I Am That Content Creator Podcast

Ep#132 ADHD, Dopamine and Business: Coming off ADHD medication and finding my spark again

• Kristen Werner & Mia Steel

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100 Biz Ideas Series

The weirdest part of getting your life together is realising you might not like who you become. Mia's a week off her ADHD meds and something's returning: the creativity, the impulsivity, the ideas that won't shut up, the chaotic energy that made her, her. This episode is not health advice (do not take health advice from a podcast). It's the honest conversation about ADHD medication, dopamine, identity, and what happens to the risk-taking part of you that fuels your business when "functioning" starts to feel like flattening.

Mia digs into why medicated life can be brilliant for focus and anxiety and also dull the exact spark that makes entrepreneurship work, why "niche down and pick one thing" is the wrong advice for our brains, and the approach we teach instead: build a stable core first, then play. That core is monthly recurring revenue. Memberships, paid communities, one-to-many programs. Not just a business model, actual nervous system support.

Plus: finding your "breathe number", why desperation kills sales, how to keep the repeatable parts of business consistent without making them boring, and what Mia & Kristen are building next, including the in-person event for creators 40+ in Melbourne this November. Share this with a mate who has ten ideas and zero patience. And tell us: are you craving more structure, or more spark?

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Mojo Back After A Hiatus

SPEAKER_00

What's cracking like it? You've got Mio Solo. What has gotten into me? I think I might have got my mojo back. I'm creating content again. Like I said in my last episode, I don't know what happened.

ADHD Medication And Losing Myself

SPEAKER_00

I just had a real big hiatus, basically. And if you've been watching my TikToks, I am currently a week into coming off my ADHD medication, and I am slowly realizing that that could have been part of my problem. I have been looking back on my journey since being medicated for my late diagnosed ADHD. And now that I look back, I feel like I have lost myself. I am just, I just became this shell for person. I was doing the motions, I was getting the jobs done, I was focusing, I was paying the bills, cleaning the house, doing all the things that you gotta do in life. I was finally getting on top of things, and my anxiety was good, and all the thoughts in my head were quietened and I wasn't reacting to anything, and I was I was amazed. I'm like, oh my god, this is life-changing medication. This is amazing. Why wasn't I medicated 20 years ago? Um, I would have saved myself a lot of dramas and a lot of dysregulation and all the things. However, it came to my attention, I don't even know how I really figured this out or realized it, but I think because I've always been so fascinated with business, I've got entrepreneurship in my blood, I always have ideas, but I was finding myself over the last couple of years not executing on all my wild ideas. I didn't have that impulsivity, I didn't take big risks. I was just kind of cruising along. And although our business has been successful, we've brought in regular things are going great. I love my business, I love working with the women that we work with inside our programs, but I just, I just haven't been myself. I've been very, what's the word, no offense, neurotypical, and that's just not me. And I I was just looking back at my life and I was like, yes, although I was quite destructive and very chaotic with my undiagnosed ADHD. But every single time I took a risk, every single time I did something scary, every single time I got out of my comfort zone, and I mean, people must look at me sometimes and just go, what the fuck is this chick doing? She's nuts. But every time I did that, my life improved. Things happened, opportunities came, I was happier, I felt freer. And since being medicated, it kind of just shut all that off. And it totally makes sense. ADHD brains are looking for dopamine. We seek dopamine because we just don't produce enough of it or we, you know, we don't know how to, I don't know, all the technical scientific, you know, synapses and how it all works. I I should because I've studied psychology and nursing, but funny that they don't teach about all that sort of stuff. Um, or maybe they didn't, I just don't remember it. But we are seeking dopamine all the time. And so when you're medicated, all of a sudden your brain has access to this dopamine that it was once seeking. So you don't have this sense of urgency or risk taking or impulsivity or addictive behavior because your brain's got it now. And that can be seen as a very, very good thing. Like, listen, I I used to drink like a fish before I was medicated, but now I don't. And again, it's that dopamine seeking. Everything just gets switched off, even food, massive binge eater. Um, and obviously, ADHD medication is a stimulant, so it suppresses your appetite, but you're just not looking for that dopamine anymore. And although those things can be good to live in a very neurotypical society, it just it's just not me. And I just miss the old me. I miss the fun me, I miss the impulsive me, I miss all the things that made me a Mia. And if that means that ADHD was part of my personality, then sure, whatever. I don't know. But I don't like my personality now. I just don't, I I've I've when I look back on the last two and a half years of being medicated, like I don't really leave the house. I'm just always on the computer. I lock in on back-end systems and building websites and funnels and all the stuff that yes, you do have to do as a business owner. But I would just, that's all I've done. That's all I've been doing. And I miss, I miss being a bit chaotic.

