Why ADHD Hustle Never Scales | Amy Marie Hann

0:00 There's this tendency, this myth that, you know, we quit everything. But I also think much more likely is sometimes we stick with things too long because we we have this vision and we're like, oh, we see what could be and we stick with it. I was underestimating my own intellect in a lot of ways because there was all these things I kept seeing and ways I wanted to do things, and I I didn't trust my gut.

0:19 And it took me a while to really, I think once my life kind of blew up and I really leaned into understanding my AHD brain and understand that I needed to design my life in a way that works for me and for my business, that all the things work together.

0:30 Hello everybody, and welcome to this episode of the ADHD Skills Lab. Today I am super excited to be joined by Amy Marie Han. Amy is a m of three and an entrepreneur who helps mothers with ADHD create realistic systems and routines that reduce overwhelm, decision fatigue, and burnout. And I know a lot of you guys are really gonna be excited for this conversation, as am I.

0:53 After experiencing firsthand how ADHD, motherhood, mental load, and entrepreneurship could compete for the same limited capacity, Amy began rethinking the traditional systems that weren't working for her. She now focuses on creating ADHD-informed approaches to managing home, family, personal well-being, and business.

1:13 And today we're gonna be talking about what happens when the system around you requires more executive functioning than you have available and how simplifying, automating, and designing life differently can create more capacity for both you and your family. And we're gonna get into that. But before we get started, as you guys know, we are here to support business owners.

1:36 That's why we're having this conversation. We've helped over a hundred businesses at this point with their ADHD. We want to make sure you guys don't just start but scale. We know the research is that we start everything and we struggle to scale and we burn out more than other people. So we want to change that.

1:54 So if you want some support with that, click the links down below. There's lots of different options, and I will see you there. I have a lot of parents come to me. I've coached women through pregnancy, giving birth, managing all of that while running a business. It's a huge transition for a lot of people.

2:13 I want to talk to you today a little bit about how you've grown your own business while being a parent.

2:20 That is such a big question. My kids are currently 15, 11, and 7. When I launched my current business, Master of the Mundane, it was about five years ago. And so my so they were like, you know, 10, 6, and Libby was a baby. She was two, two, three. And so, but what before that, I had initially spent like 10 years kind of building something, like a home-based business.

2:44 And it was kind of like at that point, when I when I changed my business, it was also kind of when I changed how I do life. It was kind of that pivotal moment because it was really all encompassing of understanding how my brain works and how I needed to do family life differently. And it was also kind of, I was starting Paramenopause and I had a third kid.

3:05 So it was like all these things, and I kind of realized I needed to change how I was living and running my business. So I had been so I had spent about 10 years trying to, I was doing kind of say basically sales and kind of in that hustle culture where I was kind of trying to work in the nooks and crannies, and I was still the primary parent.

3:27 And in that 10 years, I also went through secondary infertility. We were doing foster care. Then we adopted our child. We had lots of ups and downs. So there was a lot of personal stuff, ups and downs, but I was really trying to hustle. Then I kind of hit massive burnout and my life kind of blew up. And I was like, okay, I still had these ambitious goals, but I also knew I needed to do it differently.

3:51 And that business, it was like I had it had just run its course. I kind of never, it never really scaled. You know, it was like I was kind of, I mean, I was working all the time. My stress level was very high, my cortisol was very high.

4:04 Yeah, yeah. I really appreciate you saying that. I wanna, I wanna pause on that for a second and and dive in a little bit deeper because I think what you just said there was is so close to what a lot of people said, which is like, I'm going so fast, I'm moving so fast, I have so many things, and the thing that I'm doing never really took off.

4:23 It never really did the upward swing that we're supposed to experience. And for a lot of people, like I said at the beginning, there's a lot of research to indicate with ADHD that is kind of our trajectory. We are more likely to run a business and we are less likely to scale it successfully and to make money doing it.

4:43 So I would love to know before we get into what you did that did scale, why looking back now, do you think that that business never took off? And there'll be reasons that are in, you know, specific to that business, but there might also be some reasons specific to you and your life.

5:02 Yes. And and I having coaching a lot of moms with AHD, I say, you know, one of the biggest things I think there's this tendency, this myth that, you know, we quit everything. But I also think much more likely is sometimes we stick with things too long because we we see have this vision and we're like, oh, we see what could be and we stick with it.

