Actionable solutions for adults with ADHD and co-morbid depression, delivered with humor and sincerity in under 20 minutes.

ADHD Big Brother is about helping adults with ADHD and co-morbid depression get their lives managed. My listeners tend to be adults who are potentially diagnosed late in life and are finally in a place where they are looking for answers that move them forward. I have ADHD and depression and a big part of creating this podcast was to keep the episodes short and actionable. Each episode takes a look at a symptom, or a struggle, and while I might poke fun at myself and my own struggles (I have to keep this fun for myself!), I make sure there is a take away or a challenge at the end of each episode.
 

The real answer to this is that when I was asking myself what a good way to market a business where I'm helping people with ADHD, what is manageable for my brain, my energy, and what is sustainable. I suck at social media, and it's not fun for me. I love performing, but doing videos is a pain in my butt because it requires setup and lights and video editing and I'm getting overwhelmed just typing this answer. The easiest answer for me was podcasting! It lets me perform and be funny, and it is a way to get a message out to the world, and while I have a coaching business and a paid forum to offer support, this is my way of helping people for free.

I started the podcast toward the end of 2020. It didn't take long for me to release my first episode. If anybody knows anything about ADHD it's that when an idea becomes "the big idea" then it's all consuming and quite easy to crank out the first episode. I'm a performer by nature, so putting myself out on a limb wasn't a big deal. Dealing with imposter syndrome was definitely an issue, but I have a mantra that I mentioned in my 100th episode that helps. It's called "even though." I add it to things like this. Where the scared child in my brain doesn't want me to be rejected and tries to sabotage my efforts by saying things like "you're a fraud, nobody will listen, it will be a disaster", I say to myself "even though...even though that all might happen, I'm going to do this. Even though!" I love 'even though.'
 

I release a new episode every Monday. And it usually takes me (I'm ballparking this) 8 hours total to write, record, edit. It's more like an hour here, two hours there, and then I'll record it on a Saturday and that's maybe an hour for setup and recording, and then maybe another couple hours to edit it.

I do everything on my own. I write it, record it, edit it. So as far as actual costs, I may spend $50 a month, and I already have a good microphone and computer, so for me it's doable and an extremely worthwhile expense. I couldn't tell you what I spent on the computer and microphone, because I don't remember and I'm not about to dig up receipts as that sounds like a level of hell I'm not up for... but it's a Yeti Blue, and I have a Mac computer. I use Buzzsprout to upload my podcast and I use their "magic mastering" which probably does something magical to the audio, at least that's in the name, and magic is neat. And I use Adobe Audition to record it and edit it.

One of my "gifts" is writing. I have no trouble writing up an episode, especially if it's top of mind and I'm thinking about it throughout the day.

Finding the time to do the podcast is much easier for me now because I actually use all the skills that I teach. I have a full-time job, I have an ADHD coaching business with active clients, I run the ADHD Big Brother forum (which everyone should join, it's such an amazing community), I'm enrolled in college getting my Bachelors in Psychology, and I'm a single dad to two awesome teenager dudes.
The boring, ugly, normie answer is "I make the time." But the answer to ADHD and depression is that I make life as easy for myself as possible using structure, externalizing as much as I can, I use the easiest point of entry to get started when getting started is impossible, and I take my own advice and use these tools.
 

I don't take sponsorship. Am I the only one?! Am I doing this wrong? Oh, god, what have I done?!

I don't have any issue with it, but it's not something I'm interested in. My goal, as far as making money, would be to make my money through forum memberships, and individual or group coaching. I have "a thing" about how I make money.

As far as downloads go, as of the time that I'm doing this interview, a new episode will get a little more than 1000 downloads in the first 7 days. That still blows my mind.

How podcasting is benefiting me is that it is connecting me to others in the community who are similar to me, which I find incredibly helpful. Especially with the depression side of things, it can feel very lonely. The creation of the ADHD Big Brother forum, as a place to externalize accountability, and be a part of a supportive community...that has been such an amazing benefit that was birthed out of the conversations I had within the community. And that would not have been possible without the podcast. It has really connected me to those I wish to serve and they are helping me in return. It's a beautiful thing.
 

Process! Ok, I mentioned that I have a Mac computer, I use Adobe Audition software, a Yeti Blue microphone, and one of those nylon spit guard thingies.

I do 8 hours of yoga meditation and emotional breath work in preparation of my....just kidding. I write the episodes during the week. As of right now I have nothing "in the can" just in case I get hit by a meteor and need time to recover. I have ADHD, I think I mentioned that earlier, and I work quite well under chaotic, urgent conditions. I'm not overwhelmed by it (for this) because I enjoy it. I will usually chip away at an episode throughout the week, write it, edit it, and then when I record it, I kind of scrap it. I still refer to the "script" in terms of the flow of the episode, but I'm pretty good at keeping things conversational, and a lot of the time I tend to go off the rails and I'll be silly, or I'll say something that comes to mind. It's more fun for me that way.

When I do interviews, I do them through Zoom, but if anybody knows a trick to make interviews sound cleaner, I'm all ears! I am not perfect at this.
 

The podcast has mostly grown organically over time. As far as listener percentages, I just looked at my Buzzsprout stats to see what it says and it looks like right now I'm 35% from itunes, 18% spotify, 12% overcast, and then all the other platforms are like 6% or less. I'm not sure what to do with that information, and I'm also not sure how to get my podcast in front of people who are searching for ADHD on itunes.

When I market the podcast, I cross market with the people I interview - if I have an interview show. Otherwise, I share on all the social media platforms that I don't like, and I send out email blasts to my newsletter folks. The biggest nods to my podcast have been the unsolicited shout outs that I have gotten from people that listen to the show. One of which was Adam Savage, and that gave the podcast a healthy bump!
 

Cranking out an episode every week, while it's fun for me, there are also times when I have no desire to do it. The importance of being consistent is a big deal. My podcast only really started to grow when I put an episode out every single week, like clockwork. In the beginning, I was scattered about it. I would release 3 in one day, then nothing for a month, then maybe one here, one there whenever I was "up for it."

An ego lesson I learned early on was that the show is called ADHD Big Brother, not The Russ Jones Show. I'm putting this podcast out to help people who are struggling with ADHD and Depression, not to get the love and approval of family and friends. It's a little embarrassing to say, but there's that part of me that would put out an episode and want to hear congratulations, or have a conversation with family or friends. Giving that up was a huge lesson for me. My family and friends are massively supportive, I should say, and they show it in the ways that they choose...and I love them for that.

I don't have any helpful books, videos, or podcasts to recommend, but I do have a big recommendation. If you want to create a podcast, if you have something important to say, and you know the audience you are going to say it to, then make your first episode. Try not to get bogged down in reading all the books, watching all the videos...do the thing you think you need to do, do it to the best of your current ability (you will most likely hate it) and publish it, and then make your second episode less crappy. Then make that third, even less crappy episode. And on and on, and keep reflecting, keep iterating, keep improving as you go.

I feel like I could talk about this for a long time, so people are more than welcome to reach out and I'll overshare til your skull spaghetti pops.
 

My main website is https://www.adhdbigbrother.com

If you want to check out the ADHD Big Brother forum: https://www.forum.adhdbigbrother.com

If you want to reach out, it's russ@adhdbigbrother.com

If you are a creative person with ADHD and possibly co-morbid depression and you have found a way to conquer a symptom or two and would like to talk about it on the show, I'd be more than happy to have a chat with you about what that could look like. I'm very much in support of creative individuals getting opportunities to share their creativity with the world, and maybe we can all grow a little from you.