May 19, 2025 • 27 mins
In this #podcast episode, I interview Cindy Baker. I ask Cindy about the relationship between faith and entrepreneurship. I also ask Cindy about ADHD and entrepreneurship. Cindy also shares with you the key mindset shift that entrepreneurs need.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Thanks for joining us on episode 1541 of the Inspired Stewardship
Podcast. I'm Cindy Baker.
I challenge you to invest in yourself,
invest in others,
develop your influence,
and impact the world by using your time,
your talent,
and your treasures to live out your calling.
(00:20):
Having the ability to manage your attention instead of time is
the key.
And one way to be inspired to do that is to
listen to this,
the Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my friend,
Scott Mater.
People will say,
well, I wish I had more hours in the day.
(00:43):
That's. That's not the answer.
If you have more hours in the day,
you'd spend it the same way you're spending the hours you
have now.
And once you can get clarity again.
I work with a lot of entrepreneurs and many of them
struggle in their business because they don't have clarity.
But when you can get that clarity,
then you can do what matters in the time that you
have. Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired
(01:05):
Stewardship Podcast.
If you truly desire to become the person who God wants
you to be,
then you must learn to use your time,
your talent,
and your treasures for your true calling.
In the Inspired Stewardship Podcast,
you will learn to invest in yourself,
invest in others,
and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.
(01:35):
In this podcast episode,
I interview Cindy Baker.
I asked Cindy about the relationship between faith and entrepreneurship.
I also asked Cindy about ADHD and entrepreneurship.
And Cindy also shares with you the key mindset shift that
entrepreneurs need.
I have a great book that's been out for a while
now called Inspired Living Assemble the Puzzle of youf Calling by
(01:58):
mastering your time,
your talent,
and your treasures.
You can find out more about that book over atinspired living
book.com. it'll take you to a page where there's information and
you can sign up to get some mailings about it as
well as purchase a copy there.
I'd love to see you get a copy and share with
me how it impacted your world.
(02:21):
Speaker and Coach Cindy is the founder of CBC Cindy Baker
Coaching, a coaching and educational company for entrepreneurs.
With a Master's in counseling and over 19 years as an
educator, Cindy's mission is to share the success secrets that she
has discovered in her own journey as an entrepreneur with ADHD
(02:41):
to inspire other creative professionals to leverage their brain's superpowers to
become positive,
prepared and productive.
Her productivity training has helped countless entrepreneurs grow their businesses by
overcoming overwhelm,
gaining clarity and focus,
and managing their time.
Fueled by faith and coffee.
She loves being a wife,
(03:01):
a grandma,
and a dog mom when not coaching,
she can be found singing in her church's choir or spending
time outdoors.
Welcome to the show,
Cindy. Thank you.
It's good to be here.
Absolutely. So I shared a little bit in the intro about
some of the things you've done,
some of the work you've done around your work with entrepreneurs
(03:23):
and entrepreneurs specifically with adhd.
But I always think it's interesting to back up intros,
just show us where we got.
And to me,
the journey is so much more interesting.
What brought us to the point that this is the work
we're doing or this is the message we're putting out in
the world?
So would you mind backing up and sharing a little bit
about your journey and what,
(03:44):
what brought you to the point of doing the work you
do? Yeah,
I've had an interesting journey.
I've always been in helping professions.
I was in youth ministry and then I was in education
as a school counselor and a teacher.
And I have a master's in counseling that I got before
I switched to school counseling and learned a lot about adhd.
(04:07):
And I started working with a lot of adolescents that had
ADHD and their parents.
And I started thinking,
I really relate to these symptoms.
I think I have this.
And I didn't really know much about getting a diagnosis as
an adult.
Now that's common knowledge.
But I finally realized that I could just go to a
(04:28):
psychologist and they would,
they had a test and series of questionnaires and.
And I was pretty high achieving.
So I looked at him,
I said,
are you sure I have this?
And he said,
oh yeah,
textbook. You have adhd.
Once I found that kind of,
that new label,
I really just wanted to learn everything I could about adult
(04:50):
adhd because it does manifest differently.
And I wanted to figure out what worked and what didn't.
And so I read books and went to workshops and tried
all these different things and figured out what worked and what
didn't and finally put together a framework of strategies,
routines, habits,
and just my life just changed.
(05:11):
I became really successful.
Didn't just get that one master's degree,
I got two and had a long term successful career.
19 years as an educator and started a business while I
was teaching and now doing it full time,
all while having adhd.
So once that kind of clicked for me,
(05:31):
I started to help other people and I realized,
wow, that this could be a business.
Yeah, so that's how it happened.
So one of the things you just mentioned is that ADHD
is different as an adult and presents differently as an adult.
What are some of the differences that you found between what
people think of as adhd,
(05:52):
which is usually in children and adolescents,
and what happens for an adult with adhd.
Yeah, some of the symptoms are the same,
we just handle them differently.
But there's a whole different set of social skills that you
have as an adult.
And you've learned.
Most adults have learned to compensate and work around some of
(06:15):
the things that are challenges.
But some things are different.
