Peter Shankman Discusses How He Innovates With ADHD As His Superpower 

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What a great episode! Peter innovates and moves faster than normal. We dig into how he does it and we can do it too.

The New York Times has called Peter Shankman “a rockstar who knows everything about social media and then some.” He is a 5x best-selling author, entrepreneur, and corporate keynote speaker, focusing on customer service and the new and emerging customer and neuroatypical economy. With three startup launches and exits under his belt, (most notably Help a Reporter Out) Peter is recognized worldwide for radically new ways of thinking about the customer experience, social media, PR, marketing, advertising, and ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) and the new Neurodiverse and Remote economies.

In addition to his passion for helping people and companies find success, some of Peter’s highlights also include:

• Founder of HARO – Help A Reporter Out, which became the standard for thousands of journalists looking for sources prior to being acquired three years after launch
• Futurist-in-Residence at Epic Marketing Consultants, focusing on the customer experience of tomorrow
• Faster than Normal – The Internet’s #1 podcast on ADHD, focusing on the superpowers and gifts of having a “faster than normal brain,” which has helped thousands of people all around the world realize that having a neurodiverse brain is actually a gift, not a curse.
• The ShankMinds Breakthrough Network, an elite, online mastermind of thought leaders, business experts, and change-makers

Peter is a worldwide influencer and/or spokesperson for several global brands including Sylvania, National Car Rental, Manscaped.com, Sealface, Thule, and many others.

Finally, Peter is a father, a 2x Ironman triathlete, a class B licensed skydiver, and has a pretty serious Peloton addiction. When he’s not traveling around the world speaking to companies big and small, he’s based in NYC with his seven-year-old daughter and 20-year-old cat, both of whom consistently refuse him access to the couch. 

Connect with Peter

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petershankman/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PeterShankman

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/petershankman/

Website: https://www.shankman.com/

Episode Transcript

Peter Shankman

[00:00:00] Peter Shankman: You know, at the end of the day, if you don’t like where you are, you can move. Cause you’re not a tree, but sometimes that takes time and that’s fine. But the only thing I have a problem with is, is if you’re spending the few hours of free time, you’re not making arrangements to change down the road, but rather bitching about your situation.

[00:00:18] Then I kinda have a problem with it because you have the opportunity to at least start the process.

[00:00:27] Izolda Trakhtenberg: Hello and welcome to the innovative mindset podcast. Izolda Trakhtenberg. On the show, I interview peak performing innovators in the creative social impact and earth conservation spaces or working to change the world. This episode is brought to you by brain FM, brain FM combines the best of music and neuroscience to help you relax, focus, meditate, and even sleep.

[00:00:48] I love it and have been using it to write, create and do. Deepest work because you’re a listener of the show. You can get a free trial head over to brain.fm/innovative mindset. To check it out. If you [00:01:00] decide to subscribe, you can get 20% off with the coupon code, innovative mindset, all one word. And now let’s get to the show.

[00:01:12] Hey there and welcome to the innovative mindset podcast. My name is Izolda Trakhtenberg. I’m your host and I’m super happy. You’re here. I’m also really happy and honored to have this week’s guest. The New York Times has called Peter Shankman a rockstar who knows everything about social media and then some he’s a five-time bestselling author, entrepreneur, and corporate keynote speaker.

[00:01:34] Focusing on customer service and the new and emerging customer and neuro-atypical economy with three startup launches and exits under his belt. Most notably help report her out. Peter is recognized worldwide for radically new ways of thinking about the customer experience, social media, PR marketing, advertising, and ADHD, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

[00:01:57] And the new neurodiverse and [00:02:00] remote economies, in addition to his passion for helping people and companies find success, some of Peter’s highlights also include founder of HARO helper reporter out, which became the standard for thousands of journalists, looking for sources prior to being acquired three years after launch futurist in residence.

[00:02:17] Epic marketing consultants, focusing on the customer experience of tomorrow, faster than normal. The Internet’s number one podcast on ADHD, focusing on the superpowers and gifts of having a faster than normal brain, which has helped thousands of people all around the world realize that having a neurodiverse brain is actually a gift, not a curse.

[00:02:39] The Shank Minds, breakthrough network, an elite online mastermind of thought leaders, business experts, and change-makers. Peter’s a worldwide influencer and a spokesperson for several global brands, including Sylvania national car rental, and many others. [00:03:00] Finally, Peter is a father, a two-time iron man triathlete, a class B licensed skydiver, and has a pretty serious Peloton addiction. When he’s not traveling around

[00:03:10] speaking to companies big and small, he’s based in New York City with a seven-year-old daughter and 20-year-old cat and dog. All of whom consistently refused him access to the couch theater. I’m super thrilled that you’re here. Welcome.

