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Welcome to Make More Money Without Selling Your Soul. The podcast for bold entrepreneurs ready to simplify scale and reclaim their time. I’m Polly Lavarello, Evergreen scaling strategist and cushy business pioneer. Join me and my occasional guests as we explore the themes of wealth, selling and well-being, because building a business that works for you changes everything. Let’s dive in.

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Hello and welcome to make more money without selling your soul. Today we are talking about how I run my multi six figure business with my ADHD leaning brain without burning out. So I’ve talked on similar themes before, but you know what? It’s been a while. I think my first ever podcast episode was, is ADHD really a superpower? And it’s still one of my most listened to podcast episodes, and it’s been shared, I mean, in so many places to this day, it’s still one of my most listened to episodes, and now it’s almost three years old, so I thought it was high time to record another episode, particularly now that, you know, my business feels in its mature season. You know, it’s been six years and six years, a lot of growth and a lot of stuff happening in my life to navigate alongside. And I guess you know what, more awareness as well more understanding as to what it is to be neurodivergent. But please, let me come with the standard caveats which I shared last time, which you’d think three years on I would have finally got this sorted. But no, I am still not diagnosed. Both my children are diagnosed autistic. My daughter is also diagnosed. ADHD, we highly suspect my dad is also autistic, as well as my brother. And you know, let’s face it, if anyone has helped their child get a diagnosis, you will know the depth of detail one has to go to to help that child get a diagnosis, so the level of awareness that one has after they’ve done that process not not good enough to diagnose yourself or others, but certainly, I guess the one recurring thought that came up for me as I was filling in, you know, do they have any hyper fixations? Do they have any weird hobbies? I was like, I loved Elvis as a child. I mean, that was weird, but isn’t that normal? Aren’t we all like that? Oh, oh, was kind of where my head went. So, yeah, so obviously, take everything I’m saying with a pinch of salt. I’m not a psychologist. I’m not an ADHD expert. I would never want to claim to be. I’ve seen those charlatans and those cowboys. I do not want to ride in their pack. But the truth is, you know, as you can imagine, in the online space, a lot of people who choose to run their own businesses have the hyper focus to study that hard to get there in the first place, have the tenacity to kind of stay it out and have the desire to avoid boardrooms like they are allergic to them, because very often there can be some neuro divergency there too. Now I’m not saying all online business owners are neurodivergent, but I will say the ones who are often very attracted to working with me. Now I’d also work with neurotypical clients, but a lot of my clients are diagnosed as ADHD, and certainly my ability to understand how they think, my ability to understand how I navigate things, and then help them understand how they can too, has really been a really fruitful part as to how I support my clients. I’m not here with you know, here’s the rule book, here’s what you have to do. I’m very much about helping my clients design a business that works for them, that works around their needs, and those needs have looked really different. Sometimes I have clients who are caring for elderly parents. Sometimes I have clients who are parents to additional needs, children, very time pressed, very stretched. You know, I have two kids, as I mentioned, who are diagnosed, and that is very intensive for me outside of work, and I also have clients who just love doing all the things, and they’re making money, but it’s not feeling great, and they’re wanting me to help them find a way to still feel like they’re doing all the things, but in a way that isn’t leading them to burnout, because they do recognize there is a correlation between the desire to be everywhere, do everything you know, promote all the stuff, and also a sense of regular overwhelm, sense of regularly teetering on burnout and recognizing it’s not the way forward. But what is the alternative when rigid structure makes them want to vomit. So let’s get into it. Shall we? So this is what, what works my brain. Please just take what resonates. This isn’t a diagnosis. Episode, it’s a this is how I make my business work without burning myself into the ground. Episode, because, believe me, I did that really early on. So my. My North Star since then has been like, literally the opposite direction from burnout. And if ever I see any sneaky little habit getting in the way, pulling me back, I readjust, I readjust my sales. So let’s talk first. I think the biggest sticking point for a lot of business owners is the tension we can have around structure. You know that is like skin crawling constraint. Most people want to run to the hills when they think about having a strict timetable. For example, starting the day on Monday and every hour being scheduled in with a certain task to do can feel really overwhelming. However, what we know is nearly the first thing anyone will ever ask you, particularly if they’re a strategist, is, where are you Where are your hours going? What is the ROI on those hours like? Where is your attention going? What are you getting back? You know, because nearly every business I ever worked with will have some kind of time drain somewhere. They’ll have some tasks that they’ve told themselves it has to take five hours, when actually perhaps it could take an hour, or it doesn’t need to exist at all, or the thing you’re only spending 20 minutes on, if you spent an hour on it, you’d get vastly different results. So one of the most immediate things a strategist can always play with is your time, because money. You know, I am the first person to not, you know, I know there are some mentors out there who’ll say things like, put it on your credit card, you’ll make it back. That is not my vibe. That’s never been my vibe. It’s very connected to myself. My values how I’ve always managed things. I’ve always been like, no, if you have enough time, use the time. If you have more money, then start using the money. But you know, time. Time is the thing we have immediately if you want more money, let’s get that bit