Unmedicated Mia And 100 Ideas

SPEAKER_00

So welcome to Unmedicated Mia, which you probably have not met if you've only been in our world for the last couple of years. I think we started this podcast shortly before I started the medication and when I just kind of found out that I had ADHD. So welcome to the real Mia. You'll probably notice in my content and podcasts that things get a little bit wild. And I have recently just started a brand new series on TikTok where I'm going to start 100 business ideas because that's just me. I have ideas, they never stop. I love business, I love exploring, I love the uncertainty, I love the challenge. And I thought to myself, why the fuck don't I just start 100 businesses? What's wrong with that? I mean, lots of the gurus and marketing coaches and everything say, pick one thing, one niche, go hard. You're not gonna be successful if you don't master one thing and you know be known for one thing. And I'm like, bullshit. I've made multiple six figures doing lots of different things. And my personality likes to do lots of different things. So I'm giving myself permission to do all the ideas that I want to do. I'm not gonna sit back, I'm not gonna think about it, I'm not gonna be like, oh no, I better analyze it. Oh no, I'm gonna overwhelm myself. I'm just gonna do it.

The One Core Offer Strategy

SPEAKER_00

And after years of coaching fast and loose women in our programs, it's a very common theme. When you have ADHD, you you find it very difficult to do one thing. And so the processes and frameworks that we teach inside our programs is you need to have one core trunk, one offer that keeps you afloat revenue-wise. Monthly recurring revenue, because hey, ADHD hormones, we go up and down, up and down. And as soon as you stop selling, then the revenue stops coming into your business. So if you can just focus on getting a monthly recurring revenue stream up and running, just enough that it will let you breathe. So we say to our members all the time, what's your breathe number? What amount of money do you need to make every week where you can just breathe? The bills are paid, the mortgage is paid, you feel safe and secure, your nervous system isn't running amok because when you're in that state, it is very hard to make money because you do make irrational decisions, you're a bit desperate, and people pick up on that. No one's gonna buy something from you if they can sense a desperation or a uncertainty or a I don't know what I'm doing kind of thing. So if you can set up some sort of one-to-many program, a paid community, a membership, a subscription, something where the money is coming in every single month. Hey, I've still got affiliate commissions that are still coming in every single month from platforms that I promoted four years ago. So it's possible to do this, and it may take a bit of time for you to lock in and get that recurring revenue in. But once it's in, you can have the weeks on the couch, you can be a potato, you can go through burnouts, you can play with all the shiny objects that you want, which is what I'm doing now because I have that. I have my crop program, I have my monthly recurring revenue. So I am able to play amongst the branches and get a bit spicy and do multiple things at once. So that is what we teach inside evolution, our coaching program, because we've got so many beautiful women in there who are like me. Like we have this entrepreneurial blood and we have a lot of ideas, but also when you're neurodivergent, it can be quite difficult to make consistent income because pretty much nothing in our lives is consistent, whether that be career, exercise, mood, anything. It's we're very we're like the tides. We come in, we go out, and you just never know what you're gonna get with us. So is it difficult to create a monthly recurring revenue stream that you know supports you long term? Yeah, it's quite difficult. I'm not gonna say that it's easy, but from a very early stage in my content creating world, before I kind of realized all of this stuff, I I caught on to the idea that, okay, monthly recurring revenue was the thing that I needed to do, that I needed to set up in my business for me to be able to function, for me to be able to continue on this entrepreneurial route. Because before that, I had been selling one-off things. And yeah, the minute you burn out, the minute you put your focus somewhere else, the revenue stops. And when you know your brain, you know that's gonna happen. Like you can foresee that happening. And so I've spent the last couple of years really building my monthly recurring revenue with Kristen and our business. And now it doesn't really matter what I do, shiny object-wise. And that's why I'm starting this series on TikTok, the 100 business ideas, because I can't I can play amongst the branches now and I can have fun. And you know what? Who knows? 