Dr. Tommy Black is a Licensed Professional Counselor who has been in private practice since 1998. Currently he serves as a member of the Georgia Composite Board for Professional Counselors, Social Workers, and Marriage & Family Therapists. He also serves as the Chair of the Rules Committee and on the Advisory Panel for the National Board of Forensic Evaluators. Dr. Black has extensive experience and training in Cognitive-Behavior Therapy, REBT, and DBT. He works with a myriad of life issues but has particular expertise in ADHD, Grief/Loss, Depression, Anxiety Disorders, PTSD, Impulse Control Issues, Relationship difficulties, and Adjustment Difficulties. A veteran of the Gulf War (1990-1991) while serving in the U.S. Army, Dr. Black has years of personal and professional experience in understanding and helping others cope with the specific trials of military services for active duty individuals and their families.  Today we’re talking about how he uses his ADHD, wisdom and years of experience to help others. Enjoy!

***CORONA VIRUS EDITION***

In this episode Peter & Dr. Tommy Black discuss:

1:14-  Intro and welcome Dr. Black!

3:30-  What’s your story. When did you begin pursuing your doctoral studies?

5:55-  On the issue of treating Neurodiverse, versus urgent medical care & resources available.

6:55-  On some of the improvements and areas of neurodiversity that are getting attention finally.

8:05-  On Esteem Therapeutics and the work Dr. Black & Associates are doing

10:45-  Rigidity. Let’s talk about how your service in the military helps individuals with ADHD or those who may be neurodiverse.

14:08-  Do you feel you attained much of the structure you currently use in your daily life from the military? 

16:05-  What do you say to parents who have just learned of their child’s neurodiverse diagnosis?

16:55-  On how he managed through his own childrens’ diagnoses’

19:22-  How can people find you?  Download the app App Store. Or via his website at www.chooseesteem.com and @ chooseesteem on INSTA and Facebook 

20:00-  Thank you Tommy! 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!

21:07-  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. I hope you were having a great day. It is raining here in New York and foggy. Not so much rain but fog, but all as well. Uh, today is early voting in New York city. I voted, uh, it was on line at 6:00 AM. I was out by about 7:55. So that was pretty awesome. And if you don't vote, you're not allowed to listen to this podcast. So those are the rules. I don't care who you vote for, but you got to vote very, very important, democracy must survive. 

Anyway, on the podcast, we've got someone who has helped contributed to democracies survival. We have a veteran of the Gulf war, the original bill for 1991. Back when I was a freshman in college. I remember when we went, when the, when the, uh, CNN broke the news, that, that, that it was starting. And, um, we're talking to dr. Tommy Black, Dr. Tommy Black is a licensed professional counselor. He's been in private practice since 98. He currently serves as a member of the Georgia composite board for principal counselors, social workers, and marriage and family therapists. He also serves as chair of the rules committee on the advisory panel for the national board of forensic evaluators. He's extended his extensive experience and training in cognitive behavior therapy. CBT is I talk about always REBT and DBT, which is dialectical behavioral therapy. He works with a myriad of life issues, but his particular experience in ADHD, grief, loss, depression, anxiety disorders, PTSD, impulse control issues, relationship difficulties, and adjustment difficulties. So essentially everyone who listens to this podcast, as I said, a veteran to go for while serving in the U S army, Dr. Black has used a personal professional experience in understanding and helping others cope with specific trials of military service for active duty individuals and their families. First of all, thank you for your service. Second of all, dr. Black welcome faster than normal. 

Thanks, Peter. I appreciate you having me. Um, and thank you for that. Welcome. It does sound like any issue you have. I can help you with this. 

You're pretty much covered everyone who's ever been on the show. Yeah, no question.

Yeah, those are all I think though, um, very typical of individuals with ADHD. We deal with all of those things, right? Well, I was going to say everything is so interconnected. Yeah. Right. And, and so, so, you know, a hair's breadth apart from each other, and that's really, I think one of the things that people don't realize exactly how interconnected and close all of these things are, whether you're looking at trauma issues or ADHD or PTSD, impulse control, executive function disorder, you know, all of these are literally a hair's breath away from each other.

Yup. Yup. It's very difficult at times to find differential diagnosis for those things, make a determination of what the primary issue is and what's driving the, um, frustrations or concerns. So that's where we have to turn to the professionals or look at data and try to figure that stuff out. So tell me your story. So you, you were in the army when you came back, is that when you, uh, pursued your, your, uh, doctoral studies. 

Yeah. So, um, I was actually enlisted, I was in high school, straight out of high school. I joined the military and went into that. And when I came back, I got a scholarship and I, my goal was to enter politics. I was a poly-sci major and hope to go to law school, but then I took intro to psychology. And I fell in love and it just spoke to me. Um, it resonated with me just in my personal life, as well as professionally. I just felt like I understood it and got it. And so I changed my major to psychology at that time, still thinking that I would pursue a law degree. Psychology degrees are great degree to have if you're going into criminal law. And then I went to grad school and decided I want to do, uh, do psychology and particularly school psychology because I, I foolishly thought that when my children were in school, I would take summers off and holidays off and be with them and hang out. And that didn't work out. I ended up opening a private practice and getting involved with military families, primarily dealing with. ADHD trauma and the special issues associated with that depression, anxiety. Uh, relationship difficulties and have really been involved with that since about 95, working with individuals who do that, I primarily do assessments because my background was in school psychology and that's what they primarily do. I ended up getting my, getting my PhD in psychology. Um, more generally speaking. But working in that field and working with families and trying to overcome those types of issues in a way that we don't often see, particularly in military families and where I'm at people just kind of get moved along. We don't have a lot of resources and in Georgia where I live now. And so it often takes several weeks before you get in for an appointment and then several weeks to get a diagnosis. And then several weeks. Weeks they get a treatment plan. So if you have an issue today, it might be six to eight weeks before you get any start working towards any resolution of that issue in the mental health field down here. And it seems to be endemic in the United States everywhere I've been working with national organizations. It seems like people are hurting and we just don't have the availability to get them the help that they need. 

