Maggie Patterson returns to the ADHD-ish Podcast to share insights from her new book, Staying Solo: Your Guide to Building a Simple, Sustainable Service Business. In this episode, she and host Michelle Mazur explore why staying small can still lead to big success, especially for neurodivergent creatives who want a business that works with their energy, focus, and unique strengths. Whether you’re just starting out or refining your solo business model, this conversation offers a roadmap to thriving without burning out.

Living with ADHD as a solopreneur often comes with what’s called the “ADHD Tax”—those hidden costs in time, money, and energy caused by missed deadlines, late fees, or overlooked opportunities. For years, I thought these mistakes reflected personal failings, but what I’ve learned is that they’re tied to how the ADHD brain approaches task initiation. Instead of fighting against it, I discovered how to design systems that work with my wiring, allowing me to show up with more clarity, creativity, and confidence.

Through intentional rituals, cues, and calendar blocking, task initiation stopped being a roadblock and became a launchpad for meaningful progress. Scheduling well-being blocks and recovery runways not only preserved my energy but also created natural transition points that made starting tasks far less overwhelming. By reframing ADHD task initiation as a neurological challenge instead of a flaw, I built strategies that support my strengths while honoring the ebb and flow of focus.

This shift hasn’t just saved me from paying the ADHD Tax—it’s given me a framework for sustainable entrepreneurship and self-compassion. And I’ve learned that connection is just as important as systems; being part of a community of ADHD entrepreneurs offers solidarity, encouragement, and collective wisdom. With the right tools and mindset, task initiation doesn’t have to drain your energy or your wallet—it can become the foundation for a thriving business built on your unique strengths.

Saying “yes” too quickly isn’t just a people-pleasing habit—it’s often rooted in the ADHD brain’s wiring. In this solo episode of the ADHD-ish Podcast, Diann Wingert unpacks the deeper causes of the “default yes,” from the deer-in-the-headlights effect to the reciprocity myth, and offers step-by-step strategies to break free. Learn boundary-setting as a skill you can build over time, discover physical reset techniques for high-pressure moments, and use guilt-free scripts to confidently say no. If you’ve ever regretted agreeing to something, this episode is your guide to making choices that truly align with your priorities.

Entrepreneurship often glorifies hustle, profit, and relentless growth—but Mina Raver’s story shines a light on a different path. As a trailblazing female entrepreneur and innovator, she has transformed personal adversity into a mission to redefine productivity, authenticity, and mental health in the startup world. Her journey demonstrates that success is not only about scaling quickly or satisfying investors, but also about creating sustainable systems that honor our well-being—especially for neurodivergent minds navigating executive functioning challenges.

Through her work, including the creation of adaptive tools like the Better CEO app, Mina is pushing for inclusivity in industries that often overlook the unique needs of neurodivergent individuals. Her perspective challenges the status quo, offering an alternative vision where resilience, authenticity, and balance drive innovation. Mina’s philosophy reminds us that the health of a founder is just as vital as the success of their business—and perhaps the most important foundation for long-term impact.

Small business ownership is challenging enough—but for entrepreneurs with ADHD, the traditional 9-to-5 structure often feels stifling. I recently spoke with Evan Sargent, a remarkable entrepreneur who has built a business model around her ADHD strengths rather than in spite of them. Through hyperfocused sprint days, Evan has turned what many consider ADHD challenges into powerful advantages, creating both efficiency and creativity in her work.

Evan’s journey from a fast-paced agency environment to founding Leap_Year Branding illustrates how embracing your neurodivergence can transform your business. By structuring work in short, high-energy bursts, she maximizes her hyperfocus, allowing complex projects to be completed more quickly and with greater innovation. This approach also eliminates the inefficiencies and burnout often associated with traditional work schedules, particularly for ADHD brains.

Beyond productivity, sprint days support balance. Evan combines her work with family responsibilities and personal growth, demonstrating that ADHD-friendly structures can harmonize professional and personal life. She leverages processes, support systems, and coaching to ensure her strengths are optimized and her challenges managed.

For ADHD entrepreneurs seeking a roadmap, Evan’s methods offer a blueprint: honor your unique brain, design workflows that leverage your strengths, and embrace flexible yet structured systems. Sprint days are not just a productivity hack—they are a transformative tool for building sustainable, creative, and thriving businesses.

Leadership can feel overwhelming for women entrepreneurs with ADHD, but stories like Kirsten Beukes’ prove that balance and impact are possible when we lean into our strengths. As the owner of a thriving group occupational therapy practice in South Africa, Kirsten has learned to navigate the challenges of being both practitioner and business leader, while also honoring the realities of ADHD. Her journey highlights the tension many ADHD leaders face—managing the demands of daily operations while still making time for big-picture strategy.

