ADHD Entrepreneur Accelerator

Hosted by Steve August

Business Entrepreneurship

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Episodes

159

Latest episode

Aug 2026

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About the show

You’re an entrepreneur with ADHD. You’ve got big ideas, a fast brain… and a to-do list that’s longer than a CVS receipt. You’re driven—but staying focused, finishing what you start, and scaling your business? That can feel impossible. Welcome to the ADHD Entrepreneur Accelerator Podcast. Hosted by Steve August—ADHD coach, founder, and lifelong entrepreneur. Steve ha's built and exited companies, served as CMO of a $100 million business. Late diagnosed with ADHD at age 54, Steve now helps ADHD entrepreneurs get out of overwhelm find their focus and create freedom. This podcast is your go-to resource for building a business that works with your ADHD brain, not against it. We’re talking " brain-first" practical strategies to help you prioritize, start focus and finish, and sustain over time so you can reap the rewards of your brilliance. If you've ever felt like traditional business success advice wasn’t made for how your brain works, this show proves there's a different path. One built not in spite of your brain - but because of it. You’ll hear real stories from founders who are growing businesses without burning out… and we’ll keep it simple, actionable, and ADHD-friendly every step of the way. So if you’re ready to grow your business, feel free, and finally say… ‘Not now, squirrels. We’ve got work to do.’ Hit subscribe. Let’s go!

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60 recent

September 17, 202610 min

How to Choose Between Too Many Good Ideas

You've got too many good ideas and no way to tell which one the market actually wants, and that's exactly the theme that came up most when Steve surveyed 60 ADHD entrepreneurs last month. Steve ran a live Game Plan Session and had attendees fill out an assessment beforehand on what's actually blocking them in their business. The biggest theme, by far: too many directions, too many good ideas, and no way to choose between them. That came from people just starting out, people pivoting after something changed, and people sitting on a pile of ideas they were excited about with no way to tell which one would work. On the surface this looks like a deciding problem, and it partly is. ADHD brains make everything feel equally urgent and equally exciting, at least for a while, and the moment we think of something we expect ourselves to finish it about as fast as we thought it. But the real fix isn't more thinking. Steve walks through why you can't decide your way out of this by spinning ideas in your own head, because the market, not your own excitement, determines whether something is a good business or just a good idea. The way to find that out is conversations, and once you commit to having them, too many options turns into a doing problem: a real list of tasks that gets you the information you actually need. Steve also gets into what he calls the dopamine desert, and why doing needs just as much support as deciding does. Key points: Why too many good ideas looks like a deciding problem but is often really a doing problem Why the market, not your own excitement, decides whether an idea is a good business What "conversations are the currency" actually means and what it looks like as a task list The dopamine desert, and why doing needs real support to happen at all Over the next six weeks, Steve is working with 10 ADHD entrepreneurs to define and execute a real plan, with daily coworking and accountability behind it. If that's you, email steve@steveaugustcoaching.com and he'll set up a time to talk. Resources mentioned: ADHD Entrepreneur Accelerator (AEX): https://adhd-accelerator.com Free Weekly ADHD Dashboard: https://go.steveaugustcoaching.com/adhd-dashboard Contact Steve: steve@steveaugustcoaching.com

September 10, 20269 min

Hitting the ADHD Wall: The Hidden Casualty

You spent years succeeding on energy, interest, and effort alone. Then you hit a wall, and what you lost wasn't just your output. It was your trust in yourself. Steve digs into something he thinks doesn't get acknowledged enough in late-diagnosed ADHD entrepreneurs. Before diagnosis, most people succeed anyway, working harder than everyone around them without knowing why. Then midlife arrives, sometimes a hormonal shift, sometimes just years of accumulation, and the coping mechanisms that used to work stop working. Burnout shows up, or the wins keep coming at a real cost. Diagnosis explains the wiring, but it doesn't repair what actually breaks when you hit that wall: the belief that you can decide, that you can do the thing you know you're capable of, and that you can sustain it. Steve makes the case that self-trust, not productivity, is the real thing on the line, and shares what happens in AEX co-working sessions when members watch themselves finally do the thing they'd been avoiding for months, in twenty minutes flat. He closes with two stories: a member who nearly gave up on her business and ended up turning her garage into an art studio, and a songwriter who finally recorded his own album. Key points: What actually breaks when a late-diagnosed ADHD entrepreneur hits the wall, and why it isn't just burnout The three things self-trust covers: deciding, doing, and sustaining What AEX co-working sessions reveal about how fast "impossible" tasks actually are once you sit down and do them How rebuilding self-trust in the business ripples out into the rest of life Resources mentioned: ADHD Entrepreneur Accelerator (AEX): https://adhd-accelerator.com Free Weekly ADHD Dashboard: https://go.steveaugustcoaching.com/adhd-dashboard Contact Steve: steve@steveaugustcoaching.com

