194 - Conversation with Chief ADHD Wise Squirrel, Dave Delaney

Got a great opportunity to talk with the wisest of the wise squirrels, Dave Delaney. 

Here are his links to socials and website, but I highly encourage playing around on his website as there are plenty of resources and places to connect with him. 

Website: https://wisesquirrels.com/

ADHD Wise Squirrels Podcast: https://wisesquirrels.com/podcast

Dave's Events: https://wisesquirrels.com/events

Dave's book:  New Business Networking

Dave's socials:

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

https://www.facebook.com/ 

https://www.instagram.com/adhdwisesquirrels/

https://www.tiktok.com/@hiwisesquirrels

https://www.linkedin.com/company/wisesquirrels/

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_02 0:00

Okay, so I don't just invite regular squirrels onto my podcast. I think you guys know this about me. I need my squirrel guests to have wisdom to share with all of us. So it goes without saying that I would procure a conversation with the wisest of the squirrels, the chief wise squirrel himself, Dave Delaney. He's here who wants to join me as we go foraging from metaphorical knots.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Let's go.

SPEAKER_02 0:32

You are listening to ADHD Big Brother, the podcast for adults struggling with their ADHD and their depression and anxiety and I'm your host, Russ Jones. I'm an ADHD coach and I run the Platinum Award-winning community coaching of the same name, ADHD Big Brother. And I also have ADHD in depression. It's craptastic. Welcome aboard. Let's learn some stuff, laugh at some stuff. Ladies and gentlemen, here's some stuff. Welcome to the podcast. This is another conversation one. So that means it's longer. Sorry, not sorry. You can use this one for that long commute or for that long project or that long walk. So actually, in effect, uh, you're welcome for this. We needed to get a long one going. So let me cut short short some of the me, me, me stuff for the mental health update where we are normalizing talking about our skull spaghetti, all the stuff, the good stuff, the bad stuff, the weird stuff. I will share with you now. My quick update is that I I think I'm feeling the effects of an increased awareness of my diet and my effort at exercise. Two of the leastiest exciting things to do, but I have properly externalized my accountability within ADHD Big Brother. That's awesome. We've got a push-up challenge going. That's helping me out big time. So that is directly relating to my mental health, which it's on a scale of one to ten. Uh, one being I'd like to go crawl in a hole and never come out. And ten is uh let's go frolicking. Let's go frolicking in the fields, like sound of music. I'd say I'm a solid, I'd say I'm a solid 7.5. You know, not quite ready to frolic, you know, but I'll talk about it. Like, like, like, wouldn't it be fun? Right? No Debbie Downer things about hay fever and allergies and you know, watch out for the ticks in the field, you know, that would be me at a 4.45. So that's me. That's my mental health report. And then besides that, this week, if you're listening uh to when this comes out, I'm hosting a workshop to really dig into the nuts and bolts of accountability, what it is, how it externalized it, should be fun. Uh, you can check out that in the show notes. Okay. All right, let's get to this. It was such a fun conversation for me. Dave Delaney is awesome. Um, if you you're probably familiar with him, he has uh he hosts the ADHD Y Squirrels podcast. Um, but here's his bio. Listen up, listen to this. He is a communication strategist, CEO, and founder of Future Forth. He's known as a motivational leadership speaker, communication skills expert, and as I said before, host of the ADHD Y Squirrels podcast, of which I am a subscriber and I highly recommend it. He is also the published author of New Business Networking, a comprehensive guide to building and nurturing professional relationships. Known for his engaging blend of humor, storytelling, and actionable insights, Dave inspires audiences to unlock their potential, embrace their unique strengths, and build meaningful connections at work, home, and during special events. His work with globally recognized clients like Google, LinkedIn, UPS, and FedEx demonstrates his ability to inspire change in organizations across industries. Dave's expertise and insights have been featured in prominent media outlets, including USA Today, CBC, BBC, Entrepreneur Inc., Forbes, and Billboard Magazine. He has been recognized as a power leader, a power muffin leader of technology by the Nashville Business Journal, and received the Digital Media Champion AIM Award from the American Marketing Association in Nashville. Guess he basically owns Nashville. He is crushing it up in the Nashville area. Additionally, Dave has been featured in acclaimed books like Content Rules by Ann Handley and Cece Chapman, Branding Yourself by Eric Deckers, and the successful speaker by Grant Baldwin and Jeff Goines. That's a mouthful. He has done so basically TLDR stuff, lots of stuff. He's a guy that's done a lot of things. And I thought it would be super cool to talk to him. And I wasn't wrong. I had a great time chatting it up about improv, AI, his podcasting, and productivity timers. What? God, I love that. So let's go after it. Let's get into it. This is Dave and Russ chatting it up. Ladies and gentlemen, here we go.

SPEAKER_00 4:54

What led me to where what I'm doing now and and you know with Y Squirrels, obviously, is the my ADHD diagnosis a couple of years ago, and launching that website and the podcast as a way to kind of remove stigmas and share my own journey and talk to smart people who know this stuff well or who have reached you know significant milestones in their careers, um, uh despite or you know, having ADHD and either not knowing or being diagnosed really early and being treated, but still, you know, kind of navigating life that way. Um, but for me, yeah, it yeah, it depends on what we're talking about. Like I like I love like the podcast, I mean, comes naturally. I love I studied radio and television broadcasting. I love um, I've always loved radio, and I started podcasting in 2005, so almost 20 years.

SPEAKER_02 5:50

So this maybe 20 years prior to that, and that's prior to ADHD diagnosis. So you were podcasting about other things.

