There’s never been more buzz about ADHD and entrepreneurship. Awareness is growing, and that’s a victory worth celebrating.

More business owners are recognizing that an ADHD brain brings both game-changing opportunities and unique challenges—ones that generic business advice just can't touch.

But where there is growth, there is also noise, and the ADHD business coaching scene is becoming a bit of a “Wild, Wild West.”

No licensing board, no universally accepted regulations, and plenty of people selling shiny promises with little substance. 

The ADHD coaching label is being slapped on all sorts of programs, leaving business owners in need wondering: who can I really trust with my business, my brain, and my hard-earned money?

About the Host

Diann Wingert is a former psychotherapist and serial entrepreneur turned business coach, specializing in helping entrepreneurs with ADHD and other “not-so-neurotypical” brains thrive.

Drawing from both her clinical expertise and personal experience, Diann delivers actionable advice, real-world strategies, and a refreshingly honest perspective on building a business, balancing priorities, and protecting your most precious resources: your time and your creative energy.

Defining "ADHD Business Coach"

A major misconception is that being a certified ADHD coach with a coaching business is enough to qualify as an ADHD business coach.

The truth? The skills needed for managing ADHD and those needed to build sustainable business systems for an ADHD brain are worlds apart.

ADHD coaching typically zeroes in on organization, productivity, time management, and emotional regulation.

ADHD business coaching requires a deep understanding of how neurodivergent thinking plays out in the areas of business strategy, marketing, operations, and client delivery. 

In other words, it’s about knowing not just that typical strategies fail for ADHD entrepreneurs, but why—and being able to offer effective alternatives.

Here’s my checklist for vetting an ADHD business coach—myself included:

• How do they run their business? Is it ADHD-friendly and sustainable, or are they “winging it” and modeling burnout?
• Can they answer nuanced questions about ADHD and business beyond the basics? How does rejection sensitivity impact marketing? Why do traditional sales funnels often fail?
• How do they talk about ADHD? Are they focused on deficits to “fix” or differences to leverage?
• Does their content feel ADHD-aligned? Or does it sound like a typical business guru tossing in some neurodivergent SEO keywords?
• Take a look at their boundaries. Strong boundaries signal true expertise and self-care—not codependency with a price tag.

My coach approach is simple and built on three principles:

Uncomplicate Your Business: ADHD brains get swamped by unnecessary complexity. Instead of piling on endless marketing channels or busywork, focus on what actually moves the needle. Eliminate the rest to avoid burnout.

Uncover Your Brilliance: ADHD entrepreneurs often have wildly innovative ideas, but years of hearing they should do things a certain way dims that spark. The real magic comes from aligning offers with your strengths and values, making sales a natural conversation rather than a high-pressure hustle.

Turn ADHD into an Asset: Instead of treating ADHD as something to manage, the right coach helps you turn traits like pattern recognition, hyperfocus, and flexibility into your business’s superpowers.

Do You Even Need an ADHD Business Coach?

Here’s a refreshing truth: not everyone needs specialized ADHD business coaching, especially if you’re still learning foundational business skills or are in the middle of a personal or professional crisis. 

There’s a time and place—otherwise, you might benefit more from a mentor, a course, or ADHD life coaching.  I think of it as the Goldilocks effect - not too much, not too little, but just right.  

The ADHD business coaching field is growing, so you have more options than ever, but don’t let the noise drown out your intuition. Look for integrity, expertise, and a coach who practices what they preach. 

If you want to explore coaching with me, I offer no-pressure consultations to see if we are a fit and if the timing is right.   Click here to find out more. 

© 2025 ADHD-ish Podcast. Intro music by Ishan Dincer / Melody Loops  / Outro music by Vladimir /  Bobi Music / All rights reserved. 

Hey there, brilliant business brain, welcome back to ADHD-ish. I'm your host, Diann Wingert, and today we're tackling a question that I've somehow never directly addressed on this podcast. What exactly is an ADHD business coach? Now, if you're thinking Diann, isn't that obvious, I mean, you are one, right? Here's the thing, the ADHD coaching market is exploding and the business coaching subset, it is like the wild, wild west out here. No sheriff, no rules, and plenty of people selling snake oil. So if you're a business owner with ADHD who's trying to find out, who do I trust with my brain, my business, and my hard-earned money? Well, this episode is your insider's guide to not getting bamboozled.

