Faster Than Normal - The ADHD Podcast

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Mar 29, 2023

Having ADD or ADHD is a gift, not a curse. Hear from people all around the globe, from every walk of life, in every profession, from Rock Stars to CEOs, from Teachers to Politicians, who have learned how to unlock the gifts of their ADD and ADHD diagnosis, and use it to their personal and professional advantage, to build businesses, become millionaires, or simply better their lives.

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Hey guys, Peter Shankman the host of Faster Than Normal. I wanna talk for a second about the Skylight Calendar, the wonderful sponsors of this episode and one of the things that keeps myself and my daughter on track. Skylight sits on your wall and tells you what you have to do today; what chores your child has to do today. It's basically a family calendar all-in-one. You can color code. It is amazing for people with ADHD. I am truly in love with this thing. We look at it every single day. It tells us the weather. It tells us what's on our calendar. It tells us what chores are left to do. Oh, time to feed the dog! - Mark it off on the calendar. My daughter can check the box when she's done and the chore disappears. It is one of the best things we've ever had. You can get yours with a discount using code: PeterShankman for 10% off, up to 30 bucks off. You’re gonna love this Skylight calendar. And you are gonna love.. I mean, truly it is amazing for people with ADHD or basically anyone who wants to keep track of their schedule. It sits on the wall, added bonus. You can throw your own photos onto it as a screen saver- on your wall! So now your wall has pictures. That's cool. Check it out. I'll put the link in the show notes. https://www.skylightframe.com code: PeterShankman

00:40 - Thank you so much for listening and for subscribing!

01:38 - Say hello to my daughter Jessa Shankman!

02:17 - How old are you and what grade are you in?

02:22: So when you think of the letters ADHD what do you think of?

02:43 - Do you get distracted sometimes? What do you do when you do- if you do, to re-center and focus?

03:30 - About daily routines

03:50 - What do you think about your Dad and ADHD?

05:00 - On getting distracted and realizing that you have become so. How do teachers help?

05:22 - What do you think kids can do to be more focused?

05:52 - When is a fidget spinner really helpful?

06:42 - Can a little water help you focus? If so why do you think that is?

07:15 - What would you tell a kid who realizes that they are being distracted, doesn't like school and doesn't know how to fix any of it?

08:09 - Ref: Amanda Steinberg’s interview sponsored by Bouncy Bands https://www.fasterthannormal.com/ftn-052-failing-doesnt-mean-youre-a-failure-with-guest-amanda-steinberg/

08:24 - On the importance of being comfortable and being able to employ a comfortable posture

08:52 - Do you think that when you exercise it helps or hurts your focus?

09:10 - What about recess?

09:30 - Do you feel more focused if you've had a good night of sleep?

10:01 - Anything else you wanna tell kids who might have ADHD or might be distracted once in a while?

10:48 - Jessa and Peter’s big shout outs to Skylight calendar!

11:18 - The Boy with the Faster Brain is now out! https://amzn.to/3FcAKkI

11:40 - Faster Than Normal Podcast info & credits.

[After this interview Peter's dog, Waffle submitted a request to share more 'screen time' in future interviews. You can check-in on him here: @petersdogwaffle on INSTA

Guys, as always thanks so much for subscribing! Faster Than Normal is for YOU! We want to know what you’d like to hear! Do you have a cool friend with a great story? We’d love to learn about, and from them. I'm www.petershankman.com and you can reach out anytime via email at peter@shankman.com or @petershankman on all of the socials. You can also find us at @FasterNormal on all of the socials. It really helps when you 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!

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TRANSCRIPT via Descript and then corrected.. mostly somewhat:

[00:00:40] Peter: Hey guys, Peter Shankman, host of Faster Than Normal. I wanna talk for a second about the Skylight Calendar, the wonderful sponsors of this episode, and one of the things that keeps myself and my daughter on track. Skylight sits on your wall and tells you what you have to do today, what chores your child has to do today. It's basically a family calendar with all in one, you can color code. It is amazing for people with ADHD. I am truly in love with this thing. We look at it every single day. It tells us the weather. It tells us what's on our calendar. It tells us what chores are left to do. Oh, time to feed the dog, mark it off on the calendar. My daughter can check the box when she's done and the chore disappears. It is one of the best things we've ever had. You can get yours with a discount using code: PeterShankman for 10% off, up to 30 bucks off. You’re gonna love this Skylight calendar. And you are gonna love. I mean, truly it. It is amazing for people with ADHD or basically anyone who wants to keep track of their schedule. It sits on the wall. Added bonus. You can throw your own photos onto it as a screen saver on your wall. So now your wall has pictures. That's cool. Check it out. I'll put the link in the show notes. https://www.skylightframe.com code: PeterShankman

[00:01:37] Peter: Hey guys, Peter Shankman, host of Faster Than Normal. I wanna talk for a second about the Skylight Calendar, the wonderful sponsors of this episode, and one of the things that keeps myself and my daughter on track. Skylight sits on your wall and tells you what you have to do today, what chores your child has to do today. It's basically a family calendar with all in one, you can color code. It is amazing for people with ADHD. I am truly in love with this thing. We look at it every single day. It tells us the weather. It tells us what's on our calendar. It tells us what chores are left to do. Oh, time to feed the dog, mark it off on the calendar. My daughter can check the box when she's done and the chore disappears. It is one of the best things we've ever had. You can get yours with a discount using code: PeterShankman .Check for the link in the show notes. And you are gonna love. I mean, truly it. It is amazing for people with ADHD or basically anyone who wants to keep track of their schedule. It sits on the wall. Added bonus. You can throw your own photos onto it as a screen saver on your wall. So now your wall has pictures. That's cool. Check it out. I'll put the link in the show notes.

Welcome to Faster Than Normal. My name is Peter Shankman. I am sitting here today on a one-on-one interview with one of the most incredible people I've ever met, and I guess I kind of have to say that cuz we're talking to my daughter. We're talking to Jessa Shankman. Say, hi, Jessa.

