How ADHD entrepreneurs can be better public speakers! (A hyperfocus highlight episode)

[00:00:00] Squirrel, squirrel, squirrel.

[00:00:01] Welcome to this hyper focus highlight episode.

[00:00:04] Let's get you hyper focused on your business growth.

[00:00:07] Hi, I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and money mindset coach.

[00:00:11] And welcome to the video.

[00:00:12] Squirrel.

[00:00:14] There's this funny thing that happens when people see you as confident

[00:00:17] and you're not confident is you create this special brand of imposter syndrome.

[00:00:22] And it manifests as you constantly seeing yourself as not living up to other people's expectations.

[00:01:25] The TV show, those town meetings actually do happen in small towns in New England. Now, the fears that hold people back are different, and it usually happens in this

[00:01:31] s**t up way, where the thing that you're most afraid of is actually the thing that will

[00:01:36] make you most successful.

[00:01:38] And this obviously is different for everyone.

[00:01:40] For me, it was public speaking, for another person it could be writing, for another person

[00:01:44] it could be painting and letting your paintings be seen. or regretted that. I will never forget getting up at that podium. Looking out at the 300 plus people at this luncheon, it felt like there were thousands of them, just so you know. Sweat just trickling down the sides of my neck and down my back. I was so nervous. My hands were shaking, holding this letter. I had reprinted this letter in bold font,

[00:03:03] double space. I had practiced it. I had read it over and over and over again. He also never reached out to me again, which tells me he understood what he had done to me in that moment. And I hope he felt really guilty about it. This is a long time ago. So now you have a picture of how bad I was at public speaking, and that I had a right to be

[00:04:21] terrified of doing it. Now, one of the things I always that learning to speak publicly was going to be the be all end all of me breaking that success ceiling that I created for myself. I also knew that sales wasn't going to be the thing that I did forever. I knew that I was going to become a coach at some point. I knew that at some point I would want to stand on the stage and show people a better way

[00:05:44] to be in some fashion. I didn't know at the time that I was going to be whatever is given to you in the moment and turn it into something else. Right? Because it doesn't matter if you're giving speeches and you have a speech that you have memorized word for word, you don't know when an audience member is going to shout a question at you and interrupt you. You don't know if like someone's going to open the side door and the fire alarm is going

[00:07:03] to go off. looking out at the audience, sharing your own thoughts or your own processes. That is not improv. After going through all these improv classes, that was still incredibly scary for me. Improv got me to the point where I was comfortable on stage being someone else. It's comfortable on stage speaking and being involved and taking what was given to me and, yes,

[00:08:20] ending it and creating a whole storyline.

[00:08:22] It didn't give me the confidence to get up there

[00:08:25] and be Katie McManus.

[00:08:27] It didn't matter where in your career you are, you're not the only one who struggles with this problem. And everyone in that group, their one goal is to support each other in getting better. And so through Toastmasters, you volunteer to give speeches.

[00:09:43] They have different exercises that you do throughout the meeting, so everyone has a