It's results day for me today for my ILM Coaching & Mentoring qualification, and even though I'm not quite there yet, my assessor gave me some really good feedback. Because I'm a client short, I knew that I was never going to pass this time, but I still had to put in what I had already done, and my assessor said this: "Your response so far is excellent, James. You have considered to such a detailed extent the benefits that were realised by client one. Please do the same for client two, and you could also account for how the coaching activity with your clients benefitted you, too. Great work so far, please continue with this high-quality standard!" Having this type of feedback from people who are already respected in the field is really reassuring me that, even though I know I have more to do, I'm still going in the right direction and that the quality I'm delivering is exactly what I had hoped it would be.

In the UK we have The Dragons Den, but I think in the US, there's a similar programme called Shark Tank, and one of the well known sharks is a woman called Barbara Corcoran. Now, obviously, I don't know Barbara's story, as well as I know her UK equivalents, but apparently, Corcoran failed her way through school. Dyslexic, restless, one of the children that the teachers wrote off, and by her own account she had twenty jobs before she turned 23.. any of this sounding familiar? Then she started a real estate company with a $1,000 loan and a boyfriend who told her she'd never make it without him. Wrong. She built The Corcoran Group into one of New York's biggest real estate firms, sold it for $66 million, and became one of the original Sharks on Shark Tank. She wasn't diagnosed with ADHD until she was an adult. Not as a teenager struggling in class, not as a young founder hustling her first listings, but well after the business was already built. But here's the bit I think matters most 🤔 Barbara doesn't talk about ADHD like something she had to overcome, but talks about it more like it's the fuel that drives her. The risk-taking, the fast decisions, the refusal to sit still and wait, none of this was her overcoming her brain, but was merely her brain, doing exactly what it does, finally pointed at something that fit. It kind of goes back to one of my previous posts, reaffirming the whole point of the care label, not the worn one. Nobody ever needed to see "ADHD" stitched on the outside for her to succeed. She just needed to stop trying to operate like everyone else's brain — and start building around her own. If you would like to read more about Barbara's story, and some other inspiring entrepreneurs who think differently, then click here 👈 And here's a question for you, where in your life are you still trying to force your brain into someone else's system, and what would it look like to build around it instead?

I want to ask you something, and I'd love to hear your honest answer in the comments. Have you ever had a moment — completely unplanned, almost accidental, where something stopped you in your tracks and made you think "Why couldn't I do that?" 🤔 For me it was hearing a piece of music from another room, and after following the sound, what I saw on screen made me think "how hard could that actually be?" Eighteen months later I was working on one of the highest-profile productions the BBC had to offer. As a former landscaper, with no computer experience beyond invoicing, no plan, no contacts, and no relevant expereince, all I had was acuriosity, a willingness to learn differently, and, if I'm honest, an arrogant fact that I had no other option. I know now, that the accident that ended my business turned out to be the redirect I didn't know I needed, so here's what I'm genuinely curious about ? Has a setback, a redundancy, an accident, or an unexpected life event ever forced you into something that turned out to be better than what you'd lost? Did you see it coming? Did you fight it at first? And what was the moment it shifted from feeling like an ending to feeling like a beginning? Drop it in the comments. These are the stories that actually help people who are sitting in the middle of their own uncertainty right now.

With us sitting in a heatwave this week, I feel that my focus is hitting a little differently this week, and honestly, it feels like it's really matching my energy perfectly right now. 🔥 Ironically, straight after an enlightening call first thing this morning, came another one in the form of our NeuFocus Coworking session, and as I was chatting with @Angela Walker , telling her how much May has been a crazy month for me. → Got my formal ASD confirmation. Clinically AuDHD. Official. → Finished my university coaching classes. Done. Moving into practice. → Had some health scares, which are all good thankfully, but really helped put a perspective in place. → Focused on what I wanted from, and wanted to offer clients my business, for both my businesses. → Created two new websites for my Neuthinking & Buzzin.Digital brands (love to know your thoughts) So, as you can see, everything has been turning up at once, but instead of shutting down like my brain usually does when it gets overwhelmed, I've decided to lean in, and embrace the chaos. You see the thing nobody tells you about AuDHD, is that when the conditions are right, we don't just cope, we strategise, we confront, we adapt, and then we catch fire. So I'm using it, and I'm doing something a little different. One thing I've realised before is that I hate waiting. Not for any other reason than, when I start something, I get addicted to the dopamine and the momentum, and so I am looking to share my excitement, my development, my learning, and my fire with you all. My plan is for me, and anyone who wants to join me, to get UNLOCK'ed in under a week. £147. 5 spots. Starts Monday 1st June. Six daily 1hr coaching sessions. Private sprint community on Skool. Daily live coworking, in addition to existing ones. The result is to get one thing shifted in five days. Flash sale closes Friday midnight, and after that, this community will go back to normal. I promise that there wont be any other pitches, sales or anything from me, so this is just for any of you that are interested ? No obligations.

Ok, let me be honest with you all first. Last week wasn't my most focused week. I had the intentions, I had the plan, but if I'm being real, a good chunk of it was feeling productive rather than being productive, and then life through some proverbial spanners too. I know that you know the what it's like.. We plan. We get busy. Movement is definitely there, but it's not always necessarily forward, or in the direction of the initial plan. However, one thing that I have learnt as I get my coaching qualification is the power of reflection, and refocus. So here's the question I'm sitting with going into this week: How much of your week is actually moving your business forward, and how much is just feeling like it is? There's always a version of busy that looks good from the outside but when you look deeper, it often feels a little hollow from the inside. Most entrepreneurs I speak to know exactly what I mean, which is why I'm doing something about it. Starting this week, I'm running NeuFocus coworking sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and I want you in the room. No mucking about. No excuses. Just focused work time, alongside other people who are serious about actually moving forward, not just looking like they are. So, if you've been meaning to crack something, start something, plan something in your business and keep pushing it to next week, then its time to do something. This is your next week. 💪 Answer these two questions in the comments below, and before you go: 👇 What's the one thing you keep meaning to crack but haven't yet? 👇 And are you in for Tuesday? Drop it below, and let's make this week count. 🔓