ADHD-ish™

Welcome back to ADHD-ish! In this episode, my guest Ian Wilson, a creative agency owner of over 16 years, is what I call a natural-born entrepreneur.
From hustling for his first job at age eleven to building a unique partnership with his neurodivergent business partner Eric, Ian sheds light on why traditional approaches to team building rarely work for people whose brains are wired a bit differently.
We’ll hear how Ian and Eric’s complementary neurotypes—ADHD and autism - have enabled them to build a successful agency grounded in autonomy, mastery, and ownership.
Ian shares lessons learned on building a team of “hurricane chasers,” hiring for attitude over experience, and why the bold move of unapologetically charging what you’re worth doesn’t just benefit the business—it creates a thriving company culture.
Whether you’re a founder who is churning and burning team members or a solopreneur anticipating that first hire, this episode is packed with practical advice, refreshing honesty, and plenty of laughs about what happens when you fully embrace the ADHD-ish way of doing business.
Three key takeaways:
Self-awareness and self-acceptance matter more than “best practices.” Knowing what you’re brilliant at—and what you hate—makes it so much easier to build a business (and find team members) that complement your strengths and support your growth.
Hire for traits, not just skills. Ian’s team isn’t made up of “perfect resumes” but of entrepreneurial thinkers who enjoy solving problems and don’t need to be micromanaged. Find the ones who vibe with your approach and love challenging themselves to figure things out.
Be bold about your value. Ian & Eric tell prospects: “We’re probably the most expensive quote you’ll get—and here’s why.” Setting unapologetic boundaries not only draws the right clients but also creates a culture of excellence and transparency.

Mic Drop Moment:
Ian & Eric deliberately hire people who crave these three things, no matter their resume. Their neurodivergent advantage? Investing in traits, not credentials.
Autonomy: Freedom to do things your way.
Mastery: The drive to get better and own your craft.
Ownership: Feeling like your contributions actually matter.

About today’s guest, Ian Wilson:
Ian is the Co-Founder and Creative Director of buildcreate, a full-service B2B marketing agency for manufacturing, technology, engineering, and industrial clients in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Home-schooled and entrepreneurial from childhood, Ian discovered his ADHD as an adult. He and his business partner, Eric Lynch, who is autistic, have discovered that their secret sauce as neurodivergent leaders is to hire smart people and let them work to their strengths.
Connect with Ian:
LinkedIn- Company Website - Email

Your ADHD-ish host, Diann Wingert
Diann Wingert brings decades of experience as a psychotherapist and serial business owner and is now a sought-after coach to entrepreneurs with ADHD traits.
Diann is a fierce advocate for self-acceptance and meaningful growth at the intersection of neurodivergence and entrepreneurship. She is the creator of the ADHD-ish Method and host of the top-rated ADHD-ish podcast.
Mentioned during this episode:
Ep # 303: Which Company Culture is Your ADHD Brain Building?
Links:
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Know another entrepreneur with ADHD who thinks there is only one way to build a team - the neurotypical way? Share this episode.
Ready to work with an ADHD-informed business strategist and coach? Visit my website.

© 2026 ADHD-ish Podcast. Intro music by Ishan Dincer / Melody Loops/ Outro music by Vladimir / Bobi Music / All rights reserved.

Ever found yourself unable to make the simplest decision or making impulsive choices you later regret at the end of a long day? You're not lazy—you're depleted.
Understanding ADHD strengths and struggles means recognizing that our executive function ADHD capacity is finite—and knowing how to manage it strategically.
This episode of ADHD-ish dives into the science and lived reality of ego depletion—the phenomenon where self-control and decision-making get harder the more you use them—and why it hits brains with ADHD so much harder than most people realize.
What is Ego Depletion?
Ego depletion is the idea that self-control is a limited resource—every tough decision, every time you push through discomfort, you draw down the tank a bit more. And for those of us with ADHD, that tank starts out smaller and empties faster.
ADHD brains work harder to stay focused, resist distractions, and mask our real struggles behind a “put-together” exterior. All of that is invisible work—work that drains our resources and directly impacts executive function ADHD capacity.
Why Does This Matter for Entrepreneurs?
If you run your own business, chances are, you’re making choices all day long. Decision fatigue hits fast when your working memory is taxed, and the emotional labor, rejection sensitivity, ambiguity, and hyperfocusing can all leave you running on fumes.
And when the tank runs dry? That’s when the late-day impulsive emails, knee-jerk “yeses” to bad projects, and pricing compromises hit. It’s not poor judgment—it’s overdrawn capacity. This is one of the core ADHD strengths and struggles we navigate as entrepreneurs.

