ILM Meetup | Dr. Ned Hallowell

That's like a rock star name. Billy, are you there? He's muted with a name like that. We need to give him a little shine, I think. Schwa. You know what? We wouldn't have been able to start without you, my friend.

How are you? I'm good, Tim. How you doing?

Feeling and looking good. Thank you for asking.

Hi, Gina. Hi, Francine. Hi, Eunice. Hi, Ryan. Hi, everybody.

There we go.

Oh, you're well, representing my friend.

Absolutely, absolutely. How are you doing, Tim?

So good. All right, we're going to have a wonderful session. We're starting in 12 minutes. We've got 12 minutes. This is going to be great. So shua. Let me ask you a question, my friend.

Yes, sir.

You come to each of these. I love marketing meetups. We don't do any of them without you. We rely on you. We know you're going to be here. So why. Why do you come to these?

Other than Gina's smile? No, in all seriousness.

But I.

I love what I'm learning from you guys. It's so informative and the community spirit, you could feel it here. I'm also aspiring to be a member of Genius Networking in full. You know, the 25k to 100k. So I have to be. I'm making a commitment to be here. I've been at it for the last, you know, I don't know if you could see this. It doesn't show as much.

Yes, I see a little bit the luggage tag like Ben Harden has.

Yes, that's right. So I'm working towards becoming, you know, a full fledged member of Genius Network. And I just feel the community, it's there, you know, it helps me grow, it expands my thinking, and I'm committed to lifelong learning. So I get that here.

Very good. It's a lot of smart people that show up each month.

I mean, you. You're the first, you know, and you bring on all the smart people you introduce.

So let me just take one arbitrarily. Let me see all the professors here. Professor Russ Hanish. How are you, Russell?

Very good. How about yourself?

Good.

You know, you're looking good today. I don't know what it is. Do you have some sort of like something a filter on your camera or something?

No, I turned the filter off.

So Russ and Joshua Gold, here's a couple of elf coaching members. So let's get in a word, because Schwa looked at elf coaching once upon a time and he was going, oh, I want to join that group. I want to join that. So what do you like Professor Hanish about the ELF coaching program.

You know, it is just one of the greatest groups of people. There's so much support there. I recently wrote a consumer guide and Timothy brought it to the group and the entire group critiqued it. For me, it's the most valuable thing in my life right now. Shua and I highly encourage you, join, join. I'd like you there because I want to be in a room full of people smarter than me.

You know what, it's better than being in the room where you're the smartest person in the room, right? I have a feeling, professor, there's a few rooms you've entered where you're the smartest person in the room.

That's why we need Shua to join us.

That's right. That's right. Well, good to see you there, Russ. Always a pleasure. Joshua Gold. Did you go away, Joshua? He was showing his face and then all of a sudden he was gone anywhere. Hey, let's hear from a few of you. Jg, jg, unmute yourself, would you? Where are you joining us from?

I'm in the Big Apple, Good old New York City, visiting as usual. I'm a strategic coach guy for many, many years. I follow Joe Polish and the Genius network and everything he posts. So, you know, this is one of those things. It's like, oh my God, this is a good one. So check it out.

This is, this is going to be fantastic. What does the JG stand for?

Jonathan Gasman.

Jonathan Gassman. What a cool name. So do you live in New York City? Did he? Oh, he froze up on us.

Yep.

I live in the Big Apple. I'm back, I'm back, I'm back.

Yep.

Okay, good work. In the Big Apple. I run a third generation hundred year old financial planning and tax advisory firm in the Big Apple and global clients and you know, love what I do. It's a great business, great opportunity to kind of help people.

Yep. Good for you. JG or Jonathan. You know, I used to, I was vice president of Hair Club for Men and we were corporate headquarters. Were corporate headquarters were Madison and 34th. You've probably passed there once or twice, haven't you?

Yeah, I'm on. So our main office is Madison and 40th. So literally kind of a hop, skip and a jump.

Yeah.

Fantastic. Well, it's good to meet you. You know what I always say to strategic coach members is I ask them the question, where does Dan Sullivan go for connection, collaboration and contribution? The brilliant Dan Sullivan, Just for the last 10 years. It's been Genius Network and then the 100k group. I think that's the best endorsement ever for Genius Network.

Absolutely.

Russ, did you have a comment?

Genius Network is where Dan goes also. Like, where does Joe go? Where does Dean go? They go to strategic coach.

Yep. So it's a lot of smart people in those rooms for sure. Jim Cruzan.

Hey, Tim.

I haven't seen you for a minute. How are you doing?

Doing fine, thanks.

Good. You're looking well.

So do you.

Thank you. Everyone, we're starting in seven minutes. Jim, remind me where you're joining us from. I've got a guess, but I don't remember. Go ahead.

It's Michigan, about an hour northwest of Detroit.

Okay. I was going to guess close to that, but not Michigan. Yeah, yeah. Always, always good to see you.

Good to be seen.

Deborah Louise, tell us where you're calling in from, would you?

I'm in Pasadena, California.

Oh, nice.

Yeah.

I know an accent. Are you originally from New Orleans?

Nope. I'm originally from Kansas.

Oh, okay.

But I didn't like that dialect from the beginning, so I always tried to have a different dialect.

Well, we love it. Welcome. Glad you're here. Who else do I. Cosmo Boyd. I see your name. I saw your face for a minute. Genius Network member Cosmo Boyd. How are you doing, Cosmo?

I'm doing great. I'm here. I don't like to show my face because, you know, when you're as ugly as I am, it scares people.

You know, you're not a bad looking guy. You're not a bad looking guy. And if we had time, Cosmo, I'd ask you to tell the story about how Cosmo Kramer on the Seinfeld show was named after you.

That's. That's the true story.

It's a true story. Now we're gonna have to have Cosmo as a guest one of these days so we can talk more about that. How are you, Cosmo?

I'm great. I'm having a good time. I was trying to think of. You know, I already thought of telling Deborah she's not in Kansas anymore. He's probably heard that before. But, you know, I was trying to think of some exotic place to be from. But I'm just in Atlanta, Georgia, where we're all shooting each other on a regular basis.

I should have looked you up. I was in Atlanta a few weeks ago, Cosmo. I didn't even.

Yeah, you should have looked me up.

Yeah, I was at Emory University for a couple of days.

Yeah, I know Emory well, And yeah, I'm not. I don't live close to it, but I live in the vicinity. And I know we're all about it.

Very good. Well, it's good to see you. And let's see here. I just saw John Cecky. How are you, sir?

Just finished up a Bible study studying.

About Exodus and plagues.

Bridge remained to this situation based on ADD and the like. Tried explaining ADD to my wife, and I said, all entrepreneurs have it. She thought that's why she teaches yoga. Good to see you, too, Eunice.

And Ryan Crownholm. Oh, my gosh, Ryan, you're in a house. You're in, like, a place that's not a temporary facility. How are you, Ryan?

Real wall.

It's pretty sweet, huh?

Wow.

So Ryan moved to Colorado and while his house or something was being constructed, Right, Ryan?

That's right.

Like you were in a motor home.

Yep.

Ryan is a Genius Network member, so every month he joins us in his motorhome. Now look at.

Let's see.

And there's the home.

Nice.

Well, we're happy that you finally were able to step up into a house.

Good to be here.

You know what? I think it's a good testimonial, Ryan. When I joined Genius Network, I was living in a trailer.

That's right.

Being part of Genius Network, I now have a mansion.

This will be my selling point for sure.

All right. Oh, we'll see you soon. We have a Genius Network meeting in two weeks. Then I'll talk about the annual event in just a minute. John Webble. How are you, sir?

I'm good. I'm good. How is everybody?

We're all good. We're all good.

It's so nice to see everyone.

I'll see you next week at that.

Genius Network meeting if you're going to be there.

We've got that coming up. We're going to start, everyone, in two minutes. And I will have the opportunity of introducing our guest. I think I saw Dean Jackson here a few minutes ago, so I think we're in good. We're in good hands. Let's see here. Joshua Golds. You want to say hello? Tell us where you're joining us from?

Charleston, South Carolina.

I just got off a phone call with the Ben Hardy program that I'm involved in.

So Ben Hardy's a pretty cool guy, wouldn't you say?

Yeah, I would say he's wrote a few good books.