For instance,
hyperactivity. You don't really see an adult bouncing off the walls
as much as a kid,
but they might do things like talk too much or talk
too fast or interrupt or be fidgety in a meeting.
So there's just some differences in the ways that it manifests.
(06:35):
If you don't get a diagnosis until you're an adult.
There are probably some self esteem issues that have happened along
the way.
Because not knowing that the reason you acted the way you
did is because of a neurological issue in your brain,
you probably got some criticism and things like that and internalized
(06:56):
that. What that does for an adult is just makes them
work extra hard to try to overcompensate.
And I don't just work with people with adhd.
The interesting thing is that these ADHD friendly strategies work for
anybody who kind of has a lot of things going on.
(07:18):
A busy brain,
somebody who's easily distracted.
A lot of entrepreneurs go through my program because entrepreneurs had
that creative,
out of the box thinking and doing.
We're juggling a lot of plates at the same time.
It does work.
These strategies do work for me and for many others.
So you mentioned earlier that you started in helping fields with
(07:41):
ministry work and other things like that.
Talk a little bit about your faith journey and how that's
shaped where you find yourself and what you find yourself doing.
Yeah, there's the undercurrent in,
in everything that I do.
Became a Christian when I was seven years old.
I was very fortunate to go to a Christian School,
(08:01):
7th through 12th grade and youth group and all that stuff,
Young Life.
And so I got a good foundation of the Bible and
just really began to try to question what,
what am I supposed to do with my life?
And I wanted to make an impact on others and actually
(08:21):
ended up going to seminary after college,
went to Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary.
At the time,
Billy Graham was the chairman of the board.
So he signed my diploma,
which was pretty cool.
And I got to meet him and I went through a
training program for international youth ministry called Young Life.
And I ended up serving on Young Life staff for several
(08:43):
years. The last part,
I was living in Germany.
I lived in Germany for four years and worked with US
students whose parents were in the army,
in the US army,
and they have a partnership with Young Life.
And so I did that before education and Young Life's philosophy
(09:05):
was to reach unchurched kids.
And I still had that desire.
There's a lot of students who would never grace the door
of a church.
And so I thought,
where are these kids?
They're in the school.
When I transferred over into education,
that was my thinking,
is that I was,
I was going to be like in the movies where you
(09:26):
go in and you make this difference in the lives of
all these kids.
And nobody told me really that it's about testing in politics,
but that's a whole nother podcast.
But I did just want to make a difference.
And so as I got older and started working more with
adults, it just was an easy transition.
And now I'm doing a lot of speaking and of course
(09:48):
I think the Lord really used the counseling and the teaching
experience to help me become an effective speaker.
And I enjoy it.
So it's all connected in some ways.
How did your own journey and finding out you had ADHD
and not whatnot as an adult reflect back on how do
(10:09):
you think that affected the choices you've made around becoming an
entrepreneur, around doing your business,
around making some of those decisions that you've made?
Do you think it influenced those decisions or.
Yes, definitely.
When I looked back on my life through this new lens,
everything started to make sense.
It was like,
(10:29):
oh, that's why I did this or that's why this happened,
or I reacted this way.
For one,
I had no stability in my life.
I was just all over the place and change jobs all
the time and non committal.
I got married late in life and so once I got
the ADHD diagnosis and learned how to work with the way
(10:50):
my brain is wired that of wishing it wasn't that way,
then I really started to have some stability,
have some clarity and so definitely branching out into coaching.
I decided two things,
really. One,
I wanted to be my own boss.
I was tired of somebody else trying to fit me in
(11:13):
a square peg in a round hole,
if you will.
I was certified in a lot of different subjects and so
my job changed frequently as an educator and I didn't like
that. I don't like somebody else telling me how to live
my life basically.
Not that it wasn't out of rebellion,
it was more just.
(11:34):
I just knew that some of those positions were not a
good fit for Me and I could excel doing something else.
So part of it was that.
But the other reason is that I floundered around for so
many years not knowing I had adhd.
And I just don't.
I can't stand by and watch other people go through what
(11:55):
I went through,
but they don't have to.
I've done all of the trial and error,
all the years of experimenting,
and now I've got this framework that works.
And I just decided the phrase my mess was going to
become my message.
So I just decided this is a secret that I can
share with others.
And it's fulfilling for me to see that light bulb come
(12:18):
on. The people have hope when they see there's another way
to live,
that they don't have to struggle so much.
So what are some of the,
the, the approaches you take in terms of the framework that
you use or the approach you use when working with entrepreneurs
that you see make such a difference?
(12:39):
Yeah, there's several things,
but the overarching theme is,
a lot of people will say,
I wish I had more hours in the day.
That's not the answer.
If you have more hours in a day,
you'd spend it the same way you're spending the hours you
have now.
So time management is not really the issue.
It's more about focus and attention management.
(13:01):
And once you can get clarity.
And again,
I work with a lot of entrepreneurs,
and many of them struggle in their business because they don't
have clarity.
But when you can get that clarity,
then you can do what matters in the time that you
have and really build the life and the business that you
want. So I have a method called the focus Sprint method.
(13:24):
I'm really not sure I made that up,
but I use that.
I don't.