[00:01:54] Jessa: Hi, my name is Jess Shankman and I am the daughter of Peter Shankman.

[00:01:57] Peter: We are gonna talk today about, we're gonna talk to my daughter about what it's like to have a Dad with ADHD. And we're sitting here, we're joined by Waffle the dog. And we'll take a picture and, and put it up as well of all three of us on all family on one couch. But we are talking today about what it's like for a Dad and for a Daughter when a Dad has ADHD and how a daughter deals with it. So, Jessa how old are you?

[00:02:18] Jessa: Nine.

[00:02:19] Peter: Nine. What grade are you in?

[00:02:21] Jessa: I'm in fourth grade.

[00:02:22] Peter: Fourth grade. So when you think of the words ADHD and letters, adhd, what do you think of?

[00:02:27] Jessa: Well, when I think of adhd. I just think of like the letters and the word or, yeah, the letters. I think of like, like a, what do you call? Like a just random numbers, like math. I just think of like when I think of adhd, I think of people who get distracted.

[00:02:43] Peter: People get distracted. Okay. And do you get distracted sometimes?

[00:02:48] Jessa: Yes. A lot actually.

[00:02:49] Peter: A lot. And what do you do when you get distracted?

[00:02:51] Jessa: Well, sometimes when I get distracted, I. lose focus or I, like, I keep doing it, but then if I realize I've gotten distracted, like today I was just, uh, like fidgeting or singing or something and I wasn't paying attention that I have to read my book. So then I was like, okay, yes, you have to read your book and be focused. So I just try to do that.

[00:03:15] Peter: And how do, what happens when you, when you do, do you do anything special to help you refocus? We talked about sometimes you do exercises or, um,

[00:03:24] Jessa: I don't usually do exercises, but sometimes I just need to get my mind. So I take, I don't usually take deep breaths, but I just try to get my mind in focus by using my mind.

[00:03:35] Peter: So breathing helps though, right? Sometimes taking deep breaths. Yeah. And sometimes when you're a little too hyper or sometimes we'll do exercises together. We'll do like,

[00:03:42] Jessa: I was too hyper to read today,

[00:03:43] Peter: too hyper to read today, what didja do like a Peloton workout or something. Normally if you get a work workout in the morning, you're pretty much focused all day.

[00:03:49] Jessa: Yeah.

[00:03:49] Peter: Yeah. But I mean it also happens cuz you know you're also nine, so sometimes that happens. What do you think about when you think about your Dad and ADHD?

[00:03:57] Jessa: Sometimes when I like ask him to like read me this or do something, he doesn't listen the first time and he sometimes gets distracted. But then if I say again, he's like, sorry, what'd you say? And then he listens.

[00:04:14] Peter: So I think anyone can really have that. Anyone can get distracted. Right? So sometimes, but, but you also know that I do certain things to help you, control my ADHD like what? What do I do to control it? Like exercise and stuff like that? Exercise, yeah. I get on my bike every morning,

[00:04:27] Jessa: right? Get on the bike If I [unintelligible] every morning. Yeah.

[00:04:30] Peter: So I get on the bike and I do things so I'm able to focus better. But it's not, do you, do you see, like, do you have friends who have a hard time concentrating too?

[00:04:39] Jessa: I don't think so. Most kids are prob, most kids are, oh yeah. One friend is, uh, but I think some, some of my friends are, but then they get, um, like focused.

[00:04:54] Peter: I think a lot of times what happens, especially when you're younger, is that you get distracted and you don't realize you're distracted. Right? So you're like, oh, what? And then you were like, oh, wait a second. I wasn't paying attention.

[00:05:02] Jessa: that's what I do.

[00:05:03] Peter: Right. And that can be, that can get you in trouble sometimes. Like if a teacher's saying something, you have to listen. Right?

[00:05:08] Jessa: Sometimes my teacher does point it out to me.

[00:05:10] Peter: So your teacher, when your teacher points out to you, what does he say?

[00:05:13] Jessa: He says, Jessica, Jessa.. Like, he just says that and he,

[00:05:18] Peter: so he just says your name and then you like it sort of snaps you back in.

[00:05:21] Jessa: Yeah.

[00:05:22] Peter: What do you think kids can do to be more focused?

[00:05:27] Jessa: Have a fidget maybe near them, but also be, that being said, a fidget is a fidget. It could be more distracting.

[00:05:35] Peter: Well, you're sitting here right now, you're playing with a little bit of slime, right? .

[00:05:38] Jessa: Yeah, but I'm focused.

[00:05:40] Peter: You're focused because you're giving your fingers something to do. Yeah. Right. So you're playing with your slime and you're rubbing it and like, so turning it into a ball, a ball or something like that.

[00:05:49] Jessa: Sometimes a fidget can be really helpful and sometimes it can be distracting.

[00:05:52] Peter: When is it really helpful?

[00:05:54] Jessa: Uh, helpful. Like when you're, when you are kind of focused, but then like your hands are just like, Just like doing anything and you like, it's just, I don't really know how to say this, but sometimes when you're distracted, if like you're doing a math class or any class that you don't love and you like get bored, you should get something in your hands. Or it could be like a marble or it could be a piece of slime, but like not, not something to really get you distracted, like something that you can make a whole town out of. like clay. You can't have that. We You can't. It's a little something. Yeah. Just like a marble or like a, A magnet. Or a fidget spinner.

[00:06:34] Peter: That's a really good suggestion. So the goal is like to keep yourself sort of a little bit occupied. Keep your hands busy.

[00:06:39] Jessa: Yeah. Keep your hands busy, but keep your focus on the teacher.

[00:06:42] Peter: Do you think that you get more or less distracted if you've drank some water? Less like you drink water and you get less distracted.

[00:06:49] Jessa: Sometimes I do that, like sometimes I'm like, okay, I gotta go and get my water bottle. And then I drink, like, um, I drink a little bit of it, and then I'm like, okay, sit back down and focus on the Math.