working. But it can strike the fear of God into people, because the moment we start thinking about being efficient with time, we’re, frankly speaking, particularly to ADHD is to one of their biggest weaknesses, you know, time blindness. I know I have it. I know one of the things I learned really early on, and I recorded an episode on this about how I, you know, how my team support me and how I support them. I talked about the fact that for a while I used to say, if I am overestimating the time frame within which we can do this, please just tell me. And then eventually, what we realized was more effective was to simply triple the amount of time I thought was necessary for a task to be done, and then just schedule it in as that. And then look at our priorities across, you know, the month and see what really needed to be done and what didn’t based on real timeframes, not the kind of crazy fast ones I was expecting. So that can be, you know, time blindness obviously impacts not only us, but if you have team members, it can impact them too, and that can put a real strain on relationships, and it can mean the quality of the work that you’re getting from them is also a bit rubbish because it’s rushed, because they might potentially be trying to please you rather than actually do a job well. So there’s so many mistakes that can happen as an ADHD CEO, but at the same time, like I say, the moment we think about, well, you know, can we just manage your time better? It can feel really overwhelming. So let me share with you what I have done to run a very structured business that I don’t experience as restrictive.

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So here it is. It’s a very simple principle, and actually it’s the first principle my first ever coach, Imogen Roy, shared with me, and it has stayed with me ever since I’ve occasionally deviated from it. And then it’s the first thing I reinstall when I find myself feeling overwhelmed, feeling like tasks aren’t finished feeling like, oh, just another hour, then I’ll come and join you. Oh, you know, you take the kids out for a walk this weekend. I need to stay in like those words don’t come out my mouth anymore when I stick to this one principle, and that principle is I never do more than two to three tasks per day. Now, obviously they are meaty tasks. I’m not saying I write three three newsletters and job done home for the day, but it is things like so for example, actually, I’ll share with you in a moment what that looks like. But let me share why this matters. One of the things that can exhaust us the most is decision fatigue. I mean, like I say, whether you’re neurodivergent or diagnosed or not, a lot of this stuff will be relevant regardless, right? So just, just have a listen to this decision fatigue I get. So, like, I often wear very I wear jeans and cotton tops, like, nearly all the time, except when I go out, and then I really dress up. But a lot of the time I’m just wearing a really simple combination of clothes, because I just don’t like making decisions. And I, you know what? I’m embracing it. You know, Steve Jobs did it, sod it. I’m joining that club because it’s just, it’s just where my joy is, you know, and if I do too many things at the end of the day, I have what I refer to as fried egg brain. You know what? Let’s throw in perimenopause. I’m about to turn 40, and I definitely have been dealing. With brain fog more than previously, and so managing my mental load has been more important than ever. So you know, it’s really important to understand that very often, in business and in life, however long we give ourselves to do something, is the time that we’ll do it in. But the problem with being ADHD and craving spaciousness is that we can often be like we’ll just be in hyper focus, and we won’t be looking at the time, and five hours later, we put our head up and we’ve just written one newsletter, and that is just that is slowing your growth. So clarity over three tasks just really creates spaciousness. But I’m going to introduce you to my weekly structure as an example, so you just get a sense of what I mean by that. So Monday is my kind of CEO day. I have no calls. I get to go make up free lovely. I review my data is so important. You review your business, it’s very easy to not review it. So I kind of swallow the frog and do it first thing at beginning of the day. It’s the least sexy thing I do, but it means I can see, are we growing or are we declining? Have we got more leads coming in? Have we got more sales coming in, have we got more conversations coming in, or are they going down? What are the trends? What are the patterns? What can I be doubling down on for more success? What do I need to be ditching? Are there any overhanging tasks from last week that need resolving this week, all of that kind of juicy stuff, and, of course, checking in with my team. For that same reason, I always check in with my one to ones on a Monday to make sure that they equally when they’ve reviewed their data, if they have any questions, like, Oh, I’ve noticed this week that my call discovery calls have gone down. I’ve been doing the same thing. So what can I do different? Like, so I’m there to make sure that we nip that in the bud and that they’re confident about the week ahead, or if their funnel suddenly starts spitting out crap leads, or whatever it is, I’m there to kind of jump in and make sure that they are set up for a successful week ahead. I also, of course, after reviewing data, do any other kind of follow ups, any follow ups with inquiries, any follow ups with leads, any follow ups with people who are organizing events for me or whatever. We just make sure that it’s nice and tidy so that come Tuesday, my week isn’t already nicely laid out and I can focus Tuesday to Thursday being my client days on no more than three calls per day. I also, by the way, only have one day per month where I do podcast interviews with clients, not with clients. Who am I talking about with guests? So talking about brain fog, so that, you know, because again, I found having, you know, doing a coaching call and then jumping onto a podcast, my brain was just doing entirely different kind of gymnastics, and it just wasn’t working. And it felt really weird to jump from host to mentor, so it just made it much tidier. Having it all on the same day, sometimes we can almost tell ourselves stories that, if you have you know, like you only allow one day per month that your guests will come on the show, that that will result in less people wanting to be on it. 

