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Advocating for Diversity of Thought w/ Rani Mani Aug 19, 2020

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I met today's guest around three years ago when I was invited to join Adobe's Influencers Group and I've been just in awe of her ever since! Rani Mani is the Head of Global Employee Advocacy at Adobe and helps teams with Influencer Relations. She's passionate about cultivating and nurturing communities and coaching others to do the same. She is currently working across Adobe teams to drive understanding, excitement, and advocacy among the global workforce in order to enable and empower all employees to be the company's biggest brand ambassadors. Nicknamed "The Velvet Hammer" Rani's mantra is to make the impossible seem possible through her humor, grace, and passion. When she's not asking provocative questions and making declarative statements at work, Rani is making magical memories with her husband and four kids as they continue to visit the many wonders of the world. Today we talk about how helping others can be it's own reward, the value of diversity in thought, and helping employees to embrace and believe in themselves, and so many other really great topics- enjoy! ***CORONA VIRUS EDITION*** In this episode Peter & Rani Mani discuss: 1:11- Intro and welcome Rani! 2:27- So you have been an advocate for employees' diversity in the workforce for as long as I've known you, what prompted that to become your passion? 3:18- What is the biggest change that you've seen in terms of employee advocacy and how people look at diversity as a whole, not just at Adobe but like worldwide? 4:30- Do you find that employees as a whole are starting to sort of embrace their diversity as opposed to some that used to have to be hidden? 5:48- In terms of diversity what have you sort of taught Adobe? What would you say the top things are that a company, big or small, should definitely be doing without question? 7:00- On the concept of top down structuring/leadership 9:22- On the diversity of thought 11:08- It amazes me that a company as big as Adobe can have all that done so well; to the point where it seems seamless, and I'm curious as to why so many other companies have a problem following suit. I wonder what the different, secret sauce is… 13:50- On employee advocacy and "how can I solve this by helping the other person win?" 17:00- On the importance of leading with "how can I help you?" 19:20- On how helping others can even become physically addictive 21:00- What one piece of advice would you give to someone who you work with to understand the value of diversity? I mean, it seems like an easy question, but like I said, a lot of people don't get it. 23:26- How can people find you? @RaniMani0707 on Twitter and Rani Mani on LinkedIn 23:44- Thank you Rani! 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! 24:09- 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: FTN_195_Rani_Mani Hey guys, Peter, Shankman welcome to another episode of Faster Than Normal, thrilled that you are here as always, good to have you! Today's guest needs no introductions, but I kind of have to do it anyway because you know, it's a podcast. I first met Rani probably almost God, two years ago, no maybe three through an invitation I was given to join Adobe as part of their insider's group, Adobe influencers. And I have been in awe of her ever since. And I want to read your bio cause it is, it is pretty damn impressive. Ronnie Mani is the head of global employee advocacy at Adobe. Okay. What does that mean? She helps teams and influencer relations as well. She's passionate about cultivating and nurturing communities and coaching others do the same. She works across all Adobe teams, right? So all around the world to drive, understanding excitement and advocacy among the global workforce, in order to enable and empower all employees to be the company's biggest brand ambassadors. I love her nickname. It's the velvet hammer. There's a lot of fun. So talk about that. Ronnie's mantra is to make the impossible seem possible through her grace humor and passion. When she's not asking provocative questions and making decorative statements at work, she's making medical memories of their husband and four kids. One of whom I believe is somewhere on his way, back from India, as they continue to visit the many magical wonders of the world. Ronnie, welcome to faster than normal. I'm thrilled that you're here. Thank you so much. So happy to be here. So you have been an advocate for employees, diversity in the workforce for as long as I've known you, what prompted that to become your passion? People are my passion. Right? I feel like people are amazing and they need to know that they're in me willing to unearth their potential and truly be, I believe it's my calling in life. Pray to really help people understand who they are and what they have to offer and to draw that out of them and make them believe in themselves if you will. So it just seemed like a really natural fit. How long have you been at Adobe now? 12 Years at Adobe and 5 years in this role. Wow. And what is the biggest change that you've seen? I mean, in terms of employee advocacy, you know, I've seen a massive shift in how people look at neurodiversity, but diversity as a whole. What have you seen? Uh, what, what change have you seen since when you started? Not, not just Adobe, but like worldwide. What change have you seen when you started and between them and now, referring to diversity or employee advocacy. Let's start with diversity. Well, so diversity now it's no longer about tokenism, right? It's no longer about just representation, but the concept that it's diversity and inclusion- I think people are catching onto the inclusion and that inclusion is not. Something that can be really quantified per se, but it's a feeling right? It's do you feel included or not- and I think the focus there is the biggest change that I've seen. Whereas when I first started in the tech world, it seemed far more about, you know, what percentage of which underrepresented group do you have and is that acceptable and what are you doing to move those numbers, and there wasn't much talk about inclusion at all. I find. Do you find that employees as a whole are starting to sort of embrace their diversity as, as opposed to some that used to have to be hidden? I'm finding that at least from the, on the ADHD side, in the neurodiversity side, I'm seeing that, are you seeing that as a whole? Very much so. I mean, I'm thinking that I think people are really recognizing that it is a superpower- much like to your preamble at the beginning here, you know, that the seed of the blessing, not a curse, it is a gift. And I think more and more of us are really believing that as we're invited to bring our whole selves to work. And more and more companies are realizing that they're leaving far much at the door on the table by not inviting people to bring all of themselves to work and encouraging them not to compartmentalize like we used to have to, right. It was considered unprofessional to bring your background and all of the glorious parts of who you are beyond just the professional to work. And now it's considered a, you know, it's not just in quiet, encouraged, but it was required for you to excel and succeed. Well, let me ask, okay, let me ask you this. In terms of diversity, what have you sort of taught Adobe? What would you say the top things are that a company big or small can do one of the things they should definitely be doing the basic things they should be doing without question, that should be no brainers? Well, so we get our pipeline and, and, and, you know, making sure that you are recruiting from these underrepresented areas of populations within the community, right. That you're actually going and seeking and recruiting from those buckets of people and keeping yourself casting as wide a net as possible. I think that that's first and foremost. Right. And, and, uh, I don't know that I would say much more than that, Peter, because I don't want to overcomplicate things. Right. It's like the right folks in the door first and foremost, just to have the conversation. And then from there. You're bound to find the right debt. But if you only go and look at the siloed areas, you're just missing out on a huge population of the industry of the world. If you will. One of the things that I've seen is it's something that has to be embraced from top down, right? If you don't have top down, buy in from this, all the hard work you do is irrelevant. That's right. That's right. Absolutely. And it needs to come top down and bottom up as well. Right? I mean, the folks, your peers need to be bought into it as well. It's not enough for it to be a leadership. Embracing it, but the folks that report to you that are your peers, it has to be a three 60 kind of a thing for it to fully take a fact and to have traction, but you're right. I mean, in terms of fundamentals, if it doesn't come from the top down, it's not going to go anywhere. Yeah. I've seen companies in the past, not see. Sort of they're sort of shooting themselves in the foot and the respect. They haven't seen the value, you know? Oh, we're, we're a diverse company. We, you know, we, they, they wind up being diverse as it applies to the, to the ADA, right. The American disabilities act. And they sort of consider themselves on point, but it feels more like it's course. And what I've found is that when that happens, it's you see right through that. Absolutely. I mean, if you're doing it to be a chapter and the buck to get appropriate funding to be politically correct, but so obvious. Right? How long have you been at Peter for the outside world? So obvious for employees, right. And then not going to get any kind of passion. You're not gonna get any kind of retention. You're not going to get employees to actually advocate and be ambassadors for you because they know they know you're not being authentic. You, they know that the words and the deeds are not matching. Um, and there's nothing more tragic than that, right? Because you're going to actually mobilize your employees to be your biggest brand ambassadors. You've got to be authentic and they got to believe in you and they got to believe in what you stand for. And they want to, they got to want to be a part of it. Interesting that companies that, uh, the rewards that they reap from. Pulling pushing forward on diversity right now, even, not even just trying. Right. But when they actually do it, they find benefits and rewards that they didn't even know existed, but they weren't even seeing about. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, think about the diversity of thought, right? If you, first of all, if you've got a group of people that are mirroring or a workforce that mirrors their customer base and the communities that you're trying to serve, they're going to be able to bring ideas to the table in terms of consumer buying habits are what, what experiences customers and community members want. Right? They're going to be able to problem solve, but make credit products be more innovative, right? I mean, the philosophy at Adobe is that if you feel appreciated and included you are going to be more creative, innovative, and ultimately more successful what we call our belief and we named that hashtag Adobe for all, right? But I tell you, Peter, it's not a hashtag. Right. It's not solely the lifeless, nameless hashtag. I've been at Adobe for 12 years and you know, that's unimaginable in tech. Right. But I stay there and I we're always tell people someone's going to have to really walk me out the door for me to leave just because the company embraced stays so fully and, and you see it pretty much in every action, right? Every summit, every product, every tough conversation we're having in terms of our numbers, in terms of complete employee surveys. It's a real joyful thing. I mean, by no means have we arrived. There's tons of more work for us to do as will be the case at any company but effort the actual passion and the commitment is unmatched. I have yet to see something like this. You know, at such a huge company like Adobe. I mean, you guys are, you guys are a monster you're massive. And yet it's almost second nature in that the diversity of inclusion within the company is automatic. Right. And it amazes me that a company that big can have that done so well. Right. So to the point where it seems seamless, and I'm curious as to why so many other companies have a problem following suit. I wonder what the different secret sauce is. It's hard to tell Peter, but I would say from an inside out perspective, I think. There's this like intimacy at scale at Adobe, for example, one of our MVPs recently retired. Here's this senior, senior sales, exactly who reports to our CEO and this gentleman, I mean, he's flying the world. He has a massive organization that he's leading and yet, Peter, there has not been a single day that he's run across me at the elevator or wherever, calls me by name knows something about my children, knows something about what's going on in life, you know, and of course you may feel like, Oh, that's specific to me, but then I've seen him do that to employee after employee. And I feel like it's that like small mom and shop feel that the company has continued to hold on to, even though we're 24,000 strong worldwide. So there's that real, you know, there's that real investment in people and truly, truly believe that our workforce is our biggest asset. And so I think from that fundamental, like innate embracing of that, then you scale, right? Which is why I'm calling it an intimate at scale. Get into bed and get up close and personal first and then put the operational rigor in place to expand and scale, but start with that relationship first. I think it's the same in our insider's program, right. We…

