ORLANDO, Fla. – Life with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, can seem altogether like a frenzied blur. It can be difficult enough to live each day feeling as if too much and not enough is happening at the same time, so you can imagine how impossible it can seem for people with ADHD to establish a business and commit to running it.
This week on “Black Men Sundays,” host Corie Murray interviews Trá R. Harriott, a certified life and business coach to entrepreneurs with ADHD. She’s been helping others for several years now through her company, Grow & Glow Coaching Services.
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“One of the toughest things about being an entrepreneur pretty much is, like, staying on task and being motivated to actually do the work every day, but when you have an executive dysfunction disorder, that makes it like five times much more difficult,” Harriott said. “Pretty much what I do is work with individuals who have ADHD or some type of executive dysfunction and together we work on a customized system — the systems work better with people who have ADHD — that’s efficient for you to run your business and make it to where it can still run, whether you’re actually active there or not.”
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Harriott is originally from New York and currently resides with her family in Atlanta, but she doesn’t rest on such laurels as her master’s in psychology from Northcentral University, bachelor’s in psychology with specialization in human services from Argosy University and even an associate degree in funeral service from Gupton-Jones College of Funeral Service.
According to her, many people who have ADHD can find themselves misdiagnosed with other disorders, only adding to the confusion.
“ADHD is misdiagnosed so much and there are a lot of Black women who don’t realize that they actually have ADHD because it’s assumed that it’s just a white boy condition. Nah. There’s a lot of Black people who have it and it’s exhibited every day and you would have shown symptoms as a kid, but unfortunately a lot of our parents and guardians didn’t exercise certain resources for that or didn’t want their kids to be labeled, so unfortunately, we have to go through life extra hard until we get that support,” she said.
It’s exactly this support which Harriott strives to provide. As she puts it, ADHD can worsen into adulthood, and as such, many adults with the condition find that they have to learn themselves all over again.
“The idea behind it is pretty much helping others, but also helping myself. Like, one of my services is ‘body doubling,’ (...) pretty much, I’m just there on the computer screen while somebody is doing work, and you find that people are able to be more active when someone else is in the picture,” she said. “So, things like that, and just pretty much helping to organize and sustain the flow of the business and deal with any personal issues that may arise with that, because you do have to deal with the personal part with business when you have ADHD. So, tackling different apps, strategies of what not to use or incorporate to make your life a lot easier since it’s already hard, naturally, as it is.”
Hear the full interview in Season 3, Episode 7 of “Black Men Sundays.”
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