I mean, he's not like you, right?

He doesn't write books like you do.

He does not write.

No.

And he doesn't paint.

Nor is he as good looking as you are.

He writes bestsellers and he's much better looking. So anyway, thank you. I'll let you judge. Hey, I'll let you. Let's go to Kelly. I think that Kelly. Julia. How are you? Kelly?

Hey. I'm good, thank you. Nice to see you again, Timothy. It's been a long time.

It's been a while. Where the heck have you been?

Well, you know, I tried to join the ELF program, but Funani didn't do. So I'm here now.

Okay, good. It's always good to see you, John Dalton. You get the last word before we officially start. How are you doing?

I'm good. I'm just trying to figure out ADHD, so I'm happy to be here.

So, John, on November 4th and 5th, where are you going to be?

I think I'll be in Arizona at the Genius Network meeting. But actually I haven't gotten confirmation back of what, how much is in person.

Yeah, we'll let you know. Most will be virtual all over the world. Easily joined before we start in one minute. So, Dean Jackson, you recognize this shirt, do you not? I hope Dean's out there somewhere. Savannah Bananas. Remember Jesse Cole? He was a guest in the I Love Marketing meetup about three months ago. And so I bought the shirt Savannah Banana and the customer service is just remarkable. But he was a guest couple months ago. He's the guy who has this incredible company growing like crazy. He's actually going to be one of the speakers. We've confirmed him as a speaker at the annual event. So November 4th and 5th, Jesse Cole is going to join us. So if any of you, I can't imagine any of you not registering yet for the annual event, but if you have not, you can go to geniusnetwork.com and at the top of the page there's a link. It says annual event and you can go right there. Jesse Cole is going to be speaking. Our guest today, Ned Hallowell, is going to be speaking. And there's all sorts of remarkable things that are going to be going on. So let's get started, shall we? Eunice, do I have the thumbs up?

Okay.

So welcome everyone. I am Timothy Paulson. I worked with Joe Polish for 20 years. Joe and I both had hair back then. It was remarkable. But on behalf of Joe Polish and Dean Jackson, they are the co hosts for I Love Marketing meetups. We welcome you and the team at Genius Network. We welcome you to this remarkable and amazing session. There's a lot of people Here, they want to hear what this guest has to say. So before I turn it over to Dean Jackson, I'm going to go ahead and introduce you to our guest today. So his name is Edward. He's known as Ned Hallowell, M.D. he's a board certified child and adult psychiatrist and world authority on adhd, which is familiar to a lot of entrepreneurs, isn't it? He's a graduate of Harvard College and Tulane Medical School and was a Harvard Medical School faculty member for 21 years. He's the founder of the Hallowell ADHD Centers in Boston, Metro west, New York City, San Francisco, Palo Alto and Seattle. Now he spent the last four decades helping thousands of adults and children live happy and productive lives through his strength based approach to neurodiversity and has ADHD and dyslexia himself. Dr. Hallowell is a New York Times best selling authority. He's written 20 books on multiple psychological topics. The groundbreaking Distraction series, which began with Driven to Distraction, which was co authored by Dr. John Rady in 1994 that sparked a revolution in understanding of ADHD. Now, as the host of the twice weekly distraction podcast, Dr. Hallowell explores with guests how to better connect with others and how each of us can implement strategies that can turn modern problems into newfound strengths. He is also sought after as an international speaker and he has presented to thousands on topics including the strengths of adhd, strategies on handling fast paced life, parenting and a range of other pertinent family and health issues. So he's been featured on, listen to this. 20, 20, 60 Minutes, Oprah, PBS, CNN, the Today Show, Dateline, Good Morning America, the New York Times, USA Today, Newsweek, Time Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe and many more. But I think most impressive is he is going to be one of the featured speakers at the upcoming Genius Network annual event November 4th and 5th. I don't think it gets any better than that for prestige. Right? So Dr. Hallowell, he lives in Boston with his wife sue and they have three children. They're named Lucy, Jack and Tucker. So, Dean Jackson, Dr. Hallowell, welcome to I love marketing.

Thank you so much. Thank you so much. I love your enthusiasm and you are very handsome. I agree.

Thank you. Can I quote you on that on the back?

Absolutely. Okay.

I made it Right on time, Dean.

Right on time. We had our power flashed off. I was on 10 minutes ago. Yeah, you were. Yeah. Sorry, I've been texting with Eunice, but here I am.

I love your hat.

Thank you. Always reminder to be the cow.

That'S it.

So, Timothy.

Yes, sir.

You guys hear me? Okay, great.

Yes.

So I literally just got.

You're good. So I did the introduction.

What's that?

So I did the introduction. So you're already.

We're going.

Okay.

This is perfect.

We're going to join in. In the program. Already in. How do they say it?

Your program already in progress.

Here we go.

Dr. Ned, I'm super excited to get to have this. I'm going to slide you up here to the top so I can look right at you as I'm looking at my camera here. I always love talking with you. This is the first time we've done this by Zoom.

I know.

Yeah.

I've been living. It's changed the world of psychiatry, that's for sure. You know, telepsychiatry is here to stay. And it's a big upgrade in many ways because people can, you know, people who wanted. Who lived in New York wanted to see me, that you were, you know, in Wyoming. Now it can be done.

Yes. Fantastic. You got a whole new world of opportunity for you.

Yeah. Yeah.

You know, I was. As I think about our time today, I want. I look at it that way. What? I look at myself as kind of an advocate for all of our people, as I'm one of them. Our people, meaning entrepreneurs with ADD proudly, who are making their way in the world here. And as I was thinking that, I realized that you're one of our people, too. And you may be if I think of myself as an ambassador of our people.

You.

Beyond all odds. You're one of our people with adhd, but also with dyslexia, who has not only managed to get by in life, but you have managed somehow to summit the academic pentathlon of getting to the top of a very demanding field in medicine. And on top of that, a specialty in medicine that allows you to be not just a doctor, but a psychiatrist. All things that require amazing focus and ability to read and comprehend. So you're living proof of you figured something out here. So it was just dawned on me as I was thinking about your accomplishment here.

Well, and Dean, honestly, I'm small potatoes compared to some of the people who have these conditions. You know, it's just a myth that ADHD and dyslexia are disorders. They can be disorders, don't get me wrong. They can ruin your life if you don't know what's going on with them. The prison population is full of people and the unemployed and the addicted, but. But so are the halls of the gifted. And the supreme entrepreneurs. Most entrepreneurs have this, and I often think we should rename it the Entrepreneur's Trait. And I'll just name a couple, just so you be more specific. David Neeleman, who's become a friend of mine, he founded JetBlue Airlines, and he's the guy who invented the electronic ticket. And typical add, it just came to him out of nowhere. And, and it is ironic that it's someone who has ADD who thinks of a way for us to go to the airport and not have to remember to bring our ticket.

Exactly.

And, and he also, because, you know, we add years, we hate boredom. He came up with the idea of putting televisions in the seat in front of you so when you're on an airplane, you don't, you don't get bored. You know, those are. And then, you know, of course, Branson famously has ADD and goes to outer space. And it's not just men, women. The woman who runs Indigo Books, Heather Reisman up in Canada, big time add. And I'll add one more just because it's so appropriate to our time. The man who invented the polymerase chain reaction, the PCR test that we're all getting our Covid tested, Kerry Mullis, won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for, for inventing that. He's since passed away, but he was hugely add. Very eccentric and, but obviously gifted. So, you know, it, it in what my life's mission is to free people from the, the stigma, shame, and ignorance. And I just, it just, it was so appropriate. I'm just going to read you, if I might, an email I got this morning. I gave a talk this morning to a group of doctors, and the man who organized it sent me this email and I just. So this is today. He says I was the rambunctious child who got straight A's without studying or ever paying attention. My parents would say he's really smart, but he's all over the place. I was the kid who failed every time standardized testing, was placed in remedial classes in middle and high school, but then moved up to the advanced classes in the first week of school. I was the freshman engineering student who became truly despondent after his first failed exam, convinced that he was stupid and incapable of earning an engineering degree. And then I learned about adhd, read several of your books, and realized that I was probably not a stupid imposter posing as a smart person after all. Well, now this guy is a resident in surgery and he's got prizes for his engineering projects and he's going to Change the world. But had he not learned about adhd, he was ready to cast himself onto the slag heap, which is what happens. I mean, all of you guys in Genius Network are shining examples of how to turn it into gold. But unfortunately, you're a minority. The majority of people who have this condition still struggle, and sometimes extremely so. And it's largely because the public is still ignorant as to what this thing is. They think it's hyperactive little boys who are overturning tables in classrooms. And there's so much, so much more to it than that. I mean, it is. And the notion of it being called a deficit disorder is so misleading. We don't have a deficit of attention. We have an abundance of attention. Our challenge is to control it. You know, in the. One of my favorite analogies, it's like we've got a Ferrari engine for a brain. We've got this incredibly powerful imagination that just never stops. It's constantly churning up new ideas, new projects, new thoughts, new images, and it's just, just, just incredibly powerful mind. But with the Ferrari engine for a brain, we've also got bicycle brakes. We don't have the braking power to slow it down, to come in for a landing, to stop and to focus and so, and so, but, but I'm a brake specialist and. And you know, once you get some control, then the sky's the limit. And you said something.