[00:07:00] Peter: So sometimes your distractions, your brain can be helped by water. Why do you think that is?

[00:07:06] Jessa: Maybe the water just gets you refreshed.

[00:07:08] Peter: Yeah.

[00:07:08] Jessa: And like,

[00:07:09] Peter: because your body may have like a lot of water. Yeah. The majority of your body is water, right? Yeah. What would you tell a kid who realizes that he or she is being distracted and doesn't like in school and doesn't know how to fix it?

[00:07:22] Jessa: I would tell them to, if you realize you're getting distracted, then just notice it and try or drink a and drink water or just shake it up.[as Waffle laps at his water bowl in the background] Maybe like I would say raise your hand. Just go to the back of the room and maybe do like, maybe like I, you can't do jumping jacks in the middle of a class. Maybe some squats. But I would say, yeah, not even, maybe just like, maybe just moving your feet or something. Maybe standing up. Yeah, just standing up. Cuz sometimes if you're sitting down, you could easily be distracted. Just stand up and take a breath or take a break.

[00:07:58] Peter: I think there's also, there's um, you know, there's a company we had on the podcast called Bouncy Bands, where they make little bands that go on the bottom of the chair and you can just move your feet to those. Oh, really? So yeah, those are like helpful too. But yeah, I think at the end of the day, movement just stand up movement. Really helpful. Right? Really? Yeah. Just it's hard to sit down all day. Yeah. Back when, back when we were cavemen, we never sat down all day. If we sat down, we were sleeping. If we stood up, if we, if we weren't sleeping, we were hunting stuff and getting food.

Right?

[00:08:24] Jessa: Yeah. Like also there's like, I sit on something that does not support my back and that makes it even harder to really sit and my back sometimes during the day.

[00:08:35] Peter: What do you sit on that doesn't Like a chair or just a bench?

[00:08:38] Jessa: You know, there's a bench. Oh, they bench in school. Yeah. But then most of the time if I'm like, I wanna, I want like I need to stand up, I would do that and then I would grab a chair, which, you know, it's better for me, like,

[00:08:51] Peter: yeah, definitely. Do you think that when you exercise it helps or hurts your focus? Helps.

[00:08:56] Jessa: Helps. I just say like move your feet. Like you can't like, just like maybe like do, I don't think you should do like jumping jacks or squats. No. That's kinda tough in the middle of the class, but I think you should just like move your feet or move your arms.

[00:09:10] Peter: Like how do you feel after recess? Are you focused?

[00:09:12] Jessa: After recess, I am focused, but sometimes a little bit distracted. Recess gives you a time to run around, but some people don't run around. But .Do you? I sometimes, yeah. I, I don't love to run around that much. I don't love the game tag or, but sometimes I just sit and like try to get myself ready for the next. Or for the class or just, you know.

[00:09:35] Peter: Do you feel more focused if you having a good night sleep?

[00:09:36] Jessa: I think so, yeah. Because sometimes I'm really tired in class and I'm like, I probably didn't get a good night's sleep. That explains, I went to bed at nine last night. Um, but I think sleep, I think you should really get a good night's sleep for you to help. Cuz you could be really tired in class. Yeah. And that wouldn't be good. You would fall, you would like almost fall asleep or you could just be like really tired that you would just fidget and just do this and you wouldn't pay attention to anything.

[00:10:01] Peter: Anything else you wanna tell kids who might have ADHD or might be distracted once in a while.

[00:10:05] Jessa: I think just standing up, taking a break and then sitting back down, sitting in a comfy seat. You don't wanna sit in like a bad seat where you can get really distracted easily. I think you should just sit in a chair and listen or try to listen. Just take a break if you feel distracted or something like that. And yeah, that's it.

[00:10:28] Peter: Awesome. Guys. That was my daughter, Jessa Shankman, who is enough to come on the podcast today, interrupting her day of, she's off this week, so interrupting her day of playing with slime and, and, and playing Roblox and, uh, talking to her friends. But really, really appreciate you taking the time, Jess. I love you very much.

[00:10:43] Jessa: Love you too.

[00:10:43] Peter: Okay, guys. You've been listening to Faster Than Normal, my name is Peter Shankman. As always, we are thrilled that you're here. Big shout out again to Skylight Calendar. That frame, that calendar has saved my life countless times.

[00:10:53] Jessa: Can I tell them about it?

[00:10:53] Peter: Yeah, go ahead.

[00:10:54] Jessa: Skylight is really good cuz it helps me with my chores and like if I see like feed the dog, or clean up after breakfast, I can just tap it when it's done. And it also has cool pictures. You can upload pictures on it.

[00:11:04] Peter: Yep. It is a very, very cool product. We both love it. Strongly recommended. Check the link out in the show notes, get a discount with the code. Peter Shankman. Guys, thank you so much for listening as always thanks to Steven Byrom, our wonderful executive editor and producer who creates amazing episodes for us every week. [Thank you too Peter! -sb] We will see you next week. We are thrilled that you are here. ADHD and all forms of neurodiversity are gifts, not curses. And by the way, if you haven't picked up The Boy with the Faster Brain yet, it is on Amazon and it is a number one bestseller in all categories. So check it out, The Boy with the Faster Brain. It is a children's book about neurodiversity.

Jessa: I love it.

Peter: Thank you, Jessa. Guys, thanks for listening and we'll see you next week. Say bye, Jess.

[00:11:39] Jessa: Bye

[00:11:40] Peter: Bye guys!

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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 shankman.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 composed and produced by Steven Byrom who also produces this podcast, and the opening introduction was recorded by Bernie Wagenblast. Thank you so much for listening. We'll see you next week!

