This week we’re celebrating a milestone for Hacking Your ADHD - 200 episodes… also 5 years of running the podcast. I honestly don’t know exactly what to say about how far this podcast has come. It’s been an incredible run so far and I have a lot of plans for the future as well, which, honestly is a little scary, but also exciting that even with ADHD I’m sticking with it.
For this episode, I’ve invited Brendan Mahan, the voice behind the ADHD Essentials Podcast, to help mark the occasion by interviewing me on the ins and outs of podcasting with ADHD. We talk about the early days, what has changed, and how past failures have paved the way for success. It’s a bit more of the behind-the-scenes look at the podcast and how I got here.
Brendan Mahan: So I am not the voice you're expecting to hear. I don't think. Oh, mighty listener. My name is Brendan Mahan. I'm the host of the ADHD Essentials podcast. And my friend Will Curb has rated me the honor of interviewing him for his show, Hacking Your ADHD, as we discuss 200 episodes and the culmination of that and the significant milestone that is 200. I'm here along for the ride just like the rest of you are. I'm just hanging out, being proud of my friend, being excited for him, and also looking forward to finding out what comes after 200. That's the story we're going to tell. Will, how are you?
William Curb: I'm doing pretty well. Thank you so much for doing this because I really appreciate that, it'd be much stranger if I was trying to interview myself for this. You know, it's one of those moments where you have to go, I do have to ask for help for things. And that's an important thing to do.
Brendan Mahan: Otherwise, you'd have to use like multiple voices and stuff just to make it clear that it's you talking to you and then things go off the rails quick.
William Curb: I mean, we were talking about voice acting classes before this. So that sounds like just right on track.
Brendan Mahan: So the first question I want to ask, it requires a little bit of a setup. I don't know how tuned into this part your listeners will be. But prior to hacking your ADHD, you had another podcast for a little while. But now you've moved over to Hacking your ADHD. And I'm curious to know what got you into podcasting, what brought you back to do it about ADHD and then sort of how do those shows inform one another, compared to one another, that kind of stuff.
William Curb: I mean, they're vastly different. So that one was about ultimate Frisbee and like talking with people about how they train and do stuff. It seems like a very niche sport. But like once you get into it, there is a lot that goes into Frisbee leagues and stuff. And so I was like, I'm talking to these people and talking to like, I talked to camp directors and people that run fitness programs and stuff. And it was a lot of fun. I got about 11 episodes in that because I was like releasing two a month for a while. And then there's like a four month hiatus for release my last episode.
And then, it was during that hiatus part that I was stuck on like, why is this so hard for me to do? And I was like texting with a friend, you know, and I was like talking about how lazy I was. And then there was just like this like spark in my head that went, it's not really laziness, probably like ADHD. And then that just like boom, brain movement and being like, Oh, I could probably do something about that. Because I knew I had ADHD, I was just inconsistently taking medication for it as my only form of management, inconsistently taking meds as ADHD management is not a recommended strategy.
Brendan Mahan: Nope,
William Curb: Even just taking medication isn't really a great strategy because you're like, now I'm just really good at answering questions on Reddit. I'm not directing myself in any direction. So it was like learning all these other things. And so from like there, I went to the ADHD subreddit. And then I found Jessica McCabe was watching a bunch of her stuff started doing some ADHD coaching. And it was like, Oh, there is stuff I can do about my ADHD. And I had kind of just drifted away from my other podcast. It was like, I do kind of want to get back into things. Podcasting was something I had originally gotten into because I got into listening to podcasts very early on. Like I used to download them onto my iPod shuffle and go to the gym and listen to them.
Brendan Mahan: That is early on.
William Curb: Let me tell you, listening to podcasts on a shuffle thing, not great. I was like, I love this medium. I think it's great medium for people with ADHD because we want to have this extra stimulation of listening to something while we're doing something else that is not as stimulating. I would often try like, I'll put on a movie and clean my house. And that like always ended up with me sitting on the couch watching a movie instead of cleaning.