99 of these businesses are probably gonna fail, or I'm probably not gonna pursue and follow through. But there could be one that is just the million-dollar idea, or the one that changes my life, or you know, the one that just changes everything. So you just never know. And I think we need to stop looking at having a lot of ideas as a bad thing because I look at it as my motivation to change my life. Why would I keep doing the same thing over and over and over, pushing shit up a wall just because that's what I think I should do? You know, you didn't start a business to create another job for yourself. You didn't start a business to, you know, just become mundane and lose your creativity because you're just trying to make one thing work because you've been told that that's what you have to do. You have to niche down, you have to do this, you have to do that, you have to do it over and over and over and over and over again. And mind you, when you do set up a monthly recurring revenue system in your business, there are things that you have to do over and over and over again. But what we do and what we teach is get those things that you need to do over and over and over again in your business and make them fun. Change it up. You know, we do launches regularly, like every few months we will do a launch. And although the process is the same and we have to do it over and over and over again to build our revenue, we make it different. We make it fun, we change the topics, we change our webinar slides, we change the format, we change the offers, we just we just go wild with it and have fun. And it's constantly testing. We're just testing new things. But at the end of the day, it's all leading to building monthly recurring revenue inside our business. So look at those things inside your business of yes, yes, we do have to do things over and over again, but it doesn't have to be the same. And you can have multiple things going at the same time. Will you get burnt out? Potentially. But when you have the monthly recurring revenue and you do burn out, it's there to catch you again. And you know, some of the members inside a membership who are building their own monthly recurring revenue streams, they're just showing up once a month. You could do once a month Zoom call, once a month template drop in your subscription, once a month in-person event, and then the rest of the time you're playing in the branches, you know, you're looking at the shiny objects, you're planning other things, you're, you know, creating content and doing all the fun things. So, yeah, I I guess this bloody episode is me just showing you that it is okay to be quite chaotic. It is okay to be yourself, it is okay to let the ideas out and be you and have fun in business. Because what's the point of starting a business if you're gonna be bored? Like you may as well just go work for an employer and get consistent income and be completely bored out of your mind. But if you have ADHD like me, you'll know that that is absolutely soul crushing to you because having a boss and having routine and all that sort of stuff, it just doesn't fit well with us. Yes, so I am off my medication. Follow me on TikTok. You'll probably see from afar the changes in my content. I had one uh woman who has been following me for quite a while, and she said, I can see already the changes that you have been through unmedicated and medicated. So obviously, I was in another world since being on this medication, and I didn't immediately notice anything about it. I didn't notice the sparkle was disappearing until now. I just thought, oh wow, finally I've got this medication that um fixes all these things that are broken with me. But now I realize they're not broken. I'm just living in

Make Consistency Fun Not Boring

SPEAKER_00

a broken world that wasn't designed for me in my brain. So I hope that my TikTok series and me coming off my medication just inspires you to not come off your medication. I'm not saying to do that. If you are on ADHD medication, please God, uh, don't do it if you don't, you know, need to or want to, because the medication does, oh, it helps in a lot of ways. And I know people that who are not on their medication, they're just completely dysfunctional and it's actually detrimental to their life. Um, I would classify well classify myself as a high-functioning neurodivergent. I've never, although I have had financial issues, relationship issues, a career issues, like oh, I've had all the issues, but I've never hit rock bottom. I'm not one that is completely dysfunctional, unmedicated. I've been unmedicated my whole life and I've done, you know, three university degrees and you know, all the rest of it, I'm able to function. I am I am high functioning. However, I think I think I like myself better unmedicated. You might want to ask my family, they might like me medicated better. So time will tell. But look, you know, I met my partner when I was unmedicated, my family know me unmedicated, my friends know me unmedicated. So, you know, it's only been a small blip in my timeline where I have had the experience of our functionality. Um I'm gonna say medically induced functionality. So yeah, watch this space, you know, who knows? Things might turn to shit and I might have to go back on the medication, but I can just feel myself coming back already. I've got a little pep in my step. I I feel creative again. I f I I want to create content again. So I'm feeling good about it now. Will the bills, you know, not get paid and will the house be a mess? Probably. Look, probably. And will I completely uproot my entire life again, like I usually do every couple of years? Probably. But hey, YOLO. Like we only live once. And that was one thing that being a paramedic taught me is life is so uncertain. It is so short. You never know what's gonna happen tomorrow. Like I'm driving, I'm driving to an antique shed. I could crash my car right now and be dead,

