How Shiny Object Syndrome in ADHD entrepreneurs can affect business strategy and... squirrel!!! | The Weeniecast - Business Strategy For Weenie ADHDpreneurs (ADHD Entrepreneurs)

Here's the FREE guide Katie mentions in the episode

Shiny object syndrome and ADHD entrepreneurs

"You could be super excited about this one group offering that you have or a one on one offering or a digital course... and you could be on social media and talking about it constantly for about four months... and then all of a sudden, one day, you just forget about it!" - Katie McManus, Brave Business Coaching

Business owners and entrepreneurs with ADHD who suffer from shiny object syndrome - we've got your back!

Accessibility: click to read a written-to-be-read transcript of the episode

This episode covers:

How 'shiny object syndrome' impacts on ADHDpreneurs
The problem with social media for ADHD entrepreneurs
How those same home habits show up in your products and service offerings
Shiny object syndrome in your marketing
Why you need to avoid your 'allies'

Who needs to hear this episode?

If you're a business owner or entrepreneur, you know how important it is to have a focused strategy.

But what happens when you're confronted by your old friend 'the squirrel'?

You know, when you're just getting started with one element of your business, and then another thing pops up and steals all your attention. Even though the other thing was more urgent...

That's when you need to know how to deal with shiny object syndrome.

If that sounds like you, and you're always being tempted to switch gears and pursue the latest and greatest trend then you're going to need to listen.

In this episode, Katie McManus talks us through the challenges of dealing with shiny object syndrome in your business and not letting it take over your marketing and offerings!

What is shiny object syndrome?

Shiny object syndrome is the shiny new thing that catches your attention and makes you want to drop everything and pursue it.

It's the siren song of the squirrel that tells you to forget about your goals and chase after something shiny and new.

And it can be a real problem if you let it take over your business!

How do you know if you have shiny object syndrome?

If you find yourself constantly starting new projects but never finishing them, or if you're always chasing after the latest shiny new thing but never actually implementing anything, then you might have shiny object syndrome.

The danger of shiny object syndrome is that it can lead you away from your goals and make you feel like you're not making progress.

It can be a real problem in business, because it's easy to get caught up in the shiny new thing and forget about your original goals.

How do you get past shiny object syndrome?

If this sounds like a problem you're having, stop what you're doing and play this episode now.

Katie McManus will talk you through how this shiny objects syndrome is affecting you as a business owner or entrepreneur with ADHD and what you can do to solve it!

It could make the difference between you continue being a weenie and you actually starting the winning!

About Katie McManus

Katie McManus was trained in Executive Business Coaching and Leadership Development at the Co-Active Training Institute in San Rafael, California.

She's a CPCC (Certified Professional Co-Active Coach) and an ACC (Associate Certified Coach) with the International Coaching Federation.

How shiny object syndrome in ADHD business owners can be... SQUIRREL!

Hi, I'm Katie McManus, and this is Business Strategy for Weenie ADHDpreneurs.

When we're talking about Shiny Object Syndrome for the ADHDpreneur, I don't have to like, preamble too much because all ADHDpreneurs have experienced this at one point or another.

And oftentimes they've been really traumatized by it because how it's shown up in their business in the early stages is by getting inspired to buy all these random online courses about how to build their business.

And they'll get a few lessons into this course that they have spent anywhere from $200 to $2,000 on, and they'll realize this is not the course for me. It's not designed for my ADHD brain. This actually isn't how I want to build my business. This doesn't feel like the right community for me. And I'll tell you it's not because it's not designed most likely for people with ADHD.

And so when new business owners are trying to regain traction and get their first few high paying clients, they really struggle because they're constantly pulled off task.

And social media is a huge part of this, right? So one of the things that happens with my clients when they have Shiny Object Syndrome is they get kind of bored with whatever social media strategy they're trying at that moment. So say you have a coach who's doing really well on LinkedIn. They're getting most of their clients. Oftentimes that dopamine hit of getting the comments and getting the likes and getting a booking on their calendar doesn't fulfill them anymore.

It doesn't hit quite the same way.

And so they look to see, what other social media platforms can I go to? And what helps them along in this Shiny Object Syndrome side journey is they see videos of other course creators who are training on that social media platform. And so I have had a lot of clients who come and they're like super excited to get on TikTok or super excited to get on Twitter, when actually those platforms don't even make sense for their business. But they've convinced themselves it's like the shiny new thing. And that Shiny Object Syndrome, once you know what it is and how it can hurt you and how it can waste your time and your money, you can actually use it to your benefit.

Because what it is in its core is it's a need for variety. The ADHD entrepreneur has a really hard time just buckling down and doing the same old boring thing over and over and over and over again. And everything becomes boring at some point or another to an ADHDpreneur.

You can be so excited for your new morning smoothie. And then you do it every day for three months. And by the end of three months, you cannot even think about having it ever again.

Every person with ADHD knows the sensation of having a go to recipe, a go to lunch, a go to dinner. And it's basically your safe food, right? It's the food that you could have basically three weeks in a row and not get sick of it.

I've been in phases of this with, like, "Overnight Oats". That was my go to breakfast for about four months, and then there just came a day where I opened up the container and I was putting, like, my almond slivers on top and drizzling some honey, and I went to take a bite, and it just I couldn't even put it in my mouth.

This part of my brain that had been obsessed and so interested in this food for four months all of a sudden just flipped a switch. I couldn't even palate putting it in my mouth. This happens in our diets. This happens in our workout routines. This happens in our self care. I don't know anyone who's listening has ever gotten really obsessed with, like, a selfcare routine.