Peter Shankman: Hey, great to be here. Thanks.

Izolda Trakhtenberg: I am. I’m a big, huge fan. I have read faster than normal before, and I just got a copy for my husband because the audiobook is out and cause he’s not a big reader.

[00:03:37] He has ADHD and he’s plowing through it and loving it. And he now of course from the movie up, keeps going squirrel. So, at all sorts of times, I want to jump right on it. If that’s okay with you. You, it’s been said, have an incredible imagination and incredible intuition. And [00:04:00] I’m wondering, how does, how do those, those parts of you relate to ADHD if they do and how do you use them to make it your superpower?

[00:04:11] Peter Shankman: Oh yeah. That’s interesting. I think that, you know, people would say anything. I think that, that for me, a lot of it. When you have a faster brain, you have a couple of options. You can try to slow down to match everyone else. Or you can accept that that’s really, really hard to do, and you can sort of learn to, to speak slower than you think.

[00:04:32] So what do I mean by that? I will sit there and come up with 15 ideas in five minutes because it’s fun. 13 that might be beneficial to, there might be terrible, whatever, but I will spend time to sort of understand. What’s going on and then present the top couple of ideas of the world. The difference is, is that I’ve accepted that no matter how calmly I do that, that’d be really think that he is crazy.

[00:04:55] And so the goal is to learn, not to care about [00:05:00] what people think and never let that prevent you from doing something fun or doing something that you want to do or creating something, something, something new.

[00:05:07] Izolda Trakhtenberg: Okay. So within that people might think it’s crazy, but you come up with the idea and I’m wondering, are you in that moment trying to solve a problem that you’ve seen or is it just the ideas of rapid-fire and how do you reconcile the two?

[00:05:21] If for example, you come up with an idea that someone else might think is crazy, but it’s

[00:05:26] Peter Shankman: not okay. You know, it it’s, it’s sort of stealing yourself in the fact that when you present the idea, there’s going to be at least one person that knows what the hell is wrong, you know, but, but then understanding that, that, that, that the situations and the ideas that you presented in the past that actually benefit, you know, I have a little bit of a positive track record in that.

[00:05:45] And I’ve had several ideas of the past that have actually turned into, you know, great companies or, you know, a million multimillion dollar exits, things like that. So that gives you a little bit of credibility. The key though, is to keep moving forward. The thing about ADHD is that is the [00:06:00] forward motion.

[00:06:00] Whether you’re in, whether you are, you see you and your entrepreneur forward, motion is thrilling. And if you’re not going forward, even if you’re just standing still, it kind of feels like you’re going backwards. And that’s a problem. So for me, it’s always about forward motion. If I have an idea and it doesn’t work, I try and do it right.

[00:06:14] That is where I try another one. And they’re going to be ideas of work. It happens all the time. So the key is to keep moving forward.

[00:06:22] Izolda Trakhtenberg: Okay. And yet there are times when ADHD is something that allows you to think laterally, to look at things from a different angle. How does that align with the forward motion that you’re talking

[00:06:32] Peter Shankman: about?

[00:06:33] There’s several ways. I mean, I mean, the, the, the premise of you know, just this morning, I was on a call with a client and, and, and the client was coming back and forth on an idea that they just, they didn’t see it working and see it working. And rather than try to sort of convince them that what I said, what if we take it?

[00:06:45] What if we go 45 degrees to the left and look at it? And all of a sudden, oh, okay, well maybe that, you know, it’s all this stuff that I got in trouble for in school. Right? Speaking, out of turn you know, cracking jokes. [00:07:00] Disrupting the class. Cause I talking about something that completely come up with something completely different type thing.

[00:07:04] All of that has sort of given, allowed me to, to, to use that to my benefit as a, as a, you know, as an adult. The key is to be in an industry to be in a place, to be in a world where, where creativity is, lauded is not pushed down and, and, and, and, and thrown away. You know, I know that some ideas I’m gonna, I’m gonna put the effort.

[00:07:22] We’re not going to do that and that’s not going to happen. And sort of once you realize there’s gonna be people like that, and you just move on, you find your people, you find the people who, who, who appreciate what you can bring to the table. I heard a great quote once cause there’ve been times that I’ve had to let people leave my table because we just didn’t, you know, they couldn’t understand my speed.

