The Faster Than Normal Podcast: ADD | ADHD

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Mental Health for Creative Professionals w/ Recording Artist-Songwriter-Publisher Jenna Andrews Nov 18, 2020

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As an artist (Island Def Jam) and a songwriter (Sony/ATV) herself, Andrews is sensitive to the challenges that both up and coming and seasoned singers and writers face in music today, and she carries that knowledge with her in her work as a consultant for industry veteran Barry Weiss' RECORDS label, as well as in her joint venture with Weiss, publishing company Twentyseven Music at Sony/ATV. The Calgary native has collaborated with some of the most renowned names in the market today, including heavy hitters such as Drake, Jennifer Lopez, Little Mix, Tori Kelly, Jessie J and Benee, as well as producers Noah 40 Shebib, Diplo, DJ Mustard, Max Martin, Illangelo and Stargate. Most recently, she has taken pop singer-songwriter Noah Cyrus under her wing, A&Ring her single "July" and writing the remix featuring Leon Bridges, which has garnered more than 160 million streams to date. She is also celebrating the stellar success of the hit she co-wrote with New Zealand-born singer/songwriter Benee, "Supalonely," which has produced over 10 million TikTok videos and has massed over 125 million streams on Spotify alone. Today we're talking about her passion and work towards the premise of mental health for Creative Professionals. Enjoy! [Read more about our guest today HERE] ***CORONA VIRUS EDITION*** In this episode Peter & The Jenna Andrews discuss: 1:10- Intro and welcome Jenna! Ref: Aliza Licht's podcast Leave Your Mark 3:30- So what prompted you to make mental health a passion? Ref: Emily Ratajkowski article in Harpers Bazzar 6:28: Talk about what resources there are or more importantly, what resources there should be for artists/songwriters for anyone trying to pursue a career in The Music Industry. Ref: Jenna's new podcast The Green Room. Ref: The Jed Foundation 9:20- Ref #SameHere started by my Eric Kussin (Hear Peter's interview with Eric here 10:00- On working to removing stigma, stereotypes, being honest, open and just not judging! 12:48- What are you doing personally to take care of yourself? What are your sort of life rules that you put into place? 14:10- Tell me how you reacted when you found out that your song "Tumblin Down" was going to be featured on Grey's Anatomy? Ref: Imposter Syndrome 15:50- And you were first discovered on MySpace?? 17:30- A couple of lightning round questions. Where's your happy place? Where do you go when you just want to be happy? What place is the happiest, the most creative, most confident? 20:00- Since you've kinda got the RomCom thing going on then answer this: Awesome or Creepy: "Love Actually" 21:30- What is your most unhealthy favorite food? 22:40- Ok, last question; what's your favorite type of work out, if you work out? 23:23- How can people find you? Where can people find you? Via her website: www.TheJennaAndrews.com and @TheJennaAndrews on Twitter INSTA Facebook YouTube and on Spotify Her podcast is The Green Room 23:40- Thank you Jenna! And thank YOU for subscribing, reviewing and listening. Your reviews are working! Even if you've reviewed us before, would you please write even a short one for this episode? Each review that you post helps to ensure that word will continue to spread, and that we will all be able to reach & help more people! You can always reach me via peter@shankman.com or @petershankman on all of the socials. You can also find us at @FasterThanNormal on all of the socials. STAY HEALTHY - STAY SAFE - PLEASE WEAR YOUR MASK.. until next time! 24:10- Faster Than Normal Podcast info & credits As always, leave us a comment below and please drop us a review on iTunes and of course, subscribe to the podcast if you haven't already! As you know, the more reviews we get, the more people we can reach. Help us to show the world that ADHD is a gift, not a curse! Do you know of anyone you think should be on the FTN podcast? Shoot us a note, we'd love to hear! We have a new sister video cast called 20MinutesInLockdown! A video podcast devoted to learning fascinating lessons from interesting humans all around the world, all in 20 minutes or less! 20 Minutes in Lockdown was born in early April of 2020, when we were in fact, in lockdown, and couldn't do much of anything. Realizing that more than ever, people could benefit from learning from people outside of their comfort zone – people with interesting stories to tell, people with good advice, people with useful ideas that could help improve lives, we started hosting short Facebook video interviews, and we grew from there. (Plus, you can actually see my hair colors change before your very eyes!) Check it out: www.20MinutesInLockdown.com TRANSCRIPT: Hey guys, Peter, Shankman welcome to another episode of Faster Than Normal. Thrilled that you're here. It is a gray, disgusting day here in New York city, but we are hopeful. Um, even though we are looking at a 3% rise in coronavirus, because most of you mother won't wear a mask and it's pissing me off, but whatever, it's still great to have you all here. I am glad you are here. I'm glad you're I hope you're all healthy and safe and that wearing your mask. Okay. We're talking to someone today. I I've talked to her now for about three minutes before I started. And I'm already in love. This person is awesome. I love everything about this person. Let me tell you she's so Jenna Andrews. Okay. If you are in the music industry, chances are, you've heard of this one. As artists with Island Def jam and a songwriter with Sony ATV. She sent him to the challenges of both up and coming as well as seasoned singers and writers and what they face in music today. She carries that knowledge with her as a consultant for industry veteran, Barry Weiss, his record label, as well as her joint venture with Weiss, a publishing company called 27 music and Sony ATV. Okay. She's worked with Drake, Jennifer Lopez, little mix, Tori Kelly, Jessie, J Benny producers, Noah 40, Diplo, DJ mustard. Max Martin. I am not cool enough doing half these people are, but I, I know that she's worked with Noah Cyrus, um, uh, eight and her single July and writing the remix featuring Leon bridges, which has garnered over 200 million streams to date. I always hesitate to put streams or numbers in my bio because I have to update them like every week, 210 million, 20 million. Anyway, I was actually going to say that I'm sure it's in there. Tell your publicist, update the stream. Okay. Anyway, she is very, very passionate about, about mental health and mental health for creative professionals, songwriters musicians. And that's why she's here today. I heard her on my wonderfully good friend Aliza Licht's podcast and Leave Your Mark, which if you haven't subscribed to that one, I strongly recommend that Lisa is the shit and I am thrilled that Jenna has taken the time to be here to gentle. Welcome. Thank you so much for being on Faster Than Normal. Oh, of course. Oh my God. By the way, your intro is pretty spectacular. I was like, wow, this is awesome. You're really good at you're really good at that. I'm like, I'm like, yes, I am. I'm here for it. When people introduced me I'm always looking around like, who the hell are they talking about? It's really, but that's cool. Literally. I love it. So how tell us about, so I want to focus most of the mental health, cause you know, we only facet normal is only 20 minutes, 30 minute interviews cause you know, 80 days. But um, I want to focus on the premise of mental health, you know, Whether you're an entrepreneur or you're a musician or any kind of creative or whatever you're doing in life. We tend to push mental health to the side. We still tend to push it to the back burner. We don't think about it as something, you know, we'll go to the gym right, five times a week and we'll do this dumb ass juice, detox, cleanses, whatever. But the one thing that we don't focus on anywhere near as much as we should, as society is taking care of our brain. And so what prompted you to make mental health a passion? Um, it was funny because when, when you were, we were actually talking three minutes before, um, we started and you mentioned, um, your story and, and obviously how having ADHD, you know, back, you know, I guess what was it like 15, 20 years ago? It was totally something that wasn't, um, kind of okay to admit. So I actually have a similar experience because I, I feel like throughout high school people always were telling me, Oh yeah, she has a learning disability, dah, dah, dah, like all this kind of stuff. And I was so embarrassed about it. And, um, you know, at the time I didn't want to see anybody and it's it's um, yeah, it was like, it was shameful, which is so, which is so weird. I mean, that's one of the reasons, another reason is, you know, I was pretty badly bullied in high school as well. And, um, I went through an eating disorder and you know, I think a lot of young girls can relate and unfortunately way too many girls go through it. So it really made me feel one, you know, being a musician, it's been a way that I've been able to purge my emotions and feel better in a cathartic way, so I feel like in combination with that, and also just, you know, being able to be open through song. I was like, well, we do this every day in a song writing room. Like, why can't we open this up to the world for whoever's comfortable to talk about it, especially for the fans out there, you know, listening to these musicians or idolizing people that probably are going through similar things that they are, you know. It makes a lot of sense what you say. You know, the interesting thing though, is that again, it's not necessarily something that tends to be focused on. Um, long-term, you know, I remember, uh, a lot of my friends I was telling you before, and then I went to LaGuardia, high school, Performing Arts, and a lot of the kids who I went to school with a good handful of them, you know, they started out their musical careers and they were working on it and they were, you know, sort of, um, pushing forward and pushing forward. And it was a constant grind that constant struggle and a constant, you know, series of rejections and being told no, and being told to lose weight or gain weight, or dye your hair or change this, or change that and get a boob job, whatever it was. And this was in the nineties. I, I, by the way, I I'm, I'm madly in love with you about the fact that you said it must be 15 to 20 years ago, that was in high school. It's closer to 30, 35 years ago, but bless your heart. Anyway, I appreciate that. Um, but you know, the, the, the, the concept of all of these rejections and all of these sort of, you're not good enough, or you'll be better if you do this. Right. takes its toll. There was an article written by, um, uh, Emily Ratajkowski, the, the, the model. Um, I don't know if you read it. It was in, I think it was in New Yorker. It was in Harpers. I don't remember where it was published last month or so where she talked about what she went through as a woman and as a model and how she was basically just treated like a product and, and, and she could never, she was never get everything she did, you know, was fixed this change that do this and. Talk about, um, in the music industry, talk about, you know, sort of what resources there are or more importantly, what resources there should be. Um, for artists forcing us we're songwriters for, for anyone trying to pursue that career. Who's constantly told no. I mean, we're told to just, you know, I'll just keep pushing forward. Same thing and sales, I guess, in the business, keep trying and keep going, keep going, but they never talk about sort of what people can do to, to fix themselves and to get the help they need. Yeah. I'm actually in the process of trying to figure that out actually in, in doing this whole thing. I mean, really it's so it's so interesting because you know, starting.. I've started, uh, my own podcast called The Green Room about mental health. And obviously, you know, that, um, I, you know, in doing that, I think it was, it started as like, you know, an idea of being able to, you know, just be able to purge as I said, but then it really built into something that's, that's become just what you just asked is like, you know, being able to support people in the industry and outside as well. But like, I guess I'm working on that now. In fact, I spoke to, um, I spoke to somebody yesterday about potentially coming up with, you know, essentially making things like making some sort of program up or, you know, he writes policies. He was talking about ways that we can sort of come together and find ways that we can actually provide um, ways that people can or places people can go. Cause right now, you know, honestly, just speaking from the music community, it's like obviously writing songs is something that's therapeutic, right? That is, that is why people do that song is the feel better, right. In terms of actually solving some problems, like one thing I spoke to about my, to my friend or this, you know, this therapist yesterday is he basically was saying that he's trying to find a policy to like make, you know, have it be that people don't necessarily have to go to prison when they're, you know, abusing alcohol or drugs, because, you know, there has, there's such a deep rooted problem, like reason for that, for that. So it should be something should be there to help them rather than like, sort of punish them for it because it's really based on mental health. And a lot of times in music and entertainment, people really get. Um, get like a bad rap because a lot of times it will be like, Oh yeah, musicians are druggies or alcoholics or whatever, but it's really just because it's like, we're depressed in the same way everybody else is, it's just that you're putting it out for the world to see. Right. So. Like going back again to your original question. That's I don't, I don't know that I have like the solution right at this very moment, but I guess what I'm hoping to do through The Green Room is to be able to, you know, talk about it. And obviously I partnered with The Jed Foundation, which is, um, a nonprofit for mental health. So we're giving all of that money back to the mental health, all the donations go back to mental health, which is the first step. Um, And yeah, and I guess there's just, you know, obviously, you know, providing hotlines and things for people to call, but I do think that there has to be a bigger. Being in that. So I feel like this is something it's a work in progress. There's a, a nonprofit called #SameHere started by my friend Eric Kussin and the whole premise there is, is just to sort of, to legitimize the conversation around mental health. I think that if we, you know, if the conversation around mental health to legitimize, it would, it would solve, you know, we're not gonna solve all the problems, but that's a great start, right. Getting people to open up and talk about it and know that, you know, One of the reasons that I, I, I look at my ADHD and I know that it's a benefit. And, and the reason I do this podcast is so other people can learn that and not be stigmatized for it. You know what, that's actually a really, exactly what you just said is a hundred percent what I am hoping to do through what I'm trying to promote in doing The Green Room and also just making mental health, such a, um, I guess an okay thing to talk about it with, withi…

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Finding Hope -Addiction, Alcoholism, and Life Mastery w/ Dennis Berry Nov 04, 2020