Because choosing the wrong coach is not just about wasted money. It's about wasted time, crushed confidence, and potentially screwing up something you've poured your whole heart into so let's get into it. All right, I want to paint you a picture about what's actually happening in this space right now. On one hand, we've got more awareness about ADHD and entrepreneurship than ever before, and I am so here for it. More people are recognizing that having an ADHD brain and running a business creates both a lot of interesting opportunities and some unique challenges that generic business advice just doesn't touch. Super important and absolutely necessary.

But here's where it starts to get messy. Because there's no actual licensing board for ADHD business coach, hell, there's barely regulation for regular business coaching. Literally, anyone can wake up tomorrow, slap ADHD on their existing coaching program and call themselves an ADHD business coach, if not an expert. I'm seeing life coaches who did a weekend workshop on ADHD suddenly marketing themselves as ADHD business coaches. I'm seeing business coaches who read a book on neurodivergence claiming they can help ADHD entrepreneurs. Kind of like watching someone who's never even changed a tire calling themselves an automotive engineer. And please don't ask me how many times I've been approached by other coaches who want to know how to tweak their program so that they too can work with folks with ADHD. Ewwwww.

And you know the really sneaky part some of these folks are so good at marketing. They've got the slick ass websites, the compelling copy, and even the glowing testimonials. But when you know what to look for and peel back the layers, their actual methodology is just regular business coaching with a few ADHD buzzwords sprinkled on top. The cost of choosing wrong goes so far beyond the money you spend, you waste precious time. And we all know how ADHD brains feel about wasting time. You might walk away thinking the problem is you, when really the problem is that you were taking advice meant for neurotypical brains. Worst of all, you might even start believing you don't have what it takes to make it in business.

So what actually qualifies someone to call themselves an ADHD business coach? Well, I am bringing you the real talk as always, because I want you to feel competent and qualified to evaluate anyone in this space, including me. And by the way, before I dig in, let me just say this while I am a legitimate expert in this space, I am not the only one. And like any field, there are differences of opinion among legitimate experts. So I want to be very clear the opinions, perspectives and advice I share in this episode are mine and based on me my experience. So let's start off by addressing the biggest misconception that I see. Someone who says, well, I'm a certified ADHD coach and I run a coaching business, so obviously I'm an ADHD business coach.

No, just know that's like saying you're a great chef and you own a restaurant, so you should be able to teach other people restaurant management. Here's the thing, the skills needed to help someone manage their ADHD traits are completely different from the skills needed to help them build sustainable business systems that work with their ADHD brain. ADHD coaching typically focuses on life management, organization, time management, productivity and emotional regulation, time blindness, all that important stuff. Business coaching for ADHD entrepreneurs, creatives and small business owners. Well, that requires understanding how neurodivergent thinking patterns show up in business strategy, marketing, operations and client delivery. It means knowing why traditional business advice often backfires for ADHD brains, not just being able to refer to the fact that it does.

And here's what I think actually matters, you want someone who understands ADHD from both a clinical and lived experience perspective. You want someone who has actual business experience, not just from running their own business. And you want someone who has real business building experience. You want someone who can bridge those two worlds, the ADHD world and the business building world. Business coaches who might realize that some of their clients have ADHD and they've had reasonably good results decide this qualifies them as an ADHD business coach but it really doesn't. So I want you to look for coaches that can explain why conventional business wisdom doesn't work for our brains.

Anyone can tell you that typical time management strategies will often fail for those of us with ADHD. But can they explain the neurological reasons behind that failure and offer alternatives that actually account for how your brain processes information? Here's a red flag alert for you, if someone's approach is basically regular business coaching with some ADHD awareness thrown in, if I were you, I'd run. If they're promising to help you overcome, fix or cure your ADHD, I would run even faster. The coaches who get it understand that ADHD is not a design flaw to be fixed. It is a different operating system that requires different strategies. So, let me tell you next how I approach this whole thing because I believe that transparency builds trust and I am not here to blow sunshine up your ass. Also, I happen to know that some of my future coaching clients are listening right now.