I call it that,
but I'm sure somebody else has got a better name for
it. But basically,
you identify your,
your air,
your time zone of the most energy.
So you kind of go through the day for two or
(13:45):
three days and jot down,
when am I mentally sharpest,
when am I emotionally up?
All these things,
physically sleepy,
tired, whatever.
And you identify three important things to do every day.
Just three.
You can do more than that,
but you have to.
Just the three most important things.
(14:07):
And it could be a small piece of a bigger project,
but those three things,
I like to write them down the day before,
have them on a little index card on my desk so
when I come in,
I'm not wasting half the morning figuring out what I'm supposed
to do.
And you take those three Important things.
You pick one of them and you put your phone in
(14:27):
the other room.
Set some boundaries with your family,
put your noise canceling headphones on if you have to.
You set a timer and you just work undistracted for 90
minutes is optimal because that's your natural energy cycle.
But you could start with 30 and then go to 60
and then 90 and you'd be amazed.
(14:49):
You, you take a break after that,
like a five minute break,
and then do a couple more cycles.
You'd be amazed at how productive and focused you can become
when you get some clarity on what are your priorities.
Of course,
if you're a business owner,
your main focus needs to be revenue producing activities.
(15:10):
So if you're spending two hours shuffling around emails or trying
to find the perfect color for a social media post on
Canva, that's not gonna move the needle in your business.
So I help my clients decide what's important and what's not
and what can they delegate,
(15:30):
what can they take off their plate,
that type of thing.
So there's a lot more to it,
but those are just some things.
Awesome. That.
No, that's helpful.
So when you think about the not enough hours in the
day kind of thinking,
and right there you were focused on the work side of
it. But I also see that come up with entrepreneurs where
when they're working,
(15:50):
they feel guilty because they're not at home spending their time
that way.
And then when they're at home,
they feel guilty because they're not working.
It's that constant tension between my attention at home and my
attention at work being torn between the two.
What do you,
what strategies or ideas do you have around that kind of
work life balance or finding the ability to focus,
(16:13):
to be present when you're present,
where you're present,
so to speak.
Yeah, I think this is a challenge for entrepreneurs who work
from home and even other people who had to start working
from home during the pandemic.
You have to create a structure.
You can't just say,
I'm going to work whenever and have your personal and your
(16:35):
work life completely meshed.
There has to be boundaries and nobody else is going to
set those boundaries.
If you're an entrepreneur,
you have to do it.
Nobody's going to come in and say the bell's going to
ring at this time.
And then it's going to be second period.
And the whole all these kids will leave and more kids
will come in.
So that was a struggle for me.
(16:56):
I had to be like,
wait a minute.
Nope, there's not an external structure anymore.
But you do have to have definite work hours,
just like you would in an office.
And you get up,
you have a morning routine,
you put your,
your work clothes on if you're a girl,
you put your makeup on,
you do your hair and you act like you're going to
(17:18):
work, but you're just going to a place in your house
where you work,
you keep a planner and you schedule things.
So even if it's not a meeting,
like this podcast was a meeting,
right? But let's say I had a project and I need
to work on individually,
I might break that project up into little pieces and schedule
(17:41):
on this day,
at this time block,
I'm going to work on whatever,
and I treat it like an appointment.
Just like if I were going to add a doctor's appointment
this morning,
I showed up because it was a doctor's appointment.
It was at a certain time.
That's the way you have to treat it with yourself.
You said you were going to do this.
Don't break promises that you make to yourself.
(18:02):
You got to have that.
And that's just part of self care too.
And you mentioned living in the present.
So many entrepreneurs burn out because they don't take care of
themselves. They don't get enough sleep,
they. They just stay up late at night working on things
while they're watching Netflix or whatever.
And you just have to have a cutoff.
(18:23):
Even when I was a teacher,
like, I never gave my home phone number out to parents
and some teachers did,
and I was like,
no way,
they can't reach me.
And I didn't check my work email at night.
And I was a rare person that did that,
but felt like it's important to set those boundaries,
manage your time,
(18:44):
get support.
I think that's one of the great things about my coaching
program is that there's accountability and there's support.
People can ask each other,
how are you managing your schedule?
So boundaries is key.
So when you think about entrepreneurs,
what are some of the other mindsets or frameworks or thoughts
(19:07):
that are approaches that you've seen them need to shift to
begin to have more success,
have more balance,
have more control over their time,
what they're doing?
Yeah, this goes without saying,
but you have to have a positive mindset.
You can look at the glass as half empty or half
(19:27):
full, and that's a choice.
So that's one thing.
You've heard the whole phrase growth mindset.
That's important because they're going to be,
there's going to be a learning curve if you're an entrepreneur,
things are changing so quickly in technology and you have to
be okay with knowing that.
Just because I don't know something now doesn't mean I can't
(19:49):
learn it.
Just like when I was teaching and a kid would say
I'm not good at math and I would teach them to
say, I'm not good at math yet,
but I'm learning.
There's a.
If you just add the word yet,
it changes your mindset a little bit.
And then you got to be creative and you got to
(20:10):
have resiliency and grit,
really. Because it's hard.
Being an entrepreneur is hard.