SPEAKER_00 5:57

Yeah, yeah. My first podcast was called Two Boobs and a Baby. Uh and it was my wife and I uh trying to navigate being pregnant the first time and then suddenly the second time. That we sometimes joke because our kids are 11 and a half months apart. So sometimes we uh oh wow, yeah. So sometimes we we we were joking back then that like you know our ratings were slipping, so we added another baby, kind of like American sitcons. Um add something to the mix, let's right, right, yeah, exactly. Yeah, so so yeah, so I've had multiple podcasts over the years. Um, I always joke that like you know, had I had I known I had ADHD 20 years ago, I would have started a podcast about ADHD, probably why swirls, and then I'd have like Joe Rogan money now. But uh sadly, yeah, yeah. It didn't work out that way.

SPEAKER_02 6:49

Just give it another 10. Just give it a you'll get there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly. How did you get into uh uh then doing speaking type engagements? I I'm I oh sorry, let me admit you're a note taker.

SPEAKER_00 7:03

Yeah, yeah. Otter showing no is there, is it?

SPEAKER_02 7:06

It just has to be let in.

SPEAKER_00 7:08

Oh, there it is.

SPEAKER_02 7:11

All right, there's beat it.

SPEAKER_00 7:13

There's no notes for you, Dave. You get nothing. No notes.

SPEAKER_02 7:18

Um uh sorry, what was the question? What was the question? The question was uh around speaking. I'm super interested in that. Um, how that comes about, how you do that? Would you you just get an idea of I'm gonna talk about AI and let's go? And then you're I I I've been perusing your your site and you've like done corporate events. Um how does one get into that world? How did you find yourself in there?

SPEAKER_00 7:50

Yeah, so for well, I was always a ham as a kid, I always loved being on stage or just being joking around and getting people laughing and things. So there's that, and then I studied improv at second city in Toronto, and so in Toronto, yeah, okay, that's where I'm from. So oh no way, that's right. Where are you from, Russ?

SPEAKER_02 8:09

Uh well, I grew up in Northwest, but I did my improv training in LA. Oh, nice. Um, I did some second city, but I was mostly improv Olympic. Oh, that's hilarious! That's awesome. How was Toronto Second City?

SPEAKER_00 8:20

Oh, it was great, it was awesome. Like, I did like evening classes for seemed like I don't feel like a year or two or something like that. Like, I did like all the levels, and then I did a performance there, and then moved to London and started performing improv in London a little bit with a with a group I found there, and then moved to Ireland and started my own troupe there. And then performed, yeah, yeah. And we and we would moved to Ireland, yeah, yeah. I lived in Ireland for a couple of years. So wow, yeah. Um, so yeah, so improv was always something near and dear to my heart and and just being on stage and things.

SPEAKER_02 9:00

So and then I didn't doing the Herald, by the way. This is a side note, improv dork. Were were you doing Heralds? The long form?

SPEAKER_00 9:07

No, it was mainly short form. I would I haven't I don't have a lot of experience with Herald as much as I would love to uh I would love to partake. I just I I I sometimes I'm I'll be honest, like I'm a little scared of it just because of my working memory, right? Like because and for those listening, like yeah, if you're if you're not familiar, Harolds are like long form improv. So it's instead of like your whose line is it anyway, typical sketch or not sketch, but typical like short form improv almost games, as it were. Um, yeah, with Heralds, it's like one, it's almost like a play that's completely improvised based off you know, some gives from the audience, some suggestions, but for the most part, it's it's completely so it's like you're doing like a 30-minute show, a 30-minute yeah, production.

SPEAKER_02 9:54

So, like you know what I found is that it uh the you know, people could say, I'll go skydiving. Uh you you do these hyper hyper um or impulsive daring things, and your focus is forced. Yes, but yeah, that's what I found with doing uh improv uh and especially attempting long form is that you're so scared of everything that things just naturally pop up. It's yes, like the the callbacks and the things like that. Oh man, that's that's funny.

SPEAKER_00 10:24

Well, we could just yeah, I would I would love to do yeah, I would love to do Harold's. Oh, you you touched on something there too, which is interesting, which is something I've learned. So I was diagnosed two years ago with with ADHD at 50. And what I learned was like one thing as I was reading up on it and learning was about how you know, and I I always preface everything with like I'm not a doctor and nor do I play one on the internet. Um, but uh that being said, let's do some doctoring real quick. That being said, like we do struggle with dopamine, right? And and so finding ways to get dopamine that are good, safe, healthy ways as opposed to the other, um, yeah, is uh is important. And and so something I learned is my personality and my talents and my love for performance uh are a given. That's part of who I am. But what I realized was that standing on stages, when I'm getting laughter, I'm getting heads nodding, I'm getting applause, I'm getting people like you know, talking to me after, that's all a huge rush of dopamine. And so for me, standing on stages, getting, you know, whether you're doing improv or comedy or or doing keynote presentations or trainings, corporate trainings, it's still that dopamine rush. And so that's part of the reason why I love it so much.

SPEAKER_02 11:41

Yeah, oh man, and you know what? Debilitating wise, uh just talking to you about it right now. I like I would do a show, and then after the show, if it went well, you there's that rush, right? You're feeling good. I would uh drink or smoke. Yeah, and it was almost like I was trying to numb the too good feeling, or I was trying to celebrate quote unquote the good feeling, and it totally wrecked myself. Or if I had a shitty show, I would drink and smoke to numb the pain of the shitty show.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

I was just telling a friend about Charles Bukowski because he wasn't familiar, and Charles Bukowski had this line when not when some when something happen something good happens, you drink to celebrate. When something bad happens, you drink to forget, and when nothing happens, you drink in order to make something happen.

