# From PhD to founding Unconventional Organisation and key lessons

- **Episode:** [173](https://agents.truthliesandwork.com/episodes/173.md) (2025-02-20)
- **Type:** interview
- **Tags:** neurodiversity, adhd, entrepreneurship
- **Time:** 23:52–29:58 (start 1432s)
- **Listen:** [https://truthliesandwork.com/173?t=1432](https://truthliesandwork.com/173?t=1432)

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[23:52] Skye Waterson: Yeah, I think one thing that we haven't touched on yet is the strengths of neurodiversity or ADHD. So people who have ADHD, um, they tend to be really great problem solvers, uh, they tend to think originally. So there's some research that shows that Even if they're given like something to work on, um, people who are not ADHD might, you know, iterate around that thing. People who have ADHD are gonna go wildly to the left and make something completely different. And so those kinds of strengths, problem solving, sometimes resilience as well, it will depend on the person. Um, those things, you know, you wanna, we wanna support those things because at the end of the day, you've hired this person because you thought that they would be a good fit for your organization. So very much understanding, okay, if I'm looking at somebody and I'm seeing that they're having these struggles, keep in mind they have a spiky profile. It's not all bad news. They probably have some strengths as well. Can we help support them with their struggles? Can we highlight their strengths? That can often be really important. I mean, I've worked with people who run giant organizations or hit up huge teams. And they really struggle with organization, but they have a few systems in place. They have a few strategies in place for that. And then the things that they do is they manage to pull it out of the hat every quarter and really make the business sing in terms of their goals and what they're trying to get done. So keep in mind that people are going to have both
[25:22] Leanne Elliott: How did you get then from the point of, you said you were doing your PhD and now that you've founded The Unconventional Organization, you've got your podcast. What was the path that you took from the PhD to where you are now?
[25:36] Skye Waterson: Basically what happened was, so I, before, you know, I've sort of been a lifelong academic, got a master's and an honors and a whole bunch of other things. I may or may not have been trying to figure out what I was doing with my life. And, you know, from that experience, I was an academic educator for a really long time. So I taught in university, I taught stats and psychology and development and that kind of thing. And so when I started my PhD, I said, no more teaching. I'm just going to focus on the PhD. I want to get this done. And then I got a diagnosis of ADHD and I thought, oh, maybe a little bit more teaching because I really love it. And so what happened was I first of all went to my university's inclusive learning center and I said, hey, can I start a group for postgraduates who are like me, who are neurodiverse. So I did that, that was really cool. And then from there, I actually ended up— somebody said, oh, you should work in schools, like there's heaps of struggles with this right now. Um, and so I started, um, I messaged some schools, connected with them. I ended up helping them with their students, like giving their teachers some advice about, you know, how things work. As I was doing that, obviously I was learning and getting the research together and like You know, starting to teach this stuff. And then COVID happened and we all had to go home. And so at that point I was like, okay, well, I can't teach in schools anymore and I can't teach in the university, but I love to teach. So where am I going to teach? And I looked up online and it came up, oh, ADHD coaching is a thing. So I thought, okay, well, that sounds really cool. You know, I put together a system based on all the stuff that I've been doing and teaching already. And I started at the same time committing to writing weekly articles on my website. So I have a ton of articles on there, and I just started referencing those articles because I can't help myself, putting them on Facebook, and people really love them. And so I started doing those 2 things in combination, and it really developed from there. It was a time where people were looking for a lot of information about this exact topic. And, um, it grew and then I took on more responsibility and I, you know, got a business coach and I did all of those things. And, um, and so, you know, it developed and developed into, into what it is, um, what it's been today
[27:59] Leanne Elliott: And when you look back over that, you know, that 4 years now, were there any key moments, do you think, that, that stand out either in terms of, um, understanding yourself and your diagnosis or understanding what it is to be an entrepreneur with ADHD?
[28:14] Skye Waterson: I mean, I think I learned, I think what everybody learns when they put themselves on the internet, you know, I learned what my insecurities were. I learned how, you know, whether I, I think sometimes somebody, somebody said to me once, your, your face is very flat. And I was like, what? You know, cause internally I was very emotional. And then, you know, externally, I think I was trying to like be very like, give everyone the information, you know, very much just trying to give them the research and the information. That's what the academic space I was from. in the academic. I was like, you don't know this, but I'm like, I'm a big extrovert in the academic space. But in the, in the, you know, internet space, it's like, hey, you know, maybe you want to try doing a bit more. Um, so, you know, just things like that. I think mostly I learned how to show up and, and how to, you know, help people with what they wanted. You know, I can talk all day about neuroscience and ADHD, and I learned that people like that and they want some of it, but they don't want all of it. So, you know, trying to temper that with Just helping people understand exactly where they are and exactly what they need. So I think that was really the journey. I ended up developing everything I'd taught in one-on-one coaching into a program called Focused Balance Days. And so that's the program that I teach now, and it incorporates everything. It helps people step into focus. Like I said, you know, if you want that kind of stuff, you can just message me on Instagram. Um, it helps people with prioritization filter, how to prioritize, how to reduce overwhelm, those kinds of things
[29:48] Leanne Elliott: And I'm intrigued by the neuroscience because it is fairly new research we see from neuroscience, isn't it, with the advances in technology? What can you share with us about ADHD and the ADHD brain?