But I could much more easily put something in my ears, do the work I needed to do. And so it was a medium that I had been like, this is a great medium for me. I want to work in this medium. And so then after having left my previous podcast and then being like, I'm learning all this stuff, I want to continue learning this, I can combine these two things. And so that was kind of the genesis of starting the Hacking Your ADHD podcast.
Brendan Mahan: Why did this one last when the other one didn't? Because they're not totally different things, right? Like it's still a podcast. What makes this one stick?
William Curb: One, I wasn't learning how to do it. That was a great learning experience to learn how to make podcasts. I did not have to relearn all that stuff. Like there was a few like, oh, how do I do this again? kind of stuff. But it was like, oh, I know the basics of how to do this.
And I can just jump in. I was like, I didn't have to go and research what 'starting a podcast' entailed what I needed to get. And then there was also just the massive disadvantage of basically unmanaged ADHD trying to run this podcast. And I was thinking like, would that have lasted had I had better ADHD management techniques?
Sure, ultimate frisbee is very interesting and lots of fun. And I knew lots of people within the community. But it is still like ADHD is a like niche community within podcasting. There's like two other ultimate frisbee podcasts. And at the time, I think I was like the first ultimate frisbee podcast out there, or one of a bunch that got 10 downloads. I mean, part of the appeal with this one was like, oh, I get that dopamine hit of seeing numbers go up because it was fairly successful in the beginning, where I just get to see, oh, this is working better than what I did before. And I'm getting this positive feedback that people enjoy what I'm doing. Whereas I mostly got positive feedback from my mom about my previous podcast.
Brendan Mahan: That's awesome. I think it's important that you mentioned the reason that this podcast stuck. And the other one didn't is that you were learning how to do it with the first podcast. And then with this one, you didn't have to learn how to do it because you already knew that's an important ADHD hack.
And since we're hacking our ADHD on this show, I just want to call attention to it that oftentimes, folks with ADHD, we need to reduce the barrier to entry. If you're trying to learn a new skill or do something new, it's often useful to kind of have like a crappy rough draft of it, which is the ultimate frisbee podcast was a crappy rough draft of this podcast. Because during that crappy rough draft stage, you're learning the skills you need to do the better thing.
William Curb: I also like thinking of things through the like the lens of like my favorite failures, being like, yeah, I failed at making this podcast, it got 11 episodes, that is not a great start to the podcasting career, but it paved the way for everything else without it. This show wouldn't have happened because I would have been in the failure itself was what led me to learning more about ADHD, and then also gave me all the tools I needed to do the things I wanted to do without like, it made it so much easier to be like, instead of thinking about starting a podcast and what I wanted about it was just what do I want to do when about I can think about that and go, yeah, I'm not worried about this other part, it totally lowered that barrier entry so that it was just, oh, yeah, that's just an easy step. I know what to do there.
Brendan Mahan: What are you most proud of when it comes to this show?
William Curb: I mean, certainly sticking with it is one of the big things of pride because with ADHD, that is such a hard thing to do, especially with not having a boss over my shoulder telling me, hey, you do this and then things happen because it is very easy to just, not. One of the things that has kept me from like really jumping in more with the podcast and doing more and more stuff is the part of me that's like, if you do more, then it'll be harder to walk away when things go wonky. And I'm like, I don't really need to worry about that. But that is part of this internal psyche of like, I need to have an escape route. And if I-
Brendan Mahan: After four years.
William Curb: Five years this week, dang. Sometimes you think back to your reasoning, you're like, that doesn't make any sense. Because even if I was more invested, it's like, yeah, I can still just walk away. It doesn't matter. I can just do the things I want to do. I think that's part of what I'm proud of too, is like being kind of getting past that area of being like, yeah, I can just do the things I want to. I'm not reporting to anyone. This is my stuff. I can do what I want to do and really embracing that philosophy.
Brendan Mahan: I agree with you. One of the benefits of working for yourself is that you work for yourself. It's also one of the drawbacks of working for yourself. But being able to sort of scare your own ship and be your own master and make your own decisions, that's great. And if you want to do more with the show, great. And if you don't, if this is the comfortable level, also great. I was just pushing back on that escape hatch idea a little bit. You're committed long enough now to like, maybe you don't have to worry about the escape hatch, which doesn't mean you necessarily do more. It just means you can put that particular idea down if you want to.
