Grandma Has ADHD

Episode 58 - This Boomer is a Technology Tutor

• Jami Shapiro • Episode 58

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What if your biggest life reinvention happens after retirement?

In this inspiring episode of Grandma Has ADHD, host Jami Shapiro sits down with Joyce Feustel, a 76-year-old LinkedIn coach and founder of Boomers’ Social Media Tutor, to talk about rediscovering purpose, staying curious, and why it’s never too late to understand your brain.

From leaving a 17-year career in sales at 64 to launching her own business teaching boomers and Gen Xers how to navigate LinkedIn, Joyce shares how she turned curiosity into confidence—and why she might just be living proof that ADHD doesn’t have an age limit.

As Jami gently walks Joyce through an eye-opening conversation about ADHD in older adults, they unpack common myths, late-life realizations, and why so many women over 50 have spent decades thinking they were “just bad at focusing.” You’ll hear stories about forgetting appointments, hyperfixating on what lights you up, and learning to give yourself grace for the things that don’t.

Whether you’re an entrepreneur reinventing yourself at 60, a lifelong learner embracing technology, or someone finally connecting the dots on how your brain works—this episode is a warm reminder that self-understanding has no expiration date.


Thank you for joining us for this episode of Grandma Has ADHD! We hope Jami's journey and insights into ADHD shed light on the unique challenges faced by older adults. Stay tuned for more episodes where we’ll explore helpful resources, share personal stories, and provide guidance for those navigating ADHD. Don’t forget to subscribe and share this podcast with friends who might benefit. Remember, Make the rest of your life the best of your life.

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[00:00:00] Have you ever thought, is this just me? When struggling to stay organized, start tasks, or manage time, for those of us over 50, these challenges might not be just aging. They could be ADHD hiding in plain sight for decades. I'm Jamie Shapiro, host of Grandma has ADHD, and I'm building a community where your experiences matter.

Whether you are diagnosed, questioning or simply curious. You are not alone. Our Facebook group is filled with vibrant understanding. People over 50 who share their stories, strategies, and yes, even their struggles with plenty of laughter along the way. Ready to find your [00:01:00] people. Join our growing Grandma has ADHD Facebook community.

Please like and subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen and share it with someone who might need to hear. They're not alone because ADHD doesn't have an age limit and neither does understanding yourself better. Together, we're changing the conversation about ADHD after 50 come be part of the story.

Jami Shapiro: Hi, and welcome to the latest episode of Grandma has ADHD. I am so excited to bring you today's guest, and I'm going to give you a little bit of a background on how I met her and and let you know that I haven't really had any personal conversations with her. She is one of the guest. That I am interviewing completely, authentically you're gonna get to meet her just like I do.

But I did get to hear her speak. She was one of the keynote speakers at the certified [00:02:00] Senior Advisor conference. And when I heard her speak, I knew that she had to come and be on the podcast. I'm gonna read her bio and then we're gonna get into the conversation. So Joyce Feustel, did I get that right? Yay.

I got the two thumbs up. Went full-time with her Boomers social media tutor business in March of 2013 after she retired from a 17 year career in sales. She provides consulting, tutoring, and tutoring and group team training to help business owners and job seekers, especially those. Age 55 and over to use LinkedIn more effectively and productively.

In 2024, she expanded her services to include a monthly workshop, enhance your LinkedIn profile through which up to four participants get feedback from Joyce and other participants on selected selections of their LinkedIn profile. Joyce is originally from Wisconsin and has degrees [00:03:00] in education and business from the University of Wisconsin and Madison.

She and her family moved to the Denver area in 1995. She is active in several business networking organizations and is a leader and active member in three Toastmaster clubs. An organization that helps its members improve their communication and leadership skills. So and I, I don't have your age here, but I know that you were in your late sixties or early seventies, is that right, Joyce?

Well, I'm actually 76. Well, even better. And you look, like I said, younger. Well, I didn't say that. I thought you were younger. Little bit, little bit of makeup good skincare. Nice. Nice. I have another theory that we're gonna get into as we get through this podcast. Okay. But I love that you are, you know, really bridging that gap between technology and older adults.

Yeah. As I have definitely experienced that, that we who are, you know the silent generation, the boomers, and even Gen Xers, we [00:04:00] are digital tourists or technological technological tourists in a native landscape for our children and grandchildren. And so. Yeah. As Joyce says, if you're watching, if you're listening and you're not watching us on, on YouTube, Joyce's eyes just nodded and she got bigger.

