The Underwire Podcast

Why Productivity Tools Keep Failing Us - Building Solutions That Actually Work with Matt Canning

• The Underwire Podcast • Episode 14

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On this episode, we’re diving into why most productivity tools keep failing us—and the fix you didn’t know you needed.

Ever feel like you’re working twice as hard just to keep up—like everyone else got the manual for life except you? The truth is, most “perfect” systems were never designed for how your brain actually works.

In this episode, I’m joined by my longtime friend Matt Canning—a technologist, entrepreneur, ex–Fortune 50 executive, former touring musician, and the founder & CEO of NoPlex.ai, the first productivity and personal organization system built specifically for adults navigating ADHD and anxiety.

We dive into:

  • Why traditional productivity tools miss the mark for so many people and why NoPlex is different
  • How to design systems that work with your brain instead of against it
  • The role of strengths, weaknesses, and the people you surround yourself with
  • The understanding that multi-millionaires are JUST people too
  • Plus, a mysterious musical talent of Matt's

If you’ve ever felt like “staying organized” is an uphill battle—or you’re ready to ditch the one-size-fits-all approach to productivity—this episode is your permission slip to find a system that finally sticks.

RESOURCES & LINKS:

Keywords: productivity tools, ADHD systems, personal organization, mental wellness, workflow design, NoPlex, productivity hacks, anxiety tools, systems that stick


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Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of The Underwire, supporting you when life needs a I'm your host Jess,

and today I want to ask you:

have you ever felt like you've been working twice as hard just to keep up, like everyone else got the instruction manual for life except you? Well, what if I told you the problem isn't you at all? What if the reason you can't stick to the so-called perfect system is because most of those systems were never designed for your brain in the first place? I know because I've been there more times than I can count. So if this hits home, you're in luck because today we're talking all about how to build systems that actually work for your brain, especially when you're always left feeling like this works for other people, but why won't it work for me? On this episode, I'm joined by my longtime friend, Matt Canning, a technologist, entrepreneur, former touring musician, and ex-Fortune 50 executive. He's also the founder and CEO of NoPlex AI, the first productivity and personal organization system designed specifically for adults with ADHD and anxiety. It's chaos management for everyone.

Matt's mission is simple but powerful:

help people manage daily life in a way that works with their brains, not against them. By cutting the noise reducing overwhelm and giving people tools that actually stick. NoPlex is helping those with ADHD and anxiety thrive in a neurotypical world. So in this episode, we dive into Matt's own journey being diagnosed with ADHD later in life, the strategies he's developed to work with his brain instead of against it, and how his daughter's experiences with ADHD inspired the creation of NoPlex.

We also unpack an important truth:

multi-millionaires, they're just people too. Whether it's building a company from scratch or installing a window for the first time, this episode reminds us that people, way less skilled and truthfully. Sometimes much dumber than you have figured it out before. We also talk about the importance of balance because hyperfixation might help you launch a business, but it can also lead you straight to burnout if you're not careful. You'll have a chance to reflect on your own productivity quirks as we compare stories about our own non-negotiables for staying grounded, and we'll dig into why identifying your strengths and surrounding yourself with people who complement your weaknesses can change the way you work and you live. Additionally, on this episode, you'll discover Matt's unexpected musical talent, the songs. that get stuck in our heads all day, every day, and a very particular kind of gadget obsession that might make you feel a little less alone in your late night online shopping habits. Oh,

and one more thing before we jump in:

