O'Ryan: Hey there, my name's O'Ryan, and today I am joined by my co host, Trina, from MyLadyADHD.

Trina: Hello.

O'Ryan: And today we are joined by a special guest, Dave Delaney, who is a keynote speaker, author, business coach, and host of the Why Squirrels podcast.

Dave Delaney: Yeah, Thanks for having me.

O'Ryan: Dave. I recently heard that you got diagnosed with ADHD.

Dave Delaney: Yes.

O'Ryan: Tell me about that.

Dave Delaney: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I was diagnosed last year. I was in a mastermind group with two other entrepreneurial friends. One I know quite well, and the other I didn't know very well. And after a few months of the three of us going getting together once a week and, you know, talking through our business woes. one of them, the one I didn't know very well, text me out of the blue and said, Hey Dave, do you have ADHD? And I wrote back, No. And he said, I think you do. and I think, you should go talk to your doctor. Cause I do. And I can see it in you. And, so I did. I talked to my doctor, did some assessments, and then he, fired up my charts and noticed that I, was actually, diagnosed, several years ago, but somehow didn't get that memo.

O'Ryan: In typical ADHD fashion.

Trina: It's not

Dave Delaney: Yeah.

Trina: the first time I've heard a story like that.

Dave Delaney: Interesting. Yeah. Yeah. You would think like, how'd I, I don't know. I'm still like, I don't, what's a few more years, right. In, in, in a lifetime of not knowing I have ADHD. So I figured, you know, not going to get upset about. It missing the memo somewhere along the way. I don't know whether the therapist didn't tell my doctor or my doctor didn't tell me.

I'm not really sure or whether he did tell me and then I got home and forgot to tell my wife. Who knows?

O'Ryan: Your therapist is just yeah, this guy's got ADHD. Okay. So that was last year. so you've written a book, you've been doing podcasting, you're an entrepreneur. What was this like to find out that you had ADHD?

Dave Delaney: you know, I said the thing that like, if we, if ADHD years, we're doing a drinking game, The phrase would be, it all makes sense. then drink,mine would be non alcoholic four years sober. but yeah,for me, it was. it was, it was that it was really just under the more I learned about ADHD, the more it all made sense to me and being diagnosed and being sort of a product of Web 2.

0, early

O'Ryan: Hmm.

Dave Delaney: even Web 1. 0, if you will, I'm very much open and I love sharing, perhaps

O'Ryan: Hmm.

Dave Delaney: as that's part of it,I started connecting all the dots and realizing you know, got a story to share. and so that's why I created Why Squirrels, the, the website and the podcast to kind of share what I'm learning out loud and also interview, you know, subject matter experts and, you know, air quotes, high achievers with

O'Ryan: Yeah.

Dave Delaney: and, you know, Yeah.

So I just read straight away. I wanted to just share what I was experiencing, with the world. And so I joke that I kind of came out of the mental health closet as it were, and just got on social media and started to tell, you know, Hey everybody, guess what? I have ADHD.

O'Ryan: It all makes sense now.

Dave Delaney: but, anyway,

Trina: Dave, you

O'Ryan: Yeah.

Trina: this is. I did the exact same thing four years ago.

Dave Delaney: Yeah, it's amazing, right? And then you like, did you, like what I, one thing that I found is a lot of my oldest friends from the, the old punk rock days of going to shows and stuff. A lot of those friends started commenting to me privately or publicly on Facebook and so on in different places saying, you know, you would be shocked to learn how many of us, have ADHD. And the more I learn about it, the more, in fact, I just wrote a blog post about it at Wise Squirrels today or yesterday about the punk rock connection to ADHD. But yeah, yeah. So right away, I just wanted to share what I was learning. And when I started Wise Squirrels, you know, I started podcasting in 2005. and had I known I had ADHD, I probably would have stuck with one show and then you know, been sitting on a pile of Joe Rogan money at this point, without platforming freaks. and, so being sort of into the podcasting and early adopter and social and blogging and all that stuff, I just, yeah, I just wanted to, to create the space and start sharing sort of my journey with folks.

