Boosting Mental Health. ADHD & More. Interview with our Chief Wise Squirrel, Dave Delaney.

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so I started a podcast called ADHD wise squirrels and on the podcast I speak an

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interview uh you know with with both a mix of ADHD experts be it doctors or

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ADHD coaches but then also with high Achievers with ADHD people like uh Dr

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Bob Dempsey who is the former uh director of NASA's International Space Station for 16 years uh before being

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diagnosed with ADHD at 60 um and he has a pretty sweet job these days too so

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it's just interesting to to hear from from folks and to share their stories but also Inspire

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[Music]

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others welcome to the Boost conversations with people promoting mental health and I'm here with a friend

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Dave Delaney and I can't wait to uh talk with Dave and for you to learn about so

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um Dave we'll just turn it to you how are you doing today I am good Steve thank you for

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having me it's a Friday it's uh yeah you know it's it's always good to catch up

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with with a friend so I'm uh I'm in I'm in good spirits I'm I'm glad I realized uh this morning that it is in

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fact Friday um that's what my calendar told me because it's been one of those weeks or maybe months

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where I've been a little foggy on like what exact day it is like I actually shocked my neighbor my buddy yesterday

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because he was like talking about what are you doing on the weekend I'm like oh I don't know I still got a couple days to figure that out I guess and he's like

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it's tomorrow or in two days I guess and uh I was like oh yeah of course and he was

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like no you didn't realize did you so anyway I know what day it is and I am

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happy to be here with you Steve I don't know that's partly a sign of a I'm glad to be with you too and it's partly a

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sign of like That's a classic entrepreneur signal for me is like the person who's like oh it's Friday I've

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got I've Got U maybe like 20% of my work week left you know versus like what are

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we doing tomorrow oh tomorrow is also maybe working some um but uh it's funny

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too because like my wife's a school teacher so she has like a regular job and and many people do and I have had

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them as well and when you have a regular job unless you work on weekends you're like Friday yeah yes I'm out of here you

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know everybody exactly thank you for the

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Canadian uh lover boy reference there as a proud Canadian I uh I will take it

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happily um but yeah so she's excited Friday's like ah for the weekend and I'm like really because I still have some

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work to do like so anyway yeah I've been playing around with this and maybe I

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don't know curious what you think about um like taking Wednesday off or like how

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do you how do you do it when there's so many priorities so much work you've got wise squirrels going on you've got

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future forth we'll get into all the cool projects you're working on and and the why behind it all but like how do you

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pace yourself when you could work seven days a week yeah it's a good question

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I uh or maybe you don't maybe you're like oh no I work seven days a

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week well I mean I I do I do work a lot but at the same time I also know when

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I've run out of steam in a day and and I'm not like a I am a hard worker

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certainly uh as far as like working on a computer goes I'm not like digging holes or something building things like actual

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real work um but at the same time I I struggle with taking time off to do

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things leisurely for myself because I always Envision my wife work working and

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she's a like a school librarian so she is dealing with endless like she gets if

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she's lucky she gets 20 minutes for lunch every day if she's lucky and she she is

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balancing you know faculty with technical problems because Librarians now have to do tech support um she she's

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struggling with you know children you know in and out all day and she runs some classes for them plus you know

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parents and and so it's it's it's an ongoing you know exhausting existence

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for her and she gets home and she's done and so I Envision her and then I'm like

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I I I struggle with it a bit I know I need to do it I need I need to take breaks and go for like walks and and do

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the things but at the same time I'm like picture I picture her and I'm

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like it's hard to give myself permission yeah 20 minute lunches man that's that's

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tough that's tough to fit into a system and a structure like that for me and

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probably a lot of people but yeah kudos to her doing that's hard work that's good work too U my w my my uh wife's a

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healthcare recruiter she's you know all kind of always on my mom was a librarian uh you know also you know kind

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of doing doing that good work and and um not getting nearly enough nearly enough

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Kudos and support for it so yeah yeah well let's get into uh let's get into a

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couple things um because there's so much to cover here I mean you've got you

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you've been podcasting since 2005 since like before people knew what podcasts

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were you were doing it you were blogging uh way ahead of time uh you and I

