My ADHD Brain vs. Running a Business: A Love-Hate Story
I love being my own boss. I also sometimes wish I could fire myself.
It occurred to me recently that I haven’t had a boss since 2014 when I was 24.
And when I started my first business in the beauty industry I had no idea that I had ADHD and it was slowly sabotaging the way I ran my business. I was reckless with spending, disorganised in managing my time, I struggled to respond to clients in an appropriate timeframe and while I ran the business quite well, I always felt like it was out of control and I could never quite get a handle on it while simultaneously knowing I was meant for something bigger.
At the time, I thought that was in the career I was in, and I kept pushing it and pushing it to grow. I didn’t realise then that I was destined to travel, to share my story, to teach other women and to do any of the amazing things I’ve done in the last 8 years of online business.
Running a business with an ADHD brain is like running a café with a million great ideas, no milk in the fridge, and sixty six tabs open in your head at all times. Some days, I feel like a creative genius, can create hundreds of pieces of content and feel like Wonder Woman. Other days, I stare at Canva for 3 hours and end up redesigning my logo for no reason and feeling like I am a useless failure.
Something I learned on the ADHD journey, is that as women, we work in cycles, and the more we force ourselves to perform when our energy and hormones are resisting, the more likely we are to make a mistake - or more likely to burn it to the ground and start a whole new project.
If you’re an ADHD woman (or suspect you might be) and are running a business, here are some of the highs and lows to be aware of:
The highs:
You’ll have a constant stream of ideas and it’s important to know that they aren’t all supposed to be acted up on right away.
You’ll be SO passionate about what you do
Creativity that surprises even you
Natural empathy for your clients and the people you work with
Incredible ability to connect, adapt, respond quickly
The lows:
Time blindness ("How has it been 4 hours and I’ve done nothing but reorganise my canva?")
Burnout cycles and brain fog from working in hyperfocus sprints
Starting a million things and hardly finishing any of them
Shame battles and an inner monologue that will try to convince you you’re not good enough
Comparing yourself to neurotypical entrepreneurs with spreadsheets and structure and their levels of success
4 ways to help yourself stay balanced while running your business:
Setting up systems that help you at home (and keep your mind on work when needed)
This can look like meal prep or planning you food for the week to eliminate that extra stress, always making sure you have your favourite healthy snacks in the fridge, time blocking for home tasks like laundry and cleaning.
2. Get yourself an accountability buddy
One who’s going to keep you focussed and remind you why you’re even doing this in the first place on the days where your mind is starting to spiral.
3. Learn to automate and delegate
Because we don’t want you to burn out. And no matter what your beautiful brain is telling you, you can’t do it all alone. The million dollar empire you’re building in your mind has a team who helps you to build it. Learn early what tasks to delegate and start doing it as soon as you can. Set up systems to automate emails, messages, content etc so you take a big bulk of the pressure off having to be switched on all the time.
4. Now rest.
And master this tasks because it’s an important part of your success. Learning to rest when. you need it - or before if you get really good at it, will give you more of a chance, more energy and more focus to succeed.
I believe your ADHD is superpower, but since most of us grew up being taught that it was “naughty”, disruptive and something that needs to be managed, we find ourselves working against it, but when you starting working with it, you become unstoppable.
Ashlie xx
