ADHD-ish™ ADHD Business Strategy for Busy Brains

Waiting for the muse is exhausting when you’re running a business with ADHD. In this episode of the ADHD-ish podcast, Diann talks with executive coach Mark about publishing daily without burning out.
Discover how deadlines, simple structure, and scheduled invention make creativity on demand possible, so ADHD productivity for entrepreneurs feels freeing instead of stifling. Mark also shares ADHD burnout prevention tips: outsourcing, saying no, daily naps, and tuning your energy so you can keep scaling a business with ADHD sustainably.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS & TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - Business Owner With ADHD: Labels and Diagnosis
8:30 - Founder Leadership and the IBM Wild Ducks
13:25 - ADHD Productivity for Entrepreneurs Starts With Deadlines
20:00 - Creativity on Demand Through Scheduled Invention Habits
26:30 - Working Memory Music Playlists for Business Focus
31:35 - ADHD Team Leadership and Compressing Your Signal
39:00 - ADHD Burnout Prevention Through Outsourcing and Limits
45:55 - Sustainable Growth Through Daily Naps and Constraints

Mark and I get into it:
Why the deadline comes first. "Reduced to practice," the patent-office phrase his engineer father drilled into him, and how getting the scaffolding done first leaves Mark free to go back and play.
Scheduled invention. A colleague's noon banjo hour, why a creative hour doesn't have to produce anything to work, and the year Mark's calendar told him the truth about what he really wanted.
Diagnosis, masking and the dimmer switch. Why Mark never pursued a formal ADHD diagnosis, the three reasons I think one is worth getting, and the leadership exercise where the quietest person at the table had the perfect score.
The cost of putting limits in place late. From IBM "Wild Duck" to turnaround guy to cheering for a red-eye middle seat, and why the people who are best at solving problems keep getting handed bigger, uglier ones.
Mark's parting shot. Box it in, turn down the perfection voice, and save your energy for the work only you can do.

Fun fact from the episode: In second grade, Mark's school thought he had diabetes because he kept asking to go to the bathroom. He was bored. His mother's fix: she convinced the school he couldn't say the letter S, which got him two 15-minute walks a day to the speech pathologist on the other side of the building.
Mark didn't find out it was made up until he graduated from college. He still hesitates when saying "S" words.
Mentioned during the episode:
Myers Briggs - John Akers - IBM Exec

About today's guest:
Mark K. House, MCC, is an executive coach and the founder of Empowering Leaders, where he works with executives, leadership teams and MBA students. An engineer raised by an engineer, he started his career at IBM, later served as a director at Fannie Mae, and built a reputation as the turnaround person sent in to fix broken projects.
Today he writes Leading With Music, a daily series that weaves leadership lessons into the history of music. He plays upright bass and guitar, builds guitars, and takes a nap every day at noon.
Connect with Mark:
LinkedIn - Leading With Music - Empowering Leaders

Your ADHD-ish™ host, Diann Wingert, MSW
Drawing from her own experiences as a serial business owner, former psychotherapist and lifelong ADHDer, Diann Wingert The ADHD-ish™ Method: her six-month, 1:1 business strategy and coaching program, the top rated ADHD-ish™ podcast, and Di AI, her digital clone.

Di AI is now available in both text and voice mode, on a monthly or lifetime subscription. Click here to subscribe.
Book a free consultation with Diann and let's talk about how I can help and whether The ADHD-ish™ Method is right for you.

© 2026 ADHD-ish™ Podcast. Intro music by Ishan Dincer / Melody Loops / Outro music by Vladimir / Bobi Music / All rights reserved.