Show notes

Dennis Berry is a Certified Life Coach and has been working with people worldwide for over 15 years. With modern technology, he can work with anybody anywhere via Zoom. His expertise is in Addiction Recovery, Alcoholism, and Life Mastery. He has firsthand experience, having been sober since April 8, 2003. With his journey in sobriety and recovery from drug abuse, it helped him find his mission in life, which is to help others on their journey through sobriety and achieve inner peace and success in every area of their lives. Dennis knows what it is like to be helpless and hopeless with no positive direction. He was able to climb out of the gutter and transform his life and he spends his life helping others do the same. If you are sick and tired of being sick and tired and you are ready to make changes in your life, book your first FREE consultation today. You will see some light at the end of the tunnel. Today we're talking about how Dennis began his path to sobriety, which led him to coaching and how helping other's remains his life's calling. Enjoy! ***CORONA VIRUS EDITION*** In this episode Peter & Dennis Berry discuss: 1:10- Intro and welcome Dennis! 1:40- A first-timer's trip to AA; highs and lows 2:40- What started you on your path to sobriety; what was the beginning? 4:50- What led you to giving back, then to become a coach? Ref: Peter's interview will soon air on Dennis Berry's "The Funky Brain" podcast 6:30- Things will get better. Everything is always changing. 8:30- What is the top thing people do to self-sabotage, and what can they do to break the cycle? No pressure ;) 10:00- Rituals versus Resolutions + the healthy, subconscious mind 10:14- How can people find you? Via his website at www.DennisBerry.com and on the socials: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dennisberry1/ Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/LifeCoach.DennisBerry Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/dennisberry_ YouTube: http://youtube.com/DennisBerryfunkyBrain 10:39- Thank you Dennis! And thank YOU for subscribing, reviewing and listening. Your reviews are working! Even if you've reviewed us before, would you please write even a short one for this episode? Each review that you post helps to ensure that word will continue to spread, and that we will all be able to reach & help more people! You can always reach me via peter@shankman.com or @petershankman on all of the socials. You can also find us at @FasterThanNormal on all of the socials. STAY HEALTHY - STAY SAFE - PLEASE WEAR YOUR MASK.. until next time! 12:04- Faster Than Normal Podcast info & credits As always, leave us a comment below and please drop us a review on iTunes and of course, subscribe to the podcast if you haven't already! As you know, the more reviews we get, the more people we can reach. Help us to show the world that ADHD is a gift, not a curse! Do you know of anyone you think should be on the FTN podcast? Shoot us a note, we'd love to hear! We have a new sister video cast called 20MinutesInLockdown! A video podcast devoted to learning fascinating lessons from interesting humans all around the world, all in 20 minutes or less! 20 Minutes in Lockdown was born in early April of 2020, when we were in fact, in lockdown, and couldn't do much of anything. Realizing that more than ever, people could benefit from learning from people outside of their comfort zone – people with interesting stories to tell, people with good advice, people with useful ideas that could help improve lives, we started hosting short Facebook video interviews, and we grew from there. (Plus, you can actually see my hair colors change before your very eyes!) Check it out: www.20MinutesInLockdown.com TRANSCRIPT: Hey guys, Peter, Shankman welcome to another episode of Faster Than Normal. It is great to have you as always. I got to change up what I say. I say the same thing every time I start a podcast again. Anyway, let's talk addiction today. Let's talk addiction. Let's talk some real hard grit, some real hard facts. You know, ADHD is a hair's breath from addiction. All neurodiversity really isn't. It's just these little tiny. Can't even see them. They're so small changes in the brain that take us down many, many paths, and we're going to talk to someone who's not only been down that path, but has come back and it helps other people get past that and back from that path. Dennis Berry certified life coach, he's worked with people over 15 years. He works in addiction, recovery, alcoholism, and life mastery. He's been sober since April 8th, 2003, which is freaking amazing. His journey for sobriety and recovery from drug abuse, helping find his mission in life, which is to help others journey through sobriety and achieve inner peace and success in every area of their lives. Dennis. Welcome. Thank you, Peter. It's so nice to talk with you again, as lot of talking with you, you're a wealth of knowledge and I liked the pace at which you move. Thank you. Yeah. You know, so one of the things I noticed when I decided to sort of get a handle on my ADHD and why I was drinking so much and things like that. I went to a AA a few times, right. In the very beginning. And, um, you know, we're all introducing ourselves just saying, hi, my name is whatever. And I remember a guy next to me, told a story and it was very brief, but it ended with, and I quote, um, fifth time getting arrested for sucking dick in Tompkins Square Park for crack. And then it was my turn to tell my story and it went something like I kind of had a hangover the other day, you know, and I didn't feel like I belonged and it wasn't that way for a while. And then someone one day introduced me to the concept of high bottoms versus low bottoms. Right. Which is the premise that you don't have to be in Tompkins Square Park doing exactly that, to decide that you've had enough. So why did you, when did you decide you had enough? Obviously, I believe 2003; what started it for you? What was the end result? Well, you know, my mind was leading up, mine was a bunch of horror stories. I did not end up sucking deck in the park. I did, uh, I do have some horror stories. Mine were like car accidents and being stupid and saying stupid things and getting in trouble. But that wasn't one of them. However, you know, it's interesting point that you bring up high bottom, low bottom. I was in a meeting. I used to go to a lot of AA myself early on, not as much anymore, but there was a woman there who was the speaker and she was there because, and I can tell you all my horror stories that went on for 15 years and they were crazy and bad and wild and like insane. Like you see in a movie, hers was, she was sober like 15 years because she drank two shooters of vodka every day. And to me, that was silly because I was like, that's like breakfast. That didn't make sense to me, but to her, it was a problem. So she had to make changes. I don't remember the circumstance. Maybe she likes me back their kid, after she had tutors or something that hurt her, it made her think I have a problem and I need to make changes for me. Mine went a lot deeper. I was bankrupt financially, spiritually my body, my mind, my relationships all broken. So I finally became willing to listen to somebody else and change the way that I was living. And, uh it's and it's been a long road. You know, one of the things I, that I talk about all the time and that I instill in my clients is like, you know, the drinking, the drugs, the food, the porn, the shopping, whatever your problem is, it's not always the problem. It's what I'm using to cope with the real problem, which is my thinking. And so when I can work on that and, you know, clear up the past, see where all these. These issues originated from and work on those, then I can become more focused and, uh, you know, turn my life around for good. And, you know, it's when you get to that moment that you realized what it was all for, and while you're doing it. Tell me about what prompted you from going from where you were to not only recovery, but then becoming a coach too, to teach other people, why the give back? Well, and that's, I love that question. I, I was helping people anyway. And I love it. It feeds my soul. And I think a lot of people, like, I know you're passionate about everything you do. Um, you were on my show and we talked about that and there's a lot of people and by a lot, I mean, most people, whatever the percentages are, do not do things that feed their soul. And they're the ones that they lay in bed in the morning with the sheets over their head, scared to get out of bed because they don't want to go do that job or whatever it is that they're doing, pay the bills, you know, pay for the kids or whatever it is. And I was helping people anyway. And I w I get fulfilled that way. Now along the way, in the last 17 years I've started businesses. Most of them failed, but some of them worked out really quite well. And I was able to change my health and I, and I've been able to live a life that most people dream about. And a lot of it was because I was pursuing my goal, my, my dreams. And, uh, every morning when I get up, I have clients that look to me for help, which at first I was like, they must be really screwed up if they're asking me for help, you know? But, um, at the end of the day, I'm just truly blessed, lucky, fortunate, whatever you want to call it to realize years ago that my path was to help other people that are struggling from anything to not have to struggle at the depth that I did, you know? I heard a great quote. Once it said that that people were broken or people have been down that road and struggled before, want to help people because they know what it's like to have been that hurt. And they never want to see anyone go through that again. Yeah, that's right. I know how painful it was. And I think that that's one of the reasons that I go and love talking to kids in schools and universities and things like that and you know, it's that.. 'yeah, I've been there and it sucks ass, but it's, it's going to get better. It is. Yeah. And you know, when you're in that hopeless state of mind, when you're sitting isolating and your house or apartment or wherever you're living, and you think that the world, like the current state that you're in, it's always going to be that way. And it's not. And the tough times, never last, neither do the good times. Everything changes all the time. And it's, if you can figure that out on your own, that's great. But a lot of people, you know, need help, they need somebody to say it, you know what…I love that there was a cartoon where it shows a guy on standing on top of this big hole and there's a guy down in the hole and he's raising his hand out. And this guy on the bottom of the hole, he says, I don't know how I got in this hole. I'm going to be stuck here forever. I can't get out of this hole. And the guy up top, he's like here, give me your hand. I was in that hole last week. I'm going to help you get out. I heard it on the West Wing. It's a, the guys in the hall and, and the, and a priest walks by and he says, father, can you help me? And he throws down a couple of prayers. And then, uh, you know, a businessman walked by and said, can you help me get out of this hole? And he throws down some money. And then his best friend walks by. He says, Mike, can you, can you help me? And Mike jumps down in, he says, 'nNow you idiot, we're both stuck in this hole!" Yeah, but I've been here before. I know the way out.' I love that. It's so true. You know what I've found so many times that I can find inspiration from people who I watch a TV or movies, whatever, and the sure enough, lo and behold, I do my research and yeah. And they're in recovery. It's it's hysterical. So let's talk, um, give me some, some, some, some help here that I could pass along. Um, top three things that. People do to self-sabotage and, or just give me a top, top one thing that people do to self sabotage and how they can break the cycle. Wow. That's like being on the, you know, not, not that I'm putting you on the spot or anything. No shit. Yeah. Well, One of the things that I tend to notice a lot is being unfocused or not feeling like they're worthy, that not feeling that they're worthy is one big thing. Um, but the unfocused thing I would say is trying to do too many things at once. And I say, uh, you know, I just did a webinar on this about a half an hour ago actually. But, um, you know, we all try to focus on too many, doing so many things and we really need to focus on just doing one thing. It's called the one thing. And when I'm focusing on the one thing, which for you, I think. I don't know how it works. I think you might be one of those people that I could focus on 20 different things. Yeah. That's not easy. Right. But I think it's so important. Some people are like, you know, they'll try to work on five things and then they get overwhelmed and then they quit and they end up drinking or eating or doing something to distract themselves from working on the one thing and getting to achieve their goals and their dreams. That's a, that's like the biggest thing that I noticed with all my clients and we spend a lot of time getting focused on that. One thing. I heard a quote once that said, and I've, I've, I've stolen at music, uh, liberally over the past years. Um, Resolutions fail rituals succeed. But if you can get yourself to do something over and over again, for a certain amount of time, it becomes a ritual and rituals tend to have a much higher success rate than, uh, than, uh, resolutions. So that's how we reprogram our subconscious mind. Our subconscious minds were programmed. Over a period of time by doing the same thing over and over and over whether it was healthy or unhealthy. That's how our stuff conscious mind. There. Some things that are so conscious minds do that are healthy, like brushing our teeth. So we had to learn mechanically and mentally how to do that from a very young age. And we did it over and over and over again. You don't even think about it. We just pick up our toothbrush before we go to sleep. The moment we wake up and we brush our teeth, but we also get programmed to live in fear and we don't even realize that. And it happened by- it could have started at four years old when we got scared of something and we carry that into our lives every single day, over and over and over again for an extended period of time. So to change that we need to go back in and find the root cause of that, and then shatter that behavior over and over and over and over again, day after day for an extended period of time. Awesome. Uh, great answer. Um, how can people find you? How can they get more info about you? Uh, well, everything my book, the podcasts, uh, uh, and schedule appointments and stuff that you can pretty much the best place is to go through the website, which is www.DennisBerry.com. And you can schedule appointments right on the site, or you can reach out and contact me and we'll have a schedule, a free consultation for a little while and talk and see if you don't feel better. Dennis. Thank you so much for taking the time today. I really, really appreciate it. Um, you know, good stuff and I'm definitely gonna have you back at some point next few months. Thank you, Peter. I appreciate it, man. Have a great day. Thanks for listening. Definitely guys, as always…

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War Veteran, Forensic Evaluator, Counselor, App Developer Dr. Tommy Black Oct 28, 2020

Show notes

Dr. Tommy Black is a Licensed Professional Counselor who has been in private practice since 1998. Currently he serves as a member of the Georgia Composite Board for Professional Counselors, Social Workers, and Marriage & Family Therapists. He also serves as the Chair of the Rules Committee and on the Advisory Panel for the National Board of Forensic Evaluators. Dr. Black has extensive experience and training in Cognitive-Behavior Therapy, REBT, and DBT. He works with a myriad of life issues but has particular expertise in ADHD, Grief/Loss, Depression, Anxiety Disorders, PTSD, Impulse Control Issues, Relationship difficulties, and Adjustment Difficulties. A veteran of the Gulf War (1990-1991) while serving in the U.S. Army, Dr. Black has years of personal and professional experience in understanding and helping others cope with the specific trials of military services for active duty individuals and their families. Today we're talking about how he uses his ADHD, wisdom and years of experience to help others. Enjoy! ***CORONA VIRUS EDITION*** In this episode Peter & Dr. Tommy Black discuss: 1:14- Intro and welcome Dr. Black! 3:30- What's your story. When did you begin pursuing your doctoral studies? 5:55- On the issue of treating Neurodiverse, versus urgent medical care & resources available. 6:55- On some of the improvements and areas of neurodiversity that are getting attention finally. 8:05- On Esteem Therapeutics and the work Dr. Black & Associates are doing 10:45- Rigidity. Let's talk about how your service in the military helps individuals with ADHD or those who may be neurodiverse. 14:08- Do you feel you attained much of the structure you currently use in your daily life from the military? 16:05- What do you say to parents who have just learned of their child's neurodiverse diagnosis? 16:55- On how he managed through his own childrens' diagnoses' 19:22- How can people find you? Download the app App Store. Or via his website at www.chooseesteem.com and @ chooseesteem on INSTA and Facebook 20:00- Thank you Tommy! And thank YOU for subscribing, reviewing and listening. Your reviews are working! Even if you've reviewed us before, would you please write even a short one for this episode? Each review that you post helps to ensure that word will continue to spread, and that we will all be able to reach & help more people! You can always reach me via peter@shankman.com or @petershankman on all of the socials. You can also find us at @FasterThanNormal on all of the socials. STAY HEALTHY - STAY SAFE - PLEASE WEAR YOUR MASK.. until next time! 21:07- Faster Than Normal Podcast info & credits As always, leave us a comment below and please drop us a review on iTunes and of course, subscribe to the podcast if you haven't already! As you know, the more reviews we get, the more people we can reach. Help us to show the world that ADHD is a gift, not a curse! Do you know of anyone you think should be on the FTN podcast? Shoot us a note, we'd love to hear! We have a new sister video cast called 20MinutesInLockdown! A video podcast devoted to learning fascinating lessons from interesting humans all around the world, all in 20 minutes or less! 20 Minutes in Lockdown was born in early April of 2020, when we were in fact, in lockdown, and couldn't do much of anything. Realizing that more than ever, people could benefit from learning from people outside of their comfort zone – people with interesting stories to tell, people with good advice, people with useful ideas that could help improve lives, we started hosting short Facebook video interviews, and we grew from there. (Plus, you can actually see my hair colors change before your very eyes!) Check it out: www.20MinutesInLockdown.com TRANSCRIPT: Hey guys, Peter, Shankman welcome to another episode of Faster Than Normal. I hope you were having a great day. It is raining here in New York and foggy. Not so much rain but fog, but all as well. Uh, today is early voting in New York city. I voted, uh, it was on line at 6:00 AM. I was out by about 7:55. So that was pretty awesome. And if you don't vote, you're not allowed to listen to this podcast. So those are the rules. I don't care who you vote for, but you got to vote very, very important, democracy must survive. Anyway, on the podcast, we've got someone who has helped contributed to democracies survival. We have a veteran of the Gulf war, the original bill for 1991. Back when I was a freshman in college. I remember when we went, when the, when the, uh, CNN broke the news, that, that, that it was starting. And, um, we're talking to dr. Tommy Black, Dr. Tommy Black is a licensed professional counselor. He's been in private practice since 98. He currently serves as a member of the Georgia composite board for principal counselors, social workers, and marriage and family therapists. He also serves as chair of the rules committee on the advisory panel for the national board of forensic evaluators. He's extended his extensive experience and training in cognitive behavior therapy. CBT is I talk about always REBT and DBT, which is dialectical behavioral therapy. He works with a myriad of life issues, but his particular experience in ADHD, grief, loss, depression, anxiety disorders, PTSD, impulse control issues, relationship difficulties, and adjustment difficulties. So essentially everyone who listens to this podcast, as I said, a veteran to go for while serving in the U S army, Dr. Black has used a personal professional experience in understanding and helping others cope with specific trials of military service for active duty individuals and their families. First of all, thank you for your service. Second of all, dr. Black welcome faster than normal. Thanks, Peter. I appreciate you having me. Um, and thank you for that. Welcome. It does sound like any issue you have. I can help you with this. You're pretty much covered everyone who's ever been on the show. Yeah, no question. Yeah, those are all I think though, um, very typical of individuals with ADHD. We deal with all of those things, right? Well, I was going to say everything is so interconnected. Yeah. Right. And, and so, so, you know, a hair's breadth apart from each other, and that's really, I think one of the things that people don't realize exactly how interconnected and close all of these things are, whether you're looking at trauma issues or ADHD or PTSD, impulse control, executive function disorder, you know, all of these are literally a hair's breath away from each other. Yup. Yup. It's very difficult at times to find differential diagnosis for those things, make a determination of what the primary issue is and what's driving the, um, frustrations or concerns. So that's where we have to turn to the professionals or look at data and try to figure that stuff out. So tell me your story. So you, you were in the army when you came back, is that when you, uh, pursued your, your, uh, doctoral studies. Yeah. So, um, I was actually enlisted, I was in high school, straight out of high school. I joined the military and went into that. And when I came back, I got a scholarship and I, my goal was to enter politics. I was a poly-sci major and hope to go to law school, but then I took intro to psychology. And I fell in love and it just spoke to me. Um, it resonated with me just in my personal life, as well as professionally. I just felt like I understood it and got it. And so I changed my major to psychology at that time, still thinking that I would pursue a law degree. Psychology degrees are great degree to have if you're going into criminal law. And then I went to grad school and decided I want to do, uh, do psychology and particularly school psychology because I, I foolishly thought that when my children were in school, I would take summers off and holidays off and be with them and hang out. And that didn't work out. I ended up opening a private practice and getting involved with military families, primarily dealing with. ADHD trauma and the special issues associated with that depression, anxiety. Uh, relationship difficulties and have really been involved with that since about 95, working with individuals who do that, I primarily do assessments because my background was in school psychology and that's what they primarily do. I ended up getting my, getting my PhD in psychology. Um, more generally speaking. But working in that field and working with families and trying to overcome those types of issues in a way that we don't often see, particularly in military families and where I'm at people just kind of get moved along. We don't have a lot of resources and in Georgia where I live now. And so it often takes several weeks before you get in for an appointment and then several weeks to get a diagnosis. And then several weeks. Weeks they get a treatment plan. So if you have an issue today, it might be six to eight weeks before you get any start working towards any resolution of that issue in the mental health field down here. And it seems to be endemic in the United States everywhere I've been working with national organizations. It seems like people are hurting and we just don't have the availability to get them the help that they need. No, it's interesting that you bring that up because I think that one of the most often overlooked. Uh, parts of sort of neurodiversity, um, is the fact that it exists and the fact that it is just as, uh, um, you know, you wouldn't, someone has a, has a bone sticking out of her leg, right? You wouldn't, uh, say, okay, in six weeks we can look at this, right? Yep. That's right. The same issue we have, we have decisions that this is, this is important. And, and just because you can't see, it doesn't mean it's not real. It doesn't mean it isn't drastically affecting. That's right. That's right. It's it's, that's very true. I didn't think about it that way. I was just thinking you were going to go a little bit different direction. The idea, not only do we have the, just the lack of resources, but then once you get to a resource you're just a bad parent, or maybe you should do this differently, or maybe your kid's just a bad kid, you know, they don't get the support. You're exactly right. If you walk in with a bone sticking out of your leg, they don't say, well, maybe you should just walk it off. Come back in a couple of really hurt. That much could be in a baby. And, you know, it's interesting because I think that, that we've definitely improved, um, from where we were say 10, 15, 20 years ago. But you know, the flip side of that is that 30 years ago when I was in school, it didn't exist. I mean, it did, but in our world, it didn't, it was sit down, you're disrupting the classes. Right, right. You know, and yeah, there was. Good. I was just going to say it to build on that. There was a lot of different, um, avenues for that where sit down, you're disrupting the class or, or teachers seem to have a little more discretion as the classes didn't seem to be as crowded as they are today. I think, plus we are finding that because we're talking about it and because we're understanding it more, there is more of an acceptance that, okay, this is real, but I don't think it's, it's made at that point yet where it's like, okay, this is real. Let's treat it with the same level of respect and urgency that we would something that we've known for a hundred years. Right. And I think that it's going to take time, but I think it's what things like, you know, people you are doing that is it's sort of helping that move forward. Yeah, I think you're exactly right. And I think, um, kind of along those lines, if, if I could expand upon that a little bit, the idea that what we're doing now, I've been in private practice working with individuals, but my co-founders and I started esteem therapeutics with the idea of putting the parent or the individual with the, um, Neurodivergent um, uh, divergence in the driver's seat, so to speak of their treatment plan and their care by giving them the tools when they want it, when they need it at their moment of need, whether that's 2:00 AM or two, two in the afternoon on Saturday, and then giving them the data to see that if the things they're doing are working or aren't aren't working. So that's why we started esteem therapeutics. And it allows, it's an app that is really a super app that connects individuals with all the different, um, technologies and services and platforms that are available today to help with ADHD or depression or anxiety or parenting or stress or trauma. But it puts it all in one place and then allows you to check to make sure what you're doing. The interventions that you're using are actually working as opposed to, like we were talking about in the traditional sense where you come to my office and maybe, maybe you had a good day today. So all we talk about as good stuff, but then. Tomorrow you remember? Oh yeah, I'm really struggling with this, but now you've lost it in that moment of me. So applying technology in a way that every other field, every other professional field in the world uses it. But health and mental health doesn't we don't have a tele-health. Services like we should obviously COVID has changed that to a great extent as we were starting to overcome a lot of that resistance out of necessity, but we've taken that paradigm and shifted it to a way where the individuals in charge as opposed to the professional. Who it feels like a lot of times it's making decisions without giving you all the information, or sometimes you just feel like you're being pushed along, or sometimes you feel powerless or lost or confused because you get inundated with the jargon that we use. And the like me, I'm talking very fast. That's very difficult. So you get somebody in your office, you have an hour, you got to get through all this stuff and then, all right, see you later. Well, wait a minute. We didn't even talk about this, right? Well, we don't have time. Sorry. And I think that, you know, there's a, there's a second separate angle of that, which is that, you know, when we get excited about something that we really want to talk about, we lose track of time. Anyway, time, you know, ADHD, you have two types of time you have now and not now. And so if I have that ability to talk to you, yeah, next thing I know it's going to be 60 minutes. You're gonna be like, and I'm like, well, we touched on the half of one topic. Right. That's exactly right. Yeah. Um, I don't know, go back to your military service for a second because, you know, as I get older and I realized that, um, w what my ADHD actually requires is such a surprising amount of rigidity. Right. And that's something I never thought that I was supposed to have as a kid. I hate it. I write, I hated rigidity. I remember my, the only job I've ever had, it was America online and they let me do whatever I want. As long as I got the work done, when I, when it was due, I didn't care what time I did at three in the morning. But then my next job after that lasted two weeks, because they had meetings 8:30 AM, this and that. And it was terrible. But the more I start to understand maybe HD and get diagnosed and really sort of see it. I realized that. My best days are when my calendar is solid and I'm scheduled, you know, from first thing in the morning until the time it's time to go home. And I don't have that time to…

