⬛back from the void (again)

easing back in with the clever strategy of recycled content

Oh, hey there, Friend!

GIF from The Good Place of Janet telling Jason, “I live in a boundless void.” Same, girl, same.

I know it’s Sunday rather than my usual weirdly wired Wednesday (which is sometimes a weirdly wired Thursday or, rarely, a ww Tuesday.

But I realized that instead of being a “weekly-ish” newsletter, I’m fast approaching the “quarterly-ish” mark.

So I’m trying to kick back into the habit of writing here regularly. But I’m also coming off over a week of snow days and partial days and trying to catch up, so I’m taking the easy strategic route and republishing a piece.

I wrote this in November 2024 for the Professional Writers Alliance as part of a series on ADHD entrepreneurship. Since it’s been over a year, I can now share it outside of its paywall.

And it isn’t TOTALLY irrelevant to where I am right now—still figuring out what comes next, still doing the work, still wishing it would move faster.

Anyway, here it is:

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Weirdly Wired: Business Ownership with an ADHD Brain

A successful business requires many skills. But developing some of them preys on our most vulnerable spots, like an orca stalking a baby seal.

Marketing can feel like exposing our carotid artery.

Facing rejection from a prospect can feel like a slash to our tender underbellies.

And writing criticism? That’s like inviting a kick to your most sensitive bits.

No wonder our brains serve up evasion maneuvers like procrastination and impostor syndrome to keep us safe… and stuck.

I’d experienced them in my previous career, but they were manageable. Once I started my writing business, though, all bets were off.

So I focused on finding techniques to overcome those automatic responses. I found a lot of great trainings and strategies that seemed to work for a lot of people.

Just… not me.

It didn’t matter the technique.

I opened feedback emails with a sense of dread. And even when the changes were minor, I’d feel physically ill.

I wanted to work on a project, but I couldn’t. Hours would go by, and nothing would happen.

The half of my brain with the plan was screaming at me to “JUST GET STARTED! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?” While the half with the steering wheel had its fingers in its ears singing “Lalalalalalalalala, I can’t hear you.”

I couldn’t make myself move.

And yet, I’d written a similar piece the week before with the focus and intensity of a laser beam.

Maybe I really wasn’t cut out to own a business. Or maybe I was losing my mind.

How had I gone from a successful engineering career to floundering to write a single piece of copy?

It turns out I wasn’t experiencing the usual impostor syndrome and procrastination many people experience.

My debilitating experiences were common presentations of ADHD or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Which is perhaps one of the most stupidly and inaccurately named disorders out there.

The problem isn’t that we have a deficit of attention. We have an abundance of it. What we lack is control over that abundant attention, among other challenges.

ADHD has been trending lately, so let me clear up a couple of misconceptions before I go on.

Misconception #1: ADHD is a fad diagnosis. It’s not. It’s a neurological condition with distinct brain differences detectable through neuroimaging.

Which means we aren’t “all a little ADHD.” Anyone can have moments of distraction or impulsivity, but those with the condition are always affected.

It may seem like diagnoses are increasing, but that’s because until recently, ADHD was thought rare in half the population. Which leads to the next mistaken belief.

Misconception #2: Only boys have ADHD. It’s common to think of someone with ADHD as a little boy who can’t sit still. But that’s only one presentation.

Girls may present as daydreamers… their hyperactivity is in their brains.

Or they figure out something is off and learn to “mask” or cover their symptoms. These children often overcompensate with perfection and people-pleasing. If they seek help, they’re frequently diagnosed as anxious or depressed.

This was my experience. Good grades, college, career… how could I have ADHD? Plus, I was a grown-up.

Misconception #3: Only kids have ADHD. Again, it’s a neurological difference. If you had it as a kid, you have it as an adult. If you get diagnosed as an adult, you had it as a kid. Part of my diagnosis as an adult included many questions about my childhood.

Some symptoms can indeed diminish with age, especially in men. But ADHD doesn’t vanish. In fact, for women, hormonal shifts often exacerbate symptoms, especially at puberty and menopause.

Ok, great. But what does that mean for business?

Well, some traits of ADHD are fabulous for business.

• Entrepreneurial spirit: Several studies have linked ADHD with entrepreneurial interests and intent.

• Problem-solving: Our ability to think outside the box can lead to innovative solutions.

• Creativity: ADHD brains often excel at divergent thinking, which spurs new ideas.

• Curiosity: Our tendency to seek novelty can drive us to explore new opportunities.

• Hyperfocus: When engaged, we can get more done in a few hours than many people get done in a few days.

But some of those presentations are pretty problematic.

• Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD): If impostor syndrome and fear of failure had a baby, and that baby grew up to be a ruthless assassin, it would be RSD. It’s an intense, overwhelming emotional response to perceived or actual rejection, criticism, or failure.

• Misdirected Focus: Our hyperfocus may kick in on less important tasks, so we neglect priorities. And even if we’re intensely productive during our focus, we can take days to recover from the burnout.

• Time Blindness: Difficulty estimating and managing time can wreak havoc on schedules, deadlines, and relationships.

• Executive Function Struggles: Keeping track of tasks, paperwork, and deadlines can be a constant battle. This makes staying on top of projects an enormous challenge.

The trick is learning to take advantage of as many good parts as possible while minimizing the bad ones. And doing that means sometimes creating your own business advice.

Because the problem with traditional business advice is that it’s based on what works for the general (read: neurotypical) population. It won’t necessarily work for us.

That doesn’t mean tossing all the business advice you’ve gotten overboard–it’s usually a good starting point.

It means considering the advice you get in the context of how your brain works. And then applying, ignoring, or adapting it as needed.

That’s exactly what I’ve done for myself and what I help others do.

(This was the first in a four-part series, which also covered managing inconsistent energy, dealing with time blindness, and handling project execution—all of which I’ll republish eventually, but probably not one per week because (a) that would require consistency and (b) that feels a little like taking advantage of the easy strategic button.)

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Till next time (whenever that is),

Kristen

P.S. When I sat down to write this and opened up my Substack page, I saw all the times I’ve used Moira Rose GIFs to make a point. They show up in the thumbnails. And I just feel so sad about the loss of Catherine O’Hara. She was such an icon to me. I don’t tend to fangirl about stuff—usually when someone passes away, even a famous person I admired, I’m like, “oh, that’s sad.” But it doesn’t really hit me. This one does. I’m going to miss seeing her age in that graceful, funky, and quirky way she did. I’ll miss seeing the new things she could have done with the rest of her life. But I will honor her memory by continuing to use GIFs, because she was fantastic and I absolutely adored her.