← Strategy Hour | Online Marketing for Business Growth
Strategy Hour | Online Marketing for Business Growth
943: How to Build ADHD-Friendly Systems that Support How Your Brain Works with Latrice Prater
00:47:59
Learn how neurodivergence shaped her journey and how you can build a business that works with your brain, not against it.
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- [00:00]
A
With my team, having a connection, connecting with them. I want to know what's going on in their life. Like it's not always business. I want to know who you are, what's your story, what you're going through. Because I want to support you as a person, you as a business owner.
- [00:19]
B
Welcome to the Strategy Hour podcast brought to you by Boss Project. I'm your host, Abigail Pumphrey, and I'm dedicated to supporting online businesses. I don't believe in one right way to build a business. I'm here to help you build business your way. One that supports not only the life you have, but the life you want. I'm on a personal mission to help you become financially free. I'm taking all the lessons learned as I turned a layoff into a seven figure online business. I'm here to help you prioritize your life every step of the way. Whether you're creating your first digital product, growing an email list, or scaling an already profitable business. Settle in. It's time to talk strategy. Breaking news Strategy Hour needs your vote. We're thrilled to announce the Strategy Hour podcast is officially nominated for the Webby People's Voice Award. Recognized as one of the top five podcasts worldwide in creativity and marketing. This is your chance to help us take home the gold. But hurry. Voting closes Thursday, April 17. It takes less than 20 seconds and your vote truly makes a difference. Head to bossproject.comvote right now to show your love and help us snag that Webby. Seriously. Pause this episode and go vote. Bossproject.com vote. I'll wait. Thank you so much for supporting the Strategy Hour. If you've ever felt like all the traditional business advice was built for someone else's brain, you're not wrong. In today's episode, we're talking about what it means to build systems that actually get us, especially for entrepreneurs navigating ADHD or managing teams who do. Today's guest is Latrice Prater, neurodivergent CEO and founder of the Digital Solutions team and someone who is transforming how women in business approach systems structure and success. She's scaled her agency in just a few short years and she's here to talk about how neurodivergence shaped her path and how you can build a business that truly works for your brain. Latrice, welcome to the show.
- [02:26]
A
Thank you for having me. Super excited to be here.
- [02:29]
B
Oh, well, I'm excited and I can't wait to dig into your journey. When did you realize that systems weren't built for your brain. And, like, give me a little bit of background as to how we landed on today's topic.
- [02:45]
A
It's funny you ask, to be honest. When I first started my business back in 2020, I actually started out as a virtual assistant. And that's mainly because at the time, I was working as an executive assistant, and I was like, oh, I can do what I'm doing in an office building at home. That sounds amazing. So once I got started, I actually got diagnosed with ADHD right after I started my business, which started to make everything make a lot more sense. And I realized that all the mundane tasks of the admin work were no fun for me, and I struggled a lot. So I procrastinated. I didn't do much, and I had a client that was kind of like, hey, I think that you and I can handle the tech stuff together. Because she was in a place of, like, trying to tighten her team and she wanted to let someone go, literally. That led to my discovery of, like, oh, my gosh, I love systems. Like, I love the idea of trying to figure out what's the best systems to have in place, how to automate, how to streamline, setting up the workflows. But then I realized, as someone with adhd, how systems can make everything so much easier because manually doing everything sucks and I forget a lot of things. So I started to automate so much, and I realized how much that helped me as far as my mental load, and it kept me on track. So that's kind of what led to the whole, like, systems systems. For adhd, it just needs to be a thing, because as a business owner, we do so many things. So if you have a small team, if you don't have any, like, no one helping you at all, you want to be able to build a system that supports you and how you function. So that's kind of where it came from.
- [04:31]
B
Yeah, I'm all about building a system that supports you. And I am a huge advocate of regardless of what you have going on, whether it's adhd, ocd, some other neurodivergency, or maybe it's just habitually how you want to work is just different. I am all about creating accommodations in your business. I think you have a way bigger opportunity inside of your own business to create things that'll work for you, even if they don't work for anyone else. That's really irrelevant. Unless potentially eventually you're going to sell your business and then, in which case you will have to make some adjustments. But for the Most part, we get to build a business and a life around what we need. And I know for me, there's a lot about my life where I used to struggle or I used to get stuck in a loop. And doing little things makes a massive difference if you know what you need. And figuring out what you need is its own road. But let's start at the beginning, I suppose. So there's a lot of advice out there that pushes this, like, idea of rigidity and routine and productivity hacks. And I'm curious on what's your take on that for someone with adhd?