William Curb: Yeah, I think it's just one of those things where it's just like, if I commit too hard, then I'm, I don't know, is a weird like mental thing that has been there for a lot of things. I'm like, I don't want to commit too hard to anything. Maybe at some 90s, too cool for school kind of stuff.
Brendan Mahan: I get that. On my end, this isn't me putting this on you. This is just me relating. On my end, some of that is past failures. I worked as a teacher for a while and that career didn't work out. And I like the, I meet with my clients and if they keep meeting with me great, and if they don't, that's okay too. I consult with people and that's a temporary relationship. I do workshops and that's maybe a year, although now I've got a school that I've been to for like three or four years. But I like the fact that it's not a full commitment to I'm going to do this every day for you for years because my employment history says, I just screw that up at some point.
And that makes me anxious and makes me want an escape hatch. But I also have clients that have been with me for over five years, just like you've been with this podcast for five years. That means I'm committed to this job, right? Like I do coaching, I do the consulting, I do the workshops, I do the podcast. My show has been going, I think I'm on eight years, but I'm only at like 287 episodes because I took that hiatus. But yeah, at least for me, some of that is ADHD trauma for lack of a better term. I don't know if that echoes for you or not, but I'll own it for me.
William Curb: Absolutely. There is so much of the, if I commit too hard and I fail, then why did I do that? It's also one of the things where you say it out loud, like that's ridiculous. Like if you commit and you fail, I would just talk about my favorite failures like a minute ago. It is funny how you have this dichotomy of thoughts in your head and you're like, they don't mesh together.
Brendan Mahan: And hopefully that's part of the value of this episode is you get a little bit of that reflection that you might not otherwise get.
William Curb: Yeah. I mean, I think this is also one of the proud moments of the show is being able to talk about these hard issues and be like, hey, yeah, I have these weird emotions that I don't understand. And I'm sure there's a bunch of people listening being like, yes, that's me too. That's one of the values of doing this kind of stuff is that often we feel so alone and our thoughts and feelings. And then when we hear someone was like, yeah, they have that and they still exist. That's validating.
Brendan Mahan: And also like, you're not alone in any of this. You're part of a wider ADHD community. You're also part of a wider, although not as wide as the previous one, a wider ADHD influencer community, right? Those of the talking heads of ADHD. We've known each other a long time now. We have conversations sort of periodically on and off as the years go by. I sometimes think you don't realize how powerful your voice is and how much of a valued member of that influencer ecosystem you are.
And it takes everything in me when we talk to not just be like, Will, you're dope as hell. Like go be dope. Like let's get you a cape and go fly off into the sunset and show everyone how great you are. That's part of why like I'm having you on the influencer talks at the conference, right? My influencer Q&A thing. I had you on the panel last year. You're doing the lunchtime Q&A this year. You have a bigger platform than I do. And I just want you to own it more.
William Curb: Yeah. Talk to my therapist about this. She's like, is this part of like a little bit of the autism not wanting to be perceived thing? And I'm like, that seems reasonable. Because it is interesting too to be like, oh, yeah, I have these other parts of me that I also have to like acknowledge this. Like, oh, yeah. But yeah, do I not realize that most of the time? Yes. It's not how my brain works. I don't think about it in terms of like, oh, yeah, people should know me.
Brendan Mahan: I am incredibly proud of you. I'm proud of the work you've done. I'm proud of the show you put together. You're an impressive person. And this might be my big main character energy talking that I work so hard to resist. It stupefies me that you are who you are and you walk around so unassuming and so like, oh, I don't know if I should do the thing or be there or whatever. When you belong, like you belong at the conference, you belong in all the cool kid rooms.
Like you have this incredible show with this phenomenal content that has changed people's lives.
And I think I just wish I could take a little piece of my ego and inject it into you and have you be like, oh, I get the unassuming not wanting to be noticed thing. I'm not criticizing it. I think this is more my main character energy talking than anything else, probably. But in case that talks you up a little bit, I want to make sure that I do.