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Courageous Communicator, Actor Katherine Kendall Aug 12, 2020

Show notes

Today's guest Katherine Kendall, is an actress most known for her roles of Dorothy in Jon Favreau's "Swingers" and The Counselor in the cult classic "Firefly". She is also a photographer and an artist. She was one of the first women to come forward about being sexually assaulted by Harvey Weinstein in Jodi Kantor's article in the New York Times on October 10, 2017. Since then she's been interviewed on CNN and several other news outlets, as well as documentaries. She's been a keynote speaker, and participated on panels about emotional and sexual abuse around the country. She is currently hosting her own podcast called "Roar with Katherine Kendall". It focuses on stories of courage and resilience. Today we talk about the lessons she's learned that enable her to run a busy & healthy life as an actress, and as an advocate. Enjoy! ***CORONA VIRUS EDITION*** In this episode Peter & Katherine Kendall discuss: 1:03- Intro and welcome Katherine! 2:20- When were you diagnosed? 6:00- On learning how to prepare for work and the benefits of hiring out for help 9:40- On setting reasonable expectations and standards for your ADD or ADHD self! 11:30- What advice would you give to someone who is trying to come forward about something, but is afraid of what other people are going to say? 13:50- On "what other people think" 14:20- On the importance of good friends 14:40- Tell us about your podcast "Roar with Katherine Kendall"!! 17:00- On keeping it real on Social Media Speaking of which; find her podcast here: Roar with Katherine Kendall and @roarwithkk on Twitter, and roarwithkk on INSTA and on Facebook 17:20- Thank you Katherine! 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! 17:45- 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 this episode of Faster Than Normal, thrilled that you are here as. Always good to have you. It is a hot and muggy day in New York city. It is early August. We're actually recording this the day before my birthday. Uh, I will be turning 48 years old tomorrow and could not care less. So with that said, we have a fun, fun guest on the podcast. I met Katherine Kendall. Probably two years ago, maybe even two and a half years ago, we were both speaking on a panel about, I believe it was right at the beginning of the, when the me too movement first started gaining traction. She's an actress most known for her, at least I knew her from her role as Dorothy in John Primroses' "Swingers" And she was also the counselor in the cult classic "Firefly", which let me tell you, we got some Firefly people on the spot who love this podcast and they're going to freak right now. She's a great photographer and an artist. She was also one of the first women to come forward, being sexually assaulted by Harvey Weinstein and Jody Kanter's article in the New York times back in October of 2017, since then she's been on CNN, several other news outlets, documentaries. She's a keynote speaker, she's participated on tons of panels about emotional and sexual abuse around the country. Um, I, I follow everything she does. She's currently hosting her own podcast called "Roar with Katherine Kendall" and focuses on stories of courage, courage, and resilience. So live from LA. Hello, Katherine. How are you? Hi, how are you? It's great to be here. I am so glad you're here today. It is great to see you again. Um, yeah, it's, it's, it's, you know, being a podcast with ADHD and ADD; I know that you have ADD as well, and you've had it all your life as well. And I'm curious let's let's just sort of kick this off- were you as a kid, you weren't diagnosed until you were older, right? Yeah. Not until I was a lot older. And I think that what helped me as a kid was I was a ballet dancer. So I had this place to put myself like physically is where I excelled. And, um, you know, I was always the kid that didn't want to sit down in a desk for very long. I never could sit at a desk and do my home and my homework, like I had to walk around the house, go, you know, just, I mean, you know, like even memorizing lines as an actor, I have to walk to memorize them. It's just, it's really hard for me to, uh, just, you know, sit, sit still and, you know, just be like a good student. Um, and it was, but I didn't know that it [ADD] was a thing until I was older, um and some of the ways that also gets it happens for me is I'll get like confused on, on dates or organizing things. I have to work extra hard, you know, my calendar. I have like reminders everywhere and I'm the kind of person they'll be like, no, it's Wednesday, it's Wednesday. And we're like, no, it's Thursday. I'm with it. I'm just not, you know, always the organized part is not always, I think, I think online for me. That definitely affects a lot of people. I mean, we see that all the time. I can't tell you how many people I've interviewed or even myself, you know, when I absolutely positively 100% intend to do something it's in the calendar and 14 reminders. And the next day I'm like, crap. I think I was supposed to do something yesterday. Do you have that too? I know that it affected my confidence later in life. I was like, this is not me that, you know, because people think it's, it's something you're doing unconsciously cause you don't really want to do it or it means something. And when you're sort of thinking now it doesn't mean anything; I really genuinely forgot. And then you feel like you're not smart or something and that's the worst- cause then your confidence starts to spiral. There is and huge connection between ADHD or add ADHD and imposter syndrome, where you pretty much assume that the majority of the things you've done where you've been successful have, obviously you've just gotten really lucky. It's all been a fluke, right. And there's no way you'll ever be able to do that again, because look at me, look at who I am. Totally, that's so true. So I assume that as an actress, that must be difficult as well. When, you know, you're constantly going up for roles and, and, and, you know, there's always that, that potential that you're going to get turned down or, you know, and, and that, that must ha how do you, when you're ADHD, when your ADD a lot of times, you, you are constantly way too hard on yourself, how do you deal with it um, in that role where you con you know, you might get turned down into 10 times. Yeah. I mean, that's been a, I feel like being an actor has been some kind of life lesson to help me deal with, with exactly that so that I've had to teach just myself not to take things personally or what to take personally and what to work on and what to absolutely not take personally. I mean, with parts, you know, they're not always hiring the most talented person or, you know, There's sometimes they're hiring the person with red hair or blonde hair, or who's tall enough or who's the right age to be the mother of that girl, or, um, and you have to kind of know that there's so many other things that go into what gets you the job um, that have nothing to do with how well you did, you can only like- your part is that you can, you can control the work you do before the audition, but the rest of it, you have to learn to say it isn't personal and it's difficult, but it's a good lesson to learn. Cause it's a, it's a life lesson, like not taking things personally. And is it something that you're constantly struggling with? I mean, have you mastered that or is it still..? Yeah, I'm so much better. I mean, it is, it's really remarkable. Um, I don't think I had any concept of that when I first started acting and everything was personal, it always hurt and things still hurt don't get me wrong, but I'm much better at sort of having a Teflon sort of skin about things. And, um, I also, I think. Yeah. The, the, the way I talk to myself about things is better. One thing I do the ADHD part also for me is the memorizing of lines. I'm like, yeah, they're getting all that ready for the audition. I, I, I really need to get myself more time than the average person, even if I'm in an acting class, I'll ask for my, my, my scene ahead of time so that I can really, I need more time to memorize, um, so that I can do my best job. So preparation-learning to prepare is so been the hardest part. Cause, um, if I think I can do it at the same rate that other people can, um, I'm kidding myself and I'm setting myself up to fail. That's an interesting point because a lot of times. People in the workforce are afraid to step up and say, Hey, I need some extra accommodation here, but in the end, the extra accommodation allows you to do your best work, which allows the employer to thrive. It really does. I mean, I'm, I'm still learning it, but when I see other people do it and they do it effectively, I'm like, Oh, that makes so much sense. I remember I did a job and this guy had, he had an assistant, which I had not even heard of at that time, who literally just ran lines with him. And I was like, you know, that's crazy! I didn't know that you could do that! And I thought, well, that's worth it; I would pay to do that. Like if that's my issue and I need that once I'm on the, on the job that that has to be there, or you can't waste people's money and time by not knowing your lines. Yeah. Why not get an assistant, why not hire that out? And I was, so I kind of admired him for just calling it what it was and taking care of himself that way. So he could be awesome. One of the things that I've seen, um, that I've found to be just 100% true. Um, everything I've done lately, since, since I was diagnosed, is that if I can hire it out, if I can farm it out, if it's something I'm terrible at and I can pay someone to do it, who's better at it than me. That is always good money spent. I think so too. I think there too. And I think it's fair to not hold ourselves to this standard of this person who can do everything themselves. Um, I don't know who that person is. Well in my life is my mom. She can do that, like a perfect person who can do everything. Like she's never, she doesn't have ADHD, she can read a book, you know, without having to put it down ten times, you know, she's just, um, Can focus. She can all those things that I've had a hard time with, but if you don't compare yourself to her and I joke with her about it, you don't compare yourself to someone or some, some person who has sort of abnormal standards. Like, the rest of the world is, is flawed in the rest of the world is doing what they have to do so they can do their best. Why are we so hard on ourselves? Why do we make it so difficult? Why are we trying to be like these wonder people that can do it all? I don't know what that is. Do you think that's like an old idea from, from our parents' generation or something that you have to do everything yourself? I think it's partly that. And I think that it's also the fact that we look around us and we tend to only see everyone else's highlight reel. We never see their day to day struggles. Right? You know, you don't post the crappy really bad at you post the you know, the best parts and you have to learn that that's not reality. You know, it's what I heard a quote. Once don't don't compare your chapter two to someone else's chapter 10. Oh, that's good, right? Yeah. I'm sorry. Go ahead. I was just going to say everybody has something that they can't do, you know, like even doing all these Zoom meetings now and stuff, my mom is like, wait, I don't know how to do my hair and makeup. I don't know how to, I have to lead a meeting and we're, I don't even know how to set this up and how, Oh, you know, she can't do everything, you know, it's like, you gotta remember, like, there's always an area where somebody is not their thing and you might have a thing where you shine and you can help them. I I'm I'm I, what am I really good at? I'm really good at like riding my Peloton bike a lot, but anyway, let me, yeah, throughout the past five months, this of his nightmare that we're all in. Let me switch topics for a second. When you came out in, um, uh, October of '17 Jodi Kantor article about Harvey Weinstein, which was before his fall from grace, right. He was still king back then, um, perceived to be. And that was, uh, a really risky moment for you and, you know, personally and professionally, and, and, and I've read, I think I've read it somewhere where you talked about being scared to do it, but you did it, and, what advice would you have for people who are trying to come forward about something or just trying to tell their story and are afraid aren't doing it because they're afraid of what other people are going to say? Yeah, that's a great question. Um, I would say that for me at that time, part of it honestly, Peter, is being the age that I am, that I was, you know, I'm. I was 48, I think at the time or 47. And I had lived with this truth about what he did to me for so long. I really didn't care anymore. What Hollywood thought or what my friends thought. I knew that people that I knew in my close circle loved me and cared about me. And that's all I really needed to know. The rest was just the truth, which is that he did it. And if it was going to help other people that helped me, like, I don't know if I would have done it in a vacuum all by myself with the New York times, just me, Katherine Kendall, talking about it. But knowing that I was backing up other women that think my story was so similar to theirs and they needed it that did help me, but also knowing that, knowing in m…