Yes, yes, yes. So I would love to hear your story about how, how you came to this 'cause I love it. And, and you know more about LinkedIn than I do, and I'm 55, so I'm, I'm in your demographic. 

Joyce Feustel: All right. 

Jami Shapiro: Okay. Go on. 

Joyce Feustel: Well, it was 2006 when I got my LinkedIn. An invite to connect with somebody on LinkedIn. It was somebody in a Toastmasters club, and I had, I regarded her highly and I thought, oh, if she's on LinkedIn, I guess I should be.

I didn't do any research, I just accepted it. And when you do that and you have no profile, then you have to create a short profile. So the basic skeletal one, mm-hmm. I went on my merry way doing absolutely nothing with LinkedIn. Didn't give it a second thought, and then two years later, a different [00:05:00] Toastmaster invited me to be on Facebook.

I get into Facebook and I'm like, holy cow, I know a lot of these people here. And I really lit up because it in the idea of being in touch with relatives and friends from all over the world intrigued me and it was like, wow, now I can be up to date on the lives of my nieces and nephews and don't have to wait for their Christmas card.

Mm. Seriously, and this is back in the day when that age group 20 something actually was on Facebook. 

Jami Shapiro: Right? 

Joyce Feustel: Exactly. Right. So I got into that and then I thought, I'm gonna revisit LinkedIn. Maybe there's something going on here so I should know about, so I got, therefore, oh, I know. Then I heard about this Toastmasters International LinkedIn group.

So somehow I got into that and that's really was. The tipping point for me to get more involved with LinkedIn. Mm-hmm. Because there, I'm not only engaging with my [00:06:00] people that I know, but I'm helping people I don't even know to answer questions about Toastmasters. Mm-hmm. As you can see, Toastmasters a huge, I would call advocation of mine.

Mm-hmm. Okay. So time went on another, maybe a little over a year and at work. Was 2010 and they were rolling out social media. Think take yourself back 15 years. Mm-hmm. It was, it was LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and we and the enrollment department at this. For-profit college serving, financial planning people.

At any rate, we were told we needed to talk up the social media and we weren't too excited about it until our manager told us we'd get $5 every time someone would follow us on Twitter, like our Facebook page. So he did incentivize it a little bit. Mm-hmm. But I would've talked about it anyway because it turns out I really liked talking about social media.

Mm-hmm. It was the first opportunity I had to be sort of. [00:07:00] A, a person who said, let's go think about it. This will be great. You should join our LinkedIn group. You, if you're new to, you know, being in financial planning, you'll meet other financial planners. So I was so enthusiastic. I was proselytizing, practically like religion, you know?

Mm-hmm. And my manager was so struck with how well I did the best every month of that $5 incentive heap. Mm-hmm. That he said to me. And I was 61 doing the math year with me. Mm-hmm. He said, Joyce, since you're so darning good at getting our students at the college engaged with our social media, have you ever thought of helping other people and your baby boomer generation especially to understand social media like you do?

Mm-hmm. So it, I really kind of inched my way in. I mean, it wasn't like I was intentional thinking right now I'm gonna learn Facebook. Now I'm gonna learn LinkedIn kind of by osmosis. And when he made that suggestion to me and I started to take him seriously, then I have shelves of books I [00:08:00] have I bought and.

I got on to watch, I got different blog posts I would follow. So many people I would track with just to learn more about social media. Mm-hmm. And I did work three more years in that essentially sales job until I was ready to go full-time into the business. So that was from age 61 to age 64. I love it.

That's how it, it really happened by the invitation I got from people to, to kind of work my way into these platforms. 

Jami Shapiro: So what you're telling me is that you left a career, a solid foundation, and went out on your own at the age of 64. Exactly. Okay, well I love that. So, Joyce, this is gonna be an interesting interview and I did ask her permission before we went down this, this aisle, and Joyce did not hear me speak at the CSA conference.

I presented the topic of ADHD to a lot of the CER certified senior advisors. I'm [00:09:00] sorry I shouldn't be using jargon, but it, it's very, very common for me after I've done a presentation for people to come up to me and say. I had no idea, but I think I have ADHD based on what you just shared with me. And as I share, you know, in this podcast and everywhere I speak, roughly 75 to 80% of people who have ADHD do not realize that they have it.