So here's my philosophy, it's pretty simple. My job is not to make you think like a neurotypical entrepreneur. First of all, that's impossible and quite frankly it would be a waste of your natural gifts. My job, as I see it, is to help you build a business that works with your brain, with your goals and with your values. Also one that is right sized to your lifestyle, your energetic capacity and your stage of life and your other obligations. This comes down to three core things, uncomplicate your business, uncover your brilliance and turn your ADHD into a business asset by leveraging the fact that you think, feel and do things differently.

So let me explain further, let's start with the uncomplicate your business. ADHD brains tend to get overwhelmed by complexity unless it's something we're hyper focusing and fascinated by. So, most business advice that says things like you need 17 different marketing channels, you need to track 47 different metrics, and your backup plan should have backup plans. This is utter bullshit for brains like ours. What I do is help my clients identify what actually moves the needle in their business and eliminate as much of everything else as possible. Not because they can't handle complexity, they can. But when your drivers are passion and purpose as they are for most of us, you need to be sure that your time and talent is going toward what actually matters.

Everything else is a recipe for burnout, the second core goal is uncover your brilliance. Here's something I've noticed, business owners and entrepreneurs with ADHD often have the most unique, innovative ideas of anyone their industry. But they've also been told to follow conventional wisdom for so long that they've buried their natural instincts and don't trust their own magic anymore. Now my magic and yes I do call it my magic because my ADHD pattern recognition skills and my intuition are next level. My magic is helping my clients identify which of their offers is not only most unique but is easiest to sell and simplest to deliver. Notice I said easy to sell.

That's not because I teach my clients some sleazy tactics that make it easier to close the deal. But when your offers are perfectly aligned with your natural strengths and values as well as your ideal clients’ actual needs, selling becomes a conversation instead of a performance. Simple to deliver is not about dumbing down your genius. It is about designing delivery systems that account for how ADHD brains actually function. Because what good is a brilliant program if your executive functioning challenges mean you can't consistently deliver it, so you burn out or give up. Finally turning your ADHD into a business asset this is where most coaches fall short. They focus strictly on managing symptoms instead of on leveraging strengths no matter what their talk is.

But your ADHD brain is exactly why you can see solutions others miss, why you can hyper focus on problems that fascinate you until you solve them, and why you can pivot quickly when the market changes. So the goal isn't a business that you can tolerate or run despite your ADHD. The goal is a business that is so aligned with your strengths it gets you excited and you can't wait to work on it. Because that is when ADHD brains perform at their absolute best. Now I'd like to give you a framework for how to evaluate any ADHD business coach you're considering hiring, including me. Because what I really want is for you to be able to make an informed decision that you feel good about later. So, there are five things to pay attention to.

First, ask them about their own business. How do they run it? Does their business model actually reflect ADHD friendly principles? Or are they telling you to do things they're not doing themselves? If someone's promising to help you build sustainable systems while they are clearly burning themselves out trying to be everywhere at once, that is a major red flag. Next, ask specific questions about ADHD and business strategy, not general ADHD knowledge literally anyone who has access to Google can figure that out.

Ask them how rejection sensitivity shows up in marketing and what to do about it. Ask them why traditional sales funnels often fail for entrepreneurs with ADHD. If they give you generic answers or worse, seem surprised by the questions, keep looking. Next, look at how they talk about ADHD. Do they focus on deficits to overcome or differences to leverage? Do they understand that ADHD traits that might be significant weaknesses in a traditional business context can actually be massive strengths when you build the right structures around them? Next, check their marketing and content. Does it feel authentic to how ADHD brains actually think and communicate, or does it sound more like a typical business coach speak with some ADHD keywords thrown in.

And here's a big one, ask them about their boundaries. Business owners with ADHD almost always, always struggle with boundaries, and you need a coach who models healthy ones and can teach them to you if they make themselves available 24/7 or basically promise to be your biz bestie that's not what we call accessibility and support. That's codependency with a price tag. Warning signs, anyone who promises quick fixes, anyone who claims their method works for everyone and anyone who makes you feel like your ADHD is something to be ashamed of, however subtle that may be. Sometimes the gaslighting really is front and center but we don't always pick up on it. Sadly, because we're all too used to it and we may feel that we want to give people the benefit of the doubt.

