2315: Episode 500
There isn’t any magic to any one specific episode. But, wow, you all, if you had asked us in 2010 if we had any idea that we’d still be doing this show twelve years and 500 episodes later, well, suffice it to say we’d be as gobsmacked then as we are now for having made it that far.
And we made it so far because of all of you, listeners, study hall attenders, coachees, brain players, and ADHDers who have been riding this podcast train with us, no matter how long you’ve been on board.
This episode is just a bit self-indulgent. We talk through a bit of history, we share a clip or two from the early days, but mostly we celebrate with you, thanks to your numerous submissions sharing what The ADHD Podcast means to you.
Thank you. We love you. We love this show, and we love doing it for you.
Pete & Nikki
Episode Transcript
Brought to you by The ADHD Podcast Community on Patreon
Speaker 1: (singing)
Pete Wright: Oh my God, 12 years. Woo.
Nikki Kinzer: Oh, my-
Pete Wright: Happy birthday.
Nikki Kinzer: Yeah, happy-
Pete Wright: Wait, that's not quite right.
Nikki Kinzer: No.
Pete Wright: Hey.
Nikki Kinzer: Happy 500.
Pete Wright: 500 episodes. I would have listener Brian sing me to sleep any night of the week.
Nikki Kinzer: That was awesome. That's the first time I've heard it. That was so good.
Pete Wright: So good.
Nikki Kinzer: Thank you, Brian. Oh my gosh, that was fantastic.
Pete Wright: That is my biggest regret of today's show is that I have already heard all of the listeners' submissions, voicemails, and wonderful messages that I don't get to experience it with you for the first time. That makes me sad.
Nikki Kinzer: I know, but you need to not be the producer and editor of this show.
Pete Wright: I am.
Nikki Kinzer: But unfortunately we're not like the-
Pete Wright: That's kind of the model.
Nikki Kinzer: ... Yeah, we're not the ... Who else would do this on TV?
Pete Wright: We're no Gimlet Media.
Nikki Kinzer: Yeah.
Pete Wright: We're no NPR.
Nikki Kinzer: Right. So we don't have the surprises, but I will. I will.
Pete Wright: That's right. You will. You get all the surprises. That is the benefit.
Nikki Kinzer: I know people can't see this, but I have a fancy celebration hat on today.
Pete Wright: So fancy. Oh, it's just glitter and gold. So happy 500.
Nikki Kinzer: Yeah, wow.
Pete Wright: 500.
Nikki Kinzer: That's fantastic.
Pete Wright: What are we doing today? We started thinking about how we wanted to actually have this conversation, and first, always open with a song, so we've done that.
Nikki Kinzer: We did that.
Pete Wright: We were going to talk a little bit, just reflect a little bit about the roads-
Nikki Kinzer: To get here.
Pete Wright: ... that we've traveled with this show. And in the process we did ask, no, no, I feel like we should out ourselves, we did ask people if they had thoughts about the show to please submit them and send us voicemail, voice clips, whatever they wanted to do. And two things happened. One, it's possible we didn't ask early enough. Possible.
Nikki Kinzer: True.
Pete Wright: Two, it's possible many of you in our audience have ADHD. And so those two possibilities aligned, and we got a lot of them like last night [crosstalk 00:03:13] record this, which is amazing. It's like, it is just a resonant chamber of my brain, how this whole thing came together. So we did delay the show a little bit. This is coming a little bit late. We took an unintentional break so that we could put all of the stuff together. We just wanted to have episode 500 in the library as something where we just really get to-
Nikki Kinzer: Special.
Pete Wright: ... celebrate and listen to your wonderful voices. And we don't have that on all that often. And we just, it was important to us. So first, our in most deep thanks for everyone who took the time and overcame the procrastination as you have told us in the community and actually submitted these things because it's really special-
Nikki Kinzer: It is.
Pete Wright: ... and it means it is the world to us. So, where do you want to start?
Nikki Kinzer: Wow. Okay, so let's see. How did this show get started, Pete, right? You probably don't remember because when we were about this before about the outline and I told you my story, you were like, "I don't remember that," but that's on brand. I could have said that.
Pete Wright: Well, that was back in the day where anybody could ask me a question, I would say, "We should podcast about it."
Nikki Kinzer: That's right. So what happened? When was our first show? In August of 2010?
Pete Wright: March 22nd, 2010.
Nikki Kinzer: March. Okay. All right. So it must have been earlier in the year, at the very beginning of 2010, when, because at the time I was an organizer and-
Pete Wright: You sure were.
Nikki Kinzer: ... I was. I was a professional organizer here in Oregon. And there was a colleague of mine who was also an organizer was asked to do a local radio show once a week to give advice, to do organizing Q&A. And she had asked me if I wanted to do it with her, because she thought it might be more fun to have another person too. And I remember talking to you about it. I'm like, "Pete," because I talk to Pete about everything. I don't do anything without Pete. So I run things by Pete and I said, "Hey, this is the opportunity." And you're like, "Hey, no, that's too small." And at one point I remember you saying, "You should be on Oprah." I don't know if you remember that, but you're like, "You should be the organizer that's on Oprah." But you were like, "No, that's too small. We should do a podcast." And-
Pete Wright: I feel like that really encapsulates our relationship over the years, which is, you have great ideas. And then I come back and tell you, "Great, now let's do more of that. Make it bigger. It's great and too small, let's do a bigger thing." And so, here we go, 12 years now.
Nikki Kinzer: Yeah, it's true. And you're like, "You can do this on your own. You don't need somebody helping you doing it."
Pete Wright: Yeah.
Nikki Kinzer: And yeah, so you were pitching the idea of a podcast. I had no idea what a podcast was, because remember this was in 2010, not many people knew what a podcast was in 2010. It's certainly not like it is now. And so honestly I was like, "Okay, that sounds like a great idea." Because a lot of times I do that too, because you're like, "Yeah, let's do this." And I'm like, "Okay, that sounds great."
Pete Wright: Yeah.
Nikki Kinzer: But what was interesting is that I honestly didn't realize that it was something that was going outside of just my website. I thought it was like-
Pete Wright: That was a ... Do you remember when you realized that?
Nikki Kinzer: I think it was when we started getting comments from people. And so, because I really thought it was something that was just going to be on my website like a blog, because at that time too video blogging was starting to get interested.
Pete Wright: Because of YouTube?
Nikki Kinzer: Yeah, and that faded out even. And so I really thought, "Okay, well, people are going to listen to this, they're going to find it on the website just like my blog, that's fine. No big deal."
Pete Wright: Yeah.
Nikki Kinzer: But I think it didn't really click with me until we started getting some feedback from people. And in the early days we had some pretty loyal listeners. And so they would, there was one person who worked at a university and I remember she was great. She'd always email us with ideas. And so that's when it clicked that, "Okay, this is a bigger deal." But one of the things that I really appreciate you about Pete or appreciate about you, Pete, I guess that makes sense.
Pete Wright: I'll take it.
Nikki Kinzer: Is that it never felt like I should be nervous. So it wasn't something that, "Oh, I'm in front of all of these people live." So there was never that nervousness of speaking in front of a bunch of people, because it always just felt like it was a conversation between you and me, and people listened. But I didn't know that they listened.