Yes. And so when I saw Joyce's bio and met her and saw her energy. I of course went into, I think Joyce might have ADHD. And by the way, I'm not a Dr. Joyce. I just, the way that you've learned about social media is how I've gone down the rabbit hole with ADHD. And so if I can ask you, because you don't really know a lot about it, if I can ask you some questions and explore it, I could be wrong, but at least you know, you'll know a little bit more about ADHD.

When it's all said and done, 

Joyce Feustel: tell the viewers Yeah, absolutely. Before, 

Jami Shapiro: absolutely. So are, are you aware that, [00:10:00] I'm sure you know what ADHD is and, or do you broadly speaking? Yes. Broadly. Okay. So ADHD stands for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and we have a lot of people saying I don't have ADHD, I'm not hyperactive.

And they may say, I have a DD, which used to be what they would classify somebody who wasn't hyperactive with attention Deficit disorder. The word disorder is a horrible name and a lot of people in our space want it gone 'cause it doesn't accurately reflect our experience. But what I will tell you is that.

ADHD is now you can have the hyperactive type, which is that little boy. I'm sure you can remember back in school, the little boy who couldn't sit still with ants in his pants and he was disruptive in the classroom, right? Joyce? My brother? Yes. Alright. Ding, ding, ding. Okay. ADHD is highly heritable. It runs in families.

Joyce Feustel: Mm-hmm. 

Jami Shapiro: And what I have noticed, and you tell me if this resonates with you, people with [00:11:00] ADHD, if we are interested in something, we tend to hyper fixate it on some on it so that everything else goes away. And that is the only thing we can focus on. And I saw Joyce's eyes just light up. Yeah. 

Joyce Feustel: Yeah. That I, it happens not all the time, but yeah.

If I'm interested, I'll go down that rabbit hole, like you said. 

Jami Shapiro: Yeah. Right. And what if you're not interested in something? What if it bores you? Like small talk. 

Joyce Feustel: I like small talk, but you, 

Jami Shapiro: you like small talk. Okay. 

Joyce Feustel: Oh yeah. I could small talk to the cows, come home. I, I would say if I'm not interested in it, then I just like turn the page sort of figuratively.

I Okay. Don't pay attention. You 

Jami Shapiro: don't, you don't pay attention to it. So when you were in school, did you notice that you had some subjects that you were just like really, really good at and others where you just like finagled your way through it? 

Joyce Feustel: Well, I have to say I was an A student all the way through high school, so that's 

Jami Shapiro: not, that doesn't, that doesn't mean that 

Joyce Feustel: you're asking me.

I know that. 

Jami Shapiro: No, that doesn't mean anything. Actually, I graduated college with high honors and I have ADHD that's, that's part of the problem. Okay. That's helpful. 

Joyce Feustel: It was just the way you asked it. Yes. Maybe answer that way, but no, I never really was keen on chemistry or any of [00:12:00] the sciences. Mm-hmm. I, but curiously, I was, I liked math.

Which just a surprise. I do really, like, I always liked English. Mm-hmm. Like arts broadly, social studies. Mm-hmm. Types of courses. 

Jami Shapiro: Do you, do you ever get overwhelmed with big decisions or just decisions? Like, you don't like to make a lot of little decisions? It's just like, I call it decision fatigue, like.

I don't know. I, I, that's one of the, the characteristics is just struggling with a lot of decisions. Like, for instance, Steve Jobs, I know, you know who Steve Jobs was. He wore, he had a uniform, he wore the same thing to work every day because he didn't wanna have to make a lot of little decisions. Just like my brain wants to go to the high level.

It doesn't wanna do the mundane. 

Joyce Feustel: Well, I really can balance between the two. Okay. Evian as an example. In the Myers-Briggs. Mm-hmm. You familiar with that? You have, of course, your s and that person is, I have a daughter like that, needs all kinds of data. Mm-hmm. All kinds of data. And then n is that right?

Yeah. S and NN is the more like in intuitive big picture. Mm-hmm. Right. My [00:13:00] shade, n. Me too. I can go S. Mm-hmm. So when I was working with those financial planners for 17 years, there were some of them that were really detail oriented. They're making a, mm-hmm. They purchased, not a little, but a big purchase decision and their company is, so I would patiently walk them through answering all their questions.

Mm-hmm. So that's not exactly what you're saying. Mm-hmm. But I feel that I build decisions, big decisions I, to me. I don't discriminate. Okay. 