Full show notes at the publisher

How to Plant a Garden that Works for You w/ Coach Tony Taylor Oct 14, 2020

Show notes

Coach Tony has studied Psychology, Clinical Counseling, Ontology, Spirituality, is a certified Gallup Strengths Coach and has a Master's in Business Administration. He owns several small businesses and is committed to making a difference in the lives of others. Coach Tony believes that transformation is available to anyone that is willing to put in the work. For more information on Coach Tony or to book an appointment or speaking engagement with him, please email him directly at: Tony@CoachTony.life or his website: www.CoachTony.life Today we're talking about how to plant cabbage- if you happen to like cabbage, his ADHD, how and why he is a happy and successful coach who's constantly helping others. Enjoy! ***CORONA VIRUS EDITION*** In this episode Peter & Coach Tony Taylor discuss: 1:05- Intro and welcome Coach Tony! 1:40- Tell us about how you got your start, why you love helping other people- what's your story? 2:55- On how having a faster than normal brain helps, and how it can not help us if we don't do the work. 4:20- On setting boundaries and sticking to a list/accountability ref: Meditation for Dummies 5:17- How do you meditate when the ADHD does't shut off? 6:08- Does cardio still work for your ADHD brain? How does mental conditioning work for you? 8:08- On playing the tape forward/setting yourself up for success 8:28- What are some of the biggest challenges you've witnessed via coaching during COVID-19? 10:10- On helping to teach people the only thing we can control is how we're responding to life 10:50- On the concept of "forward motion is thrilling". Ref: Seth Godin interview on FTN 12:15- On making the best out of the cards your dealt 13:03- How do you align your thoughts with what you're creating and doing in the world. Ref: Mind Your Garden: The seeds you plant today become the realities of tomorrow (Live YOUR life!) 14:14- If you don't like cabbage, don't plant cabbage! 15:20- How can people find you? Website at www.coachtony.life @tonyblisstaylor on: Twitter coach_tonytaylor on INSTA and CoachTonyTaylor on Facebook or via email: tony@coachtony.life 13:30- Thank you Tony! And thank YOU for subscribing, reviewing and listening. Your reviews are working! Even if you've reviewed us before, would you please write even a short one for this episode? Each review that you post helps to ensure that word will continue to spread, and that we will all be able to reach & help more people! You can always reach me via peter@shankman.com or @petershankman on all of the socials. You can also find us at @FasterThanNormal on all of the socials. STAY HEALTHY - STAY SAFE - PLEASE WEAR YOUR MASK.. until next time! 16:07- Faster Than Normal Podcast info & credits As always, leave us a comment below and please drop us a review on iTunes and of course, subscribe to the podcast if you haven't already! As you know, the more reviews we get, the more people we can reach. Help us to show the world that ADHD is a gift, not a curse! Do you know of anyone you think should be on the FTN podcast? Shoot us a note, we'd love to hear! We have a new sister video cast called 20MinutesInLockdown! A video podcast devoted to learning fascinating lessons from interesting humans all around the world, all in 20 minutes or less! 20 Minutes in Lockdown was born in early April of 2020, when we were in fact, in lockdown, and couldn't do much of anything. Realizing that more than ever, people could benefit from learning from people outside of their comfort zone – people with interesting stories to tell, people with good advice, people with useful ideas that could help improve lives, we started hosting short Facebook video interviews, and we grew from there. (Plus, you can actually see my hair colors change before your very eyes!) Check it out: www.20MinutesInLockdown.com TRANSCRIPT: Hey guys, Peter, Shankman welcome to episode two, zero one, the 201st episode of Faster Than Normal. I'm thrilled to have you here. If you missed episode 200, go check it out. It taught me why we take risks, why I like jumping out of airplanes, and I pretty much knew why I do stupid things sometimes, and I bet you're gonna fit right in and check it out. Episode 201. I can't believe we're at 2-0-1! [editors note: technically this is episode 202, we don't always air in-sequence]. Our guest today, Tony, you're the first person in the, I guess the two's, but isn't 200. So welcome. Hey, thanks. I'm excited to be here. Got it. Coach Tony, just going by coach Tom coach. Tony has studied psychology clinical counseling, ontology spirituality. He's a certified Gallop strength, strength coach, and has a master's in business administration. You know, in several small businesses, he committed to making a difference in the lives of others. He believed the transformation is available. Anyone willing to put in the work, which when you're ADHD, you don't really have a choice. Welcome to the show. It's good to have you tell us about you. How did you discover that you liked helping other people? How, tell us about your background. How did you start the whole story? Well, you know, coming through, um, a background of adversity, um, single parents, Abandonment from my father, child abuse. I really learned that I had to fight for what I wanted in life. And. I also learned that a life of contribution is the only fulfillment that satisfies me. Um, I created businesses and made money and went after the material realm and it just was empty and meaningless. And when I started coaching and I focused on helping other people achieve the breakthrough of their glass ceiling and getting a life that they love. It became a life that I can't retire from. You know, I say that when I started coaching, uh, six years ago that I officially retired from working because I worked seven days a week. Um, I have a lot of fun things going on and it's all around being a contribution to peace. Awesome. Do you find, I find that that when I help, it just makes for better life. Everything just becomes better when you're health. Well, and I mean, with the faster than normal brain taking the thoughts that I have and not giving them any energy, because I'm focusing on somebody else and what they're up to. It's relaxing. So tell us about, about that. So you coach people. So, so as ADHD and, and, and yourself and the whole thing, and having the festival brain talk about sort of the top, let's go with the top five things. And let's let's let's let's let's look at it from a negative perspective. What are the top five things that people that ESG or neurodiversity continually do to themselves that hurts them, that prevents them from moving forward? Well, I think, um, Addictive addictive behavior and certain addictions can get in the way. Um, I know I can find myself and have found myself in the past trapped in like a vicious circle of doing things that I know are good for me, but I need something to give that adrenaline or that boost to keep going. Um, you talk a lot about, uh, adrenaline junkie, right? Like I think that. Can be a negative, but also I think that is what empowered me to write, illustrate and publish a book in six months. So it's honing in that energy to do what you're up to instead of. I'm letting it get carried away and run yourself over. Um, yeah. Yeah. So I think that's a big thing. Um, I need a lot of boundaries and a schedule to follow, um, and it's not necessarily of listening to my faster than normal brain. It's doing what's on the list. No matter if I feel like doing it or not. Um, and being accountable to yourself and really holding yourself accountable to that schedule, um, has helped me out a ton. I have to get in cardio, um, because I have additional energy and if I don't use it in that kind of realm, um, it will sneak up and get in my way of being productive. Um, I'm a huge fan of meditation. Um, Stephan BoDean has a book meditation for dummies. It's just. It totally changed my world, um, to be able to take out 40 minutes of my day and be in silence and be able to sit literally in silence without getting run over by my thoughts. How do you do that when your brain, when the ADHD brain doesn't shut off? Well, it, it doesn't shut off, but instead of experiencing the thoughts and feeling them and wanting to be an action around them, I just sit and observe the thoughts. Um, meditation isn't I think there's a problem in our society that says, Oh yeah, meditate. And just sit down and shut your mind off. And it's like, are you kidding me? Have you ever been inside my brain? They're shutting this off, but there is an ability to rise above those thoughts and just observe them with no feeling, um, or compelling need to be an action around them. It's just kind of like watching clouds go by. Um, instead of making it mean something, it's just, it is what it is. Interesting. I feel that. So talk, go back to cardio for a second. You know, I used to be this huge cardio junkie. Oh my God. Cardio credit cards. And I still am. I mean, I still get my pellets on every morning, but I'm finding more and more. So over the, during the, during the, um, the lockdown, you know, I couldn't go to my gym. So I had my bike in my bedroom, but then I wanted to keep lifting. So I bought two 22 pound kettlebells and started just changing my life with them. And one of the things I've learned is that I think the closest to meditation I can get is when I say in a series of 20 reps of like shoulder presses, right. And by rep. 12 it's starting to hurt. Right. And what I've found is if I just say to myself in my mind, it doesn't hurt, it doesn't hurt. It doesn't hurt it. Opposite still hurts. But I came to get through the set with quote, unquote, less pain it's burning. You know how, when you do a set and you're just by 20, you're like burning, it just hurts. No, and it still hurts, you know, without question, but I feel like. It's the simple act of saying that the positive affirmation in my brain, this doesn't hurt. You're not in pain helps me go further. And I've never experienced that before. And I'm wondering if that is also somehow tied to the dopamine. Absolutely. You know, I'm a, I'm a firm believer of what you think about you bring about, you've had the experience of getting on a treadmill or your Peloton in the morning being like, Oh, this is going to be an awful ride. Or this is going to be a tough run. My knees aren't into it today, whatever we, you know, those thoughts that we have, the run's going to reflect that, or the exercise is going to reflect that. But when you go in and say, you know, this doesn't hurt. And this is, this is exactly what I'm committed to. This is going to feel great. I'm going to feel so good after this is done. The exercise reflects that as well. So it's, it's finding that zone, um, and aligning your thoughts with an action. That's bigger than you. I find that that a lot of it, and I've mentioned this in the podcast, countless times, the concept of playing the tape forward, right? How am I going to feel something? If I don't, if I don't wake up right now and go to the gym or I don't wake up and get on that bike, like I said, I was going to. What's my day going to be like, and yeah, tonight and I come back to this bed, I'm going to be happy with that's awesome. And it works. Yeah. And tell me about some of the biggest problems that you're, that you see, um, from coaching, both from a, just in general perspective and from what we've experienced the past eight months of this year, Just don't be a nightmare COVID, uh, situation. Yeah. Well, like I said before, I'm a huge believer of what you think about you bring about. And when I looked around society, you know, six years ago and I was in a transitional spot in my life where I could either go full time coaching or maintain some media buying businesses that I did. I saw the world resigned and I saw the world stopped by their own fears and glass ceilings and, and coming from the diverse background that I came from, I know that it wasn't easy and I know it took something, but I knew it was probably possible. And I just got called to talk to people and what's possible for them in their lives. Um, and. With the COVID situation and the lockdown, like the first two weeks, I was like, Oh, this is, you know, this is just going to blow over. It's going to be fine. Um, and after two weeks of me and my husband drinking, probably too much wine and staying up too late and getting out of our routines, it was like, okay, now what? I need to be an action around something. And. For people, I could feel their fear on the planet of like being in lockdown and not knowing what this virus was or what the future was gonna hold is what really inspired me to write my inner garden. Um, the seeds you plant today become the realities of tomorrow to put a little hope in the world in a time during perceived darkness. Um, I just. I think that for me, in my ADHD and faster than normal brain, I have to be an action. And this book a big part of it to help teach people that. Even no matter what's going on in the, in the world, in the universe, the only thing we can control is how we're responding to it and rise above the fear and stay in actions that you're committed to, to achieving in the world, whether it's a lockdown situation or not other ways, we spend too much time with our thoughts and it can be a downward spiral for everyone. If you don't have a faster than normal brain, but especially with a faster than normal brain, it can get defeating. Well, my mother used to always tell me that, um, when I was a kid that I don't like it when the grass grows under my feet. Right. And then I came to realize what she meant was that was, um, The premise of, um, being, I, I don't like not moving. I don't like not being in motion. And then Seth Godin, when I had him on the podcast, he, he quoted the phrase board motion is thrilling. Yeah. All right. And for people like us, we need that. And so, you know, I mean, March 8th, I stepped off a plane at Newark airport, 1130 at night. And, um, if I've known those me last time, I'd be in plain for seven months now. I, I probably would've stayed a few more minutes getting my bags down and, um, You know, so I went from 250 miles an hour to zero overnight. That was just a bitch. And so I had to learn how to create forward motion while not necessarily doing. And that was, it was a tough lesson, but it's benefited me in a lot of ways. I, you know, I'm up earlier now. I ever have been because doing the whole single dad, a homeschooling thing, the only time I really have to work out without being interrupted every 30 minutes was dad, how do I log out of this? How long did that. Is, you know, 4:00 AM 4:30 AM or whatever. And so if I still wanna be able to get work done and then be there for the daughter, it's it's even earlier. So, but, and so I've found ways to get that forward motion that it's totally going on a plane or skydiving, whatever, which the things I missed. But I could still figure out ways of doing stuff well, and that's just empowering and inspiring to hear, you know, it's taking the, the cards in the hand that life deals you and making the best of it and figuring out, you know, okay, these aren't the, the cards I would have chosen and how can I stay committed to what I'm committed to regardless. I truly believe that.…