No, it's interesting that you bring that up because I think that one of the most often overlooked. Uh, parts of sort of neurodiversity, um, is the fact that it exists and the fact that it is just as, uh, um, you know, you wouldn't, someone has a, has a bone sticking out of her leg, right? You wouldn't, uh, say, okay, in six weeks we can look at this, right? 

Yep. That's right. The same issue we have, we have decisions that this is, this is important. And, and just because you can't see, it doesn't mean it's not real. It doesn't mean it isn't drastically affecting. 

That's right. That's right. It's it's, that's very true. I didn't think about it that way. I was just thinking you were going to go a little bit different direction. The idea, not only do we have the, just the lack of resources, but then once you get to a resource you're just a bad parent, or maybe you should do this differently, or maybe your kid's just a bad kid, you know, they don't get the support.

You're exactly right. If you walk in with a bone sticking out of your leg, they don't say, well, maybe you should just walk it off. Come back in a couple of really hurt. That much could be in a baby. And, you know, it's interesting because I think that, that we've definitely improved, um, from where we were say 10, 15, 20 years ago. But you know, the flip side of that is that 30 years ago when I was in school, it didn't exist. I mean, it did, but in our world, it didn't, it was sit down, you're disrupting the classes. Right, right. You know, and yeah, there was. Good. I was just going to say it to build on that. There was a lot of different, um, avenues for that where sit down, you're disrupting the class or, or teachers seem to have a little more discretion as the classes didn't seem to be as crowded as they are today. I think, plus we are finding that because we're talking about it and because we're understanding it more, there is more of an acceptance that, okay, this is real, but I don't think it's, it's made at that point yet where it's like, okay, this is real. Let's treat it with the same level of respect and urgency that we would something that we've known for a hundred years. 

Right. And I think that it's going to take time, but I think it's what things like, you know, people you are doing that is it's sort of helping that move forward. Yeah, I think you're exactly right. And I think, um, kind of along those lines, if, if I could expand upon that a little bit, the idea that what we're doing now, I've been in private practice working with individuals, but my co-founders and I started esteem therapeutics with the idea of putting the parent or the individual with the, um, Neurodivergent um, uh, divergence in the driver's seat, so to speak of their treatment plan and their care by giving them the tools when they want it, when they need it at their moment of need, whether that's 2:00 AM or two, two in the afternoon on Saturday, and then giving them the data to see that if the things they're doing are working or aren't aren't working. So that's why we started esteem therapeutics. And it allows, it's an app that is really a super app that connects individuals with all the different, um, technologies and services and platforms that are available today to help with ADHD or depression or anxiety or parenting or stress or trauma. But it puts it all in one place and then allows you to check to make sure what you're doing. The interventions that you're using are actually working as opposed to, like we were talking about in the traditional sense where you come to my office and maybe, maybe you had a good day today. So all we talk about as good stuff, but then. Tomorrow you remember? Oh yeah, I'm really struggling with this, but now you've lost it in that moment of me. So applying technology in a way that every other field, every other professional field in the world uses it. But health and mental health doesn't we don't have a tele-health. Services like we should obviously COVID has changed that to a great extent as we were starting to overcome a lot of that resistance out of necessity, but we've taken that paradigm and shifted it to a way where the individuals in charge as opposed to the professional. Who it feels like a lot of times it's making decisions without giving you all the information, or sometimes you just feel like you're being pushed along, or sometimes you feel powerless or lost or confused because you get inundated with the jargon that we use. And the like me, I'm talking very fast. That's very difficult. So you get somebody in your office, you have an hour, you got to get through all this stuff and then, all right, see you later. Well, wait a minute. We didn't even talk about this, right? Well, we don't have time. Sorry. 

And I think that, you know, there's a, there's a second separate angle of that, which is that, you know, when we get excited about something that we really want to talk about, we lose track of time. Anyway, time, you know, ADHD, you have two types of time you have now and not now. And so if I have that ability to talk to you, yeah, next thing I know it's going to be 60 minutes. You're gonna be like, and I'm like, well, we touched on the half of one topic. Right. That's exactly right. Yeah. Um, I don't know, go back to your military service for a second because, you know, as I get older and I realized that, um, w what my ADHD actually requires is such a surprising amount of rigidity.

Right. And that's something I never thought that I was supposed to have as a kid. I hate it. I write, I hated rigidity. I remember my, the only job I've ever had, it was America online and they let me do whatever I want. As long as I got the work done, when I, when it was due, I didn't care what time I did at three in the morning. But then my next job after that lasted two weeks, because they had meetings 8:30 AM, this and that. And it was terrible. But the more I start to understand maybe HD and get diagnosed and really sort of see it. I realized that. My best days are when my calendar is solid and I'm scheduled, you know, from first thing in the morning until the time it's time to go home. And I don't have that time to sort of goof off and fall down a rabbit hole. Right. And the more it will is that the more sort of thinking that, you know, wow, the military might've been really beneficial for me, but I think what I was at that age 18, they did, I wouldn't have understood that. Right. Because we didn't know what I had or what was going.