[00:07:43] I couldn’t understand their non speed. And I heard a great quote. Just because we’re no longer friends doesn’t mean I wish you ill. I don’t want you to starve. I just don’t want you to eat at my table. Right. And if [00:08:00] you are creative and your, and your brain does work differently, occasionally you have to realize that not everyone’s gonna think like you, and if you spend your entire life focused on the fact that that things you do are not.

[00:08:12] Always going to be understood or are not always going to be accepted or, you know, you’re not, you’re going to be asked. Why aren’t you normal things of the day. If you spend your entire life being upset about the fact that’s happening, you’re never gonna be able to grow. I think Winston Churchill said, you’ll, you’ll never reach your destination if you stop to yell at every dog barks.

[00:08:29] Right. So sometimes you just have to make it on your own and, and, and, and move forward and understand that. Yeah, here we go. And it’s, it’s, I’ve found. That’s a great success in that. It took a long time and a lot of a lot of therapy. But in the end I realized that, you know, the idea that I’ve had, some of them have been very beneficial, so it’d be great.

[00:08:48] Some of them failed, but I will never stop continuing to do that.

[00:08:55] Izolda Trakhtenberg: Yeah, nor should you, I mean, there, there are certain ideas, certainly heroin is one of the ones that I love help a reporter [00:09:00] out. I’ve used it myself and continue to use it. And th th that, that begs the question that you’ve had these successful companies, some of them have been multi-million dollar ends, it’s you?

[00:09:10] And then you’re moving forward when you’re doing that. There are times, and I’ve, I’ve, I’ve been lurking on your blog. You talk about feeling like an imposter. Okay. So what was that? God? Yes. Okay. So, so how, how does that work? Is that, is that the ADHD brain, is that your personality? And if so, w which, which would, whichever one it is, how are you making those work for you?

[00:09:34] Peter Shankman: It’s a little bit of everything. I think there’s a part of it that. No matter how I could give a speech to 30,000 people and get a 30,000 person standing ovation. If one person doesn’t stand up, that’s the person I’m gonna focus on. Oh my God, everyone hated it. It was terrible. Let alone the fact that, that my eyes are literally telling me the 29,999 people like.

[00:09:54] Right. There’s always been a little bit. And again, that’s something you have to work on constantly because a lot of times, you know, [00:10:00] growing up with ADHD, growing up with, sit down, you’re disrupting the class disease and growing up with you’re wrong and you’re weird. And why are you so stupid? And why are you so strange?

[00:10:06] You know, no matter how much success you have that tends to stick in your brain. And that tends to pop up the most inconvenient times. It’s taken years to get over that, but every little bit of success, I have everything that I do that tends to benefit, you know, from that I tend to to learn a little bit more and chip away a little bit more at what I call junior high school, Peter the guy who, who, who took all that shit seriously.

[00:10:28] You know, the, the PERT example, we’re talking about the triathlon. I ran this Sunday, my friend my coach and my friend was at the finish line. He grabbed this photo of me coming across and my. Oh, my God, I am disgusting. I’m sweaty. I’m gross. I still have 25 pounds to lose. I don’t look like a triathlon or triathlete.

[00:10:45] It looks some fat guy who just got, and then I had this moment where I saw the finish line sign behind me and realized, no, maybe just a guy who just did this race and that’s a shit ton more than most people did today. And once you own that, right. And it was this wonderful feeling of release and feeling of, of, of, of freedom that, [00:11:00] yeah, I did just do this and I can, I can appreciate myself for what I do.

[00:11:06] And it it’s, it’s hard to get there because you know, you sit there a lot of times with your, with your, with your, your, your ADHD and, you know, your concept that, that today’s the day when I wake up today is absolutely the day of the New York times gonna have written a huge article about about what a fraud I am and everything I’ve done is just been locked.

[00:11:21] And then when they don’t, it’s obviously, because I’m not important enough to be written up by the New York times, you know? So there’s this constant battle with yourself, but. You know, you do what you can do and, and, and you, every day, you chip a little bit more away at it. Yeah.

[00:11:37] Izolda Trakhtenberg: It’s so fascinating that you say that because again, my husband has add, and he, and I talk about this a lot about the notion that no matter, no matter what he does, he doesn’t think it’s good enough, no matter how he’s an artist in a clown.

[00:11:50] And he always comes back with stories of not thinking that no matter how well he did. It just wasn’t good enough. And on some level it might lead him to strive, but there are times [00:12:00] when he just gets down on himself and it’s very hard for him to motivate himself and it’s impossible for me to motivate him.