About the host, Diann Wingert
Diann Wingert is a business strategist, coach, serial entrepreneur, former psychotherapist, and passionate thought leader at the intersection of ADHD and entrepreneurship.
Through practical neuroscience and accessible storytelling, Diann empowers others to understand their brains, manage their energy, and show compassion to themselves as they navigate the demands of running a business with an ADHD brain.

Five Triggers That Drain Your Brain
Decision Overload: Every “tiny” business choice eats up self-regulation energy. All those open tabs in your mind have a cost.
Emotional Labor: Managing client feelings, financial uncertainties, and the constant hum of ambiguity depletes you, even if “nothing is happening.”
Sustained Focus (and Hyperfocus): Even fun, project-based deep work can leave nothing left for anything else once the session’s over.
Masking: Trying to look “together” when you don’t feel it is invisible labor, not covered in most productivity advice.
Sleep and Blood Sugar: When you run low in these departments, you start the day with a deficit.

Practical Strategies: Refilling the Tank
Knowledge is useless without practice. Here’s what’s working for my clients and me:
Protect the Peak Window - Notice when focus comes more naturally. Schedule your highest-value and most “expensive” mental work then. Don’t let admin or reactive tasks steal your best hours.
Ruthless Pre-Decision - I now audit decisions weekly: What can I automate? Which choices can be made in advance? This includes everything from client policies to what I eat for breakfast. I have a breakfast rotation now that saves me about 10 minutes every morning—energy I use elsewhere.
Don’t Skip the Refueling - Eating on a schedule is non-negotiable. I use an alarm for lunch because, without external cues, I’ll work straight through and crash later. Treat meals and breaks with the same gravity you would an important meeting.
Schedule Intentional Resets - Real mental breaks matter. Laughter, small pleasures, or even a quick walk create real returns. I log two restorative breaks in my calendar daily—not as a luxury, but as mental maintenance.
Prioritize Sleep as a Business Tool - Nothing refills the willpower account like rest. Chronically starting the day depleted only feeds the self-doubt loop. Honoring my natural sleep needs—even if it means leaning into night-owl tendencies strategically—made a profound difference.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Roy Baumeister’s Model of Ego Depletion
Alexis Hope: Using Joy to Fuel Productivity for Neurospicy Entrepreneurs
Risa Williams: How Celebrating Tiny Wins Boosts Motivation and Beats Burnout

Ready for more?
Subscribe to the podcast - Visit my website - Follow me on LinkedIn

© 2026 ADHD-ish Podcast. Intro music by Ishan Dincer / Melody Loops / Outro music by Vladimir / Bobi Music / All rights reserved.

Too often, those of us with ADHD (and, honestly, just about anyone striving for success) fall into the “check the box and move on” mentality, downplaying our achievements and racing toward the next goal. Sound familiar?
In this episode, host Diann Wingert and returning guest Risa Williams, LMFT, challenge listeners to radically rethink what counts as a win. What if making a sandwich, sending a tough email, or—even better—taking a moment for self-care, can be celebrated as much as those big, flashy milestones?
If you’ve ever felt like your wins don’t "count," or you’re stuck on the productivity treadmill, this episode is your sign to embrace a kinder, more sustainable approach.
3 key takeaways from our conversation:
Redefine Productivity: Success isn’t just about big goals—it’s about acknowledging every step, even the small ones. Practicing this daily fosters confidence and decreases imposter syndrome and chronic dissatisfaction.
Combat Dismissiveness: Many of us grew up being dismissed or dismissing ourselves. Start catching that dismissive inner voice. Replace it with gentle validation—give yourself credit the way you’d celebrate a friend’s progress.
Track and Celebrate Progress: Write down 3–5 tiny accomplishments every day. Over time, this simple act retrains your brain to notice and remember your efforts, fueling motivation and staving off burnout.