5:21 And so I do think that initial, I mean, I was doing kind of an MLM skincare thing. And so I learned things. I learned how to sell. I was, you know, kind of making like a consistent teacher salary, but I was kind of, you know, hustling really hard. And so there were skills that I took from that. I think in that season, I realized that I was wired differently.

5:42 I was, because they're like I was working hard, I understood entrepreneurship, like I had the grit. I was underestimating my own intellect in a lot of ways because there was all these things I kept seeing and ways I wanted to do things. And I didn't trust my gut. And it took me a while to really, I think once my life kind of blew up and I really leaned in to understand my AHD brain and understand that I needed to design my life in a way that works for me and for my business, that all the things worked together.

6:11 You know, if I wanted to be managing my home, managing my family, and scaling a business with sustainable sustainability, like I needed all of those things needed to be kind of taken into consideration together. And part of that was understanding that I had a unique perspective and ideas, and that was like my biggest asset.

6:31 And I didn't really, it took me a while to really trust that because I had never seen, and I think part of it is just the shame of ADHD. I was really smart, ambitious kid. I did well in school. And then at some point in college, I struggled and I kind of bought this slide that like I'm not gonna be successful.

6:49 Like I'm I I need to find something that I can do and work, but I just didn't think like, oh, I'm this ambitious person that has these big things. It was kind of like that was somewhere in there. And so there was kind of like just like false beliefs that I think I I had around kind of managing my ADHD, my potential.

7:08 And so I think I had to learn that. And then I also really I think the thing that took me a while to really accept about myself is, you know, I have this tendency to take on a lot, not just a take on, and I think most women I work with, this is true. You know, we have there's so many ideas and things that we want to pursue.

7:27 And I had to learn how to rein that in and how to like really focus and kind of fight against that tendency to like always add one more thing so that I'm I don't get spread too thin. And then also just really accepting the fact that I think this mistake that I was making is not understanding how my brain works, that I can get a lot done in a short amount of time.

7:47 And so if I give myself, but I also really need rest and downtime. And so I don't do well, like I can achieve a lot and get a lot done, but I'm never gonna be a 40-hour a week type of person, even though I can maybe get that amount of work done. But being able to like find the pace that I could sustain, and then once I really slowed down, my creativity and clarity increased so much because I think what I didn't understand was when I was that chaos, that chaos of that 24-7 hustle thing is really dysregulation.

8:27 And when you're you're dysregulated, things are never clear and things are just a lot more foggy. And that's the only way I can explain it in terms of like my creative process. Like it's funny, like today is Sunday here, and on Sundays, I my phone is locked down, I'm off social media, I'm I really recording this podcast, but otherwise I usually don't work.

8:44 But it's so funny, I get so much clarity on Sunday, Sundays. It's like all the dots connect, you know, once I have like downtime and quiet time. And so, really, so much of I think what changed was understanding what my ADHD brain needed to be successful and that kind of that confidence and the self-trust, the self-trust piece.

9:04 Believing that I had something unique to bring and and that my my business and my life, I think we all I wanted someone to say, this is how to do it. This is it, and I think the reality with AHD is it's like you have to be able to listen to yourself and have a self-awareness of knowing like these this is how much hours are gonna work for me.

9:22 This is what the platform that I'm gonna grow on that is right for me. You know, it's being able to like trust myself to find what actually works for me. And it I think it took me a a lot of self-growth to get there.

9:37 If you are the business owner who is growing, your operations and delivery are growing, and you're starting to feel pretty overwhelmed, like you're not getting enough time, you're struggling with consistency, and you'd really like somebody else to get it all out of your head and project manage it for you.

9:52 That's what we do. We are fractional operators for your business, designed for ADHD symptoms. We take it out of your head, we did it all up for you, and you just kind of watch. It's pretty, pretty fun. Click the links down below, and if you're interested, you can book a call with me. If you were to go back to a moment, you know, if I was to take you back to a moment where you realized, okay, this skincare business, I've been working on it, I've learned a lot, but I it's not gonna go, it's not gonna scale.

10:24 Can you give me a moment or describe a moment where you really realized that? Where were you? What were you doing?

10:31 For me, it wasn't as much about me as it was believing that other people could be successful in it. And and I think for me, what I did learn with the coaching, with the skincare is that I really didn't like selling. I liked coaching. I liked helping people. And once I realized this is really not helping peop people, other people really can't be successful in this anymore.

