Hey bro! This is a hustle-free zone!
Welcome back to another episode of Weeniecast! I'm your host, Katie McManus and today we have an empowering and eye-opening topic for all our ADHD entrepreneur listeners to check in with.
I’m going to be talking about the harmful effects of the hustle bro mentality on ADHD entrepreneurs and exploring a healthier and more sustainable approach to success.
I’ll share my personal experiences and shed light on how ADHD-preneurs can navigate the business world while maintaining their well-being and mental health.
We'll explore the damaging effects of living in a constant state of lack and the importance of embracing a mindset of abundance.
I’m going to delve into the concept of money disorders and discuss the various ways in which they can impact our relationship with finances.
But it doesn't stop there!
I'll also tackle the topic of setting goals and redefining success beyond just financial gain.
Also, because I’m a putting my money where my mouth is kinda coach, I’ll reveal my own ambitious plans for the future and talk about the non-negotiables I’ve set for myself to achieve my million-dollar year without sacrificing my well-being, unlike my hustle bro brethren.
So, if you're an ADHD entrepreneur hustling through life, feeling drained and burnt out, this episode is for you.
Listen as I uncover the dangers of hustle bro culture and provide you with actionable strategies to thrive as an ADHD entrepreneur.
Watch the episode promo
Expansive success
In this episode we mention the world of expansive success. It's all about understanding that success isn't confined to financial numbers – it's about embracing a full and abundant life that flourishes in every way!
Sure, money is important, but let's widen the lens. Success is about your well-being, relationships, personal growth, and overall joy. It's a rich tapestry of fulfillment that goes beyond the dollars and cents.
As an ADHD entrepreneur, it's time to break free from the hustle culture and embrace a holistic approach. My episode sheds light on creating a business strategy that nourishes your mind, heart, and soul. When you thrive personally, your business soars too!
So, let's redefine success together.
Listen in and discover how to build a life where business triumphs harmonize with personal joys!
A balanced financial life, not a hustle-bro powered one!
You know, there’s a sweet spot between luxury indulgence and that 'no-spend es bueno' mindset. It's all about finding your groove, weenies!
It's not about flashy things, nor is it about living like a hermit.
The key is balance.
Too much luxury, and you're in a money whirlwind.
Too much deprivation? Trust me, it's not the path to happiness or success.
What's the secret sweet spot then?
Nurturing a financial lifestyle that's both enriching and steady. Enjoy life's pleasures without overindulgence, and ensure stability without living like a recluse.
Together, let's analyze the various money mindsets and the ways they can sway our decisions.
I'll walk you through the ins and outs of underspending and how it can stealthily harm us, just like overspending or other money disorders.
It's time to ditch the extremes, my ADHD entrepreneur friend.
Embrace a balanced approach to your relationship with money, and watch your business flourish while you continue to lead a rich and fulfilling life.
Listen in now and let's embark on a journey of financial harmony and entrepreneurial success!
The key moments in this episode are:
00:01:09 Innocent bystanders get pulled into negative messaging.
00:04:17 Human spirit thrives on pride and contribution.
00:08:05 Committing to eat well and exercise daily.
00:12:39 Serving cabanas, learning valuable lessons.
00:16:37 Success without burning out = happiness and health.
00:17:40 Rejecting aspects of Hustle Bro culture, and realising smarter help is available.
The next steps for you after you’ve listened to this episode are:
Book a call with me: If you want further help or action steps, you can book a call with me to discuss your specific needs and how I can assist you in achieving your goals.
Message me: If you're looking for insights and guidance tailored to your specific needs. Mention the Weeniecast when you do so I have context!
Check out my website: Visit my website to explore more resources, blog posts, and valuable content related to your area of interest. Stay updated with the latest industry trends and tips.
Follow me on Instagram or TikTok: Join my social media community to get regular updates, tips, and insights. Engage with my content and connect with like-minded individuals in the comments section.
Transcript for: "ADHD Entrepreneurs: Redefining Success and Breaking Free from the
Hustle Bro Culture."
Squirrel. In this episode, I'll be explaining why bro hustle culture can be dangerous for
you, the ADHD entrepreneur squirrel. Hi, I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and
money mindset. Coach and welcome to the Weenie Cast Squirrel. When you think of
hustle bro culture, what's the first thing that comes to mind? Hey, bro. For me, it is the
05:00 A.m. Club. It is protein shakes.