Pete Wright: Yeah. It is the most amazing thing about podcasts. And it was still, I had been podcasting for several years. I think my first podcast went live in 2006, and so we had already experienced the sort of euphoria that comes from being no one and having people start tuning in regularly, and in our case, drink beer with us. And that was it. That was the most ... I realized we have collectively a set of skills that I think we could possibly use that to not just drink beer, but maybe help people. And so I remember being really excited about this. And also because at the time, you and I were not talking about ADHD, even with each other.
Nikki Kinzer: Oh, no.
Pete Wright: I don't think I had told you that I had ADHD. I didn't even know you had had an interest. I don't think you knew you had an interest in it.
Nikki Kinzer: I didn't. No, no, that's exactly right. Because I don't think I knew you had ADHD until we actually started talking about ADHD more as we got, and we'll talk about this as we go from the branding change, but I really don't remember you ever even telling me outright like, "Oh, well, I have ADHD. That's interesting that you want to learn more about it." I think it was in one of our shows where you just started talking you had ADHD and I figured it out.
Pete Wright: Yeah.
Nikki Kinzer: Yeah.
Pete Wright: That was it?
Nikki Kinzer: Yeah.
Pete Wright: You know what, we need to start peppering in some of these voicemail, because they're wonderful.
Nikki Kinzer: Yes.
Pete Wright: So first, let's hear from Alison.
Alison: Hello, Nikki Kinzer. Hello, Pete Wright. This is Alison [inaudible 00:10:03] calling to thank you for creating this podcast. 13 years ago at age 46, I was diagnosed with ADHD, but I only really began to understand myself and the impact it had on me after I discovered your podcast just a few years ago. Thank you for helping me understand that my ADHD way of doing things and my quirky workarounds are okay. While listening to the podcast, I've loved the many aha moments realizing I'm not alone, and laughed at myself and the colorful detours my mind can take during any given day. You've made my ADHD learning curve informative and a lot of fun. Thanks guys and happy 500th show.
Nikki Kinzer: I don't know how I'm going to get through this without crying.
Pete Wright: No, you're going to be a mess.
Nikki Kinzer: I don't think I'm not. I think I'm going to cry.
Pete Wright: You're going to be a mess.
Nikki Kinzer: That's awesome. Thank you so much, Alison.
Pete Wright: Your best way.
Nikki Kinzer: Wow.
Pete Wright: Okay, so we did the show, the first show that we did was on the office closet.
Nikki Kinzer: Yes.
Pete Wright: Why? Why did we start with the office closet?
Nikki Kinzer: I don't really remember why.
Pete Wright: Is that a thing that people were really asking you like, "Oh, God, I need help with my office closet."
Nikki Kinzer: No.
Pete Wright: And we thought, "Hey, this is going to be a real banger for the archives."
Nikki Kinzer: Again, you have to remember, I had no idea what I was doing. I really didn't know. I thought we were doing a blog and we were just talking about it. So no, I don't know why we chose that. I really don't. And one thing I do want to just put some context in is about how you and I started working together.
Pete Wright: Okay.
Nikki Kinzer: Because I think that's important too, because you really have been with me since day one. Pete and I, we met up in Portland and we went to the same church, or we started going to the same church at the same time. And there were a group of us who were all around the same age and who were all starting their families. And it was a wonderful time because we all bonded and we all, and I just feel like it was a really special time in our lives to have such good, good friends. And yeah, it was great. So I never really knew what Pete did. Pete probably didn't know what I did, because when you met me, I was a stay-at-home mom.
Pete Wright: At the time I remember I could ask my own wife, what if she could describe what I did and I don't think she could tell me.
Nikki Kinzer: Yeah. But when I decided to open up an organizing business, which all stemmed from looking at article in the newspaper, it's weird how things work. I was reading this article in the newspaper, it was about a ... I'm sorry, a pharmaceutical rep, that's what my husband was. It was about a professional organizer and when the local paper tried to do a search on somebody that they could interview here locally in my town, they couldn't find anybody. I don't know why. I thought, "Hey, that sounds like a great idea." I've never been that organized myself really. It's fine. Good, I guess, but-
Pete Wright: Yeah, I guess, do you know what? Because I got my master's degree in organizational design, and so it's very HR focused business degree. And so I knew that you too had gotten your degree in HR and had worked in HR at my bank. And I thought, "Okay, so you must have a very organized mind, this is going to be great. You know what, no notes. We're going to be fine."
Nikki Kinzer: Yeah.
Pete Wright: For some reason, all those things baked in together just perfectly.
Nikki Kinzer: Oh, I probably just thoroughly disappointed you because that just wasn't-
Pete Wright: Never thought twice about it. Never thought twice about it. And the things that I have learned from you, I still apply. Believe it or not, my office closet is what it is because of our show.
Nikki Kinzer: Our very first show. Oh, that is so funny. Well, and I do remember, so we had moved down to Eugene, which is about two hours away from Portland. And when I got this idea of opening up this professional organizing business, I contacted you and I said, "Hey, I think you do something with websites maybe."
Pete Wright: Yeah.
Nikki Kinzer: And you were like, "Oh, I can totally help you." And you were so encouraging. You're like, "Oh, you could totally do this, and we can totally," and that's just where everything like went from there. And that was back in 2008. And then we had this podcast idea. Why we did the office closet? I have no idea. I think in my mind I was probably just thinking what would be something that is small enough that we could get through, but would have key points that people could take away with is probably what I was thinking. So I don't know. I haven't listened to it in years, so let's hear this. I want to hear it.
Pete Wright: Yeah, do you want to?
Nikki Kinzer: Uh huh.
Pete Wright: Let's just hear how we introduced that show for a minute.
Pete Wright: Welcome to Taking Control everybody, the inaugural episode of the take control home organizing podcast. My name is Pete Wright and I'm here with TCO proprietor, Nikki Kinzer. Hello Nikki?
Nikki Kinzer: Hi Pete. Welcome everyone to the show.
Pete Wright: This is so cool. Right? You're internet famous already. I'm sure.
Nikki Kinzer: I know. High technology that I can do this from my home office.
Pete Wright: I know it's wonderful. And I can say things like, I'm sitting here with Nikki and it's like a complete fraud. [crosstalk 00:15:41]. I probably shouldn't have said that. I'm pulling back the curtain a little too much. The purpose of this show as we have been discussing over the last several weeks is really an extension of the popular Take Control Organizing blog that you've been running for several years now, which has a library now of wonderful organizing tips and tricks and processes and forms you can download. You've been so active on the blog. And what we're trying to do here is, add another dimension to what you can get from Take Control Organizing, to the resources and the tools that you can receive [crosstalk 00:16:21]
Nikki Kinzer: Well, you have a lot to say, Pete.
Pete Wright: Apparently I do. Shut him up, I can't do it anymore. What do you think? I, first of all, sound like I had to. Do I always sound sick, perpetually ill?
Nikki Kinzer: No, I sound like I'm an airplane pilot.
Pete Wright: We reach our cruising altitude.
Nikki Kinzer: Hello.
Pete Wright: Does it take you back? Do you get the little shivers of, "Gosh, I remember where I was that day?"
Nikki Kinzer: No, because I actually really don't remember the actual recording.
Pete Wright: I know.
Nikki Kinzer: No, I just, oh my gosh, the recording was awful and I sound like a mouse. I'm so sorry, I sound like a mouse.