Jami Shapiro: Let me ask you this, do you do you think, well, in a crisis situation, like do you rise to an occasion where you can just function really well and are you very innovative in the, in the cre, in the solutions that you come up with?

I would say yes. Okay. That's an ADHD trait. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I don't have this, but many people with ADHD struggle with time where they are late for appointments. They I know one thing that happens to me is when I'm involved in something and I sit down to do something, then I, I don't wanna do anything else, and time goes away from me and I don't sense time.

She, big, big [00:14:00] nod. 

Joyce Feustel: Okay. Yeah. Oh yeah. Because that's why I have to have like, time, like alarms on my phone and things like that. Yeah. Okay. That's an ADHD train. I, I would say I 

Jami Shapiro: do run late. Yeah, that isn't so, so we tend to have a very strong sense of social justice. So we feel very strongly that things should be right and fair.

And so, for instance, in my, she's shaking her head yes in my line of work we, I deal with a lot of people who struggle with clutter. And a lot of the reason behind that clutter is that they don't want things to go into the landfill. They wanna know that there's going to be a good home for that item, that they're discarding.

So that's another thing. We tend to have two senses of time. One is now and one is not now. So we put a lot off for later if it's not something that interests us. 

Joyce Feustel: Mm-hmm. 

Jami Shapiro: Yeah. 

Joyce Feustel: Well, I would say I am. I'm pretty disciplined, and if something needs to be done, and it's important going back to your [00:15:00] original life.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I, I make time for it and Sure. It's quite so black and white. I don't do, 

Jami Shapiro: yeah. Do you like, 

Joyce Feustel: have other people involved? Go ahead, I'm sorry. 

Jami Shapiro: Oh, sure. I was gonna say, for me, I would put something off until the, I always get it done on time, but I do really well with that last minute timeline that it's, it's like that pressure, that adrenaline that I get.

Joyce Feustel: Yeah. 

Jami Shapiro: So that, yeah, that's an ADHD trait. The fact that you have a brother that has it and you have, so the other thing that I've discovered is a lot of people with ADHD, you can see two camps. You can see the person who dropped out of high school because they were not interested. They could not, they were not stimulated enough.

Or you see the overachiever someone like, I'm this person where I don't do well sitting still. I have to be working on the next thing. If you give me a day where I've got nothing planned. I, I go crazy. I don't know what to do with my, she's shaking her head. 

Joyce Feustel: Yeah. 

Jami Shapiro: So when I saw your bio and I saw you speak, and again, you do have an energy level and, and I find that a lot of people with ADHD have this magnetism.

And then of course when you said your [00:16:00] brother had ADHD, and again, it's, I, I can't 

Joyce Feustel: say it for sure. I just know that my brother was a kind of kid who was probably smarter than most of his teachers. Mm-hmm. And just would get bored. Right. In high school, very, very, by the grace of God, he graduated. 

Jami Shapiro: Yes.

That's actually incredibly common. And that's another thing is that there's this misconception that we're not bright. Well, actually there's something called Twice Exceptional, which is a, a child that's in the gifted program. I think it's like 50% of the kids in the gifted program have ADHD Do not quote me on that.

But it's, it's a much higher percentage of people who have it than are neurotypical. 

Joyce Feustel: Interesting. 

Jami Shapiro: Yes. And so we tend to be the achievers and creative and, and also you're an innovator. You saw something that was missing and you filled in the gap. And that's what I've done with ADHD. I have, you know, filled in the gaps of, I realized, so how, my backstory is that my child was reading, starting at the age of three.

And came to [00:17:00] me at one point in middle school and said, mom, I wanna be tested for ADHD. And I said, you don't have ADHD. You've been reading since you were three. Because for me, I wasn't interested in learning to read, so I didn't read till second grade. So in my mind, how could you and, and Will, My child could sit and read books for hours as a child and then it got to the point that Will didn't, couldn't read and couldn't concentrate on a book, and would read the same page over and over again.

So, sure enough, I take will to the psychiatrist. He is ans asking a lot of questions. And I looked at the, and I was in the room answering the questions that Will, was not able to answer on, on their behalf. I said, I'm answering more yeses for me than for them. Do I have ADHD? And he said, Uhhuh. And I did not realize at the time that ADHD is highly heritable.

I also thought like you did that ADHD was the little boy because I have a half brother who had, was on Ritalin back in the eighties. And. Then honestly, it took me [00:18:00] another eight years because I didn't really pay much attention to it myself because I didn't understand the impact that it really had in my life.