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connected through an email marketing service provider where we both work together for a while uh but you've got a

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book and a new one on the way you've got uh 10x conference speaking um coaching

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and so there's a lot to touch on hopefully we get into it but I want to give you the kind of the floor to do

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that so let's do the the two questions we do here which is the virtual hug which is your moment of gratitude

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somebody or something you're thankful for and then the Shameless plug where you can tell us what you're working

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on yeah so I mean the the hug is uh will materialized into an actual real hug uh

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because of course it's my wife uh you know just uh setting the stage there you know uh it is my wife I mean she she's

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uh she's an incredibly hard worker she's incredibly dedicated both to to the

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family and and to her work as well teacher of the year again this year well done so you know they they do recognize

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her for her hard work but um yeah so uh I'm I'm very thankful she's a a great

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mom a great a great partner great friend that is a great one yeah that's awesome

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celebrate that and your Shameless plug tell us about the work you're

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doing yeah so you you mentioned a couple things there so um I have a company called future forth and at Future forth

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I do many keynote presentations workshops all around communication skills and I developed something new

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called the 10x conference coaching which has really taken everything I've learned over the years from exibit exhibiting at

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trade shows and conferences being a keynote speaker developing my own content I was a speaker for Google for

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nearly six years um so I've taken all of that all of that and packaged it up in a

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way that I can coach companies to maximize their Roi of sponsoring and exhibiting conferences based on you know

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what is in that sponsorship package um extracting stuff from my own book new business networking so how to you know

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the I talk about the three UPS of of networking showing up following up and catching up and how to do that the right

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way uh so ultimately you know companies spend hundreds thousands you know

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Millions uh exhibiting and sponsoring conferences and so I've dedicated a big

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part of what I do to helping those companies affordably uh maximize those that Roi

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and measure it too um so there's that and then I I'm also doing that that

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little podcast uh I call uh wise squirrels um at WISE squirrel .c and uh

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or the podcast is called ADHD y squirrels but you can get it at Y squirrel. and uh I'm sure maybe we'll

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chat about that too yeah for sure um so the 10x work is uh

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fascinating to me you know I run a conference you spoke at it last year a coup in a couple ways on a panel about

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podcasting and then about ADHD and late diagnosis ADHD which we'll

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get into for sure with wise squirrels but it's cool that you're going to be uh

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helping my conference get better this year by hosting a dinner for sponsors

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the night before things get going because you know we kind of expect

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sponsors to just show up and be ready to roll and ready to go and um and and at

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the same time you know like working that exhibit hall and doing it in a way that

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effective that doesn't always happen and you know sometimes it's down to staff sometimes it's down to strategy um but

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you're going to come in and meet with our sponsors the night before and just give them some some tips and and tools

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and tricks so maybe if there's anybody out in the audience right now like what are some of the basic blocking and

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tackling or the S the basic mistakes that kind of people make when you because you've done so many events and

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and at a high level like what do you see it either the mistakes or or where is it

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done well yeah uh I see it a lot I see really

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I mean a common mistake is just a lack of preparation a lack you know you

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you've done all the things and and this isn't on the conference planners because the conference planners try to arm and

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give the sponsors you know what they need ahead of time but as it gets and

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it's also important to be empathetic to the conference planners too because as you as as you get closer to the

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conference if I've if I'm sponsoring the conference I'm I'm flying my team in I'm

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paying for you know the sponsorship package whatever that includes I've got maybe a booth exhibit hall you know that

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kind of thing maybe I have a speaking gig as well as part of that

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package it oftentimes what happens is suddenly as you're getting closer to the event the sponsor is thinking oh gosh we

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should probably do something should probably plan this and then it gets closer and closer and closer to the

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point where like it's either too late or you just haven't done anything and you just sent your team and just hope for

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the best but I mention it because for the conference planners as I said they often like will

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provide some value but but as it gets closer to the event the conference planners you know your hat spinning on

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your head while you try to like Bal figure everything out and put out all the fires and and you're incredibly busy

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as it gets you get busier and busier and busier as it gets closer and closer not to stress you out like oh god um but you

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know you get busy as and so it's really on the sponsors to to take care of this

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and so often they don't plan so you know when I talk about networking I talk

