Encore: The ADHD Advantage with Brooke Schnittman

Catherine Stagg-Macey: 0:00

All right. Hello, and welcome to unset at work I'm your host, Katherine stack Macy, an executive and team coach. Interested in the conversations that we're not having at work. I'm taking a short break for a few weeks over summer, but I didn't want to leave you without your weekly dose of the podcast. So I've handpicked a few of the most popular episodes that I believe deserve a second listen. And for this week's on core is an episode on ADHD that I recorded with Brooke Shipman, an ADHD coach who has ADHD herself. This episode is in the top three of the most downloaded episodes, which I think suggests a real latent hunger for a better understanding about this condition. My guest is Brooke schneidman, who runs her own business called coaching with Brooke which is an ADHD and executive functioning coaching company for students and adults. She works with people from eight to 80. And she's helped 1000s of people with ADHD since 2006, who were met with us of chaos and frustration and the shame by providing them with tools and accountability to focus their attention and to thrive. She understands the struggles because she isn't an ADHD herself, which I think makes it really unique in this field that she started in 2006 with a master's in special ed from NYU, and has worked with many 1000s of ADHD has over the years and pretty as leadership and featured in all sorts of great channels like Channel Five news, the International ADHD conference interpret global amongst just a few. Since we recorded our episode, she's launched her own podcast called successful with ADHD, which is tracking in the top 2.5% of all podcasts that is wild and a real measure of her mastery and topic and the work he's putting in the world to do check that out and check out her interview with Gabby Moretti on her podcast with his rather contentious views on the origins of ADHD. But in our episode, we talked about the negative messaging around ADHD from various sources. How many women with ADHD go undiagnosed, and why? And how people with invisible conditions like ADHD face unique challenges at work, and how bosses can retain staffers with ADHD. You know, as Brooks he says, people with an invisible disorder very often do that, because they're afraid to show their true colors and be themselves whether you've been diagnosed with ADHD or you think you might have the condition. We'll know someone who has it, this episode is going to have something for you with an episode that I have recommended to several clients of mine who have thought they might have the condition. And so I think it's a great starter for that. And whilst I have your attention, season two is going to land on the fourth of September. And to celebrate the new season I'm going to do a big giveaway in August, the first prize is going to be a free coaching session with me worth 500 pounds. The second prize is going to be noise cancelling headphones, and the third prize will be three of my top favorite business books. Pretty cool, right? So I'm going to lay out how to play along how you can maximize your chances to win. Hint, it's going to involve sharing a problem with the podcast for the two week period of the giveaway. If you want to make sure that you get to hear about that. Sign up to my newsletter, the links in the show notes or follow me on socials to be the first to hear about it. But in the meantime, let's go listen in with my conversation with Brooke Shipman talking about ADHD. Brooke, welcome to this episode on set at work and we're gonna get into ADHD yay. And before we get into like what it is, and because I think most of us are like we've heard the term before, but it really understand what it means you've been on your own journey to get to be an ADHD coach, ADHD coach,

Brooke Schnittman: 3:48

they start with that. It's been a very year journey. They say that you attract what you are. And I graduated with my master's from NYU and students with disabilities. And then my undergrad was elementary education. So I knew that I needed more I wanted to support people with disabilities. And right after I graduated my ministers, I started becoming a special education teacher in a collaborative classroom in New York for seven years. And I'm work solely with ADHD errs and individuals with learning disabilities. And then I was an assistant director of special education and this whole time I had no idea that I had ADHD. But I connected with the students, right.

Catherine Stagg-Macey: 4:34

Like I get you I see you work good and,

Brooke Schnittman: 4:37

and there was that empathy piece that I love so much. But when I got into administration, I wasn't working directly with the students. There's a lot of red tape so I knew I wanted to make a greater impact. I just didn't know how. So I dabbled in some things. And then I came along a person in Florida once I moved from New York who did this and I was like, oh my Gosh, you have a journey to me, tell me everything. And she did. She was so sweet. And I just jumped right into it got all of the certifications, and all of the training for ADHD coaching, started my business in 2018, primarily initially working with students, because that was my background. Then I went into working with students and adults. And then I brought on more coaches. And now we have a team of eight coaches, and a team of 12 of us Customer Care Consultant is all of that. So it's wonderful. Our mission is to help 10 million individuals with ADHD over the next five years, and we're on path for that. So love the title. Yeah. And then they got diagnosed with ADHD. You got about that you