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Get Up! Talking ADHD & Good Mental Health w/ Rockstars Shinedown -An Encore Edition 0

Mar 22, 2023

Hey guys. Peter Shankman here, the host of Faster Than Normal. I wanna talk to you for a second about the Skylight all in one family calendar. So Skylight sent me one of these a couple of months ago and I hung it on my wall. And God, how do I put this? My daughter no longer skips out on her chores! I know when her events are at school, we don't miss them. Everything is in front of us. It's a touchscreen. It's visible. It is the easiest thing I have ever used. It's beautiful. You can import your photos to it, or use the screen savers and it's right there. We sit down at breakfast. Everything she has that day is right there. Everything I need to know is right there. Did she do her chores? She does them. She checks off the box on the calendar. Oh my God. Greatest thing ever. It is amazing. I am in love with the Skylight Family calendar. I am using it constantly, literally every day, and I strongly recommend you guys pick it up too. They're a great supporter of Faster Than Normal. Neurodiverse families are going to love this. Use code: PeterShankman for 10% off, up to 30 bucks off. You're gonna love this Skylight calendar. It has changed my life with my daughter. It'll change yours too. Enjoy it. See you guys soon.

Today's encore! I have been listening to our guests for well more than a decade! They have been part of my playlist since the summer of 2006 when their music helped me run the NYC Marathon faster than I ever had before. You surely know their music too, even if you’ve never heard the name Shinedown! Their song “Get Up” is the most inspiring, straight to the point, song I’ve ever heard that challenges the stigmas of talking honestly about mental health. They are some of the hardest working Artists in the world, so I was honored when they agreed to spend some time with us here today, helping to grow & inspire more honest conversations about mental health. Shinedown is a multi-platinum rock band. The song "GET UP" is from their latest album "ATTENTION ATTENTION?"
Enjoy!

In this episode Peter, Brent and Eric discuss:

1:08- Intro and welcome Brent Smith and Eric Bass!

2:00- After 136 shows spanning 48,000 miles, you guys were labeled The Hardest Working Artists of 2018! That’s a ton of work & a healthy mantle! How do you make sure that you are taking care of yourselves mentally?

5:37- On loving what you do & being driven

6:10- On the importance of surrounding yourself with good people & a good support system

9:49- Brent, you wrote “Get Up” for Eric. The majority of folks don’t know how to talk to a friend who is, or might be struggling. What did you learn from writing this song?

14:08- “You are not going to be defined by your failures. You are going to be defined by the fact that you refuse to give up- no matter what” -Brent Smith

16:05- Peter on the importance of Music, and how music will pull you through ref: “I Dare You” ref: Peter gets arrested for exercising, makes news.

18:24- What is it about music, not books, movies, tv, etc, but music that people always credit with bringing them through a rough spell, or helping them remember a moment in time, etc. Why?

20:52- Talk to me about the stigma around mental health. Finally there is a solid movement- between you guys, people like Erik Kussin who have started WeAreAllALittleCrazy.org, etc. What can people do to help grow the national/international conversation about mental health? ref: Erik Kussin’s FTN interview here #SameHere

Follow Shinedown at: http://www.shinedown.com FB Twitter INSTA YouTube AppleMusic Shazam Spotify

26:07- Thank you Brent and Eric!! And thank YOU for subscribing, reviewing and listening. Please.. stop right now and write us a review, EVEN IF you’ve reviewed us before, so that we will all be able to help & reach even more people! You can always reach me at peter@shankman.com or @petershankman on all of the socials. Also at @FasterThanNormal on all of the socials.

27:02- 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! 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! Know of anyone you think should be on the FTN podcast? Shoot us a note, we’d love to hear!

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My New Children’s Book: The Boy with the Faster Brain 0

Mar 15, 2023

We have a new book to tell you about:

00:40 - Thank you so much for listening and for subscribing!

The Boy with the Faster Brain is now out! Click HERE to see & get it! https://amzn.to/3FcAKkI

12:35 - Faster Than Normal Podcast info & credits.

—

TRANSCRIPT via Descript and then corrected.. somewhat:

[00:00:40] Peter: Hey guys. Peter Shankman, the host of Faster Than Normal. How you doing today? I wanna do a podcast on the new book; the children's book I wrote, that's coming out pretty soon, but as I was thinking about specifically how to do it in, in such a way that it wasn't just basically a podcast about my brand new book that read like an Ad. I was brainstorming ways on how to talk about it and that sent me down a rabbit hole of thinking about what it was like to be when I was a kid. And I thought about a couple of specific instances and, and as I thought about them, I wrote them down and um, I just wanna share them with you today. This won't be a long podcast, but there's a reason, there's a method to my madness here.

So I'm just back from boxing. I did an hour, uh, again at the gym. I'm going probably like three or four times a week now and I just love it. I, it is, it is like no other sport. It's, it's, for me, it's better than running. It's better than triathlon. It, it's just an hour of, of, of me one on one of the coach. And I realized why I love it so much. Not only cause I get to hit things and, and the more things I hit, the less people I have to hit. But there's a, a bigger reason for that. And I think as ADHD people we can relate to this. Boxing is finite and it's why I love skydiving the same way. When I'm boxing, the gym operates on bell system. There is a three. There is a bell that rings at the start of three minutes, at the end of three minutes, and at the end of a one minute break. No matter what I'm doing, no matter what I'm, I'm, no matter how much pain I'm in, no matter how much out, out of breath I am, whether I'm getting hit, whatever the case may be. I know that there's going to be a bell and that bell is going to give me a one minute respite, or in some cases the end of my workout.

And I was thinking back, I remember in high school, I guess freshman year of high school, sophomore year of high school, I got, I got mugged and. I guess my Dad decided that it might be smart. I mean, I lived in New York City, it was understandable. My Dad decided to be smart to send me to a gym, to, to learn self-defense and lift weights and, and, and get bulked up. And, um, there weren't many weightlifting gyms. Um, I think it was the mid eighties, so it was like the era of, uh, Jack Lalaine or, or. Cardio Jazzer size or whatever, there weren't a lot of gyms and, and even fewer gyms that that allowed kids. But my parents found a gym, like an old school gym with, you know, weights and, and problem was, it wasn't a trainer like Mick from Rocky, which is what I was hoping for. It was some. Juiced up. I don't wanna say Guido cause that's an offensive term, but you get, you get the idea of of of what I mean that's what I remember and I, I certainly meant no offense by that, but it was, it was definitely a guy with an accent that probably from Brooklyn, or Queens, and everything we did for the week or two that I went there before I quit was, yeah, hit harder, kick some ass. No one's, no one's gonna mess with you and it was the exact opposite of what I was hoping for at a gym. And I, you know, obviously didn't last long there. I, I hated it. And, uh, I wasn't that kind of kid. I wasn't the kid who wanted to go get jacked up and, and, and, and, and, you know, I just wanted to, to put on a few pounds or shed a few pounds and build a few pounds of muscle. It was total opposite what I needed.

