The ADHD CEO

Full Show Notes:https://sociallyausome.com/post/adhd-scripts-work-stop-apologizing

How many times have you apologized today for something that didn't actually require an apology?

“Sorry, can you repeat that?”

“Sorry, I need that in writing.”

“Sorry, I have one more question.”

For adults with ADHD, asking for clarity can feel like admitting failure. So we apologize, overexplain, mask our struggles, and push ourselves until we're exhausted.

But needing a different way to work doesn't mean you're bad at your job.

In Episode 227 of The ADHD CEO, Alyece Smith shares five practical scripts to help you communicate your needs at work without unnecessary apologies.

In this episode:

• How to ask for written instructions without feeling incompetent

• What to say when every task feels urgent

• How to respond when your brain goes blank during a meeting

• How to take accountability without tearing yourself down

• How to ask for focus time or a different workflow

• What to do when someone pushes back on your request

One sentence to remember:

“Here's what helps me do my best work.”

Your challenge this week? Catch yourself apologizing for something you need. Replace that apology with one clear request.

Resources:

📖 FLOW-First Thinking: https://sociallyausome.com/books/flowfirst

🎙️ More episodes: https://sociallyausome.com/podcast

💻 Work with Alyece: https://api.leadconnectorhq.com/widget/booking/rqhXr37Vl7F0xhqGiIpK

Connect with Alyece:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/socially.ausome/

Website: https://sociallyausome.com

If this episode hits home, share it with someone who needs to stop apologizing for how their brain works.

Stay Ausome.

Full Show notes: https://sociallyausome.com/post/adhd-high-achievers-burnout/

You are not lazy. You are burned out from overachieving.

If you are the person everybody counts on at work, the one who fixes it, stays late, and holds the whole project together, but you sit in your car for 20 minutes before you can walk inside, this episode is for you.

In this episode, Alyece breaks down the 3 signs of high achiever burnout for ADHD professionals and entrepreneurs, and why pressure, over-delivering, and rest that does not work are not personal failures. Then she gives you the FLOW First Reset you can do today, without a perfect plan or a 47 item to do list.

Free checklist from this episode:
Get the High Achiever Burnout Checklist, the one page printable from this episode. Spot the 3 signs, then do the 3 step FLOW First Reset.

What you will learn in this episode:
Why you only trust yourself in a crisis, and why pressure is your backup system, not your real system
How over delivering to hide the struggle becomes masking, and why masking is so exhausting
Why rest does not fix ADHD burnout, and what actually helps
The FLOW First Reset: name one real priority, close one loop, and build a finish line

Timestamps:
0:00 The question every high achiever needs to hear
1:30 Welcome to The ADHD CEO
2:30 Sign 1: You only trust yourself in a crisis
5:00 Sign 2: You over deliver to hide the struggle
7:30 Book break: FLOW First Thinking on Audible
8:30 Sign 3: Rest does not fix it
11:00 The FLOW First Reset you can do today
13:00 Work with Alyece
14:00 Your review ask and next week preview

Mentioned in this episode:
FLOW First Thinking: ADHD Isn't Broken, It's Untapped Potential, by Alyece Smith. Listen on Audible and find the book at sociallyausome.com/books/flowfirst
Work with Alyece, 1 to 1 coaching for ADHD professionals and entrepreneurs: [ADD YOUR STAN LINK HERE]

Next week:
ADHD Scripts for Work: What to Say Instead of Sorry. Follow the show so you do not miss it.

If this episode helped you:
Please follow The ADHD CEO, leave a 5 star rating and a quick review, and send this episode to one high achiever in your life. Tell us in a comment or review: which sign was yours? Sign 1, the crisis worker? Sign 2, the over deliverer? Or sign 3, rest does not fix it?

Connect:
Instagram: @socially.ausome
Podcast: The ADHD CEO, with Alyece Smith, certified ADHD and Autism coach

Note:
This episode is coaching and education, not medical advice. If you are struggling in a big way, please get support around you too.

Search keywords for Spotify:
ADHD at work, ADHD women burnout, ADHD high achiever, ADHD masking at work, late diagnosed ADHD women, ADHD professional women, ADHD burnout reset

Full show notes here: https://sociallyausome.com/post/adhd-professional-life-tuesday-brain/

You can run a company, lead a department, finish the assignment, and still lose an entire Tuesday to a 3 p.m. appointment.

How can you be this capable and this chaotic at the same time?

In episode 225, I’m talking about the cost of holding your professional life together with one impatient ADHD brain.

The same focus that helped you build your career or business can leave you skipping lunch, forgetting replies, and making promises your tired Tuesday brain has to keep.