As an ADHD entrepreneur, it can be difficult to know whether a sudden urge to change your business is strategic insight or ADHD restlessness. In this episode, we explore how ADHD business strategy decisions can easily be influenced by emotion, excitement, or frustration.
Through six relatable business owner scenarios, you'll learn how to identify genuine market signals, avoid unnecessary ADHD business pivots, and make clearer decisions as a business owner with ADHD. Walk away with practical questions and real-world checks to help you evaluate opportunities with greater confidence and consistency.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS & TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - ADHD Decision Making: Market Signal or Restlessness?
3:41 - How ADHD Founders Make Decisions From Compliments
11:49 - ADHD Business Pivots and Shower Idea Traps
17:55 - Managing a Team With ADHD by Listening
25:00 - Six ADHD Business Strategy Moves After Rejection
Here are my top takeaways for making smarter decisions in your business:
Check the Source: Is it one person’s compliment, or a pattern of true market demand?
Time Your Response: Did the idea arrive after a tough moment or a big finish? Give your emotions space before taking action.
Look for Patterns: Real market signals build gradually and show up in your inbox, referrals, and repeat questions—not just in your shower thoughts.
Validate with Data: Before you overhaul everything, ask outside perspectives—especially your clients and your team.
Test Small First: Before a massive rebrand or new offer, experiment with a limited change (like a price increase) and watch the results.
Team Involvement: Your team is your front line for feedback; bring their insights into every strategy session, and make it safe for them to tell you the truth, not just what you want to hear.

Fun fact from the episode:
ADHD brains tend to rank experiences by intensity, not frequency. This means a single, flattering compliment from a client can feel as weighty as a dozen ordinary inquiries, making it easy to misinterpret what’s truly happening.
If you’re itching to rebrand, pivot, or roll out that sparkly new offer, run these tests first.
Three Quick Checks
Problem first or idea first?
What happened in the last 2 weeks?
Who would notice if I didn’t change anything?

Three Outside Reads
Ask the person who suggested the change and two who didn’t.
Ask “why the no?” after rejection.
Ask your team: What do clients ask for that we don’t do?

For service businesses with a waitlist: Raise your rates for new clients and listen to the market’s response.

Need a second opinion?
If you want more pushback than just your own internal debate or team meeting discussion, Di AI, my digital clone is trained on The ADHD-ish Method and the best strategies from this podcast. Subscribe here and chat whenever the need arises, in either text or voice mode.

© 2026 ADHD-ish™ Podcast. Intro music by Ishan Dincer / Melody Loops / Outro music by Vladimir / Bobi Music / All rights reserved.

You’ve probably heard that the ADHD brain makes you a born entrepreneur. Fast, fearless, full of ideas. The research says it depends on who you are, which kind of ADHD you have, and whether you’re starting a business or trying to keep one running.
Two years ago, Professor Johan Wiklund joined me to talk about what the research says about ADHD and entrepreneurship. At the end, I asked him about gender, and he told me to stay tuned. I did. That study is out, so for ADHD Awareness Month 2026, I invited him back to talk about the meta-analysis findings.
What you’ll hear in this episode is a researcher and a coach, both with ADHD, comparing what the data shows with what happens in real businesses, and getting honest about our own habits along the way.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS & TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 - The ADHD Edge Nobody Talks About
03:18 - Why Some Thrive and Others Struggle
07:42 - Find Your Business Sweet Spot
12:35 - Creativity Is Not Enough
18:21 - Fast Decisions, Costly Mistakes
24:46 - Leading Without Burning Out
31:14 - The Hidden Price of Success
38:52 - Build a Business That Fits

Johan and I get into it:
Why women with ADHD were the least likely group in the study to start a business, and whether late-diagnosed women are the exception to his findings or invisible in them. His answer: invisible.
Why ADHD helps you start a business and works against you once it's running. One word: boredom. And why the founder with ADHD often shouldn't stay on as CEO.
What you need more than encouragement. Johan says it's support, whether it comes from a coach, a spouse, a business partner, or AI, which he now uses for his forms, his finances and his inbox.
Burnout and the habit of doing twice as much. Why women who leave corporate bring it into their own business, and the parking-lot rule I use before I say yes to anything.
Creativity or novelty? Why Johan would rather talk about improvising and doing new things than argue over whether people with ADHD are more creative.
The entrepreneur who shaped him most: his mother, the binders she kept for everything, and the book chapter he wrote called "Research Equals Me-Search."