10:54 I can't authentically do this. I can't tell someone else to try to do this because it's not what it used to be. So for me, it was the belief wasn't there. And I can't, I can't even remember where I was. I think it was such a on multiple realizations of like just it. And I think part of it is just that intuition.

11:14 You know, I think one of the things that we have so strong, and when you can really learn to trust it, is I think we have such strong intuition. It was like, this is just doesn't feel good anymore. It was like, as much as that this is just doesn't feel right. I can't, I'm an all-in person. I was like, I can't sell ice to Eskimos.

11:30 Like I have to believe in something, and then I didn't believe in it. And then I also realized that I was seeing all these ideas and I was beginning to grow. And a lot of like as I was trying to grow my business, I was learning about marketing and branding and like all these things. I remember I was listening to this sales call, and there's someone she was saying, there's someone who had been really successful in this company, and she was saying how she thought it was so dumb for people to post on Instagram because she didn't understand the power of like selling to people who like building a network of people that you didn't know.

12:02 And I was like, that is so dumb. Like there was so there was just like multiple things. I was like, you don't, there were all these things I was learning about and seeing in dots that I was connecting, and all these other people didn't get it. And I was like, I don't understand how you could not get this.

12:16 And it was finally like realizing I'd outgrown these people, these people I'd been learning from that I was like, I can't learn anything more from you, and I need to go into a new place and started trusting myself.

12:29 So let's go into the other side. So you have a business now. Do you work on your own? Do you have anybody that you work with like a team member?

12:38 I hired my first person, gosh, probably two years ago. I had a part-time person like 20 to 30 hours a month for about a year. And then about a year ago, I tried to add some people, some remote workers, and that just was not a great fit. And then I just recently have hired a new person. So I have one person.

12:59 So I had scaled to where I had three people. So I had a video person, a social media person, and an admin person, and they were not the right fit. And it was not, it it's I've realized about myself too, the managing part I really don't like. I really, it's very exhausting to me. So I, over the last few months, have realized that I I need to scale differently, and I don't want a big team.

13:24 So I'm trying to stay as lean as possible. And I really enjoy being closer to closer to the creating.

13:29 Yeah, it's an interesting one. I've heard this a lot from people around delegation and having multiple people. It's definitely always better for your working memory support to have less people. I also feel like it one of the things we lack, especially if you're working with a remote team, is context.

13:46 So if you have to give context to a bunch of different people, especially when you're ADHD and you might pivot a little bit more than other people and have a few more unique ideas and you know, things you want to try and do. They couldn't keep up with me. Yes. Yeah.

14:02 And I think I have learned now too. I think, well, I think the biggest thing too is taste. And also maybe it's kind of understanding how much you want to scale. And I've also gotten better now. It's like how I want to like this last person that I interviewed, I just was knew what questions to ask. I knew what to have them do because I'd seen things.

14:22 And I think one of the biggest mistakes people with ADHD make that it's so hard to understand our own genius because there are these things that are the things that we're good at are so close to us. And it's like, doesn't everybody get it? And then you're like, okay, you really don't get it. You know, like how can you not get it?

14:42 And so I think like if I do hire another video person of editor, like I know what I'll have them do differently. And especially for me, I think communicating my thoughts takes a lot of energy in like verbally. And it's like I did so much documentation, and I think I'd just rather I'm at the point where I'd rather lean into some AI and have a few really good people that can help more with like the strategy and and people that uh need less direction.

15:10 If someone needs a lot of hand holding, that is not that's not my strength.

15:14 Yeah, it's funny. One of the things we do when we hire assistants for people is we bring them into a weekly meeting with me, all of the project managers, because one of the things we want to teach is how to work with ADHD founders and just founders in general. And it's always fascinating the gap between what people know and what the founders are like.

15:38 Gosh, I wish they would know. Like there's it's almost diametrically opposed sometimes what founders need and what people who support founders know. You know, like give me options, give me three different options. Don't give me like, what should I do here? I don't have context for that. You know, like so many things.

15:57 Like, do an outline and then bring it back to me because I have working memory. I need to like break. Right, something to start with. Yes. Yeah, give me something to start with. There's so many different ways of communicating. Okay, cool. So you've got one team member, we've got AI, we will get back to AI.

16:13 And then your community, like, how big is your community at the moment?