I am really excited to share that I am partnering with Matt and NoPlex to offer a gifted coaching session for anyone who signs up for NoPlex using the link noplex. ai forward slash underwire. That link— don't worry, it will be in the show notes. You'll be able to click it. It's very convenient. So if you don't feel like typing it in, then click it in the show notes. So if you're feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or unsure of what Your next move is this session offers guided support designed to help you process your thoughts and reflect on what truly matters to you. It'll help you uncover your own insights and find clarity in a way that honors how your brain works. Whether you're managing ADHD, juggling life and work, or just need some extra support and validation, this could literally be the spark that helps you make some big and scary changes, sometimes in ways you didn't expect or realize that you needed in the first place. So, if that sounds like something worth trying, definitely check it out. There is no catch at all, and because Matt wants to make Sure, NoPlex is accessible to anyone who may need it. NoPlex costs a total of $0, so there's no reason why not to check it out. If you've ever felt like traditional productivity tools just don't fit, or you're curious about how to design your life around your actual brain instead of forcing yourself into someone else's system, this one is definitely for you. And with that being said, let's get into it. Matt, thank you so much for being here today. I'm so excited to talk to you and see you, even if it's virtually. I couldn't agree more. It's been a while, and I'm really excited that you're having me on. I'm, yeah, we've been friends for a long time. We have. Sometimes it doesn't feel like a long time, and then you do the math. Yeah, yeah. So we've known each other a while. It's wild that we're old enough to say we've known each other for decades. Yeah, it sounds good. Yeah, it does. It sounds like we have wisdom. We do have wisdom. That's what you're here for, to tell me about your wisdom. I want to learn from it. I'll do my best. You probably don't even remember this, but you taught me how to play the solo in Cotton Amosh probably over 15 years ago. I still remember that shit. That is surprising, because I don't think I know it. I'll teach you how to play it now. We'll just keep doing that every 15 years. until one of us drops dead. Yeah, never. We're going to live eternally. We can hope. So, for anyone that is listening who doesn't know your full backstory, before you were the CEO of your own company building apps, doing all this cool techie stuff, you were heavily involved with music-related endeavors, touring in bands, booking shows, making merch, lots of guitar-ing. So, can you take us back to that time? What bands were you in and what were you up to in your musical heyday? Yeah, that's a great question because, for context, you and I met in our past life through music. And for me, music and technology, I think, have always run kind of parallel. course in my life. So when I was really young, I knew I wanted to be a technologist. I would sneak into my school library after baseball practice and code RPGs on Apple IIe computers in BASIC. And I always knew I wanted to do that and have followed that path throughout my life. We were we pulled a lot of inspiration from bands like Orchid and Love Lost but Not Forgotten, and Jeremy Fit for Battle. Sorry, Joshua Fit for Battle. And even like early cave in, if you're, you know, before they became a space rock band. And so we had done that for a while. And over the course of, you know, just grinding it out, we slowly gained a bit of a following. Right. And you know we would play every single weekend night and then eventually started playing up and down the East Coast. And you know every time we got a few days off of school we would book a little tour and we eventually got signed to a record label and you know did that for a pretty long time. During that time I also played drums for a band called Pilot Light. It was sort of a like a Jade Tree Records style indie rock band. That was just a lot of fun. You know we played some shows but it didn't really do anything significant. And then over the course of the time that I was in you know my primary band had played with and opened for some you know much more notable, much more established older bands and become friends with them and whatnot. And I had probably by then sort of gained a bit of a reputation for guitar. And so I was fresh out of college, and I was I was working a job in technology. I was setting up and maintaining mail servers for a growing criminal background investigation company. And I got a call from this band Shy Halutin, right, who we had become friends with, but they were, you know, a big internationally touring, you know, act. I mean, I listened to them growing up. Right. So they were about 10 years older than me. And they called me, and they said, hey, our guitarist had to leave the band. Do you want the gig? And I said, sure. And then they said, great. Come up to New York tomorrow. Learn the songs. We have a headlining show in Wilkes-Barre, PA, on Friday. And then we're going to Belgium early next week to play a festival. So I was like, oh, that’s OK, I guess I'm in this. So that's what I did. And I spent the next few years just touring full-time, basically, you know, with little gaps, just touring. I think at last count, you know, I'd been to somewhere between 20 and 30 countries while touring with Shy Halutin. And it was it was a really big shift for me. You know, everything in my musical career up until that point had been progressive and iterative. And you know, I'd sort of, you know, waded into the water bit by bit. But then suddenly, I found myself playing to these huge crowds. And you know, in the case of European festivals, for instance, you know, thousands of people, just like a sea of people, which was a big change for me, obviously. But it was also a big cultural change. And this is something I only really reflected on lately. But I was this relatively insulated boy from Philadelphia, from a blue-collar family. I'd never been on a plane until I started touring with this band. And I quite literally never been on a plane until I had to go to Belgium to play. a show. And so, culturally, it just sort of made me very quickly aware of how small my world had been. And I distinctly remember this moment when we were heading east out of, and we hit a border checkpoint. And this woman said to me, " So, what brings you to Slovenia And I remember thinking I didn't know there was a country called Slovenia until this moment. So, you know, it was a big, it was a big learning experience for me. And it was awesome. And you know, I wouldn't trade it for anything. And then eventually, you know, I wanted to kind of move on. And I parted ways with Psyhaluta. I still played in a band called the Twilight Collective for a while I. played guitar for them. You know, we toured the U. S. But for the most part, you know, that was kind of the end for me. And then all I've really done since is starting around 2016, myself and a few of my close friends, who are also ex-touring musicians, and we're now, you know, dads with careers spread across two and a half states. We formed a band called Witness. I play drums for Witness, and we're still playing just for fun. And if anyone listening looks us up, there's like 10 bands called Witness. We're the ones by the album called Life Cycles, and that will be the right band. So that's it. I've had a long career, I guess if you look at it, you know, over. the course of decades with a lot of, you know, points where it was casual, points where it was serious, and you know everything in between. So I'm curious, did you then quit your job to go on tour with Psyhaluta since they gave you so much notice to say come do this now, please? I did, but the job wasn't particularly high-paying. And I knew that I could also make a living off of music, kind of really for the first time, if I did this. And I was also tight with my boss. And you know, if I said to him, hey, this is a really cool opportunity, you know, he was like, great, go do it. Wouldn't stop you know, I had that luxury, right? You know, I wasn't burning. any You know I was I had an apartment, and you know, student loans. But, you followed your passion anyway, and you went on tour. They called, I suppose. Yeah, something related. You mentioned to me about how being in bands gave you this DIY mindset early on. Could you share a little bit more about that? Yeah, you know, I strongly believe that being in bands, especially when I was young and at the risk of dating myself, before the Internet, well, I guess I should say before kind of the functional, useful Internet that we have today, it taught me so much that really benefited me in my career, but also in my life. Right. And so just for instance, you know when I was 17 years old I had all these responsibilities that were, I think, pretty unique compared to a lot of my peers. Right? You know, I had to split van insurance with four other guys. Right? I had to figure out over the phone, with no Internet, how to drop ship a package of T-shirts to a We were going to be playing in a different town eight days later. Right? And sort of coordinate things like that. And you know, those are just two examples. But I think there was a lot of stuff that kind of taught me a lesson that helped me throughout my life, which is you'll figure it out. Right? Like you might not know what you're doing, but you'll figure. It out. Dumber people than you have made it work. Right? Just, just go ahead and do it. And so, that's really helped me. But the other thing too is I was lucky