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about the three UPS of networking showing up following up and catching up and just planning around those three

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things and even preparing ahead of time of course but thinking through like how are you going to show up you know what

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do you need to do to show up and then once you're there what are you going to do and then after the fact how are you

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going to catch up with or excuse me how are you going to follow up with the people that you meet and what does that

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entail and then finally like how are you going to keep in touch with those folks because networking is a two-way street

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it's it's it's planting seeds and if you approach networking like you know I'm gonna sell something to you and you and

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you and you nobody's G to like you nobody's gonna ever want to return your calls or emails

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or anything so it's about providing value but and and like any relationship

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it takes time to build relationships and so you know catching up is part of that process from time to time of just

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checking in and sure yeah we all want to maximize our return on investment of sponsoring conferences but at the same

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time yeah if you approach it in just like you know the the icky you know used

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car car salesperson or whatever like that's that's not going to fly so it's about building relationships and so

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that's what I help yeah there's there's like two ways

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to really swing that pendulum and it's fun to talk with a pro like you because you you know how to do this and how to

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work it but there are um there's like the the lazy uh salesperson approach you

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know they just kind of like kick back in their chair not really engaging maybe they're afraid or nervous which which is

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understandable it's kind of like it's kind of you're exposed out there you know hoping somebody comes and talks to you while you have these incentives

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behind you which are I need to sell something so you know you have these like needs and then you have you know

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your own social dynamics or there's like the pendulum too far which is like very

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aggressive you know uh treating everybody like they're a qualified buyer when the customer journey is very

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different than that you know like some people are just becoming aware of your brand and as an extension of your brand

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and your marketing how do you meet somebody in that place versus somebody who's maybe a a loyal customer and

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looking to Reby or somebody who's thinking about you in the consideration

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set of a of a near-term purchase you know you treat somebody like that very different um so it's important to meet

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people kind of where they are on that Journey uh but it's also true like the

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conference planner like me right now I'm like why

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has not everybody bought their ticket and like you know yeah right why is not

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everybody ready for this conference like well it's seven months away so yeah

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right yeah you want it done you want results oh yeah I want it all done I want like all the speakers to be like

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all ready to go but then like last year I was on a panel and I was like flying

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out I was like oh I should I should probably get a little more prepared you

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know right because I'm going to land in a few hours and then the next day is this conversation and I was ready for it

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but I was like yeah it was just like two different people approaching an event you know so it depends on where you're

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coming from yeah yeah that's true so tell us about um tell us about

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wise squirrels let's get into that um because that's I I think that's really fascinating and maybe just as much as

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you are comfortable sharing kind of what that's about and where it's going yeah I'm uh I'm an open book about

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it so no worries uh so last year um I was last year I was diagnosed

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with ADHD so 50 years old it was before my 51st birthday uh so at 50 I was

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diagnosed with ADHD and of course that that makes a lot of sense in so many

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ways right um and in true ADHD form uh I uh launched a website called y

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squirrels to like open i' I've always been very transparent and and a big uh fan of the open web and and being online

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forever as you mentioned so I just wanted to share what I was going through for other late diagnosed adults so that

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they could you know learn from my experience as well and so I created Y squirrel. and being an early adopter in

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podcasting and a nerd that way I was like I got to do a podcast you know I got to add to this so I started a

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podcast called ADHD y squirrels and on the podcast I speak and interview uh you

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know with with both a mix of ADHD experts be it doctors or ADHD coaches

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but then also with high Achievers with ADHD people like uh Dr Bob Dempsey who

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is the former uh director of NASA's International Space Station for 16 years

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uh before being diagnosed with ADHD at 60 um and he has a pretty sweet job these days too so it's just interesting

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to to hear from from folks and to share their stories but also Inspire others

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and this is how the the presentation The Root Down uh that I did last year uh uh

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uh and uh yeah that that presentation which has come a long way and it it it's

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I developed it to help anybody regardless of their neurotype um and

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it's it's three sections of knowing yourself so understanding your strengths but really there's some strategies there

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of knowing yourself and then respecting yourself and that includes self-acceptance self-love and then the

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third section is connecting yourself and a little bit of networking fits into that as well so how to do the three the

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content from those three sections are for anyone however the threadline story

