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I HAVE ADHD PODCAST - Episode #258

April 9, 2024

Overcoming Adversity with Dr. Layne Norton @biolayne

We’ve had some truly amazing guests on the podcast lately, and our most recent guest is no exception.

Dr. Layne Norton is an evidence-based nutrition coach and self-proclaimed ‘nerd who lifts heavy things.’ He has a Ph.D. in Nutritional Sciences, 4 USA Power Lifting National Titles, and 1700 clients in his coaching program.

His resume is stacked, to say the least. But being diagnosed with ADHD at age 6, Layne has had to overcome some serious challenges both in his personal and professional life.

With more than 1 million followers on social media, it’s no secret that Layne’s story has resonated with a lot of people.

He’s sharing the ways he copes with his diagnosis and how he’s used what he’s learned over the years to create a crazy successful business and beautiful home life.

Be sure to follow Layne on Instagram. You can learn more about his coaching services by visiting his website.

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Kristen Carder 0:05
Welcome to the I have ADHD podcast, where it’s all about education, encouragement and coaching for adults with ADHD. I’m your host, Kristen Carter and I have ADHD. Let’s chat about the frustrations, humor and challenges of adulting relationships working and achieving with this neurodevelopmental disorder. I’ll help you understand your unique brain. Unlock your potential and move from point A to point B. Hey, what’s up, this is Kristen Carter and you are listening to the I have ADHD podcast, and medicated. I’m caffeinated. I am regulated A F and I am ready to roll. Let’s go.

Happy to have you with me here today. Thanks so much for pressing play on this podcast, you won’t be disappointed listener, I know you won’t, you’re not going to be disappointed because today I have a guest that you are not going to want to miss his name is Layne Norton, you might know him as bio lane on Instagram or, you know, the socials. He’s got a casual 1 million followers. So whatever I say not that big of a deal. But I’m happy to have him with me today. And I think that you are going to so resonate with his story of struggle, and hardship and then eventual success. I hope that it’s so inspiring for you. Elaine is a self proclaimed nerd who lifts heavy things he comes with a hefty resume, including a PhD in Nutritional Sciences, and also for USA Powerlifting national titles, most recently winning gold at the 2023 powerlifting. America national championships, Layne helped popularize flexible dieting and online nutrition coaching, using evidence based methods. And that is like that is the point evidence based methods. I love it so much coaching over 1700 clients, he’s got a coaching team, he’s written books, he’s got a nutrition coaching app, educational courses, the list goes on and on. You’re gonna want to tune into this episode today because he really talks about what it was like for him growing up with ADHD, how he experienced a lot of bullying, and how the most significant effect that ADHD has had on his life has been through his relationships. We really get into all of that. I can’t wait for you to hear from him. Please enjoy this episode with Elaine Norton. So Layne, thanks so much for being here. Welcome to the podcast.

Dr. Layne Norton 2:47
I appreciate it. Yeah, it’s

Kristen Carder 2:49
really really fun. I’ve been following you for a while and I love we’ll get into this later. But I love watching you debunk a lot of like influencer nutritional kind of things. Every time I’m like cheering along with you. I love how fired up you get about the BS nonsense that’s out there. It makes me so happy. And like I said, we’ll get into that. That’s not even the most interesting thing about you. But I know that you’re diagnosed with ADHD, do you mind telling me a little bit about your diagnosis story? Like were you diagnosed as a kid or as an adult?

Dr. Layne Norton 3:23
Yeah, so I come from a basically completely neurodivergent family. And my brother was ADHD. I’m ADHD and ADHD. I would not be surprised if Dad is either. Really my parents are great people. But it was a little bit chaotic, I guess. And you know, each of our kind of symptoms manifests in a different way for each of us. But thankfully saga diagnosed when I was six years old. Wow. Yeah. So very early. I was I was very lucky because at the backup too much, but my grandfather on my mom’s side, like I told him, I talked, I talked about it a lot. But he was like my personal year old this guy. He was basically the funniest person I’ve ever met amazing heart, and was also a legitimate war hero. Like just the most ethical person I’ve ever met. And he started, it was president of the Southwest Indiana children’s mental health society. So this is like the late 60s, early 70s. So he was thinking about children’s mental health. That was basically suck it up and stop whining, right? Like, they don’t do what you tell them just hit him a little harder. Yeah, totally. And so, you know, when I was having some trouble in school with like, I was always I never got bad grades. I was always pretty smart. But I had a real problem. Paying attention and stuff I wasn’t interested in, you know, speaking out of turn on very impulsive conversation and it’s something I’ve had to work really hard to get under control and even my friends at times like I actually was just having a text conversation my best friend about that. He’s like, Hey, I have seen that, like, you have done a better job of catching yourself on this, which is great, because you know, people who don’t know you like, he’s like, I know that you’re just a big kid. And you know, there’s nothing nasty behind it, you care about other people’s opinions, you’re just so excited to share everything. So, my mom kind of struggled with that. And I think actually, my ADHD manifested in a more difficult way for me in personal relationships. And so I was struggling with like, kind of making and keeping friends and I got bullied a lot growing up. And so she actually got me diagnosed, that is at age six. And this was when, you know, it was kind of like taboo to diagnose your kid with ADHD, I want to say it was in 1988 when this happened, okay. 42. And so she immediately got me in to see a therapist, and I was on Ritalin. And, you know, it did help, like, both those things helped. And I’ll tell people, you know, people, I think, because I’m a genius, people expect me to be like very anti medication. No, I actually, you know, I took. So I took Ritalin until it was like 14 or 15. And then we switched to Adderall. And I felt like Adderall worked better for me. So school got easier for me, the longer I went, because I got more into stuff that I was interested in. So I have like a three, five. So I’m on the 4.0 grading scale. And by the way, all you kids out there, the actual 4.0 grading scale thing, they got these Celica poovar. I love it. So I have three, three fives, so a average in high school. And then in college, I got like a three, six, and then close like three, nine, you know, because it was just getting stuff. I was more and more interested in. Can

Kristen Carder 6:56
I ask where you treated the whole time medically treated for ADHD the whole time? So

Dr. Layne Norton 7:00
I stopped taking Adderall, I would say like two years into grad school. Okay, because I used three, nine. Yeah. And I just felt like at that point, this is stuff I can hyper fixate on.

