Why one-size-fits-all doesn't always work: customizing your business approach
"I had no idea that my encounter with the famous Barry Bonds would be a life-changing lesson in the power of customizing business strategies to suit individual goals - but it was! What I learnt that day has revolutionized the way I advise aspiring entrepreneurs, but I never expected the unexpected twist that would come..." - Katie McManus, Brave Business Coaching
There I was, working at Equinox Fitness in San Francisco, blissfully unaware of sports stars and their accomplishments.
One day, Barry Bonds, a famous baseball player, walked in wanting to sign up for a membership with his friend Dexter Fowler.
I helped them through the process, and it was during our conversations about their workout routines that I realized a valuable lesson about customizing business approaches for individual success.
In this episode you're going to learn the story from Barry and I (he's kindly helping me tell it thanks to the magnificence of voice clips!) and we'll share how although we bonded over our workouts, we learned a great deal about our differences.
And how that impacts on business.
Accessibility: click to read a written-to-be-read transcript of the episode
Challenges of mixing ADHD and instructions
I'd like for us to acknowledge the challenges faced by ADHD individuals in following instructions, both in their personal lives and in running a business.
I wanna share with you my own experiences with instructions and how they can be detrimental to someone with ADHD.
For ADHD business owners, there's no one-size-fits-all solution. And when people mislead us, we can easily come unstuck!
Tailoring your approaches
As an ADHD entrepreneur, you have to learn how to navigate the world of information that's out there and tailor it to your unique needs.
You have to be able to stand up and say, "This doesn't work for me" or "I need to modify this." And once you start doing that, you'll find that not only does your business start to grow and succeed, but you also become a lot more confident in your ability to run that business.
This episode that's all about ADHD instructions, covers:
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Master methods to overcome ADHD-triggered executive dysfunction in your business ventures.
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Discover how to tailor business strategies for optimum personal success.
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Uncover the significance of mentorship when pinpointing your unique entrepreneurial talents.
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Identify the causes behind misaligned online courses rather than personal shortcomings.
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Related must-listen episodes
25: ADHD entrepreneur networking events tactics
15: Dealing with product launch failure when you have ADHD
37 Weenie! Cuz 75 Hard Challenge rules and ADHD don't mix!
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Here's a glimpse of the transcript of the episode in which I share my story of becoming friends with the legendary baseball player, Barry Bonds.
00:00:00 In this episode, we're going to be talking about Barry Bonds, me, and how it can help you and your business.
00:00:16 Honestly, at this point, I feel like this podcast could be the vengeance podcast on all the high school teachers and middle school teachers who made my life miserable for the first X amount of years of being on this Earth.
00:00:34 I don't mean it to be that way. There were just some really abysmal teachers that I had to suffer through. I want to talk about this one project that I had in sophomore year biology that I remember to this day because of how traumatizing it was to me as an ADHD person. This project was basically an entire binder of instructions. I don't even remember what it was on, but it was miserable.
00:00:59 The teacher, Miss Flint, thought that she was being really clever and trying to teach us a life lesson around going through a myriad of instructions that often contradicted each other. That changed gears halfway through so that we could prove that we read the instructions. But what she didn't realize that she was making this massively not accessible to folks with ADHD. I remember working on this project and being very happy with how I had done it, the metaphors that I had used, the visuals I had done walking into school that day, convinced that I would get an A. I was so proud of the work I had done.
00:01:36 And I looked around and realized on first glance immediately that I had misread the instructions.
Barry Bonds’ knee and how it can help you in your business (Transcript)
00:00:00 In this episode, we're going to be talking about Barry Bonds, me, and how it can help you and your business. Squirrel. Squirrel. Hey, Katie, it's your old friend Barry Bonds.
00:00:16 Honestly, at this point, I feel like this podcast could be the vengeance podcast on all the high school teachers and middle school teachers who made my life miserable for the first X amount of years of being on this Earth.
00:00:34 I don't mean it to be that way. There were just some really abysmal teachers that I had to suffer through. I want to talk about this one project that I had in sophomore year biology that I remember to this day because of how traumatizing it was to me as an ADHD person. This project was basically an entire binder of instructions. I don't even remember what it was on, but it was miserable.
00:00:59 The teacher, Miss Flint, thought that she was being really clever and trying to teach us a life lesson around going through a myriad of instructions that often contradicted each other. That changed gears halfway through so that we could prove that we read the instructions. But what she didn't realize that she was making this massively not accessible to folks with ADHD. I remember working on this project and being very happy with how I had done it, the metaphors that I had used, the visuals I had done walking into school that day, convinced that I would get an A. I was so proud of the work I had done.
00:01:36 And I looked around and realized on first glance immediately that I had misread the instructions.
00:01:47 In a panic, I opened up the binder of this assignment and read through all the instructions again. And there it was in clear black and white that I had to have a visual for each portion of my presentation. Now, there was another instruction earlier on that suggested something different. Miss Flint had planted some gotcha instructions in this project to prove a point about how important it was to follow instructions. Now, for someone with ADHD, following instructions is not just a thing that you do.