SPEAKER_02 12:29

Um that totally tracks it.

SPEAKER_00 12:32

Yeah, so I'm I'm I'll be five years sober in June. So I actually quit the way to go, man. That's awesome. Thanks. Yeah, yeah. I quit in uh 2020, kind of as the world was imploding. Um, and uh and I quit smoking like I don't know, 25, 30 years ago or something. But I smoked like a chimney and I drank like a fish. So yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:54

Quitting nicotine was probably one of the most difficult things of my life. It is so insanely hard. How did you quit eventually? Uh eventually, I mean, I did something each time, but like yeah, I think you know, uh maybe we haven't talked about this. I'm a huge community dork. So the community that I built was is literally based on um the model of a quit group. It's daily accountability and like showing up and saying, Well, for me, it was uh the hardest part was chewing tobacco. So I smoked, but then I also chewed. So chewing was the nut. Like you can have nicotine 24 hours a day, laying in bed, nicotine. Um it was saying day one, no matter what happens, uh, I'm not gonna chew today, just today, and I'm not worried about tomorrow. And then there's a a a group of people that are like, okay, you're not gonna, I'm not gonna either. And then you just everyone's bitching about life and how this is the worst pain. I hate everybody, and but we were doing it together, so it likes great.

SPEAKER_00 13:59

How did you find those people to to quit with? Well, I was googling it right at the time.

SPEAKER_02 14:03

I it was called Kill Kill the Can, I think is what it was called. This is years ago, yeah. Um, and so then when I created the community, I was like, I I daily accountability to me is everything. I mean, yeah, you know, and like uh for ADHD people, we are like the the my biggest speech of everything of anything was like we have all read the books and we've all done the stuff, gone to the retreats, listened to all Jessica McCabe's YouTube videos, all of it, listened to both of our podcasts, yeah, and gone, yeah, okay, yeah, yeah, that's a good idea. And nobody's doing the work. Like it just the second, the second that you're in eyes podcast episode is done, everyone has forgotten everything. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's it's I'm like, so how are how are we doing the work? Yeah, which is perfect for right now. We're talking about this is the month of productivity, so you're gonna help us, Dave. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:57

I'm actually I'm planning a retreat right now, too. I'll I'll keep you posted about it, yeah. For for why squirrels, so it's I heard you on your you do live ones, right? Yeah, I'm doing like live meetups as I travel, but also I want I'm working on a retreat that will actually be like you know, a weekend together, uh diving deep into some stuff. So yeah, I'm I'm really excited about it. The feedback plans can you talk about it? Do you have uh besides I mean at YSquirrels.com slash events, it's listed there. Uh okay. Right now I'm working yeah, I'm working with an event planner right now who's helping me with scouting locations because I found that that was the part that I was dragging my feet on, kind of organizing it. And so she's that's what she does. So she's helping me with finding a good location. And then I have a I have a if people go to the the gathering or the retreat page from Y Squirrels, there's it there is a link to like a short, or if you email me at retreat, I think it's retreat, it's gathering at whisquirrels.com or retreat. I think it's gathering.

SPEAKER_02 16:03

Um you know what we will know it by the end by the time this post, and that will be the link in the show notes. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:09

There is a survey, is what I'm saying. So like a questionnaire, and so I know what the content, I have a good idea what the content's gonna be and what people are looking for, and now it's just a matter of finding a location, confirming that location, setting the date, setting, you know, when this is gonna actually happen, and then start promoting it and see what happens. So rad.

SPEAKER_02 16:30

What kind of stuff do you do on the on the do you have that kind of action planned or is that TBD?

SPEAKER_00 16:37

Okay, it's TBD right now, but there'll be things like you know, people have requested things around like mindfulness, meditation. Oh, right. And and actually like specific um steps to you know improving different facets, like working memory or you know, executive function overall, things like that. So there's gonna be wow, and then also just the network of it. I mean, I wrote a book years ago called New Business Networking, which is all about improving relationships and building businesses, careers, friendships from building our networks and doing it the right way. And so networking is something near and dear to my heart, even though it's a dirty word for a lot of people to like oh, I remember that.

SPEAKER_02 17:16

Yeah, the I remember back when I was doing real estate and stuff, like yo, you gotta go network, you got to meet people, exchange business cards. Hey, why don't you help us really quick right now? Make it sound fun and and good and wholesome.

SPEAKER_00 17:28

Well, for me personally, it's about finding ways to serve others first and foremost. So if you go to a networking event and you're meeting people, then your goal is to let them do the bulk of the talking if possible, which is hard, I know. But um, by asking open-ended questions and then finding out what their needs are, whether it's they're hiring somebody or they're looking for a new client or they're whatever, looking for an investor, they're looking for a coach. I don't know. Um that's awesome. Or just like a good recipe or a good movie or something or band or whatever. And as you're speaking to them, afterwards, writing down notes on their business card or just on a piece of paper or on your you know, notes app on your phone of what you should follow up about and then making sure to follow up with everybody. When I talk about networking, I talk about showing up, following up, and catching up. And I have strategies all around that stuff. Oh my god, the the following up piece is really important because otherwise you've got a stack of cards on your desk that collect dust, and then you eventually chuck. And what are you doing with them? Yeah, yeah. So finding value finding ways to value, provide value.

