You built the business because you were good at the work. Nobody warned you that promoting it might be harder than doing it.

New research on neurodivergent entrepreneurs found that maintaining a social media profile was the most commonly reported self-employment challenge. Ahead of work-life balance, unpredictability, and financial pressures.

In this episode, Skye and Robert unpack why social media has become such a difficult part of running a business, what else neurodivergent entrepreneurs say they struggle with, and the support and habits they find most helpful.

What We Cover:

• Why maintaining a social media profile topped the list of challenges
• How work-life balance, unpredictability, and marketing compared
• Why peer support, professional networks, and mentorship matter
• What entrepreneurs said helped their wellbeing, from movement and sleep to boundaries

P.S. If you’re a founder who’s tired of the mad scramble of disorganized systems and stressful HR, and you want a business that feels as easy as plugging your headphones into an iPod shuffle, I’ve got something for you.

Want to grow your business? 

My Focused Balanced Growth Program has everything you need to build consistent ADHD-friendly routines and processes to grow. Click here to learn more.
https://www.unconventionalorganisation.com/clear-balanced-days

Looking for a coach who's also an operator who'll turn your business into a finely-tuned profit and peace machine designed for your brain? 

I work with one company a month as a fractional consultant and COO, learning about your business and implementing systems that allow both trust & transparency with your team. Click here to book a call and discuss.
https://unconventionalorganisation.as.me/schedule/1153d1ef/appointment/71643407/calendar/7186455?appointmentTypeIds[]=71643407

Carlos Gutierrez spent 25 years rising from sales representative to CEO of Kellogg, then served as U.S. Commerce Secretary. He did it all without knowing he had ADHD.

When he was diagnosed later in life, Carlos began looking back at his career differently. The disorganization, procrastination and impulsivity he had treated as personal flaws finally had a name. So did some of the traits that helped him succeed, including intense hyperfocus, intuition and an ability to connect with people.

In this conversation, Carlos and Skye unpack the role ADHD played at the highest levels of his career, from the projects he could not stop thinking about to the support that helped him perform at his best. They also talk honestly about the cost of that drive, particularly the work that followed him home and the family time he lost along the way.

It is a fascinating look at what ADHD can actually look like at the top, and what Carlos understands about himself now that he wishes he had known earlier.

What We Cover

• Why Carlos saw his ADHD traits as personal flaws for decades
• How hyperfocus became one of his biggest career advantages
• Why the right support and structure changed how he performed
• The impact his intense focus on work had on his family life
• How ADHD shaped his intuition, empathy and leadership style
• What changed when Carlos finally learned he had ADHD

P.S. If you’re a founder who’s tired of the mad scramble of disorganized systems and stressful HR, and you want a business that feels as easy as plugging your headphones into an iPod shuffle, I’ve got something for you.

Want to grow your business? 

My Focused Balanced Growth Program has everything you need to build consistent ADHD-friendly routines and processes to grow. Click here to learn more.
https://www.unconventionalorganisation.com/clear-balanced-days

Looking for a coach who's also an operator who'll turn your business into a finely-tuned profit and peace machine designed for your brain? 

I work with one company a month as a fractional consultant and COO, learning about your business and implementing systems that allow both trust & transparency with your team. Click here to book a call and discuss.
https://unconventionalorganisation.as.me/schedule/1153d1ef/appointment/71643407/calendar/7186455?appointmentTypeIds[]=71643407

Waking up exhausted after eight hours of sleep isn't just bad luck. In this Research Recap, Skye and Will break down a meta-analysis on hay fever and ADHD, including the finding that people with allergies are significantly more likely to also meet the criteria for ADHD. They talk through how swollen sinuses can disrupt sleep, how that can show up as brain fog and forgetfulness, and why the researchers still can't say which condition comes first. Want more of Will's work? Visit HackingYourADHD.com or subscribe on YouTube.

What We Cover:

• The 1.83x risk finding from 18 studies covering 4.2 million people
• Why poor sleep from allergies can look a lot like ADHD symptoms
• The inflammation theory behind the connection
• Why correlation isn't causation, and why the finding still matters
• What researchers still don't know about the ADHD–allergy link

Want more of Will's work? Visit HackingYourADHD.com or subscribe on YouTube.

P.S. If you’re a founder who’s tired of the mad scramble of disorganized systems and stressful HR, and you want a business that feels as easy as plugging your headphones into an iPod shuffle, I’ve got something for you.

