Just wrapped up an incredible session on the Her Empire Builder Show with Sharon Collon. 

Sharon is a credentialed award winning ADHD coach & consultant who is passionate about helping people with ADHD have functional and fun lives. Sharon uses her lived experience, 15 years of research and formal training at ADDCA to help and support those living with ADHD.

When her first son was diagnosed with ADHD she felt incredibly alone. There was information about how to help the child, but there was nothing on how to support the whole family. The journey of raising her beautiful boys with ADHD was isolating and exhausting. The stress severely affected her health.

She realised that she was only surviving each day and things had to change. She began researching ADHD and developing systems to work with the ADHD brain. She realised that she could change the environment around her children to work with their strengths. She loves anything that makes life with ADHD easier!

Sharon's company, The Functional Family, has assisted over 35,000 families and individuals with ADHD. She has created online support groups where parents can ask questions, connect and support each other. She offers one on one coaching, parent mentoring, a blog, podcast, a membership and a 6 week online program.

She wants to help those with ADHD get back their time and energy, but most importantly create space for the good stuff!

Where to find Sharon Collon:

Website here 

Podcast here

Facebook here

Instagram here

Join our Free AI Training for Course Creators here

Join in our upcoming launch fun here

Tina Tower [00:00:00]:
Welcome to episode 263 of her Empire Builder show. It is a big week. If you are listening live to this, we are on launch week for her Empire builder. Whoop, whoop. So I know most of the people that listen to this show are course creators. So you are all very, very familiar with launching. We do it twice a year. There is a lot of lead up that comes into running a live launch and the day has finally come.

Tina Tower [00:00:27]:
So if you have been waiting to join us inside her Empire builder, we are open for the next seven days. Jump on in there. Her empirebuilder.com if you are a female course creator, it is the best online education and community for female course creators in the world. It has everything that you need to grow a sustainable, profitable online business. I am systems obsessed. We have all of the tools, all of the resources that you need to help you grow. So if you're into that, jump over to herempirebuilder.com. if you're not listening to this episode live but you found it later on, you'll be able to join the waitlist at her empirebuilder.com join and then you'll be notified when our next launch is.

Tina Tower [00:01:12]:
Every year we do it in March and September. Okay, so let me get into today's episode. I have for you a beautiful member story who is also a very close family friend, the wonderful Sharon Collins. So I actually met Sharon, oh, I can't even remember how long ago she, I met her when she started dating one of my husband's best friends. So my husband and Sharon's husband have been friends since primary school. And so when she started dating her husband was when we first met. And so I have been, you know, I've followed along Sharon's journey a lot and I am so damn proud of the business that she has made. You know, she was the, the most exceptional mom and homemaker, and I know that she was made for more, and she always knew that she was made for more.

Tina Tower [00:02:05]:
And she felt like her life could impact a lot of people. And to see the business that she's built and the impact that she has on so many families around the globe each and every day is something I'm so stoked about. And you'll hear her story of how I was at her house going, you need to make a course out of this and how it's all kind of unfolded. So I'm thrilled to welcome Sharon today. She is the founder of the functional family, which is a platform dedicated to helping families navigate the complexities of ADHD and other special needs in their families. Sharon's journey is nothing short of inspiring. After facing her own family's challenges with ADHD, she channeled those experiences into creating online programs that provide practical support to others in similar situations and want to just bring more joy back into their family life. So Sharon's expertise isn't just professional, it's also deeply personal.

Tina Tower [00:03:01]:
She knows firsthand the struggles that families face, and her mission is to turn those struggles into strengths. We'll dive into initially what motivated her to start the functional family, how she identified the key problems that her audience was facing, and how she developed her course content to meet those needs. Sharon's also sharing her experience as a member of her empire builder and talking about how it's helped her kind of aligned her business with her family's needs, but also given her, you know, her very own autonomy and this business that she continues to build year after year. So we'll also discuss the unique challenges and advantages of managing ADHD while running a business and the importance of fostering personal connections in business and in parenting, and the exciting plans that she has for the future as well. So whether you're an entrepreneur or someone that's looking to balance professional and personal demands, Sharon's insights are sure to resonate, resonate with you today. Get ready for a conversation filled with actionable advice, all of the heartfelt stories, and plenty of inspiration. Here she is, the fabulous Sharon Cullen. Hello and welcome to her Empire Builder show.