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of this curriculum is my own late diagnos nois of ADHD sort of my journey

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in life with this um and a big part of it is to help educate people about

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ADHD so that um so that I I can help remove some of the stigmas that are

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involved or hopefully all of them but also celebrate the the strengths of adhders and and also share some of the

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the challenges that we Face uh at work especially um and the I learned

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something not that long ago and I was mentioned it to you Offline that I I I

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learned that for the average person with late diagnosed or excuse me with

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undiagnosed and untreated ADHD not the average person but somebody with

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undiagnosed and untreated ADHD can have a life expectancy of up to 13 years

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less and learning about this made me realize that like what I'm doing is is

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has it's more important than I I even realized and so uh but the podcast is going going great

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and and I'm getting amazing feedback from folks and it's definitely become a labor of love for

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sure that's amazing I mean you yeah you extrapolate this out a

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little bit you know you you help a hundred people in the course of your life and you might

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save 1300 years of life in theory yeah

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Theory yeah I me even if it's an average of that like you're saving you can save hundreds and hundreds of years of

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people's lives by doing what you're doing yeah and not just not just that but also like the the stress that that

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can come with undiagnosed ADHD and I've experienced it firsthand and I know it well which might be the kill might be

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part of the killer right is the stress it is part of the killer yeah it's it's it's so ADHD is a

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comorbidity of or excuse me uh uh like stress or more specifically like anxiety

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and depression and even like bipolar to an extent and OCD to an extent but certainly anxiety and depression are

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both comorbidities of ADHD but often times people go and get treated for the

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let's say it's anxiety they get diagnosed with anxiety they get treated for anxiety but the doctor or whomever

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don't realize that there's a root cause of this and so you can treat the anx all

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you like but it's going to keep coming back because it's it's it's the ADHD

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that's causing the anxiety it's the same with addiction so adhders are pretty prone to addiction and excessiveness and

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that could be excessive eating which can lead to diabetes and poor health um or

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excessiveness in alcohol or drugs or cigarettes or whatever and you know

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obviously that can lead to bad places as well um and so it's it's understanding

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yourself and and and getting treatment whether it's therapy or medication or a combination of both I'm doing the combo

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I got the combo package uh um but doing that can help you understand yourself or

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certainly helps you understand yourself in that way and and again yeah that life expectancy can be affected by by

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addictions and things like that and even and the connect uh the connection part

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of the root down and is about helping to cure loneliness

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and helping to connect people and building and I've got a I have a lot of experience in in building events over

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the years and and networking events and things like that but I've also experienced and do

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still loneliness um a lot and have realized that that loneliness and the

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effects of loneliness are have the same health effects as smoking 50 cigarettes

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a day um so that alone and and again this stuff is a lot of this stuff is

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stuff that we all experience of course um and the difference is that if ADHD is

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causing problems in managing relationships for example or building relationships or sustaining friendships

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or whatever um that can also play a role in this adverse health effects and then of course suicide is also um something

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but I don't know the numbers on that specific [Music] so a big message I'm hearing in there is

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that it's important and not always easy to figure out what's the symptom versus

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what's the disease or what's the cause the root cause um it's not necessarily a disease but I I see that a lot in

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biological health and we're you know moving through this phase

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of of awareness and engagement in mental health like we've never done before and

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so we're learning our way uh and we're learning what's what's wagging the dog

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and what's um what's causing things you know so for anxiety to be something we

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point out be like Oh I'm anxious I'm I have anxiety or you know I have some

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addictive type behaviors that I maybe not controlling or understanding you

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know we could look at the industry and say oh well it's it's a addiction and anxiety is what's going on and not that

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this applies to everybody but what you're saying is in the in the case of some people with

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ADHD that you know those are more or less the symptoms of something that's

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got its roots in something deeper yeah I mean some of it could be hyperfocused right where like it often

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gets misunderstood first of all like ADD and ADHD are the same thing um so that's

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that's one thing that that gets confused and and that people think like the H is like hyperactivity and so if I'm not

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hyperactive well I probably don't have ADHD but but it can include hyperfocus because as a kid you might be more hyper

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hyperactive certainly with boys um uh and and so you're you know I I certainly