Want to grow your business? 

My Focused Balanced Growth Program has everything you need to build consistent ADHD-friendly routines and processes to grow. Click here to learn more.
https://www.unconventionalorganisation.com/clear-balanced-days

Looking for a coach who's also an operator who'll turn your business into a finely-tuned profit and peace machine designed for your brain? 

I work with one company a month as a fractional consultant and COO, learning about your business and implementing systems that allow both trust & transparency with your team. Click here to book a call and discuss.
https://unconventionalorganisation.as.me/schedule/1153d1ef/appointment/71643407/calendar/7186455?appointmentTypeIds[]=71643407

You hit a growth ceiling and your first instinct is to change what you're doing, not fix how you're doing it.

Matt Verlaque has coached founders past a million in revenue and sees the same pattern over and over: something works, the novelty wears off, growth stalls, and suddenly a new marketing channel, AI tool, or strategy looks like the answer.

Matt and Skye unpack the “pivot chaser” trap, how to tell when a strategy is genuinely broken versus when you've simply gotten bored of executing it. They also dig into AI mania, the dopamine hit of learning and building new things, and why constantly chasing the next skill can quietly keep you from scaling.

Because as Matt puts it: “Beginners don't scale companies.”

What We Cover

• How to tell whether you have a strategy problem or an execution problem
• Why ADHD founders abandon the thing that was actually driving their growth
• Why skill acquisition feels productive even when it stalls your company
• The difference between “can I build this?” and “should I build this?”
• Why constantly chasing novelty keeps you a beginner

Connect With Matt Verlaque

https://mattverlaque.com/

Instagram: @mattverlaque

P.S. If you’re a founder who’s tired of the mad scramble of disorganized systems and stressful HR, and you want a business that feels as easy as plugging your headphones into an iPod shuffle, I’ve got something for you.

Want to grow your business? 

My Focused Balanced Growth Program has everything you need to build consistent ADHD-friendly routines and processes to grow. Click here to learn more.
https://www.unconventionalorganisation.com/clear-balanced-days

Looking for a coach who's also an operator who'll turn your business into a finely-tuned profit and peace machine designed for your brain? 

I work with one company a month as a fractional consultant and COO, learning about your business and implementing systems that allow both trust & transparency with your team. Click here to book a call and discuss.
https://unconventionalorganisation.as.me/schedule/1153d1ef/appointment/71643407/calendar/7186455?appointmentTypeIds[]=71643407

Tom Reber built successful businesses while privately believing he wasn't smart enough to fight for his own ideas. That belief followed him from childhood special ed into business ownership, where he went bankrupt once and later sold another business for far less than he believed it was worth.

Tom, founder of The Contractor Fight and a former Marine, explains where that belief came from, how it affected the decisions he made, and what changed when he finally stopped confusing not knowing something with being stupid.

What We Cover:

• Why Tom stopped fighting for decisions he knew were right
• How childhood special ed shaped his self-image for decades
• The conversation with his mom that changed how he understood his past
• The bankruptcy and business buyout he connects to that belief
• How he learned to trust his own judgment again
• Why he now sees his ADHD focus as an advantage
• What "strong you, strong home, strong business" means in practice

Connect With Tom Reber

https://thecontractorfight.com/

https://www.instagram.com/fightwithtom/?hl=en

P.S. If you’re a founder who’s tired of the mad scramble of disorganized systems and stressful HR, and you want a business that feels as easy as plugging your headphones into an iPod shuffle, I’ve got something for you.

Want to grow your business? 

My Focused Balanced Growth Program has everything you need to build consistent ADHD-friendly routines and processes to grow. Click here to learn more.
https://www.unconventionalorganisation.com/clear-balanced-days

Looking for a coach who's also an operator who'll turn your business into a finely-tuned profit and peace machine designed for your brain? 

I work with one company a month as a fractional consultant and COO, learning about your business and implementing systems that allow both trust & transparency with your team. Click here to book a call and discuss.
https://unconventionalorganisation.as.me/schedule/1153d1ef/appointment/71643407/calendar/7186455?appointmentTypeIds[]=71643407

You spent real money on a system nobody uses.

Skye and Robert Waterson see this problem regularly working as fractional COOs with ADHD business owners. The owner gets excited about a new system, the team agrees to the change, and a few weeks later everyone quietly slips back into the old way of doing things.