Catherine Stagg-Macey: 5:46

won. So when was diagnosed and what 2019? Yes, good

Brooke Schnittman: 5:51

memories. So what's months after I started coaching, I was working with adults and students, but my adults, I started noticing a lot of similarities, the symptoms that they were experiencing, I was experiencing, being able to shift my focus after our meeting online together, and then do my notes and then come back and then do my notes. So that was just one of many symptoms that I started noticing. And then I had a colleague in the area who I went for diagnosis, and she diagnosed me with ADHD combined type. And then I tried out Adderall. And luckily for me, it made a difference immediately. And I have been on that ever since minus when I was pregnant. So it's been a great journey.

Catherine Stagg-Macey: 6:41

And I'm curious about the the blade diagnosis, because I think a lot of my folks that I work with have an inkling later on that they're neurodiverse in some way without necessarily knowing what Yeah. Do you think you'd develop good coping strategies just to go to the high?

Brooke Schnittman: 6:57

Yeah, totally. I'm sure for those who are listening who understand ADHD in the past, it was known as as the young boy in the classroom who is getting out of a seat interrupting. And many women with ADHD go undiagnosed because very often they struggle with the inattentive type, which previously was called ADD, or the combined type, which is a mixture of inattentive and the hyperactive impulsive. And we often get misdiagnosed with anxiety and depression, which that was my case. And honestly, I know that a lot of the symptoms of anxiety and depression can be exacerbated because of fun regulated, ADHD. But also, it is CO morbid with ADHD very often in women. So it could be a symptom of ADHD or it could be in addition to ADHD. So for me, I have a generalized anxiety disorder. And I have ADHD. So I need to manage both of them. But some people just have anxiety related to their unmanaged ADHD.

Catherine Stagg-Macey: 8:08

So you're saying that if you have ADHD, you're likely to have something else?

Brooke Schnittman: 8:12

Yeah, so 50% of individuals with ADHD have a learning disability. Not everyone has ADHD has another disability. But very often, they do. Dyslexia is very common with individuals with ADHD, OCD, odd, autism, anxiety, depression, I mean, the list goes on. So it can be a part of your life. You can have both or you could just have ADHD,

Catherine Stagg-Macey: 8:43

just to underline the definition of ADHD. So it's attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. And there's a range of symptoms of that. Yeah. So

Brooke Schnittman: 8:51

Dr. Thomas Brown talks about ADHD under six clusters. You got different psychologists out there and psychiatrist to categorize executive functions differently, but all human have executive functions. And that's in the prefrontal cortex of the brain. And individuals with ADHD have executive dysfunction, that means that their executive functions are not functioning properly. So Dr. Thomas Brown combines the clusters into six which is activation, focus, effort, emotion, memory, and action, and underneath or in those clusters or sub cluster. So for instance, activation, shares organizing, prioritizing, activating to work. So for individuals with ADHD, they have a deficit in one or more areas, each of the six clusters. And it's not an overnight thing. They have to have struggled with this for at least six months in two or more areas of their life. And for adults with ADHD. They have to have Five out of the nine symptoms of ADHD. And it had to be since the age of 12. So for those people who are looking for an ADHD diagnosis now and are adults, I read a recent study in the UK actually, were 400% of an increase of people who are adults looking for an ADHD diagnosis since 2020.

Catherine Stagg-Macey: 10:24

Live it is amplify that 400% increase of adults seeking a diagnosis is 2020.

Brooke Schnittman: 10:29

Yes. Isn't that like mind blowing, and I'm glad that you stopped.

Catherine Stagg-Macey: 10:33

So let's pre COVID 2020 Right or beginning of COVID

Brooke Schnittman: 10:37

beginning of COVID people were with themselves a lot more Tik Tok blew up Instagram. And I think people just started to be more aware and have more time to think about who they are and what they're seeing in themselves and even parents, and no, this doesn't have to do with adult peace, but parents were seeing their kids more. And they were seeing what the teachers were seeing all these years. So there was also an increase of children diagnoses as well.