O'Ryan: it's it's wild how similar this, this experience is for a lot of us, like late ADHD, I know both Trina and I were late diagnosed as well. We're both also entrepreneurs. and, and I know for me, the moment that I found out it was that like, Oh, everything makes sense now. Life old moment. Yeah. But then, I felt like I need to tell people, if this was that transformative for me to understand all these weird quirks in my past, I want to help other people find this. And then it's, it's funny how, we all kind of just congregate around that same kind of like goal and hyper focus.

ahead. Mm hmm. Mm

Dave Delaney: for entrepreneurship, you're 60 to 80 percent more likely to have entrepreneurial intentions with ADHD, and you're nearly 100 percent more likely to start a business. so there's that point about it, and there's plenty of famous brands and entrepreneurs out there who, and, and, you know, creatives as well, who, have ADHD or learn later that they do, I developed a presentation and training idea called The Root Down, which is going to be my next book, partly about my own journey, but also about the kind of coping mechanisms I developed over the years without realizing why I

O'Ryan: hmm.

Dave Delaney: this stuff.

But the stuff is still applicable to any neurotype, any person. But the goal of the presentation the book is to better educate people about ADHD so that. If they see it in themselves or someone, a loved one or what have you, they might decide to go and get tested and, and then get, hopefully get the treatment they may need. there was a Dr. Russ Barkley, who's, you know, kind of the, the, the most trusted name in ADHD, I think he, and he's retired, but he's got a great YouTube channel. Russ Barkley talked about, with undiagnosed and untreated ADHD, your life expectancy can be up to 13 years less. I share it about that at wisecrulls.

com slash life, if you're interested in reading about that. I've got his video on there too, but the reason why I share that is because this, like passion project suddenly became a mission for me

O'Ryan: Mm.

Dave Delaney: I realize. Yeah, there's, there's much more at stake than just

O'Ryan: Yeah.

Dave Delaney: failure. Like death and that could be ODing. It could be driving poorly. It could be suicide, whatever. but there's a lot that goes kind of hand in hand with this. And I think it's important that more people learn.

O'Ryan: It makes sense, right? Because I, I, I'm just thinking about like prior to my diagnosis and understanding what was going on. You, you look at yourself, you look at everybody else who's succeeding and seemingly going about doing life. and actually being able to accomplish normal things. And you're like, why is this so hard for me?

Dave Delaney: Yeah.

O'Ryan: a failure? And you start to internalize all these, these struggles and not realizing that no, my brain is actually working against me. I'm having to work harder than these other people are. And it's, it's not the same. I don't know, for me it was, it was a lightbulb moment that, completely revolutionized the way that I even viewed my own self and, and, going from being like, Oh, I'm, I'm lazy, I'm a failure, there's something wrong with me, I have to try harder, and I'm already, trying as hard as I can, to then being like, oh, I understand it now, and now I can work with this. It totally makes sense that the life expectancy thing, totally makes sense.

Trina: I think it's really interesting of like the rollercoaster that you do go through on when you first get diagnosed, because I think initially it is like lightbulb moments and then maybe relief and then, And some of us get to like, um, anger, like, well, what would things have been, what would things have looked like if

O'Ryan: Yeah.

Trina: So I'm curious if you had that also, like that feeling of wait, did it have to be this way?

Dave Delaney: it's a great question. And I think in 2020, when the world was imploding, before my diagnosis too. we had a bunch of other things go on on top of all this stuff that everybody was experiencing, including a tornado that destroyed our kids school. And then, and then another storm that knocked us out of our house for three months while I was dealing with, you know, and at the time I was a speaker for Google and among other stuff, among my own business as well. And all of that kind of down. And so suddenly I'm not making much money as a, as a keynote speaker and facilitator. I'm not really doing a lot of speaking, so I'm not getting paid well. And I'm also spending a lot of that time. focused on insurance and contractors and trying to get our house back up in order on top of everything else going on.