Full show notes at the publisher

Exciting New ADHD Tech w/ Inventor Psychologist Rich Brancaccio Oct 07, 2020

Show notes

Rich founded Revibe in 2013 to provide tools and technologies that level the playing field for kids with focus and attention challenges to allow them to reach their fullest potential. Rich spent much of his career working as a school psychologist specializing in autism spectrum disorders, serving on several school district autism evaluation teams. He has personally evaluated hundreds of children with various developmental needs and provided consultation and insight for over one thousand cases. He is truly passionate about helping children with various difficulties overcome obstacles to attain success. ***CORONA VIRUS EDITION In this episode Peter & Rich Brancaccio discuss: 1:20- Intro and welcome Rich! 1:40- So what, what prompted you to become a school psychologist to begin with? 2:20- On starting the company ReVibe 3:20- Tell us about how the company came about to begin with. 5:00- On how the new product "Revibe Connect" works in the classroom 7:20- On how the data collected is beneficial and to whom; including how teachers can use it. 9:30- What kind of feedback are you getting from the teachers? 10:22- What's the process for parents or teachers to sort of get into this and start using it? 10:58- Have you gotten any feedback from doctors at all on this yet? 12:03- How many students are currently using this around the country? 12:15- What's the price point on it? 13:00- Some free resources for your homeschooling are at Revibetech.com! i.e. "How To Help Your Child Adjust To Virtual Learning or The New Classroom" 12:37- How can people find you? Website at www.RevibeTech.com @Revibe_Tech on: Twitter INSTA and @RevibeConnect on Facebook 13:30- Thank you Rich! And thank YOU for subscribing, reviewing and listening. Your reviews are working! Even if you've reviewed us before, would you please write even a short one for this episode? Each review that you post helps to ensure that word will continue to spread, and that we will all be able to reach & help more people! You can always reach me via peter@shankman.com or @petershankman on all of the socials. You can also find us at @FasterThanNormal on all of the socials. STAY HEALTHY - STAY SAFE - PLEASE WEAR YOUR MASK.. until next time! 23:33- Faster Than Normal Podcast info & credits As always, leave us a comment below and please drop us a review on iTunes and of course, subscribe to the podcast if you haven't already! As you know, the more reviews we get, the more people we can reach. Help us to show the world that ADHD is a gift, not a curse! Do you know of anyone you think should be on the FTN podcast? Shoot us a note, we'd love to hear! We have a new sister video cast called 20MinutesInLockdown! A video podcast devoted to learning fascinating lessons from interesting humans all around the world, all in 20 minutes or less! 20 Minutes in Lockdown was born in early April of 2020, when we were in fact, in lockdown, and couldn't do much of anything. Realizing that more than ever, people could benefit from learning from people outside of their comfort zone – people with interesting stories to tell, people with good advice, people with useful ideas that could help improve lives, we started hosting short Facebook video interviews, and we grew from there. (Plus, you can actually see my hair colors change before your very eyes!) Check it out: www.20MinutesInLockdown.com TRANSCRIPT: Hey guys, Peter Shankman here with another episode of Faster Than Normal, thrilled that you're still here. Hope you're safe and well and wearing your mask. Uh, we have a cool episode today. We are talking to a psychologist, former school psychologist and countless years, the school district in North Carolina. He specializes in autism autism spectrum disorders serving on several school district autism evaluation teams. He's worked with about 800 children with tons of different developmental needs, but a compensation and insight for over 100,000 cases, and is one of the most passionate people I've ever talked to about helping children with various difficulties overcoming obstacles to attain success, his name is rich, and I'm going to screw up your last name it's.. Brancaccio? Is that right? That's close enough, Peter. Brancaccio, alright, good enough. Almost there. And in 2013, after you left the schools, you started a company called Revibe. And that goal is to provide tools and technologies that level, the playing field for kids with focus and attention challenges, right? I did. That's correct. Tell us what got you in. So, so what, what prompted you to become a school psychologist to begin with? That's a, you know, not off the beaten path, but not something everyone does. So I really had a passion for helping kids and I was vacillating between, do I want to be a teacher? Do I want to be a psychologist and realize one day there was a profession called school psychology where I could do both. I could become a psychologist who worked with children in the school system. So it was just the perfect. Perfect job for me. It seems like how long were you there? I was a school psychologist for about 10 years. Okay. And then you went out, you left and he's like, Hey, I could do, I could form this company and help everyone. Um, it was, it was somewhat in between. I, I did the, um, work 40 hours during the waking hours. And then I was also doing about another 40 hours, um, afterschool and deep. Into the nights. So I was sleeping about three or four hours a night for about four years until I actually went full time and took the Revibe as my only full time gig. Crazy it gets, I can say, imagine it gets a little busy, huh? Yeah, it's, it's interesting. You, you learn just how little sleep you actually need to function. Um, but then, you know, I feel like years later it's probably taken some kind of a toll on me that I'm paying back now, but I wouldn't, I wouldn't trade it for the world. You have to do what you have to do when you're trying to get, um, a venture off the ground. Once I got older, I realized that, uh, all the sleep that I lacked in college and beyond most definitely caught up with me. So no question about that, that definitely does happen. Uh, so tell us about Revibe You started in 2013. What kind of tools technologies tell us about the company? Sure. So Revibe came about, um, at a parent meeting actually, while I was sitting in, in school. Uh, I had, uh, a mother I was working with, um, I had helped her dog butter gear before and her daughter had reading challenges. Um, but you get really frustrated with us as a, as a school. And she said, you know, you had, he's amazing. Um, you know, the collection methods and interventions that helped my daughter, you quickly figured out what the problem was and had these solutions for her, for her reading challenges. But for my son, with his focus, you guys have almost nothing. And I, I had to concur with her and I said, yeah, there's really not a lot of technology that's around for folk isn't for ADHD in particular. Um, so that's where revive started. It was just a, a lack of resources for the kids that I was working with. Interesting. And what, what, tell us about the company. What does it do? What kind of technology? What have you produced? What have you built? sure. So I built. I built the first one by hand, I taught myself micro electronics and I, I wrote some algorithms that I went to radio shack, like 5,000 times to shrink these giant, uh, circuit boards that was building down smaller and smaller until they fit in the wrist. Um, but to fast forward a little bit, what, what we do now is we we're onto our second product. So Revibe Connect is our, our new products. Um, it's a, it's a smart watch essentially. And what it does is it sends vibration signals to the wrist of the user to remind them to focus and to get back to work. What is the, what is the, um, what is the tip off to the watch that they need to do that? So we collect data from the person hearing it. We focus on children, you know, elementary, middle and high school. So we focus on getting data from the child. It's both, um, self reporting data. So we have the child give us feedback by just a simple tap on the device that they're on task or off task. We also collect movement data. So we're looking at how they're moving. Are they fidgeting? Are they being hyperactive? Um, and we, we take several different things into account and that's how we personalize these vibrations. We use something called machine learning. So we, we actually start to learn the child's patterns or needs, what classes that they're in when they tend to struggle in one class the most and so the personalized, uh, the algorithms actually learn the child's needs and send these vibrations accordingly to give them not too many vibrations, but not, not quite too few either; we try to hit it right in the middle so that they're getting just the right amount when they need them the most. So a students in class he's, he's studying, he's learning, he starts to go off topics. Let's go off track and, uh, so this sort of gives them a little tap, says, Hey, back to paying attention. Yeah, exactly. We're trying to empower the child. Um, a lot of kids when I was a school psychologist, a lot of kids with ADHD, um, and with focusing issues in general, they're they have a really tough time with self esteem. Um, you know, it's something I've heard some. Folks on your show talk about the for, um, you know, where it's, it's really hard to feel good about yourself when you have your teacher constantly having to call your name out in front of the other kids and remind you to get back to work. Um, so we provide something that just empowers a child, there's no one else hears the vibration or feels it, but you, so you can get yourself back on task. So, let me ask you this. So one of the things about ADHD is that essentially it's a lack of dope, mean serotonin adrenaline, those three things, which are the focus chemicals that allow you to sort of focus, um, in class. I know that, you know, the stuff that I used to get called out for by the teachers was, you know, stop fidgeting, stop, stop, messing around, stop making jokes that they would ever went. When in fact, you know, I was doing that without realizing, and of course, to give me the dope man and the serotonin and the adrenaline I needed so I could actually focus, actually wanting to learn. Right. So if you have a, if you have the kids wearing this, um, w where is there still a place for, you know, tremendous value in kids being able to allowed to stand up, being able to work from the back of the room while standing up or walk around or whatever, you know, is, is this, what do we do with that- is that still very much a thing that, that, that, that benefits the kids, right? As opposed to just saying, Hey, you're not paying attention, but rather giving them a, a way to pay attention, giving them that those chemicals they need(?) That's a great question. Peter, one of the most interesting things for us, with our newer devices, the data that we collect. So we share it back with the child themselves. We share with the parent, the teacher, whomever, the caretaker wants to share the information. One of the things that we learned is as you mentioned, um, moving, and it is not necessarily bad thing. So what we actually do, um, inside of our app is we'll give you an alert and we'll say, Hey, did you know that we've come to realize that let's say for Adam, um, when, when Adam is allowed to fidget 15 minutes or more before social studies each day, he's actually 26% more on task than on days he hasn't had that opportunity. Or when Amanda's been allowed to walk 3000 steps or more before lunchtime each day, her attention span has been six minutes longer on average and foundation, hasn't had the opportunity. So we're trying to educate people and drive, um, proactive decision making by looking at, you know, the, the past behaviors of these kids, or. That's actually really interesting and cool- Can you share that with the teachers, you know, and explain to the teachers, Hey, you need to let the kids walk around or whatever the case may be? Exactly. That's what we leverage it for. So, um, you know, most of most of the people using Revibe, um, are, are parents purchasing it? So they have the ability to, to either provide a guest login for the administrators at school for the teachers, or they can just to touch one button and they can send, uh, an automated PDF report to the school to give them, um, the information that they need to make better decisions for their child. That seems really, really smart. I would think that that would be tremendously beneficial. Yeah, it's been, it's been popular where we're in some of the biggest school systems in the country, because they've all realized the same thing. We don't have any good way to collect data on these kids. And the school systems are now going towards what's called the response to intervention model, which, you know, when you and I were kids, Peter, um, a lot of decisions were made that were just kind of a lick your thumb, put it up in the wind right now, everything has to be data driven and it's hard to collect data on these kids. So, yeah. They're really focusing on, on, you know, new technologies, like what what's the Revibe platform. What kind of feedback are you getting from the teachers? So the teachers are really like the fact that, um, they're not having to stop teaching every couple of minutes to redirect all these different kids. Cause in a room of 25 or 30 kids, you probably have three four different kids or more who have focused and attention issues. Um, so they're having to constantly stop what they're doing to redirect these kids. Um, the teachers just wanted to teach, you know, they want everyone to learnl they're, they're wonderful people and they have an amazingly tough job, but they just want to be able to teach, um, fluidly and the kids conversely don't want to be reminded and be called out. So it's been a really good win, win for both sides. Sounds like it. And, and how can you know, what's the, what's the, um, The, uh, process for parents or teachers too, to sort of get into this and get them, you know, start using it? So they can just go to our website, which is RevibeTech.com. R E V I B E T ECH.com. Or they can buy it on Amazon if you're impulsive like me, you're like a Roadrunner cartoon. You just want it to show up the same day. You can get it from Amazon, or you can talk to your school about it. A lot of schools are, are purchasing, you know, these, um, Smartwatches and providing them to students. Have you gotten any feedback from doctors at all on this? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So we're, uh, we have a scientific and medical advisory board with some of the top folks in ADHD from a scientific standpoint. So our scientific board is extremely excited about what we're doing and where we're actually going towards, um, the world, uh, of the FDA pretty soon because it works. Um, you know, really well, and we're careful to not make any claims of what our device does. Um, but we're here, we've heard so much, and we've done so much research that now we've said, you know, this is a really strong tool that we need to, to bring to the next level. So that's where we're headed next, but physicians are excited about it as well. Um, so yeah, it's been a really amazing journey to go from something, you know, that started out as a part time venture,…

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Thrill-Seeking Focus Euphoria and Calm w/ Author Dr. Kenneth Carter Sep 30, 2020