Pete Wright: It's just, we've come a long way. And technology has changed. At the time we were recording through Skype.
Nikki Kinzer: Yes, we were. Yeah.
Pete Wright: Everything was done through Skype and we had a tool called Skype call recorder, or call recorder for Skype from Ecamm software. And I think they still make it, but Skype has made a lot of changes over the years. We have since moved to Zoom and do all of our recording locally on our local machines. So it's, technology has changed dramatically. Certainly our microphones have changed dramatically. The way we record, our preparation has changed.
Nikki Kinzer: Oh, everything.
Pete Wright: Everything has changed so so much. And I don't think I ever realize or take stock in how much things have changed until I go back and listen to episode one. That's, we've come a long way.
Nikki Kinzer: Wow, we sure have.
Pete Wright: Can we listen to another voicemail?
Nikki Kinzer: Please, let's-
Pete Wright: This one's coming from across the pond.
Speaker 5: Hello, Nikki. Hello, Pete. This is [inaudible 00:17:59] from Germany. And I wanted to congratulate you on your 500 episodes that you have put out there of your podcast. And it took ... I'm very happy also for Melissa who apparently sent one message after the other on Patreon that we were supposed to hand in our audio recordings. And I really, really wanted to, but I feared that I wasn't worthy. Hello? No, but the thing is, I feared that I wasn't ... Well, I had some issues putting my thoughts out there. And my first attempt was actually already a nine-minute episode of me just talking, but I think didn't get my point across on why I wanted to send this recording. Nonetheless, I'm very happy for me being in Germany, and this is already Tuesday morning and hopefully the time zones, if I got them right, do still allow for me sending in this recording or submitting this recording.
Speaker 5: What I really like about your podcast, Pete and Nikki, is, that you show such a diverse range of interview formats, if I may say. Let me explain to you what I mean. When I click on an episode, I never know, do you have an expert which apparently is well known in the American or in the whatever realm of ADHD research? And you've got many so many questions that you can ask them, or you talk more or less on the same level, because you also apparently all know each other. But at the same time you come back maybe with people who are basically just in your peer group, more or less, who you just think, "Oh, well, we haven't talked in a while, let's just push recording and talk about what you can share and what we can share."
Speaker 5: So basically it doesn't really feel, sometimes it feels very scientific or very well thought through. Everything about your podcast is apparently well thought through, at least it looks like that or it listens like that. But at the same time, you also have the various spontaneous of a very relaxed atmosphere in which you just have a space of talking about ADHD and everybody contributes what they have. At the same time, you also, what I really like is, and I'm talking about the example of the first Indian ADHD coach, you put, they way you use your podcast and we all learn, and we, the listeners or I as a listener and apparently you as an ADHD coach, Nikki, or the podcast of Pete, you eagerly listen and you get to know the person while doing the podcast epic show, and you come up with the questions. You obviously prepare a lot for that, but it feels like we are all going on the journey of listening to the expert that you've invited, not really knowing what they have to tell you because, and this is what I think is very interesting also.
Speaker 5: And on last but not least, there are so many episodes and where it's just you, the two of you exchanging ideas. Sometimes Pete has got more of the lead on the topic, and in other sessions it's Nikki, and Peter's more or less questioning or asking or in the background, which I think is the nicest. And then you come up with all the connection to the listeners, which you apparently in the last month, at least I observe, are doing such a great job. And Pete, you nailed the one with the ... Oh, that was my dog. Pete, I think you nail the strategy, not strategy, but you nailed the connection to your listeners the way that you phrase it, the way you put it out there. When I heard my name some time, I think, in March or so, in which you started to actively shout out the names of your Patreon supporters, I think you are doing an honest job. You're doing also a job, but more or less because this is your job and I really appreciate, and I really just want, I'm very happy for being a Patreon to your podcast, because every dollar that I spend is one of the better ones, I think.
Speaker 5: Take care, all the best from Germany, all the best from a very happy listener to your podcast and a very grateful [inaudible 00:22:33] who just sends all the love and all the vibes. Congratulations. Good bye.
Nikki Kinzer: Oh, wow.
Pete Wright: I know.
Nikki Kinzer: All right, tears are coming.
Pete Wright: That was wonderful.
Nikki Kinzer: It's so surreal. Isn't it? To hear that, and that he's talking about us.
Pete Wright: Yeah.
Nikki Kinzer: It's just-
Pete Wright: Yeah, it is. It is surreal. I am just so grateful every single day for people who are taking part in the discussion, and frankly helping one another. We were talking about the office closet, and back when we were doing this, the first many, many episodes, our show was an easy library episode where people would find it based on whatever the topic was in the subject line, but wouldn't really take it to the next level. They might pick and choose. They'd listen to it. We'd have spikes in those early days where you'd see somebody found the show and downloaded every episode from Poughkeepsie. But we wouldn't have that baseline of people who are engaging with it. And it was only, I think when we started up the online community just a couple of years ago, that it really became real for me. That there are people out there who are listening and trying things that we have done ourselves and practiced, and we wouldn't talk about it if we didn't try it ourselves.
Nikki Kinzer: Right. Or if I didn't talk to my clients about it, right.
Pete Wright: Yeah, exactly. And so it is just really gratifying to see the action happen, to see people test things and help one another. And watching that sort of self support in the community has been tremendous. Tremendous.
Nikki Kinzer: Wow.
Pete Wright: Let's talk a little bit about the transition.
Nikki Kinzer: Yes. Okay, so this was an interesting time period. I had two particular clients who I worked with locally, who were both professionals. One was a financial advisor and the other one was a franchise owner of a fast food restaurant. And they had originally hired me to come in to organize their work, because they both hired me for their work, and workflows, and time management, and things like that. And basically catching up. They both had a lot of backup and stuff that they needed to do.
Pete Wright: Right.
Nikki Kinzer: And so when I went in there and we started organizing, but both of them had ADHD, and what I found was the conversations we were having were less about organizing and actually doing the physical space, but it was more about talking about systems and processes. And one particular person with the franchise of the fast food restaurant, he was a big fan of yours, Pete, because he was very technical oriented. He really liked technology. He really liked trying new things. He's the one that introduced me to what mind mapping is. And so he really resonated with that. So we would talk a lot about that.
Nikki Kinzer: And what happened is, as an entrepreneur, which I didn't even really know I was an entrepreneur until this all happened, I really fell into it. But I started looking at these two clients and I thought, you know what? I really love the work I'm doing with them, because it's going beyond just organizing. It's also really helping them with their workflows and making their life easier in ways that is more than just organizing space. And it's also giving them a lot of support with congratulating them when they got through a pile of files, or whatever it is that we were working on.
Nikki Kinzer: And a light bulb hit where I thought, I really want to explore ADHD coaching, but even at that point, Pete, we really didn't go straight into coaching because I just started learning more about ADHD, and our show in the last, what, maybe a year before we switched, it had a focus of ADHD. And so, there was this piece that I felt like, "Well, I'm a professional organizer with a specialty in ADHD." And as a business person, I thought I want to flip that. I want to become an ADHD specialist with maybe a specialty in organizing.
Pete Wright: A specialty in organizing, yeah.