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Motivation Inspiration Perspiration and The Now w/ Rachel Young Aug 05, 2020

Show notes

Today's guest Rachel says: I was a distraction. I could be disruptive. I used to think this was the way it was always going to be. I used to believe the labels that had been assigned to me through my life were who I was. My brain was like popcorn and would work at four million miles per hour. I really thought this was my identity and who I was. I had allowed myself to be defined by the labels and experiences, rather than using them to shape me. I believed I would never be good enough because 'that' was who I was, and you can't change …. Or can you? Powered by a supercharged ADHD driven mind. I am sharing the motivation, inspiration and perspiration from the university of my life. I'm Rachel Young, I was put on this planet to make a difference to people's lives and to get people moving, both physically and mentally. I am a highly motivated (and very easily distracted) character. Simply put, I love the fitness industry and I love nothing more than helping others to become the best version of themselves. I have over 30 years of experiences, stories, highs and lows from my adventures in the fitness industry. I am driven by people but results are key and that is what I deliver. I've worked around the world in exciting, high profile roles and love nothing more than meeting new people and enabling others to achieve their true potential. I am passionate about fitness, health and wellbeing; physical, mental and emotional - you can't be truly 'well' unless you focus on them all. This passion is backed up by my knowledge and expertise in all things programming, training, education, products, member experience and retention. I am an innovative motivator who thrives on rising to any challenge; I love a challenge and the thrill of the chase. I am ferociously committed to sharing my experience of refocusing, rewiring & redefining myself, my personal development, my life experiences and my life in the fitness world, with the intention of making an impact on you. My videos and stories are underpinned by my personal story of self development, acknowledging my ADHD traits and how, by harnessing these, I have been able to make dramatic change in all aspects of my life. I have had incredibly dark times in my life as I am sure we all have. I have worked through these and have grown to understand and appreciate how our brains works, especially in challenging times. This journey has been an incredible roller -coaster; it hasn't been an easy ride, but it certainly is worth it! Lockdown forced the extrovert to look in, there were no distractions or excuses to make - its was finally time to bring all the learning together and launch my website: https://www.areyousupercharged.com/ Today we're learning about physical, mental and emotional health. Enjoy! ***CORONA VIRUS EDITION*** In this episode Peter & Rachel discuss: :55- Intro and welcome Rachel Young! 1:29- Tell us your story! 4:08- When you are labeled in school as "one of the naughty kids" it almost becomes a self fulfilling prophecy doesn't it; let's talk about that. 6:58- If you could tell your 14yr-old-self something from what you know today, what would that be? 7:33- What do you think we're missing or leaving out when we talk to kids about neurodiversity today? 8:44- On the ADHD "Now" and the "Not Now" 9:26- How do you handle people in the workplace who are not neurodiverse like us; how do you handle deadlines, schedules and so on? 10:40- What's a-day-in-the-life like for you Rachel? 12:07- How do you bring yourself back, if you fall out of that "zone of focus"? 14:52- What is your other superpower? Find Rachel on the web at www.areyousupercharged.com and on Socials @ChargedAre on Twitter, areyousupercharged on INSTA, @AreYouSupercharged on FB and on YouTube & LinkedIn 15:25- Thank you Rachel! 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! 15:56- 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, welcome back to another episode of faster than normal. I'm thrilled that you're here. We took a couple of weeks off this summer when all around the world explore and had lovely dinners. No we're not going any of that crap, we're still in a little pandemic. Wear your masks! But that being said is great to be back and we get a great guests. Today we're going all the way to Nottingham England to welcome Rachel Young, Rachel is a director of business development in the fitness industry, and she has had ADHD pretty much all her life and she realized what used to be a horrendous challenge has moved her to what she calls a supercharged, ADHD, driven mind, and she shares what innovation, inspiration and perspiration. From the university of her life. So welcome, Rachel. Good to have you. Thanks very much for having me Peter, I'm pretty excited to be here today and to be able to share with you. Love it. I love it. Tell us your story. So you were never formally diagnosed, but tell us your story about how you discovered it, how you discovered it. You see, what was it like as a kid? Tell us the whole thing. As you said never formally diagnosed, but I was kind of mislabeled and misdiagnosed at school and fell into the naughty kid brackets and actually wore that incredibly well. Um, I was the one that was easily, easily distracted. Um, the one that I couldn't pay attention put outside class because you weren't in zone and you weren't focusing. So then you put outside of class, you're kind of hanging out with all the other naughty kids. And you almost fall into that category of, of misbehaving. Um, I always thought that, you know, the constant noise and chatter in my head was, was what everybody had. And there was journeys throughout my life where I'd been incredibly successful, but in spite of myself, and I didn't understand what was going on. And so I actually threw myself headfirst into. Lots of kind of self management and thriving on the stress, thriving on life, working horrendous long hours to almost self medicate, clearly throwing yourself into alcohol and the wrong things. But then finally sort of was able to appreciate that it was probably better than the circumstances, better than what was going on. And it was actually locked down and been on a bit of a journey, you know, throughout my life , knowing that I had to recognize this. But actually locked down is a, is a tiny I've actually thrived upon irrespective of, you know, the challenging circumstances. And as a, as a natural extrovert, I was forced to look in. There was no distractions. There were no excuses. There was no reason to focus on anything else. Apart from looking inward and looking at myself and going actually. How do I stop this noise that I intermittently stopped over the years? How do I focus on making myself the best version of me? And I have to admit, to be honest with you. I was pretty scared. I was pretty scared at the beginning of lockdown, not for health reasons, but I was actually scared what was going to what I was going to find by looking in. How I was going to be able to manage it and deal with it. And I kind of appreciated over the journey that the things that I've learned through my life, the learnings that I dipped in and out, all of them in terms of trying to study, I could actually leverage by just focusing a little bit differently. The first port of call I went to was kind of a meditation. Let's stop for a second. Let's go back to what you were saying about school. You know, it's really interesting when, when you are labeled as one of the naughty kids and almost as a self fulfilling prophecy, right? In the respect of, well, if you labeled that way and you're not in class, you're going to get into trouble. Yeah, 100% and you almost, you wear those labels. So it was my, my identity and I, it was who I became. And during those times at school, you know, the rest of the group were. Almost looking to me to be the joker. And actually I became the cool kid. So I was, you know, I had loads of friends, but I wasn't, I wasn't very well popular with the family when my school reports would come home. And actually more recently I've looked at all my old school reports and I read them and I, it was a real eye opener, that things like a disruptive, the less said the better, um, I want those labels really stuck with me. I remember one in particular. I remember the conversation with my dad when my score report came home and it says, has not reached her full potential. And I was, I was devastated. I was very, very upset by it. But the funny thing was my dad was saying to me, this is brilliant. You're only 14. You know, if you'd reached your full potential, now I'll be quite upset then. But he can joke about it now, and I can make humor out of the most situations. But when you look back and see what was written, that had a dramatic impact because I wore them, I wore those tags. That's the thing is that, is that you, you find that when you're labeled something, you have two roads, you either accept it or you fight against it. Yeah, I accepted those ones. And I would always use them as I kind of refer it, refer to them as my comfy pair of slippers. So when I was, you know, almost ending kind of as sort of throughout my career, I've been really successful. And as I have been successful, there was a part of me that was tapping away at the shoulder going. But you're disruptive, you're distracting. You're never going to advance a much, you know, and all of those reports would be almost my comfort zone that I would slip back into until honestly, until recently when I've had the, I guess, the courage to be authentic about who I am. my experiences managing my, my superpower, learning how to learn. I was always told that I wasn't going to be, you know, amount to anything because I couldn't learn, I couldn't pay attention. So I would almost have a fear of picking up a book or trying to learn because I didn't want to fail. I didn't want to be bad at it. What do you think? Um, if you could tell your 14 year old self something now, knowing what you know today, what would you tell her? I would say that you're capable of great things and that the biggest muscle and the best muscle in your body is your brain. Don't be constrained by anybody else's hashtags and be accountable to the man in the mirror. You know, my dad used to always say to me, remember who you are and remember who you are. And the value of that is it's all about, it's all about you. What do you think we're missing when we talk to kids about ADHD and neurodiversity today, what do you think? What are we not telling them that we should be? That it's okay. That it's okay to be able to talk and to speak out. It's okay to share your feelings. Um, you are not alone in this constant noise and brain chatter. Um, and. I think it also goes not only to the communication to those kids, but it's also to the rest of the kids, around them to get a bit of an understanding of who they're dealing with and how to, you know, my, one of my biggest learnings about me was being more accepting to other people and more, you know, it's a two way street, isn't it? So either you're on the ADHD side offense or you're on the senior, the path they'll roll parent's side of the fence. And that's a big understanding. You know, when they won't answer the phone and you've got something really exciting to share. Like I'm, I'm the most important person in the world, but you know, you've got to realize that perhaps that person's, you know, busy or doing something right now. And if they do busy, you, it's not because they're not interested. And that I think is one of the basic thing that people don't realize is when you're ADHD every day, there's two types of time there's now and there's not now, and that's it, right? The concept of waiting or taking time out either it doesn't really exist in our world. And we need to sort of come to terms with that and figure out ways to deal with it. So then when the now and the not now, sorry, the now and the not now is a big thing for me. And I think that's how I, I would never say no to anything. So throughout kind of my, my, my professional career, I would take on every single project and I would probably complete them not to the best of my ability, but I would just say yes to everything. So even in the middle of a project, someone goes, do you think you could consider taking this on absolutely. Now. What do you think about, talk about what you do in the workplace and how you handle deadlines. How do you handle working with people who are not all the way we are? Um, made sure that my, my work station and my environment is set up well, so conducive to me being productive. So no distractions, I would have a windows shop. Sorry, curtain shut. So I can't actually look out the window. I made sure that my technology is tamed and my notifications are turned off. So there are no directions, sorry, distractions or incoming. Unless I'm in control of that. I find that when I go into a meeting, I have to set the room up and structure it. So I want to sit with my kind of back to the window and focus really hard on it. I'm paying attention to that room. I think. The biggest, the biggest thing has been the meditation and creating the brain space for me or the mind space, not to just react, just jump, just get distracted. And it is, it is a full time job. That's what I didn't appreciate managing, managing me as a full time job. That's managing you as a full time job. I like that! "Managing me is a full time job". I need have a tee shirt made with that, um, Talk about what, what kind of things you do at work or talking about, you're talking about your day. I mean, talk about, uh, you know, when you wake up, do you exercise? How do you get the dopamine? Things like that. Yeah, 100 percent. Fitness has always been a massive part of my life. I'm in the fitness i…