[00:12:06] So do you get to those places where you actually just stop and go, you know what, I just can’t today or are you always going, no, this is it right? Yeah. There

[00:12:14] Peter Shankman: all the time. And you know, I have ways to make sure that I am like don’t let them. Perfect. You know, let it affect me as, as little as possible, but that way I I, I, exercise is massive, right?

[00:12:26] I have to exercise. I have to work out. I have to get that brain chemistry growing in my brain every single day. I was up at 4:00 AM this morning. I was on the bike for an hour. It just, it gives me the, the chemistry I need to, to quiet those demons. Right. For lack of a better word. It’s certainly not easy to do, but you know, if I don’t exercise my day, And so the key is to find a way to build that into everything I needed.

[00:12:58] My dad you know, it’s not, [00:13:00] it sounds easy, but you know, when, when you’ve had it, when you worked late or you had a late dinner or whatever, you know, you get to bed at midnight and it’s 4:00 AM and you have to wake up and work out. It’s it’s difficult, but I know what will happen if I don’t. And I certainly don’t want that.

[00:13:17] So, you know, I it’s, I’ve heard it’s called playing the tape forward. Alcoholics talk about it a lot. The premise of that you know, okay, I’m going to have this one drink, well, if have this one drink where I’m going to be in 12 hours and it never ends well when you think of it that way. So the key is to not think about it that way, the key is to not have that first drink.

[00:13:35] For me, it’s sort of the same thing. If I don’t. It’ll be 6:00 PM or 4:00 PM and 12 hours we’ll have passed either way, but what kind of a damn right, will it be a better day or a worse day? And so that easily enough to get me up. And again, this is enough to get me, but not all the time. I’m not perfect.

[00:13:51] You know, I will sleep in every once in a while ago. And honestly, Ben and I will, I will, I will scale workout. The key is not to not to get into such a rut where you [00:14:00] are, where you are without one MIS becomes a 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 weeks cycle. That’s you, you know, you don’t want to so was one of the reasons I rarely drink anymore is because I would, I would, I would, you know, I wasn’t going to have to get drunk, but I, oh, I’m going to client event free.

[00:14:14] Great. I’ll have four drinks. I’ll have five drinks. I wasn’t getting drunk, but I. You know, I come home a little, hung up, not hung over, but you know, I’d be a little dehydrated. I wouldn’t wake up the next morning and workout. Well, I’m not okay. I might as well. You know, I blew it. I blew the workout this morning.

[00:14:27] I might as well get a bacon, egg, and cheese at Suffolk degrees or two of them. Well, I do want my breakfast sized back and let’s just get dinner. I’ll have a pizza. I’ll start tomorrow. All of a sudden it’s two weeks later, right. Have gained eight pounds and I’m sitting there what the hell just happened.

[00:14:38] So, you know, was a great line from the movie war games where the computer realizes that line wards is the only winning. And for me very often, the only one who move is not to play, I have I heard another great quote, read something like the demons in my subconscious are too hard to be there for us simply [00:15:00] must not.

[00:15:02] Izolda Trakhtenberg: Oh, both of those quotes are fantastic. Yeah. I love it. I loved it. First time I saw war games and heard Whopper say that, you know, interesting game, the only way you move is not to play. What’s interesting. What was that? Yes, I, yes, exactly. Favorite and. Here’s the thing. There are times when we’re in situations where, you know, there are people with ADHD who are in jobs that they hate, or, or, you know, are doing the nine to five when, when they’re not suited for it.

[00:15:27] They’re neuro-typical how, what is your, what is your guidance for someone who is, who perhaps hasn’t gotten to the point where they want to be an entrepreneur or whether they want to start their own business or where they can be on their own? What do you tell someone who’s in that nine to five, who might hate it is not well suited for it because of some of the neuro-typical situations in their lives.

[00:15:47] What are your thoughts on that?

[00:15:48] Peter Shankman: I think the first thing to understand is that I’m there. I would never judge anyone on what’s a job they’re doing or how they’re living their life. Is, are they happy if they’re not going to have the, to change that? You know, there are people, I, you have these, you have these [00:16:00] sort of entrepreneur gurus.

[00:16:03] I can’t stand it. You know, if you’re not happy, you hate your job. You should quit go out on your own, you know? And if you have to work 22 hours a day, so you just told someone to, you know, give them some of the recipe to kill themselves. That’s not recommended. Right. Right. So I’m not going to say, oh, you’re a miserable job.