16:16 I'm at about 600 at the moment. I'm trying to get back to that's why. So so I tried to scale with the team, and my business has taken it, took a take a big hit. So we're kind of in a rebuilding right now. Uh at a thousand is I I think what um what I've maintained the most, most consistently. And it's really the kind of feels the best in terms of the communication and the collaboration, and it still feels intimate, but it feels like um, so I'm working on getting getting back.

16:45 And what are the touch points then for you? Are you doing a weekly coaching session? Do you have uh videos? Like what is your what are your touch points as part of that community?

16:55 Yes. So I have a course, Master of the Bendane, that they work can work through. And then um we do a monthly masterclass. So I have like a library of, you know, tons of master classes. Then I've reworked it a little bit. I'm actually in the midst of in October, we're switching, we're kind of refining a bunch of things, but we're going back to a monthly book club, and then I do a monthly live coach.

17:16 I mean, sorry, a weekly live coaching call with me. So one hour. And historically, I've done one body doubling session a week with me, but we're actually trying to expand. So I'm trying to build out hosts. It looks like right now we'll have at least like 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. with body doubling options, but I'd like it to be more.

17:33 I mean, ideally, I'd like to have 24 hours so I can accommodate people across the world, but gotta find hosts. So right now it's kind of that's a big option. And then I have like a community page. So I kind of went through and initially was like, how much can I offer to support people within, but that is sustainable?

17:52 So I'm always kind of re-evaluating that.

17:55 Yeah, yeah, definitely. Oh, that's so interesting. Yeah, definitely a big, a big group of people to be working with, especially with one team member. I'm curious then, you know, I'm gonna ask you again. This is what we do. We get inside and we ask the questions that nobody else asks. That's the goal anyway.

18:13 So I want to know from you, how did you get your start? I'm guessing Facebook group.

18:18 Did you do the Facebook group? I'd never, I mean, I did kind of, but it wasn't, that wasn't ever the thing. So I'd been doing the sales thing. And then I was like, okay, how do I build a brand? You know, I was leaning into that. So I think the curiosity was kind of really Instagram. Like, how do I grow a brand on Instagram?

18:36 And as I was doing that, and I had learned about this, the community model. As I was kind of pulling back and like, okay, this business is not the thing. I still need a business. What can I do? I like serving people, I like coaching people. And so the kind of membership model was really attractive. Oh, I didn't mention you asked me about the course community.

18:56 I'm in the midst of re-recording. I'm going to be relaunching my course within the community and re-recording it all live. So it kind of started with I'm gonna do a commute membership model. That was kind of the process. I'm building a brand. The membership model seems like that could be a better fit for me.

19:12 And I was kind of talking about motherhood things and systems and routines and kind of started throwing in there talking about ADHD. And it was like ding, ding, ding, ding. That was the thing that was like, no one's talking about this, and especially because I have been diagnosed as a child. And so it was something that had been part of my story for a long time.

19:30 And so I just kind of leaned more into that. And then as I was doing, you know, I had conversations. Wait, can I remember what it's called? Wouldn't you? Market research. I was doing market, you know, market research calls trying to understand. So I had built a following. So by the time that I launched my course, I already had like 10,000 Instagram followers.

19:47 So I did have an organic audience and mostly kind of doing I was making a little money doing affiliate type stuff. So I really pulled back and thought, what can I do that's gonna be sustainable? And I think at that time I had had always jumped around to stuff, but I think I had done the skincare thing long enough to know that like I can stick with something.

20:07 I just need to figure out the right way, the right model that's not going to drive me, that's not gonna be this working all the time. And I kind of set some boundaries. Like it was like I set income goals. I was like, okay, I know how much I want to be making consistently, like what the lifestyle I want to get to is.

20:24 And so how do I get there within the constraints of my life in a way that feels sustainable? That was kind of the foundation. And so I so it built slow. And especially one of the things about starting with a membership is it's once it scales, it's really great. But at the beginning, it's you're not making a lot of money because and so a lot of people start coaching one-on-one, but I didn't because I just knew I wanted, I didn't have the capacity, and I knew I wanted something that could scale.

20:49 And so I kind of betted on that that like I want where I wanted to get. And so, you know, it took a lot of time, it took time to get there. But I've I've truly loved it. I love, I don't know if you've the diagram. I have a blanking on his name. Edward Hollowell doctor um has this diagram of three circles, and it's like things you're good at and things to enjoy and things you can make money at.