enough at a very young age to be introduced to punk rock and hardcore and sort of, you the dawning of the Philadelphia underground music scene. And I started to understand, you know, so major record labels weren't paying attention to this type of music. Right? There was no money in it. And so, what I learned really early on, you know, I could go across the world and go into a record store and pick up an album or pick up a, and I, I knew for a fact that those were being printed in a, somewhere in Toledo. like I would know the person. Right, the people doing the things are no different than you. And that's the essence of the DIY mindset, right? And I think that there's this natural sort of implication that we're all a victim to, which is you know we are here as guests in this larger game where there are these adults who are making the decisions and gatekeeping and managing economic forces. And what I think being in bands like that taught me and like you know running a small record label where we put out cassettes of local bands and things like that, you can do it. Like you're no different than the person who's doing it on this large scale. and seems like this intimidating, untouchable force. Like, really, no, we're all human beings, right? We all clip our toenails. Yes, most of us. Some of us may not, but that doesn't make us any less capable of doing those things. And I think you make a really good point that growing up, we're made to feel like, oh, adults are doing all of these scary, intimidating things and gatekeeping. And you're absolutely right. We are no different than any other person doing it on a larger scale. And I agree with all of those points that you made about being involved in the hardcore and the music scene and doing all of the stuff. yourself making all of these big ideas come to fruition. Yeah, we have a crash course. Yeah, and it really is so helpful into your adult years, taking all of those values, I guess, with you. Yeah, 100. Yeah, and so with that, do you feel like your experience with music and touring in bands helped you approach starting this company, building an app, in a more creative or intuitive way? Yeah, I think it did. And everything that we just talked about also translates to business, right? By the time I decided to leave my previous career behind and start our company, I had met by sheer luck, and just the nature of the types of roles that I was in, I was in executive. roles at a Fortune 50 company. All these good experiences. But in doing so, I had met many self-made billionaires and things like that. And when you meet those people, and you have the conversations with them, and you realize, like, oh, these are smart people, but they're not superheroes, that I think allowed me to give myself permission to do something somewhat bold and risky, because again, it's DIY, right? I'm as capable as anyone else, and it's taught me that. And as far as approaching it creatively, absolutely, I think that some of the most successful people on earth aren't one-dimensional. I remember reading one point that the I forget. his name but the former CTO of Microsoft is also a multi-year barbecue champion, right? And it's sort of like I'm immediately distrustful of someone who is focused in on one thing and done it incredibly well throughout their life. Like that's great, but I also recognize that there are things that you can learn from painting that you can apply to starting a And there's things that you can learn while getting an MBA that help you become a better parent, right? And everything cross-pollinates, right? You know intelligent people can apply those things. And so I definitely think that being in bands and being involved with music throughout. most of my life has certainly informed a creative approach to things that might otherwise be a little more businessy. I really loved what you said about the fact that you've met many self-made millionaires, and these people are not superheroes. I feel like that was super powerful just to hear you say that and to really keep myself in. But I'm sure anybody listening can relate to that, you know, and to be able to really think about that. Self-made millionaires are not superheroes. And going back, I'm thinking about everyone else too. Yeah, and going back to what you said a little bit ago, there is nothing that these people are doing. that we ourselves can't do. Right, yeah. So with that being said, let's talk about NoPlex. Sure. So first of all, tell the people listening what NoPlex is. Sure. NoPlex empowers individuals struggling with ADHD and anxiety to thrive in a neurotypical world; that's our tagline. And so NoPlex is essentially a productivity and life management app. It's more of an ecosystem because there's a little more to it than that. But for now, let's just talk about the app that works in a way that resonates with people with ADHD specifically, right? And one thing that we've learned is that people with ADHD really do have a desire to manage their lives. through digital means, but they have really high churn. And what that means is they don't stick with the solutions for long, right? Because the solutions fail them because they're not built for them. So there's this very familiar cycle that we've seen many, many times where somebody's life turns to chaos and they say, " oh, I need to grab an app to fix this And they do a little research and they find an app, and it's a neurotypical app, right? It's the Evernote or the Todoist or, you know, I mean, even the Notes app on your phone. And they go all in. They pack it with all their tasks and their responsibilities and everything like that. And then they're into it for a while. And then they hit what we call a hiccup, which is, you know, you go on vacation for a couple of days, or you spend a night in the hospital. And much like a calorie tracker or a language app, you know, you're very suddenly out of practice with it. And then when you get back into it with these types of apps, you'll often find that the things that actually matter are sitting there at the same priority and within the same view as things that are no longer relevant. And you either have to abandon it, or you have to do the work to clean it up. And that's especially hard for people with ADHD. So they abandon it. They go through that same cycle a while later. They get frustrated. They find another app. And so we worked with clinicians and ADHD coaches and really came to understand what challenges around ADHD caused that churn and made these apps unusable for people who struggle with that. And we built an app that circumvents those challenges and also, to a large degree, creates what we call digital proxies for proven analog strategies, right? So, for instance, we have this concept of a horizon, which is a very focused view of what you're supposed to look at today. Your progress bar is based on your Your notifications at 9 p. m. If you haven't done things, it is. Based on your horizon, the horizon is essentially a digital version of what a lot of therapists recommend, which is take your to-do list and walk over to a whiteboard calendar, find today's block, and put in three things. And then that's it. You do those today; you're good. Everything else can wait and be reprioritized. So we basically created, again, sort of digital versions of those analog strategies. That's amazing! Oh, thank you. Yeah, no, so I have a daughter who struggles with ADHD. She's brilliant, but she struggles in all the ways that you imagine a teenage girl struggles with. I would love to say that that was enough for me to drop. everything and build this with her as the inspiration but the reality was I've had the idea and I've known that there's been a need for this for a long time but I remember there was a moment where I was on a work call with somebody at another company and they were using this app called Slack, which is a communication tool. And when they were screen sharing, for a brief second I saw their Slack instance and I saw that there was a channel called ADHD. And I stopped and I started to think oh there are enough people here who identify as having ADHD that it was valuable to create a community, right? And this is also a community that's visible to the higher ups at the company and all of their peers. And it occurred to me that stigmas had eroded so much over the course of the years around ADHD. And so I began to do my homework, and my instincts that I had from working with my daughter turned out to be true, right? There are plenty of telehealth options, and plenty of medicine options, and plenty of coaching opportunities, and habit trackers, and video games that are supposed to help you improve your focus, but there was nothing that addressed that practical day-to-day reality of your responsibilities and your commitments. And so that's when I started doing this. And I remember There was a moment where I realized that I had a real, true, large global community to address when I found out there had been over 30 billion posts on TikTok tagged with tags related to ADHD. I had that, oh wow, this is bigger than I thought, moment. And the other thing that's kind of interesting there is we originally designed it for ADHD, but early on we began getting feedback from people with anxiety that it really resonated with them. And that feature that I just talked about, the idea of the horizon and isolating where you execute your tasks from where you manage your, as well as some of the sort of automated routines that we have. people with anxiety said that really helped them out and helped them sort of manage the anxiety that they feel around their responsibilities. So with some careful consideration, we eventually adjusted the product a and shifted the user experience a bit, and