I once heard someone say…

“We’re uniquely positioned to help the people that we’ve been.” 

And this is exactly how Normal Schmormal came to exist. 

Normal Schmormal Coaching Services was born out of the many confusing, colorful, chaotic, & sometimes catastrophic, years of my life before receiving my ADHD diagnosis. It’s woven together from a lifetime of wild adventures, nearly crippling self-doubt & shame, relentless impulsiveness, chronic errors, creative workarounds, big dreams, & plain old raw tenacity that so many of us with ADHD develop.

Can you relate?

I grew up in the way back times when most folks believed that only boys could have ADHD.

So, despite getting into constant trouble my entire kindergarten through high school experience: too much talking; too much daydreaming; too much moving around; too much sass; too little focus; too little work; too little care, poor grades; too much hanging out with the kids that were always goofing off and getting afterschool detention; too much or too little EVERYTHING, my very obvious inattentive-hyperactive combo type ADHD went undetected.

In fact, my ADHD went undetected for quite a while into my adulthood.

Again, despite displaying most of the signs of (adult) ADHD: Dropping out of graduate school; trouble with communication and relationships; trouble with finances; low self-esteem/zero self-confidence; trouble with authority; under-earning; under-achieving; paralyzed by imposter syndrome and rejection sensitivity; unable to manage my emotions or anything else in my day-to-day; etc. Fun times, right? Riiigghhht. And as many untreated ADHDers do, I bounced around between many jobs in my twenties and early 30’s (bus girl, nannying, animal shelter attendant, veterinary tech, inventory taker, receptionist, house sitter, you name it).

I knew something was “wrong” with me.

But countless visits to the doctor and my therapist resulted in my being sent home with zero good answers. I spent every day of the first 3 decades of my life trying with all my might to hide as much of my “brokenness” as I could from everyone else. I was a terrible masker, and even this became something I was embarrassed about and confused by. Strangers frequently criticized me to my face for doing things wrong, being stupid, acting weird, not caring*. Family, partners, friends, and bosses were often frustrated with me, took things personally, and misunderstood my intentions and feelings constantly.

Then in 2009, I randomly fell into coaching and my path took a better turn.

Like most other periods in my life, my college days were a major hurdle. I bombed out of my first attempt in my late teens, and didn’t try again until my late twenties. The second time around, via a lot of blood, sweat, and tears, I somehow managed to graduate from my bachelors program at the age of 31. Shortly after graduating, I found myself looking for yet another job. Several people from my bachelor’s program had recently been hired as Academic Success Coaches for a new local office of a coaching company based out of San Francisco, called InsideTrack. These were smart people, who excelled in college. With no previous experience and almost no grasp on what coaching actually was, sure I’d be discovered for the idiot I really was, I decided to apply to Inside Track as well - and I got an interview! After self-consciously pitching how I’d overcome countless challenges as a college student myself and I felt I could help others have an easier go, I was miraculously hired into my first “grown up” job.

I loved my new coaching job immediately.

Pretty early on my supervisor said he “heard something different” in the way I was coaching, and it was showing an impact. I was quickly pulled onto a specialized team whose purpose was to work with college students in danger of failing. Neither my supervisor nor I knew exactly what it was I was doing that gave my coaching a distinct style, or why it worked so well in particular with struggling students. All I knew at the time is that I was sharing my own strategies that I had learned the hard way, through many trials and tribulations. And I was excited about helping other students have a less-painful experience getting through college. - AND - I was learning how to coach myself into a more functional, stable, and secure life!

I now understand that I was coaching on executive skills specifically,

rather than the conventional academic study skills and how-to’s (you can read more about this, here).

InsideTrack provided me years and years of quality training, robust observations, feedback, and support to become the coach I am today. If you’re curious, check out how InsideTrack’s training approach is based on current peer-reviewed published research, here, and also here! And by the time I left my job there in 2020 to explore new horizons, I had helped hundreds of students return from the brink of failing and dropping out of school. I next went to UMASS Global to help build a Returning Students Program for those who had dropped out but wanted to give college a try again, as I had done.

During this time, a couple close colleague-friends discreetly suggested adhd as the culprit

of much of my woes (thank you eternally to Pooja and Lex for your kind and wise observations and suggestions!) and I promptly pursued a diagnosis (despite my therapist laughing when I told her - bless her soul - she didn’t know). Once my formal medical diagnosis came in, everything in my life FINALLY began to make perfect sense. I fell all the way down the rabbit hole and read alllll the literature and research on ADHD that I could get my hands on, every day, for months on end (hyperfixation, anyone?). I attended all the webinars and went to support groups and talked with experts. And ok, I admit, I also binged on tons of social media and Reddit posts to learn from other ADHDers’ real life experiences. I ate, slept, and breathed ADHD education. **

All of this new education folded beautifully into my years of executive skills coaching.

In 2021, UMASS Global experienced massive downsizing and I was permanently laid off. I had been coaching people with executive skills challenges for over ten years by then, and through extensive self-directed education and a lifetime of personal experience I was now highly aware of how hard ADHD can make life for so many.

And I knew it was time to start my own ADHD and executive functioning coaching business.

Since then, I’ve officially made it my life’s work to support others who struggle with executive skills challenges, so they can take more control of their own lives and build confidence and pride in what they can accomplish.

Since the beginning, this work has been - and I believe always will be - my life’s passion.

I have met the best Schmormals since starting up Normal Schmormal Coaching Services, and I’ve been a part of so many special moments as my clients regularly kick butt and grow right before my very eyes. Maybe you’ll be the next awesome Schmormal I meet? Thanks for reading!

Reach out if you’d like to chat more about my services!

*This still happens sometimes, but I know how to be truly kind, understanding and accepting of myself now, even when others don’t.

* *Who am I kidding? I still do all of this every day. Much to the groans of everyone in my personal life. Sooorryyyyy not sorry!