It's not sitting with your laptop on the deck of a
high rise overlooking the ocean and you're typing and that's your
job. No,
there's a whole lot more to it than that.
And so you do have to manage your time,
(20:30):
manage your emotions.
It's another thing.
You can't just work when you feel like it.
You have to act first.
And then maybe the motivation comes and then I think another
thing that I run into is comparison,
especially when we looking at social media.
If you're an entrepreneur and you're just starting out,
(20:51):
don't Compare your chapter one with somebody else's.
Chapter 10.
Nobody was born knowing how to do all this stuff.
Nobody's born knowing how to do marketing or sales or any
of that.
And rather than looking at somebody else's success and saying the
cards were just in their favor,
(21:12):
they worked hard to get where they are and maybe that
maybe you're further ahead in your first year than they were
in their first year,
you just have to have that perspective,
I think.
And if you are a person of faith,
I think mindset has to be addressed there too.
I think it's important to not run ahead of God.
Pray about what you're doing.
(21:33):
If you have big decisions to make in your business,
he's the CEO.
That's important as well.
So I've got a few questions that I like to ask
all of my guests.
But before I go and ask those,
is there anything else about the work you do that you'd
like to share with the listener?
Yeah. I will just tell you a little bit about my
(21:57):
coaching program because it's fairly.
It's a new one.
I have had a coaching program for many years,
but I'm now really focusing on business people and entrepreneurs and
helping them get those high impact tasks done and about half
the time get rid of the distractions and then really be
(22:18):
able to make increase the profits in their business without burnout.
And it's a hybrid group program.
So there's some parts that are recorded and self paced and
then some parts are live,
some parts are on zoom.
And I'm really looking for more paid in person speaking opportunities.
So I'm doing a lot of virtual things.
(22:39):
So if any of your listeners know of an event organizer
or anything like that,
My keynote speech is focusing your way to fortunes,
how to leverage your unique brain wiring for business success.
So I would love to,
to talk to anybody who's looking for a speaker.
(23:00):
So my brand is inspired stewardship,
and I run things through that lens of stewardship.
And yet over the years,
I've discovered that's one of those words that can mean a
lot of different things to a lot of different people.
So when you hear the word stewardship,
what does that word mean to you?
Stewardship is managing something.
The management of your time,
your money.
(23:21):
And if you're,
if you're a Jesus follower,
you believe everything belongs to him anyway.
So I love the definition.
I think it was Dave Ramsey that said stewardship is managing.
Let me see if I can get it right.
Managing God's blessings,
God's way for God's glory.
And I really think that kind of sums it up.
(23:42):
So you're,
you're just aware all the time,
and it comes out of a heart of gratefulness.
You're aware all the time that,
that the things that you've been given,
the relationships,
the time,
the money,
the business,
everything is a gift that has been given to you and
you're responsible for managing it in a way that brings God
(24:04):
glory, that makes a positive impact on others.
I have an online business.
There's a lot of shady people out on the Internet.
So I always feel like that part of being a good
steward is to,
to really be authentic.
A lot of people get to know who I really am
and so they can make an informed decision,
(24:25):
do I want to work with this person or not?
And that's.
That comes into play as well.
So this is my favorite question that I like to ask
everybody. Imagine for a moment that I could invent this magic
machine. And with this machine,
I was able to take you from where you are today
and transport you into the future,
maybe 150,
(24:45):
maybe 250 years.
And through the power of this machine,
you were able to look back and see your entire life
and see all of the connections,
all of the ripples,
all of the impacts you've left behind.
What impact do you hope you've left in the world?
Wow. That is a good question.
I know this is going to sound vague,
but I just want to have a positive impact.
(25:06):
I love to inspire hope in people.
I would love to know that people were introduced to Jesus
Christ through my life.
And I would love to think that people who have ADHD
got hope that there's a different way to live,
or entrepreneurs who struggle with getting their business organized,
(25:26):
that there's another way to live,
that I've helped them reach their goals just to leave a
legacy in that way.
So what's on the roadmap?
What's coming next as you continue on this journey?
As I mentioned,
I'm doing more speaking.
I just won first place in a speaking contest,
so I've really been practicing my craft.
(25:48):
I just wrote a book.
It is not published yet,
but you can be on the lookout for that.
And when it is,
I'll send you the link.
You can add it to the Show Notes.
But my hope is that would be book one of a
three book series.
So I've got more books coming and grow my growing my
(26:08):
coaching business.
So you can find out more about Cindy Baker on our
website@cindybakercoaching.com of course,
I'll have a link to that in the Show Notes as
well. Cindy,
is there anything else you'd like to share with the listener?
No, just that I think you're going to put a link
to a free gift that I have for your listeners on
(26:30):
a little mini course on how to beat procrastination at wait
no more.net
I'll be happy to add that to the Show Notes as
well. Thanks so much for coming today.
Thank you for having me.
Thanks so much for listening to the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.
(26:53):
As a subscriber and listener,
we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen,
but act on what you've heard and find a way to
live your calling.
If you enjoyed this episode,
please please do us a favor.
Go over to inspired stewardship.com
(27:13):
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Until next time,
(27:33):
invest your time,
your talent and your treasures.