Catherine Stagg-Macey: 11:04

There's been some celebrities here in the UK that have come out with a diagnosis quite recently, a very well known comedian here called Johnny Vegas came up before Christmas, and there's been a really negative kickback in the press. And the kickback is essentially your overblown, this whole thing. Not all of you can be this sort of grow up and stop being a victim. It's sort of summarizing, it's in the UK time, correct? Yeah, some of the mainstream press here. Yeah. And kind and an empathetic.

Brooke Schnittman: 11:32

Yeah. So I did see parts of it based on what you're sharing with me. I think, and I've said this, this whole time that I've been in ADHD post since 2018, that ADHD is under diagnosed, diagnosed, and over diagnosed. So there's no one way or right way of seeing it. So some people might be yearning for an ADHD diagnosis to understand themselves to have an explanation for the way that their brain works to have a supportive community. Are people getting misdiagnosed? Yes. I mean, there's online services that sometimes don't spend enough time with the person and don't really know them might miss diagnose. Yes, and that's always been the case. But there's also people for everything and again, and those people who are not getting diagnose, that do have the diagnosis, and they're in the UK, especially I know the waitlist is yours to get a diagnosis. Sometimes, I think to generalize it, as what I've heard from that article is terrible, and it could make individuals with ADHD feel less than, and I believe that it can also hurt us too. Because neurotypical sometimes say, Oh, it's just an excuse, just an excuse, or everyone has ADHD, or everyone has a little bit of ADHD, it's like, nails on a chalkboard for individuals with ADHD. So I think she's just kind of feeding that more. And that's really dangerous.

Catherine Stagg-Macey: 13:09

Yeah, I think you've summed it up well with us in your typical perspective to dismiss your diversity. Yes,

Brooke Schnittman: 13:16

yeah. Yes. And, and listen, labels are important and for the individual, because again, you can identify with them, we can learn from it, you can find our community. I understand labels aren't everything right there, they don't own you, you still have a whole other side of you. They don't define you, but they're just a part of you. So I think that type of news article is really damaging

Catherine Stagg-Macey: 13:42

to your point of a depth of diagnosis that the depth of review that goes on and diagnosis like client of mine, last week, spent three and a half hours in a diagnosis, actually around dyslexia. She ended up being diagnosed as dyslexic and ADHD. Yeah, but even she was wow was there like they asked me everything and visual test and verbal tests and to do point if you're doing online, I'm sure they're out there are these 10 questions to see if your ADHD and when you're going to get misdiagnosed? Either way? Yes, yes. And I actually just

Brooke Schnittman: 14:13

read a study that there's a lot of online symptoms and checklists that you could go to in ASRS, adult ADHD for adults or the Vanderbilt for children. And those are helpful to understand if you might be able to then take that next step and go to a qualified professional who can diagnose you, but the studies just came out that only 4% of people who take like to do a checklist actually have ADHD and get that diagnosis.

Catherine Stagg-Macey: 14:51

There's like a whole nother study or like what's going on that has you sort of assume Do you might to do the test to only find out that you there's something quite different That's right. I feel different. I feel like I did belong. I don't feel safe. I feel weird. People telling me I'm with anything and people must be able to pass to look for Who am I people? Where do I fit in? Is it the guy this? Yeah, yeah.

Brooke Schnittman: 15:13

And, and when I, when I got diagnosed that, did it help me more with coping strategies? Because I have been and as a coach, I realized what I needed to do for myself, but it helped me find my community. So for people, yeah, there are, a lot of them are trying to find their people trying to find people understand them and get them and support them. Because you're the average of the five people you spend the most time it's so it's so much easier to be around people who understand you where you got to explain it all the time.

Catherine Stagg-Macey: 15:42

Yeah, I see this a client I was referring to as in their late 50s. And in her diagnosis was told, like you were doing really well, because you've had a lifetime of developing coping strategies. She's very successful at what he does. And I see younger people on LinkedIn to late 20s or early 30s Just getting diagnosed now, and they don't have the life skills. None of us did at that point, right. So you're hoping you're trying to make sense of the diagnosis of what it means for you and work out how to live. It's just, I think it's a different lived experience as you are when you get the diagnosis.