Right. so it was an extremely stressful time. So I bring that up. Also, my dad was of on the latter stages of Alzheimer's and dementia before he passed away. And because of that, decided don't want to get Alzheimer's or dementia. as I would hope everybody doesn't want to get. And sadly, you know, it's a, it's a tough one, but there are certain things you can do, to help, prevent it.

And that includes, so being sober or quitting drinking at least. And that's what I did at the time. Exercise, which is something I started doing more of at the time. Meditation and mindfulness, also something I started doing more of. And, even with A-C-P-A-P-I, I got a sleep apnea test and realized, oh, look at that.

I also have sleep apnea. And by the way, nothing spices up the bedroom, ah, like A-C-P-A-P, machine. But I digress. bring that all up because this all, especially the meditation and mindfulness as well, but all this stuff. help me prepare for this diagnosis that I didn't know was coming. And so to answer your question, I've, I've learned so much about reframing and about, being better to myself.

And I certainly have regrets through life and all that stuff. But the way I look at it is that if I wasn't For example, if I knew I had ADHD when I was in my 20s, I probably wouldn't have been drinking quite as much and doing the crazy stuff that I was up to. and then going off to Ireland to sober up because that's what you do.

You go from Toronto to Ireland to sober up, going off to Ireland by myself and meeting and running into my wife. My future wife. And so had I not, life not been a bit of a mess back then, I probably wouldn't have gone to Ireland and I wouldn't have met my wife there. And I wouldn't be, you know, we're, we're happily married over 20 years.

We've got two great kids. And so the life I have now wouldn't have happened this way. Had I not been affected in some negative ways to the ADHD. So this is something I tell people all the time. And I write about as well and talk about on the podcasts is, is this, it's so important. It's fine to look back. Looking back in a productive way, I think is a better, you know, having regrets and, and all, and what ifs and all this stuff is something that naturally, I think, you know, to your point, Trina, like I think everybody experiences certainly, but I think again, looking at it in a different light and realizing, you know, you might not even be here now, doing what you're doing and enjoying life, you know, had it not been for that.

So I try not to look at it that way. There's also like philosophy where. this line that, if you, if you kind of paraphrasing, but if you think too much of the past, that can lead to depression. If you think too much of the future, that can lead to anxiety. And so the key thing is to be present and focused on now and means that's, you know, obviously a great way to be. We're all entrepreneurs. We all have businesses and things. So obviously there's. You gotta look at last quarter. You gotta look at budgeting and, know, planning and all that stuff. So obviously, but think that's a key thing. And if you can focus more on that, on, on focusing on the present, I think that will turn the, turn that around some.

Trina: it's pretty common that ADHDers kind of feel now and not now, and so we're actually quite good at staying in the present, I think. I think. a lot of us, it's like a strength,yeah, it's really interesting. I just, I do find it interesting, the rollercoaster of, After you get diagnosed, it's not just oh, well, that's great.

It's takes some time to process what just happened and what that really means, moving forward. And I think that's why a lot of us end up in this rabbit hole of well, now I have to learn every single thing I can about ADHD and like, O'Ryan, I have to tell people and it's so impactful to get diagnosed.

for

Dave Delaney: Yes. Yeah.

Trina: the piece that I just want to drive home is like how impactful it can be to get a diagnosis because I also in my community I hear from older folks that are like what's the point of me going to get diagnosed like I'm this age what I don't want to take me I don't want to be on meds like what's the point of me getting diagnosed

Dave Delaney: and I think it's really up to the individual, of course. I think, I think the first step is, you know, an assessment. Even like an online assessment initially to think if you think you have ADHD, I've got one at YSquirrels, but I don't, I don't see the results or anything like that. but the most important thing, regardless of what the outcome is of that, going to your doctor, um, and talking to your doctor about it, assuming you are diagnosed, I think tip that I always give people is, you know, If you're talking to your doctor, ask the doctor what their views are on ADHD or ADD or what have you, because that's a quick, that's a quick test to see if your doctor is actually a good doctor, because if your doctor says Oh, ADHD is not real, then they probably also think cancer is not real.