Develop your influence and impact the world.
Thanks for joining us on episode 1541 of the Inspired Stewardship
Podcast. I'm Cindy Baker.
I challenge you to invest in yourself,
invest in others,
develop your influence,
and impact the world by using your time,
your talent,
and your treasures to live out your calling.
(00:20):
Having the ability to manage your attention instead of time is
the key.
And one way to be inspired to do that is to
listen to this,
the Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my friend,
Scott Mater.
People will say,
well, I wish I had more hours in the day.
(00:43):
That's. That's not the answer.
If you have more hours in the day,
you'd spend it the same way you're spending the hours you
have now.
And once you can get clarity again.
I work with a lot of entrepreneurs and many of them
struggle in their business because they don't have clarity.
But when you can get that clarity,
then you can do what matters in the time that you
have. Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired
(01:05):
Stewardship Podcast.
If you truly desire to become the person who God wants
you to be,
then you must learn to use your time,
your talent,
and your treasures for your true calling.
In the Inspired Stewardship Podcast,
you will learn to invest in yourself,
invest in others,
and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.
(01:35):
In this podcast episode,
I interview Cindy Baker.
I asked Cindy about the relationship between faith and entrepreneurship.
I also asked Cindy about ADHD and entrepreneurship.
And Cindy also shares with you the key mindset shift that
entrepreneurs need.
I have a great book that's been out for a while
now called Inspired Living Assemble the Puzzle of youf Calling by
(01:58):
mastering your time,
your talent,
and your treasures.
You can find out more about that book over atinspired living
book.com. it'll take you to a page where there's information and
you can sign up to get some mailings about it as
well as purchase a copy there.
I'd love to see you get a copy and share with
me how it impacted your world.
(02:21):
Speaker and Coach Cindy is the founder of CBC Cindy Baker
Coaching, a coaching and educational company for entrepreneurs.
With a Master's in counseling and over 19 years as an
educator, Cindy's mission is to share the success secrets that she
has discovered in her own journey as an entrepreneur with ADHD
(02:41):
to inspire other creative professionals to leverage their brain's superpowers to
become positive,
prepared and productive.
Her productivity training has helped countless entrepreneurs grow their businesses by
overcoming overwhelm,
gaining clarity and focus,
and managing their time.
Fueled by faith and coffee.
She loves being a wife,
(03:01):
a grandma,
and a dog mom when not coaching,
she can be found singing in her church's choir or spending
time outdoors.
Welcome to the show,
Cindy. Thank you.
It's good to be here.
Absolutely. So I shared a little bit in the intro about
some of the things you've done,
some of the work you've done around your work with entrepreneurs
(03:23):
and entrepreneurs specifically with adhd.
But I always think it's interesting to back up intros,
just show us where we got.
And to me,
the journey is so much more interesting.
What brought us to the point that this is the work
we're doing or this is the message we're putting out in
the world?
So would you mind backing up and sharing a little bit
about your journey and what,
(03:44):
what brought you to the point of doing the work you
do? Yeah,
I've had an interesting journey.
I've always been in helping professions.
I was in youth ministry and then I was in education
as a school counselor and a teacher.
And I have a master's in counseling that I got before
I switched to school counseling and learned a lot about adhd.
(04:07):
And I started working with a lot of adolescents that had
ADHD and their parents.
And I started thinking,
I really relate to these symptoms.
I think I have this.
And I didn't really know much about getting a diagnosis as
an adult.
Now that's common knowledge.
But I finally realized that I could just go to a
(04:28):
psychologist and they would,
they had a test and series of questionnaires and.
And I was pretty high achieving.
So I looked at him,
I said,
are you sure I have this?
And he said,
oh yeah,
textbook. You have adhd.
Once I found that kind of,
that new label,
I really just wanted to learn everything I could about adult
(04:50):
adhd because it does manifest differently.
And I wanted to figure out what worked and what didn't.
And so I read books and went to workshops and tried
all these different things and figured out what worked and what
didn't and finally put together a framework of strategies,
routines, habits,
and just my life just changed.
(05:11):
I became really successful.
Didn't just get that one master's degree,
I got two and had a long term successful career.
19 years as an educator and started a business while I
was teaching and now doing it full time,
all while having adhd.
So once that kind of clicked for me,
(05:31):
I started to help other people and I realized,
wow, that this could be a business.
Yeah, so that's how it happened.
So one of the things you just mentioned is that ADHD
is different as an adult and presents differently as an adult.
What are some of the differences that you found between what
people think of as adhd,
(05:52):
which is usually in children and adolescents,
and what happens for an adult with adhd.
Yeah, some of the symptoms are the same,
we just handle them differently.
But there's a whole different set of social skills that you
have as an adult.
And you've learned.
Most adults have learned to compensate and work around some of
(06:15):
the things that are challenges.
But some things are different.
For instance,
hyperactivity. You don't really see an adult bouncing off the walls
as much as a kid,
but they might do things like talk too much or talk
too fast or interrupt or be fidgety in a meeting.
So there's just some differences in the ways that it manifests.
(06:35):
If you don't get a diagnosis until you're an adult.