The problem usually isn’t the software. It’s how the change was handled.

In this episode, Skye and Robert break down the six phases they use to move a team onto better systems without losing people halfway through. It starts with getting genuine buy-in before anything gets built, then prototyping the process, slowing down the rollout, and documenting it once it actually works.

What We Cover:

• Why telling your team to “just use it” creates quiet noncompliance
• Why previous failed software changes make teams reluctant to try again
• Getting real buy-in before building the new system
• Why a rough prototype can beat an expensive polished platform
• How ADHD founders can move faster than their team can realistically follow
• Knowing when to stop adding features and let the new process settle
• Why documentation matters once the system is actually working

If you run a business with ADHD and keep finding yourself at the centre of the systems, decisions, and implementation, this one will probably feel familiar.

P.S. If you’re a founder who’s tired of the mad scramble of disorganized systems and stressful HR, and you want a business that feels as easy as plugging your headphones into an iPod shuffle, I’ve got something for you.

Want to grow your business? 

My Focused Balanced Growth Program has everything you need to build consistent ADHD-friendly routines and processes to grow. Click here to learn more.
https://www.unconventionalorganisation.com/clear-balanced-days

Looking for a coach who's also an operator who'll turn your business into a finely-tuned profit and peace machine designed for your brain? 

I work with one company a month as a fractional consultant and COO, learning about your business and implementing systems that allow both trust & transparency with your team. Click here to book a call and discuss.
https://unconventionalorganisation.as.me/schedule/1153d1ef/appointment/71643407/calendar/7186455?appointmentTypeIds[]=71643407

Most people don't struggle to put themselves out there because they lack ideas. They struggle because they're afraid of what people will think once they see the real version of them.
So they post the safe version instead. The version nobody remembers.

Chris Do, Emmy-winning designer and founder of The Futur, has spent more than 20 years helping creatives build businesses by becoming more visible. He believes a brand people care about isn't built on sharper positioning. It's built on being willing to be seen. That means getting comfortable with the parts of yourself you've been editing out.
He explains why fear of judgment (not a lack of confidence) is what keeps people editing, how radical self-acceptance changes what you're willing to say publicly, and the simple exercise he uses to help people work through it.
If you're a creator, founder, or anyone building in public who has overthought a post, softened an opinion, or caught yourself over-explaining, this episode gives you a practical place to start.
What We Cover

• Why fear of judgment, not low confidence, is what keeps your work generic
• How hidden fear leaks out as over-explaining and nervous energy
• Chris's radical self-acceptance exercise, step by step
• Why confidence is built through exposure, not positive thinking
• What changes in how people respond once you let yourself be seen accurately

Listen to the full conversation, then try Chris's exercise and tell me what came up in the comments.
Connect With Chris Do
Instagram @thechrisdo
YouTube @ChrisDo/@thefutur

P.S. If you’re a founder who’s tired of the mad scramble of disorganized systems and stressful HR, and you want a business that feels as easy as plugging your headphones into an iPod shuffle, I’ve got something for you.

Want to grow your business? 

My Focused Balanced Growth Program has everything you need to build consistent ADHD-friendly routines and processes to grow. Click here to learn more.
https://www.unconventionalorganisation.com/clear-balanced-days

Looking for a coach who's also an operator who'll turn your business into a finely-tuned profit and peace machine designed for your brain? 

I work with one company a month as a fractional consultant and COO, learning about your business and implementing systems that allow both trust & transparency with your team. Click here to book a call and discuss.
https://unconventionalorganisation.as.me/schedule/1153d1ef/appointment/71643407/calendar/7186455?appointmentTypeIds[]=71643407

Most ADHD interventions only work if you actually stick with them. So what happens when the intervention is something your brain actually wants to do?

Skye joins Will to unpack a systematic review of 22 studies on virtual reality interventions for ADHD. They look at surprisingly high adherence rates, what the research suggests about attention and working memory, and whether improvements inside VR actually carry over into everyday life.

They also dig into the different ways VR is being used, from cognitive games and movement-based training to simulated real-world scenarios, plus where the evidence is still too thin to draw firm conclusions.

Want more of Will's work? Visit HackingYourADHD.com or subscribe on YouTube.