William Curb: First off, thank you. And it's also just making me think of a series I was reading where there's this main character that's very like, acts a lot like I do is very subdued and then like occasionally, the author will do something from someone else's perspective. And they're like, this looming shadow walks into the room and everyone cowers away from them kind of thing. And this guy's like, apologies, sorry for disturbing your tea time kind of stuff. And you're like, oh, this guy has no sense of who he is. And it's very nice by the end of the series, he kind of like figures it out. I just need to get a little further in my series, I guess.
Brendan Mahan: Yeah. The reason I'm banging this drum. is so that on the hard days, you can lead on that, if nothing else. Like we all have hard days. Like you mentioned, sort of favorite failures and stuff, right? Like I, at a minimum, I want you to be able to take the hard days and absorb them better because you're like, oh, but what I do matters. And like, even though I don't want to do this thing, it's important because there are people out there who are getting a benefit from it. And I am literally changing the world for the better.
William Curb: I mean, one of the things that's very gratifying for me to realize is how important my back catalog is to people because while like the initial episodes get like a good download and people come like most of my weekly downloads, like I get 10 times the downloads from my back catalog for a week than I do for the new releases.
Brendan Mahan: That's awesome.
William Curb: You know, they're listening to more than just what's the new thing that also is making me going, I should go back and update those at some point to make sure they're the best stuff.
Brendan Mahan: Now you got me thinking about my show versus your show, right? Your back catalog is really well titled. It's like straightforward. It's like, this is an episode about caffeine and ADHD. The end, the titles in my back catalog kind of suck. They're very like this and to this and to this.
William Curb: Well, yeah, sometimes like there have been times when I've been very on top of titling. And then, you know, like recently, I was like, oh, I'm gonna have this episode on like pacing yourself. What should I call it? Pacing. That was a mistake, which also reflects in its download numbers.
Brendan Mahan: Yeah, yeah,
William Curb: Which is also one of those like marketing things that like I'm resistant to. But also I'm like, the reason it's not people aren't responding to it is because they don't know what they're getting. That's a disservice. It's not just marketing to get more downloads kind of thing. That's a disservice to the audience to not make people know what they can kind of expect. I mean, that's like why do that like introduction piece to the episode. Like here's what's going to be in this episode and then give them what they talked about.
Brendan Mahan: You change your format kind of midway through. At first, it was you picking a topic, researching that topic, sharing information about that topic, and eventually you moved over to interviews as well. What caused that change?
William Curb: Well, so the initial choice to start the podcast, when I had done the previous Frisbee podcast, the thing I hated the most was scheduling the interviews. It was hard. These were people that I knew. It was a pain. So when I was coming into this show, it's like, I don't want to do interviews. It's a pain to set up. Now that I'm thinking back to him, like, yeah, of course, it was a pain to set up interviews with people I know. That's like the hardest people to like pin down because we have different expectations for our close connections versus our like acquaintance connections kind of things.
If I'm setting up an interview with someone now, they're a lot more concerned about missing that interview because they're like, oh, I don't want to seem unprofessional with this podcast. Whereas if like, I'm texting with a friend, they're like, oh, yeah, I can't do that today because I was out drinking and I'm like, yeah, that makes sense. You don't care about looking unprofessional to me because I know that you're unprofessional.
That's also very much in the line of the Frisbee row. But yeah, so I started getting like requests for interviews and I was like, I did a couple and I was like, I enjoy this injection of new ideas and stuff. Like last week, I did this interview with a guy that does neuro imaging in Colorado for like the neuro training for ADHD stuff. I was just blown away with like, with the conversation. I was like, this is, I want to talk to you again, like immediately. And I love having that injection of like new ideas that I wouldn't have ever thought about or are breaking down some of my preconceived notions about what I thought I knew.
Because yeah, especially with like the, I don't know where I built up my ideas that the neuro feedback stuff was like, hocus pocus. That was kind of what was in my head. And then I was talking to the kind, it's like, yeah, this is, you know, very quantifiable. It's something that one of the pediatric groups like labels as like as effective as medication kind of stuff. And I'm like, this is interesting. And I want to learn more about this.