And I was thinking about that because growing up, everything I ever tried like that. I mean, I remember going to a gym with my Dad when I was like 10, lasted a couple weeks there. And I remember going, you know, I, I to be on diets and I'd try this and that. Nothing really took. Wasn't until my late twenties when I discovered running and running took because sort of now that I think about the same reason as boxing, running at a start point and an end point. Right, I'm running five miles. Well, that meant I'd run five miles and when those five miles were over, I would stop running .

Um, and I think that's a big thing that when you're ADHD especially when look, when you're a kid, I mean, I can tell you about my daughter; no matter what I make her do. . It has to be, how long do I have to do it? Jessa did you get your reading done tonight? Every, every night she's supposed to do 30 minutes of reading. Right. So there's, you know, and, and she loves, she's a great reader, but she, and she loves when she gets into a good book, but she doesn't like reading as a concept. And so there'll be times when it's like, Jessa, did says, you do 30 minutes of reading. Uh, no, I'm gonna start, can I, can I only do 20? No, do 30. And then she'll set an iPad timer. And I swear to you the, the, the, the millisecond that thing dings, she's. Doesn't matter if she's in the middle of a word. Doesn't matter if she's about to find out who the killer is. Ding, okay, I'm done. Did 30 minutes. In her mind. It's about those 30 minutes.

Now all kids are like that. But I think the problem I had with exercise as a whole growing up, it was not my thing. I I, I've said this before, I, I ran by pressing X on a joystick and then college, I ran to the store for cigarettes and that was about it. Um, I think that what I learned. or what I didn't have then that I have now in like boxing and running is the premise of a finite time, a finite workout. You know, a lot of times we try and figure out, okay, I'm gonna go to the gym and I'm gonna exercise every single day and I'm gonna do this and that. And we don't put a start putting an end point to it. And because of that, in our mind, we're five minutes in, and it's never going to end. Well. If it's never gonna end, I might as well quit right now because there's no way I could do this forever. And one of the things that I've found, About boxing. It ends after three minutes, it's over for a minute and you can breathe.

So perhaps one of the ways we talk to our kids about ways of getting the dopamine and the serotonin and the adrenaline that we need; is we introduce them to timed things right. I remember when I ran, when I, I started running last summer with my daughter, and of course she hated it until she started liking it. She got her first dopamine hit. She's like, Ooh. But we started running in a half a block. In how much further do we have to go until we, you know, and we, I said, we're gonna go to the end of this block and then we're gonna turn, make a left to go three blocks down and then three blocks back up, and then we're gonna come home. And as soon as I said that, she stopped complaining because she could envision in her mind, how long she had to do. Right? Three blocks. Three blocks. Turn around. Three blocks. Three blocks. And I think that's something that not only is good for our kids with ADHD, but good for us as well. It's why we all set timers. Okay, I'm gonna work for 55 minutes. I'm gonna spend five minutes standing up, go to the bathroom doing deep stretches, and then work for another 55 minutes. It's why I do when I on a plane, I know that I have 14 hours to write this book. , I'll break that into six hours and then break the, you know, we're seven hours break, seven hours, two and a half hours, whatever.

I don't think we give enough appreciation to time, even though time's a manmade, manmade construct. The premise of breaking things into smaller bits of time is very, very beneficial for someone with ADHD or a faster brain or any form of neurodiversity because it allows us to not be frightened by a massive thing, right? We're not frightened of a, oh my God, I have to do an hour of exercise. I know that when I go to the gym, I'm gonna be working out nonstop for an hour, but I know that every three minutes I get 60 seconds off, and by the end of that hour, I'm sweating my ass off and I'm dying but, I get 60 seconds off and that gets me through the next three minutes and the three minutes after that, and then three minutes after that and all of a sudden it's an hour and I'm told to take off my wraps and my gloves, my wraps, and go home. So let's think about that. Let's think about assigning time values to things that might help us get through a lot of stuff.

So that's probably a good lead in to this book. I wrote a book called The Boy with the Faster Brain, and it's, it's a fiction book that's autobiographical. How about that? It's about Peter, a 10 year old, very hyperactive kid who gets a lot of notes home. Every day, gets a note home from the teacher about how he made jokes in class, how he interrupted the class, how he did all these things. Peter gets in a lot of trouble. Peter, doesn't mean to get in a lot of trouble. Because what Peter discovers is that when he tells those jokes and his class laughs, he gets this jolt of bolt of lightning, this jolt of electricity in his brain and it allows him to focus. Of course, he usually has to focus on walking himself down to the principal's office to get in trouble.

I wrote this book because I don't ever want one another kid to grow up going through in school and even as an adult. For years going through what I went through as a kid and an adult, I don't ever want anyone to go through that again, and if this book helps even one kid understand that they shouldn't hide their differences, but embrace them, then I've done my job.

The book is launching on the 21st, but for listeners, it's launching earlier and I'm putting a link down below. [awaiting link and code] And I am very excited about it. I'm excited because it's my first non-business book. No, it's my second non-business book, Faster Than Normal being my first one, but this one, it's for kids. It's my first children's book and I am, I'm just really psyched about that. I hope it helps a lot of people, including you and including your children.

