Episode Transcript
Adam O'Leary (00:01.75)
If you're business owner and feel like everything is on fire and you can't get momentum on what actually matters, then our guest, Skye Watterson is here to give you a simple win that you can implement today. Skye is the founder of unconventional organization, was diagnosed with ADHD during her PhD after repeated burnouts. She now helps entrepreneurs and executives with ADHD build sustainable systems, scale their business, and enjoy the process through a
science-backed realistic approach designed for how ADHD brains actually work. Sky, a big welcome to the show. Excited to have you here.
Skye Waterson (00:41.772)
Thanks so much, it's great to be here.
Adam O'Leary (00:44.406)
Absolutely, and I know a lot of business owners feel like they're constantly putting out fires and getting bogged down in the day-to-day tasks. Can you tell us why that happens and what kind of impact it has on business growth?
Skye Waterson (00:58.892)
Yeah, so I mean, there's a number of reasons that it happens. A lot of it has to do with not knowing the next thing that's gonna grow your business. So especially when people are in a stage of growth, they're gonna be struggling with this idea of, what is the shiny object that I want to do? And what's the thing that's actually gonna grow my business? And a lot of times, you know, people tend to do things all at once.
and also can struggle with delegation so they can feel like they have to do everything themselves.
Adam O'Leary (01:31.884)
Absolutely. Okay, that makes a lot of sense and I've heard you talk about how entrepreneurs often lack momentum on the things they know will grow their business. What's a common example of this that you see and how can you help clients break that cycle?
Skye Waterson (01:46.506)
Yeah, so for example, I've had a client who recently started with us and he's been in the business that he's in for many years as a coach and was struggling to gain traction with his client acquisition and worked with us for a month and now has a full book, seven clients, well hoped for five now has, you know, more than that. so a lot of it really was just getting very clear on how
He was going to communicate what he did and then also how he was going to sort of acquire new members and bring new people in. So for a lot of people, it's not that they've got the energy, but they lack the map and they lack the ADHD friendly map and that can make it very hard to build momentum because you're constantly stopping and starting and going in a different direction.
Adam O'Leary (02:45.293)
Absolutely. And what do you mean by that ADHD friendly map that you just described there?
Skye Waterson (02:49.4)
Well, we call it focus balanced growth. And basically what what it is is looking at, okay, how do you get focused on what you need to do and what specifically is for you as well? Because sometimes, you know,
People have different goals, they have different dreams, have different directions that they wanna go in. Then how do we build out the business that you're in to be something that works for your brain? So we use systems like SOP pipelines so you can visually see it. We have delegation systems that mean you don't have to do the task again. Step into focus routines. Things that just take into account some of the biggest struggles you have with ADHD symptoms. So time blindness, working memory struggles.
dopamine regulation, transition times, things people don't even necessarily know about and make everything run a little bit smoother for you.
Adam O'Leary (03:42.872)
Fascinating and I like how you just talked about like the visualizing the SOPs So you're literally going ahead and like mapping out each step so somebody can just look at it be like, okay Wait a minute. This is how it's done. It's not It's not done via this Like or at this confusion, right kind of throwing your ideas out and being like we'll run about this way this way It's more just like here you go. This is how it's laid out. Correct?
Skye Waterson (03:47.223)
Mm-hmm.
Skye Waterson (03:54.519)
Mm-hmm.
Skye Waterson (04:00.653)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
100%, I mean, I've had clients, I had a client who had like a $20 million business. And when we did that map, there was a realization like, hey, the whole acquisition pipeline isn't connected to anything. Like that's really weird. You know, so that can happen. I mean, in my own life, I love building out these little maps, you know, of the business because they really help you to see number one, who's responsible for what's going on, which is a big deal.
Where is the SOP for the system that you're doing? Is it connected to anything? Do you have too many things that are going nowhere? When I built this out for myself, you know, it was a realization that like, this, this, and this, they're not actually leading to sales in any meaningful way.
And so we had to kind of like remove it and prune it. And a lot of times it can help you, especially with your ADHD symptoms, if you struggle with shiny object syndrome, you wanna keep adding features and stuff to what you're doing. It can help you keep it simple and work with your team to build it together.
Adam O'Leary (05:12.397)
amazing and one thing I know you've talked about in the past is about helping people go from chaos to clarity without feeling overwhelmed. our listeners today who are who are feeling that way exactly right now because I know I felt that quite a bit what's the very first step they should take to get their focus back?
Skye Waterson (05:31.5)
The very first step that you do and actually something that I give away. So if you guys want my AI chat bot that will walk you through this, you can just message me at unconventional organization on Instagram. you can just message me Adam and I will give it to you. and, and basically, what it looks like is the first thing we need to do is we need to understand what is truly urgent. What is truly important.