Tina Tower [00:04:16]:
I'm your business strategist and host, Tina Tower, and I am so happy you are here. My goal with this show is to bring you the inspirational and informative conversations with interesting humans, as well as the tools, tips, and resources to help you build your online business. Since starting my first business at 20, I have built and sold four times. And in 2018, while traveling around the world with my family for a year, I tripped and fell into this wonderful world of online courses, and I instantly fell in love. I'm a million dollar course creator, a world traveler, best selling author, a mama of two man children, and a lucky wife. There's no playing small here. It's your time to grow to run a highly profitable business that makes you wildly wealthy while you positively impact your clients and the world around you and have the life you've always dreamed of. Let's get it.

Tina Tower [00:05:13]:
The fabulous Sharon Collin. Welcome to her Empire builder show.

Main Episode

Sharon Collon [00:05:18]:
Thank you so much for having me, Tina. I'm excited to be here.

Tina Tower [00:05:22]:
Well, I mean, I did, like, talk about this in our intro as well, but we've known each other for many, many years, and you were like, one of our very first kajabi builds in the whole online course creation world when we got into that. So we have been in it nearly the same amount of time, which is really cool.

Sharon Collon [00:05:43]:
Wow. Oh, my goodness. Yes. It has been such a great journey, though. I'm so happy that.

Tina Tower [00:05:49]:
Yeah. And so it was very different to anything that you had done previously, and your journey has been an inspiring one. Like, you are an example that I use quite often for growing at a pace that was, like, really steady but really good in doing that. And you've done a lot of it with, you know, you've done a lot. I don't think anyone's ever self made or, you know, doing it yourself. Like, you've obviously got different help on different things, but you really have done it yourself. Like, in terms of you, you haven't had all that much team support, family support, all of that sort of thing around you. This has been a mission that's been driven by you.

Tina Tower [00:06:27]:
What initially motivated you to go into this online course world? And, you know, how. How was your family's struggles impacted? What it actually became?

Sharon Collon [00:06:39]:
Such a great question.

Tina Tower [00:06:41]:
It was a big question.

Sharon Collon [00:06:42]:
It was. It was a stacked question. What we'd call in coaching. But I'll tell you a little bit about our family journey and then how it came to be an online course, because you feature in this one, and I'm sure our listeners would like to hear that story. Cool. So basically, my husband, who, you know, grew up with ADHD, and he had a terrible time with it. It was back in the day where he was, like the stereotypical naughty boy.

Tina Tower [00:07:09]:
And he was, like, excluded from the stereotypical naughty boy. Oh, I should. I should probably caveat that if people are listening to the podcast. So Sharon's husband, Anthony, has been my husband's best friend since they were about twelve. So I know him quite well, so I can say things like that.

Sharon Collon [00:07:26]:
And you're absolutely right, he is. He is like a cyclone, but a lovable, exciting cyclone. And so he grew up with ADHD. He was, like, really stereotyped, told he was going to amount to nothing, sent out of the classroom and pretty much fought his way through school. And, you know, I was looking at my beautiful little boy when I had my first son, Xavier, and he is very similar to my husband. And I'm looking at him and then looking at my husband's trauma and thinking, oh, I do not want that to be Xavier's story.

Tina Tower [00:07:59]:
Yeah.

Sharon Collon [00:07:59]:
And so I set about learning everything that I could about ADHD. This is even before we got a formal diagnosis. I knew it. It wasn't a surprise.

Tina Tower [00:08:07]:
Yeah.

Sharon Collon [00:08:08]:
And so I was learning everything I could, and I was running all these weird experiments on my family. And so during this time, as I'm learning, I also had two other boys. They all have ADHD. We've got some Tourette's odd in there. That's oppositional defiance disorder, sensory processing disorder, specific learning disorders. All of the letters, right? And I'm trialing all these things. I'm looking at parenting strategies. I'm looking at how we should set up the home.