Brooke Schnittman: 16:15

I mean, women in their 50s might be dealing with pre menopause, menopause. So the hormonal level also might change and exacerbate the ADHD symptoms, they would have to also be dealing with that and be able to communicate with people who get that piece to the pre menopausal symptoms, where as the 20 to 30, might be dealing more with adulting and getting to know themselves and job transitions. I don't know. I mean, it really could. You could have a job change isn't at 50. Also, you just got to find your people and everyone with ADHD looks different. It's an invisible disability. No two people look alike. And no two people are going to add to like, I think the combinations of all the symptoms together turns out to be something like 9000 types of ADHD with all the different symptoms. So

Catherine Stagg-Macey: 17:09

I've run the data. That's interesting 9000 types of how it can manifest if you take the race fans Yeah, my assumption is that workplaces have designed around neurotypical behaviors and expectations, and therefore, it must feel pretty inhumane to be neurodiversity, but ADHD in the workplace. How do we make workplaces more welcoming for people with ADHD?

Brooke Schnittman: 17:30

I don't know why I keep just the rolling out stats here, because she's coming to me this morning. So I'm going to hear them so

Catherine Stagg-Macey: 17:36

let's do it. Yeah, go for it.

Brooke Schnittman: 17:38

So at the International ADHD conference this year, I heard a statistic for researcher who's done a lot of research about this, that 75% of people in the workplace have a disability. Now the research online shows like 15 to 20%. But Jessica Hickstead, I believe her name was and she shared that 75% of people in the workplace have a disability, but only 30 disclose,

Catherine Stagg-Macey: 18:04

and by disability. Is that a very broad category of disability? Learning how limb is also in learning

Brooke Schnittman: 18:10

disabilities, ADHD, other health impaired? That's a good question. So there's 11 disabilities in the US that are classified for special education. So thinking about that I think of other health impaired which ad she is under an anxiety is under I think of physical disabilities, I think of learning disabilities, speech and language. This is

Catherine Stagg-Macey: 18:35

not the same, but it's the parallel I'm making, in my mind having lived with depression, for me my life. I never told a single boss I work because I had

Brooke Schnittman: 18:44

depression. Yeah. Because it doesn't mean it

Catherine Stagg-Macey: 18:47

didn't feel safe. I didn't trust how they were going to use information that they could cope with that information. Nothing and I assume it's similar, right? Why would you tell?

Brooke Schnittman: 18:54

Absolutely. It's just the feel of this. And I think that was absolutely thank you now that on the head, people wonder all the time do I disclose at work or not? It's all about trust. So if you feel safe in your job, and you it's a personal decision, and you feel like it would be helpful to disclose, disclose, if you don't feel safe in your job, you might not want to disclose. And unfortunately, we're still in an era where a can hurt you to disclose depending on who your boss is and the company but also sometimes it can help so it's a very personal decision. Some people get accommodations through the American Disabilities Act and with that, be very careful make sure that if you do go that route, get a lawyer who understands disabilities and Ken's Weren't you and just guiding you in the decision making process or getting the accommodations are not good. You mentioned the width

Catherine Stagg-Macey: 19:53

boy and my whole body like freezes. I go in the space of legalese radio, right. It's like I'm just a human being trying to get by Today, it's I mean, it's just, yeah, it's a tough place we find ourselves in the world.

Brooke Schnittman: 20:05

It's a very tough place. And it's a lot of analysis paralysis, which we already struggle with, to begin with. So what's the right thing? What's gonna bite me in the butt? What should I do, but I would say that individuals with ADHD very often jump jobs every two to three years to begin with. So if you feel comfortable disclosing disclose, and then if you feel like it's being used against you, of course, there are ways around that. But there's a lot of legalese with that. And if you don't feel like you're being appreciated in the workplace, you might want to find a new environment, it might not be the job itself, it might just be the boss and might be too big of a space, too much noise. There's also little tweaks that you can make, like putting on headphones, so you're not just distracted with a sound, you could also face yourself to the wall. So you know, if you're in like a big co working space, so you don't have those distractions, sign up, like in the middle of something, but very often, when you have your headphones on, people are less likely to disturb some other kind of cool too. You might want to ask for a private office, if you can sort of be less distracted, you might go into your boss with a notepad and say, Okay, is it okay if I take notes during this meeting, because it would be a lot easier for me to remember it. And if they're compassionate and understanding boss, hopefully they're okay with that. Sometimes you might be able to even record the meeting with their permission and then write the notes afterwards. Or if you're writing the notes, I remember before I had ADHD, my dad always said to me, why don't you repeat back? What you thought you heard the person say, and just confirm with them that that's what they were saying to your boss. Okay, so you want me to do XY and Z? Okay, that's it. I'm going to do