Because a lot of times people will come to me and they'll say, I have 200 tasks that I have to get done by tomorrow. 99 % of the people that I've worked with had never have more than five that are truly urgent. And for a lot of people, that sense of not knowing what you need to know.
just feeling you know burdened down by everything can be so overwhelming. So the system that I teach it's very simple is that you basically take a second you grab a notebook or something that you're going to use again, a dock and you write down everything that is in your head and believe me there's a lot in your head. Usually it takes a while and so you write down every single task every single task work home we don't discriminate life doesn't discriminate
And we go through and we say, okay, of these things that you've written down, not your emails, not your other tasks list, just what's in your head. What is it that has to be done today or there will be a significant negative external consequence? And to help people, cause this can be really hard to truly understand, I actually have a metaphor, the waiting room metaphor, which is basically if you find yourself in a waiting room and
Your day has gone sideways. You know that you're going to be in this waiting room all day for whatever reason. What is the thing you're still going to do on your phone or you're going to message someone and say, I'm not going to be able to do this tomorrow because it's not going to be prepared essentially. That is truly urgent. Everything else doesn't have to be done today. And what that often creates for us is a sense of clarity that then you go, okay, well, what am I supposed to do with the rest of my time?
Skye Waterson (07:41.336)
And that's where we do the things that are truly important that are actually going to move your business forward.
Adam O'Leary (07:46.317)
I love that. So for an entrepreneur, I guess if you're looking at these urgent tasks then, what would you, so let's say if there's like 500 tasks that need to be done and we identify, okay, these are the five tasks. How do you decide whether to work on those other 195 tasks later? Like, I guess how do you prioritize that? Because I guess in theory they still need to be done, but I guess how do you do that?
Skye Waterson (07:57.208)
Mm.
Skye Waterson (08:08.458)
Yeah. Yeah. Well, this this practice that I teach it has a little bit more layers. So when it when you we know work with people will go through and we'll talk about seven day urgency and a little bit more, you know, to it than that to give you a really full idea. But generally speaking, the thing that I often say to people is your job in life is not to tick off everything in your task list. Your job in life is to do the things that you have to do and then focus on getting the things that are going to
help you build momentum, build the flywheel in your business done as well. And for example, one of the things I often hear from people is, know, well, I have to update my website. Like, well, I mean, is that the pipeline through which people are coming to you? You'd be surprised how many people skip your website entirely and go directly to your booking page through Instagram or social media or podcast or something like that. You know, so does this have to be here or?
Sometimes people will say, well, I have to organize my backlog. You have no idea. It's getting crazy. Yes, or we could increase your sales. You could hire someone and they could organize your backlog. Chances are they'll get it done in half the time. So these are the questions. Sometimes what happens is people will have these things on their list and they think I have to do it. But really what you have to do, it's one of the reasons I love businesses, is you have to grow your business and then you have to often, you know, figure out how to get someone else to do it.
Adam O'Leary (09:34.572)
Absolutely. No, that's that's fascinating. That's really really a good advice right there and I'm curious about that Have you noticed that when people kind of bust out those like say five major tasks do sometimes the other tasks that They were supposed to do do they just kind of like fall off a lot of the times like where they actually realize they don't have to do it
Skye Waterson (09:55.236)
It depends. So the system that I teach, the prioritization filter, so the two minute focus formula is kind of the beginning of that. It's a system where you continue to filter. So once a week you'll go through, you'll look through all your tasks, you'll see, okay, does this now have to be moved up? Is this still urgent? So everything gets kept. Because obviously with ADHD, well, not obviously if you don't know this, but you struggle with working memory. You're welcome. So you, you know, will forget things.
if you don't write them down and so we need a home for things. We don't want them to be getting lost. But, yeah, sometimes what I'll see is it will either become no longer relevant, like some of those tasks will no longer become relevant. Sometimes those tasks will be able to be done by somebody else or just like removed in a big heap. Usually people who do the best are the ones who are gonna do the urgent tasks.
and the important tasks. And there's a certain laser focus and a certain commitment. Because sometimes if you're ADHD struggles, you can struggle a little bit with perfectionism. A lot of people don't know that. There can be a struggle with this idea of like, you've had a task list that you've never really finished and other people who don't have ADHD get to finish their task list. And so you're like, my goal in life is to finish my task list.
But it's actually not. And one of the reasons you have such a long task list is because you're more of a divergent thinker. If you have ADHD symptoms, you're more of a creative thinker. That's your strength. It also means your task list involves travel to Italy? You know what mean? Like you have a lot of stuff on there that other people wouldn't have on there. Like, I wonder if I should change my entire thing that I'm selling and I should reduce scope. know, that's the kind of thing that you'll have on the list. And so, you know,
For people who just have those urgent tasks on the list, they don't put anything else on the list. It's not as big of a list. And so that's one of the reasons why you will struggle to finish your task list when you have ADHD symptoms and you run a business.