then our messaging to include that community as well. So you mentioned that NoPlex addresses practical day-to-day management; you say that that is what sets it apart from other ADHD or productivity apps. Yeah, I mean I think we're pretty unique in the ADHD space in that there are all these complementary services that work really well, right? And we've partnered with some of them these coaching platforms and these habit trackers and things like that. But I think we're pretty unique in building a productivity tool for those with, especially, a mature product that is kind of based on science and has usership. In the productivity space, that's a huge world, that's a huge market, that's very competitive. For us, the differentiators are really not necessarily that you can manage your life through them, but that you can manage your life in a way that's very intuitive for people with ADHD. So, for instance, we do things like if a task is over a certain age, it's surfaced to you and the app says like, hey it's time to tidy up. Does this matter right? It's been sitting there for a long time. Clearly, you haven't died, so can this go, or can you just knock it out, right? And sort of helps curate the experience that way. And also things like if you have a, and it's obvious because you've scheduled an oil change or something like that. What are the things we call them, plexes? What are the things that people miss, and people with ADHD also miss, maybe even more frequently, like get your annual car inspection, right? That sneaks up on everybody. But the idea of that sort of being surfaced to you as an option, like hey, what about this, right? That's become really helpful. So that the curation part of the experience and the automated routines and things like that have become big differentiators for us. Yeah, and also I wanna go back to what you said about solutions and trying to find different solutions. As somebody myself who obviously you already know I have ADHD, and something you said really resonated with me about solutions failing for people with ADHD because those solutions are not built for those people. And something that is so frustrating that I've experienced in my own life is people offering advice to me. Oh, have you tried this? Have you tried that? Well, what about this Well what about that Well you just gotta that's the worst one Oh well you just have totry to explain to people that sometimes it's just not about you just gotta do it Like motherfucker I know I just gotta do it So having a solution that is catered directly towards ADHD is so helpful And what I really like about NoPlex I mean a lot of things but the importance of having just only three things to worry about the most important of the priority in your digital horizon Put three things there get those done Because as an ADHD person we wanna do all the things We wanna go go go We wanna get all the shit done And does it ever get done No. So having to focus on only three things and making sure those are done, it helps with the overwhelm; it definitely helps with the anxiety portion of that. Because when you're focusing on less, then you have less to worry about. You can feel a little bit more calm and a little bit more regulated, which is very important. Yeah. One thing to point out that I don't think I mentioned, though, is it sort of meets you where you begin and helps you get to a place that you want to get to. And so, for instance, the horizon isn't specifically three things. You could add as many as you want, right? But as you carry things over and everything like that. your patterns and your behaviors become apparent. And then every Monday at 8 a. m. you get insight. This modal that pops up in the app and it says hey your weekly insights are here let's take a look. And it walks you through hey these are the days you completed the things in Horizon. These are the days you didn't. It looks like you know it's a numbers game, right? You're packing these days, you know here's the recommendations. Why don't we spread these things out a little better? No one's expecting to show up, get this app and be perfect, right? It slowly gets you to a place where you become much more aware of your own patterns and then are able. to work with it to accommodate them and also adjust as necessary. And that's really important, being able to meet people where they are and give them that insight. Be like maybe we should be trying to do this. I also really like having the 'it's time to tidy up' as well. Hey, this has been here for a long time. Yeah. Do you still need to do this, or can we get rid of it? Right, we task hoard, right? We thought hoard. It seems important to put something down right now, but you know, the reality is, you know, in a few weeks, if it hasn't been done, like it's not dialysis clearly, right? Like this is something that you can take a look at and maybe ditch or just pull. the bandaid off, get it done right. But obviously, the world hasn't ended. So yeah, it's the first of its kind to do that. And there are a few other things that I think are big differentiators. So we have this really cool community around Noplex, so really diehard evangelists. And so we're able to get a lot of good feedback from people and also by, you know, paying attention to Reddit and TikTok and where our users tend to hang out. And one thing that we've heard repeatedly is I don't care how good an app is; it needs to be in my face, right? It needs to remind me that it's there, not wait for me to remember that it's there. And so we've built and we're the first of its kind to do this. There's an option for Noplex to have this that persists on your lock screen on iOS. So if you have an iPhone, on your lock screen just like you would see if you know you were waiting for an Uber or you had a parking meter that was about to expire, that same type of experience we have your task list there and the ability to, with a single click, add a new task. So that's been huge. People are absolutely in love with that feature. Yeah, because a very common experience with ADHD is that if it goes away, it's not there, it doesn't exist anymore. Right, yeah. So that's really important. So with your own experiences I know that you've mentioned to me that you also have ADHD, but what I thought was really interesting is that when we had previously talked about it, it seemed like your experiences were more positive instead of struggling with it. When did you first realize that you had ADHD? Was it more of like a slow realization over time, or was there one specific moment where you're like, oh yeah, this is me? Kind of neither. So I have a kind of a strange experience, especially for a And I say that because women have notoriously—well, I'll say girls have notoriously been underdiagnosed because it doesn't manifest as hyperactivity as often as for boys. So in school, they weren't getting the attention around these things, and therefore for women now, diagnoses are going through the roof because, oh, I've had this the whole time, but it fell under the I sort of fall into that camp. So I never considered that I might have ADHD. In my late thirties, I had this issue, completely unrelated. I sort of had, for lack of a better way to put it, a low degree of constant vertigo that was driving me nuts. Saw some doctors, got some tests, blah, blah, blah. One of the specialists I saw was a neuropsychologist, gave me a battery of some physical, some cognitive. And at the end of it, he said, well, when were you diagnosed with ADHD. And I was like, what do you mean? He goes, well, you have ADHD. Like, did you know? I was like, no, I had no idea. Which is a thing for me because I once had an ENT say to me, how many times have you broken your... not did you ever break your So that's how I found out I'd apparently broken my nose a few times, which makes sense looking back, but no. And I learned then in my late thirties. And from that, sort of like an M. Night Shyamalan movie, I sort of just went back through my life and pieced a lot of things together and realized there are all these things that sort of make sense and align with ADHD. And to your question, I'm lucky enough. to I don't struggle with the things that tend to disable people when the disabling aspects of ADHD are really prevalent. But what I've realized is that the shortcomings that I've encountered because of, I've sort of built processes around and strategies around. And that served me both in my personal life and my professional life. But as a result of that, I realized in retrospect that's why I'm insanely organized, right? Just absolutely everything has a process and everything is repeatable. And I thought that was because I was a software engineer, but realistically I think it's because I was accommodating for the fact that I'm I don't wanna say disorganized, but five thoughts at a. And so I've had to make up for that. And the other thing too is one thing that I think a lot of people with ADHD would also argue is one of the rare benefits of it is hyperfixation. But I mean, I have the ability for a of hyperfixation that I rarely see. I mentioned that I had gained a bit of a reputation as a guitarist in my late teens and early 20s. That's because everyone else went to bed, and I would grab a carton of orange juice and a guitar and sit down from 11 p. m. till 4 a. m. just repeatedly playing the same riffs over and over, trying to make them faster, right? Like trying to find the hardest things to play and just playing them over and over. And even now, when I first started NoPlex before I build a team, I prototyped it myself. And there were days, and I say this with no exaggeration, where my wife would go to, I would send my kids off to the bus stop, I would sit down at my desk and start coding,