Catherine Stagg-Macey: 21:51

I've seen a term called masking that I think is yes, thing that goes on for people with ADHD. Can you explain that to us?

Brooke Schnittman: 21:59

Yeah, so masking and essentially, if you think of a mask, you are hiding yourself. So masking is trying to fit in to a neurotypical society and not really like doing everything you can to fight showing your ADHD symptoms and, or any symptoms based on whatever disorder you might have, trying to hide it. And then it's a lot more energy and exhaustion for you. But of course,

Catherine Stagg-Macey: 22:33

yeah, that makes feel sad the day we wish to what creating places for people to be themselves and bring themselves into, which is very aspirational. It's not the reality, in most cases that the people have to live through that

Brooke Schnittman: 22:44

exactly your filtering. And masking is easy. I mean, like people do it when they have an invisible disorder, because you can't see it. But if you have a physical handicap, people see it. So it's harder to mask that. And I remember when I was a teacher, one of the administrators said children are really empathetic and sympathetic, when they can see that disability or disorder, they're less likely to make fun of that person because they can see it. But if you can't see it, and they don't know what's going on, they might get bullied more, they might get this because they don't know why the person is doing it. It's not obvious to them. It's not right. But it just kind of goes back to that whole masking thing. People with an invisible disorder very often do that, because they're afraid to show their true colors and be themselves.

Catherine Stagg-Macey: 23:35

I spent much of my career in the tech world. I don't know how true it is. But there's a there's a view that within the tech world there's a high level of people on the spectrum. Oh yeah, two roads and people on the spectrum I you probably know the stats better than I do. And I think they've always made fun they will they will wit

Brooke Schnittman: 23:52

be different and yeah, did that apply

Catherine Stagg-Macey: 23:56

would be direct breakers Exactly. didn't comply. If they didn't want to do that it wouldn't do it. Like it was stupid that tell you rest organizations to play in the gay Oh, yeah, the politics and they're like many

Brooke Schnittman: 24:09

of my clients are in the tech world. They end up becoming entrepreneurs because they don't comply with ADHD. We very often can get to the answer and the solution very quickly before others and we can see it but it's hard to go back and explain all the steps that we had to take to get there because it's like come on, can you just see it like

Catherine Stagg-Macey: 24:32

we know the answer let's move on. What what are the other gifts speed of getting the solution feels like one of the strengths of gifts? I don't know you want to phrase it. ADHD? What are the other gifts that you have?

Brooke Schnittman: 24:44

extremely creative, energetic life of the party very often can be funny. 35% of individuals with ADHD are entrepreneurs. Very often we're empathetic because of our hypersensitivity. So we can see and feel things from other people that other people might not be able to see as quickly so we can read people while we have that gut intuition. Some people call it like a psychic ability, where we can just see things. There are so many strengths. I know I'm not hitting them all. There's lots of famous athletes. There's so many different things that we can have our hands then we know a lot of different things. We can be new and innovative very often we're leaders

Catherine Stagg-Macey: 25:33

that why isn't Disney come up with a movie with the main hero is ADHD. It's so cool. What a great now Tagen is true story.

Brooke Schnittman: 25:44

I'm not sure if up the movie Up was a Disney movie or not branded or wasn't rich? Yes, hero, but the dog, they were representing him as having ADHD. It's like squirrel, squirrel squirrel. And that's where that whole squirrel thing came in for the mascot of ADHD years. But you're right, like why isn't. But if you think about things, we are fighting for dopamine so much that it leads to adrenaline, and we are super human, we are superheroes. And I feel like a lot of the superhero movies, the superheroes can have ADHD, because they're the hunters. They're the suppliers they want to heal, they want to fix they want to do so we would have thrived and the cave world, just not in the world that we live in right now. Unfortunately, it's not really made for individuals with ADHD. But yeah, I think that a lot of superheroes, you can look at them as exhibiting symptoms of ADHD.

