Beyond the Page Podcast ~ Navigating Business Coaching with a Neurodiversity Lens

Unlock the secrets of neurodiversity and how it can supercharge your business coaching techniques with an enlightening chat with Meredith Canaan,  a differently-wired business coach with heart.  As a serial entrepreneur, she has started many creative and visionary businesses and has helped more than 2,000 clients to do the same.

Meredith helps her clients create community in an aligned way so they step into the role of the leader in their company. Focusing on community and collaborations, they leverage their impact and scale their income through her signature membership, Love Then Lead.

Meredith brings a fresh perspective to the table, revealing the critical role of dopamine in motivating neurodivergent minds. As we navigate her journey and the evolution of her Differently Wired Business Membership, we uncover how embracing neurodiversity is not just a theme, but a revolutionary approach in the entrepreneurial realm.

Get ready to be inspired as we dissect the PINCH framework, a dynamic set of motivational tools tailored for the neurodivergent. Through anecdotes and practical advice, you'll learn how Play, Interest, Novelty, Competition, and Hurry can ignite focus and drive. This episode isn't just about celebrating the big wins; it's about understanding the power of acknowledging every step, big or small, toward success. Join us as we share strategies for balanced self-care and invite you to design a pathway to triumph that resonates with your unique strengths and challenges.

Watch the full interview by clicking here

Find the full article here: https://bit.ly/MCBTP-24

Learn more about Meredith Canaan:
https://meredithcanaan.com/

Meredith has a special gift for our listeners:
The Sample planner
Understand Your Brain Guide (UYB)

Grab your free issue of choice Magazine here - https://choice-online.com/

In this episode, I talk with Meredith Canaan about his article published in our January 2024 issue.

Transcript

Garry Schleifer: 0:07

Welcome to the choice Magazine podcast, Beyond the Page. choice, the magazine of professional coaching, is your go-to source for expert insights and in-depth features from the world of professional coaching. I'm your host, Garry Schleifer, and I'm thrilled to have you join us today. In each episode, we go beyond the page of articles published in choice Magazine and dive deeper into some of the most recent and relevant topics impacting the world of professional coaching, exploring the content, interviewing the talented minds- no that way- behind the articles and covering the stories that make an impact. choice is more than a magazine. For over 20 years, we've built a community of like-minded people who create, use and share coaching tools, tips and techniques to add value to their businesses and, of course, to impact their clients.

Garry Schleifer: 1:00

In today's episode, I'm speaking with business coach Meredith Canaan, who is the author of an article in our latest issue. For those of you that happen to be watching, it's a beautifully bright-colored one, and Meredith is showing hers as well. The issue is entitled Neuroscience and Coaching ~ Separating Myth from Reality. Her article is entitled Brain Chemistry ~ the Role of Dopamine in Motivation and Coaching. Excellent, excellent read. A little bit about our Meredith.

Garry Schleifer: 1:27

Meredith Canaan is a differently-wired business coach with heart, which is why she's pumping the heart in the video here. As a serial entrepreneur, she's started many creative and visionary businesses and has helped more than 2,000 clients to do the same. She helps her clients create community in aligned ways. They stepped into the role as a leader in their company, focusing on community and collaborations. They leverage their impact and scale their income through their signature membership, Love Then Lead. Meredith is also a very, very close dear friend of mine. A business bestie as we like calling it. We meet on a regular basis to talk about our businesses and to enroll her in writing for choice Magazine, which she finally did. Yay, the stars were aligned. So thank you for joining me today, Meredith.

Meredith Canaan: 2:19

Thank you so much for having me, Garry. I think a great acknowledgement of our biz bestie hood, which I know is the word I'd really made up, but as a neurodivergent person, we get to do all of that stuff.

Garry Schleifer: 2:32

She makes up a lot of things, folks.

Meredith Canaan: 2:37

Just recently the membership got a new face and a new name. But Love Then Lead was.