Nikki Kinzer: And that's where it started. But then as I started getting certified and going through all the courses and going through that process of becoming an ADHD coach, realizing very quickly how much ADHD is affecting all pieces of your life, it's not just the space, there's so much more that's going on, that I really just wanted to be an ADHD coach who helps adult with ADHD and college students came a little bit later.
Pete Wright: Yeah.
Nikki Kinzer: And so it was a hard decision to make, because at that time our show was highly rated, because there wasn't a lot of podcasts. There wasn't a lot of competition, and we were building an audience, and remember you would send me these little snapshots about we were in the top 10 or something that like that.
Pete Wright: Yeah, we'd be in top 10 podcast and we'd start getting details from like the ... Because there was really only the iTunes store at the time.
Nikki Kinzer: Right.
Pete Wright: There wasn't a Spotify, there wasn't a Google Podcast, there wasn't, you just didn't have other opportunities really. You just listened to an Apple Podcast. And so, we'd get those bumps all the time. We'd spend a long time in new and noteworthy, right?
Nikki Kinzer: Right.
Pete Wright: So we got a lot of just drive by traffic of people looking for resources. And there wasn't a huge market for answering the kinds of questions we were answering at the time.
Nikki Kinzer: Right. Well, and when I came to you to talk about this, I remember there was some resistance from you because you're the podcast guy. So what you're seeing is you're seeing these numbers and you're seeing, "Hey, we're doing really well. We're getting a lot of this information out. And I will be transparent. 95% of marketing is through this podcast. Almost all of my clients come from listening to us." And so there was also a lot of importance around that too. "What happens if we change?" And nobody in the ADHD world really cares.
Pete Wright: Yeah, they don't want your help. They don't make that leap.
Nikki Kinzer: Yeah, so there was a lot of going back and forth. And I remember being in the hot tub, we have a hot tub and I was looking, we live behind a mountain, and I was looking at the mountain trees, and I was just thinking, meditating, praying, whatever you want to say. And it just came to me like, "Nope, this is where I need to go. This is where I need to be, is I need to continue this path of being an ADHD coach, get certified. We need to rebrand everything and take that chance because this is who I want to serve." And I remember how lucky I felt when you and I started looking at names. And all we had to do was switch the organizing to ADHD, because Take Control ADHD was available for everything.
Pete Wright: Yep.
Nikki Kinzer: And then at that moment, I'm like, "That's, it's meant to be."
Pete Wright: There was a time in the early, that switch was a massive commitment. And I don't know if you remember this, but those first 100 some odd episodes, it became clear very quickly how hard it was to create content every week, to do this. And so, as I scrub back through the episodes up to 163, there were a lot of episodes where we did one episode in a month, where we took months off, where we just didn't, it was just really hard to muster the energy. And I don't think you had made that transition to this podcast is going to be a part of the business apart from this podcast is an experiment.
Nikki Kinzer: Well, no, I didn't make that until after I got all done with my education, because see-
Pete Wright: The certification, yeah.
Nikki Kinzer: ... there was a year and a half back in what, I've been certified now for almost six years, so there was a year and a half where I was doing all school stuff. So I had the podcast, I had a few clients, and then everything was around ADHD coaching and getting certified.
Pete Wright: Yeah.
Nikki Kinzer: I dropped everything. I was only focused on that. So it wasn't until after I got certified that I started thinking, "Okay, how does this transition to be part of my business?" And it very much is. You've got, to me, there's the coaching, individual coaching, group coaching, the podcast. They're all three, very, very important.
Nikki Kinzer: And like I said, the podcast is marketing for me in a lot of ways, because what's so great about the people that I've worked with, and I hope they would say the same thing, is when they inquire to work with me, they already feel like they know me. And that really is great because that builds a trust right off the bat. And I am who I am. I'm not any different on the show than I am as an individual coach. And so it's been such a blessing to build my business.
Nikki Kinzer: And the other thing I want to say is that when you blog as a coach, when you blog and you have to research content, and you listen to experts and you interview them, you are top of your game when it comes to ADHD. This is what allows me to keep learning, to keep being open about what I hear. I keep learning from my clients, from our experts, that I feel is so valuable because it makes me a better coach, because I'm in it. I'm in it all the time.
Pete Wright: So we opened with the good and kindly Brian and his musical number, but he also did submit a wonderful voicemail message. So let's start with Brian. We'll listen to a couple right now.
Brian: Nikki, Pete, this is your favorite off, off, off, off, off, off Broadway, understudy Brian from Maryland, wishing you a happy 500th episode. Congratulations. And by the way, I'm going out for this new part in this new play called Shocktato. I'm really hoping to win the part of Pete Wright's right arm. So Pete, if you have any advice you could give me, if I could pick your brain at all, that would really awesome. Congratulations.
Pete Wright: Let's see, actually touching.
Nikki Kinzer: The Shocktato.
Pete Wright: It does have batteries in it, but I'm not going to turn it on.
Nikki Kinzer: No.
Pete Wright: No.
Nikki Kinzer: No.
Pete Wright: Sorry. I always, I leave it closed. I think it's important to be closed. Want to hear Chris?
Nikki Kinzer: Brian is lovely. Oh, what's that? What were you going to say?
Pete Wright: No, I'm going to roll through a couple here.
Nikki Kinzer: Oh, okay. Well, I just want to say though, we have to give a little bit of reference about the Shocktato. You can just bypass that, because people are going to be listening like, "What are they talking about?"
Pete Wright: I know.
Nikki Kinzer: So during the livestream, and this is a great reason to join Patreon at five dollars because you get this kind of stuff. It's after the show and we're talking about the Shocktato, which is this potato that's supposed to shock you. And Pete's fiddling around with it, trying to figure out like, "Oh, it's broken," whatever.
Pete Wright: I thought the batteries were dead. I thought the batteries are dead. But what I wanted to do more than anything was play, hold the speaker up to the microphone so you could hear, it is the music it plays while it's wait ... It's like a hot potato game. Right?
Nikki Kinzer: Right.
Pete Wright: That's the whole idea. And if you are holding it when the music stops, you get shock. And I had it on the three modes that it's on, it has our lame, normal, and extreme. And I had it set the switch on extreme. And so I was holding the thing up to the speaker, because I thought the soundtrack that it plays is the music, the theme song to Psycho.
Nikki Kinzer: Of course.
Pete Wright: And I wanted Nikki to hear that. And I didn't notice that my pinky was on one of the little shock plates. It wasn't on the plastic and it shocked the crap out of me.
Nikki Kinzer: Yes it did.
Pete Wright: And on the livestream, my right arm went numb and-
Nikki Kinzer: And you jumped back.
Pete Wright: It's really, it is a product that should not be sold. Yeah.
Nikki Kinzer: Yeah.
Pete Wright: It's not sold anymore. If you can't find the Shocktato in this current form, I don't think anymore. I think it was recalled. It's not a good product.
Nikki Kinzer: I was crying.
Pete Wright: Anyway.
Nikki Kinzer: It was so funny.
Pete Wright: That was very, very funny.
Nikki Kinzer: All right.
Pete Wright: Let's hear from Chris.