Yeah, I think that's very true. I think we see, there are a lot of individuals with ADHD who thrive in the military and you see a lot of people there. It is very structured. Um, it's very interesting because it's, it's not like going off to college or going off to a job. It's almost like you move in with another set of parents. You have. The staff non-commissioned officers in cos the sergeants and first sergeants and whatnot. And then you have officers, so you have multiple levels of accountability. Um, and then you have in the military, in the army, at least when I was in, we had a buddy and everywhere you went and got a buddy and you didn't go anywhere without your buddy and you never left your buddy. And anytime you're in any training or doing anything you were with your buddy, So you have that, um, amount of accountability. The frustrating part about the military is one of the things. If you've ever talked to anyone in the military, one of the true tenants of the military is a hurry up and wait, right? So you have these, you have this mission, you have this job yet, whatever you have to do, you got to hurry up. Hurry up, go, go, go, go, go. Uh, for example, when I got deployed to the middle East, we rushed, I got the call on Wednesday at like 8:00 PM, 4:00 AM. We were all on a bus going around Stein air base to catch a flight to go. And then when we pitched a tent and sat on the tarmac for four days, played a lot of space. Yeah. So that part is extremely frustrating and difficult when you have ADHD and you're just kind of bouncing off the walls and you don't have the freedom to just get up and leave, but you're, you're a hundred percent correct having structure having stability having consistency is part of the key for overcoming those kinds of difficulties. When we, as individuals, don't mess with ADHD, don't necessarily fit in with how society is driven or saying we have to do things. And it's one of the things I've carried over, you know, everywhere. When I go home, my wallet, my keys, my watch, they all go in the same place every day. And lately with everything that's been going on, that hasn't been happening. So I'm freaking out every morning. Well, I took my wallet. Luckily I have a. What are these, these little things where you push a button, then it will find it for you tile. I have tile in my wallet, so, uh, so I can find my wallet and I hadn't used it for probably two years, but then the last couple of months I've used it at least once a week. So having that structure and that discipline is very important. 

Definitely. Do you feel that, um, you learned a lot of, sort of the, the, uh, structured tips that you apply to yourself today in the military? I mean, I know that. That I have a, a good, a good friend of mine passed away recently, but was a former Navy seal. And, um, You know, in just being friends with him. I learned so many things that I could do to guarantee my productivity and to guarantee that I wouldn't go down those rabbit holes. And I, he told me he learned, you know, all of them in, in, in the seals and in the teams. And I just wonder, um, you know, is that almost an advantage in some way?

Yeah, I think so. I definitely think it is. I mean, overall, the net net is a positive in the sense that you're learning, that kind of structure and that kind of self-discipline and basically self monitoring and self mentoring kind of thing so that you can manage those things better. Not necessarily because a lot of times with parents dealing and teachers and schools and the legal system, we punished individuals who have ADHD, you know, you didn't do this, you didn't do that. You didn't do this. So you're getting in trouble in the military. It's more structured in the sense that, uh, okay, you need to do this or you need to be here. What are you doing? We got to do this. Or, you know, it's a lot of looking out for each other and having those safeguards in place to make sure that you're able to develop those skills and use them. And then as an individual to carry those over in that sense, a lot of times with. Parents, the parents just do it for their kids. You know, they don't structure it. They just say, Hey, here's your lunch? Here's your school stuff. Here's your, because they get frustrated with the idea of having this time date every morning before school starts, so they just take it over. But in the military, you don't get it that way. That it's very empowering in the sense that they're. Teaching you the skills and then monitoring those skills, kind of an education. We call it scaffolding. You know, we, we, we build the scaffold, the safety net around you, and then we help you develop those skills as you go along.

What do you say to parents who are, you know, you're sitting there with them for the first intake and they're, they're, they're sort of coming to grips with their new. Type of child, right. They've just been told that, you know, it's ADHD, whatever the case may be, you know? And, and, and they obviously have a lot of things in way to their mind and they're not all positive. 

Yeah. So the first part of that is empathy, trying to have empathy and understanding. It helps that I have ADHD. It helps that I have two, I have twin 17 year old twins. It helps that they, I have two children who have ADHD, and I went through this process as a parent twice. I mean, it's interesting because they hit at different times, even though they're twins. And my daughter hit in like first or second grade and my son was a little older before his symptoms started becoming an issue. But, uh, having that kind of empathy and understanding, we've talked about this kind of at the beginning, instead of pushing along and forcing them along, having the patience to sit and listen to their frustrations and concerns, and then normalizing it, you know, a lot of times; well, he has this, and that's the end of it. No, not necessarily. There's a lot of people who have ADHD or neurodivergent who are very successful. And if you can turn this into a strength and use that strength by not putting them in a box or not making them do things exactly the same way everybody else does, then. Then there's an opportunity for growth and an opportunity to use those things in a more positive with that. The point of that, isn't a spinning, you know, aw, this was great. You know, it's not, but to put it in the proper context so that they understand and then allow them the opportunity to have a sounding board so that they can speak about how they feel about missing. I think. 

That point is a very good one because parents, a lot of times don't get that support. What they hear is you should have done this. If you'd just spanked your kid, he'd be fine. If you set better limits, if you did visit, you know, what they hear is you're a bad parent. 

Exactly. And that's not the case. And we're dealing with exceptional situations where the exceptional children with exceptional skills and abilities. So, so being able to overcome that idea that, you know, you screwed up or you're just a horrible person and then giving them the opportunity to voice that structured, not structured. Um, um, supportive listening is important to just letting them kind of vent; so that's kind of the key. And probably the biggest thing I like to reinforce to parents is that they're being too harsh on themselves when we talk. One of the things I think is important as for. Individuals to treat themselves the way they would treat other people. And that's kind of a flip of the common saying, but if somebody came to you and said, Oh my gosh, I'm so depressed, I don't know what to do. I'm a horrible parent because my kid was just diagnosed with ADHD. You would say, you know, it doesn't necessarily mean that maybe you can do this, or maybe you can look at that, but when it's your kid, Oh, I suck. I screwed up. I can't believe I did this. What's wrong with me. I'm a horrible parent. I'm a horrible person. You know, we, we tend to beat ourselves up way worse than we would someone else. So being kind to yourself in those moments, uh, when you don't necessarily feel as strong as you should, I think is important. And we forget that. 

Awesome. How can people find you? Because I know that I know that they're going to have questions, so what's the, what's the best way to get to talk to Dr Tommy Black. 

Chooseesteem.com. Uh, lots of owes, lots of E's choose of steam.com, um, is probably the best way or the next best way is if they go to the app store, the Apple app store and download the app or on Facebook, they can find us on esteemtherapeutics.com. Um, and then they can reach out to me. We're pretty active on Facebook. So if they have a message that you get to me, Or if they go to the website, we have a contact us there as well. So, and I'm always available. Sometimes it takes a couple of days to get back to emails. When I get it, the workload gets pretty heavy, but, um, But we love to hear from families and connect them with resources and work through the system because we understand and appreciate how difficult that is.