Catherine Stagg-Macey: 26:49

I think about some ways that I've SEO clients or freelancer clients, I'm not saying they're all ADHD, but I could see why that would be a good career path, where you have the agency and to create an environment that works for you, rather than fit into a place that isn't maximizing your strengths really, potentially even punishing you or make or shaming you for how you show up in that way.

Brooke Schnittman: 27:11

Absolutely. And as someone who had a lot of bosses, I think that there were so much untapped potential that I had. And I did move up the ranks. But still, I felt like there was always more that I could do. And I didn't want to be in this box. I wanted to live on my terms. I wanted to explore and innovate and be creative. And some jobs are just not meant for that

Catherine Stagg-Macey: 27:36

mean, if I'm a boss listening to this, and one of my team and my sister said that they have ADHD, and I'm a decent human being kind of pathetic. I'm great. Thanks for telling me I'll go do my research. How do I create an environment where you could thrive? Because I want to keep you like your your unburden asked to my team, I just haven't always known how to work with you. Because you did seem a little different to me. But now I understand why. And how do I leverage that stupid?

Brooke Schnittman: 28:00

The boss asks that ask the employee what works for you? Where do you see yourself thriving? what's worked for you in the past? What new ideas may have? That's always wonderful, like, how can I help you harness your strikes? Yeah,

Catherine Stagg-Macey: 28:20

when you send trigger on the person, because back to your point of what 9000 variations of ADHD, I can't make any assumptions about what Yeah, is, yeah, exactly.

Brooke Schnittman: 28:30

Don't make assumptions. And any boss, whether the employee has ADHD or not, should know what the employee strengths are. So they can harness that. Because if the employee is not working in their strengths, they're not going to like their job, and they're not going to perform well. So eventually, they're probably going to quit or feel bad about themselves. And you know, the saying it takes a lot more money to hire someone new than to keep someone you already have. So I mean, if you're a good boss, and you're a leader, you want to know what each of your contractors or employees are working with. So when I had, as I mentioned, 12 people who work for me, and when they come up with a new idea, I allow them to speak and I allow them to go there, even if it sounds kind of like Amazon, you know, they allow all of their workers to be able to share what their ideas are, and and harness that.

Catherine Stagg-Macey: 29:22

Well. I'm curious as to you and your team and your ADHD coaches, so people are coming to somewhere on their ADHD journey. What's the kind of work you typically do with people as ADHD approach?

Brooke Schnittman: 29:36

Usually, when people come to us who have ADHD, they want to learn how to maximize their ADHD they're either a new diagnosis or they've had it for a while and they just haven't met their potential. And also very often they're in a transition so they might not like their job or they might have some issues there. So we want to help them work with their strengths and maximize their potential they or, or they're trying to start a new business. So we could help with that, or increase the expansion of their business or their relationship is suffering, they want to be able to explain their ADHD to their spouse and work with their spouse, again, strengths and weaknesses. There are so many reasons why adults with ADHD might come to us they want to start a new habit or routine or achieve their goals. So we can help them break it down and keep them accountable along the way, so and help them understand why they're doing it. So they don't go to 95% and decide to turn around and quit. For students, we help them with their executive function. So study skills, organization, breaking down long term assignments, helping them come up with a plan of action to target that making sure that they have the materials necessary and making sure that they can see in the future, we've worked with 1000s of ADHD,

Catherine Stagg-Macey: 30:54

it's a very broad range, what I'm hearing, it's a broad range of typical coaching stuff that any coach would do. But with a very specific area to the lens camera, your coach has a deep understanding of what it is to have that diagnosis, what it is to live within, and how to leverage strengths, which is most coaching anyways, leveraging strengths, but again to the ADHD lens,

Brooke Schnittman: 31:14

per se, we also help them with their emotional regulation too, because all individuals with ADHD struggle with emotional dysregulation because of their executive dysfunction. So we help them see that their emotions are getting in the way of them achieving whatever it is that they're meant to achieve. So it's not just about figuring out how to organize and plan and all of that, like what story are you telling yourself because of your ADHD that's stopping you from getting to where you need to go?