[00:16:16] Quit. We don’t have that opportunity. Right. And, and it’s, it’s really privileged to mustard. Everyone can do that. So I don’t think that way, but I do have everything is that if you understand that you are not happy where you are, you have to start making the correct arrangements so that at some point down the road, You can quit so that you can change your life so that you do, you know, at the end of the day, if you don’t like where you are, you can move.

[00:16:44] Cause you’re not a tree, but sometimes that takes time and that’s fine. But the only thing I have a problem with is, is if you’re spending a few hours of free time every day, not making arrangements to change down the road, but rather bitching [00:17:00] about your situation, then I kind of. Because you have the opportunity to at least start the process, right?

[00:17:08] So if you’re miserable and where you are look to things and don’t just look for a new job, because it’s better than your old job, look for something that will truly make you happy and then work backwards and figure out how to get there. Again, it’s not easy. I don’t expect you to do it tomorrow, but it is doable.

[00:17:21] I didn’t become an entrepreneur until I realized I could. I didn’t think that’s what you did. Both of my parents were teachers. I didn’t know anyone was entrepreneur. I figured you worked for someone else. You’ve worked 40 years. Got a gold watch and retire. I got laid off from America online and my first job out of college and sit in the parking lot, went what the hell just happened?

[00:17:38] And I realized I’m going to try it. I’m going to go out on my own. I know how to do PR. I learned from me, well, I’m gonna try it without what’s. The worst can happen when it, I literally said when it fails, I’ll get a job. Not if it fails when it fails, I’ll get a job. It’s been 98 to almost oh eight, 18 and almost 24 years later.

[00:17:53] And I haven’t had good job. So I’ve been incredibly lucky. That being said there been incredible highs, incredible lows. [00:18:00] But yeah, if you’re miserable where you are, figure out what you can do and how you can improve your current situation to get to where you want to be.

[00:18:12] Izolda Trakhtenberg: That makes a lot of sense. I I’m going to, I’m doing rapid fire because I know we don’t have that much time.

[00:18:17] I would love to know from you, you talk about in faster than normal, your fabulous book. You talk about how your body, and I don’t know if it’s actually all ADHD people, but you say that your body does not produce enough dopamine, serotonin and adrenaline. And I’m wondering how those. Okay. So how does that, how does that relate?

[00:18:36] What, what is, what is, what does that do for you and how do you address that issue?

[00:18:41] Peter Shankman: So a combination of domains, serotonin adrenaline allows you to focus. It allows you to sit down and do the things that you don’t necessarily love to do. So I’ll give you an example. In school. I was the class clown, and I would get in trouble for me in the class.

[00:18:54] Clown. Why was the class well in the subjects that I loved English. [00:19:00] In social studies. I was never the class clown. I paid attention like the greatest dude in the world, in math, in science and things I wasn’t good at. I was the class clown. What I realized 30 years later is why I was making jokes and cracking up and cracking jokes and cracking wise because when I made a joke and other students laughed, they laughed at something I did, which actually gave me a dopamine hit.

[00:19:23] And all of a sudden I could focus. Of course I was getting in trouble. But I was actually, if you look at it, the big picture I was getting in trouble because I wanted to learn now I’ve since learned better ways to get my domain, get my adrenaline and get missing and turn it into meetings with bad jokes.

[00:19:41] But the logic is sound right. It is the same thing. You know, we all know every single one of us, there’s not a person in the world who understand, who doesn’t understand that texting while driving is dangerous and will kill you. Here’s how so many people still do it. Why? Because every time we hear a text, [00:20:00] every time we see a message, every time we get a tweet or reply, whatever our brain actually releases domain it’s addiction.

[00:20:09] So no different, if don’t mean, it gives us that focus chemical and that ability to be happy then. Yeah. Obviously you’re going to want it and you’re going to look for it. So the key for kids today in school, we now understand how to find a better way to get it. I’ve spoken to schools where they’ve installed something called bouncy bands.

[00:20:27] They’re these little bands that sit on the, on the legs of the chair and the kids can bounce their legs without making any noise. And just that gives them some adrenaline kids are allowed to get up, go to the back of the room, right, hang out and and just, you know, work, standing up whatever little things more recess, less carbs at, at, at lunch things.

[00:20:44] Izolda Trakhtenberg: You know, what’s interesting about what you just said. It bringing up education in my mind, the whole, the whole education system. If I were queen, I would redo it because sitting kids who have such incredible amounts of energy down for so many hours a day, I think is a mistake. [00:21:00] I worked at NASA as an educator for many years and I watched it happen.