Kristen Carder 7:14
And like your special interest anyway. Yeah, I just,

Dr. Layne Norton 7:17
I mean, I find a lot going on. I, I guess I did for most graduate students, but it was not much for me, like, not so like I was I started my coaching business. When I was in graduate school started taking online. I was competing in bodybuilding. But that was pretty much it. And I am grateful. Like I met my first wife when I was 22, we would Heather for almost, I want to say 12 years, 13 years. And I think, again, personal relationship troubles. If I’d be like trying to find a person back then because I was always afraid of being by myself, that would have sucked up so much of my time energy. So that was actually great that like I had this extended relationship, that was pretty good for the most part for that period of time. I know that enabled me to really focus in on on lifting, coaching, and doing grad school. And, you know, some people will say ADHD, super superpowers, and people will say it’s not, for me, it just depends on what I’m working on. Like I do the stuff I’m good at, I can do what it takes other people six hours to do, I can do an hour to like, it looks like recording content, writing videos. I mean, people are always shocked at how much I can bang out so quickly. But it’s working on the parts of ADHD I was good at like, I was good at talking. I was good at hyper fixating on these topics. And so as it progressed to where I am now, sod getting off topic. The rabbit holes are appearing. I love it. So I took Adderall 25 for about 15 years. Because again, I felt like I had my Bucha study habits. Actually thankfully for me high school was not easy. Even though I got good grades, I really had to study a lot. I was always looking for like chemistry tests for like weeks on in my talk to my friends maybe like yesterday last night, you know? So that was good for me because I had to develop really good study habits. And so those carried over into grad school got refined in graduate school. But as I got further along, and that I had two kids who are both neurodivergent my son is nonverbal autistic. My daughter is basically my clone. Like, I’ll get so upset with her about certain stuff. I’m like, Oh my God. It’s me. By the way, yeah, no, she’s the funniest, most loving human being. She also drives me insane Of course. So having that, and then like, have pieces or all four different businesses, and I’m doing content, and I’m still trying to compete as an athlete. It just got to the point where, like, I felt like I’m plugging holes. You know what I mean? And so, about two years ago, I decided, you know, it probably makes sense for me to, you know, try and get some some more help with this. And so the things that really helped was I got, I got back on Amazon. Nice. I take that. And I also have, I think I’ve kind of figured out my system, which is, I’m a really creative person. I’m really good on video. I’m really good at talking and doing interviews, I’m going to content I’m good at writing. And I’m good at speaking to people, I can, usually, conversationally, do pretty darn well. And so, I have been able to develop my businesses where that’s pretty much what I do. It’s so funny, everyone, so I’ll do like an Instagram q&a, we’ll say make an assumption about me. I’ll tell you if you’re right. And people were like, you’re a perfectionist. You’re OCD. I’m like, No, you are so far off the mark on that, like, my house is a wreck. You know, I have cleaners that come in and clean my house because like, for me to do it, it’s 10 times as long and I do a horrible job, you know, but I put people around me, who are very, very attention to detail. And I described them as like, I’m a bowling ball, barreling down the lane. And they’re my Bumbles. And they are going to shimmy me back into where I need to be as I go barreling down that lane. So that’s like the unfortunate of the world. Best Friends is like the smartest business person I’ve ever met. Long story short, but he was retiring at a time where we became really close friends. And he was looking to get into something and fitness and actually became very vital role my company. And he’s great, because he I look, he’s more like a big brother. Like he’s very, very smart. Like, he’s like, a business savant. And I’ve never met anybody like him. And he is very high attention to detail. He’s very regulated. He’s, he’s methodical, which is not me, right. So we’re like a great well to combo, because he puts the plan in place, and then he just tells me how to execute. And my personal funds, my coaching company, she is very high attention to detail. You know, she’s the kind of person where I can have the idea, and she will go out and make it happen. Right? And then my personal assistant is utterly amazing. She, um, she I think you interacted with her probably. She has, like, I’m like my personal assistant, Caroline is my boss. Like, when she first started, she’s like, Hey, I’m sorry, I’m texting you about this stuff. If it’s bothering you, like, no, no, no, no, no. Text me, remind me. Like, like, tell me, like,

Kristen Carder 13:03
I pay you to do clean.

Dr. Layne Norton 13:04
Exactly. So Oh, great. You know, she didn’t she doesn’t like if I go somewhere I throttle my generators. My text reacts to she never gets frustrated or whatever. She knows that this is just kind of how I am a part of, you know, part of working for lane is you got to, we got to wrangle late. We got to wrangle a man because he’s up here in the clouds doing his thing. So having those people by the person does my videos. And it’s so great. Because like, we’ll be filming, I’ll be like, Hey, Brian, I just did this. Can we do this with it and put it in here. And we always it’s just like magic. I tell him what I won’t tell you and it happens. Yeah. So being able to do that has freed me up to be more creative, to do podcasts like this, to do what I’m good at, which is basically talking on camera doing content and writing. You know, I’m kind of like, at this point, you’re better with organizational stuff. Like I actually look at my calendar now, when the day starts, as opposed to previously, I was just like, Oh, what are we doing today? You know, I guess I’ll just go ahead and fire up some emails. You know, not that I don’t have my moments I definitely have. Having that team in place who has enabled me to do that has been huge now. I’m sure a lot of people listening to like, what did you do before this? So I think there are I can only speak of as entrepreneur. But I think the best first investment you can make is getting a good personal system, because there is just some stuff that you’re gonna suck. I

Kristen Carder 14:44
thank you so much because I have said that probably 150 times on this podcast, and I can hear people roll their eyes at me. Like I can just hear collectively everybody being like Union Christian, like you’re coming from a place of privilege and like of course I would be so nice to have an assist. But I’m like, No, you don’t understand, like exactly what you said somebody with ADHD. Whether you are an entrepreneur or you’re just you’re in corporate, but you can’t, you can’t manage your calendar, you can’t do your emails, you can’t get your shit together. The having a neurotypical, usually neurotypical, let’s be honest, by your side, just being like, hey, here’s what you need to do, hey, here’s the next thing, hey, that thing doesn’t that thing doesn’t matter. You need to stay focused on this. It allows you to flourish. So like I am cheering, I’m sorry, I interrupted you. I’m just so excited. But that’s what you said, it’s the best first investment 100%.