Full show notes at the publisher

A Check-up w/ Coach David Roher Special Ed Teacher Ironman Trainer Jul 08, 2020

Show notes

David is not only my best friend, he is my running partner, he's my triathlon coach and he was the one who got busted with me when we both got a summons for exercising in Central Park in the morning before it opened. He's been with me through thick and thin and I'm glad he was around to join us. Today we're learning how things have been going for him during these weird days, his advice and perspective as a teacher, a husband, father, and an Iron Man coach who is also- you guessed it- ADHD. Enjoy! ***CORONA VIRUS EDITION*** In this episode Peter & David discuss: :58- Intro and welcome David Roher! 2:00- How's it going right now from your perspective as a Special Education teacher? 3:30- How are the kids handling it? 4:22- Why do you think elementary schoolers are having such a tough time of it? 5:04- Does T-Pain have all the answers? No, just a wild-timed digital audio glitch! 5:32- On a child's mental process & adaptation during a pandemic 6:28- How are you holding up? 7:40- On acknowledging things out loud 8:00- Have there been any particularly difficult elements of all of this for you? 8:32- We've adapted many times before- we can do this! 9:00- What percentage of your survival would you credit to exercise? 10:17- Do you think we all get a "pass for effort" this year so far? 11:32- Thank you! Hey how can we find you? @davidroher140.6 on INSTA or via www.tricoachdavid.com 12:12- David's final thoughts for us. 12:58- Thank you David for joining us today! 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! 13:20- 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 the episode of faster than normal. You know, during the summer it gets tough to find guests. I don't know where they all go. I guess they go outside of the country. They leave, they, they, they snuggle up, they avoid COVID, whatever it is, but, but fortunately. You know, at the end of the day, I still have people that matter. And one of those people is my very good best friend, David Roher. I have known David now more than, Oh my God, it's going to be 10 years in October. And we met. On the run course of my first iron man, iron man in 2010, because we were both dying and both exhausted, but we still have both managed to finish the iron man. And David, we knew right away, we were massively ADHD. We knew right away. We were basically brothers from another mother, David. Good to have you back. My friend. Good to be here. Peter David, you interviewed me God a while back. I think it was my hundredth episode. Something like that. Right. You're 100th was your parents, but I interviewed you a couple of years before that. And it was definitely a summer. It was the first time I met Ruth Carter. Yep. So yeah, long time it's been a while, but David, David is my not only my, my best friend is my running partner. He's my triathlon coach. Um, we have done, we have, we have, David was the one who got busted with me when we got, when we got summons for exercising and central park before it opened, uh, he's been with me through thick and thin, and that seemed to have be back, man. So. Tell me, you're a teacher and you guys went onto homes. You, you went to homeschooling not only for your kids, but for your, as a teacher back in March. That's correct. March 13th is when we were told today's the last day. You're not coming in on Monday, bring your iPads with you. And this is what we're going to do. We're going live now from home. But what happened in White Plains is they said, we're going to use a website. We all emailed our students and I would call homes and talk to parents and talk to students. But since the middle of March, I've not really seen my students. And that's a really difficult place to be when you're a teacher and you teach special education and being able to be one on one with them is a big piece of it. No question about it. So how, how have you been handling that, you know, with the premise that, that, um, especially for you, it's kind of students you work with and what you, you know, the way you teach you're really hands on. Right? So that's, has that been tough? It's been very difficult, you know, when you teach special ed and you are a special ed student, as you alluded to, I understand the kids and we live in a world where you don't physically touch students, but you connect to them by making eye contact by understanding the nuances of physical movements. And when you don't have that, it's really hard to read them. It's like an email. Where I can't tell the intent of an email, let me stick an emoji. And there's at least they know I'm there. I'll be trying to communicate a positive five, right? No question about it. What about, um, and how did the kids handle it? Cause I know that, you know, all I know is, is, is, is from my, my, uh, my daughter that's been, she's been having a tough time. How did the kids been handling? So I teach high school. So my high school students, I had. From September til March to make that connection with them. And so they did phenomenally well, I was so proud of them. You know, they got the work in, they reached out to me. If I hadn't heard from anybody, I reached out to them. We made sure that they had access to the website. We made sure that we were able to provide the supports for them. The teenagers adapted very well to this model. But these are high schoolers. Now I can tell you, because I'm a parent, I have a ninth grader and a parent of a second grader. I think the elementary school kids had a much more difficult time with this. Yeah. Talk about why you think that is and how have your kids been helping? Well, you know, my son is a year older than your daughter and my son is on the spectrum. So he has, in addition to his add, he has other issues. Yes. What we call high functioning and you know what I mean? He's just my kid, right. There are certain characteristics when you have students like that. And my wife has been home because she was asked by her job workshop down in the office. Nobody come in, she sat one on one with them. So he flourished on the environment, but he flourished because he had an adult sitting with them, refocusing him and being able to help him. I think that's the real key here. When you're dealing with elementary school children. Yeah, I think there's a lot of that. You know, the, the, the concept of, if the kids don't know what's going on, all of a sudden they know they're not with their friends. Right. And you try to explain to them what the buyers is, but, you know, it's tough. They, they thrive on, uh, they thrive on connection. They thrive, you know, their job as, as, as, as six year old seven year olds, eight year olds is to make friends. It's really funny to watch that first, second, third grade brain adapt to this. On the one hand they go, okay, it's COVID I have to wear a mask. I don't wanna get the virus. I got to stay home. But on the other hand, they're now trying to process in their brain. How do I take the way I operate? And modify that. Right. And some from some kids from a psychological perspective, you know, I always say when you suppress something, it's like pushing a water balloon down under water, something's going to pop up. So we see kids find this amazing adaptive skill, but for some kids, it's just, I'm getting bored and burned out. I'm getting fatigued, little kids fatigue faster on zoom. I believe. Well, I think it's also the premise that the kids have this thing about. Um, you know, they, they don't sit still cause they're kids, right? So you, you show 'em, you show the premise of like, okay, and now we're gonna discuss this. And all of a sudden, you know, one of the kids is holding up their cat. Right. It just, it's harder when, when they're not in class and they don't have that same structure with the other kids. How are you holding? Because I know that from, from my person, from my standpoint of ADHD is the brutal, you know, being able to try to, um, just be human, right. You know, and try to do the things I normally do has been tough for me. What about you? It's not been that difficult, to be honest. I mean, for me, my world revolves around the following things. I'm an Orthodox Jews. So I get up the morning and I say, my prayers, well, I've never had a problem praying at home instead of going to services. Um, teaching, I get up in the morning and I look at the work hand in hand by my students. I programmed the next set of lessons for those students. Not difficult. I'm an athlete. Well, I can't swim, but I can still bike and I can still run. And I desperately miss my swimming cause that's my love my source. So there was a certain adoptation to that. And then there was the, we have to go to the store. At some point we can't hide in the house and I know people who literally had their food delivered to them and I respect that, but we went to the store, we shaped steps, we stayed six feet. We wear a mask, we wear gloves, you know, human beings are incredibly adaptable. And so for me, it was just. All right. I have to mentally make a note. Cause I have add, this is the change I have to do. And if I say it out loud and I say to my wife and she echoes it back at me now, many modal levels, this is a teaching thing. People have conversations in their head. You never live in your head. You have often said, don't run space in your head. I say, don't live in your head. If you say it out loud, it becomes so much easier to become an adaptable you where you own it. And then you can adjust to the change. Has there been any parts of this that has been harder than others? There were a couple of times where I've gotten out of the car and go, Oh, I've got to go get my mask and he'd go to the store. just really swimming was my anchor to my sanity every Monday morning was I swim and it's my moment to vege and to let my mind wander because when I'm swimming, I don't have to think breathing becomes autonomous. And I miss that and it became a, what am I going to do? Just replace this. So I don't feel. Something is lacking. You know, we've been through times in our lives here where our lives have been disrupted. This is not the first time we went through hurricane say, Andy, for hurricane Sandy. We went with the blackout of August. I think it was three. Yeah. We went through nine 11, you know, so we're adults who have learned to adjust to these things. If we are on a. With ourselves. And we say, this is a change. Let me figure out how I'm going to approach it. I mean, maybe it's a teacher mindset where we plan things and we go, wow. Lessons go sideways. What is your B plan? If the lesson doesn't work or the technology goes down at what, what percentage of your surviving do you think, uh, exercises played a role. 50% of it. And the other 50% is talking to my wife. My wife, Janet is an incredible person who. When we started dating, I was in a bad mood and I said, tonight, I'm going to bed. And she goes, no, you're staying right here. And you're talking to me. Yeah, that was the moment I realized I'm marrying this woman. So having that partner, having she does for me, what you do for me, what I do for you, you know, that echo chamber that will call you on your bullshit. Right. And that's been half of it. And we do that for each other. You do that for me. And such and such. Yeah. But the exercises you're alluding to is definitely a big, big component. I'm going to get stir crazy. If I sit too long, ah, I got the bike set up in the garage. I'm going to go, I'm going to watch some Netflix episodes and you know, I'm going to binge it all pedal and I'll burn off the energy and I'll, it'll kick up the endorphins and yeah, I'll get the brain, make it its own serotonin and. And I'm focused. I know that we've always thought about trying to improve every race let's get faster. Let's get faster. Do you think that we all get a pass this year? That as long as we just get out and do something it's okay. Are you asking your friend or your coach? Cause we get two answers. I'm asking you, I'm asking as a, as one human being to another. Hmm. I think this has been an incredible opportunity for us. You know, there are people like losing their shit. Dude, my raise seasons. Oh my God. I'm looking at this. Wow. We just took a three month build up to Ironman training and turn it into another 12 months. How much stronger can we get? How much more mental break can we get between the workouts? I always build in those gaps because life happens. How much more time. Can we remind our family, Hey, thank you for supporting me in this. And it doesn't have to be triathletes cause you know the joke about triathletes. I didn't know when one walks into a bar. Yeah, exactly. It can be anything you're passionate about this. Get this moment gives us an opportunity to reflect step back and not be rushing to a place because so many people were furloughed or working from home that, you know what we get to remember why we got it. Into a relationship with the people we're living with. Yep. Well, I'll leave it at that. You know, David's, it's funny, your, your premise of, Hey, we were doing so much, we're trying, and yet you ran with me this morning at 6:00 AM and I noticed that you also did another 5k, uh, just, uh, just the 10:45 AM. So, you know, I take everything you say with a grain of salt, but I am so glad that you came on and talked to us today. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Um, you have a new website, don't you? What's the link. Ah, you can tell them, Peter, what is the link to Dave triathlon website? It is trying, I believe it's try coach david.com. Correct. And you can go and see what David's doing and, and if you're ever thinking, Hey, can I do an iron man? Well, as I'm li…

