What can singer Adele and her 'Sliding Doors' teach ADHD entrepreneurs about business?

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, we're going to find out what pop megastar Adele can teach us ADHD entrepreneurs about starting a business. Squirrel Hi, I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and money mindset coach. And welcome to the weeniecast. Squirrel. At this moment, you have two potential futures opening up to you. This moment right here is a sliding doors moment. And one door will lead you to feeling proud, accomplished, like you have your together, knowing that you have what it takes to take your life exactly where you want it to go. The other door, by contrast, it leads to you feeling guilty, like you're not enough. Like you can never seem to get your stuff together in order to make your dreams come true. Through that door is the version of you who is all talk about the business that they want to build, yet never actually takes action on it. This moment is where you decide if you want to wait until 2024 to actually start and grow your business or take your existing business to that next level or you're ready to start now. And let me tell you, you can already guess by the tone of my voice which one I think you should do. You absolutely should start now because let me paint the picture. If you were just starting your business, here's the difference starting now versus waiting till January 1st can make. So if you have nothing set up for your business and you are planning on starting from scratch and say you start January 1st, you're not going to get clients that month. You're probably also not going to get clients in February and probably not in March either. That's because starting a business is a gradual build. You don't go and announce on Facebook to all your Facebook friends, hey everyone, I'm starting a business and automatically have all of your ideal clients. There's a lot that goes into it before you even make a dollar. In my build your own business group program and with my one on one clients, here's what I have my clients focus on so that they can build a solid foundation for their six or multiple six figure business. I'm going to step into the fortune teller right now. So let's pretend that you have decided to go in door number one. I can't remember which door it was but you've gone through the door where you're waiting until January 1st to get started. And let's assume that you are also deciding to figure it out as you go. You've decided that you are smart enough, which you are, don't get me wrong, you absolutely are smart enough to figure it out on your own. But you've committed to doing this on the cheap. You've committed to leaning into your natural talents to build this. Now, unless you've built a business before, unless you've learned sales and marketing and how to design a niche and how to figure out an offer, you are going to be spending at minimum four to five months spinning your wheels, trying to understand all of these components to start your business. That's a long time. Realistically, if you're starting your business come January 1, 2024, you're not gonna be signing clients on January 2. You're actually probably not gonna sign clients at all in January or in February or in March or in April. 20. So assuming you figure out exactly how to determine your niche, how to create an offer, how to sell, how to market yourself, assuming you do all of that in four months, which, by the way, it took me a better part of a decade to learn how to do sales and marketing in my sales and marketing career, assuming you get all of that completed, you start January 1st and say you work really hard at all of this through April. You'll probably get a couple clients in May. You might get a couple clients in June. But here's the thing about June. It's the beginning of the summer holidays. It really doesn't matter what industry you're in. Unless you teach swim lessons, it's gonna be slow, which means you may or may not have a couple clients that started with you late spring to see you through the summer holidays. And assuming you have the confidence in what you're doing to continue with your marketing strategy throughout the summer holidays. Because it's really hard to be confident in what you're doing in your marketing when you're not getting clients out of it, right? Assuming you stick with all that and it's actually effective, you're likely to start getting more clients come September and October, which means that you might make a little bit of money in the first half of the year, but really you're waiting until month nine in 2024 till you're bringing in even a fraction of the amount of real money that you're going to need to be full time. I don't know about you, but that seems like too long. I don't want to wait until September to be making money. Especially if I'm starting a fresh business. Especially if I'm doing this because I'm in a corporate job where I'm not happy. I'm making enough money that I feel like I should stay here. But really, ultimately there's this thing that I want to do that isn't this. I don't know if you've ever been unhappy in a job before. I imagine if you're listening to this and you're employed, if you're listening to this podcast and you're full time employed right now, I can bet good money that you're actually already unhappy in your job. You know how time speeds up when you're having a good time, time slows down when