Chris: Hi, this is Chris. When I first got diagnosed about roughly five years ago, I had my diagnosis and medication, but I had no information and I didn't know what I was dealing with. So I just started researching, trying to find all the various resources that I could. Podcast Taking Control was one of the first resources I found. And at the time for work, I was commuting about three hours a day. So podcasts and audio books helped me pass the time. And still to this day, the information I got from the podcast has been the largest resource and the most amount of education that I have received. In fact, I think it's fair to say that most of the other resources that I ended up discovering via books or websites, or what have you, came from information I got listening to the podcast.
Chris: Without what I learned, listening to Pete and Nikki and their guests, I would still be so far behind in understanding my ADHD. I am eternally grateful to everything they've done, everything they've taught me, and making me realize that it's okay, and that I'm not defined by my ADHD, and that not only am I not defined by it, but I can actually manage it and succeed with it and embrace all the positives that come with it. The positives of ADHD were not something I was even aware of in the beginning. It was a really tough journey. So even having that information to hand made it easier for me to navigate through the learning process of my diagnosis.
Chris: Nikki, you're amazing. The information you provide is amazing. And I am so grateful. In addition to that, when the Discord channel started having access to a community, people who were going through the same journey, or be it individualized for each of them, it was very comforting and reassuring knowing that there was a place I could go when I was having those tough days or trying to navigate through something new that was a struggle. Being able to have those other people comment and reassure or validate what I was going through was amazing for me. So to the community as well, I thank you. My life was changed for the better by the podcast and it continues to be so to this day. Thank you.
Pete Wright: I got to say it is, you talk about relationships you build online, I'll say this about Brian and about Chris, and we've got another one coming up from Ellie and from Matt, these people have become important to me personally. I know from my inner interactions with Chris in the community and in happy hour, that he's been going through crazy stuff. Some wonderful, wonderful stuff after some really hard stuff and just is, I just can't underscore that enough. I think sometimes even when I listen to podcasts, I listen to my favorite podcast and the hosts don't know me from anybody, but once I was in the community and once I start having those relationships, I can't underscore how important these individual humans are to me. And that I think about them when they're not present. It's just the weirdest, weirdest reality that this kind of relationship exists, the podcast relationship exists. And it's an incredible community.
Nikki Kinzer: Well, it's the community, for sure. And I think, again, when you always have these ideas and I'm always like, I don't know. And I remember when you first told me about Discord or Patreon, and you were like, "Yeah, it's like public radio, what we're doing is we're asking them to donate to us." And you're explaining it to me and I kept thinking, "But we're what we do, we're doing it for free. Why are we asking for money?" This is a very honest conversation we had back and forth. And I felt bad. And I was like, "No, I don't think we should do that." And we didn't for a while, for a long time after you brought it up. And then you brought it up again and I guess my mindset changed. My mindset shifted from, it's not about just asking for money, it's about building a community, and it's about supporting the show so we can continue to do what we're doing and keep getting better at it, I hope, and keep being able to offer things that we couldn't have offered without having that support. But it's that community.
Nikki Kinzer: Once you sold me on the community and I started seeing how people talk to each other and the different channels, because we evaluate all of that stuff all the time. What are we going to ... How can we serve these people the best way that we can? And what do they need? What do they need from us? What do they need from each other? And to be able to see the conversations and their interactions. And I think it's not just about us caring about them or them caring about us, it's them caring about each other and really, we will be done with happy hour, and we'll have to go, and they'll be on happy hour for three more hours after we leave. So that and-
Pete Wright: It's what a good happy hour is anyway, right?
Nikki Kinzer: It is really, right?
Pete Wright: You got to close down the bar.
Nikki Kinzer: Yeah, but that connection. And I would say that when we look in the future, that is the thing I want us to keep building. That's the thing I want us to really focus on and keep getting people involved and welcoming the new people. Because I think that I don't want anyone to feel like if they've never been to a happy hour or they've never been on Discord, I want them to reach out and I want them to get comfortable with it, because it is such a valuable resource and anything that we can do to keep building that. And that's really a mission for, I think both of us going forward if we really want to keep building this community.
Pete Wright: Yeah, let's check in with Colette.
Colette: Hello, Nikki and Pete, this is Colette from Scotland here. I am quite a new listener and I wanted to leave a clip for you guys to say how much I appreciate the podcast. There's so many, there's such a great wealth of different topics that you have covered. And it is unlike any other ADHD podcasts I listen to in the sense that there are so many practical tips. You guys have such good chemistry together. You have such good suggestions. Nikki, you have obviously a vast amount of experience in working with people with ADHD who do present in the typical way and not just the standard diagnostic criteria and type presentations. And Pete obviously you have ADHD yourself and it's just refreshing to hear your experiences as well. And you two, like I said, have such good chemistry. And I will continue listening and supporting on Patreon. And just thank you for all the work you do.
Pete Wright: First, how delightful is it that this entire thing so far has been a parade of accents?
Nikki Kinzer: Oh yeah, absolutely love it.
Pete Wright: It's amazing. I listened to that last night and I was laughing. Colette, you're wonderful. And when you say, "Nikki, you are clearly an expert and you have so many strategies and Pete, you- "
Nikki Kinzer: "You clearly have ADHD."
Pete Wright: ... "clearly have ADHD."
Nikki Kinzer: I love that. I love that. What a ... And what I love about that too is she's a newer listener, so thank you so much for doing that and sharing your thoughts with us too, because that means a lot. And-
Pete Wright: And for calling it like it is, Colette. Calling it like it is.
Nikki Kinzer: I think that's really one of the things though that I love about the show so much. And I think is why we are successful, is that we do play off really well with each other. And I don't know how this would work if we didn't have each other to do it like the ... Well, if you are going to leave the podcast or I'm leaving the podcast, the podcast is over. There isn't any. We're in this together.
Pete Wright: I think we are. Can I just say in a moment of vulnerability, I think my relationship with you, I count on it as a real sort of aspirational role model relationship for me, having a dear friendship with a woman who is not my wife.
Nikki Kinzer: Right.
Pete Wright: It's hard to do that for a lot of people.
Nikki Kinzer: Yeah.
Pete Wright: And especially as we get older. And I have to say, it's just been special to me. We've had dark, highs and lows, and tough times, good times, and bad times. And it's just really special. I count on it as a real high point in my life personally, that you're around and it's just really great. So I appreciate that. Can we hear from my friend from Minneapolis?
Nikki Kinzer: Yes.
Pete Wright: Hi Ellie.
Ellie: What I love about the show is that Nikki and Pete are so personable and so warm, that listening feels like a conversation with your best friends. You always feel like you're in on the joke, even if it's your first episode. On top of that, their Patreon community is one of the nicest and most supportive corners of the whole internet. Here's to 500 more episodes.
Pete Wright: Oh, I'm raising a glass right now.
Nikki Kinzer: Oh, yes.
Pete Wright: Oh, I just love it.
Nikki Kinzer: Yes, yes, yes.
Pete Wright: Thank you. Ellie is my NaNoWriMo buddy.
Nikki Kinzer: Yes, Nano Nano.
Pete Wright: And we are cruising along in Nano Nano, and-
Nikki Kinzer: That's right.
Pete Wright: ... that has been just really, really great. And has been, and I would say, and I think Ellie has been along since the beginning of the whole Discord Patreon thing, because she's just been super valuable in her community building piece. And I know she's been very busy with so many things in life, school and family, and that she's still around through good times and hard times is a real celebration.