And

O'Ryan: Or adults can't get ADHD.

Dave Delaney: Adults can't. Yeah, exactly. and so as an adult, I think the first, it's really important to talk to your doctor about it. and, and no, first of all, if you do, and then if you do have ADHD, then to explore treatment and that can be through therapy, ADHD coaching, both preferably, medication as well. And listen, I'm, I'm, you know, Canadian or Canerican now, I guess. And I've been proud to never been on, never be on prescription drugs at all. And now I'm on prescription drugs, not just for, not just for the ADHD, but also for anxiety. and, but I'm the better for it. And, and, you know, especially when it comes, and again, not a doctor, nor do I pretend I'm one on the internet. It's important that to understand it. There's not a lot of danger involved with, stimulants, with ADHD meds and you can stop them pretty quickly as soon as you start taking them if you don't feel right. And if you're working with a doctor, hopefully you are, that's how you got your prescription, the doctor will adjust the dose or change the meds, to find the thing that works best for you.

But again, the other thing with, with ADHD, especially being older is. Life may be fine. Like you may not have any problems and you may have a untreated ADHD, but things are going great. And that's awesome. If that, if that's the case. And not everybody needs, treatment necessarily, but I think it helps a lot.

O'Ryan: Yeah one of the things that we talk about a lot here is just having the language to be able to describe your experience can sometimes give you the ability to introspect. on a deeper level and a more productive way. So right, like you may, you may have gone your entire life not knowing that you had ADHD, but now that you have the language to explore that, it's like opening a door and being able to then say, Oh, this is why I do this thing. And now I can deconstruct if doing this thing in this way is actually productive for me and healthy, or if maybe I need to backtrack a little bit and find a better way to do it. That's not so potentially harmful or destructive.

Dave Delaney: Yeah, exactly. I mean, that gets into that. What I said at the beginning, which is giving yourself grace.

O'Ryan: Yep.

Dave Delaney: It's hard to give yourself grace if you don't know what's going on.

O'Ryan: Exactly. Yeah,

Dave Delaney: you know, for the love of the people in your life or your colleagues or worker or employees or family or friends, like, honestly, like I've learned so much about myself in the last year from reading multiple books and talking to experts on my podcast and folks like you, Learning about this stuff has been so beneficial to me, just, you know, knowing about it and understanding.

I say it's like my, I say it's my operating system. So understanding my operating system, incredibly helpful. You know, and, and it does explain things like, you know, why I would be excessive in things or why I love standing on stages, delivering keynotes and presentations. It's that feedback from the audience.

And I'm like, hello, dopamine.

O'Ryan: yeah,

Dave Delaney: I was lacking there, but apparently I was. And, so good or bad. I mean, it explains a lot and, and even little idiosyncrasies and things you start to realize Oh, wait,

O'Ryan: yeah,

Dave Delaney: doing that.

O'Ryan: you mentioned the, Alzheimer's thing too. I know for me, that was, that was the thing before I knew that I had ADHD. My memory is terrible. My short term memory is absolutely terrible. I have to write everything down. And there was a moment where I was like, Do I have early onset Alzheimer's is something I have to be worried.

And that caused me a lot of stress for a long time because it does, it does run in my family. And I've seen, you know, some friends of mine having to deal with their parents and that's terrifying. And I can't imagine if, if I hadn't have received this diagnosis, I'd probably still that was a big fear that was hanging over me for a long time. And just being able to know, Oh, I have ADHD. My operating system is just bad at file management sometimes.

