ADHD Coaching for Entrepreneurs: How I Moved From Survival to Intentional Action

How ADHD Affected My Work and Entrepreneurship

For years, I struggled with a frustrating contradiction.

I knew I had the ideas. I knew I had the ability. I knew I had the capacity to do things.

But actually turning those ideas into action wasn't always easy.

I could understand something in my head and still struggle to get it onto paper. I could know what I needed to do and still have a hard time getting it done. I could work incredibly hard and still end up overwhelmed, anxious, and burned out.

Eventually, I realized that simply working harder wasn't solving the problem.

In the first episode of ADHD in the Wild, I talk about my experience with ADHD, university, work, burnout, and eventually discovering ADHD coaching.

What changed for me wasn't finding one magical productivity hack.

It was learning about my brain and learning how to approach work, decisions, time, emotions, and action in a way that actually worked for me.

That experience eventually became the foundation for how I coach other ADHD entrepreneurs.

Why Working Harder Didn't Solve My ADHD

I spent years trying to make things work through effort.

When I was at university, I struggled to convert the ideas in my head into something I could actually put onto paper. I put in the time and effort, but that didn't necessarily translate into the results I was looking for.

I eventually became overwhelmed and went to see a therapist.

That's when I was diagnosed with ADHD.

I was given some breathing techniques and medication and sent on my way.

I spent the next fifteen years, as I describe it, surviving.

I was grinding really hard.

I was pushing.

And pushing.

And burning out.

And then pushing again.

I was also dealing with a lot of anxiety.

For a while, that was enough to keep me moving.

But eventually, work demanded more of my time, energy, and emotions, and I started feeling the pain of that approach more intensely.

I knew I had ideas.

I knew I had the brain capacity to do things.

But it was really hard to land them, feel connected to my work, and consistently get the things done that I needed to get done.

It became a roller coaster.

I tried a lot of different things to figure out what was going on. Meditation. Running. Exercise. Therapy. Even some things that, looking back, probably weren't the most conventional approaches.

But I kept coming back to the same problem.

I would feel better for a while, find a job or find some momentum, and then eventually end up feeling lost and disconnected again.

Eventually, I crashed really hard.

That was the point where things started to change.

How ADHD Coaching Changed the Way I Work

I was given some coaching appointments and essentially told to go sort my stuff out.

So I did.

And it was a game changer.

I started learning about my brain.

I started learning about myself.

And I started becoming much more tactical about how I looked at tasks, how I got things done, and how I made decisions.

That created momentum.

Over the next couple of years, I found success in my role and had an opportunity to grow.

I took that opportunity.

And I grew.

Eventually, I had the opportunity to get trained as a coach and become a coach myself.

That was another huge game changer.

I've now spent years coaching people with ADHD and seeing the different questions, fears, worries, challenges, and strategies that come with ADHD.

And through that experience, I've developed a framework that I bring into my coaching conversations:

Strategic Curiosity → Intentional Action → Meaningful Impact

How ADHD Can Make Entrepreneurship More Difficult

I've found that entrepreneurship can make some of these challenges particularly visible.

When I'm building or running a business, there are deadlines.

There are administrative tasks.

There are decisions.

There are competing priorities.

There are constant demands on my time and attention.

And there can be a lot of emotion attached to all of it.

For ADHD entrepreneurs, that combination can sometimes create a feeling of paralysis.

I've had conversations with entrepreneurs who aren't lacking ideas or ambition.

They're overwhelmed by everything that needs to happen.

And when everything feels urgent, it's very easy to fall into reactive action.

That's where I want to approach things differently.

I don't necessarily want to start by adding another system or telling myself to simply try harder.

I want to start with honesty.

How I Manage ADHD Overwhelm: Start With Strategic Curiosity

The first part of my framework is Strategic Curiosity.

For me, this means using the curious brain I have and asking myself really important questions.

Not just the questions driven by excitement, emotion, or whatever happens to feel urgent in the moment.

I want to ask strategic questions.

Questions around:

• Time

• Resources

• Delegation

• The next step

• Capacity

• Capabilities

When I'm overwhelmed, I can start by getting everything out.

What's actually on my plate?

When is each thing due?

What's the next step?

What resources do I have available?

What barriers are preventing me from taking action?

Those questions give me something incredibly important:

Clarity.

And clarity gives me somewhere to move from.

What Is Strategic Curiosity?

Strategic Curiosity is about taking the curiosity I already have and directing it toward questions that help me move forward.

Instead of immediately following whatever feels exciting, urgent, or emotionally demanding, I can step back and ask what's actually important.

I can look at my time.

My resources.

My capacity.

My next step.

The support available to me.

And the barriers that might be getting in the way.

For me, that's where ADHD coaching becomes practical.

I'm not trying to eliminate the way my brain works.

I'm trying to understand it well enough to make better decisions about what happens next.