Here's something I don't hear many people talk about, but I think it's important to this conversation and it's what I call ADHD or ADHD aligned. You might even think of it as the elephant in this particular room and I believe it comes down to personal preference. Here's the deal, not all ADHD business coaches or even generic ADHD coaches actually have ADHD. In fact, some of the top people in the ADHD coaching field for the last 20 years do not. They originally entered the field because their spouse had ADHD or one of more of their children did. They were initially motivated to better understand and support their loved one and spent a lot of time doing so and getting good at it so that over time it evolved into a career path.

I also know a wonderful ADHD business coach who does not have ADHD but enjoys working with those who do so much that they went through an ADHD coaching program and specializes in working with ADHD clients. And they are very clear on acknowledging I do not have ADHD myself. Now here's why I say it's a personal preference, some people believe that the only person who can genuinely help them run their business with an ADHD brain is also someone who has an ADHD brain. I'm not so sure because while working with a coach who has ADHD can be a decided advantage, it can also come with the risk of working with someone who overly identifies with you and that creates bias and blind spots.

So if you are considering an ADHD business coach who does not have ADHD themselves, I would pay closer attention to their answers to questions 2 and 3 and 4 from the list that I just shared. For the coach who does have ADHD, I recommend paying more attention to their answers to the first question and the one about boundaries. Because the bottom line is just because someone has ADHD doesn't mean they can help you with yours. And just because they don't have ADHD doesn't mean they can't. So do your due diligence, think about this question and what it means to you and tap into your intuition.

Now here's something I bet you're not expecting me to say. Sometimes you don't need an ADHD business coach and honestly, any coach worth their salt should be willing to tell you that, not just me. If you're just starting out and you're barely figuring out basic business fundamentals, you're probably better off with a mentor or a general business course. ADHD specific coaching is going to be much more valuable when you already have some business experience and now you find you're running into walls and it seems to be uniquely tied to how your brain works. If you're dealing with significant ADHD symptoms that are affecting your daily life, not just your business, you probably should work with an ADHD life coach first before adding business complexity to the mix.

Now, if your business is already working pretty well, you're not feeling overwhelmed, you're not constantly fighting against your natural tendencies. You might just need occasional strategic consulting rather than in depth business coaching. Also, timing matters big time if you're in crisis mode right now whether it's personal or a professional, professional one. Coaching probably isn't the best investment at this time, and any coach with integrity will tell you this. Handle the crisis first and come back when things are more stable and you're ready to grow. When we are in survival mode, we are simply not able to make good decisions that stand the test of time.

After the emotional tsunami passes, the right coach is going to ask you some hard questions about whether coaching is actually what you need right now. If someone tries to sign you up without understanding your unique situation, well, in my opinion, that tells you everything you need to know about their priorities. So, let's wrap this up, the ADHD business coaching space is growing fast, which is great news for folks who need this kind of specialized support. But with that growth comes a lot of noise and unfortunately, a lot of opportunists jumping into the game. So you need to be an informed consumer to protect your business, your billfold and your brain.

Here's the framework I recommend. Look for someone who understands ADHD from multiple angles, for someone who has real business expertise, and someone who can explain why traditional advice doesn't work for your brain. Pay attention to how they run their business and whether they seem to practice what they preach and trust your gut. If something feels off, it probably is. Now, if you want to explore working with me in particular, this is how I do it. I offer a free 30-minute consultation where we spend time figuring out if we're a good fit. And when I say figure it out, I mean that, it's not a disguised sales call where I'm trying to pressure you into signing up.

During a free consultation, we look at where you are right now, what you're wanting to build, and whether ADHD specific business coaching is actually what you need. Sometimes I refer people to other resources. Sometimes we discover that coaching could be helpful, but the timing isn't right for now. And sometimes we discover we are a perfect match. There's a link in the show notes to book your free consultation and it truly is no cost and no obligation. Even if we don't end up working together, you'll walk away with more clarity about your next steps. And speaking of next steps, I’ll be back next week with a guest expert interview. The topic is ADHD and intersectionality. Trust me, you do not want to miss this one.