How ADHD entrepreneurs can find more energy

Hey, new listener. Thanks so much for checking us out. And there's a good chance you have adhd, so I quickly wanted to ask you to please follow this podcast in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or whichever app you're listening to this on. Don't leave it until later because you will forget. Thank you. Squirrel. Squirrel. Squirrel. In this episode, I'm telling you, the smorgasbord of energy tips to help you be more productive and more healthy in your business. Hi, I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and money mindset coach. And welcome to the Weenie Cast Squirrel. This may very well be the least sexy episode that we've ever done of the Weenie cast. And now that we've lost all the listeners that are only here for the sex appeal, let's talk about the secret to you having more energy, to being healthier and getting more shit done. And as you're listening, I guarantee you one thing, you're going to have moments. You're going to be like, okay, mom, so if you want to call me Mama McManus for this episode, have at it. Before we get into this, I want to just acknowledge the elephant in the room of the term self care and how it typically gives people with ADHD more anxiety than it does relieve it. When we hear of self care things that we need to do, it doesn't sound like, oh, wow, that would be so nice. Yes, I should absolutely do that. Wow, that would be so enjoyable. When we hear a list of self care things that we should be doing, we think, oh, there's more I should be doing, damn it. Like, is there enough time? How would I do that? Can I multitask it? Will people notice if I have a face mask on while I'm on a zoom call with them? Maybe I'll just have my video off. Maybe I can take client calls while walking my dog. And our brains go into hyperdrive trying to figure out all the ways that we can multitask, all the things that we need to do, which we know never works. We might do it once and then we forget about it because it doesn't become a habit because it's not easy to do. So when we're talking about these things, forget the label self care. These are critical things that you need to prioritize in your day to day that will help you have more energy. And when you make time for these things, and they will take time, you will actually be able to get other things done faster in a world where we're trying to go faster and Faster and faster and get more things done in less time. We're constantly breaking, we're taking shortcuts that actually don't get us to where we want to go. I mean, if you were to open up any social media platform right now, I guarantee if you scrolled for two minutes, you would see an ad where someone's promising to show you how to use AI to create content faster, to lose weight faster, to organize your kitchen faster. I don't know. Like, they're using AI for crazy things right now. But the truth of the matter is, to go faster, you actually have to go slower. And that is so not sexy to say, but it's true. And before we get into it, I want to show you how you, as an ADHD person, as an ADHD business owner, are actually set up to get more done by slowing down than a neurotypical. And I know this from experience because this is true for me. I'm gonna use the example of one thing that I do every single day, and that's walk my dog. Now, on the days where I'm walking my dog and I'm trying to, like, do phone calls and touch base with people on my team, and I'm checking all the comments on my LinkedIn post, and I'm looking at my email, like, while she's sniffing around, not while we're crossing the street, but we're safe when we cross the street. On those days where I try to get all this stuff done during my walk, I actually get less done overall because on that walk, I'm not actually relaxing. I'm not actually letting my mind clear. I'm not actually connecting with the love of my life, Luna, my sheepadoodle. And when I get back to my office, to my desk, my brain is frantic already. It doesn't know how to prioritize. Right. It has all these things going on in the back of my mind because it was just running the whole time I was on this walk. And instead of coming back with purpose and with a creative idea and with intent to get something done, I come back just a complete mess of anxiety. On the days where I purposely don't have my headphones in, I have my phone in a pocket that's zipped up and I'm not reaching for it every second when it buzzes. On those days where I'm enjoying the walk and I'm looking at the trees and I'm talking to my dog, because we have conversations, as most dog owners will know, and as I'm just enjoying being outside and I'M enjoying moving my body on those days as I'm out, I have ideas for what I want to do. I'm able to clear my mind of all the clutter and really understand what is the thing that I'm most excited about getting done that day. And usually when I, when I hone in on what that one thing is, I get so excited for an idea that I have about how to do it that'll make it more fun and more interesting for myself on these walks. If there's something in the back of my mind that's stressing me out, walking actually helps me alleviate the stress. This also happens when I work out, like when I'm on my peloton or I'm lifting weights. There's a moment, and I'm sure this is familiar to you, there's a moment when you're in your workout. Like it's really hard when you're stressed out about something because you're constantly thinking about it. And it's so hard to describe the sensation, but it's almost like those little notches that they put in maple trees to drain the stuff that they make