And when I started to learn more about it and then I became an ADHD coach I realized that my mom. At 76 I realized that my mom had ADHD and it was like a, and she had never been diagnosed by her psychiatrist or her therapist. She's been treated for anxiety and depression majority of her life. A lot of people are being treated for anxiety.

' cause anxiety is very, very common in ADHD. And I think it's because we have these brains that are just constantly going and on and we come up with scenarios and we catastrophize and I'm seeing Joyce's head nod. Yeah. 

Joyce Feustel: Yeah. So hard to shut enough. Yeah. 

Jami Shapiro: Yes. And yeah, it's very hard to shut the brain. I mean, it's like a, it's like a popcorn disco ball, just constantly going.

I'll have conversations with people, we'll talk about their childhood, and I'll say, did you doodle when you were in school? And, and people will come. I'm still doodling, you know? So all right, well, I'm, I can't diagnose you. I wanna make that clear to [00:19:00] everybody, but you know what? 

Joyce Feustel: Fascinating. Yeah.

Jami Shapiro: There is a quiz on the grandma has ADHD website. Okay. Again, it's for educational and entertainment purposes, but it is not meant to diagnose. 

Joyce Feustel: Right. 

Jami Shapiro: But you know, again, five to 10% of the population is impacted by ADHD and, and 80% of us don't even realize it. So yeah. So I'm gonna leave, I have 

Joyce Feustel: a question if I may ask you.

Sure. It's in keeping with where we are right now. Yeah. I have a friend who's 80. Yep. And she thinks she has ADHD. Mm-hmm. But she's brought it up to a doctor and they say this, get this, no, you're too old to have ADHD. So something like that. So I, you know, she's not much of a challenger of authority, but I wonder if you've heard that, and if there's anything I could.

Jami Shapiro: I am so glad that you brought that up. My mother's doctor said exactly the same thing. She said they don't treat it and it doesn't matter. Yep. And I will tell you [00:20:00] that I, my relationship with my mother, and more importantly, my mother's relationship with my mother has significantly changed since knowing that.

She has ADHD because there are so many pieces that never made sense. Like for my mom who was really, really bright, she never finished college. And she, and, and, and she, and I remember when she was in her forties and she was miserable at her company and I said, and they offered tuition reimbursement. And I said, mom.

This is your chance, go back to school. And my mom said, I can't focus. Ding, ding, ding. That was an ADHD and it was never picked up on. And I actually just returned. I was the keynote speaker at the Aging Life Care Managers conference for Western region. And they had a physician go up and speak about anxiety in seniors and all of the different reasons that seniors might have anxiety.

ADHD was left off the list and I went up to her after the conference and I said, I don't, I didn't wanna embarrass you in front of [00:21:00] everybody, but, but you left ADHD off this list. And she said, you know what? You're right. I learned about ADHD in college and it didn't even occur to me. It's just like, no.

They used to think that ADHD was only the little boy that he would outgrow it. Well, it turns out that he doesn't outgrow it. It morphs as he ages and as we're in different life stages, behaviors change. And a lot of people go from being hyperactive in the body to the brain that's constantly talking and interrupting and.

So, yes, your friend is what she heard from a doctor. She needs to find a doctor who understands ADHD. And in fact, only one in five memory care clinics are even routinely asking about ADHD. And yet, when you look at the early symptoms of dementia or Alzheimer's, they're in line with symptoms of ADHD, like forgetting words misplacing items.

Yeah. I, I forget words in people's names, that common occurrence for me on a regular basis. 

Joyce Feustel: Wow. 

Jami Shapiro: Yep. So we're gonna pause for a minute. Yeah. [00:22:00] And and then we're gonna come back and continue this conversation. Sure.

 

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Jami Shapiro: We are back with Joyce Feustel and I think Joyce might have to get off of this podcast and look into the fact that she not fact the possibility that she may be one of, of those of us who have undiagnosed ADHD. So I appreciate you being such a good sport. One of the things that I'm really trying to do is de-stigmatize ADHD, and I think the more people understand it and even some of the myths.

That you've thought about it, you know, you can't have good grades, you know, like, and or that it, it doesn't exist in seniors. All of it is not true. [00:26:00] So thanks for being such a great sport and Oh yeah. And as I, as I say, when I ask somebody if they have ADHD, it is the highest compliment I can give you because it means I think you're really interesting and and, and I'm, I, you know, the, there's a, a lot of people who say that we should not call ADHD superpower or that we are.