Mic Drop Moment:
Many high achievers with ADHD also battle imposter syndrome. Why? Because they literally cannot remember the many incremental steps it took to get results. If you don’t witness your own progress, you can’t internalize your success. The result: even evidence-based accomplishments don’t “count,” fueling the endless treadmill of “not good enough.”

About Risa Williams, LMFT
Risa Williams is a licensed therapist, a time management expert, and an award-winning book author of six self-help books. She's also the host of The Motivation Mindset Podcast (Apple, Spotify). Risa has been featured as an expert in Forbes Magazine, Wondermind, Wired, Bustle, Psychology Today, and Business Insider. She's also a busy mom of two and a university professor.
Connect with Risa:
Website - Instagram - Motivation Mindset Podcast
Ready to put it into practice?
Ultimately, reframing tiny wins is an act of reclaiming joy and validation from a world conditioned to withhold or diminish them. The results are worth it—greater momentum, resilience, and happiness. So, what tiny win will you celebrate today?
Risa Williams’ Tiny Wins Journal - Tiny Wins digital mini-course
Rick Hanson’s Book Buddha’s Brain

If You Take Just One Step
The act of writing down tiny wins and then reviewing them is what rewires the narrative in your brain. Do it out of skepticism, if that works. Gamify it, make it defiant, or treat it as an experiment. And because we know accountability makes it real, DM me on LinkedIn, email me, or leave a voice message on my website.

Your ADHD-ish host, Diann Wingert
Diann Wingert has decades of experience as a psychotherapist and serial business owner, and is now a sought-after coach to entrepreneurs with ADHD traits. Her style is direct, strategic, and always honest—peppered with the insight of someone who lives and breathes the ADHD experience.
Sharing is Caring
Know a fellow business owner who is on the productivity dreadmill, always moving on to the next project without celebrating their success? They might need this wake-up call, too, so be a pal and share the episode. Here is a link to make it easy.

© 2026 ADHD-ish Podcast. Intro music by Ishan Dincer / Melody Loops / Outro music by Vladimir / Bobi Music / All rights reserved.

You’ve probably heard that medications like Ritalin, Adderall, or Vyvanse simply "fix" your attention. But what if I told you that most of what you think you know about how these meds work is actually wrong—or at least seriously incomplete?
Understanding why neurodiversity is good for business starts with accurate information about how our brains actually function—including the real science behind ADHD medication.
In this episode, we’ll unpack new, game-changing scientific research that reveals what stimulants are truly doing in your brain. Spoiler: they’re not just fixing your attention networks.
We’ll explore how these meds boost arousal and make boring business tasks feel more worth doing, why sleep is a critical performance variable, and what all of this means for structuring your workflows and managing your expectations as a business owner with ADHD.
Whether you’re taking medication, considering it, or just plain curious, this episode will help you understand the real role of stimulants in your entrepreneurial journey—and give you practical strategies to work with your brain.
For years, we’ve been told stimulants “fix” our faulty attention networks. But new research out of Washington University just flipped that script—and it has huge implications for how we work, rest, and structure our businesses. This research on the attention mechanism in neural networks reveals that ADHD medication works differently than we thought.
3 Key Takeaways:
Stimulants = Wakefulness + Salience boost: They don’t “fix” your attention span—they make your brain more awake (like a great night’s sleep) and make boring tasks feel more worth doing.
Sleep is a performance variable, not optional: Meds can mask sleep deprivation, but can’t fix it. If you’re hitting a wall by afternoon, it’s likely a sleep issue, not a “bad brain” or “bad med” issue.
Build your business around your real needs: Use your medicated hours for tedious-but-critical tasks, create systems that connect daily actions to meaningful outcomes, and get super-specific in conversations about what “isn’t working”—the answer isn’t always a higher dose.