Brendan Mahan: The science on that has been sketching it best for a while. But I'll admit that my exploration of that is like pre COVID.
William Curb: There are people that are absolutely trying to be grifters out in this market. And they're acting like this is a magic box that you push a button and then you fix your ADHD. And that's not what happens. And he's like, you need to work with the clinician, you need to be doing like these kinds of things. I'm like, Oh, that's really interesting. And I want to learn more. And then be like, should I do that? Because he's like, yeah, it's not going to fix your ADHD, but like the same way like medications, not going to fix your ADHD either.
Brendan Mahan: Yeah, there's a lot of stuff sort of doing ADHD nerd stuff for a second. There's a lot of things with ADHD and mental health and neurodiversity in general that are like, we hear about it. It's not backed up by science yet. Charlatans immediately come in like sharks, Shark-latans, I guess, and muddy the water and make it seem terrible and make it seem like it's a false snake oil thing. And then it turns out there was something in there that was being grabbed onto in the first place.
And it comes out the other side with evidence that's being backed up. It sounds like neurofeedback is doing that, which is great. As evidence of my esteem for you and your role in the industry, I've blown off neurofeedback forever and I'll give it another look because like I trust you.
William Curb: So yeah, well, I mean, like it's one of those things was like what I found was like, this is actually something that's super quantifiable because they can like, if you do this thing, does this improve symptoms? I mean, that should be like some of the easiest research to do. And they're like, yeah, this does do that. The bigger question that I haven't been able to address as well yet is that works really well in a clinical setting. How does this work outside of the clinic?
Brendan Mahan: That's a great question. And speaking of questions, we're sort of playing with growth from the show, right? Like you're looking at neurofeedback in a new way. What's some of the stuff you've learned from doing this show? And I recognize that's a broad question. I mean, literally you learned something from a specific episode or a specific guest or you studied something or whatever. Go in any direction that's useful.
William Curb: This is a great question that when I talked to someone about this, I'm always going to get like, hey, what was your best hack you learned? And I'm like, well, that I have ADHD is literally like this, that I have ADHD, and I should approach problems with that in mind. From all the shows doing it over and over again, being like, oh, I have ADHD. I have to do things with that in mind, because if I'm not, I'm just doing this in a way that's probably designed to fail.
This is why when before I got into learning about ADHD, I was very much in the productivity sphere learning about ways to be more productive and being like, this isn't working. Why isn't this working? I'm broken. And then having done the show being like every time I'm like, oh, here's an idea. Okay, but how would that work with ADHD? And being like, oh, snap. That means I need to do these things instead. I need to do this in a different order. I need to do this with having timers and extra stimulation and stuff.
One of the funny things I hear about ADHD is people like, it's a disease of knowing what to do, but not knowing how to do it. I'm like, no, that's wrong. It's not that we don't know how to do it. That's our problem. We think we know how to do it, and we keep doing it wrong.
And then we're going, why can't I do it? It's kind of like being like, we're in a basketball game, and we're like, okay, we win the game by scoring more points. And that's the extent of our strategy. It's like, oh, but how do I do that? Putting these strategies that will get me to actually make the points, then I can actually win the game. But if I just go, all I need to know is that I need to put more baskets in, I'm never going to win.
Brendan Mahan: Yeah, that makes sense. And that boils down to a common ADHD accommodation, right? Where, yeah, break things down into small manageable chunks. That's how you win a basketball game. You go, I got to know how to dribble. I have to know how to shoot. I have to know how to do a layup. I have to understand all the rules. I have to know which of my players can do what, like those are all my pieces. And then I put those pieces together, these small manageable chunks. And now I can win the game or at least have a chance to. Yeah.
William Curb: Yeah, I mean, I think the problem is not that you never win. It's that occasionally you're making the shots when you're not doing the strategies. And you're like, I don't know what I did, but I'm going to try that again. And oftentimes, it's hard to actually tease out what you actually were doing that made you successful that time. And so it becomes this consistently inconsistent mindset where I was like, I can never do things the same way twice. And it's like, well, you almost never have the same strategies you're using. You know, like, I have to take into account like how I'm feeling each day. And that's going to make a big difference in how I'm able to approach what I'm trying to do that day.