Meredith Canaan: 2:48

You know, you the surrogate father of all. Righ because it really was something that came out of your listening as the person holding space for me. It's always an honor to get to do things with you. It's such a beautiful place and I know that that membership, although it's now, it went through an identity change and she got a new name. She's the Differently ired business membership. I think it really works with our theme for the neurodivergent, the neuroscience of it all, and how our brains all work so differently.

Garry Schleifer: 3:17

Yeah, no, kidding. No, thank you so much. You really are ht-centered in your differently wired leadership. Love tlead is not gone. It's the core of who you are and what you're doing. Why did you decide to write this article?

Meredith Canaan: 3:41

Well, I think part of it was because it's a topic that's really important to me. It's one of those things when we start to think about the neurodiversity of it all, how people's brains work differently. I think the idea of neuroscience and coaching, it plays a big part as people who hold space for our clients to understand the intricacies and the different mechanics of why one brain might do something one way and another person's might do something another way, and for us to really hold that space of love and acceptance to cultivate the opportunity for people to step into their greatness, to step into the futures that they dream for themselves. So many neurodivergent folks have always had some type of judgment or a feeling that they are different and not enough, because the world, school, business a lot of it isn't naturally designed for us.

Meredith Canaan: 4:48

Yeah, I think that space, the conversation of you know coming from acceptance, coming from understanding what could be at play with our different clients as they show up, especially from a neurological perspective, from a brain chemistry perspective, and knowing that so many of the things that we start come from that neurotypical base. But I think, especially in coaching and in entrepreneurship, a lot of neurodivergence is at play and so it can be super helpful for those people who are seeking those places and understanding on how to do something. Typical coaching and goals and things like that might not work when you're talking to a neurodivergent person and so to have that understanding it's not like I'm not trying, it's just that there are different obstacles and different things that can be at play and so creating that field of understanding, the field of what could be here, and getting that information out there, so people just have more tools and they're about to help each other.

Garry Schleifer: 6:01

Exactly, and I can't help but feel this is a little personal.

Meredith Canaan: 6:07

I don't know what you're talking about. It is interesting because I know, especially in my generation, so I'm knocking on 50s door and for me, growing up as a female in elementary school in the 80s and high school in the 90's, these weren't conversations. ADHD and these types of diagnoses weren't things that were commonplace and so I knew people talked about dyslexia and reading disabilities and for me, I don't have any official dyslexia diagnosis.

Meredith Canaan: 6:47

In college I had diagnoses done that got me extended time on like LSAT and things like that and I got my history classes, which was one of my really tough subjects, read to me on cassette tape, so that gives you an idea about technology for those of you. But I think, growing up in a world that didn't have that understanding, and for me not having an understanding of why things are so hard, why I have to work extra hard to just meet standards and other things without having that clear picture. And even after the diagnoses in college I still didn't quite get it because they were very vague. I have a reading disability, a spelling disability. Like that's the terms that they gave me a short-term problem, right.

Meredith Canaan: 7:42

I know now about it after kind of nerding out in neurodivergence because I had a baby and for women, our executive dysfunction dysfunctions more after childbirth, and then you see the problems with your children and you start to have a more understanding of what's going on. It's also very difficult in menopause. So we're also seeing more and more late diagnoses of these things because of the kind of mental health crisis that's hitting the country with COVID and everything that happened, well, has our life really started to make the your ability to function in the world different, and so if you had executive function challenges ADHD, autism, you know some of these types of things that started to unspire.

Meredith Canaan: 8:40

So I think a lot of us are getting the diagnoses. Myself, I officially got a prescription for medication. I'm going to try some ADHD meds. I'm very excited. I should be getting that home today. I'm looking forward to exploring it. Yeah, very personal, very personal and watching it with my child. I have a 12 and a half year old and a nine year old and seeing the impact. We did a full neuropsych evaluation, educational evaluation from my oldest and it was just kind of lightning bolt struck my brain and I was like, oh my goodness this explains so much and the similarities, and I see them with my son as well.

Garry Schleifer: 9:18

You know, always learning. Yeah, you know, I remember back in when I was in public school and it was so different than now. Everybody, like even our parents, treated us the same, even though we were vastly different. And, you know, everyone had the same standard. They're still, still to this day, fighting standardized testing because it just doesn't work for everybody.