[00:21:02] I watched kids be bored and they weren’t, it wasn’t necessarily that they were ADHD. Necessarily, I don’t know what their diagnoses, and I know you don’t like that word what their, what their state was, but at the same time, I think so many children have trouble with that. And so if, if we, if you were king and I were queen, what would we do?

[00:21:21] How would we address kids today? And the education system to help them learn better in ways that work for them, whether they’re neuro-typical.

[00:21:31] Peter Shankman: Well, you have to, I mean, it’s tough because you know, one teacher, 30 kids, you can’t make three different ways of learning, but what you can do is you can level the playing field in your, in your favor, right?

[00:21:40] So you can create you can create Situations where kids don’t come in as entirely high energy. Right? So the premise of the kid wakes up instead of the kid waking up eating two bowls of chocolate, frosted sugar bombs, and sitting in front of television for 45 minutes at school, wake up, have a couple of hard boiled eggs, have some protein.[00:22:00]

[00:22:00] Walk to school run around for 45 minutes, go to the school. You’ve got, you know, have a zero period class that’s recess, let the kids work out exercise first, then bring them into school. They did a study in Texas with a school district in Texas, where they did exactly that they, they gave them 90 minutes of recess a day as opposed to 20.

[00:22:16] And they upped they, they changed the carb. They dropped carbs in breakfast and lunch by 70% and upped protein by 50% like that. And they saw a 29% decrease. ADHD outbursts in boys and 20, not a 24% increase in girls getting involved in the class discussion. Those are huge numbers. They really are.

[00:22:36] Right. So it’s those little tiny things that you can do that really do make a huge change.

[00:22:41] Izolda Trakhtenberg: Fascinating. I did not know about that study. I’m going to have to go look it up and I’m gonna swing it right back to you and ask you about something you said in, in your book. Again, you said that skydiving, which you are a master skydiver, which I think is great.

[00:22:54] It gives you a productivity high. I would love to hear from you. What about a dive? I’ve been skydiving [00:23:00] once I loved it and I want to do it again, but what about it is your rush? What, what is the productivity high? That’s kind of. Well

[00:23:07] Peter Shankman: don’t mean you’re basically jumping on a plane, you’re doing something.

[00:23:10] Every single molecule or brain says dumb ass. You don’t need to do this. The plane can land. And you’re literally fighting against that. The second you enter the atmosphere. Second, you jump out of the plane. You’re in, you’re in air. You’re in freefall, your body. You have two choices. I can open my parachute live, or I cannot have my parachute and die.

[00:23:23] That’s it. There are no other options. It is the most free you’ll ever get. And when that parachute opens and you’ve quote unquote to fight death, I hate that term. But when you, when, when the parachute opens and you’ve slowed down and the world comes back into focus and you know, your hearing comes back and it’s no longer just the wind and, you know, you.

[00:23:41] You have this feeling of euphoria and that is all the domain serotonin and adrenaline firing at once. And so I, and that just doesn’t go away. That needs to dissipate over time. So I will drop my parish. I will, I will land, I’ll put a parachute full, you know gathered up, throw it in the corner of the, of the, of the, of the hanger, pull out my laptop lean on the parachute and then, you know, write 10, 20,000 words in [00:24:00] an hour, right?

[00:24:00] Because I’m so high with, I double triple, quadruple the amount of those chemicals in my brain, that focus is. The easiest thing in the world and I’ll do it and I’ll get it done. And it’s interesting because I was dating a woman once years ago, 20 years ago, it was a PhD candidate or double PhD, something way too smart for me, we should not have been dating.

[00:24:21] And one of the things she was doing was like, she got paid the government, she got government grants to FICO, came to rats to learn about addiction and pathways and things like that. And, and I’m like, so you get free cocaine. She’s like, yeah, let’s just table that discussion right now. But the point was.

[00:24:34] She took my blood once and she said, I want to, I want to take your blood and see how you are after a jump. And she goes, yeah, yeah. It just comes back a week later. She’s like, yeah, you’re basically half a molecule off from being a full, a full on cocaine addict. I’m like, I don’t do cocaine. She’s like, no, it’s the same exact chemistry.

[00:24:47] I’m like, huh? I’m like, so instead of if I need to focus, I just to go to cocaine, she goes, Peter, you’re really not listening. But the premise was that I was getting that same high, but the difference was I was getting it naturally. When you do [00:25:00] cocaine, as I actually taught me The brain fires all those those receptors at once.

[00:25:05] Because it doesn’t understand what’s going on. When you’re skydiving, even though you need all those receptors to just keep you alive, the brain is still smart enough to keep some in reserve. It’s why after I finished skydiving and finished writing 20,000 words, I could still drive home. I don’t know crap.