maple syrup with. It's almost like that gets tapped into your ankle and out of your ankle, drains all the anxiety and stress that you've been experiencing. And you never know when it's going to hit in your workout. Like sometimes it's in the five minute mark, but sometimes it's like 29 minutes into your 30 minute workout. But the sensation is absolutely incredible. Like your body lets go of the cortisol and the adrenaline. Which by the way, if you're constantly in a stressed out state and you have adrenaline in your system, adrenaline can only be moved out of your body through movement. You can't drink enough water to wash adrenaline out of your system. You have to move it out. You have to go and get exercise. You have to get your heart rate up. It's the only way adrenaline moves out of your system. You know, I don't care if you need a dance break in between calls where you're feeling a lot of anxiety. If you have adrenaline in your system, move it out of your system. So after a walk where I'm really focusing on just being on the walk and letting myself enjoy it and letting myself experience it, and I come back to my desk, I get the first thing done and that leads to me getting the second thing done and that leads to me getting the third thing done. When we slow down to speed up, usually the thing that we do to slow down the Thing that sets us up for success, going for a walk, exercising, meditating, sitting down, and actually eating breakfast and focusing on breakfast and maybe having a nice time talking to loved ones as you have breakfast, without trying to multitask in that moment. What it does is it sets you up to monotask for the rest of the day. It tells you the world is safe. This is actually a very secure environment. You don't have to rush. We're not in fight or flight. You can be creative, you can ease into your work. And we all know this when we're in our most creative and grounded state as ADHD people, we figure out the laziest way to get things done. We figure out the hack that works best for us. We learn how to multipurpose all the things in a way that's really elegant. But when we start our days trying to multitask the most basic things, you know, taking calls on your, on your walk with your dog, answering emails, responding to texts, doing all those things, what we actually tell our nervous system is that this is fight or flight. We're fighting a battle on every front. Everything is urgent. Panic, panic, anxiety, anxiety. This is scary. When we get back to our desks, we don't have that focus. We don't have access to our creativity because we're actually in fear mode of all the things that we need to get done. And because all the things that we need to get done are now associated with fear, we don't get dopamine from them. I like, we can get two or three of those things done and we won't get any dopamine from it and we will not be able to go on and do more work for the day. Now, I explain all this to you because I want you to understand the things I'm going to tell you to do to be able to boost your energy and be healthier and be happier in your business, your brain is going to go, I don't have time for that. Are you crazy? Like, there's no way. Have you seen my to do list? And I don't have to see your to do list, but I know that it doesn't matter what's on your to do list. Creating time to do things that take care of your wellness, things that boost your energy in the morning or earlier on in the day will set you up to be able to get those things done faster, with more creativity, having more fun. And because you're more creative and you have more fun doing them, they're going to be far more effective in your Business. So are you ready for your first okay, mom moment? Because you have to eat. As ADHD people, we constantly forget to eat food. And I want you to think about it like this. If you were to get in your car and it, like, had only, like, an eighth a tank of gas and you started driving, would you expect the car to be able to get to a point that's 200 miles away without filling up the tank? Absolutely not. The car cannot run without gas. That's just how cars work. They require gas to run. Human bodies are similar. We require calories and water to be able to run effectively. So one of the most important things that you can do to guarantee you get things done throughout the day is to eat breakfast and eat lunch and to make sure you're hydrating throughout the day. And as I say this, I want to just do a disclaimer. I'm not a nutritionist. I have no training in telling people what they should eat. I only know this from my own experience and from what I have learned from nutritionists who have advised me in the past. But you need protein and you need carbs. One of the most impactful things I've done for my ADHD and my ability to focus on things throughout the day is by making sure that I'm getting between 20 and 30 grams of protein before noon. And actually, the sooner you can eat it or get it in your system after you wake up, the better. It helps your metabolism. I think I'm actually going to completely misquote the science here. I think it does something with your blood sugar. It helps you, like, stabilize it throughout the day. It makes sure that you don't have crashes. Essentially, it helps you have sustained energy. Now, that said, I know a lot of people out there are like, oh, I'm cutting carbs. I'm cutting carbs. Dude, stop it. Your brain needs carbs to work. There's a reason why we've had carbs for millennia. We've had bread, we've had grain, we've had rice. I mean, except for people with celiacs, it hasn't killed anyone. Like, Sophia Loren even, like, pointed