SPEAKER_02 18:33

I uh the only thing that can make it stick for me uh was to say I'm I'm meeting a new friend. I'm just I'm going to meet new friends, which sounds like it tracks. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Is all that stuff, the information that you're just talking about right now, was that in your book? Yeah. Oh, okay. Well, that we're gonna put all that in the show notes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're gonna get all the Dave today. We're gonna get your whole and what did you do in the 90s? And what did you that's amazing? So somebody in your position, like to to bring this to productivity. Um, I'm super curious about uh AI. I believe I've heard you talk about that you're a geek for AI as well. Yeah, like the can you talk about how it has helped you in being more productive in your life?

SPEAKER_00 19:22

Oh, yeah, for sure. Um yeah, and I do like training and workshops on using AI for for businesses or for individuals, so there's a lot to it and it's changing all the time, right?

SPEAKER_02 19:34

Yeah, um, there's so many ways to there's so many chat GPT, Gemini, cloud, or it's so many, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:41

Yeah, there's all these different tools or different agents as they're called, um, out there that that can help you with different different things that you're working on. Like, you know, I was a speaker for Google for about six years, and so I I I've worked in digital marketing. I always consider myself a recovering marketer, but I I've I learned a lot about digital marketing, not just from Google, but also just you know being nerdy and into this stuff since my BBS days of my Commodore 64. Uh, so pre-internet reference asterisks, comma eight, comma one. Yes, yes, exactly, exactly. Um so yeah, so with AI, I mean there's a lot of great ways. Like, for example, I just created a script using AI. I posted it on my YouTube channel for people to rip if they want it. But basically, what it does is every Monday I run it. So I go, I bookmarked it, and it's a tab on my browser. I click, I visit it, I click run, it runs a script, and the script automatically generates a Google Doc. And that Google Doc uh has a recap of the meetings I had last week and the meetings this week. And so then it helps me plan like, okay, I need to follow up with all these people that I met last week. Um, or I'm waiting to hear back from someone. It reminds me of like looking at my inbox to see where we are with whatever the conversation was. And then this week for planning purposes, so I can say, okay, you know, talking to Russ on Monday or or whatever it is that I'm doing so that I could properly not always uh well, but I try to plan my weeks. I'm trying to get better at that. Um, yeah. And so so just that like I used AI to code the script to do it, and then created a YouTube video just for our you know, followers or what have you to go ahead and use it. And the script is on the YouTube channel there too.

SPEAKER_02 21:39

Okay, we'll find it, we'll get it, we'll rip it.

SPEAKER_00 21:42

It's a little technical, but it's not like overwhelming. And assuming you use a Google account, it doesn't have to be paid, like a Gmail account is fine. Yeah, as long as you use a Google Google for this, it'll it'll work great. So okay.

SPEAKER_02 21:55

So I have Google, I have Google Docs, Google Calendar, Google Mail. Uh I don't Understand what you mean by I wrote a script and what do I do? How do I load it? I'm gonna ask you a really basic question that's probably no, it's a great cable.

SPEAKER_00 22:11

Okay, um, yeah. If you go to scripts.google.com, that's where you create it. Um, okay. The easiest thing to do is honestly, if you go to Y Squirrels on YouTube, um, you'll find the video there. Okay. I uh because I did an actual video tutorial of how to actually use this, and then a link to the code to the script that you can then copy and paste and do it for yourself. So and it's all free, like I'm not charging anything. That is amazing.

SPEAKER_02 22:40

And it just automatically pops up a tab with a Google Doc with the and a review.

SPEAKER_00 22:45

Pretty much, yeah, yeah. And then you have like, yeah, this week and next week. So that's something I use for for, you know, I used AI to help me code and put together. Um, a lot of times just using like, you know, thinking of a problem that you might have and using like chat GPT is sort of my go-to to to work through that I that idea or that challenge or whatever. Um, yeah, you know, I mean it's important that people always remember that, you know, not to share personal information in any AI agent because that could be privileged, or if it's your own information, it could, you know, um, it's important to keep that in mind as you're using things. Um, but yeah, you know, I find I find it extremely helpful. So I mean, I, you know, I I have trepidations about the future and what the future will look like. I guess we're all doomed, really.

SPEAKER_02 23:42

If we're being AI overlords, yeah, Skynet's coming, probably. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:47

Uh so you know, the line I like is whoever built built the ship built shipwreck.

SPEAKER_02 23:55

Well, what's uh what what's our shipwreck? It's a fun toy to play with and while the ship is sinking. This is as they're playing the violin as the Titanic is sinking.

SPEAKER_00 24:05

Yeah, I mean, hopefully not, right? Like let's get cool pictures. Let's get cool pictures. Yeah, there's lots of great, I mean, there's lots of great, great things that that artificial intelligence can can bring us, hopefully, like cures for disease and all sorts of of things to make life easier, but there is the question about you know employment and jobs, security.

SPEAKER_02 24:27

Oh, for sure. Oh no, that that that conversation is a is a tough one. I I have friends that are um actors, writers, uh directors, and it's a it's shitty for that for that industry. Um and I'm scary.