We’re talking about:

• The ADHD CEO tax: three invoices paid in time, your body, and trust
• Waiting mode and the appointment that holds your whole day hostage
• Why replying in your head doesn’t count as replying
• What my unusual 10 p.m. client call taught me about momentum
• Building your professional life for your ordinary brain day
• Three moves from FLOW-First Thinking: externalize everything, design around your spark, and build brakes on purpose

Whether you’re an employee, an executive, or an entrepreneur, your work needs a plan that still works when the excitement wears off.

GET YOUR FREE SPARK TRACKER

DM SPARK to me on Instagram. Track when your energy and focus show up for three days.

https://www.instagram.com/socially.ausome/

GET FLOW-FIRST THINKING

FLOW-First Thinking: ADHD Isn't Broken, It's Untapped Potential

https://sociallyausome.com/books/flowfirst

HELP SOMEONE ELSE FIND THIS CONVERSATION

Share this episode with an ADHD professional who looks like she has it all together.

Leave the podcast a review. If you’ve read or listened to FLOW-First Thinking, leave an honest review on Amazon, too. Tell me what you learned. Your feedback helps other people find the show and the book.

Now go drink some water. Yes, actually. Right now.

READ THE FULL SHOW NOTES:⁠ https://sociallyausome.com/post/adhd-pattern-recognition⁠

You saw the problem coming. You spoke up. Someone called it overthinking.

Now it’s an emergency, and somehow you’re expected to fix it.

In episode 224 of The ADHD CEO, Alyece Smith talks about ADHD pattern recognition, spotting possible problems early, and the frustration of getting brushed off until everyone needs your help.

Learn how to explain what you see, check your assumptions, and set boundaries before someone else’s problem takes over your workday.

In this episode:
• How to explain your concern without jumping straight to the worst-case scenario
• How to separate an observation from a prediction
• Why noticing a problem doesn’t make it your responsibility
• What to say when you’re asked to handle another last-minute emergency
• Four words to use before taking on more work: “Who owns this?”

Seeing a problem early doesn’t mean you volunteered to fix it.

CONNECT WITH ALYECE ON INSTAGRAM:
https://www.instagram.com/socially.ausome/

GET MY BOOK, FLOW-FIRST THINKING:
https://amzn.to/3TaVuD7
Amazon affiliate link. I may earn a commission from qualifying purchases.

WATCH MY TEDx TALK:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBaJhU1gOVU

Follow The ADHD CEO for honest conversations about ADHD, business, productivity, and building a workday you can sustain.

Know someone who keeps saying, “I tried to tell you”? Send them this episode.

Read the full Episode 223 show notes and resources:

⁠https://sociallyausome.com/post/adhd-at-work-measuring-wrong-things/⁠

You can solve the hardest problem in the room and still get treated like you’re bad at your job after forgetting to answer one email.

Many workplaces are not measuring how well you do your job. They’re measuring how well you perform looking organized.

In Episode 223 of The ADHD CEO Podcast, Alyece Smith breaks down what ADHD at work can actually look like, including:

• Why working memory can drop the next step after a meeting
• How executive dysfunction affects starting, planning, and switching tasks
• What RSD and rejection sensitivity can look like at work
• Why vague feedback creates shame instead of change
• How productivity theater steals energy from meaningful work
• Why ADHD burnout can hide behind praise and strong performance
• What managers and ADHD professionals can do differently

ADHD does not erase responsibility. It changes what a responsible plan may need to include.

Your system should catch what your brain drops, make the next action visible, and help you return after an interruption.

Get FLOW-First Thinking:

https://amzn.to/3TaVuD7

If this episode makes you feel seen, follow The ADHD CEO Podcast and leave a review. Then send it to someone who is great at the work but exhausted from trying to look organized.

Say hey on Instagram Here: https://instagram.com/sociallyausome

FULL SHOW NOTES HERE: https://sociallyausome.com/post/everything-feels-urgent-with-adhd/

Your ADHD brain can make answering an email, fixing your website, following up with a client, paying an actual bill, and starting the brand-new idea you had 12 minutes ago feel equally urgent.

They're not.

And THAT might be why you're so overwhelmed.

In Episode 222 of The ADHD CEO Podcast, Alyece Smith breaks down a realization she had after sitting down to work convinced she was ridiculously behind.

Once she actually sorted through everything in her head, some things were already done. Some had real deadlines. Some were connected to money. Some were blocking other people.

And some were just interesting things her ADHD brain had promoted to EMERGENCY status.

Sometimes ADHD overwhelm isn't a workload problem. It's a sorting problem.

In this episode, we're talking about:

• Why everything can feel equally important with ADHD
• The difference between urgent and interesting
• Why overwhelm isn't a reliable measurement of your workload
• How open loops create invisible mental work
• How ADHD entrepreneurs accidentally become bottlenecks in their businesses
• Why unfinished work may be sitting between you and revenue
• How to get tasks OUT of your brain instead of constantly trying to remember them
• The five questions Alyece uses when everything feels urgent

When your brain says DO EVERYTHING RIGHT NOW, ask:

1. What has an actual deadline?

Not "I've been meaning to do this." What has a real consequence if it doesn't happen?