00:02:23 Following instructions is life. When we read instructions, we read them as rules because there have been so many instances where we got the instructions wrong and we were penalized for it. We were told that we were stupid, we were told that we were lazy. We were told that there were so many things wrong with us for not following instructions. What happens to a person who is constantly bombarded with that kind of messaging is when we hear instructions, we start panicking.
00:02:52 We start listening to them as if they are life or death rules. Now, how does this impact folks who are starting a business? Let me ask you how many times have you gone to the interwebs and the Google machine and put in the search bar? How do I build a website? How do I create a content plan to get clients and gotten a bunch of things back?
00:03:16 That's contradictory. I can't tell you how many times this happened to me when I first started. And what happened was I would get completely stalled and overwhelmed because I didn't know which rules to follow. Where this really gets us into trouble is when we sign up for these online courses that are instructional, there's no ongoing support, there's no place to really ask questions and clarify. Not that many folks with ADHD would ask questions because we don't want to appear like we don't understand very basic instructions.
00:03:47 When we're in these courses and we're reading these instructions and they don't quite make sense, or we don't quite understand what it's getting at, or there's a piece of the instructions that isn't detailed enough for us to know exactly what actions we need to take there. What ends up happening is this fear bubbles up in us that we're going to get it wrong. And when we describe this to other people, they look at us like we're nuts. Because who cares if you get it wrong? Like it's your business, it's this thing.
00:04:15 It's an instruction. You just do the instruction. If you get it wrong, you fix it. For someone with ADHD who has been made wrong so many times in their life for failing to do exactly what the instructions dictated, this feels like we're breaking the law. It feels like we are going to get in so much trouble for doing this wrong, and it stalls us.
00:04:39 It prevents us from having any kind of success in our businesses. In this episode, I really want to dive into giving you permission to up the rules.
00:04:51 When clients start with me, one of their first concerns is, are you going to just give me one size fits all instructions that I'm going to have to follow? And if they are one size fits all instructions, are you going to be really detailed with how I need to do it? And my answer is always no and yes, right? Because there's no one size fits all that fits every single business owner. There's no one right way to start your business.
00:05:19 There's the right way for you to start your business. Now, what's right for you will be massively different than what's right for someone else. Okay? So let's use the example of working out, because everyone's body is different. Everyone's body has been through different things, right, and has gone through different things at different times, right?
00:05:38 So I'm very prone to sprained ankles. I have hyperextension in most of my joints, so if I want to start running for a while, I have to be very, very conscious of doing exercises that will prevent injury in my ankles. If I'm doing yoga, or something that requires you to stretch and stay in poses for a really long time. I have to make sure that I'm not locking my elbows or my knees because what that's going to do is it's going to hyperextend my joints and cause pain for me later. My friend Barry Bonds, and I will tell this story.
00:06:13 He had knee replacement surgery. He was a professional athlete and he had to have his knee replaced. Now there are things that he has to do to protect that knee. There's rehab work that he has to do that I don't have to do. So let me tell the story of how I met Barry Bonds.
00:06:29 What am I going to say next? Well, you'll have to keep listening to find out. But first squirrel. Squirrel, squirrel, squirrel.
00:06:40 So let me tell the story of how I met Barry Bonds. I worked at Equinox Fitness in San Francisco and this is why I use so many workout analogies, because I come from a fitness background. When I worked there, I was in sales and I am very sports dumb. I don't know anyone, I don't know anything about sports and the balls and the bats and all the things. I just go about my life naively bumping into things that I don't understand.
00:07:04 So I'm in my office one day, typing up an email, following up with someone, and the front desk calls and they're like, Barry Bonds is here. And if you don't know who Barry Bonds is, he is a very famous baseball player that worked for the San Francisco 49. I'm sorry. Not the San Francisco 49. Ers, that's his football team.
00:07:20 No. He worked for the San Francisco Giants. They are the baseball team. I wish I could say that I did that on purpose. I did not do that on purpose.
00:07:28 I legitimately mix them up all the time. Anyway, so I don't know who this person is. That name doesn't mean anything to me. So I finish my email, I go out, there's this massive man, he's a giant, right? And I walk up to him and he sticks out his hand and he says, Hi, I'm Barry Bond.
00:07:45 I'm thinking in my head like, wow, that's very formal. Normally it's just first names. So I stuck out my hand and I like, hi, I'm Katie McManus. And he turns to his friend who is with him and he says, this is Dexter Fowler. And I'm like, hi Dexter Fowler, I'm Katie McManus.
00:08:01 I'm kind of teasing them and I'm like, okay, great. So guys, why don't you come back to my office and we talk about what you're looking for. We can do a tour of the club and then we can talk about different gym membership options. And so I get them back into my office and I sit them down and I start asking them all the typical questions that I ask people when they sign up for the gym. What are your fitness goals, and do you have any injuries, and what have you done for workouts in the past?
00:08:26 And at this point, Barry's like, well, I used to play baseball. And I'm like, oh, that's so nice for you. After work, like, one of the rec leagues. And he looks at me incredulously, and it's just like, no, I played professional ball. And at this point, I'm like, oh, my gosh, that's so good for you.