- [05:56]
A
Okay, I am one. First of all, that's why I wanted to be a business owner, because I despise authority. I hate being told what to do. Okay, so me starting a business is because I'm defiant and I am always determined to do things my own way. And I learned, I had to learn that I can't listen to the mass majority because even when it comes to coaches, online courses, things like that is not really built for the neurodivergent brain. So I have learned that, yes, there are people who can guide me, but I only I can decide what works for me and my brain. I'm not an early riser, so I hate the concept of like, oh, 5:00am starts start early. No, I don't get up early enough for that. Me, I can't have meetings before 10am because anything before that is way too early and my brain's not ready. So I am all about how do I discover a system, a tool or whatever it is based off of my business, my brain and my budget if it's something I actually need. So I go against all of that. I think that people are so stuck on everything has to be this way, a certain way, when there are so many different ways to get to your definition of success, because my definition is different than anyone else's. So I don't have to follow what mainstream society says I need to follow. Because if my most productive time is, let's say, between 10 and 2, then that's when I'm going to work between 10 and 2 because I'm going to get the most done, I'm going to be productive and I'm going to walk away feeling like, hey, I did everything I needed to do and I didn't have to wake up at 5am and I didn't have to do all these other things they say I need to do. It's the same with social media. Like, hey, you need to have a social media plan. You need to post every day. I'm really on social media, it is not my jam. So I am like, no, don't tell me that that's not true. I can grow a business without being on social media 24 7. I've done it.
- [08:00]
B
Yeah, I think the point you guys really need to take away from that is it's really easy to get stuck in these concepts of this person says this works and so I have to do it. And the longer I've been in business, the more evident to me it is that literally all of it works. You just have to find out what works for you. And there might be things that you try that could work in theory, but it feels like walking uphill blindfolded on roller skates. Like, it's just like you're like everything is working against you and so you have to figure out the things that just glide easily and move through you in a way that feels abundant. And it's really refreshing to hear someone else say that they work best between 10 and 2, because me too. Like I don't want to get up at 5am and I like having a little bit of a slow start. But a slow start isn't. It's I get up at 7:30 and like maybe I'm at my desk by 9 and like I'm not really productive until 10. And then by the time I get something really solid done, I need lunch. But then after lunch I am like on it on fire for the afternoon. And so I feel really good about that. But for a lot of years I beat myself up that I wasn't doing things the way that I was supposed to or I didn't fit some books narrative about what it looks like to have this like perfect morning or perfect structure. I'm curious for you, what does structure look like now? If you've been kind of defiant of the corporate culture, what are you doing inside of your business to still create an environment that has that?
- [09:51]
A
That's a good question. Because structure for me literally is very different every day. Sometimes, like it can, it can vary. Because one thing about being ADHD is sometimes we're inconsistent, right? Like I am consistent at being inconsistent. But for me, I have a team. I have a team of nine contractors that I adore. So when it comes to structure, even around trying to create that team vibe and culture, I have someone on my team who posts every other day. Kind of like a connection question to make sure people are interacting and talking. Because if you leave it up to me, I will forget. Like I am not one to talk every day to people. So I'm like, okay, I want my team to communicate because we use Slack. So I want to get to know each other, get to know each other, like have that whole team vibe and work well together. But it cannot solely depend on me and my doing because I don't think about it. So I had to have someone else do it. A lot of my structure is because of workflows I've set up. I have so many different automations set up right now. Even when it comes to client gifts, client anniversaries, I literally have a zap that zaps into Slack to tell me like 10 days before this person's birthday is on this day, go ahead and get ready to buy their gift. This person's anniversary is coming up. So I structure my life based on all the automations that help me remember to do the most important things. My day starts out extremely slow. I always tell people, especially if you, you know, have adhd, to follow the dopamine. Some mornings I just slowly, like sit and I may be on ChatGPT for like an hour doing a bunch of what seems like is nothing. But honestly, it's because I'm following the dopamine. It's something I'm interested in and I kind of want to see where it leads me before I actually start some actual work. I always do that. So I'm a slow start. And then usually after an hour of just doing what my brain wants me to do, I may get into some client work or I may have a client meeting. And that helped me, like, kind of propel into like, the things that I need to do. But I've learned to take it easy on myself and not get so upset when sometimes my brain does not want to do the thing that it needs to do the most. Because what can I do? If it doesn't want to do it, it doesn't want to do it and I can't make it. So I spend that first hour just kind of whatever, whether it's on social media talking to people. But I've learned that the thing that I choose, usually the first thing in the morning, has something to do with what I'm craving. So if I am on social media reaching out to people, I'm craving connection. I'm looking to talk to someone. If I am in deep research mode about something, it's because I'm in this innovative state of trying to create something, because I love to create. So my structure is based off of how many workflows I've set up so that I can have the most relaxed day that I can.