SPEAKER_00 24:43

It's I have I've I've had this repeated, I'm a big comedy fan, and I've had this repeated idea for a sketch that would involve like multiple locations, and I've I've never written really sketch comedy per se, except in my journal here and there, but but I've always had this this idea for for this one sketch, and so uh but it takes place in multiple locations, and like it would take like a film crew and talent and and all the things, and I was just like, I started experimenting of just a few weeks ago, uh, because AI video is getting pretty good, and I was, I mean, all on freeze, free things. I didn't create pay any paid accounts. I actually created this sketch uh entirely from AI, and it's clearly AI. I mean, it's not like yeah, but some of it's like shocking. I shared it with my friends and they're like, Holy crap, like, do you how did you get this guy to save this? And I'm like, he's not really a guy, like he's not a person. Wow, and uh what is that AI? Well, that's the thing, it was multiple things, so it I it took me about a yeah, a bunch of hours to put the thing together, but it was a bunch of different uh video um AI uh systems or tools or agents to create this stuff, so it was yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:05

There's some crazy stuff happening. There's also uh, I think it was it, uh Notebook is one of them. Yeah, and I yeah, I was trying to figure out a way to do um put all of my podcast episodes transcribed into a notebook so that I could reference it. So I'd be like, Oh, this if you're having an issue here, try this episode, right? Um and they can create a podcast, and it was two people talking about my podcast, like they were reviewing it and talking about yeah, and I was like, wow, that's yeah crazy.

SPEAKER_00 26:39

If you go to uh whysquirrels.com slash why sponsor um on my sponsorship page, or just look up sponsor sponsor why squirrels um and scroll to the bottom of the page, there is a YouTube video there, and that I created from Google LM L uh LM. And it's exactly what you're talking about. What I said was I gave I gave it the the metrics from the show and the demographic and uh you know listener information, not personal information, of course. Um, and and asked Notebook LM to to yeah, just create a video about why it's worth sponsoring Y Squirrels, and so then it's like this couple that are chit-chatting about yo, yeah, why squirrels is great. This is why you should sponsor it. And yeah, it's this is pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02 27:30

We are the down. This is the start of the downfall of all of it, and we get to play in the sandbox while the world is growing, right? Right, right. That is nuts. Okay, so to bring it back to Dave Delaney being productive, um, you've got ADHD, you're obviously not gonna have um super awesome productive um motivation all the time. Thank you, ADHD. Yeah, um, what do you what do you do? Um, what are your specific ways of I guess in general, maybe let's say managing your ADHD or managing um where you push yourself, where you give yourself breaks, uh, that kind of a thing. Do you have any specific ways of handling life?

SPEAKER_00 28:17

Yeah, I mean, and it's different for different people, and of course, there's that novelty curse, right? That's yeah, yeah. As soon as we find the thing that works great, then it then we don't do it anymore.

SPEAKER_02 28:29

Or someone tells us, hey, this would be a good idea for you, and you're like, thanks for ruining it. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 28:36

Um, everything from like uh like I should be working for these guys. I do have an affiliate link at Y Squirrels, but um the time timer.

SPEAKER_02 28:46

Oh, yeah. I I pray to the timer, God.

SPEAKER_00 28:50

I love that thing because it visualizes the time counting down and beeps when it's done. But what's great about it is it's like, okay, I'm gonna work on my email for 30 minutes or one hour. I set that, I'm working on my email and I glance at it, and like I'll I'll get an email from someone about something, and I'll have to like Google whatever it is, or I'll use LinkedIn or whatever. And suddenly I'm like on LinkedIn now, perusing the news feed, or I'm replying to someone there, and I'm like, and then I glance at the clock and I'm like, ah crap, get back to the email. So it kind of reminds me to stay focused, not just on the time passing, which is quite frightening, um, but also yeah, to return to the task at hand.

SPEAKER_02 29:34

So um that's cool because it's like a visual, it's a visual indicator that you were you said you were gonna do something. Yeah. So it seeing that would remind you that, oh, what was it that you were doing? You're doing something, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:49

And it's also because it's like sitting on the desk as opposed to something digital. I find it's more helpful that way because you know, I I mean, I created like a Pomodoro uh timer for free that's at Y Squirrels as well, under the resources that anybody can just go to that page and and start the timer and have at it. Um, and it does work for different things, but for me, I think a mix of sort of analog plus digital is is some of the secret sauce. It's the chocolate and peanut butter of productivity, I guess. Dare you the Reese's peanut butter cups of yes, yeah, yeah. It's combining the two, right? It's uh it's everything from journaling and and no, you know, post-it notes, you know, or now I got my pile here. Um it's and my whiteboards and stuff, or or it's or things pinned on my wall above my desk here that I can see. Um then it's the digital calendar, which you know, I wouldn't be here right now if it wasn't for so I I live and die by the calendar.

SPEAKER_02 30:51

Yeah, that was one of my hardest things early on. Um I I was so I'm just about 50 now, and I I was diagnosed right around 40. Yeah. Um, and I think I I'm with you on like the calendar. Any if we if you don't have a calendar, you're just dead in the water already. It's you if there's nothing, if there's no sense of externalizing your time that you're screwed. That's yeah, I think I think I you it we can say with a hundred percent surety there is no keeping shit in your head, there's just not say that's it, there's no possible way.

SPEAKER_00 31:33

I would be interested in and asking like like older folks or people that have been diagnosed much earlier to find out from them because yeah, to me, like I think of my mom who I expect has ADHD but is undiagnosed. But you know, she she has always had uh like a paper notebook or a paper, uh uh like a like a death or excuse me, a uh planner, like a tiny little thing, the size of an old checkbook. So it's like this big. And so she always goes through it, like what did I do last week, or what do I have to do this week? And she's always writing down notes on what she did each day. So even like pre-internet uh or pre-digital solutions, there was always that paper, at least a paper calendar, right? So yeah, before the paper calendar, uh I don't know, man. What did they do? Chisel it into the rock back in the cave band.