September 3, 202613 min

The ADHD Urgency Trap

Your ADHD brain thinks every idea deserves to happen right now, and that's exactly what makes deciding what to work on so hard. This week Steve breaks down why deciding, one of the three core challenges for ADHD entrepreneurs alongside doing and sustaining, is so cognitively expensive. ADHD brains don't rank ideas, they flatten them: everything feels equally urgent and equally important, all at once. The moment you think of something, part of you expects it done, because thinking it and finishing it feel like they should take the same amount of time. They don't, and Steve tells the story of thinking he'd redo his website "this afternoon," only to discover how much copy, design, layout, and programming it actually takes. Steve also unpacks something Alex Hormozi said in an interview: asked what his biggest skill was, Hormozi didn't say marketing or offers, he said opportunity identification, finding the idea most worth his time because it can actually succeed in the market. For ADHD entrepreneurs, that's the hard part. We chase what's interesting first, and the business only works when that interest actually meets what the market wants. Steve closes with the fix he uses with his own clients: treating ideas as a portfolio with seasons (generate, evaluate, test) instead of trying to build everything at once, anchored to what he calls your "magnetic north," the vision of the impact you want to make and how you want your life to look week to week. Key points: Why ADHD brains treat every idea as equally urgent, and what that costs you as a founder Alex Hormozi's answer for his biggest skill: opportunity identification, not marketing or offers Why "I'm interested in this" and "this is a good business" are two different questions The three-season system (generate, evaluate, test) and the "magnetic north" anchor that makes deciding easier Resources mentioned: ADHD Entrepreneur Accelerator (AEX): https://adhd-accelerator.com Free Weekly ADHD Dashboard: https://go.steveaugustcoaching.com/adhd-dashboard Contact Steve: steve@steveaugustcoaching.com

August 27, 20269 min

Your ADHD brain doesn't care about your money goals?

🔥 ADHD making business harder than it needs to be? Try these free resources: 🧠 Start with my free Weekly ADHD Dashboard – The “Brain-first” system I use to plan my week and make consistent progress. 👉 https://bit.ly/solo-monetary-goalsa-s-adhd-motivation-dilemma —------------------------------------------------------------ Welcome to the ADHD Entrepreneur Accelerator Podcast. Host Steve August , Founder of ADHD Entrepreneur Accelerator (AEX) and Steve August Coaching , is an expert ADHD coach and productivity specialist, and shares insights on why money and revenue goals may not always motivate ADHD entrepreneurs. He explains that ADHD brains are driven by intense deadlines or interest in tasks, but struggle with longer-term rewards. Steve offers practical advice on how to stay consistent with weekly tasks, making activities more interesting, and using co-working to beat procrastination. This episode provides strategies to help ADHD entrepreneurs stay focused and avoid burnout. Steve shares a helpful strategy for ADHD entrepreneurs to stay motivated: instead of relying on big goals, focus on weekly progress. ADHD brains thrive on intense interest or urgent deadlines, but struggle with long-term goals. By setting weekly tasks and sticking to them, ADHD entrepreneurs can stay on track. Steve suggests finding ways to make tasks interesting and using co-working to stay focused. This approach helps reduce procrastination, build momentum, and keep ADHD minds engaged and productive. Key Takeaways: Interest-Driven Tasks: Focus on what excites you to stay motivated. ADHD Focus: Use weekly goals to avoid distractions and stay on track. Co-Working: Team up with others to beat procrastination and boost productivity. Additional Insights: Not Giving Up: Focusing on weekly tasks helps avoid overwhelm. ADHD Brain Reality: Long-term goals don’t motivate; interest does. Weekly Check-ins: Regular planning keeps you on track and reduces stress. Here are a few quotes from the episode: “Focus on weekly progress, not distant goals.” - Steve August “ADHD brains thrive on short-term interest, not long-term rewards.” - Steve August “Co-working and interest can turn distractions into productivity.” - Steve August Join Steve August as he explains how focusing on weekly tasks helps ADHD entrepreneurs stay motivated, reduce stress, and avoid overwhelm. Learn practical tips to stay on track, make tasks interesting, and boost productivity with co-working. Episode Highlights: [00:00] - Teaser [01:28] - The ADHD Money Motivation Paradox [02:54] - ADHD Motivation & Weekly Planning [06:25] - Making Tasks Engaging & Co-Working [08:24] - Reframing ADHD Entrepreneur Success FOLLOW THE HOST: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-august-b2b-adhd-business-founder-coach/ Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/adhd-entrepreneur-accelerator/ August & Wonder: https://www.linkedin.com/company/augustandwonder/ Website: https://steveaugustcoaching.com/ Email: steve@steveaugustcoaching.com X: https://x.com/steveaugust Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/steveaugustpdx/ FOLLOW THE PODCAST: Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rocket-ship-founder/id1659287071 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ADHDEntrepreneurAccelerator Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4rQhk7bt3ZriSNfeVLxBj9?si=10ec3f4b0a374035