Creating a toxically positive, you know, thing And, and I'm gonna say too, that there's a lot of negative that does go with ADHD. I mean, for me, the biggest is I have, I have rejection sensitivity, it's called, it can be called rejection sensitive dysphoria. I don't like that word, but I perceive rejection.

Even when rejection isn't there. And an example that I like to give is I get a phone call, I'm a business owner. I get a phone call from a vendor. Hey Jamie, can you gimme a call? I need to talk to you. And my immediate go-to is, something is wrong. I ne that's my immediate, are you, why are you nodding?

Joyce Feustel: Well, it's so interesting because I just think I'll just. Say that I've been in our recovery program, I'll call it. Mm-hmm. Without getting too specific for 40 years. Mm-hmm. And I think because of that, I I don't, I [00:27:00] don't do that. 

Jami Shapiro: Well, that's good, but people with ADHD also tend to have addictions.

That's a lot of the reason that we and a lot of people were coping with, with substances, a lot of cigarettes. A lot of, and it can be an addiction to even exercise. I have a friend who's actually got ADHD, but she's a perfectionist. She's a high level executive at Mayo Clinic, and she's one of those people that has like very regimented, I have to be exercising at a certain time, so I, I like, just think of it as a brain that is on just hyper drive.

It's just like, I, I just think of it as a ma. I can't even describe it because it's just my experience, but I just feel like my brain is just. More than my head can hold. That's, that's kind of what I actually a great, a great analogy that I've heard from Dr. Ned Hollowell, who's one of the innovators in the space now said that it's like having a Ferrari brain and bicycle breaks.

So you have, yeah, you have to learn. And for me, like here's the perfect example of how I'm working with my brain. So I have learned, I was literally on the [00:28:00] airplane going to the CSA conference in Baltimore, Maryland. I'm on the, I'm on the runway and I look at my phone to check my reservation for the hotel because I have now learned that when I make a reservation, I have to immediately put it into my calendar or I will be trying to find it.

I never made the reservation. I never made it. Now I know that if that, if I had made it, I would've put it immediately into my calendar. It's taken me a long time to get to this. I know that my memory is gonna fail me. I wear this watch now because I was boiling eggs on the stove and I walked away, went to a client's house.

I'm touring his home. He's, I'm looking around 'cause we're gonna tell him how much it's gonna cost for us to do his move management. And I am in his kitchen and I literally went, ugh. I just realized I left boiling eggs on my stove for several hours and my catastrophizing sit goes in place. First of all, I have to apologize.

Because now I'm concerned that I'm gonna burn down my house and [00:29:00] I'm driving home and I'm concerned that either I'm going to get there and I'm gonna see the fire, you know, the fire. I can fire trucks. See I'm losing words. Or the eggs are gonna have exploded and hit. So now when I boil eggs, I set the timer on my phone and I don't walk away until I've done it, because now I plan to forget.

So I just am putting things in place to know that my, my, my short-term memory is not good. Someone can give me directions, say, you know, you're gonna turn left and then you're gonna do this, and then you're gonna turn right and you're gonna do this. I've lost it. I've lost it. So, 

Joyce Feustel: yeah. Wow. 

Jami Shapiro: Yeah, so, okay. One of the other reasons that I really wanted to have you on is that people with ADHD, we don't, a lot of us, and again, if you meet one person with ADHD, I have to say this, you meet one person with ADHD, but a lot of us don't do well with.

Boredom. And I think that that might be one of the reasons that people as we age, struggle more with ADHD. 'cause we don't have that structure in place that we used to have. We don't have people to be bouncing ideas off of, so we're not in integrating in people's lives. [00:30:00] So I love the idea that you are teaching technology to boomers.

And maybe even, are you helping them find jobs? 

Joyce Feustel: Oh yeah. Oh yeah. About, typically about 25% of my clients have, are job seekers. So not all of them are boomers, but some, I would say proportionally might be a little even higher on the younger than 60. So I bring down GenX. Gen X, you know, and even, even millennials, I've had a handful.

They'd be like the children of a client or somebody I know professionally. I had siblings. Mm-hmm. You know, two people in their thirties and I helped them both. 

Jami Shapiro: Nice. Well, I'm LinkedIn better. I'm gonna need to schedule a session clearly with you. Oh, that'd be lovely. I would love to do that. But can you tell, tell our listeners who are, who you know, are tuning in a little bit about what you do and how you help, because you know Sure.