- [12:54]
B
Yeah, yeah. I think we have to identify like the thing that's going to help the thing that's going to move us in the direction we need. I know for me I need reminders. I'm a out of sight, out of mind kind of person in every aspect of my life. And so unless it's part of a routine that I've built for myself or there's a reminder or it's done automatically, it's just not going to happen. And so I totally agree with you on workflows and getting as much of that automated via Zapier and all the things. I am excited though. If you don't know about this feature, I know you're going to dig it. Slack recently came out with Slack workflows and so a lot of the things that I used to have to set up a custom zap to send me a message to do something. Like I had a daily reminder to check my community because otherwise I would just forget I had a community. Which sounds crazy, but I promise you it's not because I don't care. It's just because I'm busy and I tend to get like really entrenched in the work that I am doing. But now all of that can be automated via Slack without having to pay for an extra tool. And I think that's really awesome. I know. I also thrive on having things on my calendar and having things written down so that I know what I need to be working on. I'm curious though, with things kind of changing from day to day, like do you feel like that's harder for your team that's around you? Are they kind of used to the day being a bit unpredictable or do you feel like there's some piece of it that is for other people feels consistent?
- [14:44]
A
To be honest, I think because of what we do, I'm a service provider, so at this point now we provide more of tech and op support and my team are. They're a client facing so they have their own set of clients to work with. So it's not a thing of they are dealing with me on a day to day basis. They get up and they deal with their clients directly. So they kind of set their own schedule of how they do their client work. So luckily for me it doesn't. How I am doesn't really impact what they have to do as far as business is concerned. So they have their own way of doing things, their own methods. I mean, we have our team meetings and we have like some coworking sessions so we can connect. But other than that, they manage their day to day because I like autonomy. So I want to give people that. I don't want you to feel tied to the computer 247 or feel like you need to set a schedule to, to do anything. I want you to work with your clients in a way that works best for you. So I always tell them you set boundaries with your clients, you tell them your availability. I will never tell them for you. You know, like the overall business is mine. But when they are paired with someone, like that's between you guys, how you run your clients, how you run your client. As long as service is like the top priority, because I believe in great service, then I'm a happy go lucky person.
- [16:10]
B
I'm curious, on the tactical side, what's one system that you feel like you can't live without is a neurodivergent CEO Easy ClickUp.
- [16:20]
A
So I love ClickUp. I adore it. And it's so funny because so many people, even people who have ADHD like me, find it overwhelming at first. But for me, it's so perfect for my brain because everything lives in ClickUp for me. Everything in my CEO corner that's just accessible to me. I literally have like all my credit cards listed in there. Like, how much I owe, my credit limit, when's the due date? Because I had got to a point where I had so many that I was forgetting about them. And then I was getting letters like, if you don't use this car, we're going to turn it off. Like you haven't used it in this many months. And I'm like, oh God, I forgot about that. So I put it in ClickUp because I need visual reminders. So I feel like that is the one system I use more than anything. I am in it for everything. A lot of my automations, my hiring is done through ClickUp. Like my application is in there. I have so many automations set up around that right now. When I hire, I stick to US based in Canada. So if anyone puts that they're located outside of that, there's an automation that automatically was like set a certain status and sending them an email right away letting them know like, hey, thanks for applying, but so I try my best to limit that manual work.
- [17:40]
B
Yeah, I think it's really easy to ignore that as an opportunity. I know some people are listening to that and they're like, that sounds amazing. I love that it automatically sends the email, but they're like Getting to the point to even set up the automatic email.