There are probably some self esteem issues that have happened along
the way.
Because not knowing that the reason you acted the way you
did is because of a neurological issue in your brain,
you probably got some criticism and things like that and internalized
(06:56):
that. What that does for an adult is just makes them
work extra hard to try to overcompensate.
And I don't just work with people with adhd.
The interesting thing is that these ADHD friendly strategies work for
anybody who kind of has a lot of things going on.
(07:18):
A busy brain,
somebody who's easily distracted.
A lot of entrepreneurs go through my program because entrepreneurs had
that creative,
out of the box thinking and doing.
We're juggling a lot of plates at the same time.
It does work.
These strategies do work for me and for many others.
So you mentioned earlier that you started in helping fields with
(07:41):
ministry work and other things like that.
Talk a little bit about your faith journey and how that's
shaped where you find yourself and what you find yourself doing.
Yeah, there's the undercurrent in,
in everything that I do.
Became a Christian when I was seven years old.
I was very fortunate to go to a Christian School,
(08:01):
7th through 12th grade and youth group and all that stuff,
Young Life.
And so I got a good foundation of the Bible and
just really began to try to question what,
what am I supposed to do with my life?
And I wanted to make an impact on others and actually
(08:21):
ended up going to seminary after college,
went to Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary.
At the time,
Billy Graham was the chairman of the board.
So he signed my diploma,
which was pretty cool.
And I got to meet him and I went through a
training program for international youth ministry called Young Life.
And I ended up serving on Young Life staff for several
(08:43):
years. The last part,
I was living in Germany.
I lived in Germany for four years and worked with US
students whose parents were in the army,
in the US army,
and they have a partnership with Young Life.
And so I did that before education and Young Life's philosophy
(09:05):
was to reach unchurched kids.
And I still had that desire.
There's a lot of students who would never grace the door
of a church.
And so I thought,
where are these kids?
They're in the school.
When I transferred over into education,
that was my thinking,
is that I was,
I was going to be like in the movies where you
(09:26):
go in and you make this difference in the lives of
all these kids.
And nobody told me really that it's about testing in politics,
but that's a whole nother podcast.
But I did just want to make a difference.
And so as I got older and started working more with
adults, it just was an easy transition.
And now I'm doing a lot of speaking and of course
(09:48):
I think the Lord really used the counseling and the teaching
experience to help me become an effective speaker.
And I enjoy it.
So it's all connected in some ways.
How did your own journey and finding out you had ADHD
and not whatnot as an adult reflect back on how do
(10:09):
you think that affected the choices you've made around becoming an
entrepreneur, around doing your business,
around making some of those decisions that you've made?
Do you think it influenced those decisions or.
Yes, definitely.
When I looked back on my life through this new lens,
everything started to make sense.
It was like,
(10:29):
oh, that's why I did this or that's why this happened,
or I reacted this way.
For one,
I had no stability in my life.
I was just all over the place and change jobs all
the time and non committal.
I got married late in life and so once I got
the ADHD diagnosis and learned how to work with the way
(10:50):
my brain is wired that of wishing it wasn't that way,
then I really started to have some stability,
have some clarity and so definitely branching out into coaching.
I decided two things,
really. One,
I wanted to be my own boss.
I was tired of somebody else trying to fit me in
(11:13):
a square peg in a round hole,
if you will.
I was certified in a lot of different subjects and so
my job changed frequently as an educator and I didn't like
that. I don't like somebody else telling me how to live
my life basically.
Not that it wasn't out of rebellion,
it was more just.
(11:34):
I just knew that some of those positions were not a
good fit for Me and I could excel doing something else.
So part of it was that.
But the other reason is that I floundered around for so
many years not knowing I had adhd.
And I just don't.
I can't stand by and watch other people go through what
(11:55):
I went through,
but they don't have to.
I've done all of the trial and error,
all the years of experimenting,
and now I've got this framework that works.
And I just decided the phrase my mess was going to
become my message.
So I just decided this is a secret that I can
share with others.
And it's fulfilling for me to see that light bulb come
(12:18):
on. The people have hope when they see there's another way
to live,
that they don't have to struggle so much.
So what are some of the,
the, the approaches you take in terms of the framework that
you use or the approach you use when working with entrepreneurs
that you see make such a difference?
(12:39):
Yeah, there's several things,
but the overarching theme is,
a lot of people will say,
I wish I had more hours in the day.
That's not the answer.
If you have more hours in a day,
you'd spend it the same way you're spending the hours you
have now.
So time management is not really the issue.
It's more about focus and attention management.
(13:01):
And once you can get clarity.
And again,
I work with a lot of entrepreneurs,
and many of them struggle in their business because they don't
have clarity.
But when you can get that clarity,
then you can do what matters in the time that you
have and really build the life and the business that you
want. So I have a method called the focus Sprint method.
(13:24):
I'm really not sure I made that up,
but I use that.
I don't.
I call it that,
but I'm sure somebody else has got a better name for
it. But basically,
you identify your,
your air,
your time zone of the most energy.
So you kind of go through the day for two or
(13:45):
three days and jot down,
when am I mentally sharpest,
when am I emotionally up?