21:10 And I think that's one of the biggest mistakes ADHDers make is they think just look at what they can make money at, and they've all they have all these ideas. But I think the enjoyment piece, especially if you're a mom, when there's so many boring things that you hate doing, that I think for me, the flip that switched is like understanding that me loving my business is directly correlated to me being able to do the boring things of motherhood.

21:36 And so I tried things and realized I needed to love how I do this. And I really do enjoy how I do this. If I was coaching one on one, that would be really exhausting for me. And so I love all the aspects of my business and I think they're important. I want to really help people. If I just had an online course where I wasn't talking to people, that wouldn't be as energizing to me because I'm a helper.

21:58 I like action. Getting on, getting down and dirty with people. So that group call is really so much change and transformation happens in it for people, but I also really it's very life-giving to me. So I think for me that those are the things I was kind of thinking about and kind of how I structured it.

22:15 But there are things I tried, you know, this like I tried YouTube and I hated YouTube. You know, I've so there's different, it's it's evolved, and there's things that, but I've kind of, as I think, okay, what's gonna scale, what's gonna get me financially to where I want to go, but also what do I enjoy?

22:29 And is it life-giving? And then how how can I pace this in a way? So I'm always thinking about one of the things I talk about this a lot in my community, is I think about like the challenge. Like I think it's really important for us. I think about these three buckets. The bucket one is all the things that we're curious about and that we want to learn about.

22:49 And I think for most of us, idiot studies, it's like overflowing. And there's all these things we're interested in. And the bucket two is like the thing we're actively learning. And then bucket three is like things we figured out. And I I kind of realized for a long time I wanted to monetize what I was actively learning, or even things that was curious about things that hadn't really even figured out.

23:09 And I think what I realized is I needed to only monetize things that were in bucket three. But then I also needed something in bucket two. So I needed like a new challenge, something that was kind of interesting. And so for me, once I was doing the market research and having conversations, the thing people kept coming back to was the home management piece.

23:26 And so that's what drove me to really focus on the home and family. But once you're in assignment community, we're we're talking about how we manage our AD, we're talking about how we parent our kids, we're talking, it's like all the things under the ADHD motherhood, but I kind of led with that home management thing because it was the biggest, it was a thing I had figured out.

23:43 Can I ask you?

23:44 And then I want to talk about uh delegation, but I'm curious. I want to know this because I work with so many people who struggle with this part. You have Instagram, you have people who have been excited by what you do, they like it. There's lots of response. Oh, that went viral, that's so cool. And then it's crickets when it comes to actually driving sales in your community from your Instagram.

24:09 Like, this is a thing I hear a lot from people who have an Instagram. Is like, it's really great to have one. I'm getting a lot of attention, but I'm not getting a lot of sales. So I'm curious, what did you figure out to do was the most effective way to get people to go from I like your Instagram to I'm buying your community and I'm getting the transformation inside of your community in just that one platform?

24:35 Well, I would do emails too. So originally I and I think it's funny, that was one of the things when I wrote, so I had a book come out a year ago. And so many of these things, it's like I you don't you don't know what you're good at until you start doing it. But I I've gotten a lot of feedback from my emails.

24:51 And I had so originally my goal had been to try to write, have like a nine-month email funnel. And I've since now like I've gone to so many different ways, and now I'm really leaning into Substack. Um, because Same, actually. So writing is really writing to me is the easiest. So some people like a podcast, like they can just talk, you know, instantaneously.

25:12 I that is a lot more exhausting to me. Sitting and just getting my ideas on paper is super energizing, and it's like all the things, you know, tie together. So I will say I did email. I mean, I've tried so many different things. I think now I'm at this place where I it's kind of like reassessing what's worked.

25:30 I mean, I did for a long time, I did ads. I had a low-ticket offer, and then people were upgrading, and that then with that stopped work working and ads changed, and I'm kind of like redoing that now. I think I'll go back. I do need to hire someone that just manages my ads because ads is something that's like, and it did scale, help me scale to a certain extent.

25:53 And I think it also expanded like my my Instagram and my email list and all of those things at different pivotal junctures. But right now, the last like six months, it's it's gotten a lot trickier. And I think my low ticket offer isn't quite the right one anymore. So I'm actually this next month will be kind of reworking that.