Dr. Layne Norton 15:40
Here’s what would happen before I had an assistant, I would say yes to everything, I would do everything. And then I would not put stuff on my calendar. And somebody, Hey, you didn’t show up for the podcast? What? Or, you know, I would end up I mean, honestly, what would happen is, it was like, I make all these little cuts in the spot. And by the time I felt it, I was bleeding. I was gushing blood, right. And it manifested, and some really poor decisions in business that cost me money cost me a lot, a company I helped form, I kind of didn’t put up appropriate boundaries with people. And I ended up giving away a piece of the company to somebody else who later started a personal relationship with the person who started half the company with me. And then they was going to my first divorce. And they were, they were very frustrated, because they were doing a lot of the day to day work. And I was getting the credit because I was the face because I’m late, right, because I have the PhD and I outbreak, the algorithm, all this kind of stuff, and eventually end up kicking me out of the company and trying to sue me afterwards, saying that my business I had before, was competing with their business, which a trustee said I could keep it blows, you’d have no legs, it was just pulling me in taking less money than my shares were worth. My point is this if I’d had good people around me, and if I made good decisions, and slowed down, this never would have happened. And one of the things that the people around me helped me do is slow down. Because I can work like crazy, like, as I get a lot done a short period of time, until I get to that overloaded point. And then I’m lashing out everywhere. And so having people basically to just wrangle me has been huge. And people can call privileging call whenever they want. But here’s the deal. If you’re a business owner, you have to figure out what about you makes money, right? What about new is able to produce revenue? Before a personal assistant, I spent so much time chasing my tail with accounting and random emails and scheduling and all this different kinds of stuff, right? Once I got a personal since I have to do that, guess what I got to spend more time doing the stuff that actually makes money that actually drives the business. And by the way, even though in the last, like my business has made more and more money progressively, as I’ve brought on more people, now, my income personally has not gone up linearly, it’s still gone up, not linearly. But I am a lot more happy. I get to do the stuff that I like doing a bunch of time. And I would say a lot of people would say, Well, I gotta make enough money before I get the personal assistant. I get that, I understand that. But you can hire pretty good virtual assistants now for a very low cost. And for pretty good reviews, to be honest. And that’s a pretty good like entry level, just if they’re like, sorting out your calendar answering like random emails like her value, because somebody with ADHD, like I get one email, and it brings up something that they should think of something else. And now I’m down that rabbit hole, I’m not doing the stuff I’m supposed to write, right, I’ll see in three hours. So just having someone to be able to do that is huge. And I’m telling you, I think people think that businesses are a lot more fragile than they really are. Businesses really only fail for a few different reasons. Really bad decisions. Really bad hires, being over leveraged and not adapting. Those are pretty much why they fail. Right? So if you’re an industry that actually has legs, I mean, yeah, like people will say, well, recessions and this and that COVID That’s kind of a random thing. But again, that’s kind of pivoting and also, if you weren’t overleveraged During the recession, it may be a little bit more painful, but you’re not gonna get any. Okay. So I really do look at that. And it’s like, the first place to spend money is getting somebody to help you out, because you’re gonna chase so many rabbits if you don’t, he has made a huge difference to me, and especially having that team in place. Now it’s like, I tell people, I’m semi retired because I do and most of the stuff I do doesn’t really feel like work. I

Kristen Carder 20:28
love it. And now a word from our sponsor. Hey, Kristen here, I’m the host of this podcast, an ADHD expert and a certified life coach who’s helped hundreds of adults with ADHD understand their unique brains and make real changes in their lives. If you’re not sure what a life coach is, let me tell you, a life coach is someone who helps you achieve your goals like a personal trainer for your life. A life coach is a guide who holds your hand along the way as you take baby step after baby step to accomplish the things that you want to accomplish. A good life coach is a trained expert, who knows how to look at situations or situations with non judgmental neutrality, and offer you solutions that you’ve probably never even considered before. If you’re being treated for your ADHD, and maybe even you’ve done some work in therapy, and you want to add to your scaffolding of support, you’ve got to join my group coaching, program focused focused is where functional adults with ADHD surround each other with encouragement and support. And I lead the way with innovative and creative solutions to help you fully accept yourself, understand your ADHD, and create the life that you’ve always wanted to create, even with ADHD. I have adhd.com/focused to join. And I hope to see you in our community today. Okay, so you mentioned that the way that you’ve seen ADHD manifest over the last four decades is primarily in your relationships. I mean, you see it in other areas. But what you seem to express earlier was that like, you see the detrimental effects of ADHD in personal relationships? Can you talk a little bit about that, because we talk about relationships a lot around here. And I don’t think people realize how much ADHD really does impact relationships, what’s been your experience?

Dr. Layne Norton 22:37
So I think it was a couple of things. It’s hard to disentangle the ADHD from my childhood bullying, because that was pretty, like 12 years long and pretty intense. But I think probably some of the reasons I was bullied was because I was atypical, right? Like, I was very loud, passionate, you know, excitable. And when you’re young, that’s not stuff that’s, you know, quote unquote, cool. It’s cool. And I was very, I cared about a lot of stuff. So I think it personally ships one of the ways I really saw it manifest and I, even with friends, and still to this day, it’s very difficult for me, when somebody is like, telling me feedback, or it is really hard for me to criticism is something I really struggle with, because it feels like bullying. Like, I know, I know, it’s not the same, yeah, but I have gotten some good people in my life where my best friend is a great example. And actually, if I look back at the professors and teachers I had, who I responded best to they were exactly this profile, which is when you do something, right, I give you all the credit in the world, and I gush over you. And when you do something wrong, I tell you, I love you, but you screw this up, right. And my therapist has actually been that way too. I’ve been with her on off for eight years at your job. And she’s very different. Like she is cursed at me in session, but like, not angry way. You know, she’s a straight shooter. But she’s also telling me, I think you’re such a great person, when people I’ve ever worked with, and I love that about you, you know. And then I think the other so I have trouble taking feedback and criticism, especially if I feel like I take it better when the person also acknowledges what I’m doing right. And so because otherwise, I’ve had this in relationships where it’s mostly feedback, and I understand the person is frustrated, but I get to the point where I feel like I just don’t do anything right. And when I get to that point, it gets hard for me to keep putting in the effort. Because it’s like even if I do it I’m gonna still get criticized I did the wrong way anyway, right So that’s tough. And, you know, I think also the fact that I am I could be so spastic you know, I could be like, super engaged with somebody, like friend of mine or whatever. And also, they would hear from me for like four weeks. And it’s not, it’s not that I don’t care. And if they reach out to me, and they need something, I always respond quickly. But sometimes I’ll forget to initiate, sometimes I’ll forget to follow up. You know, sometimes I’ll be like putting together a guest list and I’ll forget to invite somebody like, how am I got this? Like, what are like the people I care about most? How the hell did I forget this? Right. And so I think people who don’t know me real well, or take things personally, I had this relationship to where the person, they felt like I was leaving out details, because I was trying to hide things. And the reality is, I just forget random stuff. 100%. Yeah. And it actually created a pretty big shift in the relationship because they got to a place and really nice person, good person, but they got to the place where they were kind of like making the worst assumptions about me what kind of everything. And then I started feeling super defensive, while that kind of stuff in the course. So that’s kind of like some of the stuff I struggle with. Kind of manifested for me. And therapist was kind of like, you might need like, somebody who is like, very tuned up to this, you know, like, maybe you need, maybe you need an ABA therapist or something. But, you know, I think for me, I also take responsibility for my own stuff. I just wasn’t super aware of a lot of this stuff for a long time. And to be fair, like, I think I probably was it not for lack of trying, I didn’t know how to be a good friend, and definitely didn’t know how to be a good partner. I mean, until a few years ago, and there’s still stuff I struggle with with it. But I try to be more aware of my own stuff. You know, I will catch myself starting to like butt into conversation, and I’ll go Hang on. What I’m going to say, is not nearly as important as making the person who’s saying what they’re saying, feel heard. In fact, for a while my phone, my screensaver was focused on understanding rather than being understood something of that nature. Right. And my, my therapist, she’s very convinced that I’m autistic as well. You know, I have this thing, well, no, I could just get them to understand my point. Because they can just understand, and it’s like, you know, nobody can walk and really in your shoes, you’re better off, like, kind of trying to bridge that gap by understanding the other person, and try to force them to understand that you. So this is all stuff I’ve learned in the last few years. And it really has been kind of like looking back and like, oh, well, let’s see what happened. Let’s see what I have been totally just trying to be more self aware of this, because I just think for a long time. I thought I was pretty normal, you know? And then like, now I’m like, oh, yeah, make sense. When my friends say they need a nap after. You know, like, I’m, oh, looks totally.