to her body and was like, everyone. This is the result of eating pasta. You need carbs to be able to think clearly. So I don't care what you have for breakfast, but make sure that you're getting some protein and you're getting some carbs. And if possible, limit the amount of sugar. Sugar for an ADHD brain. I'm sure you've experienced this. It makes us kind of go crazy. It spikes our anxiety, we burn through it really fast, and then we crash and we need a nap. And nothing against naps. I'm a big fan of a granny nap. I actually have granny naps most days, at least 20 to 30 minutes. Highly recommend them. But what I don't recommend is setting yourself up to need one because you're giving yourself a ton of sugar every single day. The next thing that will help you be more productive. And I know, like, this is an idealized world, right? For those of you who have kids, who have a lot of responsibility, do what you can. There's no perfect okay. You don't have to go to the gym for a full hour for it to count. Do squats for 10 minutes, do 50 pushups and 50 squats and call that a day. But exercise studies have shown that lactic acid, which gathers in your muscles when you do exercise, actually helps our brains, the ADHD brain, focus more. That's the least scientific way I'm going to describe it. But if you can make your muscles burn a bit in the morning, it's going to help your brain focus later in the day. And of course, I'm not a personal trainer. I don't know what physical shape you're in. If there's any question, I want you to check with your doctor before you do any physical exercise. But know that if you can and if it's healthy for you, exercise will help you be more effective in your work. It'll give you more energy, it'll give you more ability to focus, and it will lower your anxiety. The next one. I know you're probably tired of hearing this view. You don't already do it. You're not already sold on it. Meditation. Meditation is one of the best things you can do for your mind to help you really calm your nervous system and be able to focus on one task at a time. Now, meditations can come in all different shapes and sizes. You can have guided meditations that you can do on an app. Those count. You could do transcendental meditation, which is what I do, where you sit for 20 minutes twice a day, and you have a mantra. You can do a walking meditation. The Japanese call it tree bathing or forest bathing. I'm actually not sure what they call it, but you can go for a walk in the woods and it's very calming. You can go to the beach and you can watch the waves. Hell, there's a mindfulness meditation technique where you eat a grape. You eat a grape and you just focus on the grape. And actually you can eat a raisin. It's more complex. You're focusing on all the different aspects of a single raisin that you can observe. And it gets you so hyper focused into it that 10 minutes goes by like nothing. And it's incredibly calming. And at the root of it, I want you to think about it this way. If you create a practice where you sit and you're still and you have your eyes closed, even if you're just listening to a guided meditation, you know what you're training your nervous system on? The world is safe enough for me to sit here with my eyes closed. Your nervous system takes cues from your actions. If you're running around like a chicken with your head cut off, your nervous system is thinking, oh God, something's wrong. We shouldn't be like, there's something not safe about our environment. But if you're sitting with your eyes closed, that's a very vulnerable position and you're not moving and you're just listening to a thing or not, or you have a mantra, whatever, your nervous system is going to pay attention and think, oh, cool, it's safe enough for us to sit here with our eyes closed and be vulnerable. Amazing. And when our nervous systems understand that, it lowers our anxiety and it makes us better able to access our creativity and to get more done later. Slowing down to go faster actually works. Now, the last bit I want to talk about is what am I going to say next? Well, you'll have to keep listening to find out. But first. Squirrel. Squirrel. Squirrel. Squirrel. The hyperfocus community is the inner sanctum of the Weeniecast. It's a club that's designed just for you, where you'll learn how to leverage your ADHD to grow your business. In the Hyper Focus community, we are realistic about the challenges that face ADHD business owners. And we don't believe in one size fits all solutions. We believe in creating strategies that fit you. On day one of signing up, you'll experience that deep sigh of relief that comes from walking into a room full of people like you, who you do not need to mask your quirks in front of in order to fit in because they get you in the membership every single month. You'll get two group calls. One is an ADHD group coaching call and the other is a networking call with fellow ADHD business owners. We will also have coworking sessions designed for the ADHD mind. Monday, get organized. Sprint calls to keep you out of overwhelm. Access to weekly brave bizlab calls where I will give you practical advice to grow your business. We'll also have the occasional expert training which are absolutely ADHD vetted, and of course, community support by folks like you. And those who pay for the year upfront get a surprise bonus. Visit weenicast.com/hyper focused and stop procrastinating the things that will grow your business. That's weeniecast.com hyperfocus or click the link in the episode description. Now, the last bit I want to talk about is rest. And I want to just come out of the closet and name