Meredith Canaan: 9:46

Well, and the school systems were designed to help. You know, I mean, I'm going to try not to rant too much. Too late sister, too late. The systems were designed workers create factory workers because of the Industrial Revolution.

Meredith Canaan: 10:02

Yes, and it really was to keep people in line and it's not designed for innovation. It's not designed for creativity unless you're looking at some of those other types of schools, and things like that that are designed for more individual care, but the general public school where they have 30 kids in a class, etc. Depending on the age, it's not designed to have customized learning to understand. For me personally, I'm an auditory processor and a verbal processor, so I don't like to write in journals my thoughts. I would rather have a biz bestie like you and talk through what's going on, because that's how I think, I'm an out loud thinker, which is why coaching is fabulous, as a resource for folks like us, because it is auditory processing, verbal processing at its core, where you're speaking to somebody who's holding just amazing space for you to work through it.

Meredith Canaan: 11:04

But not everybody has access to coaches. Not everybody has access to that. And Our education system doesn't necessarily provide those places for questions and answers. I think they're doing a lot more of it now in schools than they used to be for sure.

Garry Schleifer: 11:18

Yeah well, I feel sorry for the school system having to figure this all out and get specialized teaching and systems in place, but, like you say, they're working on it. Speaking of working on it, you've given us as coaches and I think just in general, five motivators, ff you will, or indicators. Can you tell us a little bit more about those?

Meredith Canaan: 11:38

Yeah. So I didn't come up with the motivators, right. So the idea of four of these motivators was created by David Gwork, and then the fifth one was added by some mentors of mine at Impact Parents, Elaine Taylor-Claus and Diane Dempster. But in studying with them, I became a certified sanity school teacher, which was for parents of kids with ADHD and other complex issues. I love a good I don't know if it's a mnemonic device or an acronym, but it's PINCH and so I came up with that based on the work of these other three brilliant people. And so, especially when you think about motivation, it's like giving a little pinch in the tuchus to get you moving Right. And so those five motivators I kind of briefly go over them in the article, but it's really easy to remember. I love pinch right. So the first one is Play, and that's play and creativity and fun. Fun is one of my values.

Garry Schleifer: 12:39

Oh yeah.

Meredith Canaan: 12:39

Even a life if it's not fun. So I understand why that as a value makes so much sense to me when it's one of the big motivators. So you'll see a lot of neurodivergent people like a lot of color or crafts or arts or entertainment. Right, that play as a motivator can be so powerful. When you think about getting your kids to do something. Last night, for example, my boy's been dawdling at bedtime and instead of taking 10 minutes to get his teeth brushed in his water and all of those things, he's been dawdling and taking 30 minutes. So last night we're like how fast can you do it? And he got it done in five minutes and five seconds, not 30 minutes, right, and so it was kind of a fun little game.

Garry Schleifer: 13:27

Was there a reward?

Meredith Canaan: 13:30

No, I mean, maybe he did get a little extra.

Garry Schleifer: 13:34

You're talking here about external rewards as motivators.

Meredith Canaan: 13:37

So actually he did get a little extra TV time. So, you're right, he did. Just to watch and cuddle the kitty, right? So P for play, I for interest, and I think there's some really important things in this one, because neurodivergent brains, boredom is the kiss of death, kiss of death. And so that I, having it be something that you're interested in, will help keep your brain engaged, will help you do more right? So if somebody says, hey, Meredith, let's do the taxes, and watch your squirm and avoid it for months.

Garry Schleifer: 14:22

I'm the opposite of neurodivergent. Okay, I'm the foundation so that neurodivergent play people can have fun.

Meredith Canaan: 14:33

Right, but it's the interest in the topic.

Garry Schleifer: 14:38

Yeah, that makes sense. So right from the very first chance.

Meredith Canaan: 14:42

It is true for everybody, but more so for a.