How I Use Intentional Action to Move Forward With ADHD

Once I have that clarity, I can move into Intentional Action.

That's different from reactive action.

Reactive action is what can happen when I get caught in last-minute chaos.

Something feels urgent.

The emotions rise.

The pressure builds.

And suddenly I'm taking action because I have to.

I've learned to look for something different.

I want my actions to be connected to what I actually need to achieve.

I want to understand the relationship between the action and the outcome.

And I want to be able to actually take that action rather than remaining stuck in the emotions surrounding it.

That's what intentional action means to me.

Reactive Action vs. Intentional Action

When I'm operating reactively, the thing that gets my attention isn't necessarily the thing that matters most.

It might simply be the thing that feels most urgent.

That can create a cycle of pressure, action, anxiety, and exhaustion.

Intentional action gives me a different starting point.

I first create clarity.

Then I identify what actually needs to happen.

Then I choose an action that's connected to that outcome.

That doesn't mean everything suddenly becomes easy.

It means I have a clearer reason for taking the next step.

How I Use Meaningful Impact to Learn From What Works

The third part of my framework is Meaningful Impact.

And this is where I think we can change the way we evaluate our own progress.

Meaningful impact isn't about throwing a parade every time I finish a report.

It's about asking:

What did I learn through this process?

What behaviors helped me achieve this?

What was the impact of the things I did?

I want to pay attention to what worked.

Because when I do that, I can start creating a new process in my brain around the actions I've completed and the things I've been successful at.

That's very different from constantly focusing on everything I haven't done.

Everything that's still sitting on the list.

Everything I still have to do.

And all the emotions associated with that.

I want to learn from my successes—not just obsess over my unfinished tasks.

How I Approach ADHD Productivity Differently

One of the biggest things I've learned is that I can't always approach my ADHD by simply following the same path everyone else follows.

Historically, the advice can be:

“Just do it.”

“Follow the path.”

“Do it the way other people do.”

But I've learned that that doesn't work here.

I have to take into consideration the way my brain interacts with time, emotional regulation, planning, divergent thinking, decisions, and action.

That doesn't mean I can't be successful.

It means I need to understand the brain I'm actually working with.

That's particularly important to me as someone who works with ADHD entrepreneurs.

I'm not interested in helping people simply become better at forcing themselves through systems that don't work for them.

I'm interested in helping them understand what's actually happening, create clarity, take intentional action, and learn from what works.

How I Build a Business Around the Way My ADHD Brain Works

I don't think the answer is becoming a better version of everyone else's system.

I've learned that I need to understand how my own brain interacts with the demands of business.

That means paying attention to things like time, emotions, planning, decisions, capacity, and the practical barriers that can prevent me from taking action.

For me, the goal isn't simply to become more productive.

It's to create movement.

It's to understand what allows me to move forward without constantly fighting the way my brain works.

That's why Strategic Curiosity → Intentional Action → Meaningful Impact has become such an important part of my approach.

What I've Learned About ADHD Coaching for Entrepreneurs

My experience has taught me that ADHD coaching isn't about looking backward forever or trying to turn someone into a completely different person.

For me, coaching is about now and forward.

Where am I now?

Where am I trying to go?

What's getting in the way?

What action can I take?

And what can I learn from the process?

That's the approach I bring into my coaching conversations.

I want to help create an honest perspective about what's actually happening, separate the situation from some of the emotions surrounding it, and identify a path forward.

Sometimes that means sitting down with someone and mapping out what's actually on their plate.

What needs to happen?

When does it need to happen?

What resources are available?

What barriers are preventing action?

That's where I start.

A Different Way Forward for ADHD Entrepreneurs

I don't believe ADHD entrepreneurs need to spend their lives fighting the way their brains work.

I know I don't.

I've spent enough time trying to do things the way I thought I was supposed to do them.

I've spent enough time grinding, pushing, burning out, and pushing again.

What changed for me was learning to understand my brain and becoming more tactical about how I approach the demands in front of me.

The goal isn't simply productivity.

For me, the goal is movement.

It's finding a way forward that works with the brain I actually have.

And that's a big part of what I want ADHD in the Wild to explore.

How do we build businesses, careers, and lives around the way our brains actually work?

Not by sanitizing the messy parts.

Not by pretending everything is easy.

But by being honest about what's happening and finding practical ways to move forward.

Strategic Curiosity → Intentional Action → Meaningful Impact.

That's the framework I'm taking with me.

Watch the Full Episode of ADHD in the Wild

In the first episode of ADHD in the Wild, I share more of my story—from struggling through university and work, to years of surviving, to discovering coaching and eventually becoming a coach myself.

If you're an ADHD entrepreneur who has ever felt like you have the ideas and ability but struggle to consistently turn them into action, this conversation is for you.

Watch the first episode of ADHD in the Wild and hear my full story—and how I've learned to approach ADHD, work, and entrepreneurship differently.