You and I and Joe were talking a little while ago and you had said something new that. I hadn't heard you say that, because I've heard you talk about the idea of the Ferrari engine with the bicycle brakes and I get that, but you were likening the, the tools that you need, the, the learnings or the approaches to this as harnessing, like the hydro power plant. Harnessing the power of a waterfall.

Yes.

The waterfall is just untapped potential until you put a hydro converting mechanism in place to turn it into power. Can you say more about that? Because that was. I got that and I want to explore that a little bit because it's, I think, a very, like, profound unlock for me. I'll share with you what I've done since you shared it, but I want to hear you expand.

Good. Yeah. I add. Think of Niagara Falls.

Yes.

It's just a lot of noise and mist. I mean, Titanic noise and mist, you know, incredible noise and mist. But when you come right down to it, it's just a lot of noise and mist and water. Well, when you build a hydroelectric plant, then you can light up the state of New York.

Yes.

You captivate the power of the, of Niagara Falls.

Yeah.

By building a hydroelectric plant. And then, and then you light up the state of New York. And I'm a hydroelectric plant contractor, you know, and so my job is to help people find their hydroelectric plant. And it really is true. We, most of us have, you know, our buddy Dan Sullivan calls it your unique ability. We have something that we can turn into power, electricity, value. And a lot of people are stuck because they haven't found their hydroelectric plant, you know, and they're stuck doing something they're not meant to do. And, you know, I say, don't give up. My gosh, we just got to find your hydroelectric plant, your place to plug in so that all this, all these ideas and energy and stuff you've got going on can become. Can become productive.

So here's where this has gone for me since we had that conversation, because I look at that, it's such an elegant visual, even if I've never seen the inner workings of a hydro plant. But I know that there's a series of gears and mechanisms in place, that the water actually moves things into motion that carries the energy into somewhere that distributes it.

Right.

It's captured and distributed through all these. Leverage is really what does that. Right. And I look back, we all know early on that we're, that we're different as, as entrepreneurs. We don't know before we know the words aed. We're being accused of underperforming or we're being, you know, like one of your number one traits is unexplained underperformance. Exactly. If I looked at my, my mother past, maybe almost eight years ago now, and I got the report cards that she had been storing away, you know, from my middle, from my elementary school and middle school, and I remember seeing them then, but I remember looking at them now. The summary statement that sums it all up for me was dean is able to achieve excellent results with what seems like little effort. Imagine if he applied himself. That's the rallying cry that people who have. That can only be people who have figured out their rules and mechanisms for doing things that seem so impossible to us that what they're really saying is, if you were like me, you would be able to do. Right. You need to apply yourself and work harder.

Right. Right.

And I, I've been thinking about this, that I wonder if there's a loophole, a workaround in this, because when we're saying apply yourself, what they're really saying is you need to work harder is you need to buckle down, buster, you know, like, get control of yourself and do these things. But I'm wondering, I said this to Dan Sullivan. We had a great conversation about it. That is the freedom maybe in that separation of yourself and separating it to your self and yourself being your unique way of doing things that. Imagine if you applied your self, your unique way of doing things, not just worked harder like everybody else contributes. And that's where I think that when, if I can surround myself with gears and levers and funnels that create my. Surround myself with who's, as we've been calling them in the who, not how idea of thinking, surrounding ourselves with support system that can take our ideas and take them out into the, the execution realm. Pretty exciting.

Oh, totally exciting. And it, and it is, you know, I have nothing against the work ethic. Everything gets better with hard work, but it is not the cure all. And telling someone with add, which is what these. Where kids get all day night, all day long, and all night long telling kids, or an adult for that matter, to try harder.

Right.

It's about as helpful as telling someone who's nearsighted to squint harder. You know, it misses the basic point.

Yes.

There's a better way, a smarter way.

Yeah.

You know, it's one thing to work hard. Maybe it's even better to work smart and to find your, your hydroelectric plant to build your. I mean, like, you're. One of your brilliant insights. Is this whiskers versus cheese, More cheese. That probably came to you in a few seconds.

Yeah.

And yet. And the power of that concept, I, I was, I think about it now often, and, and when someone's pitching me something and I think, God, too much whiskers. You know, I mean, right. You know, and, and you know, you know, you don't understand. You know, I want cheese, I don't want whiskers. And you know, that didn't come from your working hard, right? Sit down and say, I've got to come up with a brilliant idea. I'm going to really work hard to come up with this brilliant idea. You know, the brilliant ideas pop. You know, and one of our, one of our qualities that's considered pathological, it's part of the diagnostic manual, is impulsivity. Well, what is creativity but impulsivity? Gone. Right. You know, you're coming up with that insight that was impulsive. It was outside the box. It was not. You weren't following directions. You were, you know, you were off, you know, thinking, daydreaming and impulsively so if anything, we. We should not work that hard, because when we're drilling down and working hard, we're often excluding that part of our mind that really does contribute unique stuff like this. That insight you had.

And that insight probably came to me while I was daydreaming and I was supposed to be working hard on.

Exactly, exactly, exactly, exactly.

That's exactly right.

You know, the. The trick is you. Of course, we don't want to encourage our kids or our employees to goof off, but maybe we do. You know, goofing off, depending what you're doing. When you're goofing off is where new ideas come from. Mm. You know, and we just were so guilt tripped, into feeling ashamed if we're not, you know, doing something that we've been told to do. But the world is improved not by people who are doing what they're told to do, but by people who are not doing what they're told to do, who are going off on the path less traveled. I'll tell you a quick antidote, then I'll shut up, because I want you to talk. But some years ago, I was. I was consulting to the Harvard Chemistry Department because they had. They had a suicide there. And one of the things I learned, the Harvard Chemistry is maybe the best department in the world. And they. They have five Nobel Prize winners on the faculty. So they get every year applicants from around the world to come to that department and be a postdoc or a grad student. And every year they arrive in Cambridge and the mandate is go into the lab and discover new knowledge. Well, one group runs into the lab, so excited to have all the resources of Harvard at their disposal. They're ready to blow up the building, whatever. The other group freezes up. They say, no, you've got to tell me what to do. I'll do whatever you want. I'll wash your test tubes, I'll grade your papers. I'll stay up all night and watch your lab hum. Those are the people who lost the capacity to innovate, to initiate, to dream, to play, to innovate. And they got really good at doing exactly what they're told to do. But their imagination got castrated. They lost their unique ability. They lost their. They're never going to win a Nobel Prize, you know, because they're never going to go outside the box. And that's why we should really take pride in, In. In what we've got and not. Not feel, you know, that we just need to work harder.

I think in every. In every role, there's that different, that sort of distinction? Because when you're describing that, I was thinking about how people, as entrepreneurs, we often will hire an assistant and the two different types of assistance without really knowing it, are people who, you give them an idea or you give them something that you is kind of a mess and you want them to take it on and organize it and turn it in to something. And for some people, that's what they love. They thrive on taking it and making it organized and turning it into a system. But then they don't want to continue to run that system.

Yes.