But that has not been my experience, and it now makes it way more efficient. And again, I don’t have more than three guests, because any more than three guests, I need to go lie down for a week. Learnt that the hard way. So there’s a lot of things, by the way, through trial and error, that I’ve had to learn. My capacity may look different from your capacity, but what’s really important here is I almost took pride in the past of really stretching my capacity and being like, well, you know, I can do five calls, so why wouldn’t I? And what I’ve really had to recognize is just because I can doesn’t mean I should. And finishing the day feeling really tired is not the goal. Finishing the day still feeling resourced, able to play a board game with my kids, able to read my son a book at nighttime, able to then be present for my husband, or go to a yoga class or whatever, like that stuff really matters. You know, we only live once. Think I almost saw it as like a kind of little prize to be exhausted and fall asleep on the sofa once I finished work. Like, no, that’s not a prize. So Tuesday to Thursday, no more than three calls per day, nothing else demanding, because everything else is scheduled because of the batching I do in one week per month, which we’ll go into now. So also Friday, by the way, is like my just free day, I often go for a sauna. I’ll go meet up with somebody local who also has an online business, so we can natter about that. Sometimes I do the odd productive thing, but I generally try to keep that day available for me and available for fun and available for friendship, because my weekends are spent with my kids, like who like you say, particularly my daughter. She wants my attention a lot of the time, which can be quite tiring, so having Friday to resource myself is really, really important. And then one week per month, I have no calls whatsoever, unless someone’s interested in working with me. And occasionally I might book and allow a call like that, but no client calls so that I can batch my podcast episodes or my solo episodes for the month ahead, sometimes longer, batch my newsletters for the month ahead. So I always do this in the last week of the month, so it’s always quite fresh, and batch my content for the month ahead as well. So that’s all done within probably about two days, two and a half days of that week, and then. I still have freedom and spaciousness around those days, because sometimes I also use that week to be a week where I go off to a conference or similar. So basically, there’s a lot of flexibility in my structure, and at the same time, there’s a real focus to it as well, which means, while I might not be doing a lot, the things I’m doing move the needle, and also, because I don’t overwhelm myself with calls where, say, a premium one to one client reaches out to me and needs my help, I still feel well resourced to respond and really be of service, which before, when I was dealing with more things in a day, let’s say I’m recording five podcast episodes. Do you think I could respond to a one to one and be really helpful in that state. I just wasn’t at all. Okay. So another thing to talk about, you know, in terms of, like, consistency with marketing and how to do things in a way that feels interesting, right? Because that’s another challenge people can face, is like, Oh God, the moment there’s like, structure and solid rules, I just want to smash them all Smithereens and run away and go live in the woods and feed goats and just live my free life, mostly naked, covered in leaves. 