Sharon Collon [00:08:33]:
I'm looking at creating scaffolding for my family to make it sustainable. We were doing every single therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, like neurofeedback therapy. We spent $30,000 just on Xavier. Yeah, it's a huge expense. No NDIS funding, no support. And all of it was back then, was about trying to make it easier for Xavier to avoid the experience that Anthony had. And so one day, you know, I have, like, spreadsheets and everything going on in my house, all these routine charts and scaffolding and everything, and you come over. Oh, yeah.

Sharon Collon [00:09:06]:
You know, like, my love language is templates, right? They're similar to yours. And you come over for dinner one day, and you're like, what is this? What is this all about? What is happening here? You need to share this.

Tina Tower [00:09:18]:
Yeah.

Sharon Collon [00:09:18]:
And so that's how it sort of started.

Tina Tower [00:09:22]:
And they were beautiful, like, all color coded, so organized. I'm like, oh, this is good. This is good. We could sell this.

Sharon Collon [00:09:29]:
Your entrepreneurial brain just clicked into gear where I was just doing it for survival. So for us, our home life sucked. It sucked. I know, like, a lot of mums, it's not cool to say that, but it sucked. And sometimes it still does suck a little bit, but it is a lot of work.

Tina Tower [00:09:44]:
Like, I think that. And I think that that's something that you could talk about, too, is. Is when you've got neurodivergent kids, that it is a lot of work. Like, it's. I will look at my kids who are very neurotypical, and go, like, my day to day is so much easier. And I know that, like, when you say, that's not the thing that parents say, most people won't say that because, one, they don't want to make people feel bad, and two, it's not like you never comment on other people's. But I look at it and I go, my day to day is way easier. Than someone who is dealing with how to have a functional family when you've got all of those neuro spicy things going on.

Sharon Collon [00:10:22]:
Yeah, well, it's the equivalent. Raising one neurotypical child. Raising one neurodivergent child is the equivalent of raising three neurotypical children.

Tina Tower [00:10:33]:
So you have, like, nine kids?

Sharon Collon [00:10:34]:
I have nine kids, yeah. And I'm going to include my husband in there. So I've got a lot of kids and a lot of responsibilities. And, you know, what happened is really researching how we could survive as a family. It wasn't important to me what other people were doing. It's just I wanted to be able to enjoy it. I didn't want it to suck so bad. And so really researching and creating experiments, like, I do weird things.

Sharon Collon [00:11:02]:
Like, one day my kids are gonna write a book about me called weird stuff mom made us do. And so I'd have them, I'd create, like, a minimalist room, and it'd all be like, minimalist. And then I'd have them walk in and I'd be documenting it. Cause I'm like, systems and procedure person. And then I'd have them come into a cluttered room and I'd document it like a widow in the corner. And, you know, what I was learning and what I was trialing back then is just seeing if there was any repeatable patterns that would make our home life easier. Anything that I'm up for, anything that saves me time and saves a bit of, like, saves my capacity. I know it's hard work and so, you know, there's so many things that make the ADHD brain amazing and beautiful and, like, make my kids super special, but I'm not going to be able to enjoy any of it if I'm too burnt out.

Sharon Collon [00:11:47]:
Yeah. So a lot of it is self preservation.

Tina Tower [00:11:50]:
Yeah. And so how did, like, you got started? And I know your offers have changed quite a bit since you first started and what that intention was at the start. How, what did you launch with and how has it morphed over the. The five years?

Sharon Collon [00:12:04]:
Yeah. And it's really been like a slow and steady. Yeah, race one. Like, it hasn't been.

Tina Tower [00:12:08]:
That's what I mean by I use you as an example a lot because you've had. You've managed to, like, do it at a pace that is, like, you've been paid well, you've been growing at a really good rate, but you've also, like, managed to change when needed as well.

Sharon Collon [00:12:22]:
Yes. Yeah. So at the start, I launched with a program and it was really like a mother to mother program of the things that I've learned from my weird experiments about things that I was confident would help other families. And so I didn't rely on me being the expert in that one. I definitely relied on my systems, but I interviewed other experts and like, I interviewed Australia's best pediatrician and I interviewed Australia's best integrative pediatrician and best ot and all that sort of stuff. And I created and shared my systems. And then I thought, no, I want to do more. I want to train more.