Meredith Canaan: 14:46

Yeah for neurodivergents, because we get bored easily. We need to keep layering on different levels of interest, whether you know, and how it weaves together into what we're working on and the goals that we're trying to reach. And so oftentimes if you're with a client and you're finding that they're just not engaging in something right, it's because that piqued interest might not be there or it may have wandered away. I'm really impulsive and I'm interested in this month, but next month I'm like you know, here's the pile of 17 different project that I was interested in that didn't have the follow through. So having that powerful interest to keep bringing your attention, to keep bringing the idea of, oh, this is fun, right, I started like nerding out in neurodivergence as a field of interest, right, and for some of us we might get hyper focused areas of interest.

Garry Schleifer: 15:47

Which is the key.

Meredith Canaan: 15:48

That's what we're trying to, what the motivators are all about, right, and this is where I think this is where niching is really important in in business is it's these levels of nerding out and really hyper focusing in these very specific areas and becoming experts in very specific small fields is really powerful at play, and so that can be something that's very helpful for people is to find that interest. We have 8000 comic books in our home, right. It's definitely an area of expertise. My husband created a board game based on Marvel Comics in the 90s Right, because it's an area of interest for him and that right. So it's those types of things. So I is Interest.

Garry Schleifer: 16:35

Yep and.

Meredith Canaan: 16:37

is Novelty.

Meredith Canaan: 16:43

Right. Well, and because boredom is the kiss of death, right, it needs to have newness. It doesn't necessarily have to be a new topic, but it might be a new perspective, a new way of looking at things, a new way of doing something to change things up. Often with neurodivergent brains, we will, we'll have a system, a support structure that works for us, that works really, really well for a good solid two to three months, and then it breaks down. It only down because of us, and so it might be that it needs a new element of newness and novelty to help support us. So we talk about that one in the article, for sure. And then C, P I N C. C is Competition, and so it can be. Some people are motivated by external competition Right, it's where the rewards and things can come into play. But it also can be competing with yourself, right, beating your own stats, right. I know, for example, you are playing a game with the subscribership of the.

Garry Schleifer: 17:48

That's exactly. I'm always making up games.

Meredith Canaan: 17:50

Right. Always making up a game to say I want to have more subscribers on a daily basis and finding a really fun measure and having that competition, even if it's amongst yourself. So knowing how competition is a play with you. Right, some of us really don't want to compete with others. Right, we'd be collaborators and lovers, not fighters. And right.

Garry Schleifer: 18:12

That's coaches.

Meredith Canaan: 18:14

Right. But how does it work and when you can create a competition and how it works for your neurodivergent client, right. So I'm playing like next year is all about optimizing. So I'm playing a stats competition with myself to increase incrementally inside my own business. So competition is really powerful. And then H is Hurry up, right, it's urgency.

Meredith Canaan: 18:38

So many of us right, one of the like, the positives and negatives of the neurodivergent, especially the ADHD, is procrastination. People often talk about procrastination and we look like procrastinating. But part of it is we have difficulty with that task, motivation to get started. But urgency is a powerful, powerful thing as it plays into a lot of us have time blindness is one of our challenges and we don't see that time horizon. So all of a sudden the project that we have that's due is oh, it's not now, it's not now, it's not now. As Ned Halliwis hell says, it's a now and a not now timeline. And then all of a sudden it's right in front of our faces like, oh, my goodness, it's right now and I have to do it.

Meredith Canaan: 19:24

And so that urgency, there's a point where that clicks into our brains naturally and gets us moving and I think a lot of people get mad or frustrated, you know, parents will get mad, and frustrated, kids who put the things off till the very last minute. But what I have discovered about myself and I think a lot of my clients as well, is that my genius lies in there. To understand that. For me, specifically, the way I use that hurry up motivation is that I understand that all of a sudden, the moment before the interview, the great questions will come up, and doing it in advance is just not in my nature. Same thing with the classes that I teach often the inspiration to get it done.

Meredith Canaan: 20:12

I believe we have a superpower in this hurry up zone where, once it clicks in all of a sudden, our brains sink into the beautiful knowledge of the universe in a way that other people's brains don't. It just downloads and comes into us. That inspiration is there, but it only clicks when that hurry up motivation is there and the challenge is to understand how to use it to support you in a way that doesn't burn you out and to understand how to set yourself up for success in it. So for me, I teach the first Wednesday of every month, and so Tuesday night and Wednesday morning is reserved for that last minute. Like what am I going to teach this month and being able to put together the slides and do the whole thing, but if I pretend to time, block it somewhere else, it's just not going to happen.