26:11 But that did work for a long time. But the thing that I didn't like about it is because all these people were, you know, buying it and never opening it. And so I just I hate it. Like that just kind of feels icky. And and then the people are like, oh, just double your prices. And that's how they make ads work is they just make their products super expensive.

26:27 And that doesn't that feel zicky too. So I'm gonna say it's I and in some ways, what I like about this job, if I was just creating on Instagram, or if I was just doing Facebook ads, or if I was just coaching or I was just like any of those things, I I think I would get sick of, but I I do like having all the little pieces of it, like the understanding the email and understanding the websites, and it's easy to get absorbed into any of those one things because there's all these different little pieces to it, and there's all these people telling you different ways that you need to make it more complicated.

27:03 So I won't say I have it all figured out, but I I'd say you to answer your question, I feel like it it's a skill. I mean, learning to sell in a way, and I think for me, I've learned to sell, learned to create copy better. Then I think I went last year, I think I leaned too hard into AI, and now I think I'm coming back.

27:22 What does it look like? And because I was leading into AI, I try to outsource, trying to make more content. And I think now I'm like coming back the other way of thinking, okay, what does it feel what is it, what does it look like to have more fun creating. So it's work. I think it is, it is, it is work.

27:38 Like I think that's it, you're you're still scaling and you can scale. And I think I have even more confidence now that that is possible because I've seen it happen. But there's still so much you're learning and getting better at. Just all the little pieces of it.

27:51 Well, I think that's why I wanted to, I always want to talk about it with people because often I'm the people some of my listeners are business owners, some of them want to be business owners, and I think it's worthwhile having the conversation about the ins and outs, you know, of like that's, you know, how do you, oh, you've scaled an audience.

28:10 That's super cool. But how do you drive traffic? Like, how do you do this and how do you do that? And just the idea that these pieces are gonna come in. I feel like it is kind of similar to parenting where you're like, well, now you have two kids and one of them's crying and one of them's like upset that the other one's crying, and how do you do emotional regulation?

28:26 Like, there's a whole bunch of like insider baseball stuff that you don't know other questions until you get to it. Yeah. You're not there at 6 p.m. when the thing that was doing the lead flow breaks, and now you have to fix it, and you're not there at 6 a.m. when both children are waking up and coming in, and you're like, I have to be up for a podcast.

28:48 Yeah, things like that. You're not doing either of those moments. So I I think it's really good as business owners to share that and then share that you know how we how we manage it and and the strategies.

29:00 And I also think it's so important to to know that like not all of us want the same thing. I mean, we don't all want the same thing, and we don't all have the same constraints. So I think it's so important that you are honest about what you want. Because I think that was for me, I think what I learned in my skincare was like, I want to build a business.

29:18 And I think I think for a long time I just thought everyone was like that, and they aren't. Not everybody is curious about how Instagram works or how how you build a brand or like how hashtags work or like you know, but I a lot of people space up. Yeah, so so I'm like, you find your people because it's like they're all the you know, how to subside like the things I'm Googling, not everyone's Googling.

29:39 So it's like that's like own it, own what you want, be and then really be clear about it, but then also know your constraints too, because we don't all have the same kids that have the same needs or have the same spouse and and being honest about those too, of like what's and then what defining what success looks like.

29:57 Because you see all these people on Instagram, it's like, okay, I could, if I was willing to work 80 hours a week, I could make more money or I could have grown faster, or I could make four pieces of content a week, but I'm not.

30:10 So like how does that eventually you find your limit? And I think that is really important because when we look at the reasons people do a business, they want the freedom, they want the flexibility, they want the ability to make money, yes, but but also to not burn out, which I always find interesting when you look at those surveys, because then burnout is one of the things that we struggle with the, you know, in the most when it comes to running our own business, because we are often very, very terrible bosses to ourselves.

30:43 Our actual uh annoying neurotypical bosses were way nicer. Absolutely. Sorry. I kept interrupting you. You were gonna ask me about AI. Yes, yes, it is okay. Okay, sorry. So I wanted to talk about this because you said something that I feel like I've been having conversations with a lot of people about, which is I had this idea of AI and I was very, very excited about it.

31:06 And I threw it at everything in my business, and now I am coming back from that. And I still see that now. I'm on Instagram and I'm seeing the things that are obviously written by AI, sometimes advertising AI prompts to write better with AI. It's kind of funny. And so I want to know from like where were the pieces that you felt that, oh, this is really, really helpful because there are those pieces, and where were the pieces where you were like, this is this is actually not helpful in the way that I anticipated.