Show notes

Dr. Kenneth Carter is a Charles Howard Candler Professor of Psychology at Oxford College of Emory University. He has published in both academic and lay publications, translating psychology research into engaging everyday language. His articles have been published in magazines such as Psychology Today and Women's Health, and he has appeared on news programs such as NPR's: ShortWave and NBC's Today show. The psychology of thrill-seeking is the current focus of Dr. Carter's research. He has delivered a TEDx talk on thrill-seekers and presented on the subject in March 2020 at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. His most recent book is Buzz!: Inside the Minds of Thrill-Seekers, Daredevils, and Adrenaline Junkies (Cambridge University Press). When not teaching, speaking, or writing, Dr. Carter prefers reading and relaxing on the beach to wingsuit flying or BASE jumping. Today we're talking about it all, well, all that we can get to in our time today. ***CORONA VIRUS EDITION also EPISODE 200!!!*** Hey guys, Peter Shankman here with a very special episode of Faster Than Normal. Welcome to episode number 200! For the past four and a half, almost five years we have been changing the world and showing people that ADHD and all forms of neurodiversity are in fact a gift, not a curse. I hope that over these past several years we've helped you understand yourself, helped you understand your children, your coworkers, your spouses, your lovers, your friends, and helped you realize that having ADHD doesn't mean that you're broken. It actually means you're gifted! I am thrilled for episode 200 as we welcome one of my heroes, who has just now learned that he's one of my heroes, Dr. Ken Carter. Thank you so much to every single one of you who has participated, and listened throughout these 200 episodes. I could not have done this without you and I am honored every single time I get to do this! In this episode Peter & Dr. Carter discuss: 1:20- Intro and welcome Dr. Ken Carter! 3:30- Let's talk about the concept of risk taking and what you've learned. 5:50- On thrill-seekers versus high risk takers 6:20- Peter about his first solo skydive 8:15- On euphoria followed by sustained calmness. 11:20- Can you talk about the proximity connection between thrill-seekers and addictive personality? 13:23- In the research you've done, do you see that correlation between thrill seekers and the people who sort of have to be more aware of their personalities? 14:24- On type "T-positive" and type "T-negative" thrill-seekers 17:30- Careers and on getting a high via a entrepreneurship or becoming a first responder 19:40- What do you say to a parent who's been handed a pamphlet right after their child has been diagnosed with ADHD, ADD or otherwise neurodiverse? 21:52- How can people find you? Website at www.DrKenCarter.com. email: kennethCarter@emory.edu @DrKenCarter on: Twitter INSTA @DrKennethCarter on Facebook and you can find his book "Buzz!: Inside the Minds of Thrill-Seekers, Daredevils, and Adrenaline Junkies" here! 22:38- Thank you Dr. Carter! And thank YOU for subscribing, reviewing and listening. Your reviews are working! Even if you've reviewed us before, would you please write even a short one for this episode? Each review that you post helps to ensure that word will continue to spread, and that we will all be able to reach & help more people! You can always reach me via peter@shankman.com or @petershankman on all of the socials. You can also find us at @FasterThanNormal on all of the socials. STAY HEALTHY - STAY SAFE - PLEASE WEAR YOUR MASK.. until next time! 23:33- Faster Than Normal Podcast info & credits As always, leave us a comment below and please drop us a review on iTunes and of course, subscribe to the podcast if you haven't already! As you know, the more reviews we get, the more people we can reach. Help us to show the world that ADHD is a gift, not a curse! Do you know of anyone you think should be on the FTN podcast? Shoot us a note, we'd love to hear! We have a new sister video cast called 20MinutesInLockdown! A video podcast devoted to learning fascinating lessons from interesting humans all around the world, all in 20 minutes or less! 20 Minutes in Lockdown was born in early April of 2020, when we were in fact, in lockdown, and couldn't do much of anything. Realizing that more than ever, people could benefit from learning from people outside of their comfort zone – people with interesting stories to tell, people with good advice, people with useful ideas that could help improve lives, we started hosting short Facebook video interviews, and we grew from there. (Plus, you can actually see my hair colors change before your very eyes!) Check it out: www.20MinutesInLockdown.com TRANSCRIPT: Hey guys, Peter Shankman here with a very special episode of Faster Than Normal. Welcome to episode number 200! For the past four, four and a half, almost five years we have been changing the world and showing people that ADHD and all forms of neurodiversity are in fact, a gift, not a curse. And I hope that over these past four, four and a half years, we've helped you, we've helped you understand yourself, helped you understand your children, your coworkers, your spouses, your lovers, your friends, and helps you realize that having ADHD doesn't mean that you're broken. It actually means you're gifted. I am thrilled. For episode 200 we welcome one of my heroes. And I say that up until about five minutes ago, I'd never met the guy and he had no idea I was, but Dr. Kenneth Carter has written a book- what, several books with the book he wrote recently, it's called "Buzz. Inside the minds of thrill seekers, dare devils and adrenaline junkies" published by Cambridge University press. He's presented on that same topic at TEDx. He's spoken at SouthX. He does prefer relaxing on the beach to wingsuit flying and BASE jumping. And we'll get into that in a second, but Dr. Kenneth Carter is a Charles Howard Candler professor of psychology at Oxford college of Emory university. He's published in both academic and lay publications. Translating say psychology research into engaging everyday. Language he's had articles in Psychology Today, Women's health he's been on short wave and a PR he's been on NBC is today's show along with my ex girlfriend, strangely enough, Dr. Jennifer H. Um, the psychology of thrill-seeking as, as he puts it is the current focus. Dr. Carter's research. And I am just so thrilled that you took the time. Thank you so much for being on today. Thank you for having me and congratulations on 200 episodes. It's not easy. It isn't. And you know, again, that's the ADHD way when I started the podcast and I see how it goes. Right. And now we're at 200 when I, when I went out and when I quit my last job that I ever had, one of my own, once I will say, when I feel like when I can't make it work, not if right. Yeah. I was so thrilled to have you, so. You know, let's, let's start off very basic. So the, the, the, the concept of thrill secret, I remember dating a woman once, probably in 2003, when I started getting my license for 2005 and her, she found a skydiving. She thought it was okay, but her, I guess she told her dad and her dad, he had-I don't want to say we had a conversation. He did most of the conversing. Right. And he, cause he thought I was gonna marry this girl, honey. And he goes, that was wrong with you. You have a death.. ehy would you do something stupid? And I just remember he kept repeating, give a death wish. And I said, one time, well, no, sir, it's actually about wanting to live. And I realized that was the entirely wrong thing to say because there are people out there who will never get it. Yeah. Yeah. So, so, so with that, talk about how you ended up talking about you were getting into and discussing the concept of risk taking and, and sort of let you know what you've learned. Yeah. You know, it was completely by mistake. So I'm a clinical psychologist and, you know, I am a really chilled guy and I had this idea about 10 years ago for this book and. It was completely different book. It was about some people that I thought of as chaos junkies. And if, when I say that word, everyone instantly has someone in their mind that they think of can have an idea of the book. Yeah. Was to try to get people who were cast junkies. To be more predictable and have a life like mine, which is what a lot of people, which is probably what the, that that father wanted. You know, you know, what, what your parents usually want for you is a completely predictable life that you're happy with. Um, and then when I started really going into the research and I started to talk about this idea of sensation seeking, I've realized that these high sensation seekers craved chaos because they could control it. And it wasn't something that they needed to stop doing. It was really something they needed to embrace in a way that was going to be healthy for them. And so I abandoned that original book and I decided to really work on helping people understand the, how they're a high sensation seeking personalities can really be a superpower for them. That's really interesting that you would abandon and go to something that proved to be right, because the majority of people, and we talked about this before it, before we started recording, the majority of people are told they have to change. Yeah. Yeah. I know. I was told that all my life. And, and in the, in the, when you talked about the story about someone and asking if you ever had a death wish, when I asked the, uh, high sensation seekers, what is one thing they want people to understand about what they do? They said. To not think I have a death wish, you know, all I really want to have was a death wish I would just run in and out of traffic. And that's not what it's about. If I thought That was going to die every time I jumped out of a plane, I wouldn't do it. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's the thing. I think a lot of people that are high sensation seekers and thrill seekers really embrace life and what they want is the experience. And one of the hardest things to get people to realize is that there's a huge difference between, uh, a high sensation seeker or a thrill seeker versus a risk taker. Um, people aren't doing these things because they're risky. Is that they can tolerate the chaos to get the experiences they want. That's what they're really after is that experience. I, I I'm, I'm just, I'm just loving it. It's just so nice to hear everything in my life validated in a quick 20, 25 minute interview. So let's, let's talk about that for a second. So I remember when I, when I started jumping and the story I always relate to, it was my instructor. You know, you have to do three tandem jumps where you're attached to someone else and your fourth jump, you jump on your own, but you jump on an instructor who's holding onto your belt. Right. Just to make sure you're stable in the sky. And then when he sees that you're stable, he did my whole on you for the entire time. He might like go for a minute, a second or two, and, but you have to pull your own parachute, right? You have to land, you know, your whole, your parachute all by yourself. You have a radio, a little walkie talking to your, in your, your pocket, but you have to Lam and, and it's on you. And I remember that my instructor was probably 300 pounds and I don't remember his name, but 300 pounds. It was the middle of July. He, he, he looked like a sopping wet elephant. Okay. And it was just, and you're in this tight little plane right. And he's just, he's like touching me and holding on. And it all, it was the grossest thing. And I remember I couldn't wait to go to the plaintiffs, so I didn't have to be with that anymore. And I'm scared to death and I guess a good way. It was a good thing that I was focused on that. Cause I wasn't focused about the fear. We exit the plane I'm in a free fall. He signals that I'm doing okay. And he lets go my belt and I stay stable. I pull my parachute and I land and he landed probably about 20 seconds before me and this 300 pound sweaty guy who, what, four minutes ago, I couldn't stand to be anywhere. I ran up to this guy and gave him the biggest, longest bear hug. Right. Just hugging the sweaty as much as I could. And it was, that was the first moment I ever realized. Holy crap. Look at the mind shift I just had and looking back on it. Yeah. I realized what that, you know, every, everything I've ever done professionally has usually come immediately after a Mindshift like that. Yeah. Yeah. And a lot of people who are high sensation seekers say they don't only feel that sense of euphoria and then a sense of calmness, not, not only after they do those kinds of things, but sometimes for weeks after, um, I've talked to some people whenever they have to make big decisions in their lives, they, they, you know, they'll go on a hike, they'll go on a jump they'll base dive, um, or they'll walk on a Slack line. That kind of thing for the people that are high sensation seekers, um, really focuses and really calms them. Very different than someone that's like me who's a low sensation seeker who I get overwhelmed by that, you know? And so one thing I, I try to get people that are low sensation seekers understand is that they're not going to their bodies ren't going to behave like high sensation seekers and vice versa. One of the things that I find fascinating is that when I land after jump, there have been times, times when I know I have a lot of writing to do I'm on deadline for a book or an article or something like that, I will turn off Uh, you know, my brain. I'll go do the jump and I'll say, okay, I know I have to do this, this writing, but I'm not going to it's it's Thursday and it's due Monday. I'm not going to work on it until I jumped and I'll go jump. I'll bring my laptop, the drop zone. I'll . I'll throw my gear in a corner. I'll sit on top of my parachute or something, pull up my laptop and I'll write 10,000 words in an hour. Yeah. And it is a level of focus that is unmatched by almost anything else in the world. And being able to, once I found that, I mean, literally it was, it was like finding the, the, the, the pill from the movie limitless. Yeah. Right. It was that, that Holy crap look at my, I am so focused on it. And I remember the first time I did it. Because I've never, I'd drive home. And the first time I drove home, after, you know, one of my, I don't know, first 20 jumps, whatever I'm driving home and I get pulled over for speeding. And I looked down and going 85 miles an hour on a local road. I didn't even didn't even realize it. Right. And I said to the cop, I'm like, you. Kinda just hang here and wait for it to be, he's like that's my entire day. Well, and then the question I have for people that aren't like that is that if you knew there was something that you could do that would bring that level of euphoria and calmness and focus and you know, that kind of thing, why, why, how could you not do it? You know, I want to switch the topic a little bit because on that, it reminds me of a great quote, an Aaron Sorkin quote from the West wing where he's interviewing. Okay. The chief of staff, Leo McGarry is, um, talking to someone about being an alcoholic. And he said, I don'…

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Faith Focus and ADHD Coaching w/ Author Alexander Hey Sep 23, 2020