Dave Delaney: yeah.

Trina: Lot too, that that's really common for people with ADHD to think that they have dementia because it just

O'Ryan: Yep.

Trina: like that sometimes with your memory. I also thought I had dementia and I went and got a brain scan. that's how serious I thought my memory problems were, you know.

Dave Delaney: Yeah. It's working memory. I mean, we, we, yeah, we forget things so quickly. I I'm the same. Like I'll write things down. I do a lot of voice memos for myself. I've gotten to the point where I will, because of, been podcasting for so long. I'll just turn on the voice memo app on my phone. And as I'm walking the dog, I'll just talk, but because I'm recording it, it gives myself permission to like, even though I'm not doing anything with it, or I might use AI to read the transcript later or something. But, just because I'm recording it and walking and talking, it helps me kind of think through things, but I also am able to record those notes so that I can go back to that later. And The worst point of this, it's embarrassing to admit this, but was not that long ago I was walking and my AirPods died. I was like, oh crap. And it was that point where I was like, can I keep talking out loud to myself even though I'm not recording now? Will anybody know? Nobody will know. And so I think I crossed the line where I'm now like that madman walking down the street. Maybe I always was. I don't know.

O'Ryan: I mean, there's all those different things that help with memory, right? being able to see it, read it, speak it, hear it, all those different things. So that makes sense that that helps. Even if you weren't actually recording it.

Dave Delaney: Yeah, exactly. Do you, and, and Trina, you said you write things down, do you were saying, you wrote,

you, do you record it or write it down?

Trina: I

O'Ryan: Yes.

Trina: Yes, I have to do all the things. I

O'Ryan: Mm. Mm

Trina: I came up with a new system to remember to call and text family and friends because I'm, like, really not a great communicator with family and friends. and I a bunch of my family and friends in a, in an album on my phone.

And now one of those photos is my background every day. So there's a different family member every day. And So

Dave Delaney: That's smart. Yeah.

Trina: pops up, I'm like, Oh, I got to text them. So I'm like, I got to try all the things I got. I have to gamify everything. I got lists, I got reminders, like I got

Dave Delaney: Yeah.

Trina: plans for the backup plans to figure

Dave Delaney: a great idea that I love that

idea actually. I think that

Trina: it works. I

Dave Delaney: and then, and then once it, and then once the novelty runs off.

Trina: I'll have to change the photos probably pretty regularly to just, keep it interesting. But, yeah, you know, you learn. But that's the thing, is, before I got diagnosed, I wasn't trying any of these things, really. I was just, wow, you suck at calling friends and family, I was just feeling bad about it.

I'm just feeling

O'Ryan: hmm.

Trina: bad human being. And

Dave Delaney: Yeah.

Trina: oh, well my ADHD friend over there suggested this, and that actually is really helpful. And now there's like resources, it's like a whole library of resources also opens up

O'Ryan: Yeah.

Dave Delaney: get diagnosed. I've been, I've been thinking a lot about the community aspects of ADHD and how we tend to find one another, and, and then we start to realize that, you know, maybe some of our closest friends also have ADHD, whether they're diagnosed or not, but in, in thinking that way, I start to, and even my own parents, I start to understand why maybe they haven't followed up with me in a long time and it's

O'Ryan: Mm.

Dave Delaney: because I'm a jerk or I did something or whatever, but more because perhaps they have ADHD and they have not figured out Trina's awesome iPhone hack to remember to

check

in with Dave. And so I started, I've been thinking a lot about that, like kind of connecting the dots between community and the people in your life.

Trina: that's really interesting. Yeah.

O'Ryan: makes me think of my brothers. Me and my brothers, we, we're all, we don't talk to each other that often, but anytime we do, it's like we, we talked yesterday. we're still just as close, it's awesome. And now that you're saying that, I'm like, Mm, we all have ADHD, this makes sense now.