Or you get the other side of that where if you hand them a mess like that, they get this deer in the headlights look and they don't know what to do unless you tell them what needs to run. And so that was a big distinction for me, understanding whether people are process oriented, process managers, meaning they need to follow checklists or project oriented, where they need to make checklists but not follow them. And so I think that there's. It sounds like if I put this under this category of you call it unwrapping the gifts of your entrepreneurial mind, that is so much of that self discovery, self awareness of understanding who you are and what your. Your mode is. Is that kind of basecamp one in your mind or how do you start to. Absolutely.

I mean, you know, I think it's like marry the right person and find the right job. Make sure you're in a situation that favors your particular abilities to. To flourish and come out as opposed to being in a situation that does the opposite. A lot of folks with ADD are stuck in humdrum jobs and they're not doing well. It's not because they lack ambition or talent. They're just plugged into the wrong outlet. And the same thing with relationships. If you're with someone who is scolding and trying to change you into being Joe Normal. And I've seen people in relationships like this that go on and on and on, and it's just horrible. We're never going to be Joe or Jill normal. We're just not. And we got to be with someone who encourages to be Dean or Ned, you know, or Eunice or whoever. And then play, you see, that's the key word, play. And people think of play as being trivial or superficial. No, it's not. My definition of play is anything that engages your imagination. I hope we're all playing together right now. Play is the highest activity of the human mind, in my opinion. So you want to encourage that. Now, play can be Work like when I'm writing a book. I've written 21 books. When I'm writing a book, I'm at play. But it's disciplined, difficult play, but it's still play because I don't know where I'm going, I don't know what's coming next. And I'm innovating constantly, you know, and, and so, so. But I've got to have a format and a structure to allow me to do that. If someone else were telling me, no, you should be cleaning out the garage. No, you should be straightening up your room. No, you. What are you doing? Writing a book.

Yeah.

People told me before I published my first book that you're never going to make any money that way. You better have a day job. You're never going to be able to support yourself. And. And I actually took their advice and went to medical school. My first goal was to be a doctor, but I thought I better have a day job. I mean, to be a writer, but I better have a day job. So I became a doctor anyway. I just think we need to understand the creative process better and respect the conditions that favor it so we can flourish. And in the new book, I try to stress the absolute importance of having found your creative outlet. I call it. In the book, I call it find your right. Difficult find. You know, it's got to be difficult or we'll get bored. Yeah, it's got to match up with your talents. So it's got to be the right difficult. So find your right. In my case, it's writing. In your case, it's marketing, coming up with new ideas. You're a multitasked guy.

Like this whole thing, I look at it very similarly. Like if you take what you do at the core, take out the context that you're specifically a psychiatrist working with people, that is a good portion of what you do every day is meeting with patients and helping them out. But when you look at it, that it's a very fulfilling thing for you because you're a diagnostician, you're hearing the story, you're talking through, you're helping people discover, you're uncovering the formulas or the strengths or the way that they helping them with your incredible vast experience to propose something that you've seen work other in other situations, and then the next day it's a new person and you're going through that same process. It's ever exciting or in, you know, it's challenging intellectually to uncover the puzzle. Right. Similar.

That's exactly, that's exactly what you do in your consultations.

That's what I was just going to say, that it's the same. And so with. That's what I'm excited about having you when we're going to do a More Cheese Less Whiskers episode as well to break down how similar those things are because I look at that as the. My hydroelectric plant.

Yes.

All I do is talk and when we record everything I say and transcribe it, it's now digitized and everything that we can do from that, it's an asset in that we've got somebody can listen to that particular episode in perpetuity at any time. So now I've got hundreds of episodes. Joe and I have almost 400 episodes of. I love marketing. We've got all of this stuff that can be transcribed, all the articles. Like I send out three emails a week that all are from that, that stream of, of ideas that I've put into the digital world. Joe sends out three emails a week all from the same, the same model. That, that's like the mechanism of harnessing these ideas and turning them into something that can reach a lot of people without any more effort on your part.

Yeah. And I think you're. That's your hydroelectric plant and it's magnificent. I would, I would say it's not true. All you do is talk because mechanically speaking, thinking.

Yeah. Right, right.

Talking. Right.

Yeah.

So you're not a wind up toy that's pre programmed to say the same stuff. You're constantly innovating in your, your brain. You're, you've got an amazing brain that's constantly innovating and then, and then you're lucky enough that you're articulate, you're able to turn it into words.

And that's the fastest. I find the fastest bandwidth way to get something out of my mind into a digital format is through my mouth. Is talking is the fastest thing. Faster than writing, faster than any other thing. It's almost as the speed of thought as I'm thinking it, saying it. This is being turned into digital format. So we've. When we say anything here that we want to be able to say again, if we say something that we've never said before, we've captured it right here and we can turn it into an, a non fungible token. We might be creating magic here today.

Absolutely. Well, I mean you, you and Socrates, you know, that's what he did. He just walked around, he just walked around talking. You know, that's so great. You know, it's with a Scribe. Yeah, yeah. People listened and wrote it down. And Epictetus, another one of my favorites. That's what he did, too, you know, and, you know, there's this amazing oral tradition, and now with our technology, we're able to preserve it far more obviously, far more effectively and permanently than ever before in history. And when people deplore modern technology, I think. Now, wait a minute, Wait a minute. Maybe it may be a bugaboo, but it's all also probably our defining, greatest achievement of the past, you know, 20 years is what we, what we've done with this technology.

How has it changed for you, if we talk about ADHD 2.0, is that we're as. We're moving into a different level of the world. Like your. When was driven to distraction. 1994.

Was that very good, Dean? Wow, I'm impressed. Yes. 1994. Long time ago.

Yeah. Because I remember reading it well before. It was before the Internet was the thing when reading was actually a delightful distraction from the real world. Right. I read so much more back then because there was nothing else to distract me from the primary distraction of reading books and magazines. Yes. Now, what I notice has changed is the Internet, of course, has gone on this, you know, exponential path that started right after that book came out, that the Internet kind of came on. But I look at the pivotal shift as 2007, when the iPhone came out, and all of a sudden the Internet wasn't somewhere that we went to escape the real world as a distraction. The Internet was among us. It was becoming now enveloping. And I really feel like we've gotten to the point where Cloudlandia is the real world and the real mainland is we have to pull ourselves away to find time to find. To distract ourselves in the mainland as. How has that changed the, the way that you think about things or the way that. Because you've seen it all happen. You were still talking about screen sucking back then.

Yeah, screen sucking, exactly. That was a book called Crazy Busy. That is how I met Joe actually was crazy busy. It was around 2007. And, you know, I talked about screen sucking where, where we become. We suck on screens the way we, we might suck on a drug or, you know, a breast or what have you, and, and we become latched onto these screens, but at the same time, you know, I, I, I, I, I'm, I don't want to be someone wringing his hands. I'm just saying we need to learn how to use it so it doesn't use us. Because if, if you allow Cloudlandia you know, to become your ally and to become your, you know, your, your best friend. And you use it. Then we can, you know, this is ADD Heaven, today's world, this is ADD Paradise. We, we have constant access to everything. You know, it becomes a huge playpen and people forget that sometimes because they want to. They get so negative. But as long as you're in charge, as long as you retain control, as long as you don't become addicted to the cloud, addicted to the information, addicted to the games, and instead you let it serve you, then it's like we're more powerful than ever. We can run businesses, we can run empires, we can create all. Look at what you, all you and Joe. Look at what you've created. Look at us together here right now, all dependent upon that. And it's a magnificent symphony of ideas. And it only becomes a problem when you allow all of that to replace what I call the human moment, to replace face to face relationships. You know, it's hard, it's hard to make love in the cloud. You know, you can, you can have, you can have images and all like and cyber sex and whatnot, but, but the actual act requires your physical presence.

Yeah.

And you know, falling in love really does require at some point your physical presence. And you know, the best thing I've ever done in my life with my wife is have our three children. And they're now 32, 29 and 26. And it feels like yesterday they were 9, 6 and 3, you know, and thank God I, you know, I didn't get so wrapped up in my career that I didn't make time for that so long answer. But I think again, if you manage it instead of it managing you, life has never been better. I mean this is, this is a where this is a child's garden of paradise. You know, we are we and we are, we're like kids in a candy store. You watch someone with ADD and people say all he wants to play. Well, he's, his enthusiasm for video games is translatable into his enthusiasm for something else. You know, and as soon as he meets a Dean Jackson, you know, he's off starting a business.