and then I would hear a door open downstairs and it was 4:

30 in the. And people came in the. And it would occur to me I didn't pee, I didn't eat, my legs were numb, I just stayed there and I just kept coding. And so that's been valuable to me. Like honestly, that's helped me in life. And the ways that it's been a detriment I've managed to work. around So I think in some ways that's also made me a really good liaison to the and able to build this app because I can relate and I can understand and I can empathize with the challenges but at the same time I think I have again I'm not disabled by some of those things. And I also feel that I can understand ways to build experiences that help circumvent those challenges and disorganization and things like that. And then you kind of went back in your head and revisited past experiences. And then you mentioned the thing about coding for hours and hours

and hours and then it was 4:

30 and you realized you didn't have you didn't pee. you know you didn't eat. What else, what other experiences were you able to think about in your brain? Like, oh yeah, now this makes sense. So some of those I only realized were artifacts of ADHD because of my own experiences with my daughter and seeing some parallels. So much like her, I would be the first to finish a test in school, and then I would just doodle, sketch, and just like fill the time. Like I was bored with the test, needed to move on and do something else, you know? And so, things like that. Or another one is I just thought I was impatient, but if somebody is taking a long time to explain something or talking really slowly or saying something that I know I already know I think I'm pretty good at being polite and restrained about it but I'm crawling out of my skin inside and just I just want to shake them and be like I get it. Oh my God, can we move on? And so that's one right. I realized like oh that's probably ADHD not me just being a prick. Yeah, I can relate. I can relate to that. Some days are better than others for sure. Now my daughter being younger and you know having less impulse control by being younger she'll cut you off and be like oh I get it. And you know I see how infuriating it is. So for me I'm conscious about not doing it myself but you know deep down. So just if you're listening to this, and you're talking to me, and you're talking very slowly. Just know, like I'm melting behind my eyes. You fucking hate it. So similarly, you mentioned that you don't typically struggle with things that other people with ADHD would feel paralyzed by. For people listening who might not know what some of those things are, could you please elaborate? Yeah. So I mean, ADHD is one of the most executive function disorders that humans have to deal with. I heard this analogy once, and I don't know how scientifically accurate it is, but I've always loved it because I think it creates a great visual. So you have the part of your brain that makes decisions, and you have the part of your brain that acts them out and actually does things right. So imagine the part that makes the decisions is, you know, like a general, and then the part that actually does the things is, you know, for most people who do not have an executive function disorder, the general is giving out orders at a perfect rate for the soldiers to take them and go do things with them. If you have ADHD, your general is going a little too slow. So the soldiers have free time on their hands, and they start doing other things. And that's why, for some people, targeted stimulants like Ritalin and the methylphenidates and things like that that work because it speeds up the general, but unlike caffeine or something, doesn't also speed up the soldiers. So it gets them, you know, the right dosage gets you into the right cadence. So I've always loved that analogy, and I think that a lot of those things that fall into, oh, these soldiers now have time on their hands and are making themselves busy, those tend to be the challenges that accompany ADHD. And it's a, now I won't pretend to you know, I'm not a clinician, I'm not a behavioral health professional, but myself and my team, you know, we are very experienced designers. And so when we went about starting NoPlex and saying okay what are the challenges that we need to circumvent. We've sort of distilled them into a few buckets, right? And I think maybe that's a good way to explain to the listeners, you know, what those challenges are. So the first one is personal organization and time management, right? That becomes very difficult. Intention drift, right? Sort of lack of follow-through, right? Oh, I'm going to get in shape and it lasts a day, you know. Oh, I'm going to learn to juggle, oh it lasts a day, right? That's intention drift. Avoidance and procrastination is a really big one, you know, and I think one that professionals. would is not only one of the most ubiquitous among people with ADHD, but also one of the most damaging to relationships and professions. Hyperfixation, like I said, you know, I will just code for 18 hours and not realize. Motivational deficit, which is just sort of, you know, couch lock; you know, I'll start tomorrow, you know, and sometimes that masks as depression. People think they're just not motivated because of that, but it's really something else. Distraction. Actually, that's another way that, looking back on my life, I realized that ADHD made sense. You know, when I'm in a restaurant and there's somebody speaking with me, I'm hearing. five conversations around me louder and more clearly than the person talking to me right. And that's not a choice. That's just something that I just don't know how anyone else would have a conversation in a crowded restaurant. Distraction, that's one. That's one for me. And then the other is impulse control. And that's where you see people with, you know, self-destructive behaviors either as far as like diet or drugs and alcohol. Or, to my point earlier about crawling out of my skin when someone's taking too long to explain something. If you really struggle with the impulse control side, like that's when you interrupt and you cut. them off and you you know say okay already. So that's really it. You know I think that breaks down the main categories that people tend to struggle with. Yeah, I struggle with a lot of those. Well, there you go. Yeah. And that's on that spectrum. Yeah, yeah. And have done a lot of masking, especially in a corporate environment. I started being very much an advocate for myself in the past couple of years regarding my ADHD because I did a lot more research, and I learned more about myself and the things that work for me. And as a younger person going through grade school, middle school, I was diagnosed. I was fortunate enough to be diagnosed at a very early age, all through grade school, all through high school, college, I just kind of treated it like it was this thing that I could overcome and that I just had to deal with, not realizing that I should have just been asking for accommodations, you know, like having those teacher aides in the room helping you just kind of read through material I had a really difficult time with. But because my brain just worked differently, there were solutions that I could have had by asking for or getting accommodations that I wasn't asking for and wasn't doing for myself until my adult years. But it doesn't translate very well in my experience to the corporate world because you get a lot of, oh well, everybody has ADHD, which is so frustrating for the people that do have it, and it affects their day-to-day so extremely. But what I'm really interested in hearing is, within all of those challenges, I know that you mentioned that it was a little easier for you or you didn't really struggle with those. What do you think it was that helped you deal with those challenges in an easier or more manageable way? That's a great question. I think that some of the ways that ADHD tends to manifest for people in a negative way, I lucked out on, right? So one that I didn't talk about is I can't relax, and I don't mean that in the sense of anxiety. I mean that in the sense of people, you know, friends will be like, " Hey, are you watching? You know what's a show people are watching, like Andor, right Or something like that. And I'm like, no, I'm not; I would much rather just be doing something much more active and goal oriented, right? And so, you know, I'm learning Mandarin Chinese right now. I've gotten Rubik's Cube down to under a minute, right? Like, those are the I'd rather do that with my time than like sit on a couch. Like, I just feel like I feel like I could see the hourglass draining sand, you know, when I'm sitting there doing so. I really have a hard time relaxing. So there's things like that that not only I think have been a positive manifestation for me, but have also given me a bit of a tool through which to channel it all and make it just feel a lot more manageable for me. I'm not sure if that really answered the question. It did, it did, in your own way. And to your point about you know the stigma that you experienced, you know coming up in adulthood. Well, first off, there's a few things there. One is educational institutions have done a much better job in recent years of understanding what those challenges are and accommodating them, right? So you know IEPs. In public schools now, you'll see things like any verbal instruction that is more than four steps. You can request written instructions, right? If you are in a crowded environment taking a test, you can request to take the test, you know, in a separate place, like things like that. So that stuff helps, but that wasn't really so much of a thing when we were kids, especially in the US. And so, you were really kind of in the thick of it when that was a thing. There are some estimates that there are more people with ADHD— like true diagnosable executive function disorder ADHD— in the world than there are left-handed people. The number is large. the number is growing and the number may be huge. But to your point, you know, oh, everyone has ADHD. I'm sympathetic to that for a few reasons. One is, while not everyone obviously has an executive function disorder, the pace of life and the availability of information and the availability of communications has made it where we all do have an attention deficit, right? If you go out of a busy life in any way, you know, we're not evolutionarily programmed to accommodate the level of information that we're taking in and the number of responsibilities we have. And you know, in a modern society like ours, the lack of support that we have. like raising our kids right. You know, and so we're all on these islands juggling a thousand things. You might find yourself, you know, like myself, at a point in your life where you're helping the challenges of the generation above you. You're also raising kids; you have a career. You know, you have hobbies; you're a chauffeur for kids' sports, right? Like, all this stuff happens at once. There's no way you could manage it all even without ADHD. So, I think there is some degree of that, that there's some truth to, and I'm sympathetic to when people say that. You know, it can sound dismissive when people say that, but I do sort of see where they're. coming from And that's one of the good things about NoPlex too, is some of our highest users by volume that we have any relationship with and know anything about identify as neurotypical. They just think it's a much better experience for managing their life and productivity. And I think it's for that reason, right? Because they're all dealing with some degree of attention deficit. I can definitely understand that perspective for sure. We live in a time where things are just go, go, go, and so fast. And the technology that we have to us is at a ridiculously fast pace; you know something new comes out, and then it's old news in milliseconds. and you got to learn something else. It's just the output is just ridiculous, but it really seems like you've leaned into how your brain works rather than trying to fix it, you know, quote unquote. Do you think that that mindset shapes how you approached starting NoPlex? Yeah, that's a great question. I think so. And you know, when I first started building the prototype of NoPlex, and it's evolved so much since then, but when I first started building the prototype, you know, I had done a lot of homework into into what the challenges around ADHD are and what the recommendations are for strategies and things like that. But really what I was building is a manifestation of those challenges, beset on a backdrop of a productivity tool that I think would really have worked well for me. Right. And one that I had essentially hacked togethera real working version of this that I could share. And then from there, we learned a lot and we spoke with professionals, and it evolved a lot from there. But yeah, I mean the first version of it was sort of the a combination of what is a productivity tool that I always wanted but I couldn't find. And what is a productivity tool that my daughter, who is getting to the age where she had some real deal responsibilities, what's the one that She doesn't have any sort of trying to merge the two of. But yeah, I mean, if you were working against the way that your brain naturally works in any consistent way, professionally or personally, you're just swimming against the current. And you should really try to find ways to approach that differently. And it makes such a big difference too when you first start coming to that realization that maybe you do things a little bit differently than people that are around you, and that's okay. And it's okay to do things differently if it works better for you. But the thing about, especially, you know, ADHD, there's not a one, one and done. solution you even said that it's a What works for one person doesn't necessarily work for everyone. So you really need to lean into noticing what works for you and then keep repeating that and practicing that instead of trying what everybody else is doing and feeling shame and terrible about yourself because it works for somebody else but it doesn't work for you. Yeah, and one thing I'm really proud about with NoPlex is there are a lot of individuals we've spoken with who because of that ended up using post-it notes and a pen, right? Like it's just that's the fallback. And for those that have said to us this is the first thing that Actually worked other than, you know, keeping a post-it pad in their pocket. To me, that's a big victory. You know, that feels really good to hear because that's where people end up, right? They're trying to use all these tools that everyone else works great for them. Oh, you have to use, you know, Todoist; it'll change your life! Or you have to use Evernote. You have to use Workflowy. And people use it, and they're like, this I don't get it. You know? And so, analog post-it notes and a little notebook in your pocket, I mean, you can make that anything you want. So that's why it tends to work for people. So along the same line of victories, what traits do you? think that have helped you the most in entrepreneurship that others might not see as, Oh, that's a great question. Well, definitely, I mean to some degree, the hyperfixation, because I've been doing this with like three days off since 2023, and there's no part of me that is bored of it. And there's no part of me that, you know, I can't go from one red light to another without having a thought or idea or solution to a problem around this. So for me, that level of hyperfixation has certainly helped me build a business, because there's a lot to that. Like, there's you know, being a CEO of a relatively small company as far as, you know, number of people. means you're wearing a lot of. And so, being able to not necessarily hyper-focus on a single task, but being able to remain effortlessly focused to a degree that might seem almost maniacal to this mission that I'm on, that's definitely helped me. And it's so important to be able to do something that you like, you are so passionate about. Yeah, dream. Though, I'm sure your brain, being on what seems like 24/7, can feel exhausting at times, it still is something that is re-energizing you and is making you, at the end of the day, you're in flow and you're happy. Yeah, which is so important. Although, you know, just to as a cautionary tale, though. that passion and the love for what I do and the ability to really focus doesn't mean that I've become physically immortal. And so there are times like I just abused myself, you know, to the degree of, you know, not sleeping properly and you know, not taking care of myself, where it just caught up with me and wrecked me. You know, in early 2024, I got COVID. And then despite the fact that, you know, typically they don't really tell you to watch out for it until you're in your fifties, I got shingles. And when I asked the doctor, like, how the hell did I get shingles? He said, like, your immune system was compromised because you're sleeping like three hours a night and barely exercising and stuff like that. And I wouldn't wish shingles on my worst enemy. Like everything you hear about it is true, right? It's like just having someone tase you all day. And actually, I have permanent nerve damage on the left side of my face, like around my eye and upper cheek, where I feel nothing from the shingles. And I fully believe if you don't believe in the mind-body connection, like there's something you know you need to go do some research. But yeah, I fully believe that hypothesis that I exposed myself to the possibility of shingles just because I was just beating my body up. And so I guess the bad side of that good side is that it's easy to sort of make a series of exceptions and concessions until you're kind of living in a way that's unsustainable. So, I've slowly and gratefully reintroduced a lot more balance to my life. And that's really important. I appreciate that you shared both sides of the spectrum of that, because surely work, work, work all the time is going to lead to that. And I guess it wasn't until then you were like, oh shit. Yeah, yeah, I need more balance. I mean there are certain things I would never compromise on, right? Like I'm going to be a present father, I'm going to be a present husband, I'm going to be a present. son to a who's in her 80s and has some. And so without being a compromise on those things,