Adam O'Leary (11:59.575)
That's fascinating. And one thing I've loved about what you've said before, and I was listening to you in a couple other areas, but you shared a powerful idea about the two minute focus formula. Can you walk us through exactly how a business owner can use that system right now, maybe even before they finish this episode?
Skye Waterson (12:18.88)
Yeah, so the two minute focus formula is the thing that I just referenced. So like I said, if you want the chat bot, can message me at unconventional organization. Just message me Adam. That way we know it's you guys and we'll give it to you for free. But in terms of how it works consistently, this becomes a daily practice. So for a lot of people who work with me, one of the first things they'll do is they will start to do this on a daily basis. They'll wake up, they'll brain dump.
and then they'll go, okay, what is truly urgent today? And then they'll say, okay, what is important? What do I need to get done? Usually the urgent stuff gets done. Once you identify what's truly urgent, your brain will be like, my gosh, we have to do that, you know, because it's not hidden in the morass of other things. And then the important stuff, that's where we say, okay, let's block out some really good time for it. Let's see if we have, you know, spans of time to do it.
today and then from there there's that idea of like make her time and you know one of the things that is part of another thing that I teach which is the step in a focus routine is this idea of like giving yourself a reward for starting. So give yourself a reward for starting this task and that way you'll be able to go through and you know say okay I I don't really want to do this right now.
But if you give me a coffee and you give me like a nice snack and I listen to some music and I sit down at my desk, maybe it's next to a view, I could probably, you know, open the application and we teach people how to do that as well.
Adam O'Leary (13:54.315)
amazing and I know one thing that many people would struggle with is it's easy to get started but it's hard to kind of continue that whether it be for a week or months or however long it might be so how do you make sure that people actually stick with this system and that they don't fall back into those old habits
Skye Waterson (14:15.98)
I will say that one's pretty difficult. That's pretty hard. We've been working on the program that I teach now, Focus Balance Growth, for several years, really honing it for this exact problem. Because people will come to us a lot and they'll say, look, I got a lot of information, but I never actually figured out how to utilize it. And so what we do is the first thing you do when you join our program is we put you in a 30 day challenge.
So it's very specific. actually make you sign an agreement to say, this is what I'm focusing on. This is why I'm focusing on it. All based on, you know, one-on-one conversation with me. And then from there, we have a lot of accountability, a lot of support, a lot of like, hey, you're totally allowed to say it's super boring and you don't want to do it anymore. And then we'll help you figure it out, which helps because I think that's very unique in what we do. Other, you know, organizations would just look at you and be like, well, you should just do it, you know, and that doesn't really work with you have ADHD symptoms.
And then from there we build out, you know, a seven, what we call seven week cycles. So how do we help you live your life in these seven week cycles of tasks so that it, and how to bring your team into it, you know, how to delegate to them, how to get them on board with this idea as well. Your team's probably a little bit more neurodiverse than the average because that tends to be how it goes according to the research as well. And that allows us to, to maintain the sort of like
marathon sprint level, if that makes sense, because it's very hard. You know, the traditional system, we work in quarters, we meet, you know, once a week and just have a check in and it's not focused. And these things make life very difficult for people with ADHD because they're designed for somebody who has your strengths, has the opposite of your strengths and weaknesses. So people who don't struggle with ADHD tend to be the kind of people who are really good at executive functioning.
are really good at like organizing and long-term planning and sticking to the plan, but aren't necessarily, sorry guys, according to the research, as good at creative thinking, outside of the box thinking, divergent thinking, like all of this kind of stuff. And so you're essentially working if you're using the traditional method of business development, you're working to a model that is diametrically opposed to how you should be working. And that can often be what's creating a lot of the problems.
Adam O'Leary (16:39.87)
I love that. Where should people go to learn more about you?
Skye Waterson (16:43.84)
Yeah, if you wanna learn more about me, you can find my organization at unconventionalorganization.com. You can find me on Instagram at unconventionalorganization. like I said, just to DM me Adam, if you want the focus formula. And if you wanna find out a little bit more about what we do, I do have a podcast called the ADHD Skills Lab, where we talk about ADHD research. We interview a lot of entrepreneurs. So you can find us there as well.
Adam O'Leary (17:09.621)
love that. Well, amazing. Thank you so much, Skye. It was an absolute pleasure to have you on. Absolutely signing off for now. Have a wonderful rest of your day and looking forward to seeing you on the next episode of Simple Wins.
Skye Waterson (17:14.294)
No worries, great to be here.