- [17:58]
A
I think that's where the overwhelm comes from. It's like getting to that point.
- [18:02]
B
So living with those systems in place, amazing. Building the systems, not always the funnest thing.
- [18:10]
A
That's not for everybody. No.
- [18:12]
B
So let's talk about it. How do you make that a priority? I'm the kind of person that tends to take my top priority and procrastinate the most on it.
- [18:25]
A
Of course, of course. But for me, building a system is fun. Like that is the part that I enjoy the most, is stretching it to the limit. I want to see just how far I can go with any system that I'm in. So I literally will build a system in a day because I'm so, like, enamored. Like, I love this. This is amazing. And I want to see exactly what it can do. And I will spend all day figuring it out, setting up all the things. So that's my jam. But for me, the priority thing is never really that. The priority thing is always like a client thing that I need to do or something that's admin related on the work side that I need to do. That always gets pushed back a little later because I totally love just being inside the systems.
- [19:17]
B
Mm. As much as that may be true, there's a. I think it's called like Maslow's priority. I don't know, I can't. I don't know what the heck it's called. But essentially there's like urgent, important, urgent, not important, whatever. Ultimately, the systems you're talking about building, they are actually the kinds of things that you're supposed to be spending your time on. The things that feel urgent and important are often the things that you have to get done, but they're not actually moving you forward in any sort of like, systematic way. So you prioritizing those things, as much as it may feel like a distraction, is you working on your business and a very important piece of the puzzle. So, I mean, if anything, you should be giving yourself kudos. I think.
- [20:13]
A
I never actually thought about it like that because in my brain, the way I think about priority, I think of client work first. So that's usually my priority. Like, I need to do my client work, whatever that may be. And typically how that priority ranges is kind of like, when is it due? Like, but is it a flexible due date? Like, if I absolutely, positively have to have it done today, then yes, I will prioritize it. If it's some flexibility in there, nine times out of 10. I am going to use that flexibility and I'm probably going to work on something that my brain really wants to work on. But yeah, that's true. If it's a, a client deliverable that has anything to do with systems, I am on top of it because that's what I enjoy.
- [20:59]
B
Yeah, yeah. Doing more of what you enjoy is really helpful in the grand scheme of things. I'm curious, other tools. You mentioned ClickUp. I'm an Asana girl. Although don't, don't tell my Ops assistant. But like I literally do almost everything in my Notes app and I just go to Asana to find things. They keep the best archive of everything that's going on in the business. So if I need to find something that didn't happen more than 24 hours ago, then I go there anyway. I'm already off track. Tools, tell me some of your favorite tools and platforms that you're utilizing.
- [21:40]
A
I think that Notes app is actually pretty awesome because even I use my Notes app a lot. So that is one that I would say is actually a great tool to have on your phone, especially when you're on the go and you want to remember some things. But outside of ClickUp, I would say as far as my business is concerned, G Suite, because I use Gmail. So everything is in my drive, everything's organized in my drive. So I use it for a lot of things. Of course, Slack, because it's how I communicate. I use FG Funnels. I love FG Funnels because it's an all in one system. I think even before I got to FG Funnels, I would say systems like Honeybook and Dubsado are great because they're great for, you know that all in one invoice proposal, contract. Because I started with Honeybook before I got to FG Funnels, an email marketing system or email marketing tool. I used Mailerlite before fgfunnels because of course fgfunnels allows you to do email marketing. Another, let me see, another system that I use a lot. I mean LastPass, that's one of my go to's for password management. But I think in my business I live between FG Funnels, ClickUp, Slack and Gmail. Like those are the places I live the most.
- [22:52]
B
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- [25:48]
A
I think it's understanding how you process or. What's the word I'm looking for? Like, well yeah, process is probably the best word, how you process information. Because I use asana before I use ClickUp. But what I realized is for some reason, to me asana was like kind of boring. Like it was nothing about it that made me want to go back to it. Right. And ClickUp for me because it gave me a little bit more like creative rain to make it pretty. It allowed me to feel like I wanted to continue to use it. Like my. It drew my brain in to want to use it, to want to continue to develop it and stick with it. So it was like finding something that basically kind of appealed to the dopamine that made me excited. So it had to have a visual component to it, which was big for me. So I think it's understanding how you process information, like what works well for you. Because some people do well with just a spreadsheet.