All these things,
physically sleepy,
tired, whatever.
And you identify three important things to do every day.
Just three.
You can do more than that,
but you have to.
Just the three most important things.
(14:07):
And it could be a small piece of a bigger project,
but those three things,
I like to write them down the day before,
have them on a little index card on my desk so
when I come in,
I'm not wasting half the morning figuring out what I'm supposed
to do.
And you take those three Important things.
You pick one of them and you put your phone in
(14:27):
the other room.
Set some boundaries with your family,
put your noise canceling headphones on if you have to.
You set a timer and you just work undistracted for 90
minutes is optimal because that's your natural energy cycle.
But you could start with 30 and then go to 60
and then 90 and you'd be amazed.
(14:49):
You, you take a break after that,
like a five minute break,
and then do a couple more cycles.
You'd be amazed at how productive and focused you can become
when you get some clarity on what are your priorities.
Of course,
if you're a business owner,
your main focus needs to be revenue producing activities.
(15:10):
So if you're spending two hours shuffling around emails or trying
to find the perfect color for a social media post on
Canva, that's not gonna move the needle in your business.
So I help my clients decide what's important and what's not
and what can they delegate,
(15:30):
what can they take off their plate,
that type of thing.
So there's a lot more to it,
but those are just some things.
Awesome. That.
No, that's helpful.
So when you think about the not enough hours in the
day kind of thinking,
and right there you were focused on the work side of
it. But I also see that come up with entrepreneurs where
when they're working,
(15:50):
they feel guilty because they're not at home spending their time
that way.
And then when they're at home,
they feel guilty because they're not working.
It's that constant tension between my attention at home and my
attention at work being torn between the two.
What do you,
what strategies or ideas do you have around that kind of
work life balance or finding the ability to focus,
(16:13):
to be present when you're present,
where you're present,
so to speak.
Yeah, I think this is a challenge for entrepreneurs who work
from home and even other people who had to start working
from home during the pandemic.
You have to create a structure.
You can't just say,
I'm going to work whenever and have your personal and your
(16:35):
work life completely meshed.
There has to be boundaries and nobody else is going to
set those boundaries.
If you're an entrepreneur,
you have to do it.
Nobody's going to come in and say the bell's going to
ring at this time.
And then it's going to be second period.
And the whole all these kids will leave and more kids
will come in.
So that was a struggle for me.
(16:56):
I had to be like,
wait a minute.
Nope, there's not an external structure anymore.
But you do have to have definite work hours,
just like you would in an office.
And you get up,
you have a morning routine,
you put your,
your work clothes on if you're a girl,
you put your makeup on,
you do your hair and you act like you're going to
(17:18):
work, but you're just going to a place in your house
where you work,
you keep a planner and you schedule things.
So even if it's not a meeting,
like this podcast was a meeting,
right? But let's say I had a project and I need
to work on individually,
I might break that project up into little pieces and schedule
(17:41):
on this day,
at this time block,
I'm going to work on whatever,
and I treat it like an appointment.
Just like if I were going to add a doctor's appointment
this morning,
I showed up because it was a doctor's appointment.
It was at a certain time.
That's the way you have to treat it with yourself.
You said you were going to do this.
Don't break promises that you make to yourself.
(18:02):
You got to have that.
And that's just part of self care too.
And you mentioned living in the present.
So many entrepreneurs burn out because they don't take care of
themselves. They don't get enough sleep,
they. They just stay up late at night working on things
while they're watching Netflix or whatever.
And you just have to have a cutoff.
(18:23):
Even when I was a teacher,
like, I never gave my home phone number out to parents
and some teachers did,
and I was like,
no way,
they can't reach me.
And I didn't check my work email at night.
And I was a rare person that did that,
but felt like it's important to set those boundaries,
manage your time,
(18:44):
get support.
I think that's one of the great things about my coaching
program is that there's accountability and there's support.
People can ask each other,
how are you managing your schedule?
So boundaries is key.
So when you think about entrepreneurs,
what are some of the other mindsets or frameworks or thoughts
(19:07):
that are approaches that you've seen them need to shift to
begin to have more success,
have more balance,
have more control over their time,
what they're doing?
Yeah, this goes without saying,
but you have to have a positive mindset.
You can look at the glass as half empty or half
(19:27):
full, and that's a choice.
So that's one thing.
You've heard the whole phrase growth mindset.
That's important because they're going to be,
there's going to be a learning curve if you're an entrepreneur,
things are changing so quickly in technology and you have to
be okay with knowing that.
Just because I don't know something now doesn't mean I can't
(19:49):
learn it.
Just like when I was teaching and a kid would say
I'm not good at math and I would teach them to
say, I'm not good at math yet,
but I'm learning.
There's a.
If you just add the word yet,
it changes your mindset a little bit.
And then you got to be creative and you got to
(20:10):
have resiliency and grit,
really. Because it's hard.
Being an entrepreneur is hard.
It's not sitting with your laptop on the deck of a
high rise overlooking the ocean and you're typing and that's your
job. No,
there's a whole lot more to it than that.
And so you do have to manage your time,
(20:30):
manage your emotions.
It's another thing.