You know, I love it. And that's something that, you know, I really. We've been talking, you know, among in strategic coach, we've been talking about this idea of who not how as the thing where this is the ultimate connection device that we've got connection to everybody that we could possibly need at our fingertips to be able to support us and create that hydro mechanism. For us. So it's such optimism for moving forward.

I just want to comment on a comment that flashed on the screen. One of you all said, actually, you can fall in love online. And I agree with that. I misspoke. You can. And I think of. I fell in love with Shakespeare when I was in high school, and I've never met Shakespeare, but I fell in love with his writing. And so, yes, you can. You can fall in love without meeting the person in person. I take that back. It's just a little bit different. And I met my wife online. A lot of people meet their spouses online.

Yeah. We can't have a baby.

Maybe that's correct. You can't do that. I don't know. You can arrange to have a baby.

Maybe you can.

Maybe you can.

Who knows? That's exactly it. So where, you know, I want to. I could talk like this forever. This is so exciting because you and I could be like, I love your phrase of two toddlers at a picnic. We could just go and explore all these things. I want to make sure my. I want to make sure that we're going to direct the conversation to the things that you have that you want to present or prepare or share with people. And my also priority is that I promise Eunice on every one of these that I'm going to go through. And there's certain things that we need to address. So I always have my Eunice list here in front so we can make sure that we're.

Let's get to the unis.

Can I do it? Can I. Can I just make a comment and ask a really quick question before we get to the unis list, which is much better. But Dr. Hallowell, it's like when you talk about this Ferrari brain, it's almost like we hope that we have adhd. It's like, oh, darn. I'm not like Dean. I'm not like Dr. Hallowell. I'm not like Joe. Should we feel that way?

Absolutely. I gave a talk at my old high school. I went to Exeter, which is a prep school up in New Hampshire, a very rigorous prep school. I gave a talk to the student body about adding, and when it was over, the principal of the school came up to me, said, well, Ned, that was very good, but you came perilously close to saying people ought to wish they had it. And I said, not perilously close. That's exactly what I want them to do. I want them to have ADD envy. I want them to say, gosh, I wish I had that special power. Because the downside of ADD, you can correct, but the upside, you can't buy and you can't teach. You can't buy and teach. Entrepreneurial flair, entrepreneurial tenacity, grit, imagination. You can't. You can try and you can take courses on entrepreneurship, but there's an X factor that you just gotta be born with. And that's what this condition conveys. That's why the deficit disorder model is so misleading. Yes, I. When I meet someone, they say they have add. I say, great. Or someone says, oh, I think my kid might have add. I say, why are you sounding so downcast? That's wonderful. We'll unwrap his gift. Or her gift. So, yes, indeed, I truly would not trade my ADHD for the world. And the same goes for dyslexia.

Timothy, would you?

The only residual problem with dyslexia for me is I'm an incredibly slow reader. Takes me forever to get. My wife says, I don't know how you know anything. It takes me so long to read, but I can do it. You know, like, I majored in English at Harvard and graduated with high honors while doing pre med. So I'm able to jump through those hoops. But, you know, I'm not a. I'm a very slow reader. That's the residual of dyslexia. But with. See, another thing with dyslexia people, dyslexics tend to be very creative, you know, and they're like Winston Churchill had dyslexia.

So I was speaking to a group of entrepreneurs yesterday about the annual event coming up, and I read a bio that I wrote on you. It's shorter than the bio that I read at the beginning of this session. And one of their responses was, wow, I'm glad that was a short bio, because I'm so attention deficit. So I like that. And I can hardly wait to hear what Dr. Hallowell has to say at the annual event. Was the response. So, you know. So my question is not what percentage of entrepreneurs? If you were. I mean, you can do that through all of your experience. What percentage do you estimate are add?

Well, what I believe is it's a much higher percentage than people who know they have it. So if you want to talk about what percentage know they have it, maybe 40 or 50%.

Yeah.

And that's maybe optimistic, but I think what percentage actually have it? I'd say 80%. I almost think like it's an entrance requirement because the things that we have to do, entrepreneurs have to do. Define add. You know, think on your feet, be creative, change quickly, be amazingly resilient, come up with new ideas, fix problems there's no fix for, for, you know, come up with hope where there's no hope. You know, pull yourself up in the middle of the, you know, the darkest night you've ever had. I mean, that. That's add. People are used to doing that because they've been doing it all along. You know, turn. Turn lemons into lemonade. And, and you can't teach that. You can give lectures about it and you can sermonize about, you know, never give up and all this kind of stuff. But, but that's who we are. We just don't give up. It just, you know, and it's in our DNA. And that's, that's, that's most entrepreneurs I know. And so, you know, I would say 80%. And another thing that I get passionate about is I want them to know it, because once they know it, they can, they can, you know, make a better hydroelectric plant. You know, they can make. They can get more done with less effort if they employ the techniques for handling adhd.

And everybody could probably. I mean.

Well, that's true.

Things that you're saying are not just for people with adhd.

Exactly. People say what? Classroom management. Well, whatever is good for ADD is good for everyone.

Absolutely.

Yeah. It's just that we really need it. You know, we really need structure, we really need encouragement. We really need, you know, the freedom to create and innovate.

What are a couple of your favorite, like go to strategies that somebody could use to help feel.

Well, remember, what works for me won't work for you necessarily, but certainly have a creative. Follow your creative outlet. If I don't have a book going, I get depressed, you know, so, so. And I've learned that. And so. And I think most of us are like that. If most on. If you don't have a project in motion or several projects, you feel stopped up, you just don't feel right. You feel, you know, just out of sorts a little bit. So honor the creative imperative. And that don't. That doesn't mean you're a workaholic or these negative terms. It means you've got to be creating in order to be at your best. Yeah. And that doesn't mean you neglect your family. It doesn't mean you don't go to church or whatever. It just means that you've got to. Your mind has got to be engaged, your imagination has to light up or you're just not going to be at Your best. So that's probably, probably number one is to find your hydroelectric plant, to find your. Find your creative outlet and really honor it and respect it. You know, then the other one is obvious. Marry the right person, be with the right job. I don't mean you have to marry, but be with the right person and find the right job. And a lot of people, it's, it's, you know, they miss the fundamental. That's. They make the. Once you engage with the wrong person or sign up for the wrong job, you're going to short circuit your abilities and you're not going to become all that you can be. And then there, and then there are. You know, I really stress the importance of maintaining a very robustly connected life. And I don't mean access to the Internet. That's where having memberships and groups that you care about. That's why the Genius network is so empowering. Feeding off of each other's energy. It's not just the ideas. If it was just the ideas, you could send a printout every week. But there's something about coming together and the energy in the room where you, where you feel really rejuvenated. I call it the other vitamin C. Vitamin connect. And the world is starving for vitamin C these days. And when you have your big meetings together, you just feed off of each other. It's a force that we haven't learned to measure yet, but it is very real. That's what teamwork is all about. That's why people thrive on teams. When you put your energy to each. So connect would be another major tip that I would cultivate connection. Cultivate friendship. Cultivate now, don't have too many connections because then, then the connections can become a burden. I talk about, you know, cultivate lilies and get rid of leeches are people or projects that just aren't worth it.

Yeah.

So if you can get rid of a leech boy, you'll do yourself a huge favorite. But at the same time, cultivate lilies. Lilies are people or projects that are worth the time you put in. The three biggest lilies are my kids. They took a ton of work and money, but my gosh, were they ever worth it. But be careful because we're so life enthusiastic, we can have too many lilies and then the lilies begin to feel like leeches. So make sure you don't overcrowd your garden with too many leaves. Lilies. So but, but get rid of leeches. Oh my God. Get rid of leeches.

Those lilies that I think like that metaphor can apply to projects or.

Oh yes.

Or everything is that.

Yes, yes, yes. Like your, your whisker cheese. That's a lily of an idea, you know, that, you know, which gives.