Kristen Carder 28:21
I so resonate with that. And I’m curious. If you feel like you are headed in a good direction of having like connected friendships that feel, you know, mutual? Yeah. Like, have you been able to apply what you’ve learned? And do you see your friendships kind of changing and evolving in a really good way?

Dr. Layne Norton 28:43
Yeah, because I’ve done more than stuff that’s he, which is I’m a big personality, I got to be the center of attention. I’m already you know, all that kind of stuff. But also realizing like, hey, part of being like, the life of the party, or the life of the room, is making other people and I honestly also think somebody I dated for a while so that’s actually because really good point. Like, you know, I think you actually like it was a good thing for you, but also a bad thing for you because you got into a space where you’re like really well known and people are very interested in what you have to say. So when you’re meeting people for the first time, they have no problem letting you just tell stories and and they’re completely enthralled with what you’re saying. But as you get more into a personal relationship with the other person wants to be heard, whether it’s friendship or romantic relationship. Now it’s like I’m so used to like I can just try stuff, right. Realizing that that’s a really good way to add in a

Kristen Carder 29:56
one sided thing only lasts so long. Yeah.

Dr. Layne Norton 29:59
Second Life, I used to joke that I only had five stories in the rotation because I’d be like telling her a story and, and she would be like, yeah, you’ve I’ve heard this one like five times get you to sit with it, you know, like

it’s been challenging to become self aware of this, because I think I really struggle with, like finding out I hurt people’s feelings. Definitely not ever intending to do that. But it’s also been kind of liberating, as to Okay, I’m going to try and work on this stuff. And trying here, people are not going to try and like change the core of who I am. Because, you know, in terms of being the big personality and having a lot to say, because if somebody doesn’t like that about me, and that’s okay, they can be a great person, but they’re not like people.

Kristen Carder 30:49
And I love that. I do want to transition here, because you have accomplished so much. And I love having ADHD errs on the podcast to have her just like, really successful and an example of what’s possible for somebody with ADHD. What do you consider to be your biggest accomplishments? I mean, you’re a world champion. You’re a PhD? Like what are your for you? Like, what are the things that you’re most proud of? Like

Dr. Layne Norton 31:23
kids are alive? Alive so far?

Kristen Carder 31:30
Yeah, how are your kids?

Dr. Layne Norton 31:31
My daughter is seven and my son’s 10. Okay, yeah, I’m saying that tongue in cheek, but still was tough for me. Very tough. For me, I felt like I’ve only just like in the last few years, really stepped into it. And leaned into it. And there are still times I struggle, like a one of the things I’ve nobody ever tells you how much shame there is around parenthood until you until you’re into your apparent actually really like talking about this stuff. Because we my friends get kind of like, congratulations. Now, I’m going to tell you the stuff that nobody is going to tell you. Here’s what’s going to happen, right? You’re going to feel constantly guilty, or you’re gonna feel like nothing’s ever enough. And you’re gonna have other people make you feel that way because they’re gonna judge your decisions. Okay. So one of the things I’ve had to do more of, and I did this yesterday was I was houses a rack, until kind of overwhelmed. Like, Hey, guys, you know, and I don’t like I’m not a big fan, with the kids on screens. But I’m like, Hey, you guys, watching TV does go outside for 30 minutes and read a book, you know. And I just know, I’m like, I’m approaching my limit of I came from a household of yellers. I’m really trying to not yell at my kids. And I know when my limit is getting too high, you know? So I stepped outside, read the book and came back in and felt better. And, you know, we actually had a pretty good day. And some people might look at me, like, put your kids on screens and, and you’re not supposed to like, just leave them inside. Like, Okay, I gotta shoot the alligator closer to home right now. Because if I ended up yelling at my kids for five minutes, and they traumatizes them, or they’re scared of dad, to me, that’s worse than they just had some screen time. 100% I am proud of the fact that, you know, I’ve kind of stepped into being a dad more on the career side of things. I think the PhD was very, very hard. It’s funny, because people will, nutrition is kind of viewed as like a soft science by a lot of people. And I’m like a really because I took calculus based physics. I took calculus one through three, I took differential equations, I took instrumental chemistry, I took biochemistry, I took chemistry, I took analytical chemistry, to nutritional aspects of disease, I took nutritional biochemistry, like I took some hardcore, I took physical chemistry, which is a nightmare due to hardcore science classes. Okay, my bachelor’s in biochemistry. And I’m like, I did a PhD. What do you think I did for six years there the food guide pyramid? Not what I did. I took very advanced courses, but the courses are the difficult part. The difficult part was the research. Med School is hard. Absolutely. But if you take these tests, and you pass these tests, you become a physician. As a research based PhD, there is no I mean, there’s a guideline of timetable. But guess what, if your experiments don’t work, and you don’t collect the data you need, you stay until you’re finished. Right. And for somebody with ADHD that can be really hard to move because I can remember being far enough into the tunnel where I couldn’t see light. Light came in and I couldn’t see light on the other side, right. And I actually, even though it’s doing very well in school, my first few experiments, not only do they that work, I just couldn’t even get the data collection stuff to work, because I don’t think people have a full appreciation for how much of an insane attention to detail you need to get clean data in, in vivo studies, so meaning like animals, or humans, or whatever, physiology is very messy. And my first few studies, it was just all over the place, and we couldn’t even get. So my main outcome measurement that we’re looking at was what’s called muscle protein synthesis. So the rate at which you synthesize new muscle tissue. And we do that using what’s called stabiliser to pull the, you’re essentially looking at small differences between small numbers and the analysis to get there, there are so many steps where you can screw up, it takes about a week to do an analysis on say, like 20 to 40 samples. So it’s like, it’s not like you just throw something on like CSI. Central, all sudden, randomly, it spits back out data like this a week long process. And for about two years, we couldn’t get it to work. Fortunately, I had another lab. He and I collaborated and worked together, we figured out where the process was. At that point, I realized, okay, you know what, I’m not a high attention to detail guy. But I got to figure out a way to make this high attention to detail because otherwise we’re not getting out of here. But before that happened before we figured it out. My PhD advisor had called me into his office about two and a half years in, I’d actually missed a meeting with my committee because I didn’t put my calendar. Right. So all these professors were busy show up to meet with Elaine and giving feedback. And Elaine doesn’t show up. Oh, my gosh, and my PhD advisor covered for me, he made an excuse for me, when he called me into his office. And my PhD advisors name was Don layman, and I am forever grateful for him because he fit that mold. Affirm that fair. never