It is the fist-pumping and all those really uncomfortable cringeworthy Instagram reels
where they're talking about how much money they make in their Amazon shop or on
Etsy. When they're obviously just screwing up the math. You know what I'm talking
about? They go through the math of what it takes to get a custom t-shirt made and
shipped and how to list on Etsy. And then they show you all the orders and they're like,
that's pure cash. Not even factoring in the cost of the t-shirt, the cost of printing, the cost
of shipping. And then on the back end, they're selling their course on how you can do it
too. I'm of the opinion that there are some real evil perpetrators of hustle bro culture.
Hey, bro.
And then there are just some kind of innocent bystanders that get sucked into this
vortex. The problem with this kind of messaging is it makes the rest of us feel like we're
not doing enough, we're not working hard enough, we're not working long enough, we're
not sweating enough, we're not punishing ourselves enough. And it puts everyone in
this mindset of lack. I don't know if you've ever been on a diet. I can't imagine an adult
human in this world who hasn't at least tried once. But what happens when you severely
restrict the kinds of foods that you eat, when you cut out all of your favorites, all your
sweets, french fries, sodas, alcohol, whatever it is that is your go-to? Usually you fall off
the wagon. You can stick to this restrictive diet for only so long, and then, as if you
almost can't help it, you find yourself in the car drivi,ng to the supermarket, and then
magically, you're in the frozen aisle in front of all the cases of ice cream. And then
before you realize it, you're checking out with three different gallon tubs of your favorite
flavors.
Fast forward 15 minutes. You're at home halfway through one of them and feeling like
garbage. Now, I want you to think about what the equivalent of this is in your business.
For those of us with ADHD, we have this expectation of ourselves that we can do 150%
of the work every single day. Because when we get into hyper-focus and we have a lot
of dopamine in our systems, we can absolutely do 150% to 200%. That's what we have
to give, and we do it. We can work 14 hours straight now because we have ADHD. In
those 14 hours days, we run through all of our dopamine and our bodies have a very
hard time producing dopamine consistently.
So the next day we can't do it and we feel like garbage. And the day after that we can't
do it and we feel like garbage. And the day after we might have a little more dopamine
in our system and we can do an eight-hour day. But at that point, we're just catching up
on some of the stuff that we missed in the previous two days. I recently saw a LinkedIn
friend of mine who made a post, and I'm not going to name them because I don't want
to call someone out. Where does this belief come from? This belief that we have to
torment and sacrifice ourselves in order to get what we want? It comes from a really
harmful family legacy that is passed down through generations. I like to call this poverty
pride because a lot of us, the vast majority of us really came from peasants. Let's be
real.
I don't have any royalty in my background. I'm sure you don't either. And if you do, then
please go to Weeniecast.com and scroll all the way down. Leave us a voicemail telling
us about your ancestry. I'd be very interested to hear it. The vast majority of us, our
families came from extreme poverty. They had to escape awful circumstances just to
survive. They had to do backbreaking labor to be able to feed their families.
And if I know anything about the human spirit, I know that the human spirit cannot exist
and cannot survive believing that it is the downtrodden, that there's no hope, that there's
no strength within. The human spirit can only survive when it feels pride, when it feels
like it's contributing something, even if that contribution is so small. So our grandparents
and our great grandparents and our great great great grandparents, oftentimes you'd
hear people brag about them and brag about the fact that they were able to feed 17
children by just growing three potatoes a year. A miraculous feat. And I'm not saying
that that's not something to be proud of, right? But what got passed down from that
whole messaging is that success. To have success, any form of it, from being able to
feed your children to making millions of dollars a year, you have to submit yourself to
breaking your back. You have to punish yourself. You have to sacrifice your happiness,
your rest.
Any form of self-care goes out the window. And at its heart, when you believe that this is
what's required for you to be successful, what's ultimately going on is that you have this
family belief that to be worthy of good things coming your way, you have to sacrifice
everything that you love, including yourself. And that's up. It's also not true. We know
from extreme dieting that when you restrict yourself, it doesn't go well. It's not
consistent. If you want to live an expansive life, making lots of money, having lots of free
time to yourself, having amazing, positive, generative relationships in your life. You have
to live an expansive life.
If you want expansive success in your business, you need to live expansively. And I'm
not saying that you should go and buy a fancy car when you don't have the money for it.