You know, there's something about the. What that allows me to do is it creates a context that allows me to have a fixed thing that the eight profit activators, for instance, as a framework and this model that now I can get variety in that by bringing in different businesses. Just like you've got your. All of the tools and all the ways to diagnose and help people unwrap their. Their gifts and you. The input that changes is the new people coming in. One of the things that I've discovered was. I'm calling it my. Your power verbs. Right. Like my, my power positions kind of thing. If I think about what I actually do and setting myself up in those things that are. When I'm at my best, what am I actually doing? And so often that's on the phone recording something, whether it's a podcast, a consultation, a, you know, one on one with somebody or recording for the purpose of recording something. A conversation is one of my power moves. Another of my power moves is sitting on my. In my reading room in my comfy chair or on the white sofa in my courtyard with my remarkable tablet and hatching evil schemes, doing a. Thinking, brainstorming, writing, thinking about trying to solve a problem or applying something that. That I need to do, brainstorming, outlining something that I can then record is. Is that part of my hydro plant that makes it all work. Now what I see.

And that's. That's a beautiful description of play. You're sitting. You're sitting there like a kid making mud pies. You're.

Yes.

Yeah.

And what I've discovered is that my brain doesn't care as much what particularly I'm thinking about exactly. Whatever's in front of it.

As long as it's engaging. As long as it's stimulating. Yeah.

If I, If I have. As long as I. I muster the adult level sort of supervision of setting myself up. What you as one of the biggest impacts on my life was a conversation that you and I had maybe 15 years ago, 10 years ago, I don't know. Whenever we first kind of met, you, you introduced me to this idea of you can go through your day like a toddler at a picnic and just wander around and go wherever your mind takes you, or you can set up borders and a direction and zip through it like a bobsled run. And that to Me was like so amazing because I often think about time like that. I often imagine that it's this bobsled run and I visualize that track that I get on the bobsled run and we're moving at the pace of 60 seconds per minute and 60 minutes per hour and 24 hours per day. It's constantly moving at that. And I envision almost like Guitar Hero things that are coming at me and when they're going to arrive. And it's a really interesting thing to fit things into those times like playing Tetris where you have this. Lots of things that are coming at me and I can establish them when I'm going to do them and. But realize you said something two weeks ago when we talked that, that I've been using about lead generate lead conversion, that there's only two time frames now and not now. And you said to me, you know, I just wrote that in the, in the book about that. People with ADT only experience two time frames. Yes, yes, now and not now.

In our world, in the world of add, we have a fundamentally different sense of time. We don't have the linear sense of time most people have in our world. There are two times now and not now.

Yeah.

So you say the paper is due next Thursday, not now and it's just gone until. Exactly. So not now is almost now. And then we get it done in a panic, you know.

Yeah, there was a great TikTok meme going around where it's someone talking to themselves, you know, are you going to do that? And they go, I'm going to do it later. And they go, yeah, but if you do it now, you won't have to do it later.

Exactly.

And they go, yeah, but if I don't do it now, I don't do it and I do it later.

Josh.

Hence procrastination. And that's exactly right. That's why we're so prone to procrastination. And then at the last minute, what happens in a panic, you get a good big burst of adrenaline. And adrenaline is chemically very similar to the stimulant medications we use to treat add. So you're basically self medicating with panic, self medicating with adrenaline by procrastination.

Wow, that's a very interesting thought. I'd heard Joe Rogan, I think was talking about how we medicate for removing that feeling of stress. And it joked that that's how the rent gets paid. That's how things. That's a valuable, useful thing in our lives to Spur us into action.

Yes, if our.

If our ancestors had access to it.

No, absolutely. Stress is one of those words. Again, like so many things, there's an upside and a downside. The upside of stress, what I call good stress, that's what drives excellence. Lifting weights, editing your manuscript, you know, working under a deadline. That stress is like depression, paranoia, backbiting, gossip, you know, people who are, you know, just out to hurt people. That's bad stress. You know, but good stress is, you know, striving and, you know, trying to get it done and, you know, negotiating and all the kind of stuff that, you know, allows us to achieve big goals.

I love it. Well, do we have. What I'd love to do, Ned, is open up and see. Maybe Timothy can help us here. I know Timothy's got to run, too, so Gina also could help us with some of the questions that people are.

Did we do Eunice's list here?

Yeah, we're. This is. Let me. I'm going to double check, and we'll do that while Timothy's. Have you been monitoring the chat, Timothy?

I have, and Gina actually has a list. So Gina's going to be sharing the questions with you.

Yes.

Well, all right, so our first question so far. You guys feel free to post your questions in the chat or raise your hand on Zoom and we'll. We'll call on you. But Dean Anthony, his power went out, too. Dean, and his name is also Dean. And he's back on. He had a question. What's the best way to find the person to keep an ADHD on track? And Dean, do you even want to come and ask your question? On track and focused. And he's thinking maybe it's a better half. Maybe you need a good wife, maybe an RH person, somebody who's super organized. So that's what he's looking for. The best way to find that person to help keep him on track.

Well, you know, multimodal approach is the answer because there's a lot of things you can do, from medication to exercise to structure, but a coach can make a world of difference. And it's very hard for your spouse to be your coach because the nag factor gets in the way. It's why it's hard for your parent to be your coach. Nag factor gets in the way. So a coach is someone you hire. You pay to ride herd on the details, to ride herd on the stuff that you tend to overlook. Forget procrastinate, put off. And a coach can be worth his or her weight in gold. I'LL give you the name of the single best coach in the world. She is without doubt the best coach in the world. I have referred hundreds of people to her. She is the ADD whisperer, in my opinion. She is just. She just has magic in her methods. And her name is Jen Zobel Bieber and her website is jenzbcoaching.com and she's incredible. Now, there are thousands, if not tens of thousands of coaches out there, and there's a Coach Academy that trains coaches. If you Google ADHD coaches, that's one way you can go to Coach Academy. That's the name of it. Coach academy dot com. I think. I think a coach, the right coach can make a huge difference. The wrong coach is just glorified secretary and it's a waste of time and money. But the right coach, the person who really gets you, David Nealman, who I referred to earlier, his administrative assistant, has been coaching him for 40 years. I mean, he would be lost without her. She basically knows when to tell him to go to the bathroom. I mean, she's got everything. And so he can just go and be himself. She'll pick up the pieces. And so if you can have someone like that in your life, whether it's your admin assistant or a coach, or just don't have it, be your partner.

I've been working with a service called Commit Action for the last eight weeks or so, about maybe three months now. I've been doing this and I talk with my coach once a week, and we look at the calendar and we've got the projects and things that I'm working on that I want to commit to getting done this week, and we put them in the calendar as to when I'm going to actually do them. And then we get back together on the phone next week and we move those things in. And just that level of accountability. I've been working on it with, you know, a couple of projects that I've been. I don't have it. I don't go through my entire week and, you know, organize everything, but I really want to get these particular couple of projects done. And so I've been scheduling those times with. With them. And it's. It makes a big difference because it, it likes. Just like you were saying, Ned, that, you know, the only things we see are now and not now. It's almost like you're. You're time traveling. And, you know, the most reliable form of time travel is to travel into the future and cordon off the area where you want to do something and have it prepared for when you get there. And it's now you look at the calendar and I had cordoned off 2:30 on Wednesday to be here with you. And I don't know about you, but I never miss things that I've put in my calendar that are involving other people.

Absolutely. And you see and that you referred earlier to the toddler and the bobsled ride. The toddler way. The toddler on a picnic is just driven by curiosity with no regard for danger or authority. So that's you playing on your pad there. You're a toddler on a picnic. You're going wherever curiosity leads you. And the other mode, which is also incredibly valuable is the bobsled mode. And that's when you impose structure. So having a time to meet or having an order of things, you're supposed to do structure. Then you're zipping forward. There's no getting waylaid. There's no wandering off into other places. There's no room for curiosity to take you off the ride. Because with structure, then you get maximum forward progress and you tick off goals. So you want to have both of those modes at your disposal, the toddler mode and the bobsled mode.

Especially when you're filling things. When you're filling it with things that you fundamentally want to do.

Right.

Like you were saying about writing the book is play. You don't mind the writing the book. It's just the sitting down to actually write the book. Getting, you know, putting that time aside.

How.

What's your strategy for that? For. For writing your books and getting the time organized. Like, I imagine that part of your calendar is live appointments with people who you're working with in your office or on the phone.