Kristen Carder 36:58
raise you’re done.

Dr. Layne Norton 37:00
Yeah, he’s a legend, never raised his voice. And he never got angry, just basically gave the boundaries gave the options, right. He said, Listen, I know you’ve had kind of a rough year my brother was in a car accident almost died. Oh, wow. So you don’t have a rough year. The reality is, you’re at the best program in the world for what you want to study. For a lot of people who would love to be in your shoes, and a PhD isn’t for everybody. And, you know, we can talk about switching mutual masters. But right now, I’m telling you, you’re very close to being in danger of going on probation from this program. Because I you know, I don’t care how long your lab every day, whether it’s two hours or 20 hours. I don’t care if you fail. I don’t care if you screw things up. But I do care if you give. And I I’ve seen people who have not been giving the effort. And I knew he was right. And I looked into I said, You’re right, I’m gonna fix it. And I just you know what, this probably is gonna sound really goofy. But I put a white board in my office, this is in 2007, I want to say. And I wrote down three things every day I had to do. And it didn’t have to be two hours, 20 hours. And some of them were basically really easy, like order reagents for this, you know, do this run this assay. Well, I got my PhD doing three things. Now I could do more if I wanted to. But it was like for some reason, just having three. It was like, That can’t be that bad. It’s like I had this experience to work, even in undergrad. So many times. I’m like there’s no way you know, this done, because I’m looking at everything. And then I go into spiral mode where I’m feeling overwhelmed and the wolves closing in and all that. And I still have those feelings sometimes but I go okay, sitting, this doesn’t help me. The only way to get through it is to start chipping away and know what happens when I start chipping away. It’s never nearly as bad as ever. So I’ve gotten pretty good at not procrastinating on things. I’m pretty good at it. I usually get right into because I know one of these I’m like there’s no point in procrastinating because I’m just gonna get distracted anyway, while I’m doing it. So I will just get started. You know, but, like, having the three things that really helped me in graduate school, and, you know, I got through it. But honestly, the thing I’m most proud of in my career is that quite frankly kind of what I alluded to earlier with the business getting kicked out and suing me. That was at the same time I was going to my first divorce. I just found out my son was autistic. I had injured my back and couldn’t train and for me training is like my best friend says he’s like he’s like, I don’t know how you do it. Like I’ll go train two or three hours a day. Like I train hard. And that helps me like that is so important for me. And let us read Mike’s been like, Dude, I don’t want to believe it. He’s like, but like seeing how you are how hyped up you are. I can’t imagine what you would be like, if you didn’t train that way. You know? Yeah. And not just hyped up like I have I just like a happier person. Life doesn’t feel so heavy, but I can lift heavy, you know. So I know going through this, like, I owed more money to attorneys. And I can write a check for liquid funds, because everything’s tied up and finished. I’m getting slandered by these people online. I don’t know what’s going to happen, all that kind of stuff. And I don’t want to make it a really long story, long story. But essentially, that company was making a lot of money every month. And they just said, we know, Lane doesn’t have the money to fight us. And we’re just gonna draw this out until he has to quit. And they told him, some of their employees told me this, they’re walking around the office saying exactly that. And I was, I mean, again, going through a lot. And I was like, I gotta generate revenue somehow. Because I put so much effort in his company, my coaching and taking the backseat, it was hard for me to wrap up that coaching was like, Well, what can I do? I can write anything. Okay. So I wrote my first book, The Complete Guide to contest prep. I wrote it in eight weeks and distributor pages. The day we launched a pre sale was the day I had my second or third, mediation with my former business partners that they walked down. Because, you know, you don’t realize it cost me probably $3,000, just to get into that mediation for the mediator, and for my attorneys to be there. So they know if they walk out, they lose money, too. But they’re making $100,000 a month. And so I made enough money from that pre sale, to fight them for one more month, shoot their ass and a couple of hearings in front of the judge, and basically forced them into a position where they had to settle for something. Yeah. And I am very proud of the fact that despite everything I was going through, I still showed up and did what was necessary to get it done. You know, going through that, I was actually telling somebody this yesterday, I’m like, you know, that just gives me so much confidence, like you can’t mess with me, I’ve already been, I’ve already been to the edge. I’ve seen the abyss, I didn’t blink, you know, obviously, like I didn’t like lose a limb or anything like that. But you know, to be to be having, like, felt like my life was falling apart. Be able to get through that. And then very quickly come out the other side and actually be in a much better place. Like, it just gave me a lot of confidence. And then, as part of that, you know, I got a silver medal at Worlds in 2015 and powerlifting. I won two national championships, I sort of woolswap record. So I compete in the 25 pound class in what’s called the IPF, which is recognized by the Olympic Committee that by far the biggest organization out there. So I did that. And I 205 weight class, I actually made it to a 1.5 I squatted 660 pounds, I got a gold medal on that silver medal overall. Okay, so we’re about to win a world title. And then I started going through a bunch of injuries. And to the point where like, I mean, I had days where I couldn’t even stand up for back pain. I mean, I’ve got, I’ve heard you to two discs in my neck, I’ve created two discs in my lower back, it goes to this my lower back. I’ve torn muscles and both my hips. I completely torn this pack and had the surgically reattached and Carson toward this pack. When I was partially torn, both doctors were missing anything and some other odds and ends. And there were times where I didn’t even know if I was gonna be able to come back. You know, they talked about high achievers, and they just got this supreme confidence. I didn’t. I mean, I’m like, what, what data would suggest to me, I’m gonna be able to get to all this. But I just I have a rule, which is I’m not allowed to give up on anything I’m passionate about. And so I said, Okay, if this if this stuff will fuel. I don’t feel deep in here that I have it in me. And it’s not funny more than I’ll stop, you know. And fortunately, I worked with some really great people by coach now who does my programming is masterful. I worked with a really good physical therapist. I did a lot of reading about like evidence based pain science. That is, honestly a lot of the pain stuff that’s out there now is complete quackery. And if you read the evidence based pain science, it’s not what people think it is. It’s not well, you need surgery and you got to do special stretches and whatever. It’s actually you know what some of the biggest things to reduce pain and risk of injury are sleeping eight hours a night Managing your psychological stress. That’s actually a big one. People with higher higher levels of psychological stress are injured more frequently, and have greater and perceived greater levels of pain. So I worked on all this and a year and a half ago, I won not not open worlds, but I won masters my age class World Championships. And even going into that I had to deal with a lot of pain flare ups. And I was going in competing against the three time world champion, who was pretty dominant who he was expected. So when you get when you go in, they would have called nomination nominations, which is the amount you lifted to get into this world championships. So everybody has to win the national championship to get in. So he was nominated almost, like close to 100 pounds overnight. And I knew that my lifts I hit at Nationals weren’t my absolute top. And I knew I had some room to move, but I’m still kind of coming back on the upswing before worlds. That’s where things got really, really bad between my second life. Actually, I’ve been bad for a really long time, to be honest. Everybody responds to that kind of stress differently. There was a lot of stress back home, I was in Newfoundland, and there was a lot of kind of outside stuff I kind of had to deal with. That was my again, my best friend Mike came to support me. And he was like, Dude, I’m just so worried you’ve worked so hard for this. And you know, I’m just worried that this is gonna like take away from it. I don’t know. I mean, I know why. I just had so many moments in my life. I’m kind of like the kind of person who, when it’s worse, I do better. I don’t know. I just looked at I said, manager. And he was like, Are you sure? So without one. And I became a coach as well, his name’s.