Full show notes at the publisher

Creator, Comedian, Mental Health Advocate Eric D'Alessandro Jun 10, 2020

Show notes

New York native Eric D'Alessandro has always found his place in the spotlight. His passion for comedy is equally credited to his creative mindset, as well as his big Italian family which inspires his raw comedic sketches and uncensored,relatable rhetoric. Having grown up with a camera in his hand, Eric created a YouTube channel where he developed his comedic skills from a young age. Through his sketches which feature original characters like "Maria Marie," as well as impressions of celebrities like Drake and comedic covers of popular songs, his YouTube platform helped Eric build a loyal fanbase. The millions of views on his videos laid the groundwork for Eric to gain over 98k followers on Instagram. Through social media, Eric is able to share original, timely and relatable content for the everyday American. A pivotal moment in Eric's career was when he moved cross-country to Los Angeles in order to pursue his passion as a creator. California has helped Eric generate a new fanbase that lies beyond the five boroughs, as well as provide him with a slew of new content, the major being the comparison of East Coast and West Coast lifestyles. Eric has sold out every show he has headlined, including 1,300 seats at New Jersey's iPlay America and has been featured on multiple podcasts and TV shows. Most notably, Eric was featured in the 2016 drama/mystery movie Nerve, alongside Emma Roberts and Dave Franco, in part because the film's directors added him to the script after seeing his viral videos. When Eric isn't creating his comedic content, he is exploring the opportunities he once dreamed of, including acting, producing, writing and directing. Today we learn how he came to grips with his Generalized Anxiety Disorder, how he uses his platform to benefit the conversation on mental health awareness, and how he chose Comedy, Acting and being a Creator as his career, enjoy!

***CORONA VIRUS EDITION***

In this episode Peter & Eric discuss:

1:04- Intro & welcome Eric D'Alessandro!

2:22- How and why did you start doing stand-up?

3:30- What was school like for you and did your Comedy help you?

5:00- A lot of Comedians have discussed being neurodiverse; did you ever look back and question your choice of Comedy?

6:25- On Robin Williams, Drugs, and live performing

7:30- How do you feel after performing?

12:30- What's the goal/your career goal within the Arts and Comedy?

13:43- Mental Health has seen a little more of the spotlight in the last few years; especially due to folks in the Arts speaking up and sharing. Given your platform, do you now feel even more responsible to talk about stuff? Ref: Feels CBD Oil video on Anxiety

17:05- What would you tell someone who realizes that they may be neurodiverse; but does not have the same, or even a similar support group and background to yours?

Ref: Gary Gulman's "The Great Depresh" special on HBO

19:00- Thanks so much Eric! This has been great! How can people find you, and where can we catch your act? @ericdalessandro on INSTA Twitter YouTube Cameo FB and via his website: https://www.ericdalessandro.com

19:55- Thank you Eric for joining us today! 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.

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

STAY HEALTHY - STAY SAFE - STAY HOME.. until next time!

20:20- 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!

ADHD Frontline Healthcare Professional Deitra Banning Jun 03, 2020

Show notes

Deitra is a single mom from the Scranton area who's living and loving life! Growing up, like most kids with ADHD, school was really rough for her. She was diagnosed with ADHD at around age ten after a lot of fighting her mother performed on her behalf. That experience instilled a drive and passion within her to help others. She currently works as a Certified Nursing Assistant at Wesley village in Pittston, PA. Now a mother to a 7 year old daughter who has a passion for the Arts, and especially for theater and singing. She is grateful for all of the support she receives from coworkers family and close friends- it takes a village! She says it's good to know that people are seeing just how awesome is it to be Faster Then Normal! Today we learn about her journey and what all she's doing to stay SANE during these historic times. Enjoy!

***CORONA VIRUS EDITION***

In this episode Peter & Deitra discuss:

1:04- Intro & welcome Deitra Banning!

1:54- You are a normal person- but you wouldn't be without your daily routines. Tell us about your story with ADHD.

2:45- Was ADHD even a "thing" when you were growing up?

3:20- What kinds of push-back did your mother encounter when she wanted to get you tested?

3:52- You are a Certified Nursing Assistant and a single Mom. How do you keep your structure and routines working, especially right now?

5:27- How are you talking to your daughter about everything that's going on?

6:05- Have you and your daughter talked about your ADHD?

9:30- What kinds of things are you doing other than your early morning workouts to keep your ADHD employed as a super power?

10:28- What do you do for fun?

10:50- What advice would you give to anyone who is feeling overwhelmed?

11:20- Thank you Deitra! How can people find you? @BanningDeitra on INSTA

11:54- Thank you Deitra Banning for joining us today! 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 - STAY HOME.. until next time!