[00:25:22] I don’t need to immediately do it again. Right. My body is able to process that keeps on the don’t mean for later we turned some of the serotonin things like that, as opposed to illegal drugs, which are, you know, drugs period, which, which don’t do that. They just, oh, send it all. Okay. Now you’re empty. Right?

[00:25:35] It’s the equivalent of, of, of being in a helicopter and having 10, 10 minutes of reserve fuel in case in times of war. So, you know, your body is very smart that way, and if you can figure out how to adapt it for me, it’s skydiving or running or exercising or public speaking, you know, my. Knows me so well that when I do a corporate keynote, she will attempt to get me back in my seat, on the airplane home within two hours of my coming off the stage, [00:26:00] because that’s around the time that I, that I started to come down from the high.

[00:26:03] Right. And if she times it well, and there are no delays, I will sit down that plane and I will fall asleep until we get home. And it’s the greatest feeling in the world. It’s the deepest sleep I’ll ever get.

[00:26:12] Izolda Trakhtenberg: I it’s great to have someone that knows you so well. And that actually brings me to my next question.

[00:26:17] Are you one of those people who you’re able to start the project and then see it through, or do you get into what my husband and I call shiny, pretty producing things syndrome and go, oh, the next thing squirrel. And then you move on and if so, what kind of support do you have or need to stay on track?

[00:26:33] Yeah,

[00:26:33] Peter Shankman: it’s a dos attention deficit. Ooh, shiny. I have, what I have is a very, very, very powerful calendar. There is not 20 minutes out of my day that is not scheduled. It was brutal during the beginning of COVID. All my keynotes, which went virtual. I had a keynote in Stockholm. Okay. Well, I know I’m taking most of my day to fly there.

[00:26:51] I’m going to sleep. I’m waking up the next morning. I’m speaking, I’m spending the day there next morning. I’m flying back home. That’s three full days, right? That’s 14 hours on a plane and round trip. That is [00:27:00] a. You know, a lot of scheduled time where I can right now that same keynote that would the 45 minute keynote that we want to take three days.

[00:27:06] Now it takes about 45 minutes. So I’ll do it at 4:00 PM or 7:00 AM or whatever on a, on a Tuesday at my apartment. And I’ve done it 7 45. I’ve just done all my work for the week. And I’m like, okay, well, got a lot of free time. Huh? I can start another company or maybe try meth, you know, it’s like, yeah. So one of the things I realized, right, beginning of COVID is I have to schedule shit.

[00:27:30] Doesn’t matter if I have nothing to do, I’m going to schedule something to do. So I spent a lot of time. I bought kettlebells, I’ve gained 16 pounds of muscle in the past two 14 months, because what the hell else I’m gonna do? Right. But I made sure that my schedule was full and. You know, it’s again, it’s putting these rules in the plate.

[00:27:46] I don’t allow myself to ever say, oh, watch it on Netflix. No, the only time I allow myself to watch Netflix or Hulu is when I’m on the bike. Because if I allow myself to do it once I will watch Netflix and Hulu every day and that’s it, I will never get anything done. So I only allow myself to do it when I’m working out, because I know I can’t do that [00:28:00] forever.

[00:28:00] So it has to be about putting these rules into place. Same reason I don’t same reason they don’t you know, that I have, I have two sides in my closet and they’re labeled, right. I wake up in the morning. Okay. Am I on the road today? Am I speaking somewhere? Am I on TV? No. Okay. T-shirt and jeans. Oh, am I traveling?

[00:28:16] Am I, am I, or am I, am I speaking somebody? Okay, great button down. Shirt, jacket, jeans. That’s it. My sweaters, my best, my scarves, all that stuff. It’s in my daughter’s closet. So I have to see it because God’s been ahead of look at the stuff. Oh my God. What should I wear? I know, I remember that sweater.

[00:28:27] I’m like Largan. That’s what I wonder how she’s doing. I should look her up, you know, it’s it’s three hours later. I’m naked the living room on Facebook. I haven’t left the house.

[00:28:35] Izolda Trakhtenberg: Oh, it’s like your it’s like I’m living with you instead of that’s when that’s exactly. It’s exactly how he does things. And, and it’s interesting because that notion of decision-making.

[00:28:47] What you, it sounds like you have developed specific processes to, to address the fact that you have sometimes issues, either making decisions or getting onto the next thing. Do [00:29:00] you detail them somewhere? Are there places where if someone goes, okay, I want to know how Peter Shankman does it, where can someone go if they are interested in finding out more about your process and how you’ve managed to make ADHD

[00:29:12] Peter Shankman: or superpower?