Brendan Mahan: And then there's the fact that most people in the world are playing soccer and they're like, you know, you can't touch the ball with your hands. Like, what are you doing? And you're because I'm not playing your sport. I'm playing basketball. I'm not playing soccer. Yeah, that's in there too, right? Like the stuff that works for neurotypicals, that doesn't work the same way for us. We have to do other things.
William Curb: Absolutely. It is really funny to like just be like, oh, if I keep ADHD in mind with my problem solving, 90% of my like difficulties become that much easier. Like they don't go away. But it becomes easier to understand what I actually need to do.
Brendan Mahan: What's your favorite episode that you've done?
William Curb: I remember before getting into podcasting, having heard other podcasters talk about like their favorite interview being their last interview they did. And I'm like, how can you do that? How can you really care about that? And I'm like, that often applies. Like I'm doing this series on ADHD research right now. And I really love doing it because I'm learning things. But there's been a few that kind of stick out. Like there's one like an emotional regulation that was pretty good because it's a weird topic since it's not actually something that's like typically covered.
And I'm also thinking there was a episode on the fawn response from like fight, flight, freeze, they hit fun. And something that we see a lot with ADHD and something that I deal with a lot that episode was born out of like, learning about the font response and being like, oh, I should talk about this because I had didn't hear much about it. And I want to learn more about it. So I'm gonna do an episode on this.
Brendan Mahan: You've mentioned you have a significant back catalog. We're both podcasters. We think about the audience as we create our shows. Which episodes have you made, like maybe while you're making them or in retrospect, sort of looking backwards? Which episodes do you think are the most important?
William Curb: Well, the emotional response one is probably up there. I want to do more stuff in that general field because I feel like I remember when making it being like, this isn't enough.
Brendan Mahan: We can talk about that. I'll come on.
William Curb: Awesome. Do go listen to all of Brendon's stuff because if you're a listener to the show, I reference him quite often because he has so many good ideas that are worth listening to.
Brendan Mahan: Thank you.
William Curb: I think there are some under explored issues with ADHD. One of the ones that I'm really interested to dive into more, but I've done some stuff on is the default mode network of the brain where that's basically what's responsible for day dreaming. And with ADHD, there's evidence that we just don't turn that off. And I'm like, that is very powerful to explain ADHD symptoms.
We aren't stopping daydreaming. Our brain, I'm like, wait, people can focus because their brain just goes, boop. There's also this concept that I love that is hot states and cold states where if you are angry, you're basically a different person than when you are calm. And thinking about that in terms also of your ADHD and being like, when I am in my planning mode, I am a different person than when I am in my doing mode.
And if I can take account of that, I can be like, oh, or especially if I'm in my motivated mode, I'm a very different person than when I am not feeling motivated to do something, not necessarily fixing that problem, but then having empathy for that being that person, having self empathy and being like, oh, okay, I am. There was a reason I made those decisions, and it's not the reason is not I'm a bad person.
Brendan Mahan: What you're talking about right now connects back into the emotional regulation component. You're playing with anxiety and emotional processing and cognitive processing and anxiety. You're also playing with the window of tolerance. There's a law in there that like can all kind of come together. You're deep in the stuff that I'm doing with the book right now. So that's why I'm like, woohoo.
William Curb: I'm excited for when that actually comes out and I get to read it and have you on the show to talk about it.
Brendan Mahan: So I also want to point out to the listeners as well as you, because I don't think you know you did it. I asked you about important episodes and you did like one and then immediately started thinking about what you want to do in the future that we thought would be important, which is valid. But I'm curious about the back catalog. Like what are their episodes that stand out to you and maybe I should reframe this a little bit. Are there episodes that stand out to you that you're like, these are important episodes for people to listen to because there's that much value in them?