Resources Mentioned in the Episode: Study in Cell Magazine

About the Host, Diann Wingert:
Diann Wingert is the creator and host of ADHDish, a podcast that explores the realities of living with ADHD, especially for entrepreneurs and business owners.
Rather than prescribing solutions, she empowers listeners to make informed choices, providing clear, actionable information in an approachable, no-nonsense style that makes her a trusted voice for those navigating ADHD in the workplace and beyond.

Sharing is Caring
Know a fellow business owner who thinks their ADHD medication fixes their attention or claims they need a higher dose because it stopped working? They might need this wake-up call, too, so be a pal and share the episode. Here is a link to make it easy.

Want one-on-one support?
Ready to create the strategies that reduce the friction and fatigue of running a business with ADHD? Click here to book a free consultation. It’s the first step to transforming what you’re building intentionally through expert ADHD entrepreneur coaching.

© 2026 ADHD-ish Podcast. Intro music by Ishan Dincer / Melody Loops / Outro music by Vladimir / Bobi Music / All rights reserved.

In this vulnerable and eye-opening conversation, ADHD-ish host Diann Wingert sits down with fellow ADHD coach, Brooke Schnittman, to explore the lasting impact of bullying for those of us with ADHD, drawing from her own lived experience and groundbreaking research.
One of the most surprising insights? While bullying trends downward in the general population as we age, it barely drops for those with ADHD, showing up in new and often subtle forms throughout adulthood.
What starts as name-calling and exclusion on the playground can morph into chronic criticism, micromanagement, gaslighting, and professional exclusion in adulthood. This constant “othering” can erode confidence and reinforce masking, people-pleasing, and overachievement as survival strategies.
Here are 4 key takeaways for anyone navigating ADHD (or supporting neurodivergent folks):
What makes it bullying? Repetitive pattern - Power imbalance - Harm
Bullying rarely ends with childhood: For adults with ADHD, bullying simply morphs. Physical teasing and exclusion may become workplace micromanagement, social exclusion, and subtle undermining.
The harm goes beyond “hurt feelings.” Chronic criticism and exclusion keep the brain’s stress system on high alert, triggering anxiety, imposter syndrome, burnout, and even making executive dysfunction worse.
Self-acceptance + community are critical. When we name bullying for what it is and seek out supportive communities, we can start to untangle shame and build resilience. As Brooke notes: “We were never too much. We were exactly who we were meant to be, just waiting for a world that could understand us.”

About Brooke Schnittman, MA, PCC, BCC:
Brooke Schnittman is an ADHD coach, educator, and advocate for adults with ADHD. With years of working directly with individuals and families, she noticed an alarming pattern: bullying is not only common in the lives of people with ADHD but is also a neglected topic in ADHD research and support. Brooke’s recent pioneering survey on adult ADHD and bullying—the first of its kind—has started an essential conversation about the legacy of bullying, how it changes form over time, and how those affected can heal and thrive
Connect with Brooke:
Website: https://www.coachingwithbrooke.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/coachingwithbrooke/
Free e-book:https://www.coachingwithbrooke.com/ebook
Participate in the survey on ADHD & bullying: https://bit.ly/4stMllM

Mentioned during this interview:
Ned Hallowell, MD
William Dodson, MD
Take action:

Participate in Brooke’s survey on ADHD & Bullying: https://bit.ly/4stMllM

Your ADHD-ish host, Diann Wingert
Diann Wingert brings decades of experience as a psychotherapist and serial business owner, and is now a sought-after coach to entrepreneurs with ADHD traits. Her style is direct, strategic, and always honest—peppered with the insight of someone who lives and breathes the neurodivergent experience.
If conversations like this one are one of the reasons you keep coming back to ADHD-ish, the best way to let me know is to leave a review on Apple or Spotify. Here’s the link to make it happen.

© 2026 ADHD-ish Podcast. Intro music by Ishan Dincer / Melody Loops / Outro music by Vladimir / Bobi Music / All rights reserved.