[00:29:13] So I occasionally. Now for halibut coaching. I have a site for that called shank minds.com/adhd coaching. Love coaching. I’m not, I don’t call myself a coach, but I occasionally help people. I talk about this stuff all the time on at shankman.com. I talk about it on any of my social channels all the time, which is at Peter Shankman and all the channels.

[00:29:32] I encourage people to email me. You are welcome to, to reach out if you want to go for a run or, you know, the only thing I will not do is sit down with you for a meeting, but you want to go for a walk and talk. You wanna do an Aaron Sorkin style Westwind meeting. We walk 25 blocks and you know, never stopped.

[00:29:44] I’m happy to do that. I I’m always, you know, what I used to do when I’d go to the airport is if you really want me bad enough, you will take a ride to the airport with me. Right. We’ll take New Jersey transit from the city to, to the airport. And you’ll have me for about 40 minutes. Talk about what you want.

[00:29:57] Right. And, and you’d be amazed how many people would do that. So yeah, for me, [00:30:00] it was really about about Knowing what works for me, understanding that it might not work for everyone else, but happy being happy to share what I do.

[00:30:11] Izolda Trakhtenberg: I love that. And I’m so grateful that you said that because I’m at some point going to take you up on that.

[00:30:15] I won’t, I won’t run, but I’ll walk. So I have just a couple more questions if that’s okay. I wanted to ask you about new ideas. They come to you fast and furious. Where from what does your brain do differently in that way? And how do you file them? Or do you just remember the.

[00:30:32] Peter Shankman: I write them down. I write everything down.

[00:30:33] When I run, when I exercise, I use my apple watch. They make, they make notes. They make memos. This morning on, on, on the Peloton at 4:00 AM, I came up with two video ideas. I put them both on this to remind me in three hours to try this or that, you know, as long as it’s written down somewhere, I can then translate it three hours later.

[00:30:47] When it reminds me I could transfer it to a Google spreadsheet or whatever. And I’m able to, to keep this on when I need to do okay. I gotta write, gotta create something this weekend went, oh, look, all this stuff I have. Right. So, so. Everything because you know, some of the greatest lies in [00:31:00] the world you know oh, I’m only five minutes away is right.

[00:31:03] You know, those great, great lies the checks in the mail. And I’ll remember it when I wake up.

[00:31:08] Izolda Trakhtenberg: Oh, absolutely. I never do. And I keep, I do keep a journal right by my bedside so that I can write first thing in the morning. That is so important to me as someone I don’t have ADHD or add, but I do forget, and I get lots of ideas.

[00:31:20] So I think I’m so glad that you said that about writing everything down. I think it’s such a fantastic way of, of making sure that the things that you think are important, actually get down and kept. And kept as important. I I’m so grateful. I know this has been fast and furious. I am so grateful that you took the time to join me on the show.

[00:31:39] And I’m going to put everything in the show notes as far as where people can find you. And I have just one last question that I ask everybody who comes on the show. And it’s a strange little question, but I find it comes with some profound answers. And the question is this, and you as a skydiver will have a particular opinion on this, I think.

[00:31:55] And that is this. If you had an airplane that could sky write anything for the whole world to see. [00:32:00] What would you say,

[00:32:08] Peter Shankman: love yourself?

[00:32:11] Izolda Trakhtenberg: That’s beautiful. Thank you, Peter. I really appreciate it. I appreciate you being on the show. Thank you so much. My pleasure. This is all the Trakhtenberg for the innovative mindset podcast. I’m super grateful that you joined us. This has been a fabulous, I’ll be a quick conversation with Peter Shankman.

[00:32:26] Maybe we’ll be able to get him back on the show again, to talk even further about the ADHD brain and how you can use it to innovate and create and be creative until next time I remind you to listen, learn, laugh, and love a whole lot.

[00:32:43] Thanks so much for joining me today. I really appreciate you being here. Please subscribe to the podcast if you’re new and if you like what you’re hearing, please review it and rate it and let other people know. And if you’d like to be a sponsor of the show, I’d love to meet you on [00:33:00] patrion.com/innovative mindset.

[00:33:01] I also have lots of exclusive goodies to share just with the show supporters. Today’s episode was produced by Izolda Trakhtenberg and his copyright 2021 as always. Please remember, this is for educational and entertainment purposes. Only past performance does not guarantee future results, although we can always hope until next time, keep living in your innovative mindset.

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