Yeah, that's. I know where you're going. So let me answer the. The. The seeing patients part or talking to you part right now is pure bobsled. That's pure structure. I show up at the appointed time and I know what I'm supposed to do when I do it. Yeah, the writing part. And this is what most people ask me this or are befuddled when I answer it. But honestly, my method is the Nike solution. I just do it. I don't know when, I don't know where. But I've done it 21 times now, so I know I will do it. But I don't. Unlike most writers, I don't have a schedule. I don't have a time that I don't have a page number I have to do every day.

Right.

I just sort of have this. It's the toddler on a picnic. I know I will do it because I love it. I also hate it, so that's why I avoid it. Right. And it's sort of like golf. You love it and you hate it. Well, writing is that way for me. I love it and I hate it. So I want to do it and I don't want to do it.

And how much deadline. How much of the deadline imposes itself?

Well, I've, my, my, my, my publishers are very charitable with me. They will always grant me extensions. But I want to get it done and they know I will get it done. So I don't know that for I don't hand in something a year late or anything like that. The deadline helps somewhat. You know, I'm glad to have deadlines. They help me. But. But it's mostly this inter. And I think that's part of the creative process for most people. It requires a certain amount of freedom and if you try and pin me down, you inhibit it. Now if I didn't have absolute faith in myself to get it done, then I would submit to more of a regimented structure and schedule. And that's what I recommend most people do because I think I'm unusual in that way. The Nike solution just do. Just doesn't do it for, for an awful lot of people.

Do you tend to block off time in your calendar though for things like that? Like do you. Would I look on your calendar and see writing blocks or.

No. No.

So if you fit it in.

Yep.

It happens.

Yeah.

Yeah. Every day kind of thing or.

Yeah, no, I, I write every day. Sure. And it's a. And it's probably the most valuable of all the things I do it so most permanent and the most lasting and has the widest impact.

Yeah.

So. So yeah. But it's not that I, it's not that I don't respect it. It's not that I don't give it a high priority. Right. It's my way of giving it a high priority. Is. Is way different from most writers or artists.

Very interesting.

What is the Nike solution? What does that comment say?

Just do it. Oh, sorry.

No, he says, I thought the Nike solution was. I thought Nike's motto is just do it.

Oh yeah. I thought the Nike solution was send it to the third world and let them deal with it.

Speaking of golf, Dean, your golf analogy in that locked out time is one that I've always. Since I heard it, that's been my.

Power move is I, you know, in exploring for Myself, Ned, found that I'm able to focus in situations like for blocks of time. And I thought, why is it easy for me to play golf? And I found that, you know, because I use the acronym golf, that there's a goal that I'm gonna go play golf. And there's an optimal environment. The golf course is optimally set up to play golf. You've got. The holes are already organized. It's like the bobsled run.

Yes.

Things there's limited distractions, meaning you're on the course. If you leave your phone in the bag, you're. You're not distracted there. And there's a fixed time frame. You start on the first hole, you finish on the 18th hole and it's probably going to take you four and a half hours total. And that, you know, so I started and I do that with movies. I can definitely focus on getting to the movies and sit through a two and a half hour movie, no problem. Focused 100% on being there. So that's been my thing was blocking those times in my, in my calendar to know that that's what I'm going to. I have a goal for it. This is what I'm going to do with this time. Yeah.

Go. One of our Genius Network members, Robbie Stahl, has asked if Dr. Hallowell has a question. Coaching program. And I know we've run in.

Wouldn't that be super?

Yeah, we've run a success with sanity program. And Robbie, as a Genius Network member, I may be able to find that for you. And then there's. We had optimize and Capitalize. We've done some stuff with you, Ned, but also what other coaching programs do you recommend especially for some of our Genius Network members?

I don't have a coaching program myself. I'd love to start one, but I just haven't. But you know who invented coaching? I did. I did. In Driven to Distraction, I said what you need rather than a therapist is you need a coach. Someone to help organize the nuts and bolts of your life. And then I laid out a four step method for coaching. And at the time, Joe Biederman, who's one of the big academic experts at Harvard Medical School and adhd, he laughed at me. He said, hallowell thinks you need a coach. I thought that was for baseball players. Well, now it's become a standard. Standard. Part of the treatment plan for everyone with ADD is get a coach. There are coach academies and coach certification and all that. And the reason I didn't pursue it, it's like Dean was saying inventing the idea was fun, but implementing it was just tedious, you know, and, and the actual act of coaching, I hate it. I, I would rather gouge my eyes out than coach someone. Right. You know, so, so it is just very tedious. And, and so that's why I left it to other people to take the idea and run with it. And, and they have really run with it. But I'd, I'd love to have a program because the, the, the value, like when Jen Bieber coaches you, your life will change for the better. And the thing about coaching is it's so practitioner dependent. It really depends upon who's doing it, you know, like, if you get Joe or Dean on your team, your life will change, but if you get, you know, some humdrum person who's reading from a cookbook, it's not going to do it, you know, so, you know, and that's why, you know, it's very uneven. But, but a good coach, my gosh, you almost don't need medication if you, if you've got a good enough coach. Wow.

We have. Andrew also asked about the history. Like, was there any information out there on how these ADHD traits manifested in our hunter gatherer ancestors or, you know.

Oh, yeah, I mean, and Tom Hartman wrote a whole book about that called Hunters in a Farmer's World. You know, that there is a definite genetic advantage to being the way we are. You know, we're the innovators and the, you know, so, but, you know, that's sort of locating us in our genetics. Someone was just posting about ADHD for Smartass Woman. The woman who runs that, whose podcast that is Tracy Otsuka, is an absolute wonder of a person. And I am very proud to tell you I am the only man that she's invited onto her show. And she interviewed me on her podcast, but it's called ADHD for Smartass Women. So any of you female women out there who want a great podcast, she's the one.

That's awesome. I love it.

Question from a Genius network member. John asked if there's any apps or software that you recommend and also maybe recommend for introspection or making those commitments to yourself.

There aren't. That I know of. But you ask one another because I'm sure all of you have your favorites. And, and it's, it's a wonderful way of, you know, like, there is a wonderful meditation app that everyone's heard of called Calm, and it's a, it's a great way to get your daily dose of meditation and the world of apps is another world that's just. People make fun of it. It's. It's wonderful. You know, there's an app for so many things now, and this is the playpen of the world we live in. It's just. It's just dazzling.

It really is. You know, when you think about. There's an app for that. There's an app for everything. It's exactly.

Exactly.

Things are possible to do. I've started even just freeing up for freeing up things. Like I've been using an app for a long time called Get Magic. And just anything that I need to get done, if I need something researched or something bought or reservation made or booked or any kind of thing that would require me to, you know, go somewhere online and do anything if I could just text it to Get Magic and know that it's. Know that it's done. It's such a. It's such a great. Such a great time multiplier.

Yes. Yeah.

So having those. That's. Those. I think what you're really bringing to my mind here is putting this, you know, putting a real premium on being able to organize things around my unique ability to get things done in my way of doing it. That's really the.

It's a very important point. And too often people want to submit to someone else's solution. Now, there are times one fits.

All right. Yeah.

Yeah, exactly. And the way you want to do it is the way you will do it, the way you will continue to do it. What's sustainable, particularly if you set it up, you create it. And that's why the way Jen coaches is all about drawing out of you the way you want to do it, because that's. That's what will work the. That's what will work the best. Your method. And you. You want to spend most of your time in what I call your sweet spot, your. Your. Most of your professional time. It's the overlap of three circles. One is all the things you're really good at doing. The other is all the things you really love to do, and the third is the things someone will pay you to do where those three overlap. That's your sweet spot, and that's where you should spend as much of your work time as you possibly can. Now, you can't spend all of your time in that spot, but you shouldn't be spending a lot of time doing things you don't like or doing things you're bad at or things that don't generate income.

I love that thought. It's Such a great thing. The closer you can get your, you know, what you do to be what you do is really the thing. What you do. Because you were mentioning something about what, what are you doing when you're not doing what you think you're supposed to be doing? That's where the clues are, is what? What are you naturally drawn to exactly that to be the thing.

Exactly.

Is the thing.

So exactly. I mean, Dave Pilkey, another guy who has big time ADD and dyslexia, created the Captain Underpants series that has sold over 80 million books. He's just doing what he did in school, you know, daydreaming and drawing cartoons. And in school he got punished for it. And now as an adult, he's incredibly best selling writer who is entertaining children all over the world.