Maybe your skincare.

You go and you buy all the products, and it's like for three months, you have a really consistent routine where you wash your face, you maybe put some toner on you, put a nice serum on your skin, and then you rub in that lotion, and then you roll it with one of those rose quartz things, and you do that consistently for three months.

And then all of a sudden, you don't do it one night, and it's that one night, it's like it breaks a spell and you almost forget that you ever did it. And then about six months later, you look at your counter in your bathroom and you're like, wow, why do I have all this stuff? Oh, that's right. I used to take care of my skin. And the same thing happens in our businesses, and it happens in a few different areas of our business.

It happens in our back end. So in our preparation for doing the thing, you know, maybe it's your learning, maybe it's doing market research, interviews, maybe it's setting up webinars and really giving yourself credit and spending time on those things. You can be super obsessed with one of those things, and it could be really effective in your business. And then all of a sudden you forget that it exists, okay?

It shows up in your offerings, okay?

So you could be super excited about this one group offering that you have or a one on one offering or a digital course, and you could be on social media and talking about it constantly for about four months, and then all of a sudden, one day, you just forget about it!

And you forget to remind people. This is one of my main challenges in my business is I have all this cool stuff. I have all these cool resources, and I talk about them for a little bit, but then I just forget that they exist. And my team, my support team's biggest challenge is to create a schedule where I constantly bring these things up. And it's amazing when I have meetings with them and they're laying out our social media calendar and they're saying, yeah, well, we're going to roll out this PDF again and this downloadable.

And I'm over here just scratching my head, thinking, oh my God, that's so cool. I made that?

Because I've completely forgotten that it was something that I put together at one point. And if you do this in your business, I want you to know you're not alone, you're not a freak. This is just your ADHD brain on shiny object syndrome, okay? This is normal. Okay?

Now, another way in which this can show up, I've just kind of alluded to it is in your marketing. You know, you can get really excited about marketing your services, your products, and then completely forget about it. You could go down a wormhole of Tik Tok videos and think, oh, cool. Well, instead of staying on Facebook or on LinkedIn, I'm going to switch to Tik Tok and I'm going to do all these TikTok videos.

And what it does is it feeds that creative part of your brain that needs to do something cool and fun. But Tik Tok may not be the right place for your business. Your clients may not be ready to buy over there. And then all of a sudden, you have this dearth of clients and you wonder, like, what happened? And what happened was you unconsciously changed your whole marketing strategy away from what was working to something that was not tried and true and actually wasn't properly vetted before you tried it.

And that's normal. So when you have shiny object syndrome in your business, it's really important to have some checks and balances because your instinct is going to be to burn shit down and start up something new, because you're needing this variety, right? So how I do this in my business, honestly, is I have a team. I'm spoiled. I am really lucky to have an amazing team of business managers, social media managers, who I can go to with all of my crazy ideas and shiny objects and lay them all out on the table and say, okay, cool. Which ones do you think are a good idea? And which ones are going to detract from the strategy that's already working? And they're super honest with me. I have trained them to be really honest with me. One of the most important things as you grow your team is finding those people who are going to tell you when you're full of shit. Okay? This is so important for people with ADHD because we're such good sales people to ourselves, we can convince ourselves that anything is a good idea. We also know the right people to call to ally with us, to agree with us that something's a good idea.

Like, I remember being a poor student in France when I was living there for half a year to learn French. And I had no money in my bank. I had like 300 euros in my bank. And I saw these boots and they were €200. And I called up my mom. I think I had ten minutes left on my cell phone for the month. I called her up and I made this case, like, why I needed the boots. And my mom was fully for it. She was like, yeah, it sounds like you really need the boots, right? And so I walked in and I bought the boots, and then I had to borrow money from my parents to buy food. And ADHD.... this is not just me.... ADHD people, we know our allies for spending money and making decisions, and they're different allies for different things.

You do not want those allies in your business as you're growing. You do not want them. Now, for those of you who don't have a team yet, and you're not close to that point where you're going to have a team, I've put together a little tool that you can use when your Shiny Object Syndrome takes hold. And it's just a form, basically, where you're going to tap into your devil's advocate, okay?

And your devil's advocate is going to call bull on anything that's actually coming up for you. And there are a few questions in here. It's going to really help you assess what's already been working in your business, what's already been getting new clients, and it's going to have you call bull on yourself and ask yourself, what's the story you're telling yourself about making this change? Right?

Because oftentimes we make up these elaborate stories that convince us that we can go and do this thing and it's going to be great. And by the way, if my boot story has resonated with you, if you've seen yourself make those kinds of purchases when you didn't have a whole lot of money in your pocket, you're going to want to listen to episode three, which is ADHD and money.

So one of the things that people with ADHD struggle with is they go for the dopamine hit.

And a great way to get a dopamine hit is to make a purchase, especially a purchase of something that you really, really, really want. And so disconnecting purchases from dopamine hits for you or finding replacement dopamine hits are going to be really important in you fixing how you are with money.

And I say fixing intentionally because the way you've been doing it hasn't been working for you. If you're struggling with money and you have ADHD, it hasn't been working for you. It needs a rebuild. It needs to be reconstructed in a way that works for you. And so we're going to do a lot of no shame recognizing what hasn't been working, and we're going to come up with some strategies to help you get better here. So stick around for episode three. Look out for the link to the PDF that I've mentioned in the show notes.

Find out more at weeniecast.com

1: How 'shiny object syndrome' in ADHD business owners can be... SQUIRREL!