And he’s definitely neurodivergent No, no question very much on the introverted side. And we have worked together for 10 years, and he’s handled me at all these big meats. And when I started, so actually, a little funny story about him, I actually coached him for bodybuilding as a teenager, ended up becoming this great powerlifting coach, great game day beat coach, he just so analytical, and like logical, but he knows how to get the most out of me, it’s just a great relationship between us. And after that, he came up and gave me the biggest hug. And he’s like, I’m so proud of you. He’s like, I don’t, he’s like you continue to defy the odds. He’s like, I don’t understand how you do this stuff. I’ll never forget after World Championships, I finished. So at my first rules in 2015, I was nominated. In seventh place, they projected me to win seven. And actually the head coach of the team met Gary. He sent me this big this guy’s forgotten more about powerlifting illustrate this big long list of everybody my weight class, what their tendencies are, what could happen, all this kind of stuff from the bottom, and he said, You have a chance to get a nap overall. But you have to be perfect. If you miss one lift, you’re going to be out. And I had never gone to get three attempts at least, I’d never gotten nine to nine in my entire life and always missed at least one. And that day, I was perfect. I went nine for nine and set the woolswap record. And I went off like a drug test. The drug testing procedure is like about an hour long, because there’s a lot of checks and balances they have to do to make sure that sample collection is appropriate. And I came back down the stairs. And I come back down the stairs. And Ben is still sitting where I left him his head is in his hands. And he’s crying. Sorry. And I’m like, Dude, what is it? We did it? He goes, How the hell did you just do that? How did you do that? You were the kid was skinny legs that everybody made fun of on the forums and you just wanted a world record at the biggest meeting history. And I was like, I’m just kind of hard headed. I was telling somebody I just had really cool experiences in my life. So many, like epic moments where it would be either fold up, or step up. And I don’t know what it is. But I’ve just had this, I’ve been able to step up. And I look, I look now at that stuff or that stuff kind of happens. It’s probably a sick part of me is like, cool. This thing happened to kind of make it harder. Great. Let’s do it. You know what? I told Ben when he came up to Canada and everything that was going on with me, you know, we go through my divorce and everything. I said to him, I was like, Well, man, it’s gonna make a hell of a story. And he’s like, Yeah, you got a few. That’s stuff is what I’m most proud of, because I had a lot of opportunities where I could fold it up and pack it home and nobody would have ever been I kept showing up. In my mom, my mom called My mom’s a fighter too. So my mom had multiple myeloma, which is uncurable cancer, and she got diagnosed in 2014. And she is still alive and kicking and healthy. And I remember, I remember what she was telling the family lightly. Honestly, I wasn’t even worried. I remember what it was. I was just like, you know, cancer, don’t mess with the wrong woman. I can tell you that. My mom is very difficult in some ways. But one thing she does not do is she does not stand out from the fight that has been very honored that she she called me after I won worlds last year, she wouldn’t have heard that we’re watching my kids. And my daughter’s screaming in the background. Daddy’s a world champion, world champion, which, by the way, every time to dinner for like, the next six months, every like server role. My daddy is a world champion speech, which I secretly loved. My mom told me and she was like, son, I have no idea how you just did that. Like, you’re like, I know my parents, right, intimately familiar with everything that’s going on. Like the fact that you can fit focus like that. And I’m like, well, maybe there’s a superpower. Because, you know, I, one thing I can do is if I love something, I can block everything else out and completely hyper fixate on that. And, you know, in some ways, it’s made things hard. But in other ways I’ve learned how to challenge. You know, I always tell people, I think people’s best and worst characteristics are right up against each other. Right? Oh, yeah, that’s good. I think one of the things that people struggle with in personal relationships, is accepting somebody for the stuff that you love, that you also have to accept that the stuff that you don’t love, right? Like, I’m a big personality, and I talk a lot. And I tell great stories, and I’m funny, but I’m also gonna cut you off. Sometimes you know what I mean? Oh, or somebody who like maybe a really, really hard work, and you love that they’re passionate. But then you it’s hard to get them to the plug, right? And so this kind of push pull of things. I’ve tried to lean into more of, Okay, let’s try not to make this part of me. That’s tough. All others, let’s try to like manage that as best we can, while also stepping into owning the business, who I am, for sure. All of the great things about me, are the other side of this coin. And you don’t get those great things without some of the crappy stuff. You know?