I'd love to support your business as well. 

Joyce Feustel: Oh yeah, happy to. So whether they're job seeker or a business owner or any kind of business professional that wants to figure out LinkedIn, I recommend that we have two sessions. We start with [00:31:00] a profile. And we go through the profile from the top, the banner, through the photo, through the headline, all the way down to the bottom.

And almost everything we do can be done in real time. That's needs changing. And that's one of the reasons a lot of busy entrepreneurs like working with me. Mm-hmm. Because they don't have this laundry list of what to do afterwards. They get it done right then and there, which I think ADHD people probably like that.

Right. I was 

Jami Shapiro: just gonna, I have to interrupt you on that. Yes. People with ADHD tend to do really well with. That's called body doubling, where I'm working alongside somebody else at the same time, that accountability and if I walk away from something and, 'cause we, we tend to get super excited about the newest thing and I can't tell you how many subscriptions I've paid for and then walked away.

And so I am so glad that you brought that up because they, they think that the percentage of entrepreneurs is also very high, which makes sense when you look at the traits of ADHD. 

Joyce Feustel: Well, and, and also in the last year or so, I've really incorporated chat, GPT. Hmm. [00:32:00] To this dynamic. Mm-hmm. Many of my clients have chat or some other AI tool.

I happen to use chat GPT. So what I'll do is I'll, especially if there's any resistance, like the other day that happened, I'll say, listen, I've suggested this to you. I'm gonna go into my chat and type it in and see what Chat thinks. Mm-hmm. Ask Chat to give us some ideas. So then I stopped him having the screen share and I share my screen.

But Chat gives five suggestions based on what I typed in, which was mm-hmm. You know, much of what he already had. Mm-hmm. He goes, oh wow. You know, I think number four works. I wanna make a couple more changes. I said. Fine. We should do that. So see how this was a collaboration with me and him and my chat.

GPT mm-hmm. In real time. Mm-hmm. And how convenient is that? It's like magic almost. So that's the session. The, the profile. And LinkedIn is more than the profile though. 'cause a lot of people think, oh, help me with my profile, fine. But what if it's like, you get this dress and this outfit, you look good for the dance, but [00:33:00] oopsie, you didn't really learn how to dance.

So now we go into the use of LinkedIn in a second session. So here we start thinking about who to connect with, who do you want to accept their invite, and then conversely, who do you wanna find more of those kinds of people by using the search tools within LinkedIn. Then we would talk about, say, sharing content.

What about posts? Some of the things I talked about at the conference articles, even that LinkedIn newsletter, there are different formats in which you can share content and what would be sort of good content for you to share, as well as engaging with the content of other people. And finally, I walk my clients through the very pesky, but.

Sort of annoying but necessary pro project of going through their notifications, because if you don't get rid of a lot of notifications, I could see this could be very problematic for the ADHD person. Mm-hmm. Who could get distracted. Mm-hmm. Excuse me, [00:34:00] by a lot of random stuff they don't need to know.

Mm-hmm. Takes about 10 minutes and then we're done, we're done, set, and done. They don't have to go back and do it again. Well, I'm sold two. Yeah, so that's two sessions and that's for people between, let's see, 25 and 59. That's 165 per hour or 297 for the two session package. Now for those watching who are older, and that could be some here for older people and job seekers, then my hourly rate drops down to 125 per hour, or the two session package drops to 230.

Nice. So I do have special rates because I was an older job seeker and, well, I was in my fifties, felt older at the time. But any rate, yeah, so I, I have those rates. So that's nice. So, and, and we were talking before you asked about three things people should do. I wanna stress this mm-hmm. Every week at a minimum, but at least every week.

Go and see who wants to connect with you. That could be a potential client [00:35:00] or hiring authority, or really solid business colleague, referral partner in there somewhere. Just sift, do them and dump the rest. Just ignore them. Even block them if they're really creepy. Mm-hmm. And then also to go through your messages.

Sometimes people will curiously message you through LinkedIn. Why couldn't they have just sent an email? I thought when I was first on LinkedIn, but some people like to communicate that way. Mm-hmm. I did a whole podcast on Friday. The whole communication was set up through LinkedIn messages. Not a single email was exchanged.

Wow. The two. Yeah. Very. Wow. And then this third one would be to look at those notifications. This would be once they're cleaned up and there's something important in there. Like say you put up a post, you wanna know if somebody commented on a post, right? Mm-hmm. You wanna thank them. That's just a little courtesy.