you're miserable. So that nine months where you are struggling to stay engaged in your full time job and build this business on the side and struggling to keep the faith that what you're doing on the side is actually going to work to bring in money. That, my friend, does not sound like a fun 2024. That sounds like a year. That is chalk. Choco. What is it? Chocobok. Full squirrel. So I got that term from love, actually, with the guy who's like going to the United States to get girls and he's like, this backpack's chockabuck full of condoms. I just love that term, but it always makes me think of that moment in that movie. Anyway, just like his backpack is chockabuck full of condoms. Your 2024 is going to be chockabock full of self doubt, frustration and worry that this is never going to take off. A lot less fun than a backpack full of condoms. I know we all want the right timing. When I started my business, I was really concerned with the right timing. I really wanted everything to fit perfectly into my calendar. I wanted to feel like everything was a very natural liftoff time. January 1st is a sacred day. Like it doesn't matter if you are completely anti New Year's resolutions, but it is that fresh page. It's a fresh page for a whole new year, right? Just like the first of the month is a fresh page for that month. Just like Mondays have that sacredness. If you want to start a new routine, you're usually starting it on Monday, right? Never mind that you're probably screwing it up by Tuesday and then ditching it for the rest of the week. Still, Mondays hold that sacred element. And I totally understand wanting to start your business on a fresh, clean new Page. And also, that's not how it works. That's not how it's going to work best for you. It's actually going to delay your success so much longer than if you just got started six weeks earlier. Do you get started today on building your business and do not wait until 2024. You are going to be so far ahead of the curve in my group program. Build your own business. And with my one on one clients here, here are the foundational things that I have everyone focus on in those first couple months of starting their business. Number one, you're figuring out your niche. And you're not just doing it alone in an echo chamber by yourself. You're actually going and doing market research interviews. You are hearing from the horse's mouth exactly what they're struggling with, what they want more than anything. And you're also paying attention to do I actually want to work with this niche? As you're interviewing these people, I can tell you from experience, you know, I picked the wrong niche three times before I picked the right one. The universe had to correct me a couple times. My clients, sometimes they will start the interview process and they'll realize, oh my God, these people are so boring, I never want to talk to them again. Or they'll think, okay, well, it doesn't seem like there's actually a big need here. The problem that I thought was the problem that I'd solved doesn't seem like something that people are actually concerned with. I'm gonna need to go back to the drawing board and think of something new. Doing market research interviews is an incredible way to accelerate that process. Instead of trying to figure it out over months and months and months, you can figure it out in a matter of weeks. Now, in addition to that, all the information that you get from your market research interviews, that's what you're going to base your offer on. So you're not just going to guess what would be best for your clients. You're going to have it based in actual fact of what they're struggling with and what they want more than anything. You're going to design it specifically around the people who are your ideal clients. Doing all that market research research is also going to fast track all of your marketing. You're not going to have to be creative at all, which is an amazing thing because the holidays are coming, right? You're about to be super busy. You're about to have to like, use your brain to think of gifts to buy people who are really difficult to buy for. That's your Creativity quota right there. Okay? You don't need to try to figure out how to be creative for a brand new business. Also, when you do proper market research, that becomes the basis of your marketing. I can't tell you how many of the posts and the content that I've created have literally come from the notes that I took while I was doing my market research. You know, I'll take a sentence that literally came out of one of my ideal clients mouths and I'll extrapolate on it and I'll explain it and I'll empathize with it. If you were to start your business today with the right, right guidance, in the next six weeks, you could have all of these pieces put into Place. Come January 1st, if you were to do your market research, figure out your niche, design your offer, learn how to market it and learn how to sell it. Come January 1st, when people are looking for support to do whatever they've decided to do next year, you'll already have their attention. They'll already feel like they have a relationship with you because you've been in front of them throughout this whole process. You've been in front of them talking about the problems that they have. And when you start dropping those announcements saying, hey, I'm accepting clients for this because they already trust you, you can build trust in a very