It's my, also my first self-published book, and so I can do a lot with it. So you guys want me to come and speak to your school? Want me to come and speak to your company? Company? Sure. Buy some books. We'll work something out. Um, I can give them away, I can donate them to schools. I can do whatever I want. It's my book. And what I found also is that I'm starting to get a lot of calls lately from corporations. Hey, can you come in and talk about neurodiversity in the workplace? I, gave a keynote to. Google last week I have Morgan Stanley coming up in a couple of weeks. I'm in talks with several other large companies to come in and talk about, um, not customer experience but neurodiversity in the workplace. And so if that's something that I can help you guys out with as well, shoot me a note. I have several keynotes on it and I'd love to do more about it. And we can work something out where you buy some books, donate them to a school or something, and I'll come and speak. I'm excited!

The Boy with the Faster Brain. I really hope it changes some lives. I really do.

So as always, thank you for listening. I love you guys. I'm greatly appreciative. My email is peter@shankman.com. I answer all my questions. Any I answer all my emails personally. Ask, email, tell me what's up, and let's chat. Thank you for listening. Thank you for your excitement. All the emails you've sent me about the Boy with the Faster Brain, I am really stoked as well. And I'll see you next week.

And . Again, I wanna give a huge shout out to Skylight. [LINK WAS NOT READY AT THE TIME OF THIS RELEASE- SHALL BE UPDATED AT WWW.FASTERTHANNORMAL.COM] This frame and this calendar that hangs on the wall has changed my life with Jessa, it makes life so much easier. It has a short chart and has meal planning, and it cus custom lists weather, you can get a mobile app for it. It has share access. You can invite your spouse or your ex-spouse or your co-parenting partner kids, close friends, anyone you want. Um, you can color code. My daughter is pink. I am red. You can ch change the views and you can, the coolest thing is you can take all your photos and turn them into a screensaver when you're not using the calendar. Just random photos of like, me, Jessa, and my dog show up. So it's pretty cool. Uh, the, the link is below skylightframe.com . The um, uh, coupon code is below as well. And, uh, yeah, I am really, really excited to work with you guys and see what you're doing with the frame. Send me some photos. I'll send it over to them. We'll get you on Instagram, but yeah, it's gonna be good. The, the Frame, the book, The Boy with the Faster Brain, the podcast, I owe you guys a lot for being here. And don't ever think I'm not grateful cause I really am. Love you guys. Talk to you next week!

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The Wellness Revolution- Wellbeing In and Outside the Workplace w/ Teresa Clark 0

Mar 1, 2023

About our guest today, Teresa Clark:

An innovative and forward-thinking leader Teresa Clark is the founder and alchemist of The Wellness Revolution. A pioneering culture and employee wellbeing company reimagining the workplace to unleash human potential. Built on the belief that the world of work plays an important role in transforming society and that by supporting people to live happier and healthier lives we can co-create happier and healthier societies together. She is deeply passionate about social justice, human flourishing, and the power of creativity to transform society. A public speaker, transformation and resilience expert, Teresa’s moving personal journey as a woman who received a 4-year prison sentence for the deaths of 3 of her friends in a car accident where she fell asleep at the wheel after a festival, has led her on a turbulent journey of personal recovery from extreme physical injury, psychological and emotional trauma. The deep remorse and transformative journey of finding peace and amends birthed a life trajectory driven by a magnanimous compassion to create positive social change centered around a deep passion and purpose to help others. With 12 years of experience working within mental health for the criminal justice system, NHS, and charity sector, she has consulted at local and national levels and led cultural change across organisations through the design and development of award-winning programmes and services. Through her work, she has empowered thousands of people to reconnect with their authentic selves and transform their lives creating synergistic outcomes from collective shifts in mindset to social impact. Enjoy!

In this episode Peter and Teresa Clark discuss:

00:40 - Thank you so much for listening and for subscribing!

01:00 - Intro and welcome Teresa Clark

01:24 - What gave you the idea to start a career in mental health?

02:45 - On masking strains and normalizing dishonesty in the workplace

03:48 - How are companies beginning to take mental health seriously enough to implement change? [versus the bottom line]

05:00 - Are companies really making fundamental shifts? How and to what extent?

06:31 - On Google’s big bad goof-up

08:22 - “Don’t Be Evil” -Google

09:00 - What do you do once inside a company; how does consulting work best? Definition of reticent

10:10 - Breaking the stigma takes courage and intentional, comprehensive systems of support, time, training, positive reinforcement and encouragement, inclusive of leadership.

12:58 - How can people find more about you?

Web: www.thewellnessrevolution.co.uk

Socials: @thewellnessrevolution_ on INSTA @ThewellnessR on Twitter

13:23 - When HR and Business Leaders allow certain foundations for our people to flourish, our business will flourish. It's a natural thing. And it’s been proven. Ref: Deloitte article Deloitte study: Mental Health and Employers: The Case for Investment – Pandemic and Beyond

14:40 - The Boy With the Faster Brain is out very soon!!

15:14 - Faster Than Normal Podcast info & credits.

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TRANSCRIPT via Descript and then corrected.. somewhat:

[00:00:40] Peter: Hey everyone. Welcome to another episode of Faster Than Normal. My name is Peter Shankman. I'm your host. I will guide you through this journey today where we talk about A D H D in the workplace and all neurodiversity really in mental health in the place for a change. We're talking Teresa Clark. And Teresa Clark is the founder I believe, of the Wellness Revolution. She's based in London, England, and her job is to help company culture, enhance employee experience, and unleash the potential of the people who work for said companies. They are a pioneering culture and employee wellbeing company built for businesses of the future. They support forward-thinking organizations to create cultures of happiness fueled by passion, purpose, and creativity. So welcome, good to have.

[00:01:19] Teresa: Thank you for having me. It's great to be here.

[00:01:22] Peter: So let's dive in. What gave you the idea to start a company focusing on business mental health?