- [26:48]
B
Yeah.
- [26:49]
A
Because that's just how they function. That's how they process information. So it's all about what works best for your brain.
- [26:56]
B
Yeah. Yeah. I'm definitely a visual person too. So things, systems, being looking nice means a great deal to me. If the workflow looks too I like techy or too like dated or whatever, it genuinely bothers me and it could seem goofy to outside people, but the way something looks is just as important to me as the way something works. So. Okay, before we get into the next section, I just kind of have to pause to, to acknowledge that I know a lot of you listening are dealing with your own set of circumstances that grow and evolve over time. Some of you are in the stage of life where you have small children. Some of you are also caregiving. Some of you are trying to leave the corporate job to be in this business. And I also just want everyone to know that you don't have to marry any of these decisions. Like all of the things you're doing to build systems in your life and in your business, they're today decisions to manage today's environment. And when, especially when those big outside circumstances change, likely it'll impact the way you need to work in your business on a day to day basis. So I just want everyone to really pause and acknowledge that. I do want to talk a little bit about though, managing a team, whether you're neurodivergent or if you have someone on your team who is like how best support them. And so what do you feel like are your strengths and challenges when it comes to talking with team members? I know you mentioned you really want to give them autonomy and as long as they're service focused, like we're good, but what do you feel like you have to be doing differently because you're neurodivergent?
- [29:06]
A
I honestly, I think one of the things I struggled with at first was delegation. But because I am neurodivergent, delegation is actually extremely important because I need to be able to delegate a lot of things when it comes to my team. It's important for me to, one, have a connection. When I hire people, I always tell people I'm very informal. I'm not when it comes to interviews. I'm not great with, like, the formalities. I'm just more of like, let me see how the vibe goes. And one thing my team always says too, is you're really good when it comes to your intuition. Like, if someone is something tells me something's off. They've even learned, like, listen to it, because I've always been right. So I follow my intuition a lot in business, and especially when it comes to people with my team having a connection, connecting with them, I want to know what's going on in their life. Like, it's not always business. I want to know who you are, what's your story, what you're going through. Because I want to support you as a person, you as a business owner. Because, of course, most of the contractors that work for me have their own business, and I want to support that. How can I help you grow even your business? It's not solely about me and what I have going on at all. So I have definitely been that person where I've reach out and ask them, how's business? You know, what can I do to support in that arena? What do you feel like you need to develop or what's the direction you're going in? So I'm really big on just kind of, I guess, developing people, in a sense, you know, developing them and tapping into the things that they're great at and sometimes don't realize that they're great at. So, yeah, that's me in a nutshell when it comes to dealing with a team. As someone who's neurodivergent, I think when it comes to other neurodivergent team members, it's easy for me to ask, like, how can I support you? And just follow through on that. But I also tend to pick up on patterns, so that allows me to understand, like, okay, this person likes the details. So, for instance, because I'm a creative and I love to come up with a million ideas every day, if I send it to a specific person on my team who is also Neurodivergent because she loves to dig deep in details. It could be very high level, very much. I just want your thoughts on just this. But she has follow up questions and it's like, because I am who I am, I'm not thinking about any of those things yet. But she already is. So I'm instantly like, why did I send this to you? Because I knew you were going to do this. Love you, but I'm not ready for this level yet. I just want feedback on what I have here. I don't want to think into this just yet. So, like, I've learned when to go to her for certain things, like when I really want to dig out the details and when to go to someone else who understands. Okay, you're just thinking high level. So from a high level perspective, this is the feedback I have for you.
- [32:07]
B
Yeah, I think it's important, like you're saying, to really notice patterns because you know at the end of the day, regardless of what sort of neurodivergency you have with another team member, you don't necessarily even need to know. Like, you don't need to know if they have a diagnosis, you don't need to know if they got something going on. But you can tell when you have a group of people all working towards things and they have their own set of responsibilities. Some people are going to struggle with certain types of tasks or certain types of management or certain types of systems. And you being willing to observe but also listen to what they're saying and what they need. And the challenging piece, I think can be that you don't always know what they need and they don't always know what they need. They just know it's not working. And so being willing to workshop with someone and say, okay, we don't know the answer, but let's try this for two weeks and just come back to it and see how it's going. You never really know what's gonna work until you're in it. And so don't feel like you have to make the best decision. You just need to make a decision. And we can always change that decision if it's not working. I definitely have team members that all work incredibly differently. So acknowledging what sort of accommodation or flexibility might need to be put in place and really empowering team members to explore what's going to work for them and acknowledge, hey, I'm noticing this pattern. Hey, I'm seeing this thing happen again and again. This is what I want to see happen. But how do you think we can get there and like worrying less about the way in which people get to the destination and worry more about what's the input and what's the output. And is the output matching your expectations? The how is far less important in the grand scheme of things. Anything else to add with that?