Yup. No question, man. Awesome. Very, very cool. Well guys, even listening to that timing like dr. Blake, thank you so much for taking the time. I truly appreciate it. This was a really informative interview and I'm going to have you back at some point, if you're cool with that, I'd love to love to see the conversation a few months.

Sounds great. Thanks Peter. I really appreciate you having me and having the opportunity to talk about these important issues, especially at this time. 

No question. Guys has always you’ve been listening to Faster Than Normal. If you liked what you heard, drop us a note, write us a review, let us know what you think. We'd always love to hear from you! We're always looking for wonderful new guests like Dr. Black or anyone else who might, you might think might work. On the show, let us know. You can find us on Twitter. Normal at petershankman that's me. Uh, our email is what's our email. Peter@shankman.com works just as well. And we look forward to talking to you guys again next week, stay healthy, stay inside, wear a mask that you can actually just wear a mask. That's not a new question and make sure you vote. We'll talk to you guys soon. Take care.

Credits: You've been listening to the Faster Than Normal podcast. We're available on iTunes, Stitcher and Google play and of course at www.FasterThanNormal.com I'm your host, Peter Shankman and you can find me at petershankman.com and @petershankman on all of the socials. If you like what you've heard, why not head over to your favorite podcast platform of choice and leave us a review, come more people who leave positive reviews, the more the podcast has shown, and the more people we can help understand that ADHD is a gift, not a curse. Opening and closing themes were performed by Steven Byrom and the opening introduction was recorded by Bernie Wagenblast. Thank you so much for listening. We'll see you next week. 

Coach Tony has studied Psychology, Clinical Counseling, Ontology, Spirituality, is a certified 

Gallup Strengths Coach and has a Master’s in Business Administration.  He owns several small businesses and is committed to making a difference in the lives of others.  Coach Tony believes that transformation is available to anyone that is willing to put in the work.  For more information on Coach Tony or to book an appointment or speaking engagement with him, please email him directly at: Tony@CoachTony.life or his website: www.CoachTony.life Today we’re talking about how to plant cabbage- if you happen to like cabbage, his ADHD, how and why he is a happy and successful coach who’s constantly helping others. Enjoy!

***CORONA VIRUS EDITION***

In this episode Peter & Coach Tony Taylor discuss:

1:05-  Intro and welcome Coach Tony!

1:40-  Tell us about how you got your start, why you love helping other people- what’s your story?

2:55-  On how having a faster than normal brain helps, and how it can not help us if we don’t do the work.

4:20-  On setting boundaries and sticking to a list/accountability ref: Meditation for Dummies

5:17-  How do you meditate when the ADHD does’t shut off?

6:08-  Does cardio still work for your ADHD brain? How does mental conditioning work for you?

8:08-  On playing the tape forward/setting yourself up for success

8:28-  What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve witnessed via coaching during COVID-19?

10:10-  On helping to teach people the only thing we can control is how we’re responding to life

10:50-  On the concept of “forward motion is thrilling”. Ref: Seth Godin interview on FTN

12:15-  On making the best out of the cards your dealt

13:03-  How do you align your thoughts with what you’re creating and doing in the world. Ref: Mind Your Garden: The seeds you plant today become the realities of tomorrow (Live YOUR life!)

14:14-  If you don’t like cabbage, don’t plant cabbage!

15:20-  How can people find you?  Website at www.coachtony.life @tonyblisstaylor on: Twitter  coach_tonytaylor on INSTA  and CoachTonyTaylor on Facebook or via email: tony@coachtony.life

13:30-  Thank you Tony! 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!

16:07-  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 episode two, zero one, the 201st episode of Faster Than Normal. I'm thrilled to have you here. If you missed episode 200, go check it out. It taught me why we take risks, why I like jumping out of airplanes, and I pretty much knew why I do stupid things sometimes, and I bet you're gonna fit right in and check it out.

Episode 201. I can't believe we're at 2-0-1! [editors note: technically this is episode 202, we don’t always air in-sequence]. Our guest today, Tony, you're the first person in the, I guess the two's, but isn't 200. So welcome. Hey, thanks. I'm excited to be here. Got it. Coach Tony, just going by coach Tom coach. Tony has studied psychology clinical counseling, ontology spirituality. He's a certified Gallop strength, strength coach, and has a master's in business administration. You know, in several small businesses, he committed to making a difference in the lives of others. He believed the transformation is available. Anyone willing to put in the work, which when you're ADHD, you don't really have a choice. Welcome to the show. It's good to have you tell us about you. How did you discover that you liked helping other people? How, tell us about your background. How did you start the whole story? 

Well, you know, coming through, um, a background of adversity, um, single parents, Abandonment from my father, child abuse. I really learned that I had to fight for what I wanted in life. And. I also learned that a life of contribution is the only fulfillment that satisfies me. Um, I created businesses and made money and went after the material realm and it just was empty and meaningless. And when I started coaching and I focused on helping other people achieve the breakthrough of their glass ceiling and getting a life that they love. It became a life that I can't retire from. You know, I say that when I started coaching, uh, six years ago that I officially retired from working because I worked seven days a week. Um, I have a lot of fun things going on and it's all around being a contribution to peace. Awesome. Do you find, I find that that when I help, it just makes for better life. Everything just becomes better when you're health. Well, and I mean, with the faster than normal brain taking the thoughts that I have and not giving them any energy, because I'm focusing on somebody else and what they're up to. It's relaxing. 

So tell us about, about that. So you coach people. So, so as ADHD and, and, and yourself and the whole thing, and having the festival brain talk about sort of the top, let's go with the top five things. And let's let's let's let's let's look at it from a negative perspective. What are the top five things that people that ESG or neurodiversity continually do to themselves that hurts them, that prevents them from moving forward? 