12:14- Faster Than Normal Podcast info & credits

Librarian of the Year Activist Author Lauren Comito Jun 01, 2020

Show notes

Lauren Comito is a cape wearing, ukulele playing, sword swinging, activist librarian in NYC. She is currently a Neighborhood Library Supervisor at Brooklyn Public Library, Library Journal's 2020 Librarian of the Year, and is founder and the Chairwoman of the Board of Urban Librarians Unite, a national c3 not for profit focusing on providing training, advocacy, and support for front-line library staff working in large urban systems. Lauren has spent the last 30 years figuring out how to make her ADHD work for her, and has done a pretty good job of it. She is creative, passionate about connecting library patrons to the services they need, and a true believer in the ability of the library to change people's lives and communities for the better. Enjoy! ***CORONA VIRUS EDITION*** In this episode Peter & Lauren discuss: 1:32- Intro and welcome Librarian of the Year, Lauren Comito! Ref: Library Journal 3:05- So what happens at a Librarian of the Year awards banquet?? 4:15- What are the lion's names at the New York Public Library on 5th Ave? What are the Muppet critics' names? 4:48- So when were you diagnosed with ADHD? 5:50- How does someone with ADHD end up loving libraries? 7:14- Would you say libraries are mm… like the last bastion of societal levelazation, if that's even a word? 8:20- On new and antiquated "library tech" 9:40- How do you thrive with your ADHD? 11:53- What's the hardest part about having ADHD? Also, what's the hardest part about having ADHD as a Librarian? 12:48- So how are you handling the quarantine? 14:00- Sometimes the more you do, the less productive you are, or become. Have you hit any wall, or law of diminishing returns? 15:00- How do you say "no" when we always kinda need to say "yes"? 16:00- What's the best piece of advice you'd give to our listeners, especially during this era of Covid-19? 17:18- Other than being Librarian of the Year, what is the best, strangest, or whatever moment you've ever experienced as a librarian? 18:54- How can people find you? @Librarianator on INSTA or via www.LaurenComito.Rocks 19:19- Thank you Lauren for joining us today! 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! 20:00- 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. Coronavirus edition episode. I don't even know at this point, literally does it matter? Like every day it just sort of merges into days. We took a couple of weeks off to sort of get our bearings thought, we'd go away. That didn't work. So we're back and we're still here and we're still alive and we're still surviving. And I hope you guys are too. We're me. The damn mask. I'm so sick. You know, if we just, if we had done what China did, which was the Steve Irwin side, threaten to shoot them and say walked outside three months later, we'd all be back at work. And now we have those stupid things called freedom. And for some reason, half American thinks that not wearing a mask or wearing masterpiece of their freedom. So I'm not going to get that because that's on the show. It's not a show that we talk about that. Although it's driving me crazy where the DMS good enough. There's my rent. Thank you for being here. Good to have you. We have a guest today who is a librarian. She has an ADHD librarian. If there were ever did not fit together. You know, ADHD libraries I think is one of them. Two of those words, without question Lauren Camino is a Cape wearing ukulele playing sword, swinging activists, library, activists, librarian. That's like a band named miss librarian. In New York city, she's a neighborhood library supervisor at Brooklyn public library, library, library journals 2020 librarian of the year. All right. So I learned two things from that one. There's something called library journal, and they have a library of the year, which Lauren one, which I just think is freaking awesome. Lauren. Well, that's so cool. Librarian of the year. Welcome to faster than normal. I'm so glad to have you. Thanks. Yeah. The librarian of the year thing was a bit nuts. Worst possible year to be it, but, Oh, I'll tell you about it. There's the joke about 2020, right? I'm I'm I'm I'm uh, you know, in Hawaii. No, you're not. No, no, no, no, everybody, all my, all my friends who've had it before or like, it's going to be great. You're going to travel so much. Well, is that, is it like the award ceremony? I imagine I'm trying to imagine a librarian party. Is it just like, it's just like one big ass, like, can you not even talk about it? Is it like. What happens to the library, your library of the year awards. Yeah. So that was actually fun. Um, what they did was they put us up in front of everybody and then made us stand there and listen, as people said, nice things about us, which is. One of the most awkward experience that's about as low key exciting. I would expect a librarian of the award of the year award party. Yeah. That one is more official. There have been conferences where we have, um, drank out the bars, but that wasn't, that wasn't one of them where the bars ran out. I believe that for two days you would never expect, you know, I just, yeah. I imagined like a whole bunch of likely 50 or 60 librarians. Shutting down the bar for you, ribbons fat lions and like, just get wasted on good quality tequila. I can totally see that. It's always, yeah. The first time we hit it city for a conference, they're not expecting it. And the second time they know better. Alright, so, so let's talk. So I love libraries. I love to read, by the way, I got to ask you and you better know this, or it's gonna be, I'm gonna report it back to your boss. The name of the, what's the name of the lions. Patience and fortitude and named them that after the depression. Yes, he did. Oh, that's my girl. Right? That's like that. I don't work for New York public library question. Great question. That's important note, patience and fortitude. And what was the other, there's a follow up questions that, which is the name of the, uh, name of the two Muppets who sit up in the balcony and complain. Oh, that I don't remember because that's a New York thing to Statler and Waldorf. Yup. That makes sense. Very cool. So when were you diagnosed with ADHD? Oh, I was seven, seven years old, super early. I was like 1989. It wasn't really a thing. 