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was a case study of that of Class Clown and goofing off and all that um but uh

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so being so being hyperactive as a kid you learn to you know it's called masking or or you know even unknowingly

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doing so without it being diagnosed that as you get older you find other ways to

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to REM to be sort of hyperactive or hyperfocused on things so for example you know you know everybody like

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creators especially are always looking for flow we're always trying to get into that flow state right where you just

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lose yourself in the work well adhders do that a lot not all but a lot of them

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do so but but the difference is that they may get so into the Weeds on

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something that they forget to eat or that time goes by or that it's not the

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thing that they should be focused on today it should be on the thing that's gonna like actually make

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money um that that's part of my story

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uh um so I'm definitely guilty of that but you end up like spending all this time hyperfocused on something that like

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maybe you should cut back back and then the other part of that is is you hit these weird walls of of like knowing what you need

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to do but not doing that thing for whatever reason it's it's it's

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interesting it's like this block of of stopping you and so for years I go back through all my old journals and things

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and it's like do this this and this to grow my business and written in different ways over the years and never

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really doing like one or two of the things um so anyway yeah there's a lot

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there's a lot there and so really my goal and again it's not all like Doom and Gloom and oh you know we're all

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going to die uh or anything like that I mean you know I'm I'm uh I'm an open

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book in the podcast and my you know it's a lot of we have a lot of laughs it's it's often very funny and um yeah

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because you know a lot of my my story is is pretty hilarious tragically hilarious at moments I guess but uh but knowing

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what I know now it it all all it all makes sense well you're you're funny you

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just have natural humor um and uh and

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then yeah sometimes you know some of the best standup comedians like you peel back the layer and it's like oh wow it's

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like really some tough times that we're uh doing some masking that way maybe

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with like the pain pain we're dealing with in some cases well yeah and it's

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interesting too with ADHD because adhders tend to be quite creative um and and you look at like and they

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take risks right good or bad so you look at like a lot of standup Comics um like

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Howe Mandel's a big one that that you know he's he's gone on obviously to other things but he's very open about his ADHD Jim Carrey is another one very

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open about his ADHD um and so there's plenty of like you know actors and

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creatives um who have ADHD same with Entre entrepreneurs um so there's plenty

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of entrepreneurs Who start business businesses they're they're they're risk adverse they just do it and then you

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look at like Richard Branson from Virgin or you look at like Jeet blue or Ikea or all these other you know many Brands I

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believe Bill Gates I think but I can't remember if he I can't remember if he does or doesn't but um but anyway yeah

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so so many like successful entrepreneurs uh also have ADHD and so

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because they get hyperfocused on uh on on some idea and and and because they're

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sort of risk averse they just go for it and and again that that's you know there

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there's there's some studies recently around like the like the and I'm gonna

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butcher this but something to the effect about like early man and how you know we

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really couldn't have evolved or survived without the the adhders and that and that ADHD was

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actually a like a huge plus uh for like you know the Andals or whomever and I'm

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totally butchering anthropology so I will apologize and shut up I always make the point that like I

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do not I am not a doctor nor do I I play one on the internet I I I do not know

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Fair that's the whole point I'm learning along with everybody else but these things exist and they exist you know

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maybe there's a reason or a purpose and uh you know we're sort of seeing like a

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a grand macro Evolution away from people who can carry

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heavy stones to people who can you know program AI you know it's like okay well

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that's very that's very different skill set maybe there's quite a bit of overlap between like the Stone Cutters and the

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AI programmers but more likely like some different skill sets are being used at

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different times um so and I like the idea of just sitting on a beach with a

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cocktail while the AI just does all the stone cutting and then I get a cut of

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the money for that that's isn't that where work is going it's all going to be Ai and so then we can just reap the

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benefits well that's that's kind of like Elon musk's worry right is like the

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worry becomes what are all these people going to do when they don't have to work anymore and that sounds a little bit

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ridiculous given the state of where we are but somebody who's a futurist and looking far enough out you can you can

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make that claim like oh yeah things have gotten quite a bit easier in some in

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some regard um yeah but I also I also think like be careful where you get your

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your uh information and and Elon Musk not only is a poor source of uh

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information he's also happens to run a social network that that eagerly