You can't just work when you feel like it.
You have to act first.
And then maybe the motivation comes and then I think another
thing that I run into is comparison,
especially when we looking at social media.
If you're an entrepreneur and you're just starting out,
(20:51):
don't Compare your chapter one with somebody else's.
Chapter 10.
Nobody was born knowing how to do all this stuff.
Nobody's born knowing how to do marketing or sales or any
of that.
And rather than looking at somebody else's success and saying the
cards were just in their favor,
(21:12):
they worked hard to get where they are and maybe that
maybe you're further ahead in your first year than they were
in their first year,
you just have to have that perspective,
I think.
And if you are a person of faith,
I think mindset has to be addressed there too.
I think it's important to not run ahead of God.
Pray about what you're doing.
(21:33):
If you have big decisions to make in your business,
he's the CEO.
That's important as well.
So I've got a few questions that I like to ask
all of my guests.
But before I go and ask those,
is there anything else about the work you do that you'd
like to share with the listener?
Yeah. I will just tell you a little bit about my
(21:57):
coaching program because it's fairly.
It's a new one.
I have had a coaching program for many years,
but I'm now really focusing on business people and entrepreneurs and
helping them get those high impact tasks done and about half
the time get rid of the distractions and then really be
(22:18):
able to make increase the profits in their business without burnout.
And it's a hybrid group program.
So there's some parts that are recorded and self paced and
then some parts are live,
some parts are on zoom.
And I'm really looking for more paid in person speaking opportunities.
So I'm doing a lot of virtual things.
(22:39):
So if any of your listeners know of an event organizer
or anything like that,
My keynote speech is focusing your way to fortunes,
how to leverage your unique brain wiring for business success.
So I would love to,
to talk to anybody who's looking for a speaker.
(23:00):
So my brand is inspired stewardship,
and I run things through that lens of stewardship.
And yet over the years,
I've discovered that's one of those words that can mean a
lot of different things to a lot of different people.
So when you hear the word stewardship,
what does that word mean to you?
Stewardship is managing something.
The management of your time,
your money.
(23:21):
And if you're,
if you're a Jesus follower,
you believe everything belongs to him anyway.
So I love the definition.
I think it was Dave Ramsey that said stewardship is managing.
Let me see if I can get it right.
Managing God's blessings,
God's way for God's glory.
And I really think that kind of sums it up.
(23:42):
So you're,
you're just aware all the time,
and it comes out of a heart of gratefulness.
You're aware all the time that,
that the things that you've been given,
the relationships,
the time,
the money,
the business,
everything is a gift that has been given to you and
you're responsible for managing it in a way that brings God
(24:04):
glory, that makes a positive impact on others.
I have an online business.
There's a lot of shady people out on the Internet.
So I always feel like that part of being a good
steward is to,
to really be authentic.
A lot of people get to know who I really am
and so they can make an informed decision,
(24:25):
do I want to work with this person or not?
And that's.
That comes into play as well.
So this is my favorite question that I like to ask
everybody. Imagine for a moment that I could invent this magic
machine. And with this machine,
I was able to take you from where you are today
and transport you into the future,
maybe 150,
(24:45):
maybe 250 years.
And through the power of this machine,
you were able to look back and see your entire life
and see all of the connections,
all of the ripples,
all of the impacts you've left behind.
What impact do you hope you've left in the world?
Wow. That is a good question.
I know this is going to sound vague,
but I just want to have a positive impact.
(25:06):
I love to inspire hope in people.
I would love to know that people were introduced to Jesus
Christ through my life.
And I would love to think that people who have ADHD
got hope that there's a different way to live,
or entrepreneurs who struggle with getting their business organized,
(25:26):
that there's another way to live,
that I've helped them reach their goals just to leave a
legacy in that way.
So what's on the roadmap?
What's coming next as you continue on this journey?
As I mentioned,
I'm doing more speaking.
I just won first place in a speaking contest,
so I've really been practicing my craft.
(25:48):
I just wrote a book.
It is not published yet,
but you can be on the lookout for that.
And when it is,
I'll send you the link.
You can add it to the Show Notes.
But my hope is that would be book one of a
three book series.
So I've got more books coming and grow my growing my
(26:08):
coaching business.
So you can find out more about Cindy Baker on our
website@cindybakercoaching.com of course,
I'll have a link to that in the Show Notes as
well. Cindy,
is there anything else you'd like to share with the listener?
No, just that I think you're going to put a link
to a free gift that I have for your listeners on
(26:30):
a little mini course on how to beat procrastination at wait
no more.net
I'll be happy to add that to the Show Notes as
well. Thanks so much for coming today.
Thank you for having me.
Thanks so much for listening to the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.
(26:53):
As a subscriber and listener,
we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen,
but act on what you've heard and find a way to
live your calling.
If you enjoyed this episode,
please please do us a favor.
Go over to inspired stewardship.com
(27:13):
iTunes Rate all one word iTunes Rate.
It'll take you through how to leave a rating and review
and how to make sure you're subscribed to the podcast so
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your feed.
Until next time,
(27:33):
invest your time,
your talent and your treasures.
Develop your influence and impact the world.
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