Well, I think, um, Addictive addictive behavior and certain addictions can get in the way. Um, I know I can find myself and have found myself in the past trapped in like a vicious circle of doing things that I know are good for me, but I need something to give that adrenaline or that boost to keep going. Um, you talk a lot about, uh, adrenaline junkie, right? Like I think that. Can be a negative, but also I think that is what empowered me to write, illustrate and publish a book in six months. So it's honing in that energy to do what you're up to instead of. I'm letting it get carried away and run yourself over. Um, yeah. Yeah. So I think that's a big thing. Um, I need a lot of boundaries and a schedule to follow, um, and it's not necessarily of listening to my faster than normal brain. It's doing what's on the list. No matter if I feel like doing it or not. Um, and being accountable to yourself and really holding yourself accountable to that schedule, um, has helped me out a ton. I have to get in cardio, um, because I have additional energy and if I don't use it in that kind of realm, um, it will sneak up and get in my way of being productive. Um, I'm a huge fan of meditation. Um, Stephan BoDean has a book meditation for dummies. It's just. It totally changed my world, um, to be able to take out 40 minutes of my day and be in silence and be able to sit literally in silence without getting run over by my thoughts. 

How do you do that when your brain, when the ADHD brain doesn't shut off?

Well, it, it doesn't shut off, but instead of experiencing the thoughts and feeling them and wanting to be an action around them, I just sit and observe the thoughts. Um, meditation isn't I think there's a problem in our society that says, Oh yeah, meditate. And just sit down and shut your mind off. And it's like, are you kidding me? Have you ever been inside my brain? They're shutting this off, but there is an ability to rise above those thoughts and just observe them with no feeling, um, or compelling need to be an action around them. It's just kind of like watching clouds go by. Um, instead of making it mean something, it's just, it is what it is.

Interesting. I feel that. So talk, go back to cardio for a second. You know, I used to be this huge cardio junkie. Oh my God. Cardio credit cards. And I still am. I mean, I still get my pellets on every morning, but I'm finding more and more. So over the, during the, during the, um, the lockdown, you know, I couldn't go to my gym. So I had my bike in my bedroom, but then I wanted to keep lifting. So I bought two 22 pound kettlebells and started just changing my life with them. And one of the things I've learned is that I think the closest to meditation I can get is when I say in a series of 20 reps of like shoulder presses, right. And by rep. 12 it's starting to hurt. Right. And what I've found is if I just say to myself in my mind, it doesn't hurt, it doesn't hurt. It doesn't hurt it. Opposite still hurts. But I came to get through the set with quote, unquote, less pain it's burning. You know how, when you do a set and you're just by 20, you're like burning, it just hurts. No, and it still hurts, you know, without question, but I feel like. It's the simple act of saying that the positive affirmation in my brain, this doesn't hurt. You're not in pain helps me go further. And I've never experienced that before. And I'm wondering if that is also somehow tied to the dopamine.

Absolutely. You know, I'm a, I'm a firm believer of what you think about you bring about, you've had the experience of getting on a treadmill or your Peloton in the morning being like, Oh, this is going to be an awful ride. Or this is going to be a tough run. My knees aren't into it today, whatever we, you know, those thoughts that we have, the run's going to reflect that, or the exercise is going to reflect that. But when you go in and say, you know, this doesn't hurt. And this is, this is exactly what I'm committed to. This is going to feel great. I'm going to feel so good after this is done. The exercise reflects that as well. So it's, it's finding that zone, um, and aligning your thoughts with an action. That's bigger than you. I find that that a lot of it, and I've mentioned this in the podcast, countless times, the concept of playing the tape forward, right? How am I going to feel something? If I don't, if I don't wake up right now and go to the gym or I don't wake up and get on that bike, like I said, I was going to. What's my day going to be like, and yeah, tonight and I come back to this bed, I'm going to be happy with that's awesome. And it works. Yeah. And tell me about some of the biggest problems that you're, that you see, um, from coaching, both from a, just in general perspective and from what we've experienced the past eight months of this year, Just don't be a nightmare COVID, uh, situation.

Yeah. Well, like I said before, I'm a huge believer of what you think about you bring about. And when I looked around society, you know, six years ago and I was in a transitional spot in my life where I could either go full time coaching or maintain some media buying businesses that I did. I saw the world resigned and I saw the world stopped by their own fears and glass ceilings and, and coming from the diverse background that I came from, I know that it wasn't easy and I know it took something, but I knew it was probably possible. And I just got called to talk to people and what's possible for them in their lives. Um, and. With the COVID situation and the lockdown, like the first two weeks, I was like, Oh, this is, you know, this is just going to blow over. It's going to be fine. Um, and after two weeks of me and my husband drinking, probably too much wine and staying up too late and getting out of our routines, it was like, okay, now what? I need to be an action around something. And. For people, I could feel their fear on the planet of like being in lockdown and not knowing what this virus was or what the future was gonna hold is what really inspired me to write my inner garden. Um, the seeds you plant today become the realities of tomorrow to put a little hope in the world in a time during perceived darkness. Um, I just. I think that for me, in my ADHD and faster than normal brain, I have to be an action. And this book a big part of it to help teach people that. Even no matter what's going on in the, in the world, in the universe, the only thing we can control is how we're responding to it and rise above the fear and stay in actions that you're committed to, to achieving in the world, whether it's a lockdown situation or not other ways, we spend too much time with our thoughts and it can be a downward spiral for everyone. If you don't have a faster than normal brain, but especially with a faster than normal brain, it can get defeating. 