Through trial and insight, Kirsten discovered the importance of setting boundaries, adjusting expectations for her team, and creating intentional “owner days” for strategic focus. Her story is a powerful reminder that ADHD leadership is not about fitting into traditional molds, but about channeling creativity, empathy, and resilience into building organizations that reflect both personal values and team well-being. For women in business, especially those navigating ADHD, this narrative offers strategies, encouragement, and proof that our unique wiring can be an asset when we embrace it fully.

If you're a solopreneur with ADHD, you know the hidden costs all too well. The ADHD tax shows up as late fees, missed deadlines, impulse spending, and missed opportunities—but it doesn’t stop there. It silently drains your energy, strains relationships, and impacts your health. Early in my entrepreneurial journey, I felt like no matter how hard I tried, I was constantly paying extra for tasks that should have been simple. Task initiation, in particular, became a recurring pain point.

The turning point came when I realized these challenges weren’t character flaws—they were neurological realities. By building ADHD-friendly systems and rituals, I started reducing these hidden costs. Tools like Goblin.tools Magic To Do, ChatGPT, Claude, and Time Timer became extensions of my brain, helping me break down tasks, stay on track, and recover lost focus. I also learned to protect my well-being through hydration, scheduled breaks, and connection, inspired by experts like Ned Hallowell, MD.

Small, intentional strategies—rituals for task initiation, visual timers, and reminder apps like Voxer—made a significant difference. Even simple shifts, like using water bottles to prevent ADHD brain “jerky moments,” improved focus and consistency. Over time, these practices lowered the ADHD tax, freeing energy and resources for meaningful work.

Whether you’re protecting your health, nurturing relationships, or simply aiming to be a more effective entrepreneur, paying less ADHD tax is possible with intentional strategies and practical tools. With the right support and systems, your ADHD strengths—creativity, energy, and hyperfocus—become assets instead of hidden liabilities.

Entrepreneurship with ADHD often means navigating challenges while uncovering unique strengths that can transform the way we do business. In this episode, Iris Goldfeder shares how she leverages her ADHD traits as entrepreneurial superpowers. From hyperfocus and systems thinking to strategic listening and authenticity, Iris demonstrates how neurodivergent strengths can fuel creativity, innovation, and stronger client relationships.

One of her most powerful insights lies in the concept of client fit—choosing to work only with clients who align with her values and business vision. By embracing authenticity, even if it means walking away from misaligned opportunities, she’s built a practice rooted in integrity and sustainability. Iris’s approach reminds us that success isn’t just about hard skills or scaling faster—it’s about cultivating courage, empathy, and emotional intelligence to create partnerships that thrive. For neurodivergent entrepreneurs, these qualities aren’t just helpful; they’re essential tools for building meaningful, lasting businesses.

Entrepreneurs with ADHD and executive functioning challenges often find that traditional productivity tools fall short. That’s why Mina Raver, a self-taught coder and Techstars 2024 participant, created the Better CEO app—the first individually adaptive productivity software designed with neurodivergent entrepreneurs in mind. Inspired by her own lived experiences with ADHD, Autism, and Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Mina is on a mission to redefine what productivity looks like for those of us who don’t fit the mold.

In this episode, Mina shares how she turned her unconventional path into fuel for innovation, choosing passion over profit and building technology that adapts to the way our brains work—not the other way around. Better CEO is more than an app; it’s a movement toward solutions that empower neurodivergent entrepreneurs to plan, prioritize, and thrive. If you’ve ever felt like productivity tools weren’t built for you, this conversation is the game-changer you’ve been waiting for.

For ADHD solopreneurs and small business owners, the inbox can quickly become a trap—a place where urgency and novelty hijack focus and derail productivity. Emails feel important, but in reality, they’re often just other people’s priorities. With ADHD, the brain craves stimulation, making constant email checking a hard-to-break cycle that drains energy and executive functioning.

In this post, I share simple, ADHD-friendly inbox organization strategies that shift your relationship with email from reactive to intentional. From scheduling specific check-in times, to using folders, templates, and autoresponders, these strategies help you set boundaries, protect deep work time, and reduce task-switching fatigue. The goal isn’t just inbox zero—it’s reclaiming your time, focus, and confidence as a business owner. Because when you stop letting emails run your day, you finally create the space to focus on what matters most.

Leading a team as a neurodivergent business owner can feel overwhelming, especially in female-dominated industries where the pressure to do it all is high. In this Client Success Story, Kirsten Beukes, owner of an OT group practice in South Africa, shares how learning to embrace her ADHD has completely reshaped the way she leads. Instead of pushing herself harder, she discovered the power of stepping back—creating Owner Days for strategic thinking, setting boundaries that prevent burnout, and learning to separate her identity from her business.