Nikki Kinzer: It's what I love too about some of the people in the community, they can come and go, because obviously we're not always available. Right?
Pete Wright: Yeah.
Nikki Kinzer: Well, people that have lives, and so they're not always checking Discord.
Pete Wright: Yeah.
Nikki Kinzer: But what's so nice is to see somebody pop up and say, "Hey, I haven't been here for a while and this is what's been going on." And it's just really cool to see.
Pete Wright: How about Lynn?
Lynn: Nikki and Pete, this is Lynn Warner. I'm so grateful for this podcast. As I was going through the process of diagnosis for me and my kids, I was desperate for information, but also totally overwhelmed by it. The way you talked about ADHD and that it seemed so much more approachable and survivable. Hearing you laugh as you talked about the kind of challenges I've had all my life was so reassuring. Since then I've done other programs with Nikki and learned how valuable ADHD coaching is. And thanks to you, I became an ADHD coach myself this year, and now I get to share in the joy of helping other people understand and accept their ADHD. You've been so valuable. Thank you so much.
Nikki Kinzer: Yay.
Pete Wright: Lynn is not the first person in our community, or I should say, is not the only person in our community to have gone from listener to coach.
Nikki Kinzer: Coach. That's right.
Pete Wright: That's something to be really proud of.
Nikki Kinzer: Thank you. Well, and I'm so proud of them because, man, we need more. We need more coaches. We need more people out there helping the community in any way that they can. So absolutely, that's awesome. And Lynn, she's going to be great. She's going to have a great, great career.
Pete Wright: She's going to be great.
Nikki Kinzer: Yeah. Awesome.
Pete Wright: Fantastic. So you want to talk about our first guest interview?
Nikki Kinzer: Well, because I just think it's funny. When was it? What was the date that Laurie came in?
Pete Wright: Oh, it was, we'll see, of course, of course.
Nikki Kinzer: I think it was in January of some year. I don't remember when.
Pete Wright: 2016.
Nikki Kinzer:
- Okay. And we had started the show in 2010, so we had six years of just you and me, Pete.
Pete Wright: Yeah.
Nikki Kinzer: Wow.
Pete Wright: It took a while to figure out how to get a guest. And what's really funny is that Laurie, we're talking about Laurie, she's still around, she's a member of our cohort. She's been on several times and she's coming back very soon.
Nikki Kinzer: Yes she is. So it was very good timing because she was our first guest and then she's coming back. And her first show was about medication and she's going to be coming back talking about medication, so yeah. Do you have a clip? I'm just curious what it sounds like.
Pete Wright: I do. I will tell you what it sounded like. Let me buzz into it a little bit. I want to try and find, I have just the whole episode here and it's an hour long episode. We're not going to play the whole thing. Let's see what happens.
Nikki Kinzer: I think most of the experiences that I've seen with clients is that's like the first treatment, right? They get the diagnosis and the doctor immediately wants to talk about medication.
Laurie: Yeah, it is. I think it's also what prevents people, honestly, from getting a diagnosis, but you do need a diagnosis to be prescribed ADHD medication. And I like that you mentioned, Nikki, that people are at different phases and stages, and medication is not something you do it once and you-
Pete Wright: Do you remember the first time just thinking about how you do an interview? Was that daunting for you?
Nikki Kinzer: God, I'm so ignorant. Ignorant is so blissful for me. Because I never have, and probably people have listened to this and thought, "Yeah, that's obvious, Nikki. Of course, you haven't done any courses or classes about interviewing with people. That's not surprising." But I've always tried to just stay authentic. And I always feel like if I do too much research or if I do too much like, how should I do this? Then I self sabotage myself, because then I start thinking too much about questions. And I start thinking about too much. And so I try to go into it with just a conversation. And you were really good about that because you always said, "We're not going to tell our guests what we're talking about." You can tell them the topic, but we're never going to give them a set of questions. And that's always been so helpful for me, because I probably would have done that. I probably would have gone through and say, "Okay, here are the core questions we're going to ask." But I think-
Pete Wright: Well, it's counterintuitive.
Nikki Kinzer: It is.
Pete Wright: It's counterintuitive. You want to bring guests on and make them feel warm and prepared, so they feel like they're confident and know what they're talking about. But they'll write a script and then they'll read it, and they'll get flustered when you ask a question that isn't on that script. And so we've always had a guideline of being just a conversation show. And here's a broad topic, and there are a few beats we might want to hit specifically, but generally, we don't even say that. And our guests have been amazing from Bill Dodson to Dr. Hallowell, to Laurie, from day one, it's been broad topic, get ready. And I think the show is better for it. I think the show is better for it. And the conversation's better for it.
Nikki Kinzer: I would say that the one person that I was most nervous about was Dr. Hallowell. I was really nervous about doing that interview because he is-
Pete Wright: Well, he's a legend.
Nikki Kinzer: ... he's a legend, he's the expert. He's wrote the book that most people read the first time that they're diagnosed. And so I was really a bit nervous on that one. And I remember really trying to mind map where the conversation might go and what kinds of things I wanted to hit. And of course you get into the conversation and it becomes just as easy and normal as all the other ones. And he was so pleasant and gracious. And that's the thing that I have found about all of the really famous experts that we've had the honor to come on. Russell Barkley.
Pete Wright: Russ Barkley. Yeah, you go from saying, "Yo, Dr. Russell Barkley," to "Russ" in a very short order, such a chill guy.
Nikki Kinzer: Oh, my gosh. He surprised me. He surprised me on how open he was and just comfortable. He just really made us feel comfortable. So, it's great.
Pete Wright: Well, I would say the same thing for Ari Tuckman, right?
Nikki Kinzer: Yeah.
Pete Wright: Ari being such a player in the ADHD community and the ADHD event space, and not to mention an incredible practitioner in the space himself, we've had him on a number of shows, and he's the only one, the only guest in our history in 12 years that I've done a solo show.
Nikki Kinzer: I know.
Pete Wright: Well, because you couldn't be there. For some reason at the very last minute, I don't even [crosstalk 00:52:33]
Nikki Kinzer: I was sick.
Pete Wright: You were sick. It was sick day.
Nikki Kinzer: I woke up that morning vomiting violently. It was awful.
Pete Wright: And Ari's schedule was such that it was going to be very difficult to reschedule and we were trying to do, it was just a last minute thing, and so I did the show alone and it was a dark void in our history, because you weren't there.
Nikki Kinzer: But you guys did it.
Pete Wright: We did okay. And I think I just always think about that a lot because I'm very grateful to Ari for coming on the show and not having the ADHD coach present, but also having, I think, a good conversation about lying and ADHD. And I hope was useful for folks. That was a fun episode for us. You want to hear, this one's a little bit longer, it's a couple minutes from down under, you want to go down under?
Nikki Kinzer: Yeah, of course.
Pete Wright: To a land [crosstalk 00:53:23]
Nikki Kinzer: Another accent, you bet.
Pete Wright: Yeah.
Matt: Nikki Kinzer, Pete Wright good day. It's Matt, your favorite real time Australian. Well, Colin Hay's Scottish, so. All right. Look guys, congratulations on a huge milestone, reaching 500 episodes. What a journey for both of you. You started off with your baby in 2010 and you've grown and you've transcended the podcast by into now, what is a living, thriving and nurturing community? The evolution from a podcast that had a very specific purpose in the past, to a podcast and a social media platform that delve into the broad spectrum of ADHD, from the outside perspective, it's been a wild road. But I hope that it's one that's brought you both much joy, satisfaction and has provided some validation for all of the hard work that I'm sure you've invested over the years.