Dave Delaney: Right, right, right. Yeah, well, it's certainly heritable, right? I think it's

O'Ryan: Yeah.

Dave Delaney: chance if you have a parent with ADHD that, a sibling or a child does.

Trina: this is actually interesting to me because my mom has ADHD, but she has, all of these systems in place to help her be on time and to help her remember, she has, a lifetime of creating all of these strategies, and so it doesn't appear that her

O'Ryan: Mm.

Trina: is as intense as mine is, sometimes, and

Dave Delaney: Yeah.

Trina: for us to sometimes communicate because struggle in different areas with ADHD and so there is still not always grace given because the way that they deal with their ADHD is kind of different than the way I do, so yeah,

Dave Delaney: Yeah.

Trina: it's just challenging, you know, people

Dave Delaney: Yeah.

I mean, my mom, my mom is 88 and, almost perfect health. and she like, she would take us all in a bar fight. she's awesome. British stiff upper lip, yeah, she's got all these, like you're saying, she's got all these like notebooks and she has everything. Like she has these systems in place. And I find I'm similar in that way because really these are coping mechanisms that we didn't, I'd never heard the term coping mechanism. I didn't know what the hell that was, but now I know, these are all these systems that I've created in order to write a book years ago and have it published before knowing I have ADHD, right?

So like all these different coping mechanisms, I swear. That's the other thing that I've been thinking about a lot too, is like every productivity expert,MySpideySense tells me that they're probably an ADHD er. They've become an expert at productivity and the world can, can use these skills and tools and tactics, certainly. But the reason why they became, shall I say, hyper focused on the topic of productivity, they're trying to find ways to solve their own problem. And that's the same with entrepreneurship. So often, especially when we're founders, we're creating things, to solve a problem that we have, right? Or that we see a lot of people having. and again, if, if your community are diagnosed or undiagnosed ADHD ers, yeah, they probably all have that productivity problem too, which gets back to the entrepreneurs and

O'Ryan: Yeah,

Dave Delaney: and that kind of thing.

O'Ryan: I almost feel like the diagnosis and, and understanding the diagnosis gives you permission to, to have these coping mechanisms, right? So like you can imagine in, especially in the older generations where it was like, no, you just have to, you have to figure it out. You have to get it done. So you develop these coping mechanisms because there are no other options. Now that I understand that I have ADHD, this is the thing that's holding me back. I can now go talk to somebody else who has ADHD. I can go look at the community. Like you said, this whole library of different things that we all do to try to solve these problems. And then you end up with people who actually build businesses around it and sell their own ideas.

ahead, turn it Hmm. Hmm.

Trina: ago, also. So there's that whole side of everything, but

Dave Delaney: Yeah, but come on Trina, women never had ADHD.

Trina: know! When I was diagnosed with ADHD, I thought that, I thought they were lying, like I did not know that women could have ADHD when I was diagnosed.

Dave Delaney: Yeah, and that's because of these different presentations, right?

like,

Trina: big the information gap was. Like, the, clinicians and therapists that are here to help us, there was a huge gap between them and the people that needed help. And there's people like you and I and O'Ryan and who've built communities just to fill that gap.

And it's just so interesting and amazing that, people stepped up to do that because it seems like the health system, the healthcare system wasn't really doing that,

Dave Delaney: no,

you're right. I mean, I think it's, you know, my, my own understanding really is sort of a, I think a combination between these, these different presentations of ADHD. This is something I've learned about for a bit. I was saying that there are three types and there's not. There's one type of ADHD in three presentations, and one of the presentations is the hyperactive,

actually, it's also on the blog. I wrote about this recently where, you know, you've got the Bart Simpson. who was me very much as a kid. Then you've got the Lisa Simpson, which might've been like you, like where you are more like introspective. You're not really, you're daydreaming, but you're not disrupting a class.