it really just became one:

the number of hours I was putting in around those things. Right? Like I would work all day, be who I needed to be. And then when everyone else went to bed, I'd pick back up. Right? So that was the first thing I was doing well. And kind of the second part of that is that since I authentically liked what I was doing, this company became both my job and my. And so there was no balance there either. So those are the two things that I've really tried to be a lot better about. And so since then, how have you adjusted? What's different? So baby steps. right. Like before, NoFlex, most of my life, I was very serious about exercise, right? And then, when I first started NoFlex, there was a lot of, oh, you know, what I really need to get these things done this week. But then, after that, it should ease up. And then, the next week, there was something else like that. And the next week, there was something else like that. And so, I went from basically daily exercise to a couple of times a And then, there were a few weeks where I just kind of didn't. I fell out of routine, and then, it was sporadic. I coached Brazilian jiu-jitsu as kind of the only thing that I do for fun, and that was really kind of my only exercise. for a And coaching isn't the same as training and So that didn't fullyYeah, they keep my life in check. My non-negotiables are 10, 000 steps a That's I love that 10, 000 steps a day it doesn't matter I mean you know 90% of the time I'm hitting that but that's like my number one non-negotiable I don't need that only just for physical moving your but mentally that really just going on walks and making sure that I'm getting movement in putting the emphasis on how important that is that is like number one non-negotiable for me 10, 000 steps And as an ADHD person something that I've learned works for me is that my energy daily can vary from very high to very low and to have the same structure of every single day or like the same types of like I'm going to the gym. I have this super hard workout every single day or however many times a day. I have different tiers. So I have a high energy day, I have a regular day, and then I have a low energy like I ain't doing, I can't do shit, bare minimum day. And that has helped me tremendously take on the all-or-nothing mindset that I struggled with so much in my past. So let's say I'm supposed to go to the gym today that's on my calendar and do this ridiculously hard whatever training day that I need, like squat a gajillion pounds. okay I don't have that in me today I know that about myself I can barely get out of That's my energy level. So I already have a stock canned thing that I think like for my low energy days. okay well I can't do that I have no interest in being at the gym today. I will go for a I will reach 10, 000 steps because walking for me is like on a scale of one to 10 that's a one. I can always go for a And even in my house if it's raining or something outside I have a walking pad. So I have no excuse to get movement in. And that for me is really easy it's a no brainer. So that's my one non-negotiable. My other non-negotiable is making sure that I'm eating vegetables. every day, yeah, with my meals. But, like, I'm so, like, that's like something I don't even think about anymore. It's just like, oh, I'm making a meal. It needs to have a lot of It needs to have vegetables. It needs to have some sort of carbohydrates. But that was something that I had to practice over and over and over again for years until it became just a... But, yeah, my non-negotiable above all else is 10, 000 steps because it keeps everything else in line too, mentally. That's great! It's funny how the 10, 000 steps thing, you know, I have so many friends who do that, and they like end every night just pacing their living room or something, like trying. to get that last 800. It's a really good one.