Fun fact from the episode:
Johan has set up an AI skill to clean out his inbox every morning. He still has more than 100 emails sitting there, and he figures about 70 of them need him. He's working on it.
Mentioned in this episode:
Ep 210: What the Research Has to Say About ADHD and Entrepreneurship
Research Equals Me-Search
ADHD presentations (CHADD)
AI for ADHD Brains at Work (ADDitude webinar)
Claude

About today's guest:
Dr. Johan Wiklund is a Distinguished Professor at Syracuse University, where he holds the Al Berg Chair in Entrepreneurship at the Whitman School of Management. He was among the first researchers to test whether ADHD, dyslexia, and bipolar conditions could be an advantage for entrepreneurs, and his work now focuses on neurodiversity and well-being in entrepreneurship.
He is editor-in-chief of Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, has published more than 100 articles, and has ADHD himself. Originally from Sweden, Johan joined Syracuse in 2008. Johan isn't on social media, and we talk about why at the end of the episode.

Here are links to his recently published articles:
Why Impulsive Founders Sometimes Win Big
When ADHD Helps Entrepreneurs and When It Hurts

Your ADHD-ish™ host, Diann Wingert, MSW
Drawing from her own experiences as a serial business owner, former psychotherapist and lifelong ADHDer, Diann Wingert The ADHD-ish™ Method: her six-month, 1:1 business strategy and coaching program, the top-rated ADHD-ish™ podcast, and Di AI, her digital clone.
Di AI is available FREE through October 31st. Johan has AI on his team. Put mine on yours. Sign up now and start chatting!
Started the business, but now it's boring you or burning you out? Book a free consultation with Diann and let's talk about how I can help and whether The ADHD-ish™ Method is right for you.

© 2026 ADHD-ish™ Podcast. Intro music by Ishan Dincer / Melody Loops / Outro music by Vladimir / Bobi Music / All rights reserved.

What if you treated every new idea, rebrand, or business pivot like a client change order? In this solo episode of ADHD-ish™, Diann explores the hidden costs of ADHD novelty-seeking and why those costs are often difficult to recognize in the moment.
Tune in and learn how ADHD decision making affects business growth, why experience doesn't always prevent repeated patterns, and how to evaluate new opportunities more strategically.
Diann also shares lessons from rebranding her podcast after 226 episodes and how ADHD business owners can make thoughtful changes without overlooking the real investment required.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS & TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 - Why ADHD Entrepreneurs Change Direction and the Hidden Costs
04:15 - The True Price of Rebranding for the ADHD Small Business Owner
09:30 - Evaluating ADHD Business Strategy Before You Pivot
14:45 - How ADHD Business Coaching Protects Your Revenue and Momentum
19:20 - Protecting the ADHD Founder from Constant Reinvention

In this episode, I'll answer these questions you didn't even know to ask:
The five costs business owners with ADHD don't keep track of, but should, when they change direction: what you throw out, what you redo, who you re-teach, what you never find out, and what it does to you.
Why changing course frequently leaves you with almost no data about what actually works
Why referral sources quietly stops sending people your way instead of speaking up or asking questions
Why the cost of ADHD novelty seeking never really registers (hint: it's a non-event, plus there's no running total)
Why you need a change log: a twenty-minute look-back that shows what your restarts have cost, and what survived every one of them
Why you also need a change order: five questions to ask yourself before your next name, niche, offer, price or platform change
Why the same habit runs through your offers, your pricing and your tech stack, never gets noticed and never changes (until now)

The cost of business rebranding rarely shows up on the day you make the change. It shows up as the referral that never came and the past client who couldn’t tell what you do now. Change is allowed. Unpriced change is the problem.
Before you touch your website or open a design tool, answer these five questions on paper:
What gets thrown out that's still working? The sales page, the freebie, the testimonials, the content in the old language.
What has to be rebuilt? Estimate the hours, then double them.
Who has to be re-taught, by name? Not "my audience." The actual people who currently know how to describe you.
What question am I in the middle of answering that this change will erase? What experiment is still running?
What's the smallest version of this change that still gets me the new thing?

Then date it, and decide. It's not a waiting period, and it's not a veto. It tells you the price. You still get to buy it. You just know what you are paying for, ahead of time, not down the road.

Your ADHD-ish™ host - Diann Wingert, MSW
Drawing from her own experiences as a serial business owner, former psychotherapist, and fellow ADHDer, Diann Wingert developed The ADHD-ish™ Method, her six-month, one-on-one business strategy and coaching program, the ADHD-ish™ Podcast, and Di AI, her ADHD-informed, business-savvy digital clone.
Di AI is still free in beta, but only until the end of October (ADHD Awareness Month)
Itching to change something in your business? Take it to Di AI before you take it to Canva. Tell her what you want to change, and she'll walk you through the five questions so you know exactly what you're approving. Sign up now and start chatting!
Weighing a rebrand, a new niche or a new offer, and want a second opinion from someone who isn't inside your head? Schedule a free consultation to explore 1:1 coaching with ADHD business strategist and coach, serial business owner, and former licensed psychotherapist, Diann Wingert, MSW.