31:39 In some ways, I think it was help, it's helpful for me in general with my business. And one of the best pieces of advice that I tell people with ADHD is to track things, to track, to let numbers make your decisions because it's so because we have a strong intuition, which but we also have that RSD, or we have, you know, it's easy.

32:00 We sometimes it's easy to just like be like, I have this idea instead of like for me going back like and I have a very, yeah, and I have a very clear ongoing rhythm of like my responsibilities. And sometimes I'll increase them. Like lately, I've added more with Substack, and I'm you know, trying to anyways, I might increase my workload a little bit, but I I work best when I have a very consistent rhythm to my business in terms of my cadence of posting and all that stuff.

32:30 And so I tried to increase my cadence, especially with posting with the assistant and with social media and then with AI. Sorry, first I'll say the good part. I do think when I've leaned into it in terms of seeing trends, like even like with my Instagram, and sometimes it has helped me root see some things, like more from uh, you know, taking all these th things like seeing the trends.

32:55 Like I think that is really helpful, being able to like analyze kind of the data. That that's the piece of it that I find very helpful so that I don't get sidetracked so I can see like, okay, these are these are the topics that people care about the most. What you know, and helping me kind of piece out those things or like the patterns.

33:14 I'm not very good at like the logistics of storytelling or like the like some of the things like that, like and and I appreciate I appreciate that it helps me start things. Like I see, I think I have used, I use it now more as a thinking partner and it helps me kind of get things going, or like even helping me like navigate technology things.

33:34 So, or even like internally, like I've had it like make some Google forms and stuff like that. So I feel like I've but but from my content I pulled way back that I'm like I really because it just doesn't feel as good. Like I'm looking back when I was having that person post, just going back through and I'm like, oh, just some of this stuff is just that doesn't feel like me, which I just don't like.

33:56 So I'd rather be posting less and I'd rather it really feel like me. And not even from a perspective of quality, but I also think the process, the creative process of like, oftentimes that's how I think through things is when I write. You know, it's writing the posts and the substack. So even like Substack at first, what I was doing is I was like, and I've even told my claw that like everything originates with me.

34:22 Like you're not making up anything, you're not looking on the internet, you know. Instead, I might take like, you know, I have so much content, so I might take an old a transcript from a masterclass that I did and give it the transcript and say, like, can you revise this to a Substack post? And I was doing a lot more of that.

34:39 Now I'm doing a I'm not really doing that for Substack, I'm really writing it from scratch and then just saying, Hey, can you clean this up? And it helps me be more succinct. And anyways, I think it's just all it's more like leaning more on my own creativity and letting it help me be better. I did hear that advice on something, but it was just like instead of trying to use Substack to or um, instead of trying to use AI to do the stuff that you're not good at, allowing it to help you be better at the stuff you're you are good at, and I think I'm doing that more, trying to bring higher quality instead of trying to get it to create stuff from scratch.

35:16 So helping that's super cool. It's kind of where I've landed.

35:20 Yeah, and it's an interesting conversation to have. I find a lot of people are having it, especially when you are in a position like you are where you're sort of going, okay, I don't want a big team, I have a lot of things going on, so I'm gonna use AI. And then the question becomes, well, how much do we want to use it?

35:35 Not because I have any issues with AI, but just because like when and where is it helpful, you know? And that that really becomes the important question.

35:43unknown Okay.

35:43 And so many, it's so easy to waste time doing stuff. Like, I'm like, I can spend an hour figuring, I'm trying now more. Like, if I've used a prompt three times, I'm like, okay, now I'll just make that a skill. Like, so I'm sure there's more, and sometimes it's like I'm like, I just need things to be simple.

36:00 I'm like, I don't want to be on 10 different AIs doing different things. Like, that's just now you're just managing the AI. Yeah. Yes. I'm like, I that's yeah, I'm like, I just I'm like, I'm gonna do everything on Claude. So I'm kind of like bait, I'm like baby AI. Like I'm just like, how do I each week, how do I just use it a little bit more?

36:21 And what I am doing, using trying to lean it into it more for is helping me teach people better. So that's part of why I'm gonna go through. And I had so originally I had this course, Master of the Mundane, it was six units, and then I added a course by by burnout, and then over this last six weeks, this is my last week of it, I've had done this course creating capacity, and I've kind of realized that in order to lead people through the transformation that I've always been leading them through, I've just I've just gotten better at it and broken it up better.