SPEAKER_02 32:27

It's I yeah, my parents they have a a calendar, a written calendar that they use for everything. I wonder if it's okay, but like our age, um, because you know, you and I were both alive when we had Commodore 64 computers, and there was an 18-8 modem that would fire up, and you'd get one email a day, maybe on AOL. But the uh so we grew up analog, right? With uh if we were going to be successful, it was gonna be with a planner or with a bullet journal or whatever it would be, and so I'm I still carry that with me. I still have a bullet journal and I still whiteboard and whiteboard there. I still put post-its on the walls and stuff. I'm similar. Uh, do you see that? Uh younger people are way, way, way more digital. Uh oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:21

I mean finding that. Yeah, I mean, I've got two kids who are 18 and 19 now, um, who, as far as I know, are pretty digital. One's at college, so he might have finally started using analog as well. Um, but for my daughter, I think she primarily would be digital. Um, so yeah, yeah. I mean, again, like makes the game harder. If well, if you have a system, I guess if the system works awesome, like, you know, that's the thing, and there's no right or wrong way to do this stuff. It's just, you know, with ADHD, as I said, like there's that that kicker of novelty. So it's you know, that that's the only challenging thing is you find the thing that works and then you don't you stop using it for whatever reason.

SPEAKER_02 34:08

So yeah, um, but yeah, that's what makes it having having ideas in the tank, having a a wealth of possibilities, I think is awesome. That's why people would hire you, right? To coach to be like, help me be a thought partner, you know. How um something's not working anymore.

SPEAKER_00 34:25

Um, yeah, yeah, and that's why like I'm yeah, I'm really good at that. But when it comes to like I think uh I wrote it a long time ago and I've been meaning to look it back up, but something to the effect of like overwhelm, it was like overwhelm plus something, maybe it might have been anxiety. It's like overwhelm plus anxiety equals stagnation. So the idea of like yeah, too many uh because you have lots of creative ideas, but then it's like being overwhelmed with like all the different roads you can go down and which to choose. And and I I I I'm often stuck there. Uh yeah, I get I I get stuck there all the time, and part of it's self-doubt about like, oh, should I, you know, should I do this? Should I not do this?

SPEAKER_02 35:13

And what's the right one? Which is the right one that's gonna work, right?

SPEAKER_00 35:17

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's so you know, yeah, that's that's a challenge.

SPEAKER_02 35:22

I do so we're on productivity, so I'm gonna share one of my productivity things because I hate cleaning and doing things, uh pickup and all that stuff. And so I will get I will get stuck on things sometimes, and I'm also a huge Dungeons and Dragons dork. Yeah, so I've got multiple dice. So I will list things and roll dice and let fate decide what I'm doing, and I'll in tall small chunks. So I the the game would be like uh I set a timer for 10 minutes, roll the dice. What am I working on? Oh, dishes, dishes for 10 minutes, alarm goes off. I quit. I fucking quit because I that's my gift to myself, my reward. Roll the dice again. What am I gonna do for the next 10 minutes?

SPEAKER_00 36:07

Yeah, and that's great. I mean, it's a great, it's a great way to do it for sure. Like, you know, because that way, yeah, that way you can like yeah, you give yourself enough grace to say like you don't have to keep going. Like oftentimes we can get into flow or whatever people call it, you know, we get into hyper focus on things and lose time on them. But so like I just spent eight hours yesterday painting our deck and our stairs and our landing, and and I was only gonna do one of it, well, like one part of it, and I just decided what the hell, it's a nice day, and and up listening to podcasts and all that stuff. So I just like you know, knocked it out and did did it all. My wife's like, Oh my god, are you exhausted? I'm like, Yes. Um I'm so yes, yeah, still feeling it today. Um, but I say that because yeah, it's it's a great way to like say, like, I'll work on well, you know, depending when this goes live, taxes-wise, like I'm you know, oh, it'll be work on my taxes for five minutes, and once I'm done the five minutes, I'm done. That's great. Um, but of course, you know, it also helps that you know, if it's a project that's bigger and you just like get in the flow, then okay, keep working on it. So yeah, but yeah, the productivity thing's interesting too because I was just reading, I'm almost finished it. It's a great book. Um, Oliver uh Berkman is it? Um what is it? Oliver Oliver Berkman, and he's got this amazing book. I really like his work, um, called Time Management for Mortals. And without ruining the actual title, that's kind of the sub. The actual title, uh, well, let me ask you, how many weeks do you think are in the your average lifetime? So in your lifetime?

SPEAKER_02 37:56

Oh my god, so 52 times 75. Yeah, without doing the math, like off the top of your head.

SPEAKER_00 38:02

500 can't oh, that's 10 years. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So what do you think like in a lifetime? Like 85 years or something like that. 85 years? A thousand. Yeah, so it's it's four thousand. Four thousand. Yeah.

unknown 38:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 38:22

But that's not a lot. That's the point of it, right? Is you know, and I think if you ask anyone now. Well, no, if you ask anyone, yeah, if you have like I asked my wife, and she was like, she's great at math, but I'm like, don't think about it. I should have prefaced it with that. Don't do like any mental math. Just how many weeks do you think are in your in the average lifetime? And she thought, I don't know, like seven, nine thousand, something like that. And I was like, no, four thousand. And she's like, What really? Four thousand. Oh, yeah. And so the book is just it's great, it's really good because it puts things in perspective, uh, you know, about what you should or shouldn't be prioritizing in your life and things. And also, like, I like his work anyway, but I really enjoy I'm really enjoying the book. I'm almost finished. And uh, but he does talk because he was a productivity nerd uh earlier on. He wrote tons of articles for you know, major publications and and stories and things about or not stories, but articles about public about productivity. And he's kind of come to some of the conclusion that like like I mean, we need to be productive, obviously, but also it's a bit of a myth in a way of like being able to be and stay productive on stuff, or or and I'm do I'm doing a terrible job explaining the book, so I'll I'll let you check it out. But so no, we need I mean, obviously the idea to the point about productivity, we have to we have to get work done, or we're not gonna get paid if you know, or we'll get fired or whatever.