Let me ask you this:

Do you have a certain allotment of low energy, medium energy, and high energy days per week? Like, so you don't find yourself doing five days in a row of low energy? Like you're like, oh, this is my last low energy day. It's Wednesday. Do I really want to cash it in? Or do I want to, you know, do anything like that? You know, Matt, that's a great question. I don't. And when you mentioned that, my first thought, the analogy that came to mind was like homework passes in grade school. Like, oh, I don't homework passes. Oh no! It's like if you tough through early in the week, you can just take an easy. day on Sunday even if you have high energy, right? I don't, because it really varies. Like, we're not robots, and especially, yeah, and especially, you know, being a woman that time of the month, like my PMS week sometimes that lasts 10 days and it's brutal mentally, physically, everything about it. And instead of being hard on myself and being like, oh, why can't I do this? I've learned to be a little bit more graceful, which is still really difficult. It's really difficult when I want to be in the gym four or five times a week at least, minimum, lifting heavy all the time. You know, things hurt your brain; I only have a certain amount of brain points. And sometimes I don't have it, and that's okay. And instead of forcing myself to do the things that feel forced, I'm really trying to live a more intuitive, trust my gut type of life. And especially now, I'm really trying to pay attention to how I feel because I don't want to recreate a toxic environment for myself right now as I'm trying to build a new brand new life for myself. So, that's admirable. I mean, that sounds great. It takes a lot of self-awareness and self-respect, like to just say, like, no, I'm going to meet myself where I need to be met. And if that's not good enough, who gives a shit? Like I'm going to do what I need to do for me. That's great Thank you I appreciate that. It's a lot of practice and it's every day. It's practice. It's not something that's always easy. And I still do have that voice in my head that tells me you're not doing enough. You're not doing enough. That's one of the things about ADHD. It's like oh my God, like just stop. Just stop yelling at me. But instead of really paying attention to that, I let that voice kind of be there. And then I have the tools now to be able to recognize that and then ask myself, well, what is it that I need right now? What am I looking for? What's the root cause of whatever is going on in the back of my head? Am I dysregulated? Usually it is like I'm just dysregulated. We're in fight or flight all fucking day, going, going, going, going. And it makes sense that your brain is just, well, what's the next thing? We gotta do this, we gotta do this. And what I gotta do in those moments is slow the fuck down. And that is really hard to do. It's funny you mentioned that. When I, like my whole life, I knew people that would shut down when they were overstimulated. And I truly never understood what overstimulation was. To me, it was like someone telling me that their tail hurts, right? Like I can't picture that, right? It's just not something that I can even compute. I spent my life in like crowded clubs or like coding or like Brazilian jiu-jitsu, like high-stimulation things. And I never really understood kind of that overwhelmed shutdown. But lately, and maybe it's an artifact of getting older, but I've started to understand that. Like a couple of weeks ago, I remember I was soaked from the rain. I'm in my car, in the backseat is my son and his friend who are essentially playing soccer with a soccer ball in the backseat of a Jeep, while my daughter is in the front seat cranking up the radio on like some pop station, like music I can't stand. Whether or not you're doing it intentionally, you're probably preventing that from ever. becoming a thing because of the way that you're addressing self-care. Thank you for seeing that and saying that; I appreciate it. I've done so much work. That's awesome! I've done so much work and continue to do a lot of work. It's work. Taking care of yourself is work. Being an adult is bullshit. It's a lot of work. It's a lot of work, but it's worth it because I am able to recognize when that's about to happen, and I'm able to then pivot and be like, I am overstimulated; I'm about to have a fucking breakdown on varying levels. And able to give myself whatever it is I need in that moment so that it is not this catastrophic whatever. Sure, it's funny the day that I mentioned where I was in the car and I was like whoa this is too much sensory input. That same day I got an Instagram ad for a t-shirt that's like this frog with a cowboy hat and two guns. It says hold on there partner, I'm overstimulated. And I was thinking to myself if it's true that the phones are listening, and it was like oh this poor bastard like let's get him a shirt. I did not buy it but it was good timing. So the last thing before we get into my favorite part,

the fun questions I wanna ask for our listeners:

how can people check out NoPlex or get involved with the That's a great question. You can write me a letter and Mail it to we are at www. noplex. ai. That number again is N O P L E X. ai. So yeah, that's where you can find NoPlex. It's also just available on the app, the Google Play Store, if you are, if you could use it in your web browser as well if you go to noplex. ai. But that's, yeah, that's a place to find out about it and check it out and grab it and click the little chat thing and talk to somebody on our team and give us all your feedback because we check out every last bit of it. Thank you! Everybody definitely should check it out because the app is awesome, but not as awesome as Matt Canning. You're an inspiration! Oh, thank you! And I don't mean that sarcastically. because I feel like the tone of my voice just was very sarcastic. I don't mean that sarcastically. No, it's one of my most awkward traits—it’s, I call it the happy birthday sound thing. Like, when people are singing happy birthday to you, you don't know what face gesture to make. I'm so bad with compliments. When you said that, I'm just like, okay, okay, okay, cool. Yeah, did also want to ask you what advice would you give to somebody with ADHD or anybody listening who would want to start a business or a creative project, but may feel overwhelmed or not know how to start? Oh, that's a great question! I would say one, get yourself obnoxiously organized. as early as possible and treat it like it's already a fortune 50 business. Like put in processes that you might not even need yet. And I wouldn't normally suggest that to somebody, but if you're struggling, over-organize early on. The second thing is general advice, but is most appropriate in this case, which is figure out what you're good at and what you like doing. Own it, spend as much of your time doing that as possible, and then surround yourself with people that fill in those gaps. Find the people who are good at and like the things that you are not, and then Voltron, you form together and you become one mighty entity. But yeah. don't spend your days battling uphill on things that you're both bad at and dislike because that's a quick path to burnout. That's good advice, especially the part about, well, getting organized; that's important. But the part about doing things that you don't like just because you feel like you need to do them—like, I would rather sandpaper my face than put together a social content calendar for, like, social media. I hate that. I hate doing it. It's a type of creative that I don't have. So, like, early on I'm just like, as soon as I can, I'm bringing somebody on that knows that stuff. Like, I don't wanna do it, and I'm gonna do it badly if I do. So know thyself and be open about it. That's important to know what you like, what you don't like; that's great. Lean into those things that you do like doing. Right? That's great advice. Well, thanks. Well, with that being said, you know what? It's time for Boop boop—the fun fun questions! You need obnoxious little themes on for that. I do! I need to make that. You do, with like an old-timey horn. Yeah, you make one for me. You're talented. Yeah, with all my free time. Yeah. All right, Matt. Well,