Matt: While in the beginning, you were perceptive to the needs and the community that existed, 500 odd Discord members certainly solidifies the positive impact your show brings, and the desire and the need of people to connect in new ways. Whether it's the issues or struggles that our ADHD brings or just having a place to celebrate, the strengths that make us unique individuals in our own separate communities. You have our gratitude for being brave enough to extend your footprint beyond a podcast.
Matt: The podcast first really came to my attention in 2018. I listened to your chat with Dr. Doug Herr around inattentive ADHD. This was episode 337, some 163 episodes ago. And I've got to give credit to the phenomenal code of resource that you and your team have put together in the last year or so, for helping me to flesh out that specific information and have a bit of a hunt through. It's an absolute credit again to the diversity of what it is and the dynamic nature in the way that you guys do things.
Matt: The conversation that you had in 337 with Dr. Doug really, really stood out to me because it was just that. It was a genuine conversation. It didn't come across as though you were interviewing an expert, who'd come down from their high mountain and could only speak in purely clinical terms, it very much came across as an exchange between friends, and speckled within that banter and interplay. It was great wisdom. And for me at the time as a newly diagnosed adult with ADHD, it really helped to inform my understanding of what inattention was within that ADHD sphere.
Matt: I think it's fair to say that the conversational nature of your podcast is what endears you to a lot of your listeners. For me, certainly, I know that I can consistently tune into the podcast and know that I will hear quality information, and that you guys will be able to give me practical and functional strategies that can easily reside within my ADHD framework. I'm very much at ease knowing that the podcast is going to be presented to me in a manner that resonates with me and feels familiar. It feels like I'm listening to two friends having an informed discussion. But it's all the better for knowing that the quality of the content is well researched and steeped in evidence.
Matt: As the podcast continues now through its 500th episode and beyond, the legacy that you both have built over the past 11 years, I think speaks volumes to your own personal ideals. It reflected in the kindness, generosity, empathy, and just all around social responsibility that you have for the people in our ADHD community. For that I say, thank you very much for all of the work that you do to faithfully serve this community. This gratitude also really needs to extend to your whole team who play a vital role, I'm sure, in keeping everything behind the scenes afloat, maybe even keeping the stars, the talents ego in check as well. So on this your 500th episode, thank you, Nikki Kinzer. Pete Wright, thank you. Thank you both for giving of your time and your attention. We sure do appreciate it, probably a whole lot more than any of us can ever really show you. Much love and peace. Bye Wright.
Pete Wright: I know, right?
Nikki Kinzer: Wow.
Pete Wright: Just that close of Matt, that was a real gut-wrench.
Nikki Kinzer: That was a gut-wrencher.
Pete Wright: Yeah.
Nikki Kinzer: Yeah. Well, and something I do want to mention is he's right. We were able to add on somebody to the podcast team, and that was Melissa to Discord mom, to help us with the podcast and be able to organize us. Make sure the guests are asked and get what they need before they come. And she's done a lot of stuff to help us with this show.
Pete Wright: Well, and she's amazing. And another person I count as a dear friend over the years that has come from this podcast because she was a listener first, and I would say our next voicemail is from the third in the triangle of incredible women who helped us get everything sorted when we started the podcast and she actually brings it up, this one's from Rachel. And between Rachel and Ellie and Melissa, they were our sort of early beta team. We have a channel in Discord that's just like these three people because of their specific expertise on gestures broadly of the internet.
Nikki Kinzer: Right.
Pete Wright: And Rachel, she's just a real star in Discord itself and has been an incredible resource. I know personally for me over the last few years, as we get started with all this stuff. So even as I start to play this message, thanks Rachel, for everything.
Nikki Kinzer: Thank you.
Pete Wright: Here you go.
Rachel: Hey, it's Rachel. So for the 500th episode, I would want to share that the burnout episode was the episode that I submitted and it was epic, because it helped me with actually getting a different job, a job that didn't really burn me out, and actually caused the noble effect to moving to where I am now. But the other thing is, helping Nikki with discovering Discord-
Nikki Kinzer: So true.
Rachel: ... and helping everybody get on the same page with that and creating the community we have now. So yeah, I wanted to give a shout out to that. So burnout and finding community, honestly, that's what that podcast right here has done for me, having new friends, having some more stability. So yeah, thanks Nikki. Thanks Pete. And thanks Melissa. Tune you in next time. Bye.
Nikki Kinzer: Oh, yes.
Pete Wright: Right. Huge shout out.
Nikki Kinzer: I do remember her saying, "Oh, I'll help you guys. I can get you on there." And she did, she navigated. And she was the welcome person for a long time too. She would welcome people and answer questions. Yeah, thank you Rachel.
Pete Wright: Well, she was so helpful because I think it was Rachel who I would call, I don't mean this as dismissive, but it's a term, she's our first follower, because I had already been saying, "Nikki, we got to do Discord." And you're like, "No, we don't. I don't even know what Discord is. I don't want to do that."
Nikki Kinzer: Again, you bring these ideas and I'm just like, "What?"
Pete Wright: Right. And then I said it, I think it was manipulative of me, but I said it in front of Rachel in an email or something, and she was like, "Oh, we got to do Discord." And you were like, "Oh, well, if somebody else has heard of this, it's not just Pete's cockamamie idea." And it just sort of snowballed from there. So it's really exciting.
Pete Wright: And you should know, I know many of you think Discord, when you go into Discord, it's overwhelming with so many channels depending on your level. We have even more channels than that, that nobody else can see, because that's where we do all of our business. The whole team is communicating in a set of channels that's for the backend, the backstage. It's really exciting. We've got two more. Can I just run through them real quick and then we'll wrap up?
Nikki Kinzer: Yes, please.
Pete Wright: All right. So this one comes from Sandy.
Sandy: Hey guys, this is Sandy [inaudible 01:02:17], and I just wanted to share what I love about your show. Couple of things, I would say really. The first thing is, I'm not disliking your new interest song, but I really like the old piano one. It just had such a relaxing vibe to it and made me feel so calm when I would hear it like, "Here comes some people who relate to me." And then two, really big things that I would say have been really impactful from the show would be number one, I didn't know there was such thing as an ADHD coach until I was listening to your show. And since when I was about 25, everybody at my office job decorated my cubicle, like a life coach. So I think I'm getting some very strong consideration to actually going to get mine.
Sandy: And then systems and tools, the one point that was made on one show at one point in time was that there's a million different ways you can kind of do something, but your process and what works for you, you can't just keep trying a new system and trying a new system. It's just going to take up time and it's more planning. It's not going to be actually taking action. So just to break it down into something that works for you and stick with something longer to figure out exactly how it's going to work. But I love just all of the tips and things I didn't know about ADHD before, and some of those other things that have come up. So just thank you so much, guys, for everything you do. You are loved by all of us out here. Have a good one. Bye.
Pete Wright: If that doesn't fill your cup, I don't know what does. Oh, Sandy, thank you so much.
Nikki Kinzer: Thank you Sandy.