- [34:21]
A
No, I absolutely agree with you. I mean, I feel the same as far as my team, they all work very differently. And so there are times when it's like we come together. If something's not working, we do try to workshop it, we try to figure it out. And I am by default, I am a creative problem solver. That's probably one of my biggest strengths. You bring me a problem, I'm going to sit and try to work through it. And because I believe in collaboration, I believe in partnership, I work through a lot of things with my team that affects the services I deliver because I want to make sure that they are doing things that they enjoy. That affects the type of clients I take, because I want to make sure they're working with people that they enjoy working with. So I'm big on making it about all of us and not just me.
- [35:06]
B
Yeah, no, I think that's really important. I do want to talk about this, like redefining productivity and success though, because I think so often in the same way that we get stuck in the idea that we're supposed to act a certain way or build systems a certain way or have our business look a certain way, I think similarly, we can feel, have feelings come up around our work product and whether it was a good day or a bad day, and whether it was successful or not, whether the launch worked or not. And I'm just curious, how do you feel like you measure success now compared to what you thought it had to look like?
- [35:50]
A
Well, I think what I thought it had to look like in the beginning was it was always, it had to be attached to something. If there's a goal I need to be, I should want to be a million dollar business owner. I should want to aim for second seven figures and all those kinds of things. And what I've learned is success for me actually doesn't matter because honestly, what I also realize is I'm not money. I'm not money motivated, I'm not money driven. So I don't care about being seven figures. I care more about am I making an impact? Am I making a difference? Am I providing a service that provides value to people? As long as I am able to live comfortably, I'm happy. I'm extremely happy. So for me Success, especially on a day to day basis is not attached to numbers or it's not attached to what most people attach it to. That's why I'm horrible with KPIs. It's more attached to did I do the thing that a I said I was going to do today? Did I do something that I wanted to do? Because I'm big on not regretting. Like I will try everything once if it works, great if it didn't. So what I tried it. Because what I don't want to do is regret. I don't want to sit back and think like, why didn't I just do the thing? So I tend to make quick decisions, build out things quickly because I want to see what happens. So success for me is I did everything I tried. Like everything that I thought of, I wanted to create, I did it, I created it and I got to see it in action. And whether it was a major success or not, I was still happy because at least I tried it.
- [37:34]
B
Yeah, I think it's important to acknowledge the what motivates you, what makes you feel successful, what makes you feel productive. Because those are all different things for different people. Sometimes for me it can be as simple as being able to check more boxes than I did more things, even if one thing was massive and like it's really making this list look unbalanced because it's. There was a hundred steps in this one little thing. I had a checkbox for but two minutes in this other. And so you're going to have to figure out how that works for you. I am curious though, before we wrap up, what do you feel like has been a strength that's come out of all of this. What do you feel like makes you ADHD your superpower?
- [38:25]
A
What makes ADHD my superpower? I would probably say the fact that I am a creative problem solver. I am relentless. I tend to see things that most people don't see and I tend to think in a way that most people don't. So it allows me to workshop problems pretty easily. But also creatively, you know, I can bring systems or flows together that most people wouldn't think of because my brain is like always going, it's just going. And it's like, what if we did this? What if we did this? And it's funny because even when I do strategy sessions, sometimes I do a strategy session, I have another team member on the line with me because I know how I am every now and then I cannot tune in the way people think. Like if I'm not looking at you and I'm looking at my other screen and it seems like I'm not paying attention, but that's how I process. So I tend to process in that manner and come in literally. It's like out of nowhere. I'll be like, I got it. And you'll be like, I thought you weren't even listening. Of course I was listening, but I was processing. But I was also doing the work because in my brain, as you're telling me your problem, I'm workshopping. I'm trying to figure out how to solve it and I'm doing a little bit of research, so I'm bringing it all together. Then I'm going to tell you, you can do this, this and this. Like, that's literally what I do extremely well.