Show notes

Alex Hey (pronounced "high") was diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 20. This diagnosis explained two decades of underachievement and feeling misunderstood. In the wake of his diagnosis, he began a casual study of ADHD which, over the years, turned into a passion for learning about ADHD and finding all strategies that might help work with his brain, not against it. From July of 2017 until May of 2018, Alex dove into heavy research and writing which resulted in Catholicism and ADHD: Finding Holiness Despite Distractions (available on Amazon). While working on this book, he had the opportunity to support one of his friends who was being tested for ADHD. Writing the book and supporting his friend helped him discover a passion for helping those with ADHD. This led him to pursue a career as an ADHD coach. Alex was trained by the ADD Coaching Academy, and in 2019, received his PCAC (or Professional Certified ADHD Coach) credential from the Professional Association for ADHD Coaches (PAAC). Today we're talking about how he found his path and is now helping others, enjoy! ***CORONA VIRUS EDITION*** In this episode Peter & Alexander Hey discuss: 1:03- Intro and welcome Alex! 1:53- So two decades of underachievement and feeling misunderstood, so school must have sucked? 2:14- When you got diagnosed and on meds what happened? Do you take them daily? 2:34- So why did you get so involved with your research? 3:05- How do you keep balance in your life, in your weekly schedule? 3:58- What happens when you plan for everything, but then you can't plan for everything; especially now during COVID? 4:58- Alex's sleep formula 5:53- Do you find that exercise helps you; what's your strategy? 7:06- Have you read anything in your research about ADHD and Sleep Apnea? 7:48- You became a certified ADHD coach. What are your clients asking for more nowadays? 8:25- How have the things been since COVID hit? 9:04- What advice would you give those who are dealing with home schooling? 9:30- What do you make of the premise that quarantine may continue for many months yet? 10:30- Tell us about your book! 11:00- Talk to us a little about your creative process in writing the book. 11:52- How can people find you? Find website at www.resetadhd.com and @ResetADHD on Twitter INSTA and on Facebook & YouTube 18:38- Thank you Alexander Hey! And thank YOU for subscribing, reviewing and listening. Your reviews are working! Even if you've reviewed us before, would you please write even a short one for this episode? Each review that you post helps to ensure that word will continue to spread, and that we will all be able to reach & help more people! You can always reach me via peter@shankman.com or @petershankman on all of the socials. You can also find us at @FasterThanNormal on all of the socials. STAY HEALTHY - STAY SAFE - PLEASE WEAR YOUR MASK.. until next time! 19:40- Faster Than Normal Podcast info & credits As always, leave us a comment below and please drop us a review on iTunes and of course, subscribe to the podcast if you haven't already! As you know, the more reviews we get, the more people we can reach. Help us to show the world that ADHD is a gift, not a curse! Do you know of anyone you think should be on the FTN podcast? Shoot us a note, we'd love to hear! We have a new sister video cast called 20MinutesInLockdown! A video podcast devoted to learning fascinating lessons from interesting humans all around the world, all in 20 minutes or less! 20 Minutes in Lockdown was born in early April of 2020, when we were in fact, in lockdown, and couldn't do much of anything. Realizing that more than ever, people could benefit from learning from people outside of their comfort zone – people with interesting stories to tell, people with good advice, people with useful ideas that could help improve lives, we started hosting short Facebook video interviews, and we grew from there. (Plus, you can actually see my hair colors change before your very eyes!) Check it out: www.20MinutesInLockdown.com TRANSCRIPT: Hey guys, Peter Shankman, welcome to another episode of Faster Than Normal. Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of faster than normal. Good to have you hope you're surviving. Hope you're staying safe. Hope you're wearing a mask. We are joined today by Alex. Hi, I'll tell you his story in a second. It is a lot of fun to be back. Uh, we took a week off. It's been a crazy few weeks, especially here in New York city, but I think everywhere around the world and it's just gonna be a crazier, so buckle up. Keep that seatbelt on. Anyway, Alex was diagnosed ADHD at the age of 20. And that explained to him immediately two decades of underachievement. Yeah. Feeling underachievement in feeling misunderstood in the wake of his diagnosis, because he just started looking at ADHD. And over the years that turned into a pattern like things with the ADHD; usually we either love it or we never we never talk about it. Are we looking at it with everything we have? So from July 17th to may of 18 and Alex the heavy research, which resulted in a book called Catholicism and ADHD. Finding holiness, despite distractions. And I want to talk to you about that beause I was definitely the Jewish kid in temple who was always, uh, screwing around and, and, and causing trouble. So you are an ADHD coach. You would train with the ATD coaching Academy and in 2009 received a professional certificate, uh, for the professional association for ADHD coaches. Welcome aboard Alex. Good to have ya. Good to be here. So 20 years of two decades of underachievement and feeling misunderstood, so school must have sucked. Yeah. I was always told that I should be getting straight A's, but I w I felt like I was. Happy getting bees. And so I never really expected much out of myself. Um, until I got diagnosed with ADHD and realized, Oh shoot, I'm actually kind of smart. Okay. That makes sense. And then, so when you got diagnosed, what was the outcome? Do you get on meds or what happened? Yeah, I started on Adderall, but now I'm on Conserta. Okay. Yeah. Another, another concern fan over here. Do you take it daily? Yep. Okay. Yeah. I, I find that, um, I don't need it all the time if I can get other ways to get my dope mean, but it is, it is a wonder drug. There's no question about it. So what made you decide to pursue this? Were you just so fascinated by him? Yeah, I think, you know, just dealing with ADHD yourself and like trying to figure out what, um, What all is going on with your brain, it's just takes over your life and you don't think about much else. I think that one of the interesting things is that, you know, in the life that we lead, though, you have to think about much else, right? You don't have a choice to adjust to sit and listen to one thing or focus on one thing. I mean, you can make a career out of it, but you know, you still have a life. You still have a family, still have obligations, right? So what do you do to find that balance? Yeah. Uh, I try and plan out my week every Monday and just say, okay, here's what I'm going to do on each of these days. Here's where I need to, you know, decide what I'm going to talk to this person and see this person, um, you know what, I'm going to do my work when I'm going to take my breaks, you know what? I'm going to get my lunch in when I'm going to, you know, take time in the evening to relax. And so it's just a matter of planning. And I think that's kind of, one of my strengths is planning. Like my favorite thing to do in college was to plan out my schedule when I'm going to take all my classes. And I actually got done with college a whole year earlier because I could plan it out and see, okay, if I take this here, here, here, and then I can get done in three years. You know? So scheduling is massively important. Yes. And do you find that if on the occasions that you don't schedule, you just see things go downhill? Yeah. If I don't have, have anything planned, I'm sitting around wondering, okay, what do I do now? Um, And then you can't plan for everything all the time though. How do you deal with, um, let's talk about how do you deal with unexpected downtime? Because for instance, you know, during, during COVID that we're currently dealing with, you know, I used to travel a quarter million miles a year, and so a 45 minute speech would take three days, right to get there, to speak and get it back. Now it takes 45 minutes. I have a lot of extra downtime. How are you handling that? I'm uh, trying to find it ways to staying at active. Um, I actually dove into a bunch of research on ADHD and sleep. Uh, Kind of during this whole situation. And what have you learned? I've learned quite a bit. Um, it's harder to fall asleep at night. We're more tired during the day. It's hard to get out of bed. Um, and so kind of what I did is I came up with like a sleep formula to help you fall asleep at night. Yeah. So the sleep formula is in bed plus, uh, a tired feeling tired. Plus a calm mind equals sleep, so you actually actually physically get into bed. And when you have ADHD, you're not always so good at that. You're running around doing X, Y, or Z, and it's hard to stop and say, okay, now I need to get into bed. Um, so, so do you start, do you set yourself up earlier for that like sort of a wind down period? Yeah, I do. So I got, my watch goes off at nine. O'clock telling me okay. Time to start winding down and that way I'm in bed by 10, 10, 15. What time are you up? Uh, six 45. Okay. And talk about exercise, anything in there? Yeah. That's how you get your body to feel tired. Um, so exercise during the day is going to help you feel tired at night. It's also going to help you wake up in the day. So I usually exercise in the afternoons. After work. Um, if I could get myself out of bed earlier, I'd do it in the morning, but I, why do you think you can? I don't know. I think it's something a lot of us with ADHD struggle with getting out of bed in the morning, um, but I think it's because I stay up so I don't stay up too late, stay up, you know, a relatively good time, but just getting up the bed in the morning is a little hard for me. So that sleep inertia really gets to me. I find that, that the earlier you go to bed, the easier it is to get up. I mean, I'm up at 3:45 every morning for exercise and things of the sort, because I know it makes me a better person and it makes me, you know, use my ADHD better. So I think that, and I'm not saying everyone needs to do that; I think there are some night people, some night owls that are ADHD and some morning people, and I think we find that balance find out where you are. I think that helps a lot. You know, I think that that I've seen people who, Oh, I wish I could get, I wish I could wake up as early as you do. I'm like, well, you, you go to sleep at 1:00 AM, so you probably can't, right? It's basic physiology physiology. But if you go to sleep earlier, you know, you'd be amazed at what happens, something consider. Have you, have you read any studies in your, in your study on sleeping or anything about ADHD and, um, C-PAP or abs ADHD and sleep apnea? Yes. I'm quite common for those of us with ADHD. In fact, I haven't myself and, and I sleep with the C-PAP machine every night. I don't think you're alone in that I've seen a tremendous number of people who have found their ADHD actually improve, and they've been able to use it more. It was a benefit once they realize that they're waking up 70, 80, 90 times an hour. Oh yeah. I'm the exact same way. Yeah. I've found that since my diagnosis of sleep apnea, my focus has been better and I'm just more alert during the day. And it helps me out a whole lot. Yeah. What about, um, so talk about your counseling. And so you, you became a, a, a certified coach. What are you, what are you doing? What are you working on? What do you see in your clients most needing things like? So a lot of what they're looking for is just to get organized and get going through the day. A lot of my clients are like teens and college students, and they struggle, you know, in school and getting organized and getting figure adulting, essentially. So a lot of my work has been helping them figure out how they work best. I like to say I help people work with their brain, not against them. Yup. That makes sense. And do you, have you found anything, uh, any, anything related to COVID? Have you seen more or less, um, have you seen more people coming to you? Have you seen, I mean, I'm noticing that that a lot of people that my podcast listens have gone up, you know, my, my, my, my, my listeners have increased, but I think a lot of those also, cause a lot of people have time to kill. Yeah, I think one of the struggles is, you know, online classes. I think that's one of the big things where people are looking for help with that. Cause they're not used to being at home when they're trying to learn and get their work done. Right. So I think, I think that's been a particular challenge with COVID. What kind of advice would you give people who all of a sudden now have, you know, they're not in front of a teacher, they're doing this at home and they have to deal with that whole nightmare? Uh, really have a plan. Um, so plan out, you know, when you're going to do your classes and try to keep routines as similar as to when you're in school, as you can. Um, so routine is going to be huge. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. What do you think about, um, the premise that this might continue for the next six to eight months? You know, what, what kind of changes do you think we're gonna see coming out after we eventually get back to life? As we used to know it, if, if that ever happens. Yeah. I don't know. It's going to be interesting to see, you know, um, it's so common to shake someone's hand when you meet them. Are you going to do that again? Do you think that, that, uh, you know, for ADHD, a lot of times we do better on our own when we're focused and we do have that plan, but you know, so now you're looking at, what's going to be upwards of a year of people working on their own. If people wind up being asked to go back, I think there's gonna be a bit of a backlash against that. Yeah. I think transitions are, we're going to be a real pain in the butt. Transitions are always tough for people. Um, you know, with ADHD anyway, we that we don't, we're not too fond of change, but we know the change has to occur. Yeah, so it's going to be, it'll be hard. And I think, you know, that's where you need to reach out and get the support you need so that you can succeed and thrive. Tell us for a minute or two about the book. Yeah. So, uh, it's kind of what inspired me to become an ADHD coach was writing about ADHD. So it's, my faith is important to me and it's actually kind of how I decided to get tested for ADHD. I was trying to pray one day and just couldn't because I couldn't focus and I thought, gosh, what is wrong with me? And, you know, I found out that I just have a different brain wiring. Yep. So you, so tell what did you learn? Talk about writing and talking about what you learned from the book. I learned a lot. Cause you know, before I started writing it, it was just sort of a side hobby to look at ADHD, but then it really became my focus. So, um, A lot of, a lot of structure and, you know, getting well, I find one of the best ways to focus in prayer, really in anything else is to get all of your senses in…

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Finding Your Funny w/ Comic Creator Nick Seluk Sep 09, 2020

Show notes

Nick Seluk is the New York Times Bestselling cartoonist behind Heart and Brain comics and creator of The Awkward Yeti. He is the author/illustrator of two books with Scholastic, creator of the card game OrganATTACK, and enjoys finding new projects and mediums to work in. Nick lives in Michigan, where he enjoys occasionally going for a very slow, painful run. Today we're talking about his ADD and how he harnessed it to create a career! Enjoy! ***CORONA VIRUS EDITION*** In this episode Peter & Nick Seluk discuss: :47- Intro and welcome Nick! Check out his work that I love here https://theawkwardyeti.com 2:12- Tell us your backstory, tell us what it was like growing up? 5:00- Growing up as a kid were your distractions primarily drawings, doodling then? 6:20- What would you say to our listeners who are emailing and saying, how do I figure out what I really want to do and how do I turn it into success, despite whatever degree I'm allegedly pursuing? 11:40- Have you had a moment where you realized/it hit you that 'holy crap, I can make a living and survive by doing this for a living'? 13:00- Do you still suffer in any capacity from imposter syndrome? 15:24- Have you noticed any changes in the way you live your life during all this COVID madness? How are you handling it in regards to your ADD, etc? 17:43- What is a life rule, or two that you really have to keep in place, otherwise, everything just goes to shi*&? 18:20- How can people find you? Find Nick's website at https://theawkwardyeti.com and @theawkwardyeti on Twitter INSTA and @AwkwardYeti on Facebook 18:38- Thank you Nick Seluk! And thank YOU for subscribing, reviewing and listening. Your reviews are working! Even if you've reviewed us before, would you please write even a short one for this episode? Each review that you post helps to ensure that word will continue to spread, and that we will all be able to reach & help more people! You can always reach me via peter@shankman.com or @petershankman on all of the socials. You can also find us at @FasterThanNormal on all of the socials. STAY HEALTHY - STAY SAFE - PLEASE WEAR YOUR MASK.. until next time! 19:40- Faster Than Normal Podcast info & credits As always, leave us a comment below and please drop us a review on iTunes and of course, subscribe to the podcast if you haven't already! As you know, the more reviews we get, the more people we can reach. Help us to show the world that ADHD is a gift, not a curse! Do you know of anyone you think should be on the FTN podcast? Shoot us a note, we'd love to hear! We have a new sister video cast called 20MinutesInLockdown! A video podcast devoted to learning fascinating lessons from interesting humans all around the world, all in 20 minutes or less! 20 Minutes in Lockdown was born in early April of 2020, when we were in fact, in lockdown, and couldn't do much of anything. Realizing that more than ever, people could benefit from learning from people outside of their comfort zone – people with interesting stories to tell, people with good advice, people with useful ideas that could help improve lives, we started hosting short Facebook video interviews, and we grew from there. (Plus, you can actually see my hair colors change before your very eyes!) Check it out: www.20MinutesInLockdown.com TRANSCRIPT: Hey guys, Peter Shankman, welcome to another episode of Faster Than Normal. We're going to have fun today this is going to be a great episode! I got Nick Seluk here. Nick… you've seen his stuff. You might not know his name, but you know, his comic. Nick is the cartoonist behind the amazing, The Awkward Yeti. Have you ever seen this? I guarantee you, you have, I've shared them with my ADHD audience, you probably shared them with friends. There's no question about it because it speaks to anyone who has any type of neurodiversity going on in their lives- a hundred percent. He's the cartoonist behind Heart and Brain comics and as I said, The Awkward Yeti. He's the author and illustrator of two books with Scholastic, creator of the card game Organ Attack, and he enjoys finding new projects and mediums to work in. Nick lives in Michigan, where he enjoys occasionally- I love, I love this knowing for a very slow painful run. Oh my God. I've found my soul mate. I've found my, my, my… This is awesome. Nick. Welcome to Faster Than Normal man. Thanks for having me, Peter. Oh, this is awesome. I was just telling you before we started all, I'm a fan boy of yours, but a huge fan for years.Your, your comics speak to, they speak to everyone, but my God, I mean the, the, the ones you do where the brain just sort of goes off on us like we're perfectly happy. Everything's fine. And then, we'll say something and now we're up all night and we're screwed. It is just beautifully done for those with ADHD, because that is literally how we live our lives. Now you have.. ADD you were telling me, so tell us your backstory, tell us what it was like growing up, where you, obviously, you said you were diagnosed around, uh, what'd you say? 38 or so? Yeah, around the age that I am right now, 38. I, as you can imagine was not a very good student. I hung out with really intelligent people, really good students and I always thought, Oh, I must just be kind of the clown with the group. That's fine. So, you know, this mediocre student never knew how to study. I was the one in college who was pulling all nighters with people who were studying, but I was just there distracting them. But I never did it for a test. So, um, yeah, it was just, uh, I.I needed to figure out like what's going on with, um, my focus and everything. And I finally saw a psychiatrist and I was telling them about my anxiety and my depression and, uh, you know, things like that. And, and then I said, well, you know, maybe some of the impulsiveness, there's some ADD element, and he's like, yeah, Yeah. He immediately, yeah. Some, some good stuff that Adderall, um, which is, which was really great the first, week for those of you who have taken Adderall. It's wonderful. Um, but the funny thing with my comics is I think they are pretty, uh, They do display a lot of the tendencies that I have with ADD. And I've even had, I think years ago, somebody said you should probably get yourself checked out over, ADD in the comments and I remember at the time I was really offended by it. Oh yeah. How dare you diagnose me? About how little attention span. I have. Um, and it turns out they were right. So if I could find them I'd probably say thanks. Begrudgingly angry. Thanks. No, I, you know, it's totally true though. I mean, I've, I've been on stage, you know, before I, before I got diagnosed and started making ADHD a mainstream of what I talk about, I mean said, I'd be on stage. We'd be like, wow. You know, you're a really fast mouse and a really fast brain, you know, you should, I wonder if that does that affect you negatively? And I'd be like, bitch, please. How dare you? You know? But no, that's exactly what it is. And, and, and I always, I always compare it to like, um, Every once in a while, you'll catch an interview on TV or something with some sports figures, some music, musician or something who's clearly hi at the time they're playing it off. Like they're playing it off like they're not, and they're just trying really hard to participate in the conversation, but you're watching them and you're watching their facial expressions. Yeah, it's obvious you're high, you know, stop trying to hide it. Just be high. It's sort of exactly the same thing. Um, so tell me about you growing up as a kid, you were always on assuming, you know, even me for college, like school and whatever it wasn't that great. Or, you know, as it were, did you, were you a, was your district or your distractions primarily, um, uh, drawings. Doodling or yeah, drawing? Absolutely. In class. That's all I would do. I would, I couldn't pay any attention to anything that didn't interest me, which was about 80% of school. So it's any wonder I even made it to college at that rate, but yeah, I would draw comics in class and I'd share them with my friends and that was pretty much how I spent school. I never got any better at it. And I think that has something to do with the attention span too. It was just, I, I. Love the drawing, but I didn't have the focus to sit there and, and get better. Like do fine Art had took a couple of classes here and there, but, uh, I think cartoons ended up just being the perfect medium for me. So I could express things without having to really commit to say 10 hours doing an intricate drawing or painting or something. A lot of our listeners are students or college students, things like that are just out of college, you know? And they're constantly emailing, Hey, I don't have. You know, even on Adderall, even on Conserta, my attention span, you know, I'm trying to figure out what I love. Right. It seems to me that you figured out what you love and to manage, to turn it into a career. Right. You know, at least one that would seemingly support you. So what would you tell. All these kids who, you know, are, are emailing and saying, how do I figure out what I do and how do I, how do I turn it into success? You know, they're saying, Oh, you know, I got my degree in this or that. And I just love it. I can't imagine doing the rest of my life and I get bored and I get stressed out about it. I think there's still very much a very much a stigma, even though it's dropped a bit, there's still a very much of a stigma of, um, and what you love as opposed to doing, you know, getting the 40 hour job, every job, and then doing it 40 years ago, even though that doesn't exist anymore. It's, you know, our parents' generation, obviously, that's what they have. And so it takes a very sort of enlightened parent to be okay with that, doing that and I think we have another, another generation to go before that starts to let up a little bit. Yeah. Um, finding what you love to do is really difficult. And I, I did not go right into it. I tried, I tried to get syndicated when I was 18. I was making a strip and sending it into at least one syndicate who rejected me, of course. Well, funny thing is later, they ended up being my first publisher. So you can take a second. You can tell us how awesome of a feeling that was. That felt really good. I pursued one publisher because they used to publish Calvin and Hobbes. Awesome. And that's, that was my favorite strip or one of my favorites. And, uh, so I didn't shop around and it was just like, it's this, or it's nothing basically. And it worked out after a while, but I spent, you know, I went to school for, uh, I wanted to do Music Production and then I shifted over to Psychology and that ended up being really good for me because I could kind of BS my way through it because there was a lot of essays and it's like, I can, I can kind of convince you that this makes sense. Um, so I got through my degree that way, um, you know, in science, uh, in more straightforward sciences, you can't do that as much because you really have to stick to facts and figures and you know, there are. Real answers. I think that is, I think that is something that we do because, you know, I have a journalism degree, right. And well, I know how to write as long as I had a right. You can't tell me I didn't do the assignment. Exactly, when it came to the formatting, this is where I really struggled because I didn't care. Um, and it's, it's really difficult to do something that you don't care about. Like even with the medication they want to help you care about something they will just help you follow through to something you are willing to do. So I ended up of course, with a degree in Psychology going into Graphic Design, uh, that natural transition for somebody like me. Um, so I did Graphic Design and it kind of worked my way up and it was an art director for awhile and was managing a team and I did the whole soul sucking corporate job for about. 10 years and I hated it and I hated the people I was around. I started thinking I was one of them and I got really dark and depressing and still, I just, I put all of my energy into this thing that I really loved doing. And I already knew that I loved doing, and it was my escape. Um, and then it became my desperate attempt to get out of it. And so I think it took me about a year and a half of working on it maybe two years, but I've. I mean, I, I worked my ass off when I was like, uh, when I was making comics initially I was riding in the car on the way to work. I would, if I was at the stop light, I'd scratch down a quick comic and then I'd get to work. I just to take my lunch break in the car and. And do comics in there. And then like once things were going, I I'd be doing emails and shipping out orders and before work in the morning, and then after work and I still, I had kids and a wife. And so I was still busy with that too. And you know, social life, but I like when you want something bad enough, that's the kind of work you have to put into it as I'm sure, you know, Peter. No question about it. And you know, it's interesting because even though you're busting your ass and you're constantly exhausted and you're 24 hours a day, you know, if you're not doing your real job, you're doing this. So you get to, hopefully one day become your real job, no matter how much you're doing that, it still doesn't feel like work because you love, you love it so much that you constantly want to do it, right? Yes, absolutely. I mean, what I do now, you know, any new projects I'm working on, it never feels like work. I'm not really thinking about, you know, what kind of, what's this going to turn into? Um, monetarily, I like I'm working on a video game right now and I'm not really thinking about- is this video game going to make me a bunch of money. I'm thinking I really want to make video game because I've never made one and I don't know much about it and I think it would be fun to try to do this. Um, there was no, Oh no, no, no. That's all right. I was kind of trailing off. Anyway. Have you had a moment where your, where you realized the moment hit you, where you realized, holy crap, I can make a living out of this and I can survive this and, and this is going to be, you know, this is the future I wanted. I mean, I remember when I was, when I was a kid, I was always nervous if I didn't have a complete answer to something, if it's not a guaranteed way of doing something and finishing something and knowing how it was gonna work out, I'd be crazy. Right. And I couldn't, I, you know, I'd be, I'd be anxiety filled and now I'm just like, Well, yeah, I know I'm not traveling, and COVID's hit and I'm doing some, some digital keynotes and I'll make it, I'll make it. And, you know, eight year old Peter be like, who the fuck is this? Right? How the hell is, how the hell is he okay with this? Not like, you know screaming and downing Xanax or whatever you had that moment, as well? Yeah, I think so. I. Yeah. I feel that all the time, like, I, I just, I feel that I can make things work. And I remember the first time I felt like I could actually do what I wanted. It was a very early on when I was posting on Facebook for awhile. I, I got to a point where I had 33,000 followers and this was a turning point. I was working on a project and trying to start a business with…