Well, my mother used to always tell me that, um, when I was a kid that I don't like it when the grass grows under my feet. Right. And then I came to realize what she meant was that was, um, The premise of, um, being, I, I don't like not moving. I don't like not being in motion. And then Seth Godin, when I had him on the podcast, he, he quoted the phrase board motion is thrilling. Yeah. All right. And for people like us, we need that. And so, you know, I mean, March 8th, I stepped off a plane at Newark airport, 1130 at night. And, um, if I've known those me last time, I'd be in plain for seven months now. I, I probably would've stayed a few more minutes getting my bags down and, um, You know, so I went from 250 miles an hour to zero overnight. That was just a bitch. And so I had to learn how to create forward motion while not necessarily doing. And that was, it was a tough lesson, but it's benefited me in a lot of ways. I, you know, I'm up earlier now. I ever have been because doing the whole single dad, a homeschooling thing, the only time I really have to work out without being interrupted every 30 minutes was dad, how do I log out of this? How long did that. Is, you know, 4:00 AM 4:30 AM or whatever. And so if I still wanna be able to get work done and then be there for the daughter, it's it's even earlier. So, but, and so I've found ways to get that forward motion that it's totally going on a plane or skydiving, whatever, which the things I missed. But I could still figure out ways of doing stuff well, and that's just empowering and inspiring to hear, you know, it's taking the, the cards in the hand that life deals you and making the best of it and figuring out, you know, okay, these aren't the, the cards I would have chosen and how can I stay committed to what I'm committed to regardless.

I truly believe that. And I know the other thing is I think that what you said about not being able to control all you control is, is, is your reactions to things. I think that was a lesson when I learned that really changed my life. Like how do whatever. And so the question becomes, I think for a lot of people, what can they do too? 

Implement that it's one thing to say, Oh, I can only control it, but it's another thing when, you know, someone's slamming in your back. You know, I think that that if anyone's gonna win the Nobel prize this year, it should be Biden for not, you know, not going off and punching Trump in the face when he mentioned this dead set. Right. How do you create ways of staying in your own space and staying calm and staying focused? What kind of tricks can you, can you tell the audience, you know, when, when shit does go south. 

Yeah. So my book, Mind Your Garden is all about doing that. It's aligning your thoughts with what you're really committed to doing and creating in the world. And yes, we can get frustrated by ridiculous things that come out of people's mouth and in. Yeah. I mean, it can enrage us with like, I hate you feelings, or we can elevate to a level of observing. Like I get that's how I feel, but what am I really committed to? So for me in coach Tony, I'm committed to, co-creating a world that works. And what I see in the world that doesn't work is this constant. Belittling and fighting and name calling and negative energy. All of that stuff that we're seeing every day, isn't working, what would work. And I believe if we could all level a little louder today and be the expressive people and connected people that we came here to be and help each other out. Instead of just looking out for ourselves, we can create a world that works. So it's all about observing the thought. And before you react to that thought of, I want to punch you in the face, like, wait, does that align with what I'm creating in the world and what I'm up to? Yes. Okay. Go punch him in the face or know what would, and what could I, sir, there's nothing ever missing in the universe. So if you read that at least you thought you have to replace the thought. And my book talks about just like a garden. If you grow cabbage and you hate cabbage. Don't plant cabbage, plant broccoli, plant, whatever you want

Yeah. I totally agree with that statement. The concept, if you, if you don't, you know, why would you waste time doing something you hate and yet millions of people still do that. 

Yeah. And we're kind of addicted to it. It we're addicted to that kind of reaction in that ability to have revenge, but the only person we're hurting is us. You know, Gandhi saying, be the change you want to see in the world. Right? Like there is something to that and if you want more love, be more love. Um, so yeah, a hundred percent. I love it. 

Tell us how people can find you. Um, you know, I'm on the S all the socials coach, Tony Taylor, um, my website, www.coachtony.life Um, my new book, mind your garden is on Amazon and my website. And I'm here to inspire and help and do what I can to make this world work better than guys. The book is called mind your garden. I recommend checking it out. Tony, thank you so much for being on a normal day. I truly appreciate it. Absolutely.

Thanks for having me!

Guys, we’re back next week with a brand new episode; keep staying in touch, stay healthy, wear your mask, the pandemic’s not over, were your mask, just because we're used to it doesn't mean it's over. Okay. And, um, be safe. We'll talk to you guys soon. ADHD is a gift, not a curse. We'll see you soon.

Credits: You've been listening to the Faster Than Normal podcast. We're available on iTunes, Stitcher and Google play and of course at www.FasterThanNormal.com I'm your host, Peter Shankman and you can find me at petershankman.com and @petershankman on all of the socials. If you like what you've heard, why not head over to your favorite podcast platform of choice and leave us a review, come more people who leave positive reviews, the more the podcast has shown, and the more people we can help understand that ADHD is a gift, not a curse. Opening and closing themes were performed by Steven Byrom and the opening introduction was recorded by Bernie Wagenblast. Thank you so much for listening. We'll see you next week. 

Rich founded Revibe in 2013 to provide tools and technologies that level the playing field for kids with focus and attention challenges to allow them to reach their fullest potential. Rich spent much of his career working as a school psychologist specializing in autism spectrum disorders, serving on several school district autism evaluation teams. He has personally evaluated hundreds of children with various developmental needs and provided consultation and insight for over one thousand cases.  He is truly passionate about helping children with various difficulties overcome obstacles to attain success. 

***CORONA VIRUS EDITION 

In this episode Peter & Rich Brancaccio discuss:

1:20-  Intro and welcome Rich!

1:40-  So what, what prompted you to become a school psychologist to begin with?

2:20-  On starting the company ReVibe

3:20-  Tell us about how the company came about to begin with.

5:00-  On how the new product “Revibe Connect” works in the classroom

7:20-  On how the data collected is beneficial and to whom; including how teachers can use it.

9:30-  What kind of feedback are you getting from the teachers? 

10:22-  What’s the process for parents or teachers to sort of get into this and start using it?

10:58-  Have you gotten any feedback from doctors at all on this yet?

12:03-  How many students are currently using this around the country?

12:15-  What's the price point on it?

13:00-  Some free resources for your homeschooling are at Revibetech.com! i.e. “How To Help Your Child Adjust To Virtual Learning or The New Classroom”

12:37-  How can people find you?  Website at www.RevibeTech.com @Revibe_Tech on: Twitter  INSTA and @RevibeConnect on Facebook

13:30-  Thank you Rich! 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!