that I'm a recovering I'll sleep when I'm dead kind of person. I used to rob myself of sleep at every chance I got. I would constantly burn the candle at both ends. I would stay up late, I would get up early, and then I would crash and burn on the weekends and all weekend. I would just have to recover from killing myself at work and killing myself having fun and doing all these different things and not getting enough sleep. Getting enough sleep is one of the best things you can do for your brain. Studies have shown that your brain actually doesn't have, like, a waste removal system like the rest of your body does. Okay? The only time your brain is actually able to declutter and get rid of dead cells. Anything that's problematic is while you're sleeping. It's the only time. So literally, if you're not giving yourself enough sleep, and I'm talking seven to nine hours, and those of us with adhd, we actually need more sleep than neurotypicals because our brains work hard, harder throughout the day. If we're not getting enough sleep, I want you to imagine like, like a city dump and people are dropping off garbage and dropping off garbage and it's just sitting there and it's not being moved off site. Like, that's what's happening in your brain. It's becoming a disgusting, clogged up, smelly mess. And the people who work there want to quit. Okay? That's what happens in your brain when you don't get enough sleep. And I say this knowing that we all live human lives where this is not always the case. Okay? If you have a dog, I know you know, there's moments in the middle of the night where you start hearing that sound, that sound where they're about to throw up and then you have to get up and you have to deal with it. And if you have kids worse, sometimes they come and they're like, mommy, mommy. And then they throw up on you and then you have to do laundry on top of Everything. Sleep is not always the thing that we can plan on getting enough of. But if you have the best intention and you set up your schedule to enable yourself to get enough sleep, it is an absolute game changer. And yes, sometimes your job as a business owner, when you haven't had enough sleep and your brain just isn't braining, is to literally go and take a nap. I know it feels super lazy, it feels very indulgent. But I want you to look at it from this perspective. You charge a lot of money for your work. Your clients expect the best from you. How can you deliver the best if your brain is not at 100%? You can't. By you trying to push through exhaustion, you're actually doing a major disservice to your clients. I want you to imagine it's almost like a breach of contract. Part of the contract you have with your clients is that you are going to take care of your brain so that your brain can provide the service to them at a top level for you to fulfill on that contract. You need to have enough sleep. And sometimes to have enough sleep, you need to take a nap. It's honestly, like, the best thing about running a business. Like, I don't know why more business gurus don't try to sell on the naps alone. Like, here they are, like, sitting on private jets waving money around, and all they have to do is just, like, film themselves taking a nap. And I'm sold. Like, sign me up for that. Sign me up for, like, what soft pants are you wearing? Oh, that looks like a cozy weighted blanket. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, you have the sound machine on. Oh, I told you this is not a sexy episode. But maybe I lied because I know, I know napping does it for me anyway. And that's it. If you want to be really good in your business, if you want to be healthy, if you want to get more stuff done in less time, you need to slow down. You need to schedule in these basic wellness activities into your day. You need to do them one at a time. No multitasking to the best of your ability. And it will help you have greater access to your creativity, less anxiety, and a better ability to figure out the best way to get all the big, big projects done in the most lazy way possible while still being incredibly effective. And if you really enjoy the sound of my voice and you would like me to guide you through some meditations, one of the benefits of being a hyperfocused member is that you have access to a library of guided meditations. That are designed to help you be more focused and more creative in your business. And if you want access to those, then I urge you to get on the wait list. Membership will be opening soon and you can find that link in the show notes, but it is also weeniecast.com forward/hyperfocus squirrel Squirrel if you're ready to stop being a weenie and actually run a business that makes money, then go ahead and book a generate income strategy call with me by going to weeniecast.com strategycall on this call, we will talk about your goals, your dreams, and your frustrations in getting there. And if it's a fit for both of us, then we can talk about different ways to work together. Boom. I got excited about the word smorgasbord. Squirrel Squirrel Squirrel Squirrel. Join the weeniecast Hyper Focus community and unlock a whole world of support. Get direct access to me in exclusive calls, turbocharge your network with unlimited referrals, and boost your productivity with Sprint calls and accountability sessions. But that's not all. We're talking expert talks, masterclasses, and more. Register now to get in front of the line for this at the introductory price of just $77 per month, it's time to elevate your entrepreneurial game. Let's do this together. Go to weeniecast.com com hyperfocus all one word. That's Weeniecast. Com Hyperfocus.