00:08:45 What team did you play for? And he's like, you know, I played for the San Francisco Giants. And I'm like, oh, how neat for you that you still live in the city where you played. I bet you get recognized a lot. And he's like, yeah, I do.
00:09:00 And then I turned to Dexter Feller. I'm like, Dexter, do you also play the sports? Do you play baseball? He's like, yeah, I actually play for the Houston Astros. Anyway, so, I mean, gave them the tour.
00:09:10 They signed up with me. And Barry actually used to come into my office and hang out with me because he didn't want to be in the normal waiting area while he was waiting for Dexter for them to work out together. And I had no idea what to talk to him about. So I would show him my knitting projects, and we'd talk about the different bike rides that we've been on, and I would ask about his daughter and how she was doing in fashion school and all this stuff. Long story short, he had knee replacement surgery, and so when I was working out, and especially if I was stretching, he would actually stretch with me, and he'd have to do different things.
00:09:42 He and I have different bodies. This is a long story to prove a point that we have different bodies. He's an ex pro athlete who has a lot of wear and tear on his poor joints, and I'm not I have different needs from my joints, just like Barry and me and our different bodies. Your business has different needs from other people's business.
00:10:10 I have wanted to tell that story on this podcast for so long. I'm so glad I found, like, the most tangential way to bring it in. And, Barry, if you're listening, I miss you. I hope you're doing great. This is future Barry Bonds.
00:10:27 I did listen, and here I am telling you that I love this episode, and thanks for the trip down memory lane. So let's stick with the Barry Bonds and Katie McManus bodies metaphor of your business. If Barry Bonds were to be trained by my trainer to do my workouts, he would probably, A, hurt his knee, and B, be really not impressed, right? Because I have a different body. I have different strengths.
00:10:55 I have different weaknesses. I'm also a much smaller human being than he is versus if his trainer came to me and tried giving me Berry's program, I would die. That would just be the end, I would do one workout and then I would just lay down and expire. I wouldn't be here today, right? It's the same for your business.
00:11:21 And so of course, we see all of these random instructions that are put in magazines that are on the interwebs, that are on those free PDF downloadables that we get about how to do X, Y and Z in these courses online that we pay for. And it's the equivalent of you taking Barry Bond's workout and trying to do it for yourself. There's a reason why it doesn't work. Now, that's not to say that there aren't parts of it that you could absolutely implement into your business. But here's where the ADHD entrepreneur bumps into problems is we read these instructions and our brain goes, these aren't just instructions, these are rules.
00:11:58 And we break the rules, we're going to be a bad person. And whenever we bump into something where we're like, that doesn't fit me, that doesn't fit my business, wow, I have no idea how to do that part. Our brain clicks into trauma mode and thinks, okay, well, you're about to break the rules and you don't want to break the rules because when you do, you get into major trouble and you're made to be a bad person. You're told that you're stupid, you're told that you're lazy. You're told that all these awful things are true about you.
00:12:26 Let's just not do it. Your executive dysfunction jumps right in. It teams up with your overwhelm and your impostor syndrome, and before you know it, they're having this whole luau in your mind that just starts distracting you from actually doing stuff in your business that will move the needle and get you paying clients.
00:12:49 So what we all need to learn as ADHD business owners is to tell those parts of our brain to off when we hear instructions from other people. What we need to do is we need to take what will work for us and what we feel aligned to and do actions on that. We also need to be comfortable asking questions where we don't understand things that is okay to ask clarifying questions. Actually, I would go so far as to say it's very generous of us to ask clarifying questions of people who are selling us advice because they may not know that they're not being clear about something. They may think that this is a perfect way to explain how to do X, Y and Z.
00:13:34 And getting your question is amazing feedback for them to change how they describe something, some process or some system so you doing that helps them become better. We also have to just acknowledge this part of our brain that turns instructions into rules. We have to know that just because we can't follow it exactly doesn't make us stupid. It doesn't make us lazy. It doesn't make us bad.
00:13:59 It just makes us us, right? It makes you, you it makes your business yours. So, for example, when my clients come to me and they've gone through all these digital courses and they have never made any of them work, and they think, oh, my God, there must be something wrong with me that I can't do this. I must be just magically up and unable to start a business because I wasn't able to do this exactly. What I always tell them is, like, okay, well, what parts of this didn't fit you?
00:14:27 This is one of the benefits of working with a coach or a strategist or a mentor who can help you really customize the plan to your work style and to your goals. I don't have a one size fits all program that I hand out to all of my clients. Even my group program teaches basic business skills and gives instructions to all the participants how they can make it their own, because there's no business that can be replicated perfectly by everyone else. If you have a business like that, then congratulations, you have a franchise. And, yeah, go and sell it as a franchise.
00:15:04 But if you're not starting a franchise that has all the instructions already built for you and all the systems and processes already designed for you, and you just have to plug in like an employee and do it. If you're starting a business from scratch, it's your responsibility to find what works for you. And it is my delight, my absolute joy of my life to help my clients figure this out for themselves. This is what I live for. That and telling Barry Bonds stories.
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