Garry Schleifer: 21:04

Well, and I mean that's brilliant. Who cares when you time block it, even if it's at the end, right? And I find it interesting that when I'm coaching clients and I think of why do you wait to the last minute? I need to be careful now and see if they're neurodivergent last minute, as in H in hurry versus just. They could do it earlier, because a lot of people their brilliance doesn't lay in the hurry up zone, right, it's just, and they make mistakes, errors and judgment or writing or whatever.

Meredith Canaan: 21:40

It is so interesting it's about understanding, right, that impulsivity, right. We're also very impulsive people with ADHD, and so we tend to make quick decisions. We tend to do things like that and to see the contrast in other types of neurodivergence. You might see somebody on the autism spectrum who needs all of the details, all the information, who needs to take a lot of time, and so that's why, understanding the individualism and the individual brain that you have in front of you, how does it work? I know for me that, knowing that level of my genius lies in that last minute stuff, I also set it up so that after that training day, I usually have a mani-pedi with my bestie, I get to have self-care.

Meredith Canaan: 22:30

So just in case, I had to stay up late and I didn't get a lot of sleep. I have something nurturing, so it's about creating those support structures that help understand how your motivators work and knowing that balance right If the procrastination is giving you too much stress, like you were saying. Some people need to have that more time. It's really about understanding how we as individuals operate and designing those structures.

Garry Schleifer: 22:55

Well, you know, and it sounded like it really gives you peace of mind, building in a structure for the last minute, because that's how you operate best, right and how each person and it reminds me of the core competencies when there's it's meant to be that you spend time with your client, finding out what makes them tick, what makes them unique. And it's not just about you know, I grew up here, I've got this background, or you know, whatever it is, it's also about how do they operate. You know, when I'm hearing what you have to say about the H in hurry, well, you hit on another topic that is dear to both of us, and that's the. What's the link between celebrations and dopamine? Because you just referred to something about self care and many petty. So rewards come up a lot, but how about celebrations and dopamine?

Meredith Canaan: 23:54

Well, I think one of the things when we talk about coachings and celebrations and all of this stuff, most of us love the idea, as a coach, to have our clients celebrate and I have clients that are on the spectrum of I have all these celebrations and I'm ready. And I have other clients who are like, oh, I know you're going to ask me this question, I haven't thought of it and I don't want to talk about it and right, they really struggle. But the reason it's so important is it's like I say in the article that Ned Hallowell and John Raeady talk about the task positive network. Right, the positive in there is that the dopamine hit is in the yes, it's in the yes, I got this accomplished. And for a lot of us giving that to the smallest itty bitty of tasks like they have to be Elmo sized, chunked down, little tasks and then you feel, okay, I could be a little lame celebrating this.

Meredith Canaan: 24:54

I was like all I did was create a Google folder that says bestselling book or something like that. But for us, because it's so hard to get into action, that celebrating that first little step is so important, to acknowledge it, to celebrate it, no matter how small it is, because it gives us that hit of dopamine, that sense of accomplishment that we can then build on top of, so that it's another one, and then another one, and that starts to create the flywheel of accomplishment or motivation that you wanna see, that snowball of progress.

Garry Schleifer: 25:35

Right.

Meredith Canaan: 25:36

And it starts with the baby-est size of celebrations.

Garry Schleifer: 25:41

The baby-est size.

Meredith Canaan: 25:42

I love that, can you get me? Can we put in Elmo-sized?

Garry Schleifer: 25:45

Right, I like it. I like it Right and true for most clients. When you say so, how will you celebrate? They go massive trips and all that sort of thing and I'm like, no, just bring it up at the dinner table and say I'd like to celebrate something that I accomplished.

Meredith Canaan: 26:07

Right, this came in the mail yesterday.

Garry Schleifer: 26:10

Yay.