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distributes disinformation and misinformation distributes the information which is part of the reason why I haven't tweeted uh in in a long

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long time and don't plan on it again I don't even know what it's called anymore Xing uh whatever so be careful where you

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get your information that's that's an important thing that's important so you're not on Twitter you used to be on Twitter pretty heavy yeah yeah oh yeah

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yeah yeah I started on Twitter in February 07 um and yeah I've i' I you

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know I wrote a lot about that in my first book in new business networking about using different social networks to

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to find people and build connections but um uh these days I've become

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quite concerned jaded about the state of of social networks and while I'm on many

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of them um I am concerned about um

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everything from Bots to trolls to as I said to to misinformation and there's

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plenty of that out there but then also disinformation and how social networks and algorithms and nefarious people are

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using them to uh to to do bad things and

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you know you look at the state of of this country and many countries and how people are infighting

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and so much of it is because of social network it's also because of like the

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24-hour news cycle and and the monetization of of news and and clickbait and if it bleeds it leads and

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all that stuff uh and you know this G be a whole other topic but I definitely

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have a lot of insights and thoughts around s the the state of of media

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and uh yeah I think uh it would be good for everybody to get out of their homes and go and talk to somebody in person

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shoot I mean that's um yeah we're not going to have the time for all of that but we should Circle back to that but we

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have time for some of that which is um yeah yeah yeah there is sort of in

32:17

this in I'd say a a a co-ord of people who are like pretty hyper aware about

32:24

what things where things are going and people who can see maybe a little farther down the road um yeah you know

32:32

you've always been somebody like that um where sort of like Out outdoors is the

32:37

new luxury like offline is the new luxury and it's always LED if it's bled

32:43

you know since like newspaper days but absolutely but the problem I think the problem with any tool or

32:50

technology it could be a financial instrument or it could be a chainsaw is that like you over leverage that thing

32:57

and and uh it can do a world of damage you know and we've seen that with uh

33:03

overleveraging uh you know debt instruments to um overleveraging all

33:10

sorts of things and I think the media is in that place and it sounds like you you probably agree and it's a good thing

33:15

you're you're actively unplugging from some of that absolutely yeah I think uh

33:22

yeah as it pertains to like Media or or social networks or what have you or a

33:28

even um I Heard a quote a while back that's always stuck with me which is uh whoever built ships built

33:36

shipwrecks and that that's pretty impactful when you think about all the stuff so it's not to down downplay the

33:43

severity of or the potential severity for things I really do believe that

33:48

we're in a in a state now with technology where it's time

33:54

for uh it's time for um legislation uh you know I think about

34:01

like being from Toronto originally I remember when Toronto went nonsmoking I do because two things one I

34:09

smoked and also I worked at restaurants back then um I was working at a bar and I'm like oh my God like this is gonna be

34:15

the worst and you know all these things and as a smoker I'm like ah man you know six months of winter I'm gonna have to

34:21

go outside and freeze my butt off smoking a cigarette but guess what happened people quit

34:26

smoking people quit smoking you know and you can look at studies of like road

34:32

safety and the number of fatalities have dropped dramatically in this country since seat bels were introduced and seat

34:38

Bel laws were introduced and so we and you know motorcycle helmet law and and

34:44

these things that we need we C it can't just be Anarchy right like it's we do need like rules in place

34:51

and these companies Facebook or meta and you know Google and all the rest or

34:57

alphabet they all need to be properly uh they

35:02

need to be properly legislated by people who actually are knowledgeable enough to do that and you know not the it's a

35:09

series of tubes or or you know anybody like that so it's important I think it I

35:14

think we need we definitely need that otherwise it's just going to be a race to the bottom um and and that's what

35:20

we're already I think we're moving in the right direction with AI as far as

35:26

knowing as far as like course correcting where the problems were with social

35:31

networks and social media because social networks and social media were fantastic at the beginning that's why I was an

35:37

early adopter um but over time when business models shifted and and you know

35:44

money was the number one thing and is and I get that um you know even even I

35:50

look at like podcasts now like some of my favorite podcasters I don't listen to anymore

35:56

because they're bringing on guests who are despicable and they're not pushing

36:02

back or and instead because they have such huge platforms they're they're literally giving these people megaphones