Catherine Stagg-Macey: 31:44

Yeah, so really integrating the identity of who am I with ADHD? In a positive story? Self story?

Brooke Schnittman: 31:50

Correct.

Catherine Stagg-Macey: 31:51

Cool. You have loads of great content on a variety of platforms. I mean, your Instagram stuff has great lanes live your lots of very visual, really easily consumable pictures or visuals around what it is to have. So if you have you have a loved one or team member like I think they should finally you've got a YouTube channel as well, which is and then send to have a podcast which is super exciting. Let's talk about your program and healing ADHD emotions.

Brooke Schnittman: 32:19

Yes, thank you so much. So what my coaches and I realized with our potay is that we help people understand that themselves with ADHD, we help them with their executive functions organization, the procrastination, prioritization, feeling more competent. But the one piece at Sears really also struggled with that they need to get clear on is their past, their emotions, the trauma, the pain, the story that they're telling themselves. And that so often gets in the way of them accomplishing a task. So if they can get clear on that, and they can rewire their brain and their reticular activation system, then they can have a clear space to implement the strategies of organization prioritization, all of those things, to get to their goals. So we created my coach Kelly D. And I created here in ADHD emotions last year to help individuals with ADHD, heal their past emotions and come into a space where they can be proactive with their negative feelings, so they can rewire their brain to think forward. And in a more positive way.

Catherine Stagg-Macey: 33:36

The negative emotions that people have is that coming from how you brought up how you were treated differently, perhaps bullying,

Brooke Schnittman: 33:43

exactly, it could be a lot of things. Sometimes it could be, unfortunately, the parents who don't really know that ADHD, I mean, you could see these negative messages anywhere in your life, when you live with those negative messages for the majority of your life. And that's what your brain is looking for. It might not be reality, to the outside world, but that's your reality. So your brain is constantly it's almost like when you go on Facebook or Instagram and you start searching for something, let's say ADHD, or and the algorithm then says, Oh, check out this ADHD platform, check out this ADHD platform, check out this ADHD platform, all of a sudden, you see it everywhere. That's the same thing with emotional dysregulation. When you have these negative messages, you are constantly seeing it everywhere and looking for it. So we have to stop and notice it, we have to name it. And then we have to work to heal that and recognize that it's not a part of you and that we could work forward and visualize and actually use strategies. We build that emotional regulation toolbox to help you want to feel that way and you're receiving those messages again, and also being proactive before you started looking for those messages. So we do an eight week group program with that and it's been really Powerful. We're on our second cohort right now, which is halfway through. We offer it every three months, but I love it.

Catherine Stagg-Macey: 35:06

Okay, so we'll put the links in the show notes for that. So there'll be several times you, someone might be listening to this in some future date, they can still check it out and find out when the next skill is going to run. Yeah, I'm feeling really kind of moved by the passion that you have for this work and the commitment to literally say 10 million ADHD is in five years. I love the clarity of that

Brooke Schnittman: 35:30

goal. And that's vision. At first we were gonna do 1 million and we hit it. So we already impacted 1 million now we upped it to 10 million. And of course, we're not going to be coaching 10 million people, but we're going to be impacting tendering people through coaching public speaking events are free ADHD, Ed camps, social media and so on.

Catherine Stagg-Macey: 35:51

Well, the world is a better place for you my friend during this wording here and helping you PhD is when they voice and

Brooke Schnittman: 35:59

and right back at you. Oh yeah, actually getting this platform to everyone to speak about what they're putting out there to the world.

Catherine Stagg-Macey: 36:06

Thank you. Pretty appreciate Brooke and her time on the podcast. She's also since told me she's launching her book soon will be out in September, I believe. And along with the fact that so many of you have found that such a useful episode, I will likely invite her back to continue this conversation. So if you've got questions that you'd like answered in our next interview, email me at Katherine at conversations at the edge and I will make sure that we include that in that conversation with as a thank you for listening to answer at work. So appreciative to have you here. Enjoy this episode and learn something new. And until next time, this is your wing woman signing