Kristen Carder 52:43
Totally, I wish we could just talk for hours. I know, we can’t tell me just a little bit, tell us a little bit about the work that you do. Because I know that you’re coaching. And I’m just curious, if you think that is your coaching appropriate for neurodivergent people, they go find you and figure out how they can work with you and get nutritional coaching and fitness coaching and figure out because I think that you can be intimidating. But what I appreciate is that you’ve shared your your story of struggle. And I feel like that is what’s relatable because everyone listening is like I know how to struggle. I don’t know if I know how to be a world champion, but I sure know how to struggle, you know. And so I so appreciate that. So tell me a little bit about your coaching and whether or not you feel like somebody listening might benefit from it. So

Dr. Layne Norton 53:40
I don’t do much one on one coaching anymore, just because I’m spread so thin. I just don’t have the time to devote to it. But I have trained like a team of people that kind of handpicked and trained in the way we do things to coach people. It’s called team by lane. And I would say yes, we’re for no divergence, I think we’re pretty much for anybody who is willing to who is coachable. If you are coachable. We can help you know, what do I mean by coach? Well, let’s take me for example, because I would say for the first five years of therapy, I wasn’t really coaching, okay? Because I use therapy more as a tool to just vent and get out what I was frustrated about. I didn’t really listen to the things that being said to me. And when I look back, I’m like, you know, this was coaching. And I wasn’t coachable. Because I wasn’t really willing. A lot of it was me being focused on my friends or my partners or people on my business partners, people who were and you were my favorite quotes is think about how hard it is to change yourself and then realize how useless it is to try to change anybody else. And if you want to change a personal relationship or business relationship you want to change. It is a dynamic, even people Who are toxic, it can become a dynamic. One of the things that really stuck with me was I was in a relationship for a while with a toxic person. And one of the things that my therapist said to me they she said, Yes, but if you were healthy, you would not have tolerated that. If you have good boundaries, you would not have tolerated that, because you would have no one to walk away. So were they a nasty person? Were they a jerk? Yes. Would you also allow it. And so she was like, lame, if we had done this work on boundaries, if we had done this work on self esteem, if we had done this work, the likelihood that you would have tolerated this would have been much, much lower. It’s good, that mirror getting flipped? Are you willing to look in the mirror and stare down the parts of you that you have a hard time admitting to other people, and even writing that? Right. And I would say, really, in the last, honestly, kind of in the last six months is where I’ve really gotten very raw stuff, and gotten very coachable. And done the actions, you know, which was like, journaling and writing down my values and writing down hard boundaries for me, like, all the stuff that my therapist would try to get to him for a long time. It was no, I was like, you know, I tell people all the time, you got to work hard. But then they’re like, you know, this, just give me the tricks. Now’s the time. You know, and it’s, it hasn’t been shut out, I realized what I was actually doing, which is trying to shortcut the process. And my other favorite quotes is the magic you’re looking for isn’t the work you keep trying to avoid. And there’s nothing more accurate than that. And I would wager, if you go to real professionals who are evidence based in any different field, you will come back with some version of the following about how to be successful in whatever it is you’re looking at, which is, you’re going to have to be worked very hard, do it for a long period of time to be very consistent. And that’s the key. So I think our coaching can work for anybody, as long as they are coachable. If you’re willing to be accountable, then this coaching can work for you. A lot of people hire coaches just so they have something to blame, whether they realize it or not. And so one of the things we do our our core if I had to, of course, we’re evidence based or science based, but the X’s and O’s of nutrition are not difficult. People overcomplicate this stuff online, because if they can overcomplicate it, they can sell you special programs. And what we basically sell as behavior change is how to coach behavior change. How do we get somebody to change behavior? Because the X’s and O’s are not difficult. You know, for a long time, I was like, I can solve the obesity crisis, just hearing these calories and macros, right? And it turns out, oh, hey, dum, dum, not everyone’s a robot like you when it comes to this stuff. So our four pillars are we do accountability, with empathy. And I looking back, I realized, this is my best friends. This is the teachers and the professors, I responded to best. Why? Because they acknowledged what was hard for me. They acknowledged what I did well, but then they also held me accountable for the things that I was not doing my part. And that when I was in a space where I was coachable. That’s what made the biggest difference for me. And so that’s how we do things. Because if you just have empathy, then there’s no impetus for change. It’s just, Oh, I understand why that was so hard. But you’re doing these things. So well. Okay, well, right. Maybe I feel better in the short term, but I’m still not going to get that other stuff done that I need to do. Right? Just accountability. I mean, pretty soon, you’re just not sharing anymore with your coach because you don’t want to get robbed. Right, you don’t want to hear every negative thing that you’re, I mean, everyone’s relating back to partners of your relationship, or somebody who’s really critical of you. You’re just gonna end up feeling very alone and shut out all the time, because you just end up turning up. That’s all you can do. Right? So we do both those things. So that’s, that’s kind of like the high end of what we do with our coaching. I also have developed a nutritional coaching app called carbon diet coach, which, you know, for people who can’t afford, you know, one on one coaching, this app is a great option. It’s $10 a month, and it does basically tell you like hey, based on your goals and your individual metabolism and your your dietary preferences, yeah. And again, like, you know, I always I always tell people like just because people kind of watch Why would I pay for coaching like you get this for $10? Well, it’s kind of like, you know, there’s good apps out there who will give you good feedback about mental health, and all that kind of stuff. But it’s never going to take the place of somebody actually coaching you through behavior change and connecting with another human being. And if I would say one of the greatest parts of our coaching is we focus on connecting with clients, because one of the fundamental aspects to get somebody to buy in, is they want to make you proud. They want you to like my best coaches, I wanted to make them proud. And I want a good leader in some ways, and a poor manager, people. But when it came to coaching, I was an excellent leader, because most of my clients, they told me that, like, we just didn’t want to let you down. We want you to be proud of us, you know, yeah. And I do that I would gush over them when they did, when I would hold them accountable when they do do it well, right, but not in a nasty way. But just, hey, you’ve told me this is what’s important to you. Right? Here’s your actions. They’re not, they’re not in alignment. And that’s okay. If this isn’t really important to you, I just want you to so let me give an example of somebody getting ready for like a competition, right? Yeah. They might go out and they had something stressful, they overeat. And I would say, like, Hey, listen, I totally get that there’s a hard thing, hard for anyone to manage. But everyone you’re competing against is going to have similar for a little bit less than before, and everybody’s going to have challenges. When you step on stage, it will matter what those are. Okay? You’ve told me, this is important to you. If competition isn’t for you, that’s also okay. I just want you to be happy, we can shift gears. But if it is important to you, here are the actions that are gonna have to happen in order for you to get there and be successful. Right. And I just found that most people responded pretty well to them, when it wasn’t from a place of judgment. But you’re basically reading back to them. What they said was important, like, therapists did the same thing. I remember when my first divorce, I said, y’all, my kids, and the most important thing to me, and she goes, my name is Patty and she goes, lay, I’m gonna, I’m gonna tell you something, it’s gonna be hard to hear. Your actions are saying that your kids are not the most important thing to you. And I’m not saying you’re a bad father, I think you’re a good father. I’m not saying that you’re a bad person. So please don’t internalize. But based on where you’re putting your time, and the actions you’re taking, you cannot see. And that was a big shipment for me. You know? What I realized chatty

Kristen Carder 1:02:50
my gosh, it were so not a lot of people here. But you have a you have a really good network of people that tell you the truth. Yes.