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Fear Is A Superpower Fuel w/ Stunt Pilot Entrepreneur Patrick Sweeney Sep 02, 2020

Show notes

Life can change when you embrace your fears like our guest today did. His name: Patrick Sweeney. His occupation: Stunt pilot. He is also an Olympic level athlete, a best selling author, a World Record holder, has built and sold three global tech companies, is a leukemia survivor, a husband and a father. Why does he fly and seek-out fear regularly? Today we're talking about managing fear and ADHD.. and also a little about skydiving! A bit more about Mr. Sweeney in his own words: "I grew up terrified of everything. I didn't have confidence or self-esteem. My biggest fear was flying. I made excuses every time I had a chance to fly – on exchange programs, to family reunions, for big races, I made excuses to cover up the shame I felt of being afraid. I was lying to the world and myself. Then at 35 I got one of the rarest forms of leukemia. The doctors told me to say my good-byes. That was when I chose courage. Yeah, it's a choice. Not for me but for my 1-year-old daughter and unborn son. I decided if I beat the disease and got out of John's Hopkins I'd get over my fear of flying. I did. I decided I'd get my private pilots license. It was terrifying, but I still took the first frightening step. Then an incredible thing happened. I fell in love with flying. I now fly a stunt plane in aerobatic competitions. It is one of the greatest joys in my life, a true passion that was hidden from me because of fear. My choice had a halo effect on my whole life. Suddenly courage became my superpower. It all started with that first small step. My life changed and so can yours. That's why I left the lucrative start-up world behind; to write Fear is Fuel and help millions of people find courage and the life of their dreams. When we become authentic, strong and confident we can achieve world peace. That's my dream." Enjoy! ***CORONA VIRUS EDITION*** In this episode Peter & Patrick J. Sweeney discuss: 1:00- Intro and welcome Patrick! Check out his book "Fear Is Fuel" 2:11- On not getting over your fears 3:20- On discovering how fear can be used as a performance fuel 4:20- On being owned by fear and the shame of fearing fear 6:15- On overcoming poor self esteem 7:12- On making decisions out of fear rather than opportunity 9:17- What advice would you give someone who's been told 'you are different' all of their lives? 12:20- On being 'different' and the conceptualization of fear 14:24- About the fight, flight or freeze reactions 15:20- On recognizing opportunity and finding more fear in our daily lives 17:30- About the courage center in our brains 18:50- On activating our courage center 19:15- Take Patrick's Fear Level Test here Find Patrick's website at www.PJSweeney.com Find Patrick @ thefearguru on INSTA @PatrickSweeneyFearGuru on FB @PJSweeney on Twitter and on YouTube here 19:57- Thank you Patrick! And thank YOU for subscribing, reviewing and listening. Your reviews are working! Even if you've reviewed us before, would you please write even a short one for this episode? Each review that you post helps to ensure that word will continue to spread, and that we will all be able to reach & help more people! You can always reach me via peter@shankman.com or @petershankman on all of the socials. You can also find us at @FasterThanNormal on all of the socials. STAY HEALTHY - STAY SAFE - PLEASE WEAR YOUR MASK.. until next time! 20:05- Faster Than Normal Podcast info & credits As always, leave us a comment below and please drop us a review on iTunes and of course, subscribe to the podcast if you haven't already! As you know, the more reviews we get, the more people we can reach. Help us to show the world that ADHD is a gift, not a curse! Do you know of anyone you think should be on the FTN podcast? Shoot us a note, we'd love to hear! We have a new sister video cast called 20MinutesInLockdown! A video podcast devoted to learning fascinating lessons from interesting humans all around the world, all in 20 minutes or less! 20 Minutes in Lockdown was born in early April of 2020, when we were in fact, in lockdown, and couldn't do much of anything. Realizing that more than ever, people could benefit from learning from people outside of their comfort zone – people with interesting stories to tell, people with good advice, people with useful ideas that could help improve lives, we started hosting short Facebook video interviews, and we grew from there. (Plus, you can actually see my hair colors change before your very eyes!) Check it out: www.20MinutesInLockdown.com TRANSCRIPT: Guys, Peter Shankman looked at their episode faster than normal I'm thrilled that you're here. Let's talk Fear today. Let's talk for your, let's talk about the fear that paralyzes you and prevents you from doing anything. That's the fear that says, Hey, I have this great idea, but you know what? I don't think there was no of good. So I'm not going to take the risk. I'm not gonna do it. Let's talk about the fear that keeps you paralyzed and inactive and prevents you from getting everything you want. And when you're ADHD or any sort of neurodiverse, you get that a lot. The road is littered with brilliant ideas that never took off because fear held us back. And the day I realized that I could manage my fear was the day that I became free. And I think we got someone else who's going to share a little bit about that as well. So let's talk to Patrick Sweeney. Patrick calls himself the fear guru and long story, very short. He grew up terrified of everything. His biggest fear was flying. Hated flying. At age 35, he was diagnosed when the rarest forms of leukemia and the doctors told him to say his goodbyes and he chose courage, and he got over it. He beat the disease. Studied to get his private pilot's license. And now he flies a stunt plane. He does aerobatic competitions. He loves it. Life can change if you embrace your fear like this guy did. Patrick welcome to Faster Than Normal. Peter man. It is great to be here. Thank you so much. I love what you guys are doing and I'm excited to be on the show. Good. I appreciate that. You know, fear is one of those things that I, I, you know, I I've talked to people. Oh, you know, I have no fear of fear for the weak. I don't believe that. I believe fear is actually very beneficial because fear. You know, if I went to, if I, every time I, I don't have to, if I wasn't afraid every time I sat up, I wouldn't skydive. Fear is designed to keep you alive. It's designed to make sure that you're on top of your game. So I think the first thing we should establish is, is you're not anti fear(?) Oh man, the opposite. And in fact, people who say avoid your fears or get over your fears, or I want to be fearless; that's complete bullshit, Peter. I, uh, I just got off a call with 200 CEOs. Uh, in Asia from this group called YPO young president's organization. And one of them said, you know, are you afraid of anything? And I said, yeah, I'm afraid of tons of stuff, but now I know how to use that fear as fuel because when you produce that fear cocktail, when you have that those physiological changes you literally get smarter and you get stronger. So why not use that as a, as a superhuman performance fuel? I remember the first time I ever truly discovered that fear could be a performance fuel. Exactly. Like you said, I, when I went to get my skydiving license, my first solo jump, you know, you do three tandems and they do a bunch of solo jumps with an instructor. Right? First jump you do you're you're on your own, but the instructor is sort of holding onto your belt loop, right to make sure you can stay stable in the air. And for some reason I had this, I had an instructor who weighed about 280 pounds. It was the middle of August. He was sweating his ass off. He smelled horrible and I was doing everything in my power to stay away from him in this tiny little plane. But of course it had to be right next to him. And I was gagging and several,.. I get out of the air to do the job; he lets go on and he tells me to pull, I open my parachute. I land in a heap on the ground. He comes over to me and I hugged this man like harder than I have anyone in my life. And I realized nothing else mattered. At that point I was hi is a kite on dopamine, serotonin and adrenaline and that was the first time I realized that, wow, you can really target this fear and allow it to benefit you. Now, when you started telling me, this is when you started out, you know, you were just like everyone else in that respect, fear was there. Right? So, yeah, I mean like, is it became a life? I was, I was owned by fear. I was, uh, and, and because of growing up in a blue collar, Irish Catholic, you know, uh, immigrant area of Boston, fear was something to be ashamed of. Right. Fear was something you didn't admit. Fear was something that you pretend it didn't exist. Yeah. And my grandfather was thought the way to make us Men, you know, it was, was to beat the fear out of us. So he used to take his, um, uh, his belt off and put us over his knee and whip us with it. And so I grew up with no self esteem, always thinking I wasn't good enough. And then always feeling this terrible amount of shame because I was afraid of stuff. I couldn't tell anyone I was afraid. I wouldn't, you know, things got really crazy. Uh, you know, I got crazy scared of something I'd start crying and you know, my dad would give me the old, I'll give you a reason to cry and, uh, and so I grew up with this fear and then not knowing, not having any mechanism for dealing with it. Because of that, Peter, I became afraid of fear. So when I started feeling those feelings, you know, the butterflies, new stomach that heartbeat faster and all the stuff I talk about in my book, I started to think, holy shit, this is fear is happening I got to get away from it. I got to do something. So every time I felt that I, it became the fear of fear that really was crippling for me. And that wake up call. I mean, you know, I'm not going to say you were lucky to get the disease you got, but you know, all the major life changes that we have come, they started some random point and yours happened to be that right? Tell us about it. Well, you know, and, and I wouldn't necessarily say it was random. Uh, I caused it for sure. So I was, I spent my lifetime trying to build self confidence and self esteem and, and never being good enough. And so when I started a company, I figured if I made a lot of money. So first I figured if I, if I became a great athlete, I'd signed self esteem and courage, so I spent six years training to the Olympics, finished second in the Olympic trials, race the world cup in the single skull and rowing and I got confident on the water, but no place else. I mean I still was terrified to ask out a, a beautiful girl or, or ask Investors money or, you know, all this stuff instead of \so, uh, so then I thought, well, so I make a lot of money. I'll get self esteem and confidence. And, and so I started to build up this persona, uh, after business school where, you know, I was wearing $10,000 watches driving $150,000 car, raised about $50 million in venture capital in debt and was just terrified the whole time. And the way I dealt with it was, was the only way I could keep these anxiety wolves at bay was drinking. I'd have seven or eight beers every night and probably twice that on the weekends. And so that combination of drinking of anxiety and fear, a fear of failure, fear of employees, leaving fear of customers going and then that, that just being terrified to fly, all of those things combined to just keep a flood of cortisol, the stress hormone, going through my body and not surprisingly- that almost killed me. I'm highly convinced that combination of things led to this really rare form of leukemia. And when I went into my local GP, he said, we have no idea what's going on, but you get no immune system and we're going to send you to the Hopkins. My one year old daughter went to her grandparent's house, my wife and I went up to Hopkins and we endured this battery of nightmare tests that culminated in Dr. McDavid coming in and saying look, um, you know, we're going to do everything we can, we've got great oncologists, but we think you should get your affairs in order and say your goodbyes. My wife was six months pregnant and went into shock. And I was just, you know, I didn't know what to do. I mean, I, it, it was then when regret hit me like a baseball bat to the stomach. I thought I looked back on my life stop, man. I had these amazing opportunities and I just wasted them all because I was terrified of everything I made every decision out of fear instead of making decisions out of opportunity. And that's when it hit me that, that, uh, I had wasted my entire life and now I'm going to die anyways. So, the podcast is primarily geared towards either people with ADHD or people who love people with ADHD, or neurodiversity, and you know, what do you, what can you tell them? What can you tell someone who has all his life or her life been accused of being different. And has, you know, is we just suddenly realizing that that might not be a curse; that might be a gift, but they're not anywhere near the point where it doesn't scare them- where they're not afraid of that, where they can..where they can move forward from it. You know, when you're, when you're in school and you're not like everyone else, a lot of times 'that's different and you're wrong'. Right? And so you, you grow up with that mentality of: 'my God, something must be wrong with me. I should probably keep a low profile. I can't do anything. I shouldn't try anything new'. You know, what advice would you give. Well, you know, I got a ton of advice from Peter and, um, partially because, you know, I think I'm going 100 miles an hour all the time. When I grew up, uh, you know, obviously in the eighties and they weren't really diagnosing kids with ADHD and the, in the, uh, eighties and nineties, she was called, "sit down, you're disrupting the class disease". Exactly. That's exactly. And that was me. And so, and, and I'll, I'll continue the story with my youngest son as well, but, um, I had so much energy and I was always thinking of stuff and I could, I could just, you know, I was like a machine gun instead of these people who were like a bolt action rifle that I deal with. And so to me, it was always, you know, my, my. Uh, my, my friends were, would always say, you know, you're either gonna end up in jail or as a millionaire because you're out of control dude. And, you know, I think up until the sickness, you had that, that looking for self esteem and that was a big part of it because feel different and one of the things from a neuroscience perspective, everyone listened to your podcast needs to know— is that when something is different, it scares us. So we have, uh, a subconscious database that's the equivalent of 500 Mac book computers, and the really messed up thing. Peter is we don't populate that, that subconscious. Other people do. So we don't choose where we're born. We don't choose the color of our skin. We don't choose the number of brothers and sisters. We don't choose the language. We speak, all of that's changed. And for us yet, we use that to make 18 and 90% of our decision every day. So all of those decisions are being made subconsciously. Now, if you realize that if you realize that I'm going to populate the computer that's mak…

