The ADHD Skills Lab

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Click the link below to see which founder type you are!

https://www.unconventionalorganisation.com/adhd-founder-types


You keep solving the same business problems, but they keep coming back in different forms.

After reviewing more than a dozen research episodes on ADHD founder struggles, four recurring founder patterns emerged: the Last Minute Hero, the Overwhelmed Architect, the Vision Caster, and the Pivot Chaser.

These aren't random quirks. They're recurring ways ADHD can show up as a business grows. More importantly, all four point back to the same underlying challenge: there isn't an operations layer between the founder and the day-to-day business.

In this episode, Skye and Robbie break down each founder type, why it happens, how it affects your team, and the practical operational changes that can reduce the friction.

What We Cover

• Why the Last Minute Hero trains their team to expect emergencies
• What overwhelms the Overwhelmed Architect
• Why the Vision Caster struggles to turn ideas into execution through other people
• What drives the Pivot Chaser to keep changing direction
• The operational gap connecting all four founder types
• Which founder type you relate to most and what to do next

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.

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.

You've read the books. You've tried to think your way into a better mindset. But the changes never seem to stick.

In this episode, Mick Hawes shares why he believes that's because mindset isn't something you change directly. Drawing on more than 35 years coaching business owners in high-complexity industries like custom home building, he explains why your mindset is the result of the systems, environment, habits, language, and other external influences shaping your daily life.

Skye and Mick explore why changing your environment often works better than relying on motivation, how to make decisions based on principle instead of emotion, and the practical daily ritual Mick uses to build momentum without waiting to "feel like it."

What We Cover

• Why trying to change your thinking directly often doesn't work
• How your environment affects focus and decision-making
• Why making decisions on principle beats making them on emotion
• Purpose statements vs. job descriptions for building better teams
• Mick's four-step Personal Success Ritual
• The "Dream Catcher" exercise for breaking self-imposed limitations
• Why your input ultimately determines your output

Connect With Mick Hawes

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheToolShedPodcast
Website https://www.thesiteshed.com/

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.

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.

You start medication or therapy, things get better, and then a few years later the old struggles creep back in. You wonder if you did something wrong.

This week, Skye Waterson is joined by Will Curb from Hacking Your ADHD for a Research Recap on the MTA study, the largest and most influential ADHD treatment trial ever conducted. Nearly 580 children were followed for 8 years to understand what happened after the initial treatment period.

Together, Skye and Will unpack why the early differences between medication, behavioral therapy, combined treatment, and community care had largely disappeared by year 8. This is not a conversation about whether medication works. It is about what happens when ADHD is treated as a one time solution instead of an ongoing condition that changes as life becomes more demanding.

What You'll Learn:

• Why the MTA study followed nearly 580 children across four treatment approaches
• Why medication use dropped to about one third of participants by year 8
• Why even participants who remained on medication lost their early advantage
• Why ADHD is better understood as a condition that requires sustained management
• What "pills don't teach skills" really means for long term ADHD management

Learn more about Will and Hacking Your ADHD:

https://hackingyouradhd.com

https://www.youtube.com/@HackingYourADHD

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.

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.

You've probably heard it before:

"Just start."

"You'll feel better once you begin."

"Get rid of all distractions."

If you have ADHD, you've probably also discovered that this advice often doesn't work.

In this episode, Skye and Robbie unpack the dopamine transfer deficit theory and explore why ADHD brains may not receive the same anticipatory motivation signal that helps neurotypical brains get started. They explain why so much conventional productivity advice misses the mark, why dopamine detox can backfire, and how Skye developed The Dopamine Dial to work with ADHD motivation instead of against it.

Originally inspired by Skye's most-read Substack article, this episode expands on the research, the practical framework, and what you can do instead of relying on willpower.

What You'll Learn

• Why "just start" often fails for ADHD
• The dopamine transfer deficit theory explained simply
• Why removing stimulation can make starting harder
• Why rewarding the beginning of a task matters more than rewarding the end
• How to use The Dopamine Dial to get moving without relying on motivation

Read the original Substack article:

https://unconventionalorganization.substack.com/p/an-adhd-academics-answer-to-the-dopamine

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.

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.