Dr. Layne Norton 1:02:59
And I think that builds so much trust with somebody. I think maybe the theme I could come back to in this podcast is fine. People who tell you the truth will also give you the credit, right? Like, at least for me and my neuro divergence, Lady HD. That stuff made sense. It was like, I can trust these people. Because they’re telling me everything I do. Right. Not just your superfans. But they’re not just criticizing me to they’re not just trying to beat me down so that they can feel better about themselves. They’re giving me both sides. So anyways, I don’t know how I got done. But the app is great. You know, again, there’s never gonna be a replacement for one on one coaching. Connecting with another human is so important. But if you can’t afford that, and just need some accountability, X’s and O’s, Carbonite coaching is great. I also do workout programs on the website of the binding workout builder, which is, again, a low monthly fee that automates a lot of this stuff for people. And then we have a research review as well. For people who are coaches, I do online courses. I have my own supplement line called out nutrition. My Courses are called physique coaching. I do it all after I after I built physique Coaching Academy. We’re not building anything else, right? We’re not that’s kind of all the stuff I do. Like I really tried to look at what did I need? Starting? What would have helped me and build those things out for people that now when they’re starting? I can help them from A to Z. So

Kristen Carder 1:04:42
good. Where’s the best place for people to connect with you? Where should people go to find you?

Dr. Layne Norton 1:04:47
So I’m bio lane on all social media Instagrams play my strongest platform in terms of following and content on there, but I’m on YouTube. I

Kristen Carder 1:04:57
can confirm I can. Yeah, Groups love your Instagram content love just like your rage videos. Those are my favorite ones where you just raging and just like people are so stupid, and I’m like, yes, they are. I love it. It’s my favorite,

Dr. Layne Norton 1:05:11
probably a little bit as well. No, no, no, these are facts. But they would not get slipped on me. So it’s funny, Mike actually said to me once I was like, Dude, you’re the data of overfilling. Guys. You like the data over feelings person? And in this aspect about personal issues? You are feelings over data, like how much data do you need? Guide, it’s been good for me to see the merits actually made me a little bit more empathetic on the other side as well, trying to tone down my aggression a little bit. I really struggle when I see people deliberately. Lying against representing facts. Yeah, even if they’re well intentioned, gasping buddy. You’re not gonna get much mercy from me when it comes to the downstream effects of how horribly that affects people because it actually ends up getting people killed. Yeah, you’re talking about eating disorders when you’re talking about cancer treatments? Yeah, just real quick. A great example of that is the research shows, people who seek out holistic, non traditional forms of cancer treatment are more likely to omit the standard of care and die earlier. Research shows us very clearly. So people say, Well, they’re not harming advisors. They don’t know if you want to say something like, Hey, here’s this treatment that whatever, but don’t omit standard of care. But that’s not the messaging messaging is no Big Pharma is trying to kill you. Like that sort of stuff. So, which I always find funny, because I’m like, my response as they do think all scientists are just pieces of shit. And they’re like, What? No, that’s what you’re saying. Like, do you really think, like, somehow Big Pharma shushed? All these scientists with this chore? Okay, you’ll think any of their loved ones have cancer, you’ll think they’ve lost anybody that like, come on this stuff. Like it’s just absolutely ridiculous. You know, I’m not

Kristen Carder 1:07:17
talking about

Dr. Layne Norton 1:07:20
no good as somebody whose mother is still alive. Later. Thank you Big Pharma. Now, do I think they actually care about them all that much? No, they care about making profits? For sure. I’m not saying that it’s 100%. pure intention. It’s not. The fact of the matter is people live a lot freakin longer now, even with way worse lifestyles, because of the pharmaceutical events. So that being said, I’m all for lifestyle adjustment as well. But But I think what I really get is when people have this messaging, and it does harm people, like I’m sorry, you’re not just welcomed here. Are you welcome to your opinion, you are, you’re also welcome to have me come in and tell you when I do a lot of debunking content, I really try to simplify things. Because most of these people who are spreading this information, they are trying to overcomplicate stuff, so that they can sell you something they’re trying to make you believe. They’re trying to instill fear in you. Because it’s a very visceral, emotional response. So you buy stuff, I can tell you, I make a really good living, it’s not nearly as good as I could have made. Because every marketing company I almost hired, I’ve only had one marketing company hired for a very short time. And most of the marketing companies that I spoke to who always come to me, except we can 10x yourselves. The first thing they say is, okay, how can we make this more emotional? How can we make people more scared, you know, because we got to solve the problem, you know, so, you know, so the solution, you solve the problem? You have always said, No, that’s not gonna be who I am. Yeah, so good. Yeah, I do a lot of debugging content to just trying to simplify things for people to remove that anxiety for them. So they can actually do the stuff that gets them to like, be better. So

Kristen Carder 1:09:13
good. It’s the Lord’s work. Really, if we’re being honest, you’re doing the Lord’s work.

Dr. Layne Norton 1:09:21
Not perfect. And I screwed up a lot of things. I really, I tried to get it right. Like I tried to make a net positive benefit to the world. Yeah,

Kristen Carder 1:09:30
it’s good. Thanks so much for being here. It’s been really fun. Appreciate it. Appreciate your your vulnerability and just your willingness to share your story. Sure,

Dr. Layne Norton 1:09:40
if I can speak real quick to any young people listening. What makes you weird and stuff you get paid follow up is gonna make you great if you lean into, okay. I was talking to him. I was loud, passionate, all that stuff, is why I got bullied when I was young. And it’s why I’ve been so good at what I do now. Figure out a way to help them flourish.

Kristen Carder 1:10:06
Yes. Applause love it. Appreciate you. Thank you so much. A few years ago I went looking for help. I wanted to find someone to teach me how to feel better about myself and to help me improve my organization productivity time management, emotional regulation. You know, all the things that we adults with ADHD struggle with, I couldn’t find anything. So I researched and I studied and I hired coaches and I figured it out. Then I created focused for you. Focus is my monthly coaching membership where I teach educated professional adults how to accept their ADHD brain and hijack their ability to get stuff done. Hundreds of people from all over the world are already benefiting from this program and I’m confident that you will to go to Ihaveadhd.com/focus for all details.

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