1989. You were spent on it to fight for it. I was going to high school and I say, okay, yeah, this interview's over. So here's my question. You young, young person. So I look, I love to read, I had a library card from second. I was born. I performed Staten Island st. George library, headache play series every year. And I acted in, I was crane. I think when I was seven years old, um, that's a library, which is awesome. But when it came time, like the Dewey decimal system, right. Or card catalogs or things like that, that's where the ADHD kicked in. ADHD. So there's this sort of stereotype about librarians and libraries that we're all one organized, just not true. Uh, quiet bookish and like. That it's just about reading and that's not necessarily why I love libraries. Um, I sort of fell into libraries when art history seemed like a bad career path, but I really liked the people and there's so many different people, right? It's like the last place in society where you can go and have like toddlers. Seniors for knitting program, somebody looking for a job and people who just need a place to be for the day. Cause there's literally nowhere else for them to sit all in one space and have to sort of navigate that the societal expectations of those people being together. And it's just kind of, while also helping them find the information that they need to live their lives. And it's just kind of this fascinating mint miniature society that pops up in like every library building and. The country. Is it the last, um, is it the last, it's the last bastion of levelization? Every you walk in the library and everyone there is on the same plane sort of, I mean, society goes into libraries. It's not, we do our best right. The all of the problems that exist in society also exists in libraries. People, you know, the differences in resources available to people on one block are vastly different than the resources of the people that live on the next block. Like even. In New York city, you go from block to block and like the cost of the houses changes by like five times. Yeah. And like all of those people have to be in the same place and they, and they bring everything, lets them, you know, all of, all of this sort of societal inequality is come with you into the library. I remember being in public school, how to be junior high and we would always have projects where we had to go to the library. It was, it was very close. Um, setting out library st. George Branch is very close to. My junior high. And we always had at least once a month had to go into the library and research something and do a project. And I know that back then it was hard to know. Right. And, and back then there was no internet. Um, I had that when I was a kid too, I kinda missed the card catalogs. I do have a bunch of cards. I told my daughter once that it was just this morning, we were listening to 10, 10 wins on a, on Alexa. And I said, um, I said, your grandpa, grandpa, grandpa used to play this all the time when I was growing up. And I hear it every breakfast as well as she just really, she goes. Where was your Alexa in your house? Yeah. Okay. We're done. But, um, you know, it was, it was always an amazing experience to me. The library was always, and I think the library was always a center of calm for me, which is something as ADHD. I didn't really have. Right. Just go there and just know that I can read and not get in trouble for getting lost in a book. Right. Because that's the thing, when I would find a book mighty and she would kick into my game and I, you know, 14 hours that will be up till 3:00 AM sometimes. And then I'm like, Oh no again. And you're like, this is going to suck in the morning, but it was worth it. Right. And so I think for me, it was the center of calm. What do you do for a bit? How are you, how do you manage it? How do you, um, so what's, what's sort of interesting about libraries is that they are large bureaucracies, right. And I have so many ideas. Constantly and larger accuracies tend to squash ideas. Um, and so I've had to like over the last 15 years, figure out how do I make some of those ideas happen anyway? And a lot of that has been just figuring out how to not take no for an answer off the bat, how to talk to people in a way. Way that they can actually hear me instead of being so excited that I run on for like five to 10 minutes about this amazing thing that we have to do right now. And then they can't follow me. And I sound like a crazy person. Right. So a lot of it's been like slowing myself down, making sure I'm listening to what you know, what people are worried about and then trying to move us forward anyway. But yeah, no, I mean, I have digital calendars. I have a sort of, um, modified bullet journal thing that I do where I just never put my notebook down. Um, if I'm walking around yeah. For, for, to do lists and notes for meetings and stuff, it has to be written down for like appointments. It has, I need a reminder. So it has to go in the digital calendar so that it'll pop up and tell me, like, you have to be somewhere in 15 minutes, but yeah. One time. I actually was checking out board books to someone and accidentally picked up my notebook and handed it to this mom. And she left with it. Oh my God. I managed to find her and call her and meet her off with her and get it back. But I don't know. There were like floor plans for things I wanted to do for a teen space in there. It was like I was going to lose. My entire life, because it was absolutely the worst day. Tell me about, um, what's the hardest thing about both having ADHD? So two separate questions. So like when I can't focus on things, I like. You know, like if it was just that I couldn't focus on the stuff, I don't like doing fine, whatever. I'll just make it work somehow. But like, when I want to read a book and I can't, that's kind of the worst, right. Is that like working in a bakery and not being able to eat the donuts or the breads. Yeah. I don't have time to read anymore. I've had times since I've been home, but I can't focus on reading because I've like, I'm really great in a crisis, but right now there's like a crisis that requires you to sit still. And that's true. I can't like, I feel like you can't do anything. I am volunteering for too much stuff. Uh, I've been working on, um, mutually dispatch to try to help people get resources. Cause it's very much like my job. Uh, I'm also a manager, so I'm having to have meetings with my team and make sure that they have all of the information. They need to try to work like work from home and do trainings and things so that they can keep active. Um, At some point, my building is going to reopen for holds pickup and I'm going to have to manage that. I'm doing zoom programming. Like we have a knitting group and there's a expecting a new parent support group that I'm hosting and helping one of my staff do this book club and doing the tech end because you can only access through him on his phone. Um, it's, there's actually a lot. To do. Um, but none of it, well, you know, it was like one of those things where none of it feels like it's really doing anything. Like after Sandy, I was on the book bus in the Rockaways, helping people find food and prescriptions. I'd like, That felt like doing something. So what do you, what do you do in terms of, um, you know, this is our life for the…