2. What is costing me money by sitting unfinished?

The proposal. The invoice. The sales email. The follow-up. The video that's already recorded but hasn't been posted.

3. Who is waiting on me?

Who can't move forward until you do your part?

4. What can I completely close in 10 minutes?

Not start. CLOSE.

5. What does not need to live in my brain anymore?

Your brain should not be your project management system.

The goal isn't:

How do I get EVERYTHING done?

The better question is:

What actually matters today?

⚡ GET THE SPARK TRACKER

Your brain was never supposed to hold every task, idea, follow-up, deadline, and random "OH SHIT, DON'T FORGET THIS" thought that hits you during the day.

The Spark Tracker gives those thoughts somewhere to go without turning every thought into something you need to do right now.

👉 https://sociallyausome.com/spark-tracker-page

💻 NEED ANOTHER SET OF EYES ON YOUR BUSINESS?

If you're thinking, "Okay Alyece, I KNOW something isn't working in my business, but I cannot figure out what the hell the problem actually is," that's literally what I do.

Give me your content, offers, website, sales process, or systems.

Let's find the gap and figure out what actually deserves your attention first.

👉 Book a 1:1 call with Alyece:
https://v2.stan.store/alyece1smith/p/book-a-11-call-with-me-ztf8b4k6

📚 FLOW-FIRST THINKING

Build your days around how your ADHD brain actually works.

👉 https://amzn.to/3TaVuD7

🎤 BOOK ALYECE TO SPEAK

👉 https://sociallyausome.com/alyece_speaking

🎧 THE ADHD CEO PODCAST

Hosted by Alyece Smith, The ADHD CEO is about what it actually looks like to build, market, grow, and run a business with an ADHD brain.

If this episode hit a little TOO close to home, send it to the person who currently has 47 things on her to-do list and somehow thinks all 47 need to happen today.

THE 5-QUESTION ADHD TRIAGE

Full Show Notes Here: https://sociallyausome.com/post/adhd-entrepreneurs-keep-starting-over

The Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/sociallyausomeentrepreneurs

You make the plan.

You get excited.

You follow it for three days.

Life happens.

Then somehow one missed day turns into, “Well, I guess I need a whole new system.”

Sound familiar?

In this episode of The ADHD CEO Podcast, Alyece Smith breaks down why ADHD entrepreneurs can get trapped in the cycle of starting, stopping, feeling guilty, and starting over again.

This is not just about being “inconsistent.”

Your brain may be reacting to novelty, repetition, mental overload, and all-or-nothing thinking in ways that make starting feel easier than continuing.

Alyece shares three shifts that can help you stop rebuilding your business every time life gets messy:

1. Ask if it’s broken or if you’re bored.
ADHD brains can get energy from new ideas, new systems, and new problems to solve. Before you replace your planner, CRM, offer, or content strategy, ask if it actually stopped working or if the maintenance part simply stopped feeling interesting.

2. Practice re-entry instead of restarting.
Missing one day does not mean the entire system failed. You do not need to wait until Monday, next month, or a fresh planner. Find the next useful step and re-enter where you are.

3. Build a Minimum Viable Business Day.
What are the two or three actions that keep your business moving when you are not operating at full capacity? Decide those before the hard day arrives.

Alyece is putting these ideas into practice in her own business too.

She has been thinking about creating a new live experience for ADHD entrepreneurs, but this time she is not building the entire thing behind closed doors first.

Over the next two weeks, she is asking her community to help shape what comes next.

If this conversation sounds like your business, join the Facebook group and find the post for this episode.

Comment FLOW and answer:

What do you KNOW you should be doing in your business that you still struggle to do consistently?

Your answer may help shape what Alyece creates next.

• Why novelty can make starting easier than maintaining

• Why ADHD entrepreneurs keep replacing systems

• How one missed day becomes an all-or-nothing reset

• Re-entry vs. restarting

• How mental load affects business execution

• How to create your Minimum Viable Business Day

• Why your business needs to work on your 40% days too

• Why Alyece is validating her next offer before building it

Ask yourself:

What have I replaced lately that might have just needed consistency?

Where do I need re-entry instead of another restart?

What are the three actions in my Minimum Viable Business Day?

If this episode made you think of another ADHD entrepreneur who keeps rebuilding her business systems from scratch, send it to her.

Make it simple. Make it social. Make it ausome.