William Curb: Yeah. There was an episode I did earlier this year with a woman that was talking about her family trauma and her like heritage and how that affects her ADHD. Like enough so that like she's like, I, we're going to go on with the pseudonym so that we can talk about this stuff because my parents are still alive and this a lot of this centered around them. And you know, guys, she's like, still has a relationship with them, even though there's, you know, stuff to work through.
And personally, like this is a huge episode for me because like trauma plays such a big role in a lot of people with ADHD, there's a lot of value that you can get from that episode. Anything that's about self actualizing, I think is a huge thing that people need to spend more time with, even though it's not quite as comfortable as learning, you know, a little trick on how to do your ADHD. But when you're like, Oh, it's this is making everything else harder. And if I can knock this domino over, it makes things a lot easier.
Brendan Mahan: We also flirted with this, I want to make sure that we bring this plane in for a landing in a way that is effective. What's next? Where are you heading?
William Curb: So I'm working with a friend now to think about this morning. It's just like, it's so nice to not have everything on just me to do stuff, because the executive function to get things done does not always happen. And does not happen in consistent ways that it can be very overwhelming to try and do more than just the show. So I am definitely looking to do more community building, we're going to be like trying to set up a discord pretty soon, switching some platform stuff around. That's not stuff I'm great at. This is a guy I went to high school and college with. So I know what his skill set is.
It was like a communications major. I'm like, this is perfect for you to like help me build this. And it's going to be nice to be able to build out without having to be the focus of the back end of building things. And then I want to write my own book at some point. I've been playing with some different ideas that I feel the thing I want to make sure that I do when I eventually do hit the book is like, so you're writing your book about a very specific idea that is very widely like there is no other book about the wall of awful and how it applies. And I want to make sure that when I do something that it is creating value, I'm not just writing for the sake of writing.
While there is value in restating ideas and mixing with them playing with them. I'm like, that's not what I want to produce. I want to produce something that people will see and be like, this is a definitive thing about this thing. This is an idea worth listening to. And I want to read more about it rather than being like, Oh, this is another ADHD productivity book.
Brendan Mahan: Right. That makes sense. I don't want to write an ADHD productivity book either, which is why I'm sort of off to the side of that. What about the podcast? Anything in the future that you're looking at or stay the course?
William Curb: Mostly stay the course. I've been playing with some ideas on, I mean, one of the great things having someone I'm working with, he's been able to reach out to some people that most of the guests have come on the show have been people that have reached out to me like there's been a few. But with having someone that can reach out for me and do that kind of work, I am hoping to have more scientists and high profile guests that I can invite on. Because I think that'd be as much as I love talking to coaches. I'm like, I don't want that to be the only guests I have on.
Brendan Mahan: And as a guide who's gotten some pretty high profile guests on his show, once you start getting them, it becomes easier to get them because then you can say, I've had AJ Jacobs on my show, I've had this person and that person, right? Once you start getting those bigger name guests, you mention it in the email and people go, Oh, all right. Well, then I guess you're vetted.
William Curb: Yeah. It's like, well, I look at your podcast and I'm like, Oh, dad, pylky, dang.
Brendan Mahan: That was a while back.
William Curb: I have so many of his books in my house.
Brendan Mahan: And just being mindful of time, do you have any ending hacks that you'd like to share with our audience?
William Curb: One of the things that I've come up with that I really think people need to embrace is that when you feel like you're struggling and you don't understand why no one else is struggling, you need to dive deeper, get below the surface there, be like, this is not me being a bad person. I'm struggling for a reason. What is that reason? Is there something I can do there? And if I can't do anything, how do I step back so I can address it?
This Episode's Top Tips
Allow past failures to become stepping stones to success. Learning from “crappy rough drafts” makes getting started on what you’re currently doing so much easier.
It’s incredibly important to allow for empathy for yourself when trying to work with your ADHD. Viewing your problem-solving through the lens of “I have ADHD, and I need to account for my ADHD” can make finding that next step so much easier.
Go check out Brendan’s podcast, ADHD Essentials. While his podcast focuses more on parenting and ADHD, I haven’t listened to an episode without getting something out of it, truly excellent stuff.