What We Cover:

• Why adherence rates of 85 percent or higher caught their attention
• Three different ways researchers are using VR for ADHD
• What the studies suggest about attention and working memory
• Why VR is being studied alongside existing ADHD treatments
• The big question of whether improvements transfer to real life
• Reported side effects and the limitations of the current research

P.S. If you’re a founder who’s tired of the mad scramble of disorganized systems and stressful HR, and you want a business that feels as easy as plugging your headphones into an iPod shuffle, I’ve got something for you.

Want to grow your business? 

My Focused Balanced Growth Program has everything you need to build consistent ADHD-friendly routines and processes to grow. Click here to learn more.
https://www.unconventionalorganisation.com/clear-balanced-days

Looking for a coach who's also an operator who'll turn your business into a finely-tuned profit and peace machine designed for your brain? 

I work with one company a month as a fractional consultant and COO, learning about your business and implementing systems that allow both trust & transparency with your team. Click here to book a call and discuss.
https://unconventionalorganisation.as.me/schedule/1153d1ef/appointment/71643407/calendar/7186455?appointmentTypeIds[]=71643407

You’re guessing how long things take.

That guess feels reasonable.

It’s just wrong, over and over again.

In the last episode, we broke down why ADHD time blindness happens. This one is about what to do about it.

Because the real problem isn’t planning. It’s relying on estimation at all.

In this episode, Skye and Robert walk through how to replace your internal clock with systems that actually hold up in real work:

• why you can’t “get better” at estimating time
• how to use past projects instead of guessing
• how teams quietly adjust for you (and why that creates tension)
• why buffers and “extra time” don’t work
• how to build timelines that don’t collapse halfway through

If you’re tired of missing deadlines you genuinely thought were realistic, this will show you what’s actually going wrong, and what works instead.

P.S. If you’re a founder who’s tired of the mad scramble of disorganized systems and stressful HR, and you want a business that feels as easy as plugging your headphones into an iPod shuffle, I’ve got something for you.

Want to grow your business? 

My Focused Balanced Growth Program has everything you need to build consistent ADHD-friendly routines and processes to grow. Click here to learn more.
https://www.unconventionalorganisation.com/clear-balanced-days

Looking for a coach who's also an operator who'll turn your business into a finely-tuned profit and peace machine designed for your brain? 

I work with one company a month as a fractional consultant and COO, learning about your business and implementing systems that allow both trust & transparency with your team. Click here to book a call and discuss.
https://unconventionalorganisation.as.me/schedule/1153d1ef/appointment/71643407/calendar/7186455?appointmentTypeIds[]=71643407

You can be successful on paper and still feel stuck.

In this episode, Skye talks with entrepreneur and investor Kassidy Warren about leaving the corporate “safe path,” taking real risks, and the identity shift required to stop playing small. They unpack rejection, procrastination, reinvesting before results, and what it actually means to turn pro — especially with an ADHD brain.

If you’ve built something stable but know you’re capable of more, this one will hit.

What we cover:

• The hidden cost of corporate stability and “golden handcuffs”
• Why procrastination is fear in disguise
• How to handle rejection without shrinking
• The mindset shift from amateur to professional
• Acting before you feel ready — and why waiting keeps you stuck

Connect with Kassidy Warren

Kassidy Warren is the host of the For Your Own Good podcast, where he shares practical, direct conversations about business growth, leadership, and building companies that actually work.

If this episode resonated, you can follow Kassidy and explore more of his work here:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kassidy.warren
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@KassidyWarren
• For Your Own Good on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1UfWzqSpuL685ReFGnIrgB

He regularly shares insights for operators and founders who want to move from chaos to clarity without fluff or hype.

P.S. If you’re a founder who’s tired of the mad scramble of disorganized systems and stressful HR, and you want a business that feels as easy as plugging your headphones into an iPod shuffle, I’ve got something for you.

Want to grow your business? 

My Focused Balanced Growth Program has everything you need to build consistent ADHD-friendly routines and processes to grow. Click here to learn more.
https://www.unconventionalorganisation.com/clear-balanced-days

Looking for a coach who's also an operator who'll turn your business into a finely-tuned profit and peace machine designed for your brain? 

I work with one company a month as a fractional consultant and COO, learning about your business and implementing systems that allow both trust & transparency with your team. Click here to book a call and discuss.
https://unconventionalorganisation.as.me/schedule/1153d1ef/appointment/71643407/calendar/7186455?appointmentTypeIds[]=71643407