- [39:49]
B
Yeah, really quick on that point before we go. Do you ever tell your clients, specifically because you mentioned that, like, it may look like I'm not paying attention, but I am processing. Do you clue them in on what that looks like to process information or how. What a meeting might look like or how things might be different with you?
- [40:14]
A
To be honest, I've actually never had to clue them in.
- [40:19]
B
Okay. They just now. Yeah.
- [40:21]
A
Like, when people talk to me like from jump, like from a discovery call, I'm very transparent in who I am and how I work and what it looks like to work with me. But most of my clients, because they've seen things in action, they already trust, like, the process, they trust the flow and they know how I kind of maneuver. So I never had to sit and full on say, okay, this is what it looks like for me to process information. They've kind of just trusted and just watched and seen how everything comes out. So it works really well. But, yeah, I've never had to do that.
- [41:01]
B
I think everyone's a little bit different. And some of you may, and some of you may not, and that's okay. Yeah. You calling it out is never. I never want someone to feel like doing so is flawed in some way like that. It makes you less than. I recently had someone who was talking about someone else. They came to me. I can't remember exactly the situation, but they had heard someone on a stage speaking and they said it really bothered them that they kept looking up and I can't remember if it was to the left or the right. It's honestly irrelevant for the story. And I was like, oh, it's funny you say that. And like, they were like, genuinely annoyed by it. And I was like, well, did you know it's a massive part of memory recall to look up into whichever direction it is, I would do it by default. So I don't. I don't even know. It's just a reflex. And so I'm like, I imagine they're probably a little neurodivergent and they're just. That's the way they think. And it visually comes out on their face like that's just part of it. But that doesn't make them less intelligent, that doesn't make them less capable, that doesn't make them less knowledgeable. The way they access information or process it out loud may be different, but they can be just as productive just as an expert as anyone else. So I just want people to know, like, you don't have to change yourself, change your brain. To succeed in business, you can build systems that work with you, work with how you work. Whether that means you identify as a creative or someone with ADHD or OCD or some other neurodivergency, you get to decide how you're navigating this. And you can create a more inclusive company culture by allowing people to see and understand that there's a reason behind this and you're also willing to do it for them. It matters more than ever to be transparent and upfront with it. And I want people to know that regardless of how it all shakes out for you, it's important. Like you creating an environment that works for you, that you will succeed in, that's the most important part. I don't really care what kind of business you're building or how much money you're making or what success looks like to you, as long as you've built an environment that you can thrive in and you're happy and you're healthy and you have your needs met. Amazing. Like, that's success to me. So thank you so much for being here today, Latrice. I would love for people to have the opportunity to connect with you online. So where can people find you? Tell me you have a podcast too.
- [43:48]
A
Yes, well, actually, I. I did. I did two seasons. I was a co host. It was unconventional CEOs, so we talked a lot about being neurodivergent and running a business. So it's still on Apple. It's still on Spotify too, I believe. So that's something that we had maybe about a year ago. So it's not something that's fully active right now. Definitely something I may revisit in the future, though, as far as how to find me, I am on LinkedIn. Or Facebook under Latrice Prater. Those are the two places I typically spend my time. Of course I also my website the dstagency.com but I am pretty easy to find.
- [44:32]
B
Amazing. Well, if this episode made you feel seen, please share it with a friend. Screenshot what you're listening on Tag us over on Instagram. Tell us what systems you might be working on or a change that you're going to make that you're excited about. We're here to support you and excited to see all the things that it turns into. Thank you so much for listening and I hope you come back and make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss the next one because we always got new good content coming out. Hey, a few quick favors before you leave. I'd love if you'd share today's episode, send it to a friend who needs to hear it, and post on social. You can show us where you're listening from, your favorite takeaway, or why someone else should listen. Be sure to tag me at Abigail says and ossproject so we can share it. Okay. Second favor to get podcast updates and all the behind the scenes news from Boss Project. I'd love if you'd join my VIP list. Just head to bossproject.com signup to make sure I have all your contact details. Really love this show. It would mean so much to me if you'd leave a rating and review. It not only helps more listeners find the show, but allows us to bring on quality sponsors so we can keep bringing you this valuable content for free. Thanks so much for listening. Until next time.