SPEAKER_02 39:54

So yeah, but also yeah, and also in life, too. We I mean, yeah, we don't have to necessarily I guess I don't have to do the dishes, I don't have to clean up or do laundry, uh, but there's a consequence to it, yes, and there's um there's also you know varying levels of shame or guilt attached to it. Like I I I live alone with my kid, so it's uh it can get to a certain d level of messiness and no one gives a shit, but it's um but it's still there at some point it has to be done. So productivity, I agree. And it's at there at some level we need it. Yeah, I I I would also agree with you. Like I you were talking about like you we go hard, right? And then it's there's this hardcore yin and yang, it feels like, and I'm I'm I'm I can only think about myself on this, but like it where I can go hard and then I have to stop forever. It's like that cycle of burnout, like yeah, do too much. Yeah, you run out of steam, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:58

You just kind of run out of steam, yeah. And I think that I think you know, people ask me, like, what's the biggest thing you've learned about yourself since the diagnosis? And I'm like, it's giving myself grace. So it's understanding that, like, yeah, maybe today won't be as productive as I wanted it to be. But I mean, if I'm sitting watching Netflix all day, that's a different thing, right? Like, if I'm actually doing the work and it just I'm just done at noon and it's just I'm not able to, I don't have the capacity or the energy. You know, there there are hacks like just walking my dog will revitalize, will give me a bunch of energy so that when I get home, I'm like a little more alert. Um, meditation and mindfulness also, like if you're not listening, yeah. I mean, I'm I'm you know, I've been podcasting since forever, so I love listening to podcasts, but at the same time, going for a walk with no AirPods and just no not listening sound of the birds, yeah, yeah. It's like, well, you know, that's not a bad thing either. So um, yeah, I'm sometimes guilty of like I did this video like 10 or 15 years ago about this like uh this balance of of of creativity of creation of consuming and creating, right? And the idea that like if all you're doing is consuming, you know, what's what's the point? Or and if all you're doing is creating, what's the point, right? Like it's it's you're not gonna create well if you don't know, like you're not gonna be a great writer if you're not reading other writing and you're not learning grammar and and things like that, right? Um, so it's this fine line, this balance between you know creating and consuming and making sure that there is balance there. And if you work for yourself, then probably converting would be added to that as well, like actually converting to earn money, like converting a client or converting a whatever. Yeah. Um, so this this fine line of balance between it that I I often think about because yeah, as I said, I like I'm guilty. Sometimes I'll have my AirPods and my ears, like yesterday. Like I painted for eight hours yesterday, and I listen to every podcast I think I'm subscribed to, probably, and then the news and whatever, which I don't recommend anyone do. Um, not these days. Yeah, so um, yeah, just wait a while. Uh hopefully. Uh um, but yeah, just to like uh yeah, just to to stop and think, okay, what am I? I've listened to eight hours of podcasts. What did I learn from any of them? And what should I do now? Should I write an article for why squirrels or talk to do a podcast about one of the topics or create a video or tutorial or something, or or something else? Maybe it's a conversation I should have with my kids, or maybe it's whatever it is. But it I think it's important to to think about what we should be doing with the information we're consuming. So spending some time creating.

SPEAKER_02 44:01

Is that like a a call to servitude, maybe like a how are we serving it based on like we're getting all this information, so how can we serve I think that's what the one of the things I really look up to you about is that that you're you're doing you're creating you're creating um an environment for said our kind for our kind to gather. Yeah to get a chaos of ADHDers. I think that's what you call a group of ADHDs it's together. But I think that's beautiful because I'm I'm such a huge fan of right of community of and of yeah be too of being around people that are similar to us.

SPEAKER_00 44:43

Yeah um there's just so much uh in the normie world there's just so much shame and so much I'm not doing things right because they're different uh than me and but they're all the same so I'm the the odd man out yeah I think I love that idea that you're yeah yeah well I think part of that is the it's it's a combination of like FOMO and then just like uh yeah just just looking at what others are doing and thinking like why am I not at that level and of course like everybody on social media and you know are living or sharing sort of an edited version of their lives right they're not sh posting when they're up at night crying trying to figure out what the hell to do you know that's not usually the posts you see on their Instagram feed. So when you think of that I mean so much of that is is edit edits right it's like they're perfect lives. So it's important to to keep that in mind. But I'm also a big believer in in the power of in person and if anything the future will be in person. Um because now like being an early adopter in social media like I started tweeting on Twitter back in 07 February 07 and you know blogging you know 2000 or whatever. Like I've been into the these different social networks forever and not Twitter anymore but that's a different story. And the thing now is the way algorithms work and getting back to AI a little and bots and all that stuff is so when I let launched like my TikTok channel I I posted a video and got like 1500 views and I'm like whoa 1500 views and I got excited for a second. I'm viral yeah and then I'm like I've just been burned too much by this this medium that that I thought what it what like how do I know 1500 people saw this video and if they really did like let's let's flip it around right so you post a video on on TikTok let's say and you get 1500 views and you're excited about it's the dopamine spikes and you're like oh I got to create another one I got to do more of this I got to do more of this I got to refresh and look more at this and do more right but if you turn it around and you think what if and this is totally hypothetical because I have no proof of this but what if TikTok's algorithm automatically just adds a number of views to make you think that you've had 1500 views right and the thing with AI now is you can have conversations on different social networks with people that you think are real when they're not right so yeah and and now we're kind of getting to this point where good lord this is this will be the death of social networks right because not social media per se like that not the content you're creating but social networks is a so like when I wrote new business networking I talked about social networking and back in the day it was that it was getting on Twitter and meeting interesting people and then doing tweet ups and meeting up in person or going to conference like South by Southwest or CES or wherever in in the tech space and meeting up with these Twitter friends in person and then keeping in touch with them on Twitter and until you see meet again or vice versa where you you meet the person in person at a conference and they're on Twitter and you are and then you stay in touch on Twitter. But those days are gone and as I said like making new friends on social media or social networks I think is is largely a mistake because you don't know if they're even a human being and so that's why like in person another reason to not be on them.