So the teachers aren't, you're not bothering the teachers, even if you're

O'Ryan: I

Dave Delaney: I mean, you might do great. but,and then the other, the combined type is the Calvin from Calvin and Hobbs. And I think as you get older, everybody sort of to some extent shifts closer to the, to, to the Calvin because we all learn these coping mechanisms regardless of what presentation we lean most towards.

again, not a doctor. So this, this is kind of paraphrasing, but this is sort of what I've, I've learned. And so a lot of women were just completely missed because they were quiet, daydreaming. and then of course, you know, with misogyny and sexism and all that stuff, they were probably also ignored for that reason too, to some extent.

but I also think it's great now that, more women are being diagnosed because in part it's, it's also as mothers often, you notice your kid might have ADHD. well, I mean, as parents, but, and when you take your kid in to start getting treatment for the ADHD or diagnosis, you, you, you start learning about it and you're like, Oh, wait a second. hold on.this is me, but you were missed. And so I, I've learned that a lot that like a lot of women especially learn about this because their kid is diagnosed and then they're like, ah, okay.

That makes sense.

Trina: have heard this a lot.

O'Ryan: think this is why conversations like this and like a lot of what we, what we all are doing in our own spaces is that being able to show ADHD isn't always Bart Simpson, right? And being able to showcase all of these different experiences to say, because. you might have a mom, you might have a grandma, you might have a grandpa, you might have a young teenager who's looking at this and saying, that's not me.

Like when you say ADHD, the image of ADHD that I know, that's not me. It doesn't fit. But then to be able to show all these, like the, the broad spectrum of experiences within ADHD is so wide and to be able to say, Oh, okay, there is community here for me. I can see myself in this.

I think it's so powerful.

Trina: it interesting because it is wide and it is experienced so differently, but yet we all are connected

O'Ryan: Yeah.

Trina: in a weird way that you can't really explain to a neurotypical person.

Dave Delaney: Yeah. It's interesting. It's interesting. Yeah. I think, I, I think, Yeah, I think I think you're right on that. because yeah, that's one thing consistently I hear from my guests and experts is, no two cases are the same with ADHD, right? however, you know, I often remind people too, that it is an acronym.

O'Ryan: I mean, there, there is, there are words there. There are words that, you know, that it stands for, regardless of how you feel about those words. But, yeah. So there are commonalities, certainly. But it is interesting how, the differences in the way that we experience those executive function misfires, if you will. Differently within our experiences, right? The social pressures, the life experiences. It's the same, cause, but the way that it manifests ends up being so different because our brains are so complex.

Dave Delaney: And it's confusing too, because things change

O'Ryan: Yeah, yeah, we learn,

Dave Delaney: right? I mean, we're still learning. So for somebody, you know, if things change over time, ADD becomes ADHD. it, doesn't mean, it's wrong or whatever. I, it just, it is science. Like things are changing because learning about it, right?

Or, professionals are learning about it at least and, and then able to use that and then weave it into the, to the DSM

and, and, and so on.

O'Ryan: With you being late diagnosed, and also being an entrepreneur, did you notice a difference in having a realization of Oh, that's the reason I've been doing this thing and post diagnosis, Hey, I can now do this better. I'd love to hear a little bit about like how your entrepreneurial life changed post diagnosis.

Dave Delaney: yeah, that's a, that's a good question. one thing I've figured out is I'm not great at everything. What? I know,

O'Ryan: Yeah.

Dave Delaney: knew that? and so with this,

Trina: I

Dave Delaney: I know,

Trina: it.

Dave Delaney: I know, but with this clarity now, I realized like, Oh, okay. Somehow I've, I've, I've landed on that, that I'm not good at every part of being a entrepreneur

O'Ryan: And you don't have to be.

Dave Delaney: And you don't have to

O'Ryan: Yeah.