Full show notes at the publisher

Virtually Navigating the Unknown with Emily Anhalt, PhD May 27, 2020

Show notes

Dr. Anhalt was one of the first interviews I ever did on Faster Than Normal, and now she's back! Emily Anhalt, PhD is the founder of a new project called COA, an innovative mental fitness studio that is currently offering free therapist-led workshops on managing work stress from home, how to deal with anxiety, building mental health & mindfulness through routine, how to be a fit leader during this time, and more. We learn her advice for dealing with: anxiety, there being 'no end in sight', finding new structure(s), the 3 best pieces of advice Peter has ever received, and all around good mental health. This is a really good one, enjoy!

***CORONA VIRUS EDITION***

In this episode Peter & Emily discuss:

1:04- Intro & welcome back Dr. Emily Anhalt! Emily's first interview on FTN <--

3:00- Everyone's talking about what happens when/if you get COVID-19 but what happens & what have you been seeing in Mental Health?

4:10- On being forced into quarantine/not being able to travel

4:49- We can only exercise so much; what else can we with ADHD/Neurodiverse do to manage?

6:18- How long can you do a thing?

7:25- On craving structure

8:00- How do we deal with having no rules now with regard to "structure" & routine?

9:20- On structuring break time and the right distractions for us

10:50- What other trends are you seeing lately in your patients?

11:28- Tips for dealing with anxiety, aka, ANXIETY!

14:00- The 3 best pieces of advice that Peter has ever received

14:26- How is San Fran doing during this quarantine?

15:20- About institutional transference

16:40- About how to deal with "no end in sight"

19:23- Quote ref: Mark John Clifford episode of 20 Minutes In Lockdown interview

19:55- Why are some people so damn hesitant to wear masks?!?!

20:50- Thank you Emily! How can people find you? www.JoinCOA.com DrEmilyAnhalt on INSTA LinkedIN @DrEmilyAnhalt on Twitter

21:22- Thank you Emily for joining us, again! 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 - STAY HOME.. until next time!

21:30- Faster Than Normal Podcast info & credits

ADHD Author Outdoors Advocate and Health Educator Tedi Searle May 20, 2020

Show notes

Tedi is a Fitness Coach & Runner, Public Speaker, Author, and Health Educator. She is a Washington state native who calls the Utah mountains home for the past 20 years. A longtime advocate for outdoor adventure and physical wellness for ADHD. Tedi is a strong believer in building a healthy mindset which has helped her deal with ADHD and anxiety. She took up trail running during an especially difficult time in life and kept on running. Loves teaching teenagers and speaking to inspire positive changes in people's lives. We learn today about what she's learned to do in order to stay mentally and physically healthy, what works for her and why. Enjoy!

***CORONA VIRUS EDITION***

In this episode Peter & Tedi discuss:

1:00- Intro & welcome Tedi Searle

2:14- You originally self-diagnosed, then again officially in your 30's. Tell us your story!

3:25- What problems was your ADHD causing after you first self-diagnosed?

4:09- How did you find out that physical fitness actually helped you?

4:48- What's an average ADHD day-in-the-life like for you?

6:30- Tell us about your positive affirmations and any other of your techniques.

7:24- Does trail running calm your mind?

8:38- Do you store your problems up until you can get outside/exercise?

9:20- How do you make time for exercise?

11:11- On making deliberate choices and about "free time"

12:10- What else is important to you to make time for?

13:11- Talk about a time when your ADHD got the best of you.

14:54- How do you get out of your own way, and 'out of your own head'?

16:52- How can people find you? TediSearle on FB @The_Endorphine_Junkie on INSTA

17:26- Thank you Tedi for joining us! 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 - STAY HOME.. until next time!

18:10- Faster Than Normal Podcast info & credits

ADHD and Cannabis with Green Flower CEO Max Simon May 06, 2020

Show notes

Can cannabis actually improve your focus when you are ADD or ADHD; what does the research say? Is it only misinformation and perception that keeps cannabis a Schedule 1 drug? Will we see more research in the US? What can cannabis possibly do for your community? Today we examine all of these questions with leading expert in the field, Max Simon. A bit more about our guest today is below. Enjoy!

Max Simon, Founder/CEO Green Flower Media, Inc.

With the vision of building a media company that would change the world's perception of cannabis, Max Simon co-founded Green Flower in 2014. Green Flower has since become the industry leader in cannabis education, producing thousands of hours of premium content; bolstering a network of over 700 top cannabis experts; and building the largest library of cannabis education content in the world. Today, Max leads an incredible 30-person team united around the mission of becoming the global leaders in cannabis education.

Max's mission to educate people about cannabis and discredit misinformation reflects his work in bringing meditation and mind-body wellness out of the shadows in the early 2000's, when he served as Director of Consumer Products for the Chopra Center. For seven years, Max built and ran world-renowned self-help guru Deepak Chopra's products business; there, he rebranded the company; developed and launched 49 signature products; created their digital marketing strategy; and impacted hundreds of millions of people on- and offline.

Green Flower is also a personal mission for Max, who has successfully used cannabis for over two decades as an integral part of his wellness regime—and to aid in the treatment of his ADD.

***CORONA VIRUS EDITION***

In this episode Peter & Max discuss:

1:11- Intro & welcome Max Simon

3:00- So why cannabis? How did you get into studying?

4:04- What differences have you noticed in your ADHD and just in general by using cannabis?

6:40- So can Cannabis actually improve your focus if you are ADHD? Ref: What is an endocannabinoid (EC) system?

8:30- How long has this been your area of study?

8:45- Tell us what you've head about other formal studies of cannabis and ADHD.

10:22- What do you think it's going to take to remove the Schedule 1 label in the US?

10:35- What's the difference between restrictions in individual States versus on the Federal level?

11:26- Do you think the reason it remains a Schedule 1 is because of perceptions/ignorance?

13:15- On the progress of the cannabis movement Ref: NORML's "Smoke The Vote" campaign.

14:56- Cannabis' affect on alcohol sales in most areas

15:34- The story and evidence provided by the chief of Police after their city of Port Hueneme, CA legalized cannabis. Ref: Municipal code

16:50- How do you change the conversation on ADHD, kids and general perceptions?

18:50- How can people find out more? Via Green-Flower.com and Max Simon on LinkedIN. @GreenFlwrMedia on Twitter

19:38- Thank you Max for joining us! 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 - STAY HOME.. until next time!

20:09- Faster Than Normal Podcast info & credits

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