23:33-  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 here with another episode of Faster Than Normal, thrilled that you're still here. Hope you're safe and well and wearing your mask. Uh, we have a cool episode today. We are talking to a psychologist, former school psychologist and countless years, the school district in North Carolina. He specializes in autism autism spectrum disorders serving on several school district autism evaluation teams. He's worked with about 800 children with tons of different developmental needs, but a compensation and insight for over 100,000 cases, and is one of the most passionate people I've ever talked to about helping children with various difficulties overcoming obstacles to attain success, his name is rich, and I'm going to screw up your last name it’s.. Brancaccio? Is that right? 

That's close enough, Peter.

 Brancaccio, alright, good enough. Almost there. And in 2013, after you left the schools, you started a company called Revibe. And that goal is to provide tools and technologies that level, the playing field for kids with focus and attention challenges, right?

I did. That's correct. 

Tell us what got you in. So, so what, what prompted you to become a school psychologist to begin with? That's a, you know, not off the beaten path, but not something everyone does. 

So I really had a passion for helping kids and I was vacillating between, do I want to be a teacher? Do I want to be a psychologist and realize one day there was a profession called school psychology where I could do both. I could become a psychologist who worked with children in the school system. So it was just the perfect. Perfect job for me.

It seems like how long were you there? I was a school psychologist for about 10 years. Okay. And then you went out, you left and he's like, Hey, I could do, I could form this company and help everyone. 

Um, it was, it was somewhat in between. I, I did the, um, work 40 hours during the waking hours. And then I was also doing about another 40 hours, um, afterschool and deep. Into the nights. So I was sleeping about three or four hours a night for about four years until I actually went full time and took the Revibe as my only full time gig.

Crazy it gets, I can say, imagine it gets a little busy, huh? 

Yeah, it's, it's interesting. You, you learn just how little sleep you actually need to function. Um, but then, you know, I feel like years later it's probably taken some kind of a toll on me that I'm paying back now, but I wouldn't, I wouldn't trade it for the world. You have to do what you have to do when you're trying to get, um, a venture off the ground. 

Once I got older, I realized that, uh, all the sleep that I lacked in college and beyond most definitely caught up with me. So no question about that, that definitely does happen. Uh, so tell us about Revibe You started in 2013. What kind of tools technologies tell us about the company? Sure. So Revibe came about, um, at a parent meeting actually, while I was sitting in, in school. Uh, I had, uh, a mother I was working with, um, I had helped her dog butter gear before and her daughter had reading challenges. Um, but you get really frustrated with us as a, as a school. And she said, you know, you had, he's amazing. Um, you know, the collection methods and interventions that helped my daughter, you quickly figured out what the problem was and had these solutions for her, for her reading challenges. But for my son, with his focus, you guys have almost nothing. And I, I had to concur with her and I said, yeah, there's really not a lot of technology that's around for folk isn't for ADHD in particular. Um, so that's where revive started. It was just a, a lack of resources for the kids that I was working with. 

Interesting. And what, what, tell us about the company. What does it do? What kind of technology? What have you produced? What have you built?

sure. So I built. I built the first one by hand, I taught myself micro electronics and I, I wrote some algorithms that I went to radio shack, like 5,000 times to shrink these giant, uh, circuit boards that was building down smaller and smaller until they fit in the wrist. Um, but to fast forward a little bit, what, what we do now is we we're onto our second product. So Revibe Connect is our, our new products. Um, it's a, it's a smart watch essentially. And what it does is it sends vibration signals to the wrist of the user to remind them to focus and to get back to work. 

What is the, what is the, um, what is the tip off to the watch that they need to do that?

So we collect data from the person hearing it. We focus on children, you know, elementary, middle and high school. So we focus on getting data from the child. It's both, um, self reporting data. So we have the child give us feedback by just a simple tap on the device that they're on task or off task. We also collect movement data. So we're looking at how they're moving. Are they fidgeting? Are they being hyperactive? Um, and we, we take several different things into account and that's how we personalize these vibrations. We use something called machine learning. So we, we actually start to learn the child's patterns or needs, what classes that they're in when they tend to struggle in one class the most and so the personalized, uh, the algorithms actually learn the child's needs and send these vibrations accordingly to give them not too many vibrations, but not, not quite too few either; we try to hit it right in the middle so that they're getting just the right amount when they need them the most.

So a students in class he's, he's studying, he's learning, he starts to go off topics. Let's go off track and, uh,  so this sort of gives them a little tap, says, Hey, back to paying attention. 

Yeah, exactly. We're trying to empower the child. Um, a lot of kids when I was a school psychologist, a lot of kids with ADHD, um, and with focusing issues in general, they're they have a really tough time with self esteem. Um, you know, it's something I've heard some. Folks on your show talk about the for, um, you know, where it's, it's really hard to feel good about yourself when you have your teacher constantly having to call your name out in front of the other kids and remind you to get back to work. Um, so we provide something that just empowers a child, there's no one else hears the vibration or feels it, but you, so you can get yourself back on task. So, let me ask you this. 

So one of the things about ADHD is that essentially it's a lack of dope, mean serotonin adrenaline, those three things, which are the focus chemicals that allow you to sort of focus, um, in class. I know that, you know, the stuff that I used to get called out for by the teachers was, you know, stop fidgeting, stop, stop, messing around, stop making jokes that they would ever went. When in fact, you know, I was doing that without realizing, and of course, to give me the dope man and the serotonin and the adrenaline I needed so I could actually focus, actually wanting to learn. Right. So if you have a, if you have the kids wearing this, um, w where is there still a place for, you know, tremendous value in kids being able to allowed to stand up, being able to work from the back of the room while standing up or walk around or whatever, you know, is, is this, what do we do with that- is that still very much a thing that, that, that, that benefits the kids, right? As opposed to just saying, Hey, you're not paying attention, but rather giving them a, a way to pay attention, giving them that those chemicals they need(?)