36:52 And so, anyway, so now the course is gonna be longer and I'm re-recording it from scratch and going through and having AI prompts for each one to help them think through things. So I think that's the best way I can use it.

37:07 Well, we just have a few questions before we wrap up, questions that we ask everyone. My first question is what is your biggest professional achievement? I was really proud of my book.

37:17 I wrote a book, Master the Modane. It didn't it hasn't died terribly.

37:21 It all of my reviews are five-star, well, five-star reviews, but selling a book is really hard.

37:26 I didn't enjoy selling the book, but I loved writing it and I was very proud of it.

37:30 Writing a book is hard. I I did a master's thesis and I looked at a PhD and I was like, oh yeah, like it's a lot of words.

37:38 A book is just the same number. So yeah, 100%.

37:41 What about um on the other side, your biggest professional embarrassment? And how did you handle that?

37:46 I think I mean early, I mean, I would say like in my 20s, I had jobs. So I was an executive assistant for like top CEOs or like C C level executive, but earlier that was like an administrative assistant for this small nonprofit. And I look back at that and I made so many dumb mistakes because I was so bored.

38:06 I was so like under like I underquali or overqualified for it. But I was, and so I can look back at that and think of like the stupid stuff like I can remember. And that's one of the things that I think it's took me a lot of time to understand. And I talk a lot in my all of my stuff about simulation, because it was so hard for me to understand that like I'm wired to it for achievement and for challenge, but it also kind of has to be right size, it has to be challenge with boundaries.

38:35 And so this was this just this easy job that was all boundaries, it was no challenge, and I did it. Like I can remember, and in those seasons when I'm bored, it's really unhealthy for me. Like I'm that's when I'm struggling with drinking too much or eating too much or the more more impulsivity because I'm just restless.

38:53 And so I and it was a similar, like I can remember, it's like my ADHD is amplified, and I think that's why a lot of moms struggle. That's why I thought being a stay at home mom would solve all my problems. Anyways, my answer to the question. So one time we were going on a trip, and I planned this trip for like the whole our whole office, and I flipped the times.

39:10 Like, and so I had made the itinerary and had everything all organized and rented all the cars for everyone, and I I didn't get to the airport at the right time. Like I got like whatever the departure was or like the numbers, anyways. So I missed the flight. I had to go the next day and cost organization all this money.

39:27 So it was not a shining. That's where you go back and you're like, that was not my I was not shining in that season.

39:35 They're like, oh, ADHD, there you are. Yes, that's uh that's a different, a different strategy. Yeah, also I appreciate you sharing. It's always nice to do to do both, I think, to get a full picture. And on the other side, you know, what is a quote that you've heard maybe from someone else, maybe from yourself, that you've really been able to hold on to?

39:54 I don't know this exactly quote, but I for me, this just idea of that I am a creative genius was kind of life-changing for me. It's like understanding because I I don't I'm not an artist. I even that word of like founder, I'm like, I don't know if I'm a founder, but I know I'm a really creative thinker, and I know that I can think about things and I understand things and I solve problems quickly.

40:17 And so for me, it's just this idea of like I am a creative genius, I have really unique insights to bring into every room that I enter. And I think that was really transformative to me in that self-trust piece of being able to like understand that I could trust my gut more and that sometimes just my the unique ways that I wanted to solve problems, that it was different for a reason because I was bringing something unique instead of trying to like do things like everyone else, and like seeing it like the strength of innovation.

40:49 So that was extremely helpful to me.

40:51 Yeah, 100%. 100%. Awesome. Well, it's been wonderful to have you, Amy. Please tell everybody where they can find your course.

41:00 Yes. Okay, so my main course is Master of the Mundane. So it's all my website is www.amimariehan.com slash master the mundane. On Substack, I'm ADHD Motherhood. So ADHD and motherhood. So come find me there because I am creating a lot there and really diving in each week and investing a lot of time to create good content to help people in sharing all the things I wish someone had shared with me.

41:27 So those are the best play. And then Instagram at Amy Marie Hann. So find me all the places.

41:32 Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the ADHD Skills Lab. If you liked it, leave us a five star review. It helps other people learn more about us. And thank you so much to our wonderful team for making us sound good, look good, couldn't do it without you.