So those are three things I'd say from a kind of etiquette standpoint. 

Jami Shapiro: Well, I'm failing miserably. Miserably. So my, my, I'm launching [00:36:00] my book which by the time this podcast comes out, the book will be out. It's called, this Explains so much Understanding undiagnosed ADHD for people who feel too much, have too much or have been told they are too much.

Oh, it's quite a 

Joyce Feustel: mouthful, but it's a great title. It's, 

Jami Shapiro: it's, but there was so much I wanted to say in that. And then after that I'm actually going to be getting ready in the first of the year, I'm gonna be doing an online right sizing downsizing course with understanding ADHD, because there are a lot of people who've been trying to go through the process of decluttering and downsizing or right sizing, actually right sizing is the correct term, downsizing as a negative connotation, but people don't know it.

So I'm in the process of taking this. These presentations that I've been giving for years in person and turning it into a digital course. And I'm gonna need to promote that. Yeah. Yeah. So I need to finish this course. I'm learning, I can't sign up for too many things at one time because then nothing gets finished.

Right. But I'm going to [00:37:00] you can put me on your calendar because when my other course is over, I want you to, to do this with me. So that's exciting. Yeah. 

Joyce Feustel: Great. Well, that'll be so much fun to stay in touch. Yeah. 

Jami Shapiro: Yes. And share again, I love your boo. It's boomers, social media. I forgot. What's the name of your company?

Boomers 

Joyce Feustel: Social Media Tutor. 

Jami Shapiro: Boomers. Boomers With an S. 

Joyce Feustel: Boomers. Like more than 

Jami Shapiro: one boomers Social media tutor.com. Yep. Yep, yep, yep. Mm-hmm. I love it. I mean, I, I, again, I can't diagnose you with ADHD, but you, you ring pretty much accurate and in line. I love the name. You're, it's so creative. The name of your your website and the innovation of helping boomers and and you, you're showing them that, you know, and, and just like I do, it's never too late to reinvent yourself, to make the most of your life.

And you tell your friend, actually, here's a story I wanna share. I had Alan P. Brown on my podcast. He started a program called ADD Crusher. So he started it well before we diagnosed everybody with [00:38:00] ADHD. They changed it in a DSM, probably TMI, but he said he had an 87-year-old client who came to him.

He said that he wasn't diagnosed until 80 and it was the best seven years of his life. 

Joyce Feustel: Really, 

Jami Shapiro: because you finally have an understanding of why. It's like when I meet someone with ADHD and I ask them questions, they're like, how did you know that about me? Just like how you were just talking about how you walk your ADHD clients through it so that they, you know, they're gonna accomplish it.

Because you're right. If you gave me homework. It would because it's not now, it wouldn't get done. 

Joyce Feustel: Yeah. 

Jami Shapiro: So you're, you're already understanding how our brains work and for my mom to understand that she was never lazy. She was never stupid. Her brain didn't allow her to focus on anything that wasn't important to her.

And now we need to come up with, with ways to make that a priority for me, again, I would've been beating myself up for, you know, not making that hotel reservation. Actually, it's been far worse when I've made a [00:39:00] reservation and forgot to cancel it and then had to pay it. So there's something called an ADHD tax.

It's when we sign up, we sign up for a subscription that we don't use, or we have a late fee, you know, or we break something because we are just going so quickly that we're being careless. We misplaced lots of things. We have to go out and buy something new because we can't find it.

Joyce Feustel: Oh yeah, so pesky, gosh.

Jami Shapiro: Yes. So, yeah. Well, I, I hope that you learned something that you'll share it with your audience. Oh, 

Joyce Feustel: yes, definitely. I'm going to do some more research. I'm gonna send you the quiz. Yeah, definitely. I'm gonna send you, I'll send back to you in a month or so, or whatever is good. You know, you'll just let you know, 

Jami Shapiro: well, you may need to buy the 

Joyce Feustel: book.

Yeah, I certainly will. Yeah. Yeah. 

Jami Shapiro: Anyway, it was so wonderful to meet you and to have you on the podcast. And again, if you want to work with Joyce, it is boomers social media tutor.com. And I am so appreciative to Joyce Foel, who is really showing us at the age of [00:40:00] 76 that life keeps going and so can you.

Thanks so much. Yay. Yay. Bye. Okay, I'm gonna stop the recording.

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