August 20, 202611 min

Twice Exceptional, Twice As Hard: ADHD and Business

Steve wasn't diagnosed with ADHD until 54, which means he's still running into terms he would have qualified for decades earlier. This week's term is "twice exceptional," and it explains something a lot of late-diagnosed ADHD entrepreneurs will recognize: the same brain that built your early success can quietly turn into your biggest obstacle. Steve unpacks a recent conversation with a late-diagnosed ADHD entrepreneur whose career followed a familiar arc: early success built on vision, connection-making, risk tolerance, and the ability to turn crisis into progress, followed by real struggle once the business (or the organization around them) matured and started demanding consistency, iteration, and operational discipline instead. Same brain, same skills, different container, and that's exactly where things started to break, a pattern Steve lived himself after taking a startup from idea to a multi-million dollar exit and then having to adapt to a 400-person corporate environment. That conversation introduced Steve to the term "twice exceptional" (2E): exceptional fluid intelligence and creativity, paired with exceptional neurodivergence, including the real executive function and working memory deficits that come with ADHD. Dr. Hallowell's description in ADHD 2.0 sums it up well: a Ferrari engine matched with bicycle brakes. Steve then walks through the framework he actually uses with clients, breaking execution down into three distinct skills (deciding, doing, and sustaining) and introducing the "dopamine desert," the space between intense interest and urgent consequence where good ideas quietly stall out. Key points: What "twice exceptional" (2E) means, and why it resonates so strongly with late-diagnosed ADHD entrepreneurs Why the same brain that fuels early-stage success can struggle once an environment matures and needs consistency instead of crisis-driven hustle The three separate skills that make up execution: deciding, doing, and sustaining What the "dopamine desert" is, and why "just try harder" isn't the fix Join Steve live: The ADHD Entrepreneur Game Plan Session is today, August 20th at 10:00 AM Pacific / 1:00 PM Eastern. Sign up here: https://go.steveaugustcoaching.com/gameplan Resources mentioned: ADHD Entrepreneur Accelerator (AEX): https://adhd-accelerator.com Free Weekly ADHD Dashboard: https://go.steveaugustcoaching.com/adhd-dashboard Contact Steve: steve@steveaugustcoaching.com

August 13, 202614 min

The Project I Loved Is Dead to Me: An ADHD Entrepreneur's Guide Back In

You were all in on this project. Then life happened, and now your brain wants nothing to do with it. This week on ADHD Entrepreneur Accelerator, Steve digs into a pattern he's heard from entrepreneur after entrepreneur lately: hyperfocused on a project, pulled away by a health crisis or a client emergency, and when they finally circle back, the excitement is just gone. Steve breaks down why that happens (it's dopamine and working memory, not a character flaw), why sustaining a project is one of the three core ADHD entrepreneur challenges, and three ways to find your way back into something you used to love - including how to tell when it's actually time to let one go. Sustaining is one of the three core ADHD entrepreneur challenges, alongside deciding and doing Why the "crush" on a project fades once it's out of sight Three ways back in: take the smallest slice, do it with someone else, revisit your Magnetic North Free Live ADHD Entrepreneur Gameplan Session, Thursday, August 20th, 10am PT / 1pm ET - register at go.steveaugustcoaching.com/gameplan Resources mentioned: ADHD Entrepreneur Accelerator (AEX): https://adhd-accelerator.com Free Weekly ADHD Dashboard: https://go.steveaugustcoaching.com/adhd-dashboard Contact Steve: steve@steveaugustcoaching.com