[00:01:29] Teresa: So I, my career is in, um, working for the N H S. I've worked in mental health for about 12 years, and it was during my time when I worked for, um, a big mental health trust in North London when I was working actually in a hospital. And, um, I started to kind of look around and just see, we had a really high turnover of staff and the nature of the work was very intense because I worked in forensics, which is, um, a part of type of mental. Services, which when people commit offenses, they go into hospital as opposed to prison. So as you can imagine, you, you are, you know, experiencing quite a lot of sad cases. It's the works quite heavy. But even so, um, we just had this huge turnaround of staff and as I was there longer and longer, I realized that we weren't looking after our own people's mental health and that the workloads were huge. People were really stressed out if somebody came and said that they were experiencing. their own issues. It wasn't treated very well. In fact, there was a kind of real fear culture that nobody would've said that. Um, and they would've just gone off work with, you know, explained it underneath another sickness. But it was actually to do with that. And what was happening, which was really, really sad, was that was actually affecting patient care. So I started to sort of think, wow, if this is happening in a mental health trust, what's happening in the real world? And I started to kind of look at my family and friends and acquaintances and kind of see that, you know, we all struggle with something. Some of us might talk about it, others might not. But you know, mental health is just the same as physical health. And I just started to, to sort of think about how many toxic work cultures there are in the. and that we really need to do something about it because we spend 90,000 hours of work in our lifetime. And that is a long time to be stuck somewhere where you feel miserable and the, and the outcomes of that in terms of your own physical and mental health, but also the ripple effect that it has on your family, your friends, uh, and just sort of society at large, really. So I thought if we can really shift the workplace to be somewhere where. It actually lays the foundations for people to reach their potential, you know, optimal wellbeing. You know what a, what a different world we would live in. Sounds very idealistic, but I really do believe that we can do it.

[00:03:48] Peter: So my first question is this. How are companies reacting to this? Because companies, you know, at least in the US, companies don't particularly like spending money on anything that doesn't help their bottom line, obviously. Mental health and mental wellbeing in the workplace does help the bottom line, but that's a hard explanation to give. I've been there. So how are, how are companies, uh, reacting to that first and foremost?

[00:04:06] Teresa: Yeah, great question and you're right. I think there's still some attitudes that we need to change around wellbeing as a fluffy topic and that it's a nice to have but not actually imperative to your business success. But the good thing is there's, you know, the, the bodies of evidence of studies and case studies. Just, uh, continuing to rise and really, really being able to show that r roi, I call it return on happiness, to show the difference between a company that does foster, you know, positive experience for their employees and emo, um, employee wellbeing compared to one that doesn't or that does it surface level. So it's really about kind of presenting the figures, you know, talking to the people who are making the big decisions, because that's another thing that I think is really important. You know, getting the C-suite and people in leadership roles really involved so that it's not just a bottom up, it's a, you know, a top down and a bottom up approach. And that does really work. It's still, you know, it's still difficult. I think there are a lot of companies out there that are doing what, what's sort of known as like wellbeing, washing, similar. What people do on pride and things like that is sort of saying that they do it, but. You know, doing the opposite.

[00:05:16] Peter: Well, I mean, that's my, that was my next question. You know, the, we are, we're all familiar with, you know, uh, what are they doing for mental health? Oh, they're allowing wacky tie days on Friday. You know, it, it, it's, it's, you know, or free sandwiches does not equate to mental health and mental, mental, uh, caring. And so I think that, that one of the big. Um, issues that I've seen is that companies say, this sounds like a great idea, but then again, it's that question of actually getting 'em to commit because there's no, you know, the ROI isn't immediately seen.

[00:05:45] Teresa: Yes. Yeah. And I think what we are seeing now because of this, is we are seeing kind of mass exodus at companies where people are, are leaving, you know, the great resignation or we wanna call it the great awakening. Either way, people are looking for a very different experience, particularly Gen Z. And millennials. And so if a company doesn't start to do these things, it's, you know, when you look to, to, to start a new company, if your company doesn't have a flexible working policy that doesn't have some sort of ea and that doesn't kind of offer some kind of wellbeing provision, it's gonna make you think twice about whether you take their offer because money's not everything, as we all know. And again, the research shows that people would rather take a pay cut to have those things and go and work for an organization that doesn't have that now. It's pretty shocking at what the kind of world is like at the moment, because I don't know if you'd, you'd seen that, you know, Google's laid off a load of staff just now,

[00:06:39] Peter: including their, including the director of mental health and wellbeing. Yes, I saw that.

[00:06:43] Teresa: So that's, you know, really, really scary considering that some, the company like Google is doing that. It's just,

[00:06:49] Peter: that's also really telling, because if a company is big and as, as supposedly forward thinking as Google doesn't give a shit, why should any other company.

[00:06:56] Teresa: Well, yes, it's true, but I'm, I I think it's also a very, very bad move for Google because they're losing their credibility as an employer. Like their, their employee brand is really suffering because it's not just about the businesses, it's about the people that work there and, and we, people that work that have as much sort of say in terms of, you know, whether they wanna work at an organization like that or whether they want to go and work for Microsoft. You have all of those benefits. So it's a about, you know, the companies really need to think about what their brand reputation is because that does, you know, in a marketplace it's gonna get more and more difficult now for, you know, jobs for everybody. That's something that everybody's gonna be looking at. Yeah. And how much money does it cost? I was gonna say, how much money does it cost to, to recruit somebody? Especially for a company like Google, you're probably thinking, you know, it's in the grands isn't it? So you don't wanna be not being able to retain your staff, cuz that's just gonna cost you more and more. So it'll be interesting to see the data on that bad decision and how that's gonna infect Google because it is gonna really affect them. I. .

[00:08:01] Peter: Well, I think that's really the question, you know, is it we, and we'll have to wait and see on that. But I, I mean, I agree with you. I just, I feel like, you know, and, and this is maybe the, the New York City cynic and me, I just feel like companies that try, uh, you know, oh, we're gonna care, wanna care, you know, Google's, I mean, do you remember who Google's original motto, company motto was? Back in like the, the, the early two thousands?

[00:08:20] Teresa: No, I don't think I do.