SPEAKER_02 48:37

Oh my god yeah well there's lots of reasons not to as well um but you know and and this change myself by the way I I blew all of my social media up so I'm currently uh all social media free yeah except for I mean YouTube right but I don't uh go on YouTube for social media yeah um and I'm fortunate enough to not be a doom scroller on YouTube I was a doom scroller on all the other ones sure so I just uh my mission we which we'll talk about it whenever you do a meetup in LA I want to come and hang out with yeah yeah talk about uh like how do you how do you succeed in business with no social media that is the elixir of life I'm looking for yeah yeah because I it depends on the business right yeah like that's a thing like it it depends on on the type of business you know somebody is in um but as far as because like I'm I've still got all the profiles except Twitter for linked for Y Squirrels and for myself but I seldom use my own and for Y Squirrels I'm using them to promote the newest episodes and to kind of get the word out and to and to meet people to some extent but I well yeah let me ask you this because you're uh I read you on Substack you have a Substack and I don't count that as social media because that's it's also servitude it's uh yeah providing information that's beneficial.

SPEAKER_00 50:10

Yeah absolutely how's your experience on that? Uh yeah I'm really enjoying Substack I've got I think it's 4500 subscribers now subtitude so it's it's it's great. Yeah I like it because people can interact um and there's an app for it that makes it a little easier to navigate sometimes if it's you know inbox overload. But also people can pay and and support the podcast by paying like it's like five bucks a month or so. So it's really the cost of a coffee. So I have a bunch of people doing that which is awesome and I'm very thankful for that for that.

SPEAKER_02 50:45

And you know hey if bots and AI want to pay awesome yeah please I I will take uh I will take funding from any source uh almost any source I suppose those are going to be the lag meetups of the future Dave it's not gonna be in person it's gonna be I'll send my robot I'll send my robot to come and hang out with other people's robots and then I'll download the information who are my new friends robot yeah exactly yeah I don't I don't mind I don't mind the bots giving me money you know and and supporting the the show that's that that would be fine.

SPEAKER_00 51:20

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 51:21

Oh man well this has been a super fun talking to you um yeah you do do you have any plans to come to la or when it where is the next um uh or do you have the location for your next live meetup?

SPEAKER_00 51:34

Not yet I do I just uh but when I come to LA I'll definitely do please um I don't have any California on my calendar right now I'll be in Montana next week uh for a speaking engagement and then South Dakota uh oh that's pretty up there yeah yeah yeah but I love I love California so what part of LA are you in and were you affected by the fires at all?

SPEAKER_02 52:01

I mean everybody was to an extent yeah well my ex like their house was right probably a mile south of Altadena yeah man I just went up there just recently it is it it's weird because it goes from just being completely normal like you're all outside of the cafe and then you drive a couple blocks up and it becomes like this apocalyptic wasteland it is really sad. Um yeah some nuts I haven't been out to the Palisades um but probably same same deal there. I'm sure it is yeah it's yeah it's it's it's really sad because yeah uh California uh like I love I love California I spent a month in LA when I was like 19 and had a had a blast uh and I was you know I get out for speaking engagements whenever whenever possible so I was in San Diego last year and uh yeah so I'm always always looking for excuses oh and I was also in uh uh near Oakland East Bay sort of area okay as well um last year at a speaking engagement there and I always squeeze in hikes and stuff so when I can yes oh dude Dave hit me up when you come into LA we'll go on a hike or something we'll hang even if it's not an official meetup that would be super fun yeah totally awesome man so I'll put all the links to it basically we covered a lot we got the AI we got books we got the timers we've got we'll put everything into uh the show notes uh so people can connect with you and get your greatness um so I appreciate you coming onto the show I re uh this was really fun thanks thanks Russ yeah it's been fun I love chatting with people Dave is such a cool guy so please check out the links to Dave in the show notes specifically whysquirrels.com there is so much on that website you can connect to his podcast you could book him for coaching for speaking he's got plenty of resources on his website along with like links to all of his social medias I really enjoy this aspect of podcasting because I get I get a chance to meet and talk to people like Dave uh that I otherwise wouldn't necessarily have an opportunity to chat with super cool super fun and that will do it for the week uh already guys um stay tuned as we enter into a new month with a new theme starting next week what's what's it gonna be what are we gonna do you'll find out unless I've already said it in a previous episode which I can't remember if I did or not so I could be teeing up the suspense and you're like we already know what it is dude I don't know I don't know have a great rest of your week you guys and I shall talk to you later