August 6, 202611 min

ADHD Zen - The Teapot That Never Stops Pouring

This episode is a little different. There's an old Zen story about a professor who visits a Zen master to learn about Zen. The master pours him tea - and keeps pouring after the cup is full. "Your mind is like this cup," the master says. "How can I teach you unless you first empty it?" For ADHD entrepreneurs, Steve argues, the teapot never stops pouring. New ideas, shiny business models, worries, side quests - it just keeps coming, whether your cup is full, empty, or shattered on the floor. In this episode, Steve shares three practical moves for managing a pot that won't stop. Links: ADHD Entrepreneur Accelerator (AEX): https://adhd-accelerator.com Free Weekly ADHD Dashboard: go.steveaugustcoaching.com/adhd-dashboard Contact: steve@steveaugustcoaching.com

July 30, 202610 min

Quiet Quitting: Why ADHD Entrepreneurs Abandon What's Working

Steve unpacks "quiet quitting" — the ADHD habit of walking away from campaigns and systems that are actually working — and shares the ritual that fixes it. In this episode, Steve covers: Why ADHD brains mistake "not novel" for "not working," and how that costs consistency in a business that rewards repeating what works. How Inevitable Drift shows up — losing sight of your Magnetic North, getting knocked off course by life, and chasing shinier ideas instead of sticking with what's proven. Two practical fixes: tracking your numbers so the data (not your brain's story) tells you what's working, and the Monthly Quests ritual — a first-Thursday-of-the-month practice used inside AEX to revisit wins, reconnect to Magnetic North, and set focused quests for the month ahead. Want the community and ritual that keeps you from quietly drifting off course? Join AEX: https://adhd-accelerator.com?utm_source="rss" Grab my ADHD Weekly Dashboard: https://go.steveaugustcoaching.com/adhd-dashboard?utm_source="rss"

July 23, 202611 min

The ADHD Business Time Trap Progress (And How to Escape It)

ADHD brains have four time zones: now, not now, never, and forever. That's time blindness - and it's why so many ADHD entrepreneurs struggle to turn big ideas into steady progress. In this episode, Steve shares Monthly Quests: the framework members of the ADHD Entrepreneur Accelerator (AEX) use to zoom out from the week, stay tied to their bigger vision, and build momentum that compounds every month. He covers how to pick a quest, the difference between result-oriented and action-oriented goals, and the two questions that make any quest concrete — plus a real member story of going from zero to three-plus paying clients in two months. Enjoying the show? A five-star rating or review helps other ADHD entrepreneurs find it. Learn more about AEX: adhd-accelerator.com Grab Steve's free ADHD Weekly Dashboard: http://go.steveaugustcoaching.com/adhd-dashboard?utm_source=rss

July 16, 20269 min

The ADHD Procrastination Tax (And how to beat it)

In this episode, Steve breaks down the ADHD procrastination tax — the real cost, in money, time, and quality of life, of the shiny-object detours and distraction spirals that eat into work that should take a fraction of the time. Steve walks through a real example from his Focus Formula coaching cohort: a fractional consultant with three solid, well-paying clients whose work should only take 12 days a month — but procrastination was quietly filling all 20 working days. He unpacks why this happens (hello, dopamine desert), and the two tools that got her out of it: co-working/body doubling and quick emotional regulation techniques for when the nervous system gets dysregulated before a task even starts. In this episode: What the "ADHD procrastination tax" actually costs you in revenue, growth, and free time A real client example: how procrastination quietly filled every available working hour Why the "dopamine desert" (no urgent deadline, no intense interest) is where ADHD brains get stuck How co-working / body doubling breaks the cycle Quick emotional regulation techniques (tapping, breathing) to use before starting a hard task How working ahead builds self-trust — and why that becomes a virtuous cycle Free Masterclass — Thursday, July 16th, 10am PT / 1pm ET How to Cross the Dopamine Desert and Build Your Dream Business Even With ADHD Steve is teaching his most important lessons from four years since his ADHD diagnosis at age 54: the three real challenges ADHD entrepreneurs face, the real secret to time management with ADHD, and how to stop procrastinating and get the important things done. Free to attend, and replay available if you can't make it live. 👉 Register here: https://go.steveaugustcoaching.com/dopamine-desert?utm_source=r ss Links: Join ADHD Entrepreneur Accelerator (AEX): https://adhd-accelerator.com Grab the free Weekly ADHD Dashboard → https://go.steveaugustcoaching.com/adhd-dashboard If this episode was helpful, a five-star rating on your favorite podcast platform goes a long way. Thanks for listening!