Her story is a powerful reminder that ADHD leaders don’t need to fight their wiring—they can thrive by aligning their leadership style with their strengths. From cultivating self-acceptance to empowering her team, Kirsten’s journey shows how working with your neurodivergence opens the door to growth, balance, and joy.

Leading a revolution with your business isn’t about grand gestures—it’s about aligning your work with purpose, passion, and impact. Whether you’re carving out a niche, challenging outdated narratives, or redefining industry norms, small but intentional steps can create lasting change. By embracing your genius zone, narrowing your focus, and building authentic connections, your business becomes more than just a service—it becomes a movement. Ready to claim your space and lead with clarity? Listen to my latest ADHD-ish Podcast episode with Rochelle Moulton and start your revolution today!

Many entrepreneurs with ADHD focus too much on their challenges, forgetting that their unique traits can actually be their greatest assets. In this episode, we spotlight Iris Goldfeder—marketing strategist, agency owner, musician, and unapologetically authentic entrepreneur—who shows how leaning into ADHD strengths like empathy, systems thinking, and radical authenticity can fuel long-term business success.

Iris shares how systems thinking helps her build strong teams and find the right client fit by seeing how everything connects. She highlights the power of empathy and emotional intelligence, using strategic listening to not only solve client problems but also sense alignment early on. Most importantly, Iris embraces authenticity over people-pleasing—proving that being yourself is the best filter for attracting aligned clients and repelling the wrong ones. From building sustainable partnerships to running a business rooted in integrity, her story is a roadmap for neurodivergent entrepreneurs ready to see their ADHD as an advantage instead of a limitation.

For self-employed entrepreneurs with ADHD, disappointment can hit harder than expected. Our brains amplify emotions, struggle with time perception, and get lost in hyperfocus, making setbacks feel overwhelming. But by implementing business systems, energy management strategies, and a "Minimum Viable Day" plan, we can prevent and recover from disappointment faster. The key isn’t avoiding failure—it’s learning how to bounce back and keep moving forward. Want practical strategies? Grab my free worksheet on disappointment prevention and ADHD-friendly business systems!

Email can feel like a never-ending slot machine for the ADHD brain—offering constant novelty, dopamine hits, and distraction at the expense of meaningful work. In this episode, we unpack why inbox management is one of the biggest challenges for entrepreneurs with ADHD and share actionable strategies to take back control. From setting dedicated email blocks to creating a simple 3-folder system and using templates for repetitive responses, these tools work with your brain rather than against it.

The truth is, compulsive email checking isn’t productivity—it’s avoidance dressed up as busyness. Every distraction eats away at your focus and drains executive function, leaving less energy for the projects and priorities that actually grow your business. By building healthy boundaries and streamlining how you handle your inbox, you can shift from reactive responding to intentional action. These strategies don’t just improve efficiency—they give you back ownership of your time, energy, and confidence as a business owner.

Traditional advice tells us to niche down and stay in our lane, but what if curiosity is actually our biggest business asset? Brittany’s entrepreneurial journey—from massage therapist to SEO strategist—proves that following curiosity can lead to unexpected opportunities. Instead of resisting change, she leaned into her evolving interests, allowing them to shape her business in ways she never anticipated. Her story is a reminder that success doesn’t have to be linear. By embracing curiosity, female entrepreneurs can build businesses that are both fulfilling and uniquely their own.

Is your solo business just a job, or a movement? Join us as we explore mission-driven entrepreneurship with brand strategist Rochelle Moulton. Discover how passion and purpose can fuel a revolution of positive change through your work.

For entrepreneurs with ADHD, decision-making can feel like swinging between two extremes—acting on impulse or overanalyzing to the point of exhaustion. I’ve experienced both, and over time, I developed a traffic light system to help balance these tendencies. Green light decisions? Trust your gut and act fast. Yellow light decisions? Set clear boundaries and a time limit. Red light decisions? Take your time but avoid getting stuck in analysis paralysis. By tracking decisions and seeing them as experiments rather than definitive successes or failures, we can build confidence, make smarter choices, and keep moving forward in business.

ADHD and entrepreneurship can be a tough combo—missed deadlines, overload, and constant disappointment. Learn why it happens and ADHD-friendly strategies to stay on track. Don't forget to grab the free guide!

If you're waiting for motivation to strike before taking action, you might be stuck in a self-sabotaging cycle. In my conversation with Risa Williams, psychotherapist and productivity expert, we explored how procrastination sneaks into our lives—whether through "halfway drift" or the illusion that we need to feel motivated before we begin. Risa's "task intensity meter" offers a fresh approach to managing energy and avoiding burnout, challenging the toxic hustle culture that keeps so many entrepreneurs overwhelmed. By breaking tasks into small, manageable steps and celebrating progress, we can cultivate sustainable success without sacrificing well-being.