Meredith Canaan: 26:11

I found my husband and I sat down and we looked at it. I'm like look how pretty it is.

Meredith Canaan: 26:18

It's a nice accomplishment, I can see it, I can share it with my kids and that act says okay, now maybe I could write another article.

Garry Schleifer: 26:29

You can and you will, because I will be on your case for a long time to come about the next article, whether or not we do a neuroscience issue. You can, oh seriously. We have a column called Kaleidoscope. You could write about neurodivergency.

Meredith Canaan: 26:47

Right, and I think one of the things that could be really helpful and I will accept, I accept the invitation and I think part of it is understanding right. So, speaking about all this neurodivergent, I'm dyslexic and dysgraphic, and dysgraphic means that it's very difficult for me to get words to paper and part of it is I miss words when I type and when I write. All of these things happen and I heard and I don't remember the name of the expert who said this in a twice exceptional symposium that you know, authoring, right to becoming an author, isn't necessarily about typing and writing.

Garry Schleifer: 27:25

No, it's not you figured out, I can talk to text and-. We all can.

Meredith Canaan: 27:30

Right, for my stuff and to be able to speak an article is much easier. I think I did that for some of this article as well, Of course, I would exactly do.

Meredith Canaan: 27:40

Editing, right editing, but understanding for our neurodivergence, that there's so much that we can do. And it starts with that first step. It starts with understanding how to design based on your brain, design based on your heart, design based on your types of motivations, what you need to get that first step so you can get the second step and to have that snowball of success.

Garry Schleifer: 28:07

Yeah, well, you brilliantly said in the article that break it down until that's acceptable. They can morsel on it, right? So, thank you, thank you. Thank you, Meredith, we're coming we're running out of time. What would you like our audience to do as a result of this article and this conversation?

Meredith Canaan: 28:27

Well, I think if you're curious and you hear these things and they're resonating with you, I have a free resource to help you understand your brain a little more, help you understand executive function and what's going on to, might help you identify if this is something that might be at play in who you are and how you're running your life, not just your business, not just your coach your clients, et cetera understanding your brain, or the brain of your clients, and so I know we'll have a link for that somewhere, so you can check that out as a full.

Garry Schleifer: 29:01

Well, give us the website anyway for a bit.

Meredith Canaan: 29:03

So it's meredithcanan. com, and then /UYB slash UYB, which is understanding for understand your brain.

Meredith Canaan: 29:16

So there's a free guide for you there if you wanna find out more about your brain. And my website, I just said, is meredithcanon and that's can C-A-N like I can meredithcanaan it, you can do it, we can.

Garry Schleifer: 29:29

We can all.

Meredith Canaan: 29:31

Right A-A-N, so it's double A's and. A-a-n.

Garry Schleifer: 29:40

com.

Meredith Canaan: 29:41

Dot com. And then you can also follow me on socials Facebook, like I'm at like L-I-K-E meredithcanaann, and on Instagram at meredithobcanaan I have no idea what it is on LinkedIn to be perfect.

Garry Schleifer: 29:56

I know they have weird ones in LinkedIn sometimes. So, no, that's great. That's great. Lots of places to reach out to you learn more. Meredith has publicly committed to another article. She'll freak out after she hangs up. Paul Cap, her husband, help, I made a commitment. Thank you so much for joining us for this Beyond the Page episode.

Meredith Canaan: 30:19

Thank you for having me. It's been an honor and a pleasure and, you know, this is the thing I love to talk about.

Garry Schleifer: 30:25

And you can celebrate some more "Honey. Kids, I did the more podcast, it's done, woo-hoo." That's it for this episode of Beyond the Page. For more episodes, subscribe, as you did today, via your favorite podcast app. For more episodes, I have a little key Put in the word coaching and you'll find all kinds of things done by us. If you're not a subscriber, you can sign up now for your free digital issue of choice Magazine by going to choice-online. com and clicking the sign up now button. I'm Garry Schleifer. Enjoy the journey of mastery. Thanks Merdith,

Meredith Canaan: 31:02

Thank you, woo-hoo.