I mean, I get it like I’ve been there in my mind, but things like this podcast, for example, is a really good example of my ability to be consistent where I wasn’t previously, but I probably wouldn’t have been consistent. Had I hired a studio, had I hired a videographer? Had I had some rigid strategy? Had I had some rigid structure as to how I recorded each episode? Had I decided, Oh, it’s a year I’m promoting x, y, z, so the themes of all these episodes need to be exactly the same, the fact that it’s so relative to what I’m feeling in the moment and what I feel is relevant and relevant and relevant to the conversations I’m having, means that I genuinely enjoy it’s almost like a little diary entry, and I really enjoy doing it, and that is how I’m still here. So you know, are there better practices out there? Have I heard people say, do you know you can have that next level impact if you went some shiny studio and recorded that there? Yeah, I could. But you know what, maybe this laid back way of doing things is what you’ve come to know me for, and maybe it’s not, but I guess I don’t care as awful as that sounds, because ultimately what’s more important to me is I know in terms of return on investment that it’s very rare anyone chooses to come and work with me without citing that they listen to my podcast as part of their decision making process. They might not say that directly, but they’ll say something like, oh my god, I just spent a weekend binging your podcast, and then I just knew we had to have a conversation or similar, right? So, you know, like, I guess this is a reminder to you, if sometimes you’re putting something off because situation isn’t quite perfect, just go do the thing anyway and figure it out. Like, maybe the thing that you’re not doing is the very reason why? Maybe you’re a big fat permission set for somebody else to do something similar, right? So, you know, Don’t over complicate it. Speaking of like decision fatigue, that’s another thing I’ve done with my events. Like my events, I did at one point move between various venues, and in June, when I do my desk detox day, I do vary the venue. But when it comes to my mastermind days, they’re always hosted at Hotel divan in Brighton. This is not a hotel demand promotion. It’s just that it’s a nice hotel. The food’s always good, the service is always friendly. The venue is luXy. I like the lighting there. It’s quite dim, and it just feels special. And even though it’s at the same venue, I have people who’ve been to like, I mean, they’re quarterly, right? And there have been people who’ve been coming to nearly everyone now for the last two to three years. So again, my invitation to you is so often we do things that over complicate what we’re doing, and it’s just unnecessary, like the venue is lovely, the people who come are always different, so the experience is never entirely the same, and it just means that I am not tired by running these events, because now it almost feels embarrassingly easy. I just email them say, hey, looking to book in the same kind of event on this day. They’re like, who? What’s the numbers? What’s the allergies? Tell us all the things. Here’s the form to fill in, and it’s just done. They’re not like, can you come down? Can you have a look at the space? I’m having to ask those of questions. I’m not getting there and finding out that something’s missing, because nothing kills an event more than like getting there and finding out something really integral isn’t working. And I’ve been at those kind of events before. A lot of the priorities with my business is around efficiency and not having to balance too many again, the mental load, right? And so that means I don’t want to have to hire a whole team to help me host my events, because again, I’m then less likely to do them as often like maybe at some point I’ll run a larger event, and I’ll feel the need to have somebody else help me coordinate it. But for now, it’s simply just my assistant who makes sure all the menu options are in, that everyone’s got their details that they need, making sure everyone knows where to go on the day via email, but that’s all done remotely on the day. It’s just me, and so this makes it really manageable. 

So again, I’m just like, just take a moment to think about where in your life, where are you over complicating things? Where are you making your life unnecessarily difficult? Where can you make it easy so you can do it more regularly? Because again, those in person days have helped enormously with client. Attention and helped enormously with referrals or bringing new people into my business like they’re really, really effective. So look at where you can bring more simplicity into your life. And finally, well, almost finally, yes, no, these are both around the same theme. I took notes earlier because, you know, ADHD and my propensity to go off on tangents. Finally, boundaries and protecting my nervous system. So there are just a few very practical things I’ve done, which I didn’t always do from the beginning, but which I’ve recognized I need to do to have a regulated nervous system. So I don’t open my laptop after dinner. I put my phone away once I go downstairs for dinner, I’ve now actually bought a padlock, because while I’d like to say I was perfect at the two things I just referenced, I’m not always and as I noticed myself almost kind of like a reflex going to reach my phone, particularly during the working day, actually, it’s more to do with the hours I’m working within, where I might go on to message someone and then get distracted, and then half an hour later, I’ve been watching reels of kittens, and I’ve achieved nothing. So I now have the padlock device, which is a bit like the brick, and it’s there to kind of ensure that when I do use social media, I use it productively. So, you know, if you have to get Opal or brick or padlock to help you in your focus, then I recommend you do that. You know, because, of course, social media is an integral part to how we work, but I certainly have used it as an excuse to use it more than I should, because that’s the thing as well, right? We’re living in an awful world right now, and I can find myself going on to post something, see something horrific, and then just want to give up and just go back to bed. Not helpful, right? So, yeah, have strong boundaries. Okay, this isn’t about productivity, always. 

