Episode 347: ADHD Business Burnout: Hyperfocus and Redefining Success with Amanda Perry
ADHD Awareness Month 2026: What Actually Helps?
This October, I'm putting community, real experiences and practical support at the heart of ADHD Awareness Month. There are live conversations, Instagram Lives, podcast events and ways for you to share what actually helps in your own life. Visit the Events page to see what’s happening and get involved.
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Today's Podcast:
One statistic changed everything for Amanda Perry. More than half of neurodivergent entrepreneurs say they only started a business because the workplace couldn’t support them.
Not a dream. A necessity.
This week’s More Yourself episode comes from my first-ever live podcast recording, with Amanda Perry, founder of Brain First and author of Brain First Business: The ADHD Entrepreneur’s Guide to Success.
Amanda has spent 18 years building businesses, 13 of them undiagnosed. Burnout after burnout. Bankruptcy. A marketing agency that grew from five people to 40 in three months. After her ADHD diagnosis at 42, she sold it and started again, this time brain first.
Champagne dreams and lemonade energy. The fear of burning out again. God mode and the crash that follows. And why so many of us end up building a prison instead of a business.
Recorded live, with your questions answered in real time.
In this episode, we cover:
Why so many neurodivergent entrepreneurs start businesses out of necessity, not desire
Amanda’s 13 undiagnosed years in business: burnout, bankruptcy and chasing the LinkedIn version of success
What rich really means, and giving yourself permission to define success on your own terms
How Amanda built a prison instead of a business twice, and what she’s doing differently now
Why delegation feels so hard with ADHD, and the shift from VAs to an inverted Christmas tree structure
FOBO, the fear of burning out, and why shrinking your life isn’t the same as healing
God mode, hyperfocus and spotting the first sign of burnout
Interruptions, motherhood and protecting your focus when you work from home
Brain First Workplace, the dropped kerb and why neuro-inclusive design benefits everyone
Live Q&A on breaking the burnout cycle, keeping things simple and disclosing ADHD at work
Timestamps:
00:00 - Welcome and Amanda’s journey in business
00:43 - Why so many neurodivergent founders start businesses out of necessity
02:30 - 18 years in business, 13 undiagnosed: burnout, bankruptcy and borrowed goals
05:35 - Permission to create your own version of success
07:20 - “Disgustingly rich” and what rich really means
10:48 - Building a prison, not a business
12:07 - Purpose, values and the pressure to be nice as a female founder
13:30 - Delegation, communication and why it’s quicker to do it yourself
16:04 - From VAs to a chief of staff: the inverted Christmas tree
17:33 - Self-trust, perimenopause and not knowing how you’ll wake up
18:14 - Kate on leaving PR and shrinking herself to avoid burnout
22:01 - FOBO: the fear of burning out
24:48 - Champagne dreams, lemonade energy
25:19 - Interruptions, motherhood and the nervous system
27:41 - God mode, hyperfocus and the first sign of burnout
33:07 - Brain First Workplace and open conversations at work
34:26 - Tribunals, “them and us” culture and why managers are scared
36:30 - The dropped kerb and designing for every brain
42:20 - Live Q&A: breaking out of the prison cycle
44:58 - Awareness, alignment and action
46:57 - Don’t be afraid of simplicity
48:13 - Disclosing ADHD at work
50:17 - Ideas, strategy and getting from A to Z before anyone else
52:26 - Where to find Amanda
Links and Resources:
Find my popular ADHD Women's Wellbeing workshops and resources on my website here.
Follow the podcast on Instagram: @adhd_womenswellbeing_pod
Get my book, The ADHD Women's Wellbeing Toolkit (also available in ebook and audiobook) here
Join the More Yourself membership community here
Get Amanda’s book, Brain First Business: The ADHD Entrepreneur’s Guide to Success
Visit Amanda’s website: amandaperry.co.uk
Connect with Amanda on Instagram Kate Moryoussef is a women's ADHD lifestyle and wellbeing author, coach and EFT practitioner who helps overwhelmed and unfulfilled newly diagnosed women with ADHD find more calm, balance, hope, health, compassion, creativity and clarity.