I'm not saying that you need to live a life of luxury if that's the kind of life you want to
live, but don't live a life of poverty. In my Trauma of Money certification, there are
several different kinds of money disorders that people suffer from now. Included in these
are hoarding overspending, financial infidelity, where you lie to your partners about what
you're spending or how much money you have. But another major one that we don't
actually see as a society, as a disorder, is underspending. Underspending can be as
damaging, as overspending, as hoarding, as financial infidelity. And it truly is a trauma
response.
And it comes from this belief that there is never going to be enough for you. And I have
some bad news. If you live your life like there's never going to be enough or that you
have to break your back working as hard as humanly possible or inhumanly possible in
order to get enough or to reach your goals, guess what? There's never going to be
enough. And yes, you are going to have to work inhumane hours with inhumane effort
to reach your goals. To take a page out of one of my hustle bro-ey but beloved friends
who is aiming to do his first million-dollar year next year. I too am aiming to do my first
million-dollar year in 2024, but I'm approaching it completely differently. My
non-negotiables to reach my first million seven-figure year are that I'm going to sleep
eight to 9 hours a night on days where I didn't get a great night's sleep. I'm also going to
commit to taking a nap.
I commit to eating. And this is going to be really hard for me because I have ADHD and
eating consistent meals is not always doable. So I'm not making this a non-negotiable
for myself, but it is going to be a strong intention to eat two to three well-balanced meals
per day. And let's be real, there will absolutely be several days at a time where I'm just
eating leftover pizza and I'm going to make that okay for my ADHD brain because
sometimes that's just what we need. But overall, my commitment will be to eat healthy.
I'm going to spend at minimum an hour each day outside exercising my dog and playing
with her and being with her and training her because she matters to me and I want to
invest in that relationship and spend all the time I possibly can with her. I'm also going to
commit to moving my body every single day for at least an hour. Now, this could be an
hour of strenuous exercise at the gym.
It could also be an hour of me stretching while I'm watching my favorite show. It could
also be taking a walk with a friend. All of it counts. But I know for my mind to be its most
productive, my body has to be well taken care of. I'm also going to make a lot of time for
my spirituality, because living an expansive life is not just something that we do, it is
something that we have to be as well. And whatever your belief system is, if you want to
live an expansive life, you have to tap into whatever higher powers you believe in.
Because doing this is really hard. And I don't know if you have any experience with
twelve-step programs.
I have several loved ones in my life who have struggled with alcoholism in their time
here on Earth. And part of the Alcoholics Anonymous programming is to turn to God or
whatever higher power you have, because doing something this hard is hard to do
alone when you don't feel like you have something bigger than you to turn to. And this is
going to be the most surprising thing for you to hear for me to reach my first
seven-figure year. Oh, what am I going to say next? Well, you'll have to keep listening to
find out. But first squirrel. Squirrel, squirrel, squirrel. And this is going to be the most
surprising thing for you to hear. For me to reach my first seven-figure year, I commit to
only working four to six focused hours per day, Monday through Friday.
But Katie, what about the Hustle bros who are working 14 hours days? How are you
going to keep up with them? Hey, bro, shut up. And let me tell you, there's so much
research on diminishing returns of work. Folks who work 35 hours a week get far more
done than people who work 55 hours a week or more. Why is this? Because your brain
is not designed to do high-level work more than 35 hours a week. And if you're looking
to build a seven-figure empire, that's not like checking out groceries. It's not working on
a production line. It's not mowing lawns. And I'm not putting those professions down.
They are honorable. They pay the bills. But if you want to grow an empire, you need to
have your brain working or operating at its best, most highest level. And your brain can
only do that for four to 6 hours a day. As someone with ADHD, you and I both know that
we are lazy AF. We can procrastinate like no one else, right? And the reason we're able
to procrastinate and still succeed and still get good grades and still get the project done
on time is because we find really creative ways to get away with it. We figure out the
hack that cuts out 40% of the work, if not more. We don't waste our time.
I mean, we do waste our time. Let's be real. We waste our time for weeks and weeks
and weeks leading up to the deadline. But as soon as that deadline is fast approaching,
we get it done. I had this mentor when I worked at the La Quasi, which is a beautiful
resort on Cape Cod. If you ever go there and you have the money, I urge you to go
there. It's a gorgeous experience. But Tony Gothri was the assistant general manager
when I worked there, and I idolized this man.