short amount of time if you're saying the right things, because you will have done all the correct things over the next six weeks to learn what those trust building sentences will be. When you enter January and February, those clients who have those problems, you're going to be the first person that they think of to help them. Which means that if you start today and if you start with a very simple, simple step by step protocol for how to get started, you're likely to start getting clients in January and in February and in March and in April. May is when things kind of start to slow down because you're coming on those summer months. But imagine if you were to get started today and start getting clients in January and chip away at building up towards your goal. You could absolutely have a $10,000 a month business come May or June. For me, that would have been enough for me to walk away from my job, my miserable soul sucking corporate job, which I was really good at and I made really good money at, but I just didn't want to be there anymore. If you were to get started today, imagine you have an almost full business come the end of the spring. You enter the summer months knowing it's going to be Slow, but knowing exactly what you need to be spending your time on. Marketing wise, delivering to clients wise all the things so that come September you have people who are ready to book sales calls with you because they are ready to sign up with you. The cool thing about September, I don't know if you've noticed this. Ooh, what am I going to say next? Well, you'll have to keep listening to find out. But first. Squirrel. Squirrel. Squirrel. Squirrel. Squirrel. Join the Weenacast 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 hyperfocus all one word, that's weeniecast.com hyperFocus the cool thing about September, I don't know if you've noticed this, but like that back to school time. We got so trained on it as children, especially, you know, in the Northern hemisphere, we got so trained on it that even as adults, even being so separated from school, like I don't have any children and still September rolls around and I want to sign up for stuff. I want to sign up for learning, I want to sign up for personal development because that's what September is associated with for me. It's the same for your clients. You've built your business throughout the spring. You've had kind of a slow summer. You're going to kick it off again in September. You're going to sign clients through September, October and November. December might be slow, depending on your industry. For me, I was really surprised. December is one of my busiest months. All of my record breaking revenue months have been December. So for you, depending on your industry, December could be massive. It could also be really slow. But then we hit 2025, we hit January again and imagine what that January is going to look like after you've built your business all throughout 2024 versus January 2025 after you waited, after you spun your wheels for about six months and then didn't get any clients because you were in the slow season and then started making some money, but really didn't build much momentum. I don't know about you, but I know for me, New Year's Eve for 2025. Be a f ing celebration if I did that first iteration. For those of us with adhd, waiting is a part of our strategy. We thrive on deadlines. I have never written a paper for any class in any of the schooling that I ever had that I didn't write the night before. You know, my whole routine was literally in college. I would set myself up in the communal hallway of my dormitory. There was a couch right there. I would set myself up with my electric kettle. I would have packets of green tea and miso soup. I would have all the books that I'd gotten out of the library weeks and weeks ago when the paper was actually assigned to me. I'd be looking at all of my notes for that class and I would write that paper. No matter if it was five pages or 20 pages, I would write that paper that night. I would usually stay up until my class at 8am because there's always that class at 8am that had the paper due, right? And then I would race to the library, I'd print it up and make it just on time to hand that paper in. And then sometimes I wouldn't even stay for the class because I'd need to go home and sleep. The professor always knew what was going on. Come on. Anyway, for those of us with adhd, that's how we get shit done and we can do it effectively. Those papers that I wrote last minute, I never got less than a B or a B plus on them. More times than not, I was in the A range. There's no deadline for you to start your business. You waiting is just going to be you waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting until you're dead. And then just imagine those last few minutes of you being alive are going to be about all the regrets you have over waiting. That sounds really sad. It also sounds really boring for the people who are going to be sitting at your deathbed trying to say, you know, a nice goodbye to hear you whining about all the stuff that you wish you'd done. Oh, like, for their sake, please like, make your last few moments on earth about sharing funny stories, about sharing heartfelt memories and not about, oh, I wish I'd been better. I wish I'd been this. Like, that sounds so awful. I wouldn't want to be on your deathbed. I mean, I wouldn't want to be a guest at your deathbed