Pete Wright: And I'm sorry about the song thing. I hear it. But honestly it was time for change. I just needed change.
Nikki Kinzer: Oh, we did get a lot of compliments on that first song though. Do you remember, it was weird, there was a period of time, within a two month period of time, all of a sudden we had like four comments about how much they liked the song?
Pete Wright: Yeah.
Nikki Kinzer: It was weird.
Pete Wright: Well, it was so funny because everybody wanted to find out like, who did that song?
Nikki Kinzer: Who does that?
Pete Wright: Where can I find that song? And it was very frustrating because when we started the show, I had no access to musicians or artists or anything. That's literally a stock music element that ships with GarageBand. It's just a thing. It's just music that we had a license for by virtue of the fact that I was editing the earliest shows in GarageBand.
Nikki Kinzer: In GarageBand.
Pete Wright: We then switched to Logic Pro Studio. And now I have access to a resource library. So now we have the theme song that we use now, you could go find it in Apple Music. It's a legit. We have an artist that actually did this song and it's-
Nikki Kinzer: It was crazy.
Pete Wright: So, it just was an upgrade. And I just think it's so funny that that little bit of stock music is-
Nikki Kinzer: Very popular.
Pete Wright: ... it was, of all the shows I do, I've never gotten a request for a single song like this one. So, funny.
Nikki Kinzer: Yeah.
Pete Wright: How about Shoshanah?
Nikki Kinzer: Shoshanah
Shoshanah: Hi, this is Shoshanah [inaudible 01:05:35]. I'm internally grateful to have found the Taking Control podcast since I was diagnosed five and a half years ago, and now I have a bunch of kids with an ADHD diagnosis. I think my favorite part of the podcast is how it's not just something to listen to, but also a place where I can interact with everybody and get to know people in real life.
Shoshanah: My favorite episodes are the organizing series in February of 2019. And I super loved the episode with Dr. Kalaki Clarke in February of this year, especially being a healthcare provider myself, it made me feel a whole lot better to know that it should not interfere with my ability to do what I do and do it with the passion that I have. I'm also super, super grateful to have been introduced to the complex parenting world with Diane Dempster and Elaine. And that has been super helpful for my family and all of the resources that you guys provide to us from creative outlets, to technology, to emotional outlets. I just feel like every time I listen to an episode, you're talking directly to me and I feel super heard, seen, validated, and really grateful to have been able to really feel like I have learned about myself through the podcast. So thanks.
Nikki Kinzer: Wow.
Pete Wright: Right. Oh, you guys, this has been an incredible experience going through all these voicemails.
Nikki Kinzer: Lovely. It's just surreal. I don't know how else to admit it.
Pete Wright: Yeah, we started with like, it's sometimes hard to remember as we put these things out, that there are people listening on the other end.
Nikki Kinzer: Right.
Pete Wright: Not only are you listening, but that you're getting something out of it, that you are moved in some way, that your life is a little bit better as a result of some of the things that we're putting out there. It's incredibly gratifying. Thank you. And thank you to Patreon supporters for a couple of things. One, for allowing us to continue to make podcasting a bigger part of our careers, right?
Nikki Kinzer: Yes.
Pete Wright: As a result of your support, we're able to make choices that mean we're doing more podcasting and less of other stuff. And this is the way we make a living in some growing part. And it's an incredibly important bit of deeply personal contribution to our lives and livelihoods.
Pete Wright: But second, that your patronage allows us to do things for the community. For example, I feel like we don't talk about this all that much. We spend a lot of money on human transcriptions every month, on somebody going in and listening to every episode and typing the whole thing. And I know Matt mentioned that he went through the resource, the code of resource and it was, who was it, Chris? Who was it? Who just said they went through and highlighted [crosstalk 01:09:07]
Nikki Kinzer: Highlighted it, right?
Pete Wright: ... who's highlighting the transcripts. And that is the result of the Patreon community. Those people made the early bet that this was going to be a thing of support. And now our show, since that point, has become accessible for the people living in the hearing impaired community, who can now access the resources of our show as a result of your contributions to it. It's not a cheap resource having a human do that. We could do machine transcriptions all day long. They're terrible. But this is, it is a big and important thing, and I find it incredibly heartwarming that our first supporters are the ones who brought accessibility to our podcast. On behalf of them, everybody gets this thing.
Nikki Kinzer: That's right.
Pete Wright: And that means a lot. Anything else you want to talk about?
Nikki Kinzer: Oh, it's just one of those things that I'm really, I'll just be honest, I'm really proud of both of us being so consistent in doing this for as long as we have. Because it's never felt like a dreaded chore or, "Oh, I've got to do that part of my business." It's always been so fun, and exciting, and it's just been such a joy to do this. And I'm so glad that back in the day, you said, "Let's do a podcast." Because I cannot imagine, none of the clients that I would have worked with or anything that I've been able to do with my business would've happened without the show.
Nikki Kinzer: And it's one of those things too that I think when you ask yourself, what do you want to do with your life? What's the job you want to have? And when I think about how lucky I am to be doing what I'm doing, and to feel so passionate about it, and really want to spread that joy and that hope and that inspiration and that community, and being able to do that, it's so humbling. And I'm so grateful for it and grateful for you, Pete. I just can't imagine doing this without you. I can't. I wouldn't have.
Pete Wright: I couldn't.
Nikki Kinzer: Yeah, it's just, talk about the stars being aligned, I really feel like everything has happened the way that it needed to, and I feel like there's so much for us to look forward to in the future, and so many things that we can do and hope to support this community. And it's just a real honor. It's an honor that you guys listen. And when we say thank you for your time and attention, we really mean it. We really thank you for giving us your trust.
Pete Wright: Thank you everybody for hanging out with us, this epic massive episode, if you have the patience. If you didn't listen to the livestream, now you can go back and listen to it double speed.
Nikki Kinzer: Right.
Pete Wright: It helps you get through it a little bit faster. But seriously, thanks for making episode 500 really special, and every one of the last 499 episodes before it. This has been a real treat and we sure appreciate it.
Nikki Kinzer: And who knows, maybe we will do another 500 and be here in 10 years.
Pete Wright: Let's just say it this way, we don't have plans not to.
Nikki Kinzer: Exactly. That's exactly right. Who would have known 10 years ago or 11 years ago that we would be doing this show.
Pete Wright: Never would have expected it.
Nikki Kinzer: So you're absolutely right, who knows?
Pete Wright: All right. Thank you everybody for your time and your attention. Don't forget, if you have something to contribute, we'd love to your story too. Head over to, there at our Discord server. And you don't have to be a Patreon to get into the Discord server, there is a link to jump into the general community. It's totally free. And a lot of great conversation happens in the free and open community right there.
Pete Wright: If you are a Discord member or a ADHD podcast community member, you get more channels, you get access to more, I think quieter channels, and I don't mean quieter, but not sometimes not quite as busy. And it feels like if the general channel is going crazy, then sometimes it's nice to get into one that's a little slower and you can post some longer posts and a little bit more thoughtful stuff. But it's all great and that's the easiest place to reach us. Share your thoughts over the show talk channel and we'd love to have you. So on behalf of Nikki Kinzer, I'm Pete Wright, and we'll see you right back here next week on Taking Control: The ADHD Podcast.