Life Is Short So Do It

SPEAKER_00

you know? And what what would I look back on if I was just doing the same thing over and over and over again, living this Monday life, ticking all the boxes? No, I want to look back and go, fuck, she did some cool shit. She was not afraid, she got out of her comfort zone, she did all these things, she got a massive tattoo on her leg, she tripped around Australia in a caravan, she sold everything. Like I said to my partner the other day, I'm like, hey, Jace, what are your thoughts on just getting out of here and just going and living in Bali for a year? And he's just like, absolutely not. I was like, oh my god, you're so neurotypical. Like, come on, we could die tomorrow. So I've got some work to do. I'm trying to convince him to do something crazy again. And I actually don't know how I convinced him to sell our property and pack everything up and then jump in a caravan and go traveling. But when he looks back on that, that was some of the best years of his life too. So half the time I think neurotypicals need people like

Melbourne Creator Event Waitlist

SPEAKER_00

us to just give them a push and just be like, come on, let's go, let's do it. So, yes. Anyway, business idea number one is under wraps. We are doing an in-person 40 plus creator event. We have been talking about this for a while, but again, we've just been, oh yeah, we'll get to it, we'll get to it. You know, we've got to do this, this, and this first. And now I'm just like, what the fuck are we doing? Just book it in. Let's just do it. So we'll be releasing the wait list soon. So if you want to come to our 40 plus creator event event, which will be held in Melbourne in November. We have not got a date yet. We just want to get a wait list out and see if there's any interest. We've got some pretty cool names in the space who are keen to come. So listen out to our wait list so you can jump on that and you'll be able to hear all the updates when we lock it in and get access to early bird tickets and all the rest of it. So, yeah, that's happening. And I have so many other business ideas that I'm going to be playing around with, having fun with, validating, just putting things out there. Cause what's the worst

What’s The Worst That Happens

SPEAKER_00

that's going to happen? What is the worst that's going to happen? And I love that saying when you know you start a business and people are like, oh my god, what are you going to do if it doesn't work out? And then you say, Well, I'll just do what you're doing. I'll just do what you're doing, which is just going to a normal typical job nine to five. So yeah, look. And I get it. Like, you can't be too crazy when you've got kids and a mortgage and all the rest of it. But also in saying that, that's a bit of a cop-out sometimes, I think. Yeah. Just have a think about your life and are you happy? Are you genuinely, honestly happy with your life? I actually saw a TikTok yesterday. This lady, she was sitting in her big, beautiful Hampton style house, and she was like, the weirdest thing when you get everything that you want and you're still not happy, like what is that? She was showing her house and it was beautiful, and she's like, it doesn't feel like home. I finally got the home of my dreams, but it doesn't feel like home, and she just wasn't happy. You know, pretty great problem to have, but it's true. It's you just material things aren't gonna make you happy. So if you're stuck in a million dollar mortgage and you know you're in a job that you hate and you have these ideas and this urge to just do things, just do them. Just do them. Because when I was a paramedic, the amount of times that I'd been to people who had died who were at work, like at work. We're probably people that you hate. You're sitting next to this bitch that you hate, and then you have a heart attack at work, and you're just like, what, why? Why do we do this to ourselves? So anyway, I hope this episode wasn't too chaotic for you. And it has inspired you to just do the thing. If you've got 10 ideas, like do 10 ideas, do them. Like, even if you have to stay in the job you hate for a little bit longer while you test a bunch of ideas, do it. Start the market stall on the weekend, you know? Do the thing that you've been scared to do. What's the worst that's gonna happen? The worst thing that's gonna happen is, well, the worst thing that could happen in your whole entire life is that you die and you die not trying the things that you want to try. So anyway, I'm gonna wrap it up here because I'm pretty sure I have taken a wrong turn and I have no idea where I am. So yeah, I am back, Mia's back, totally unmedicated. I can't wait to have a proper podcast with Kristen so we can get loose on the mics again. It has been way too long and we've we've been meaning to get together and actually do this podcast for a while now. So watch this space. We're coming back to you. I am back, and yeah, go do the thing because you can just do things. Absolutely so many good ones too.