Full Show Notes Here: ⁠https://sociallyausome.com/post/adhd-vacation-couldnt-relax/⁠

What happens when you spend thousands of dollars on a vacation, leave the country, check into an all-inclusive resort, and realize your ADHD brain still cannot relax?

Then comes the guilt.

You should be happy. You should feel romantic. You should be taking beautiful pictures. You should return home refreshed.

But what if the pressure to relax turns rest into one more job?

In this unplanned episode of The ADHD CEO Podcast, Alyece shares the truth about her 15-year anniversary trip: the chaos before leaving, the mental load she carried out of the country, the resort that did not fit, the arguments over things no one could control, and the flight delay that pushed an already overloaded brain past its limit.

This episode covers:

• Why changing locations does not automatically give an ADHD brain rest
• How mental load follows you on vacation
• Why delegating tasks is not the same as releasing responsibility
• How expensive trips create pressure to perform happiness
• Why the final disruption can feel huge after dozens of smaller stressors
• What it means to divorce the money from an experience
• Four questions to ask before judging yourself for feeling overwhelmed

Maybe you are not bad at resting.

Maybe this version of rest does not meet your needs.

Read the full blog and key takeaways:

https://sociallyausome.com/post/adhd-vacation-couldnt-relax/

Get FLOW-First Thinking:

https://amzn.to/3TaVuD7

Connect with Alyece:

https://instagram.com/socially.ausome

Full show notes here: https://sociallyausome.com/post/what-to-say-to-your-boss-about-adhd-script-ep-219/

Last week I told you why your company will not support you even when supporting you is cheaper than replacing you. This week I am giving you the actual words.

Not a framework.

Not advocate for yourself.

Sentences, in order, that you can say out loud on Monday.

And it starts with the part that surprises people. Do not lead with the word accommodation. If you do, you just routed a ninety minute schedule shift into a process built by lawyers to limit liability, and it will take three weeks and probably get you less.

There are two doors here. Almost nobody knows they are choosing.

Note: I am a certified ADHD coach and a systems expert, not an attorney and not a doctor. Nothing in this episode is legal advice, and I say exactly where that line sits.

In this episode:(00:00) Why the most important word is one you should not say first(02:00) The two doors, and how your wording picks one for you(04:00) What the ADA actually requires, and why door two is not a magic key(05:00) The four sentence script: setup, observation, ask, output(06:00) Five filled in scripts, word for word(10:00) Four phrases to never use(11:00) When to use the word accommodation on purpose(12:30) What to do if they say no(14:00) For managers: your ten seconds

Your one action: take the one change that would most improve your actual work. Write the four sentences. Read it back and cut "I struggle with," "I have ADHD so," and any hedging. Send it tomorrow, not today.

Then DM me on Instagram @socially.ausome and tell me what you asked for and what they said. I want the nos as much as the yeses.

Resources mentioned:FLOW-First Thinking on Amazon and Audible: https://amzn.to/3TaVuD7

My TEDx talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBaJhU1gOVU

Free Spark Tracker, find your focus windows before you ask for them: https://sociallyausome.com/spark-tracker-page

Book me to speak: https://sociallyausome.com/alyece_speaking

Discounted 1-hour call: https://api.leadconnectorhq.com/widget/bookings/onehourwithalyecesmithg0cjjj

If this one helped, leave the podcast a review. It costs nothing and it is how other ADHD adults find it.

Full show notes here: https://sociallyausome.com/post/why-companies-wont-support-adhd-employees/

What You'll Learn:

• The real cost of replacing an employee (and why it's higher than you think)
• The three wrong answers companies give and why they're wrong
• The Split Ledger: the structural reason accommodation never happens
• Four mechanics that keep the cost and the cure in different places
• What to do if you're an ADHD employee at an unsupportive job
• What managers need to see to change behavior

Key Numbers:

• Gallup: Replacing an employee costs 50-200% of their annual salary
• SHRM: Same range, depending on role
• Mid-level employee at $60K: Replacement costs $30-$120K
• Voluntary turnover costs US businesses: ~$1 trillion per year
• Team productivity drop after turnover: ~11%

The Split Ledger — 4 Mechanics:

1. Cost (HR budget) and cure (manager decision) have different owners
2. Timelines don't match (quarterly goals vs. 14-month retention)
3. No line item for "resignations prevented"
4. Accommodation gets routed through legal, not performance

Three Tactical Moves for ADHD Employees:

1. Don't use "accommodation" unless you need legal protection
2. If you do need protection, use it deliberately
3. Frame requests as output, not as personal need

Want to talk about ADHD Consulting for your company?

Fill out the form here: https://sociallyausome.com/adhd-workplace-consultant

Resources:

• FLOW-First Thinking: https://sociallyausome.com/books/flow-first-thinking
• Book Alyece to Speak: https://sociallyausome.com/alyece_speaking
• Instagram: @socially.ausome