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Creative Storyteller Illustrator Artist Andy J. Pizza Aug 26, 2020

Show notes

Andy J. Pizza is an American illustrator, podcaster and public speaker. His explosive color drenched illustrations have brought hope and smiles to clients like The New York Times, Nickelodeon, YouTube and Warby Parker. He is the founder of the Creative Pep Talk podcast, a mostly monologue show with occasional interviews with creatives like Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Broad City's Abbi Jacobson and Poet and Lettering Artist Morgan Harper Nichols. Creative Pep Talk has been featured by Apple, BuzzFeed and Vanity Fair and has over 5 million listens." Today we talk about how he found his first artistic path, how he manages creative deadlines as a neurodiverse individual, and why sometimes red means green. Enjoy! ***CORONA VIRUS EDITION*** In this episode Peter & Andy J. Pizza discuss: 1:00- Intro and welcome Andy! Check out his great podcast www.CreativePeptalk.com 2:15- So was Art always your thing; your way of 'getting in trouble'? 4:10- On trying so hard as a kid to outwit or out-will his ADD/ADHD 5:00- On lessons from his Mom, trying to pass as neurotypical 7:00- On how/why he finally went into illustration 8:15- On realizing you're not broken, but also learning how to articulate that. 9:07- Are you also colorblind or Red-Green deficient? Check out these glasses! 9:45- Peter found solace in computers; Andy found some control in Illustration… 11:40- Once you found your thing- how did you turn that into a career? What did your parents say? 13:15- On strategic thinking and reverse engineering how to find your creative path/career. Check out Andy's CreativePeptalk podcast 14:34- Please talk about how you handle "creative deadlines" client retention, and your ADHD 15:38- This is how Andy keeps his work week, happening, productive and on schedule! 16:20- On keeping it simple and keeping your creative SuperSelf healthy. 16:54- Knowing your power hours! Ref: Molly Fletcher's book "The Energy Clock" here 17:32- On knowing the things that set me at my best, at my worst, etc. Ref: Jim Collins' Study thyself like a bug. Other recommendations here also! 19:00- Find Andy's podcast at www.creativepeptalk.com Find Andy @ AndyJPizza on INSTA Twitter and the podcast at @CreativePepTalk on Facebook and on SoundCloud 19:22- Thank you Andy! And thank YOU for subscribing, reviewing and listening. Your reviews are working! Even if you've reviewed us before, would you please write even a short one for this episode? Each review that you post helps to ensure that word will continue to spread, and that we will all be able to reach & help more people! You can always reach me via peter@shankman.com or @petershankman on all of the socials. You can also find us at @FasterThanNormal on all of the socials. STAY HEALTHY - STAY SAFE - PLEASE WEAR YOUR MASK.. until next time! 19:50- Faster Than Normal Podcast info & credits As always, leave us a comment below and please drop us a review on iTunes and of course, subscribe to the podcast if you haven't already! As you know, the more reviews we get, the more people we can reach. Help us to show the world that ADHD is a gift, not a curse! Do you know of anyone you think should be on the FTN podcast? Shoot us a note, we'd love to hear! We have a new sister video cast called 20MinutesInLockdown! A video podcast devoted to learning fascinating lessons from interesting humans all around the world, all in 20 minutes or less! 20 Minutes in Lockdown was born in early April of 2020, when we were in fact, in lockdown, and couldn't do much of anything. Realizing that more than ever, people could benefit from learning from people outside of their comfort zone – people with interesting stories to tell, people with good advice, people with useful ideas that could help improve lives, we started hosting short Facebook video interviews, and we grew from there. (Plus, you can actually see my hair colors change before your very eyes!) Check it out: www.20MinutesInLockdown.com TRANSCRIPT: Welcome to Faster Than Normal, the ADHD neurodiversity podcast that is slowly but surely changing the world. We're also working on a cure for COVID. We're not actually doing that, but you never know. I mean, it can't be any worse than what's currently out there. It's good to have you guys back. Thank you again, as always for listening. My name is Peter Shankman. Our guest today who's illustrations you've seen. He works with clients ranging from NY times, Nickelodeon, YouTube, Warby Parker. I actually saw him in Scholastic. I think reading a book with my kid. I mean, his stuff is everywhere. He's brilliant. Brilliant. He's massively ADHD and was diagnosed as an adult, he's the founder of the creative pep-talk podcast as well. It's a mostly monologue show with occasional interviews with creators like Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Broad City's Rusty's Abby Jacobson, who I'm in love with, by the way, poet and literary artists, Morgan Harbor Nichols. Um, It is awesome to welcome Andy J Pizza. Andy. Welcome. Thank you so much for having me Peter. It's awesome. I love seeing brilliant people doing brilliant things. Um, and, and, and, and being able to try mean just some of the stuff I was looking at. Um, I mean, my God, you've done Nickelodeon, um, the book So Many Sounds, which, which I've seen. Um, I'm looking at some of the other stuff that I'm, that I'm familiar with coloring books, right. I mean, it's just all of the charts and it's gorgeous. It's so brilliant stuff, mental floss, it's brilliant stuff. I mean, it really, really is incredible stuff. So it's great to have you on really appreciate it. Living proof that. That ADHD is a gift not a curse time. So tell us about where you are always attracted to drawing where you like. Was doodling your, your, your, your go to, to get in trouble with, in school or, you know, tell us your story. Yeah. I'd love to jump in there. I am going to say real quick, uh, one warning is, and I'm sure you understand this. Anytime I, when I'm talking to somebody who doesn't have ADHD, I find myself able to sometimes, somewhat pass as neuro-typical. Uh, but when I talk to someone from who has ADHD, it's almost like when you put two mirrors in front of each other and it just goes on until infinity and refracts and tangents, like that's how that's what happenes. So I'm just warning you up top, this whole energy and everything is going to bring out my, my, uh, my weird self. I call it ADHD-dar you can always tell the other people that have it as well. 100%. Okay. So I'll tell you a little bit about. Uh, he may grown up and all that good stuff. Um, yeah. So, you know, ever since I was little, I was always doing creative things and I, uh, you know, honestly I think of it like, um, you know, I don't think a lot of people think of ADHD as a, primarily being those people are driven by boredom, but that's what I like just. Obsessively not wanting to do boring things or mundane things. And I think creativity was really born from just the cure for boredom. How do we, how do I make any circumstances even now, today? You know, if I'm on a bike ride and I'm bored or I'm going, you know, have to take the kids to the doctor or whatever, I just find weird problems to solve in my head, be it for the podcast for a kid's book or whatever. I'm just always. I'm driven to do those things just to, at all costs, avoid being bored. Does that resonate with you or do you know.. Makes perfect sense. There are two roads you can go down with that, you know, as, especially as a kid is a positive road, a negative road. Totally. Yes. You know, I was actually the kind of kid who really wanted to be a good kid. Like I really wanted to. I wished that I could do all of the right things. And I tried I really, and that was kind of probably part of why I didn't get diagnosed for a long time is that I was just always trying to perform. I was trying to out-will myself to do all the things and just beat myself up and shame myself into making all the deadlines and getting everything right. And all that. And it, you know, you can go so far doing that. Um, but you know, at some point, you know, I, I had a, I learned a really important, um, from my mom who I believe has undiagnosed ADHD. And, uh, she, you know, she gave me a really huge lesson by showing me not what to not do. And I, you know, when I was really little. Everybody in my life would constantly know my uncles, aunts, grandparents, whatever would constantly be like, you are just like your mom. And I'd be like, that's amazing. My mom was the coolest person, like, yeah, my mom wasn't around. Uh, I didn't grow up. You know, I didn't grow up in her house. She, my parents split when I was really little. So I didn't like that. You know, I didn't get to see her that much, especially because I was just totally, I just thought she was the coolest person in the world. She was always drawing. She was loud, was weird, wwas funny, you know, all of that stuff. Um, and so when people would tell me, you're just like, did your mom, when I was little, I was like, yeah, man, keep it coming. Keep it saying that I love her. She's the coolest person I know. But then as I got older, her life just continually kind of unraveled over and over until things just become, you know, tragedies compounded on other tragedies. And by the time I was in high school and her life has just completely fallen apart. I bet those words that were told to me when I was a kid became this like prophetic a message of doom over my life of this is what happens to people like you you're just like her. This is what's. This is what the world does to people like that. It's like seeing as opposed to having a parent, an alcoholic parent. Right where you see that and you're like I can't let that happen. And what I did it, maybe I didn't have words for it at the time, but what I saw was this is a person who has all of this, like everyone that meets her, she's there, she's charismatic and funny, and she's got all these talents and she's doing all this stuff, but she constantly tried to pass as neuro-typical she tried to just be a secretary, just be a waitress, just be, just be the thing that normal people are. And she never bet on her weirdness. And so I saw from early on, I was having, you know, she would be a waitress and she'd miss do the, you know, miscalculate the change and have so much shame that she'd like walk out on her first day and she, you know, she just could not hold a regular job. And when I started, my parents made me have part time work and I could just feel I was losing money. I was doing things wrong. It didn't matter how much I tried to be normal. it wasn't working. And so from that early age, I just realized that normal is never going to work for me. And I watched my mom. That's what I learned from her. I watched her spend a lifetime of going against the grain for herself. And so that was the thing, the plan I had for 99 or 99 people out of a hundred, like I just knew there's no way that going to work for me. And so I started to think early on thinking about, you know, what. Kinds of things. Could I do with me weird stuff. And that's why I'm into illustration. And I think that, you know, what's interesting about what you're saying is that even at a young age, you knew, you know, something's not something's amiss. Yeah. And the problem is, is that at a young age, it's hard to put that into words. And so you start thinking that you're broken. 100% and I, you know, and also I grew up in the South of Indiana and there wasn't a lot of talk about mental health. Right. And they're, you know, there's just a lot of stuff, stigma around that. And I think that the words that they had for my mom growing up. Uh, they weren't words like ADHD and kind of the same for me, they were words like lazy, you know, or a mess or forgetful, you know, whatever disease. "Sit down you're disturbing the class" disease. Yes. That, all of that. And so, you know, I think that, uh, um, I didn't have words for, it took me forever to even be able to articulate to my dad like, you know, kind of the perspective thing of like, you're seeing blue, I'm seeing red. I don't know how to sh I don't know how to show you that, you know, um, that's just a metaphor. I'm also color blind, but illustrating the story line. Yeah. I'm not fully colorblind. It's red, green colorblind. But I think that probably contributes to my weird color choices, Which is funny because a lot of the people I've talked to who have neurodiverse brains are also red-green deficient. I wonder if that.. sounds so weird I wonder if there's something there. I bet on it. I bet on it, but I, that I desperately want. They're very cool. They really, you really can see a difference. That's really cool. Yeah. I w I want to do that. Um, but yeah, I didn't have the language for it for a long time. Let's talk illustration. So for me as a kid, I found solace in computers. Right. I grew up in the, the early eighties. I was, I was, you know, age 8 to 18 in the 1980's. And so I discovered and I had an Apple 2E, and all of a sudden I code and if I coded and I made a mistake, it wasn't so stupid. Right. It wasn't because the kids didn't like me. It wasn't because I open my mouth and say, there's something wrong and I could fix it. Right. So I was able to get a, a level of control through that. I'm assuming you found the same thing through illustration. Yeah, I'm trying to, I, you know, illustration was weird because as you know, I've since kind of moved over into storytelling and illustration is serving that I think the Japanese arts or creativity, whatever, you know, the term being, I'm not forgive me for getting it wrong, but no, I call myself and that's primarily what I do, but it's just evolved over time. And I think, you know, illustration, when I first started getting into band posters and stuff like that, for me, I think it was just the first path that I saw to not be a complete screw up. I've just like, I. That those are people that have, instead of like repressed their weirdness, they've crystallized it into a style and to a voice and, and, you know, and they did it through the medium of illustration and, and it was kind of just like a yellow brick road into a future that I actually wanted to go into. Um, so that was just the first one like that. But as any ADHD person can probably testify, I, that I can kind of see, like, those hyper-focused obsessions kind of last from anywhere from five years to a decade, like the full.. and I kinda, and I think at the end of, by the time I was about 28, I think I was like, okay, I have illustration. I can do that. It'll serve all my other things, but now I'm interested in storytelling. Um, I don't know if I answered your question. So You most certainly did. I think that, you know, again, one of the things about ADHD, you find. That thing. Yeah. And you go full speed with it. The problem is not everyone finds it once you do, you know, then you really have to have something there. So how did you, how did you turn that into a career? And when you went to your parents and said, here's what I want to do. What was the reaction there? Yeah, I mean, their reaction was, well, you know, my dad and my stepmom. Uh, they knew they didn't understand me. They knew they didn't like the path that I chose. Cause I w…

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