service. So I went on a mama bear, you know, hunt and I tried all the things, MLMs and crypto and stocks and all the things. And I just realized what's natural for me and is to help people find what's natural for them. So I, I landed up in digital marketing and, and this was what I created. So when I do the digital marketing with you, it's actually a social purpose enterprise that subsidizes respite and homeschool for neurodivergent families.

Thank you for bringing that up, because that was my next question is, why do you do this? So her— what she does is really amazing. So if you want to help, hire her, because then your business will get the help it needs and you can help her.

We love—

when you're neurodivergent, we love to help each other and jump in and be the person that's providing that support. So If you were going to tell any mom, woman, mom that was in the place that you were 10 years ago, 5 years ago with your kids and just frustrated and overwhelmed and needing to start your own business because you don't have a choice, you can't go have a day job, you can't be gone all day, you have all of these things you've got to do. What would you tell them right now? What would you go back and tell yourself?

I would say, you know, that it's easier than you think. To honor yourself and not get lost in the caregiver burnout, earn income by doing something maybe that people come and talk with you about anyway, or that you really love to do and you hyperfocus on, or that, you know, you just have a big skill set. Maybe you've— maybe you had to quit your job after doing, you know, 10, 15, 20 years of a particular job and you just like really know how to do it and, and you don't want that skill set to have been wasted and you can take Those passion life lessons, something you've been through. Maybe you survived cancer. Maybe you, you know, you figured something out, how to do something really well, and you just want to share that with people, but you don't know how to turn it into a business. You don't have to be afraid of the technology. You don't have to be afraid of, you know, sales. You don't have to be afraid of having an online presence and developing something that would help your family and bring in more income while you take care of the important things, which you always do first. You don't have to choose one or the other. You can have both. That's what I'd say.

A lesson I think all of us needed. I also have an autistic son, and when he was young, it was all about— I was giving and doing for everyone but myself and didn't have what I needed. And what you're giving them is making the things that they've got to do easier so that they can have what they need.

Yeah. Yeah. And you're worth the investment in that, and it actually saves you in the long run. Because you don't have to not earn income. You don't have to pay out constantly. You can start earning. And we kind of get stuck in our camps. And one of the things I do the tech building, but when I do my program, I also work with mindset and also work with— that's why I mentioned that I'm a Proctor Gallagher Institute life coach, because a lot of the times it's how we're thinking. And the success of business is all, you know, 80% of it is, you know, between the ears of the business owner. So it's really important that you understand how you work, what your thought paradigms are, how you can shift into a positive mode, and then get the skills and, you know, theory understanding, and then have the technical concrete tools. So all of those pieces, I, I don't just do, oh, I'll build you a website. That's great. Anybody can do that. But is it customized to you? Is it advancing what you want and how you want to show up in the world? Is it natural in the sense that it fits your tendencies as a business owner, like what you gravitate to in your day and when you can do things? Is it logistically going to actually produce something and be of business value? Like, those are all of the pieces that we have to have together to make something. It's not just sort of like another Rather sell these products or do these things. If you're doing something that is actually from you and you're birthing— that's why I say it's a digital doula. We're birthing something of you into the world and creating a digital legacy that you can pass down as a business, then it needs to be done carefully and think about all these acts at all of these angles, because then it's authentically yours and nobody— we don't need to One thing I am also adamant about, we don't need to fit in other people's boxes. We can, we can, you know, construct our own box. And that's what I love about the flexibility of the software that I use to build the box that you want to see built and what fits you. And so if you stretch this way, you're not constrained, right? Like, if you naturally lean this way, you know, why would you want something? Why would you want to build yourself a business that cuts you off. You need to build your business around your natural self.

I love that. Thank you so much for being here and for sharing with us. So tell me what you have coming up. What's going on in your digital world? What do you got going on?

Oh, my gosh. Well, firstly, I would love to invite anybody who wants to, if you're just kind of like, oh, that sounds interesting, but I'm not sure, come join my free Facebook group, Natural Entrepreneur. So you can look that up. Drop comments or, you know, give you the links. If you've never done anything before, I have an 8-week program that can take you from, I have no idea what I would wanna do, to your first sale. And then I have my 3-month, like my 12-week program that is sort of like, I've been doing it for a bit, but I'm getting really overwhelmed and there's so much to do. I just need this simpler and less costly and more effective and completed. And that's where we really do the offer ecosystem. You know, people can sign up for an offer ecosystem assessment. I'll sit down for them an hour, give them my best recommendations for free, and then if they want to proceed, they can come into my 12-week program and we will build out that thing.

That's amazing. So if you want to check her out, we will drop her links below. She is awesome. I have enjoyed talking to her. This is the second time I've got to talk to her, so I've enjoyed talking to her and she's part of my ecosystem now. So if you want to reach out, reach out. All of her links are below. If you have any questions at any time, always reach out to us. We can connect you as well to make it easy, especially if you are one of my indie folks has a lot of anxiety at reaching out to somebody, just DM me if you're comfortable with me. DM me and I will connect you to Michelle. She is amazing and she can absolutely help you create a business that's just easier and less overwhelming.

And thank you, Danielle, for everything that you do, because it makes a difference when there's a voice out there that understands us and that is willing to support and connect the way that you do. So I just wanna honor you for that. And thank you. And thank you for the opportunity. Yeah. And, and I'm really excited that, you know, like hopefully this will help and we can, you know, even get some more burnout, caregiver burnout taken care of by, you know, doing business together.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. Have an amazing day, everyone. If you have questions, again, ask below.