[00:08:22] Peter: It was literally don't be evil. Oh wow. Yeah, that was their, that was their corporate motto, their corporate culture motto. And, and they publicized it and they talked about it and they go, we're gonna be the good company. Because back then Microsoft and, you know, Yahoo, were the bad companies and. All of a sudden, you know, here they are laying off their, their, their, their vice president of, of, of mental health and wellbeing. So I, I, I think that companies talk a lot of, talk a great game and I wanna do this. And I think it's a lot harder to sell that story, um, in the real world because at the end of the day, you know, they're, they're shareholders are looking at the next quarter and not the next quarter centuries, which is, which is obviously a much bigger problem. Talk. What are you doing into, in terms of once you get into a company, you know, are you, are you listening? Are you holding sessions? How, how does this whole process work? Because, um, I remember the one time I did work for a company back in the nineties, I worked for America Online, and they had someone in-house who actually, uh, was a mental health, and this is, this is again the mid nineties, so that was pretty impressive that they were that forward thinking. And they had someone where you could just go in, you could say, Hey, you know, having a bad day, not having a good time, having a mental health day. And again, before any of this was, was popular. So, so how does it work from a consulting point of view?

[00:09:29] Teresa: Yeah. So what we do is we kind of go in and we just really get to understand the organization. We look at the values, we look at how the values are being lived. We look at the kind of main challenges around the people. We look at what they're doing really well, what they could do better, and then we speak to, um, the employees and we kind of find out anonymously what they're thinking. Cause I think. , that's a big thing. You know, companies have a lot of in-house surveys and things like that, but people are quite reticent to be honest. Completely, because there's kind of like a lot of fear about, you know, will I, right, will I be looked at differently if I say that I've got a mental health condition or that I'm struggling, or, you know what? How does my culture support mental health and wellbeing as it is now. So we kinda understand the energy of the organization, what's going on, what's going on that can't be seen, and then we kind of present that to, um, the C-suite or the people team, and we sort of talk about. , you know, what we can do to support them, what they wanna focus on first. Cuz sometimes you go in and there's quite a lot of things that they didn't realize are going on. So it's almost, you know, too much of a big job to do everything all in one go. So it's like, where do we start first? So that can be things like helping them to set up like wellbeing champions so that they're embedding wellbeing more regularly within their culture because it's gotta be kind of a movement that goes forward. We do a lot of workshops and webinars, training. Taking like a design thinking approach to the employee experience. So thinking about when you have new starters, like what's their experience like, how do we deal with, um, you know, when somebody comes to us with a problem, how do we make more space in our teams so that we are having more interaction socially? Because a lot of companies we work with now become completely remote. So you have to be really intentional about that employee experience. You know, as a brand, like how do we want our employees, what are our team rituals? How do we embed wellbeing so that it's not something that we're having to deal with when it reaches crisis point, that we've kind of creating a culture where people can come and talk about things. So we are supporting each other. So when we have a team meeting, somebody says, we do a check-in and someone says, I'm having a bit of a bad day today. , we are normalizing it cuz you and I both know as well, people that have ADHD you know, sometimes we are, we are having a terrible day, sometimes we're having a great day. But sometimes it's difficult to say that you are without, you know, fear of being judged because you don't wanna seem like you can't do the job or that, you know, they can't trust you. So there's so many things around that. So what we do is we try to really help, well, not we try, we do help the organizations to, to really look at that and then just getting some defining, um, ways of approaching that as an organization and as teams and as individuals. And we do, um, some really cool offsites and sort of revolutionary retreats where we look. Kind of issues are within leadership, and then we create kind of like a two day conference, which is much more based on sort of like human potential and like how we can be the best leaders and really kind of like changing the mindset in more of a kind of intense short way, which, which are really successful. Um, and we do panel talks like loads of things. We, we, what we do as an organization is we just try to be really innovative and approach mental health in a very different way than, uh, the sort of traditional sort of pathology of it.

[00:12:58] Peter: Awesome. I love it. Well, the website is called the wellness revolution.co.uk and you can find everyone there, you can find the whole team there. And it is really great to have you on the podcast. I appreciate you taking the time. It is. With any luck, this is sort of the start of, you know, more and more people understanding that, that there is something here and that we have. Uh, pay attention. We can't just let this go, right, Teresa?

[00:13:23] Teresa: Oh, definitely. And I wanted to, to give you a, a, a really interesting stat actually. Yeah, please. For those leaders out there that, um, are still kind of struggling to see the, the real kind of returns on it. D Deloitte did a report here recently, I think it was last year actually, so it could do with renewing now. But they said that for every pound that's spent, and obviously I know it's in pounds, not dollars for every pound that's spent on wellbeing and mental health interventions, company receives up to six pounds back in returns on reduced absenteeism, reduced presenteeism, reduce, and um, higher retention rates. So there really is like such a business case and I think what we're gonna see from now on, as well as obviously with things being so uncertain with economic kind of unrest, is that this is the main, you know, people are our highest value assets if we think about it like, So if we look after our people and they're, we are supporting their mental health cause we're still kind of suffering the fallout from Covid, you know, psychologically. that's still very much kind of impacting people in different ways. If we really do sort of, you know, give those foundations for our people to flourish, our business will flourish. It's a natural thing. So just, yeah. I hope that's kind of stuck into some people's heads and that they'll really start to look at it differently.

[00:14:40] Peter: I love it. I love it. Teresa, this is great. Thank you so much for taking the time. I really appreciate it.

[00:14:45] Teresa: Oh, it's my pleasure.

[00:14:46] Peter: Guys, as always, you know the drill Faster Than Normal is for you. We wanna know what you want to hear. Shoot us a note, let us know. And, uh, the children's book is coming out, should be out in about a month. The title is The Boy With the Faster Brain, so we are really excited for that. Stay tuned for more on that next week and we will see you next week. A D H D in all forms of neurodiversity are gift not a curse. Pay attention to your mental health. It is just as important, if not more so than your physical health. We'll see you soon. Thanks for listening!

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