Just one thing that I think we didn't really talk about it, but would be, I'd be interested to hear your take on when is medication or pharmaceuticals a, you know, a solution kind of thing? When, when should people be looking at that? There are people looking. I know you don't think about it as, as the last resort. I think you look at it as like that's a big part of it.

Yeah, it's a tool in the toolbox and it's a very valuable tool. And it's one that most people fear unnecessarily. Stimulant medication has been around since 1937. Nothing lasts that long unless it's safe and effective. It works about 80% of the time. When I say works, it operates like eyeglasses. It makes you more focused. It allows you to get more done in less time with less effort. It does not take away your creativity. It does not take away the fundamental you. It does not change yourself any more than eyeglasses do. It just makes you more effective in the world at getting things done. And 80% is a pretty good track record. If it causes you any problems, stop taking it. If it doesn't work, stop taking it. It's very simple. And people are unnecessarily conflicted about it. And there's a whole bunch of bad press because the press just likes to scare people. But I see people's lives dramatically changed for the better when they start on stimulant medication. You should see a doctor who knows what he or she is doing and then monitor it. And as long as it helps you and doesn't cause side effects, you can take it for as long as you want to. You know, people often say, well, couldn't we do a year or two of non medication treatment first. I say absolutely we can. I've written books on how to treat ADD without medication, but it's sort of like saying, why don't we do a year or two of squinting before we try eyeglasses? You know, why not try them right away? You know, because if they work, it's going to make everything else, every other intervention that much easier to implement. You know, there's no, it's not cheating to wear eyeglasses. It's not cheating to try medication. And if you, if you try it and it works, then all the non medication interventions from coaching to exercise will be so much easier to get and to do so. You know, I never force it on people. Of course. Course not. The biggest obstacle to taking meds is psychological. Most people don't want to and is.

It part of the reason that they don't want to because they feel like this is going to do some long term damage.

It's ignorance. Yes. They worry that they'll get addicted. They worry about long term damage. They worry it's cheating. They worry it sends the wrong message. There's a pill for everything. They've got this list of, of reservations that are all rooted in ignorance. And once they know the truth, if they still don't want to take it, then absolutely they shouldn't. My job is to make sure their decision is based on fact rather than rumor or wrong information.

Well, that's interesting because, yeah, I think there's definitely this sense that it's cheating in that mindset that if you just buckle down a little more, get right, get a little, just apply yourself and.

You would never tell someone nearsighted to squint harder. That's basically what we're telling these people to do.

There we go. Okay, Gina, do we have.

Earlier, Kelly, Julia had asked about any book suggestions on how to find your particular skill. And I just put in the chat a link to our I Love Marketing Live that we did with Kathy Colby to try and find, you know, your, how you naturally go about creating results. What's your M.O. for creating results? But doctor, did you have any other books or recommendations?

Well, well, yes. ADHD 2.0. Because I have a whole, I have a whole chapter about Kathy Colby in, in the book and I have a whole method of sort of assessing. I go beyond Kathy to other ways of finding out what you're good at and finding your sweet spot. But I love Kathy's work and I devoted an entire chapter to. She's central in that chapter, you know, on how to how to find what you're naturally inclined to do. And it makes a big difference. It really is like choosing a mate. It makes a big difference where you deploy your attention. Where do you plug in? And I can't remember what number chapter it is, but in ADHD 2.0 and another virtue of 2.0 is it's my shortest book. It's only about 100 pages, so it's very ADD friendly.

Yeah, it's delightful. It's easy to read.

That's true.

I like it. Yeah, I've been having good. I got all kinds of notes in mind.

That's.

It's awesome. Well, that's good. I like it. I'm looking through the comments here too, to see what the one might be coming up. But Ned, what would be, how can somebody connect with you? What's. What's the. What would be your directive here for, for people, if we can help?

Well, if you go to my website, if you go to my website, drhalliwell.com there's a ton of free information. You can play around on the website for a while. Also, if you want to come see me, you can get to me through there. I'll also give you all my personal email the it's Dr. Hallowellowellcenter.org so Dr. No period. D R H A L L O W e l l hallowellcenter.org and I'll answer your email. You know, and because I love these you people, you know, it's like an itinerant preacher and you're my flock. You have a lot of shepherds, I have to say. You have a lot of people shepherding you, which is great. We thrive on structure. We don't thrive on regimentation, but we thrive on structure.

I love it.

Well, you know, Dean, I don't know if we created a. So we had a great friend of the genius network world. I love marketing world, Dr. Dave Keckett, who or Dave Keckich, who passed away last week. And we put up a tribute page for him@gieniusnetwork.com and I'll put this in the chat. Davekichtribute but when we had that sort of trauma or that loss and grieving begin. Dr. Hallowell sent us this monologue that he had written for when someone is in distress. Did you? Because we've made that something that we wanted to share with everybody. So did you want to broach that for us and just prepare us for what that PDF is all about? Dr. Sure.

I wrote this monologue is A good word for it when I was feeling in distress myself. And I wrote it as what I would like to hear. And it's written in the person of just an anonymous voice. And it begins by saying, take my hand and listen for a moment, and then it moves on from there. And it's essentially a monologue of consolation and where to turn for hope and how to get hope when you're feeling out of hope. And that's the point of it. And, you know, it's not long, but it's a. It's kind of a. It's not a meditation because it's directed to a person. It's a voice speaking. And so it's not a meditation. It's a. It's a letter. Maybe that's the closest thing or a monologue. But I'm so glad you want to share it. It's, you know, it's. It's. It was written. It was sort of what I. What I wished someone would say, and to me when I was feeling that way.

That's awesome.

That.

And thank you, Gina, for putting it up in the chat here. You can download it right there. Geniusnetwork.com Take my hand. Very good. Now, Gina, next, what are the dates for our next meetup group?

Our next I Love Marketing meetup? I will pull that up, and while I do, I can give you the dates off the top of my head of our next Genius Network meeting, for those of you in Genius Network is next week, Thursday and Friday. And then, of course, our annual event for Genius Network is going to be November 4th and 5th.

And then Dr. Hallowell is going to join us for a section of the annual event, too.

Yeah. And then Jesse Cole, who was on an I Love Marketing just a few months ago. A couple months ago. He'll be one of the featured speakers as well.

Love it.

Yes. And I think we have Max Goldberg on with us today, watching this. I love marketing. And he will also be one of our panelists who's an amazing mind in the world of tech and entrepreneurship. I think he's on. So October, the third Wednesday of the month will actually be October 20th next month.

20Th.

Okay.

Yes, October 20th.

I'll be here. And so will you put it on your calendar? Yes, put it on your calendar and watch. And we'll find. We'll have an amazing. This has been such a great series. I mean, to have you with us, Ned. Today was fantastic to.

Well, it was wonderful for me. I feel like I'm it. Cheers. I feel like it's nice to Have a place to go where everyone knows your name, right?

Yeah.

We're meeting and hanging out and supporting each other and playing together. Really?

That's it. And I can't wait to do our More Cheese, Less Whiskers episode.

Oh, yeah. I love that concept so much.

It's going to do a for everyone. If you want to follow along, I'm going to do a More Cheese, Less Whiskers episode with Ned where we're going to brainstorm his new podcast and getting that out into the world and setting up his. I. I'm likening it now that I can show you the inner workings of my hydro power plant that turns my oral output into the things that power a whole village here. So I'm excited about that.

Let me. You mentioned the podcast because in the intro, you talked about my old podcast, which was Distraction. The new one, which starts Oct. 7, is called Dr. Hallowell's Wonderful World of Different. So it explores all kinds of differences, not just adhd, but all kinds of differences, and, you know, obviously highlighting the strengths in them and highlighting the genius in them.

Yes.

You know, and so Dr. Hallowell's Wonderful World of Different premieres October 7th at your favorite. Your favorite podcasts are every podcast or sold.

Exactly. I love it. Well, Ned, thank you so much for. For being with us. Thank you to everybody for taking time out of your day to be with us. Go out and spread the word. Tell everybody what a great experience you had on today's podcast, our meetup.

Thank you, Dean, and thank you, Gina, and thank you, Eunice, and thank all of you.

Yes. And bring everybody back next time. We'll do the same thing in October. So have a great month and we'll talk to you next time. Bye, guys.

Have fun.

Be well.

You guys. Thanks.