Sometimes it’s about emotional containment. The other thing I do is I look after myself, and I’ve had to be really aware of what is supportive and isn’t supportive, like I say, particularly as I kind of enter perimenopause, and I’m more aware of my neurodivergency, I’ve learned that I am highly sensitive to caffeine, which I was totally trying to ignore for approaching 40 years of my life, but I now only have the occasional matcha. I don’t drink coffee anymore, which is really hard to say out loud, because I love coffee, but I’m realizing it needs to go. And it’s a relatively recent thing, the no coffee. It’s been two or three months, which is why it sounds so raw, but it’s what I realized is necessary. In the last month, I’ve started on an anti inflammatory diet. I can’t tell you how much more focused I feel, how much calmer I feel. Probably should also mention that, you know, I have had like chronic health autoimmune issues since long, covid. So this isn’t always necessarily connected to neurodivergency, but I do know there’s a big crossover between chronic illness and neurodivergency. So just thought I’d throw that in there. I take my magnesium every night. I also take saffron every evening, and oh my goodness, it’s been amazing for my mental health. Again, not health advice, just my experience. And I take L theanine or CBD when I’m going into a situation that might make me feel anxious. I also have a sauna at home, not not a fancy one, right? Just just the kind of sleeping bag version of one, but it does the job. And a plunge pool in my back garden. I have a little red light mask I put on at nighttime and lie on my Shakti mat. So I kind of have, like, life KPIs. In some ways, I am kind of disciplined in that, you know, my evening is almost as structured as my working day, not too many things, but certainly a handful of non negotiables that help me feel resourced, relaxed and replenished. I also make sure that movement is a non negotiable. I factor in walking, going on my rebounder. Don’t go to the gym as often as I should, but that is something I’m focusing on doing more of this year. 

Because the thing is, when I’m not well resourced, I don’t just feel worse. I lead worse. I make worse decisions. I don’t hold space as well. My sensitivity goes up to like 1000 and, you know, like, my empathy levels have always been really high. I can feel everyone’s feeling in the room, and it can feel really heavy, but by doing the things I’ve just mentioned, I can manage those things more effectively. So yeah, rest is a non negotiable. Taking care of yourself as a non negotiable. Being clear on your priorities is a non negotiable. Like, for me, I love reading with my son every night. Like to me, he won’t always want this forever. He’s going to be 10 this summer, and I know that I’m like, I’m running out of time to do these things. So reading with them, playing board games with them, taking time to listen to my daughter and all the challenges she has at secondary school every day, taking time to be with my husband, catching up with friends, like all of these things. And it’s so hard, right? As a woman, the mental load is so freaking heavy, so finding ways to support you, and I guess what I’m sharing with you today isn’t like go and do what I said, go and order yourself some magnesium and get yourself a Shakti mat. It’s not that by any means, but it is about finding your tools that. Work for you, and in some cases, that may look like hiring an ADHD coach or an ADHD psychologist, or, you know, leaning into charities and their communities and learning more about what is going to be supportive to you. As they say, if you meet one neurodivergent person, you’ve met one neurodivergent person. We are not all the same, but I hope from listening to this episode, you’ve at least taken a moment to think about, what are my non negotiables? What are my life? KPIs, how am I measuring the performance of my life and ensuring that, you know, I’m not just saying I want things. I’m making time for those things that I desire. I’m living in alignment with my values. You know, if one of your values is, you know, for me, I know, for example, if I was stuck in some brightly lit podcast studio that I just spent a lot of money being inside, I would probably freeze up, and these conversations wouldn’t feel so natural. Recording them from my home office just means I talk to you like you’re a best friend. And I think that’s why some of these episodes land so well. 

So just because it works for other people doesn’t mean that’s how you need to do it. And you know, being perfectionistic everywhere is another thing that leads to burnout. So take care of you. Take time to understand what supports you. And yes, that may look like some difficult decisions, like me giving up coffee, but believe me, like how I’m feeling right now, I feel so resourced, so rested, so excited for 2026 and I guess, really importantly, a million times more resilient, because I feel resourced. And Lord knows, when you’re running an online business, you need resiliency. So yeah, whether my tips have been helpful or whether they it’s encouraged you to just do a little life and business audit of your own to figure out how you make your business neurodivergent friendly. I hope you found this episode helpful. If you have, please share it with other business owners you feel it’d be helpful for please give it a review that helps my podcast reach more people, and I’ll be in your ears next week with another episode, this time on what it means to be an authority in 2026 and essentially how to AI proof your business.