if that's what you're going to bitch about. For their sake and for yours. Stop waiting. Stop it. Waiting is never going to make anything better. The Best time to plant a tree was 10 years ago. The next best time is today. The next best time is tomorrow. But if you keep waiting to plant that tree, it's never going to grow into something that's going to offer shade or grow fruit or whatever kind of tree it is, you know? And at the heart of it, I want you to remember that the actions you take make up the story of your life. If you keep being that person who's constantly talking about this business idea that you have and how someday you're going to make it real, the only action you're taking is talking, right? And no one's impressed by someone who's always all talk and no action. And even if you screw it up, even if you start today and get it massively wrong and have to clean it up and have to change it, you're still going to be miles ahead than if you just continue talking about it. If you start a business, once you're going to learn how to start a business, it's not going to be complete guesswork the second time you do it, or the third time or the fourth time. You're going to be able to learn and grow and iterate as you go. You're going to learn what works best for you, how you best use your time. You're going to understand why people sign up with you. That doesn't change with your service. Like, why people want to be near you is a you thing, it's a personality thing. And once you understand that, it's so much easier for you to get clients. There's this belief system that, you know, there's a certain point in the future where you're going to feel ready to start the business, where you're gonna feel ready to go out and announce that you help people, where you're gonna feel ready to actually start marketing yourself. And let me tell you, that's complete bs. When you learn to ride a bike, there was no moment where you're like, I'm ready to give up my training wheels. You were terrified. You were absolutely terrified. You didn't know how to balance while you were pedaling and trying to turn and trying not to run into things and trying not to run over your parents toes. Like, there was a lot going on. And I guarantee you, if you learned how to ride a bike at any point in your life, you fell a lot. You absolutely ate. But if you know how to ride a bike, you know that you pushed through even though you didn't feel ready. You did it before. You were confident at it. And that's what's required when you do anything new. You have to start before you feel ready, because feeling ready doesn't happen until you've done it a couple dozen times. And even then, there are going to be moments where you feel shy. Adele, who's a, Like a worldwide sensation, she's an incredible singer. Her albums sell like. Like stuff that sells really well. I know nothing about music. Sorry. Every time she gets on stage to perform, she throws up because she has massive stage fright. That stage fright doesn't go away with her talent. It doesn't go away with her success. It doesn't go away with the buckets of money that pours into her bank account every time she opens her mouth for you. You may still have your version of stage fright for years and years and years after you start, but could you imagine if Adele let that stage fright get in the way of her having a music career? Could you imagine never hearing that song, hello, it's me? Could you imagine a world where there weren't SNL skits about her songs? Could you imagine if she just worked in a restaurant waiting tables and sang in the shower and that was it? How sad would that be? It's the same for you. Whatever it is that you want to do in the world, whatever gift you have to give, if you keep waiting for the fear to go away, you're going to be that person who's doing that variation of Waiting Tables when you could be your own version of Adele. A big part of this, for people with adhd, that fear is that rejection, sensitivity, dysphoria. We're terrified of showing the world who we truly are, of daring to say, I can help you with this if you pay me. And hearing people we really respect and care about laugh at us. Right, that's what we assume is going to happen when we start a business. Whenever we do anything that's outside our comfort zone, we assume that not only will people not buy what we're selling, we'll become a punchline, will become the joke that everyone tells when they're out to dinner with our friends who don't want to invite us anymore. We worry about all the people that we could be on a sales call with who will say, absolutely not. You're not worth that. In the five and a half years that I've been in business and helping other people start their businesses, I have never once experienced or heard of anyone else experiencing being on a sales call with someone who says, you're not worth it. Far more often the person Says, you know what, you're actually massively undercharging for everything that you do for your people. And really, if you think about it, the fact that you're holding yourself back and you're making yourself wait until the right moment is actually you telling yourself that you're not worth it. It's you saying you're not ready for this, you can't handle this. You know we're going to reject you before anyone else can. And again, that's not the kind of person that I want to be sitting next to their deathbed, hearing about them whining about their