© 2026 ADHD-ish™ Podcast. Intro music by Ishan Dincer / Melody Loops / Outro music by Vladimir / Bobi Music / All rights reserved.

In this episode, Diann Wingert and guest Phil Drinkwater dive deep into the intersection of the ADHD brain, neurodivergent shame, and business leadership. They explore how years of masking and internalized stigma impact founders, and why understanding these hidden layers is crucial for growth.
The conversation highlights powerful mental shifts, focusing on moving away from self-limiting doubts and transitioning from "can I?" to "how can I?". Tune in to discover actionable insights and strategies designed to help neurodivergent entrepreneurs overcome perfectionism, leverage cognitive frameworks, and build a business that truly supports their mind.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS & TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - What running a company teaches you that coach training can't
4:15 - ADHD presentations and entrepreneurship: why combined type shows up more often
11:30 - "Can I?" versus "How can I?" and your only job as a founder
18:45 - Shame: Do you point it inward or outward?
25:10 - Attachment style at work, and the copy that attracted the wrong clients
33:20 - Pull the decisions forward: Procrastination has layers
41:05 - Working memory, the 32-path problem and mirrorboarding
48:30 - Perfectionism: Where it helps, where it doesn't, and hiring for attachment style
Phil and I get into it:
Phil's one-word shift that named the episode for us: "Can I?" is the fear. "How can I?" turns it into agency, and solves the ADHD inertia problem
Your only job as a founder. You don't have to do everything. You have to make sure everything gets done. Phil's advice is to fire bits of yourself, starting with the work you don't like and aren't good at.
Shame, and whether you point it inward or outward, and why Phil hears "high performance" as "I mask a lot."
Attachment style as a business issue. The founder whose copy kept attracting the wrong clients, the one whose Open Door Tuesday handed him ten extra spinning plates a week, and why your best team member may have a different attachment style than yours.
Designing an AuDHD work week. Phil's version of ADHD energy management when the ADHD half wants stimulation and the autistic half wants quiet: coaching days cut from five to four to three, plus a sleep mask and noise-canceling headphones between calls.

Fun fact from the episode: When a therapist first suggested Phil might be neurodivergent, he joined an online community and asked, "Do I just need to drink more coffee?" They told him, very kindly, that it's a different kind of stimulation he needs.
Mentioned in this episode:
Alan Watts: The Story of the Chinese Farmer (video) - Mirrorboarding - The Highly Sensitive Person (Elaine Aron) - ADHD presentations (CHADD) - Attachment styles (Cleveland Clinic) - Body doubling (CHADD) -ClaudeCowork
About today's guest:
Phil Drinkwater is a business coach for founders, executives and leaders with ADHD, autism, or both. He started out as a computer games programmer, scaled his previous company to $20M in sales, and has a psychotherapy background. He's accredited by the Association for Coaching (UK), has coached more than a hundred business owners and leaders, and is AuDHD himself. Phil is based in Manchester, England, and works with clients online.
Connect with Phil:
Website LinkedIn Running on Friction (free book) Thinking Out Loud blog

Your ADHD-ish™ host, Diann Wingert, MSW
Drawing from her own experiences as a serial business owner, former psychotherapist and fellow ADHDer, Diann Wingert developed The ADHD-ish™ Method, her six-month, 1:1 business strategy and coaching program, the ADHD-ish™ podcast, and Di AI, her digital clone.
Di AI is available free in beta through the end of ADHD Awareness Month and ends on October 31st. Got something in your business you've been filing under "can't"? Take it to my digital coaching clone and ask her "how can I?" Sign up now and start chatting!
Got a pile of unmade decisions sitting between you and the work? Book a free consultation with Diann and let's talk about how I can help.

© 2026 ADHD-ish™ Podcast. Intro music by Ishan Dincer / Melody Loops / Outro music by Vladimir / Bobi Music / All rights reserved.