the first question I ask to every single person on this podcast:

who is one person you are grateful for and why? My uncle George, because I grew up in a very strange environment My mom was one of 14 siblings. I lived with her and a bunch of them. And by true definition, my uncle had no responsibility to me beyond being a reasonable uncle. But he very early on was a father figure, continues to this day to be a father figure, and like one of my closest friends. And that's, I think, a really good example of rising to the need, right? And just like being a good person. The other reason I'm really grateful for him is he's crazy in all the good ways. And when I said earlier that just trust yourself and your ability and recognize that people dumber than you have succeeded at what you're doing, he's such a great example of that because the first house that my wife and I bought, there was a window in the upstairs that needed to. And I was talking with him, I was like, oh, I got to replace this window. He's like, oh, like, I'll help you. Great, okay. So he comes over, we take out the old window and we're looking at the hole. And I asked him a question, and he goes, oh, I don't know, I've never done this before. And I was like, wait, you made it seem like, oh, I'll come over and like walk you through it. And he's like, yeah, I've never done this. And I just remember we got the window in and it was fine. And it was just one of those things where I always think back to that, like, yeah. dumber people than us have figured this out. And now there's YouTube, so you're good. Any home improvement project, the second you hear a Southern accent, that person is gonna help you through. But yeah, like he taught me, like I've never done this, but let's go in. And short of being killed by whatever this is, like I'm gonna give it a and I'll either do a good job or I'll learn something. So George, shout out Uncle George, all day, love him. What would it be? All right, I've never been asked this question. And so I'm going to unveil something that is going to make me sound completely crazy. Well, I already knew that, I already knew. Sure, so I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to sidestep the question. The answer is the final countdown because I just feel like that would be great. Like if I open a door and there's like dry ice, and that would be great. Unfortunately, I don't have a choice in this because I'm going to say something really weird here. Do you remember a song from the 90s called In the Meantime by Spacehog? Maybe if I heard it, the only In the Meantime song I'm thinking of is Helmet. I don't necessarily like or dislike that Spacehog song. I don't think I've ever listened to a Spacehog album. But for some reason, since the 90s, kind of nonstop every day, that song has just been looping in my head It just goes So I don't have a choice There's been a theme song in my head for like 30 years Well that's that's also another sign of ADHD You got to a radio playing at all times That's true Which is the the channels One of mine every single day is the Mr Softy theme and also the Oompa Loompa song All right That I can't imagine how you're not in a straight jacket If that is is true Wow You are in hell I am so sorry Yeah at least I have a catchy song in my head Speaking of something useless in your brain what is a totally useless skill that you are weirdly good at Oh hand farts I promise you I can you know I could play Farrelly's with hand farts, which was very useful in, like, fourth grade. Yeah, that's fantastic. Well, so proud. I'm so proud of you. You know, if no place doesn't work out,

I have a career there:

Professional hand farter. It's great, Dr. Toots. Yeah, Dr. Dr. Toots. That's what I'm going to refer to you from now on, Dr. Toots. All right, Dr. Toots, what's the last thing you bought after impulsively thinking, 'Well, this will fix my life I don't have one. I don't— I kind of don't fall for that, but I am a sucker for all the little ones, like Shark Tank. Shark Tank is like they're after me, right? Like, I bought the drop stop so that things don't slide out of my. pocket into my car seat I have a mission belt which is like a ratchet belt. So I don't have to like, you know, find the holes, things like that. What I bought recently is, you may not know this pain, much like I can't sympathize with with menstrual issues. But when you have to be dressy as a guy, your shirt is tucked in. You walk a couple of feet and the shirt loosens. I bought these like reverse suspenders. There's like a connection around your and then these little clips that come up and it holds the bottom of your shirt down. And you know when you have your pants off you look like, you know, somebody getting dressed in the 1920s but like little things like that. And they usually don't disappoint. But so I'm a sucker for all the little things that will improve my life in tiny ways. Are you wearing your fun pant contraption now? I am not. No, I'm cash with you; I'm in shorts. If you could join any band for a day, what band would it be? I would like to be in Metallica in 1988. Oh, that's a good answer! Right? Like doing the stadium thing, but before the music took a serious nosedive. Yeah. Yeah. Would you be guitaring? I would be guitaring. But I should also clarify that I can't, right now, play all the Metallica stuff from back then, you know, like maybe a song or two I could get my way through. But I need to do some prep, I think. OK, before you go back in time to 1988, that's right. Yeah, OK, you're back to like elementary school, Matt, on stage with Metallica. Wow, I want to make that happen. Well, you know, get working on that. I will, I'll get. You're all talk. Listen, I'm trying my best. I'm going to take your advice, and I'm going to get organized, and then we're going to go back in the past. I'm going to get all Phineas and Ferb up in here and get a time machine. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they're the best. I don't want to go on a tear about Phineas and Ferb, but the real ones. No, OK, last one. If listeners, if listeners took one thing from this episode into their own lives, what would you want it to be? Oh,

I'll go back to the thing I said earlier:

Identify what you're good at and like doing, and spend as much of your time as possible doing it, and find people who fill in the and surround yourself with them. I think that's advice for everything. I think that's advice for a relationship, right? My wife and I share a lot of things in common, so we still, you know, she's still like my best bud. But the things that she's good at, and the things that I'm good at, and the things I like to do, and the things you like to do are very different when it comes to like keeping a house together and children alive. And same for professional Same for people in the, Actually you know, bringing the story in full circle. Right? You know you can't have a bunch of people that are all good at the same thing and have the same exact ideas. So yeah, yeah, I think that's great advice. And with that, Matt, I want to thank you so much for being here today. Having this conversation was amazing. So thank you, thank you, thank you. This has been, this has been awesome, and you know, great talking to you. Good luck with the Mr. Softie theme going on in your head. I wish you the best with that. Thank you, I appreciate your support for sure. All right folks, that just about wraps up another episode. of The Underwire. A huge thanks to my friend Matt for sharing his story, his insights on ADHD and how he built NoPlex, a chaos in productivity management system designed and optimized for those with ADHD and anxiety. If you or someone you love has ADHD or struggles with anxiety, I really encourage you to check out the NoPlex app and explore ways to better support yourself and those around you, whether it's a loved one, a friend, or a co. Understanding and adapting can make a huge difference. Matt wants NoPlex to be accessible to everyone on Earth who needs it. So just FYI, it's free to use. So just check it out. And also for this episode. we're doing something special. Like I said in the beginning, I'm partnering with Matt and NoPlex to offer a gifted coaching session for anyone who signs up using the NoPlex AI forward slash underwire. And again, that link's going to be listed in the show notes for your convenience. The coaching session is designed to help you get clear and focused on your goals and to support you in whatever life throws your way. Whether you're managing ADHD, life, and work challenges.

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