I wanted to be him when I grew up. And I remember one summer, I was a cabana girl,
and I was serving the cabanas. And if you ever go there, the cabanas are on the other
side of the pool from the bar, and there are only two entrances to get to the cabanas,
and it's on either side. So literally, for me to go and service the cabanas, I would have to
do a full lap around the pool, over to the furthest, most edge of the cabana stands, go
up the stairs, talk to everyone in the cabanas, and then go around the other way around
the pool to get back to the bar. I ran myself ragged for three days straight until Tony
came up to me one day, and he's like, “Katie, you're not using your head to save your
feet.” And I was like I was sweating, and I was tired, and I'm, like, late with these drinks
because it is a really high-end resort, so you have to get your drink. The service
standards are really high, so we would have to get the drinks to the guests within about
six minutes or something of them having ordered. And this was really hard when you
had to walk that far to get drinks to everyone.
And like, Tony, what are you talking about? And his response was, you're taking longer
trying to get one cabana's stuff to them as fast as possible than if you were waiting and
taking everyone's order at the same time. Coming back, putting all the orders in,
bringing them waters in one swoop, coming back, picking up the drinks, and then
delivering them in one swoop. Instead, you're doing about 15 different passes, and
you're exhausted at the end of the day. I've been watching you. Not, like, in a creepy
way. He wasn't that way. And with his permission to take just a little bit longer, I ended
up actually saving time. I ended up getting better tips because everyone was so happy
with the service I gave them.
I was able to be more attentive to my guests. And also, I wasn't as tired by the end of
the day just as that worked for me as a cabana girl at the La Quasit during my summer
in college. It works in your business too. And just like college-aged me, who is helping
people in the cabanas and running herself ragged. I couldn't see how to do this for
myself. I needed someone to come in with an outside perspective and tell me how to do
it better. Oftentimes when my clients come to me and they've successfully made tens of
thousands of dollars in their business per year and are working really hard to make not
enough money to live on, all they need is an outside perspective. They need a business
strategist to come in, eyeball the situation, see where they are using their feet too much
and help them make some shifts that will allow them to make a lot more money in a lot
less time.
This is something the Broy Hustle Culture guys are completely missing. Hey, Bro. And
it's really bad news for them because here's the thing about building a seven-figure
business on working 80 hours weeks and only sleeping 5 hours a night, once you build
it, guess what that business is going to require? It's going to require you to work 80
hours a week and only sleep 5 hours a night. It's never going to let up unless you
completely deconstruct it and start from scratch. I don't know about you, but I don't want
to do that. I want to design my seven-figure business to easily function with me only
spending four to 6 hours a day on it. I want it to be able to run even if I go on vacation
for two or three weeks. But to grow a business to that point where that's possible, you
have to design it for that to be possible.
And the best part is that the Bro-ey Hustle Culture guys who have this seven-figure goal
for 2024, if neither one of us reaches our goal, I'm not going to be burned out like them.
If they don't hit seven figures and they've completely given up their life and sacrificed
their health and their sleep and their sanity, it's going to feel really shitty because that's
their only metric for success for the year is money. Whereas if I miss the mark, I'm going
to be happy and I'm going to be healthy and I'll be really proud of the time that I've spent
with my dog. And hopefully, she'll be way better trained by the end of next year. By the
way, I'll have great relationships. I may have even met someone who knows and I'm not
going to have to recover at the end of the year. But the best part is that if I do hit my
goal, think of what more is possible the next year because mentally, emotionally,
physically, I will be perfectly set up to do something even bigger the year after. And I
would love to hear from you.
If there's an aspect of Hustle Bro culture that you are completely rejecting, what is it? If
you don't mind, go to www.weeniecast.com, scroll all the way to the bottom and leave
us a voicemail and tell us what is the bit that you're rejecting. And what are you going to
do that's completely contrary to it in order to reach your big goals? And likewise, if you
are running yourself ragged in your business, if you are hustling and it is not paying off
and you cannot see a more elegant way to use your head to save your feet and you
know you need some help, then I invite you to book a Generate income strategy call
with me. This is a 30 minutes call where we will get real about your goals and your
dreams and what is actually getting in the way of you reaching them on your own. And if
it makes sense, then we can talk about different ways to work together. And if it doesn't
make sense, I'm going to send you in the direction of some resources that can help you.
Hey, bro. Squirrel, squirrel, squirrel, squirrel.
© 2022 - 2023 Katie McManus – Business Strategy For Weenie ADHD-preneurs