That's a great question. Peter, one of the most interesting things for us, with our newer devices, the data that we collect. So we share it back with the child themselves. We share with the parent, the teacher, whomever, the caretaker wants to share the information. One of the things that we learned is as you mentioned, um, moving, and it is not necessarily bad thing. So what we actually do, um, inside of our app is we'll give you an alert and we'll say, Hey, did you know that we've come to realize that let's say for Adam, um, when, when Adam is allowed to fidget 15 minutes or more before social studies each day, he's actually 26% more on task than on days he hasn't had that opportunity. Or when Amanda's been allowed to walk 3000 steps or more before lunchtime each day, her attention span has been six minutes longer on average and foundation, hasn't had the opportunity. So we're trying to educate people and drive, um, proactive decision making by looking at, you know, the, the past behaviors of these kids, or. 

That's actually really interesting and cool- Can you share that with the teachers, you know, and explain to the teachers, Hey, you need to let the kids walk around or whatever the case may be?

Exactly. That's what we leverage it for. So, um, you know, most of most of the people using Revibe, um, are, are parents purchasing it? So they have the ability to, to either provide a guest login for the administrators at school for the teachers, or they can just to touch one button and they can send, uh, an automated PDF report to the school to give them, um, the information that they need to make better decisions for their child.

That seems really, really smart. I would think that that would be tremendously beneficial. 

Yeah, it's been, it's been popular where we're in some of the biggest school systems in the country, because they've all realized the same thing. We don't have any good way to collect data on these kids. And the school systems are now going towards what's called the response to intervention model, which, you know, when you and I were kids, Peter, um, a lot of decisions were made that were just kind of a lick your thumb, put it up in the wind right now, everything has to be data driven and it's hard to collect data on these kids. So, yeah. They're really focusing on, on, you know, new technologies, like what what's the Revibe platform. 

What kind of feedback are you getting from the teachers? 

So the teachers are really like the fact that, um, they're not having to stop teaching every couple of minutes to redirect all these different kids. Cause in a room of 25 or 30 kids, you probably have three four different kids or more who have focused and attention issues. Um, so they're having to constantly stop what they're doing to redirect these kids. Um, the teachers just wanted to teach, you know, they want everyone to learnl they're, they're wonderful people and they have an amazingly tough job, but they just want to be able to teach, um, fluidly and the kids conversely don't want to be reminded and be called out. So it's been a really good win, win for both sides. 

Sounds like it. And, and how can you know, what's the, what's the, um, The, uh, process for parents or teachers too, to sort of get into this and get them, you know, start using it?

So they can just go to our website, which is RevibeTech.com. R E V I B E T ECH.com. Or they can buy it on Amazon if you're impulsive like me, you're like a Roadrunner cartoon. You just want it to show up the same day. You can get it from Amazon, or you can talk to your school about it. A lot of schools are, are purchasing, you know, these, um, Smartwatches and providing them to students.

Have you gotten any feedback from doctors at all on this? 

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So we're, uh, we have a scientific and medical advisory board with some of the top folks in ADHD from a scientific standpoint. So our scientific board is extremely excited about what we're doing and where we're actually going towards, um, the world, uh, of the FDA pretty soon because it works. Um, you know, really well, and we're careful to not make any claims of what our device does. Um, but we're here, we've heard so much, and we've done so much research that now we've said, you know, this is a really strong tool that we need to, to bring to the next level. So that's where we're headed next, but physicians are excited about it as well. Um, so yeah, it's been a really amazing journey to go from something, you know, that started out as a part time venture, uh, from, you know, my, my, my workshop at home to something that we're not taking to such a high scientific-

How many, how many students are currently using at city around the country?

Um, we've got over 25,000 kids, um, you know, and counting that are, are using it. I think looking at both of our devices, we probably have close to 50,000 kids around the country that are wearing it right now. 

What's the price point on it? 

Uh, it's 120 bucks. Um, and then it's about, uh, Four or $5 a month for the data that we store, we keep it up in a cloud. And, um, you know, we share all this data with you, so we try to make it affordable and it's about at the same price as a FitBit.

Yeah, that makes sense. Um, what's the, what's the website? 

Uh, the website is Revibetech.com, R E V I E B E T E C h.com. And, um, you know all the listeners at home I certainly suggest checking out, uh, some of the free resources that we have. A lot of folks are having a hard time with, with COVID-19 right now doing a virtual school from home thing. Um, so we, we, we, we have a parent tool kit, um, to give people some, some advice in terms of what you can do to help your child with focusing issues with ADHD in particular, um, to have a better experience while they're doing this, learn from home,  uh, as someone who, uh, is handling the majority of his daughters, um, Homeschooling. I can certainly relate to that. As I've mentioned before, um, our teachers have all lied to me. She is not a pleasure to have in class, so, but that being said, revive sounds really, really interesting. And we'll definitely check it out. We'll put links on the, on the website and the, on the, uh, on the podcast links to it. And I really appreciate you coming on. Rich. Thank you so much for taking the time. 

Peter. Thanks so much for having me. It's a pleasure. I'm big fan of the show and it's been, it's been a real treat being there with you. 

Thank you. That’s very kind of you to say!  You guys are listening to fast than normal? If you like, what you're hearing drop us a note. We're always looking for new guests. We have better three or three or four weeks backlog at any given given time. So if you have anyone that you think would be great for the podcast, shoot me an email. peter@shankman.com. Let's find out who that is and let's get that person on the show. We will see you next week, ADHD and all neurodiversity is a gift, not a curse. Let us remember that and go from there.

—

Credits: You've been listening to the Faster Than Normal podcast. We're available on iTunes, Stitcher and Google play and of course at www.FasterThanNormal.com I'm your host, Peter Shankman and you can find me at petershankman.com and @petershankman on all of the socials. If you like what you've heard, why not head over to your favorite podcast platform of choice and leave us a review, come more people who leave positive reviews, the more the podcast has shown, and the more people we can help understand that ADHD is a gift, not a curse. Opening and closing themes were performed by Steven Byrom and the opening introduction was recorded by Bernie Wagenblast. Thank you so much for listening. We'll see you next week.