life. So the choice is yours. This is your sliding doors moment. You get to choose which door you want to walk through. If you want to be the person who waits for the quote, unquote right moment and who then spins their wheels and takes forever to build this thing that you really, really, really want and potentially even gives up because it takes too long, 100% your choice, full permission to be that person if that's what you want. But if you want to be the person who starts before you're ready, who sets yourself up for success, who doesn't wait for that mystical moment where you're going to be ready because you know it does not exist, then you need to start today. You need to get over your feet fear. You need to get over your fear of failure. Because failure is a guarantee. There are going to be so many failures along this road, you're not going to be able to count all of them. But on the other side of all that failure is the version of you who has no regrets because you will know that you did everything you possibly could to make your dreams come true. You set yourself up for success. That version of you doesn't have regrets for not going after the things they wanted while they're on their deathbed. That's the person who gets to say, hey, listen, I've loved my life with you and here's some funny stories and here's things that I'm so happy I got to experience. So like I said, the choice is yours. Which person do you want to be? If you want to be the person who starts today, then here's my invitation to you. If what you want to start is a service based business and you need help figuring out your strategy, figuring out an action plan for you to actually go out and market yourself and get clients, you're going to go to the show Notes, you're going to click on the link for a generate income strategy call. The link is weeniecast.com strategycall and you're going to book a call with me and we're going to talk through your big goal and we're also going to talk through all the things that you feel are getting in the way of you getting there on your own. And if it makes sense for us to work together, then we'll talk about different options for that. If it doesn't make sense, then I'm going to point you in the direction of a bunch of other resources that will serve you better. If you're not starting a service based business, then what you're going to do after you listen to this podcast is you are going to go into the Google machine and you are going to try to find something, some kind of resource or coach or strategist who trains people like you, who do the thing that you do, how to get started. If you have any trouble with this, I have a fairly extensive network of other business coaches. Please feel free to reach out to me and you can do so by emailing Katie@katimcmanis.com but if you're the kind of person who's like, oh no, I still just want to wait, do not contact me. Do not contact me because the only thing that I will have to say to you is it's too rude to say on my podcast because I know what you're capable of. I don't even have to know you to know what you're capable of. You are here listening to this podcast all about starting businesses. You have it in you. The fact that you're listening to this right now, you, you have it in you to grow a business. The only reason you do not have a successful business already is because you have not believed in you enough. And if you're going to email me telling me all the reasons why you should still wait, I do not have time for that. And I hope you don't either. So again, this is your choice. Take action today or wait. It's up to you. Are you an entrepreneur? Are you struggling to stay focused and organized while juggling a million tasks? Are you looking for ways to improve your productivity but finding it hard to stay motivated? Then you need to get access to my Weeniecast for Winners show. That's exclusively on Apple Podcasts. I know you might be thinking I've tried everything to stay on task and nothing works. But I'm enjoying the advice I'm getting here on the weeniecast and let me tell you, I'm delighted to be able to help you and thousands of listeners just like you, my friend. But the Weeniecast for Winners podcast is next level and I'd hate for you to miss out on it. For just1.99amonth, Weeniecast for winners delivers in depth and actionable advice that's specifically designed for entrepreneurs, including those with adhd, whether diagnosed or suspected it. I'll talk you through how to increase your sales conversions, keep your mindfulness on point, and even offer practical tips that can help you be more productive and successful in your business, all while catering to your unique needs of being an entrepreneur who might be struggling with adhd. With weeniecast for Winners, you'll get practical tips and strategies that you can use to drive your business forward without the frustrations and setbacks that often come with adhd. So if you're ready to start seeing real Results, subscribe to Winniecast for winners today@winniecast.com winners for just $1.99 a month, you'll gain access to the valuable insights and strategies that can take your business to the next level. Weeniecast for Winners is a show that's worth every penny for entrepreneurs who want to succeed. Subscribe now and start enjoying the benefits for yourself. Join the weeniecast hyper focused community and unlock a whole world. 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.