Do All Founders Have ADHD?

This week's Founder Friday is about clinical ADHD coaching for founders and why ADHD shows up so often in entrepreneurial circles.

Nicole Skotz is a board-certified behavior analyst with over 10 years of experience in behavior analysis before getting her own ADHD diagnosis in her early 30s. What followed was Momentum ADHD Coaching, a clinical coaching practice for people with ADHD that draws on three real disciplines: behavior analysis, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and Relational Frame Theory (RFT).

Her clients skew toward entrepreneurs and content creators, which makes sense. Novelty, creativity, and competition are exactly the kinds of stimuli that make ADHD brains light up.

What founders can steal from this:

• Measure your bounce-back rate
• Separate skill deficits from performance deficits
• Build for the internal bucket

Here's what Nicole shared about executive functioning, why success looks like a regulated nervous system, and what parents of kids with ADHD should know...

What do you do, and how did you build this practice?

I'm a board-certified behavior analyst, and I built a clinical coaching practice for people with ADHD. The coaching we do is evidence based. We use behavior analysis, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and Relational Frame Theory (RFT), which is all about language and how it shapes behavior. Compared to other coaching models, we bring a different flavor. We're highly trained in human behavior, pattern recognition, and emotions, and we can serve people from a very holistic lens. It's clinical coaching, not pop-science ADHD advice.

What led me to build this was having a 10-plus year career in behavior analysis and realizing how complex humans are. Then I got my own ADHD diagnosis in my early 30s. I used everything I already knew, plus additional things I learned, to support myself. I realized I had the skills to really support other people, whether it's the external strategies, the creativity to use those strategies, or the internal world, our narratives, how they get in the way of executing on what we want, and how our regulation system gets in the way. Practicing all of that on myself made me realize this is a service the world could really use.

Why do so many entrepreneurs and content creators seem to have ADHD, and how do they use it as a superpower?

With ADHD, novelty, creativity, and competition are really motivating. When I think about entrepreneurs, YouTubers, and content creators, there's a lot of novelty in everything they're doing. You're not doing things more than once or twice. The repetitive stuff, most successful people pay someone else to do.

My whole framework surrounding ADHD is that when you can figure out your gaps, barriers and work towards building those skills, the "barrier symptoms" of ADHD tend to get easier. Those are the things on the diagnostic criteria, the things you have a hard time doing. They show up when you're overstimulated, experiencing anxiety, or when your nervous system is out of whack. What I've noticed with successful people is that they've built systems that keep their nervous system regulated most of the time. When that's the case, the barrier symptoms don't get in the way, and you notice all the strengths and unique characteristics an ADHD brain can have.

What are the first steps to getting those barriers out of the way?

Figure out your goals first, because there are so many possible avenues. Then look at what's getting in the way. I split it into an external bucket and an internal bucket, and it's usually both.

External: Notion, reminders, systems, all the strategies that get talked about in books. Most people know these. The common thing I hear is, "I can't stick with it." That's where the internal bucket comes in. How do I interact with my thoughts and emotions when I don't do the thing I said I was going to do? Weave those together into a seamless system so that when a situation shows up and you feel a certain way, you have the confidence to know what to do.

What is executive functioning, and why does it matter for entrepreneurs?

Executive functioning is what your prefrontal cortex does. People often call it the CEO of the brain. It controls problem solving, emotional regulation, time management, working memory and more. It's what helps us thrive as adults.

The brain develops from back to front, and roughly around age 25 is when it's fully developed. Up until then, everyone has executive functioning gaps. People with ADHD have more of those gaps when they're younger. At some point in adulthood, you mostly catch up to what your brain can do.

What's a practical way to level up your own executive functioning as a business owner?

First, look at where your gaps are. For entrepreneurs, it's usually productivity, which is a loaded word in my work. What does your productivity look like? What does it look like when you're not being productive? Build systems around both.

Entrepreneurs are usually good at building systems and executing. The more human challenge is what happens when we don't do the thing we said we were going to do. Where do you go emotionally? I call it your bounce back rate. If I don't do the thing, do I go into a shame spiral, and how long does it last? Can you measure it, so last month it took 24 hours, last week 12 hours, this week faster? That's where you bounce back to being the entrepreneur you know you are.

Should everyone with ADHD collect metrics on themselves?

It depends. If you're a data oriented person who wants to see whether what you're doing is actually working, you can track those metrics, either writing them down or just noting them when you experience them.

But some people with ADHD, if things are too organized or too structured, will reject all of it because it feels caged in. They feel like they don't have a choice. There are different ways to give yourself the feeling of freedom and autonomy while still paying attention to what's working.

What makes Austin a distinctive market for this kind of work?

Austin has a high academic culture in the high schools and even middle schools. Middle schoolers are gearing up for AP classes. The top percentile of local high schoolers automatically get into UT, which creates real competition. Then there's UT itself, and a lot of student athletes who also need to perform academically. With that pressure comes real demand for executive functioning and ADHD support.

There's also a ton of creativity here, and creative brains often come with more executive functioning challenges. The entrepreneur and creative side of Austin is what makes this city unique. Between those two things, academic pressure and creative density, there are a lot of people who benefit from this work.

What should parents of a child with ADHD know?

It takes a lot of curiosity to parent a child with ADHD. If your child is showing signs, it might mean you or your partner also have it, because it's genetic.

There will be moments where you don't understand why your kid does something, and the common reaction is, "They should know better." Maybe. But there's a concept of a skill deficit versus a performance deficit. Sometimes I could give you a violin and sheet music and say, "I'll give you $100,000 if you play this at an expert level in 10 minutes." No incentive gets you there, because it's not a skill you have. When families tell me, "Nothing works to get them to do it," often it's a skill deficit. They don't actually know how to do the thing.

The performance deficit is when you've seen them do it, they cleaned their room when a friend was coming over, but they won't do it when you ask and there's no reward attached. If you've seen them execute the behavior before, it's probably a performance deficit, which usually means a motivation challenge or internal self-talk getting in the way.

Apply the same lens to yourself. Do I actually know what I'm supposed to do in this case? Entrepreneurs usually know how to find the answer even if they don't have it. Give yourself grace if you don't know how, and learn it if you want to. On the performance side, which is more common for adults, look at the relationship you have with yourself and your internal dialogue when you're doing something that isn't working.

What advice would you give to business owners more broadly?

It probably sounds corny, but keep going, keep challenging yourself. Novelty is great and it feels good. But just because something doesn't feel novel anymore doesn't mean you can't do it. A lot of people stop doing something, or start something new, because the feeling has faded. It's possible to keep going, and there are other ways to motivate yourself besides the intrinsic novelty of something.

How can the Austin community help?

Nicole wants to connect with Austin founders, entrepreneurs, content creators, parents, and professionals who are trying to better understand ADHD, executive functioning, and the systems that help people actually follow through. Whether you are a founder trying to improve your own performance, a parent trying to better support a child with ADHD, or a creative professional trying to build around how your brain actually works, Nicole wants to help.

Where can people learn more?

Check out Momentum ADHD Coaching, connect with Nicole on LinkedIn, follow her on Instagram, and sign up for her newsletter, The ADHD Informed Parent.