Dave Delaney: or kicked out back to Canada or something because, you know, so I think it's important to, to get the support and recognize where your strengths are, which is part of the root down.

so for the root down, there are three sections. There's know yourself, respect yourself, and then connect yourself. So it's, it's basically about knowing your strengths, understanding strategies to, to embrace yourself and understand and respect yourself and love yourself. And then, and then connecting yourself, which also fits into this loneliness epidemic that, you know, we're all feeling regardless of, of our neurotypes. trying to solve those three sort of categories or pillars. And so knowing yourself is, is so important there. So I think that's, that's a big part of it is, is finding the support. But then also things like, I just bought this finally. The, and I, I'm not, I don't work for these people, but I should. At this point, the time timer. Do you guys use this?

Trina: Yes, I have

Dave Delaney: Oh my,

Trina: one.

Dave Delaney: oh my god. How have I ever, I just got it like recently and I'm like, how the hell did I do anything without this? This thing, for those who don't know, it's you know, it's just that's five minutes. But when you do it like a full hour, it's like,

Trina: It's a

Dave Delaney: And then you glance down at it, you're like, what? It's it's all white. And you're like, wait, where did 55 minutes just go? Because I'm still on TikTok. yeah, so

that's, that's been a,

Trina: because it's like a weird shift because like it's a timer might work, a regular timer might work for a neurotypical person, but just the process of, well, let's make it more visual helps us so much more. And I know a lot of people that swear by that timer. It is a product that we,

Dave Delaney: it's

Trina: us use.

Dave Delaney: yeah, it's, it's great. And, and it's analog, which is, which is also refreshing. Right. I think a kind of early adopter and a lot of tech and doing stuff with Google and so forth, You know, I'm, I'm nerdy enough, but at the same time, I find switching to analog really does help and something like that, where you have it on your desk in front of you all day can really help keep you on task.

Cause before I would open a tab in Google, just Google,timer

O'Ryan: Yep.

Dave Delaney: the timer. And that's something you can do in Chrome or most browsers. I'm sure I don't work for Google anymore, so they're not paying me. but, and I would open like a whole tab on my other monitor. of this clock counting down.

But even then I found it a little, wasn't as effective. So I definitely find something like this

O'Ryan: Well, it's dangerous, right? Because you open a new tab and, Oh, well, now I'm on LinkedIn or I'm on Facebook or wherever you are, wasting time. But then I think that timer does a couple of things for us with ADHD, right? You have the visual representation of time. So your time blindness is kind of solved a little bit because you, you have that awareness, but then also you have the urgency of this countdown clock. of that gives you that little dopamine boost that you need to actually be motivated and have the inertia to complete the task. I need to, I need to get one. Trina's always flashing hers and I'm like, Oh,

that looks useful.

Trina: mine for a week before I realized that the battery died, so just keep, keep a, keep an eye on that.

Dave Delaney: Yes.

O'Ryan: man, I'm doing so good.

I'm working so fast.

Trina: all my tasks, but

Dave Delaney: You're hyper focused.

Trina: for a week and a half.

Dave Delaney: You're exhausted and haven't eaten in days.

O'Ryan: You're like, my 15 minutes isn't up.

Trina: That's

Dave Delaney: Yeah.

Trina: that's so funny.

O'Ryan: Well, Dave, this was wonderful. I've enjoyed this conversation. where can folks find more info about you?

Dave Delaney: Yeah. Drop by why squirrels. podcast there. Some of the articles I've got a now what, which is like a free PDF download that I, I put together with some tips if you've just been diagnosed and, but, yeah, why squirrels. com or you can Google Dave Delaney, but I'm spending most of my time with why squirrels. It's been a lot of fun. I've been talking to a lot of, a lot of great people like Dr. Bob Bradley, who was NASA's international space station director for 16 years. And he wasn't diagnosed until he was 60.

O'Ryan: Wow.

Dave Delaney: was after he was there. So there's a guy running the space station with undiagnosed ADHD.

Trina: That's

Dave Delaney: And so, we can still achieve a lot in life

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