36:09

and when you listen to a podcast that's you know even short form but if you listen to a podcast it's like an hour

36:16

two hours three hours which some of those are most people are don't have the time to go and fact check everything

36:24

they hear yeah and and because they hear this information these facts regardless

36:30

of whether even if they hear it it's not true the fact Still Remains in your head and there's psychological studies and

36:36

all that to back that up so yeah anyway I am I am concerned about things like

36:42

that but I you know getting back to your conference I think it's such a good conferences in general are

36:49

fantastic because they're an opportunity to come connect in person and nothing

36:55

Well AI can AI all you like nothing replaces handshakes hugs high fives um

37:03

and and you know impromptu conversations getting a coffee or waiting in line to the bathroom or whatever that's that's

37:10

often where the magic happens but knowing ahead of time how to prepare for

37:16

conferences uh and how to follow up and and why you should follow up and catch up are really important and so you know

37:23

you're you're giving the opportunity for people to to get together and share and experience and uh and that's way better

37:31

than anything you can get online Thomas Insel talks about that a

37:36

lot Dr Insel he wrote a book called healing and he talks about people place and purpose and I do believe conferences

37:43

are one of those uh antidotes to loneliness what I call um and we have to

37:49

be intentional about it um you know some some guy in my town we happen to like

37:54

connect through kind of a circle of friends like invited me out you know

37:59

just for like a coffee or whatever the other day and I was like wow that was like so great of that person to do for

38:07

my life like not I wasn't going to do it I didn't didn't even cross my mind and I

38:12

walked away from that one hour two hour meeting thinking man that was so net

38:17

positive in my life um and I Tred to do that with the conference and then how do we stay connected in between and this is

38:24

a you know you and I are connecting right here this is one way to do it but it's tough to beat the inperson

38:31

engagement yeah I mean I I I started you know the event so like I I you know as

38:37

you well know I I co-founded a couple of tech conferences in Nashville good ones the but yeah but I created like two

38:44

monthly networking events between those two conferences in order to like keep the community together and give them a

38:50

place to go and congregate and hang out um I've recently started a new thing

38:56

called nice maker uh nice maker like which are basically just casual coffee

39:02

meetings uh hanging out um and I've kind of you can find that at the footer of Y

39:08

squirrel. but the nicem maker is my newsletter and U and I I'm doing a cof I

39:14

just did a coffee this week in Nashville I'm doing a because I'll do them while I travel too so I'm speaking at an event

39:20

in San Diego next month and so I planned an event there and and already have a

39:25

few people registered and you know I I I wanted to do something like that but then I I kept spinning my

39:32

wheels on it because I was thinking well what about a cocktail hour what about a meal what about a movie what about a

39:37

hike and then I decided like what the hell let's let's just right now they're they're nice maker coffees but I'm

39:44

kicking around an idea of doing like go to a movie and then grab a beverage after the movie to talk about it um and

39:50

and I might even be doing that like probably in the next couple weeks uh I'm a big movie nerd and I like supporting

39:56

the Bell which is the best movie theater in Nashville the only movie theater in Nashville um so uh yeah anyway nice I

40:05

love that idea um maybe we could collaborate on that I was just talking with somebody who has got a really

40:11

powerful like mental health Focus documentary that I would love to screen or show and do some kind of panel or

40:18

post convo um all right we got a wrap um this hour just flew by Dave it's so fun

40:24

to talk with you in this format yeah you do and you're a great guest a great host

40:29

too so uh you know Dave delaney. me wise squirrels or is it

40:36

squirrel it's plural squirrel for I got it squirel sr.com um where can people find you where

40:43

should they connect with you and how yeah I mean if you're listening to this podcast or watching it uh you know

40:50

and you like podcast ADHD y squirrels is uh just search for that and you'll find

40:55

it or go to y squirrel. if you're interested in in exploring stuff around

41:00

uh my conference coaching uh or anything else around you know hiring me to do a

41:06

presentation or a workshop uh that that lives at Future for.com excellent all

41:12

right thanks so much Dave I hope we connect soon but uh thanks for being on

41:17

yeah thanks for having me Steve it's been [Music]

41:26

fun