Sharon Collon [00:12:55]:
I want to be better at this. And so that ran for a couple of years and I actually trained and became a credentialed ADHD coach, consultant and parenting expert. And then I came in with all my knowledge and then I could be the expert as well. And really that was a pivotal point because I was able to back myself and actually go, hold on a second, I don't think these parenting strategies that are designed for neurotypical kids are going to work for neurodivergent kids. And sometimes those strategies cause trauma. And so I was able to come in and really back myself. So we have the program first and that has been updated, but still runs evergreen. So when people get the, their children get a diagnosis, it's really aimed at parents of primary school age children and setting up the home and really educating them about what ADHD is and how to advocate at school.

Sharon Collon [00:13:47]:
And then I came in with the membership and the membership is a, it tackles all age groups. So even because I recognized that ADHD is genetic, and so if the kids have ADHD, one of the parents does too. So we've got to look at all topics, not just setting up the home for primary school aged kids. So the membership covers all age groups and it covers a wider range of topics, looking at things like rejection, sensitivity, dysphoria, you know, oppositional behaviors, lots of things like that that are going to be relevant for all age groups. And it's less intensive because sometimes the six week program, you know, it depends on the level of burnout. Yeah, it can be a lot for people, even though you get a year to go through it. The membership, we just tackle one theme a month.

Tina Tower [00:14:35]:
Yeah.

Sharon Collon [00:14:35]:
And so that kind of takes the pressure off a little bit, which is a beautiful ADHD strategy.

Tina Tower [00:14:40]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And how long's the membership been going? For now?

Sharon Collon [00:14:43]:
It's two years now. So I think we've got about 200 members in there. And it's, it's a beautiful community. Like, that's one of the things like, that's one of the reasons that her empire builder is so beautiful, is that community component. I know everyone always gets on here and talks about how lovely the community it really is, but we also have that. We have this gorgeous, kind space where parents aren't judging each other, they're just looking out for each other and caring for each other. And, you know, you can ask those questions and get support, which I think is really important.

Tina Tower [00:15:13]:
Yeah. And so getting into the course creation world, you mentioned that you got qualified, and I did see a significant jump from you with that. In terms of you stepping into your confidence a lot. Do you feel like you, you wanted more credibility to do it? Like the, the experience wasn't enough that you wanted that formal piece of paper? I'm always intrigued because one of the biggest things that I find when people go from, you know, traditional business or whatever pathway they've come into, into online, you've got to show your face a lot. You've got to talk a like that showing up is hard. Did that help you with the showing up? Because it seemed like the business took off a lot when you did that.

Sharon Collon [00:15:51]:
Definitely. Definitely. I think that what I was teaching from in the early days was my family's experience. That's what I. And my study. But what if I know anything about ADHD is that no two people present the same? And we have a saying in ADHD coaching that ADHD doesn't come to the party alone, it brings friends. Right. So usually it comes with, you know, dyslexia or Tourette's or even being gifted or, you know, like, it comes with other things.

Sharon Collon [00:16:19]:
So me only being able to teach from my family's experience is a limitation because not everyone has the same experience. And so really going back and doing that formal qualification and, you know, sitting the exams and learning as much as I could about, you know, the most latest research is allowed me to back myself and step into that and really go like, I know what I'm talking about. I know my strategies work, I'm confident in my approach, which has really helped.

Tina Tower [00:16:51]:
Yeah, that's awesome. I want to go to women with ADHD because I was diagnosed when I was 22, had obviously had it all through, but as you would know, it presents really differently in women than it does in men. And most girls weren't diagnosed when they were in primary school. What I have found now, though, is it's become a lot more like, I won't use the word, it's become cool, but it's become a lot more accepted and a lot more talked about and more people are going to see whether they actually have it and get a formal diagnosis or not, which it was never anything. We were just thought of as a little bit quirky before. And one thing that has really blown my mind over the last couple of years is I think there is about 60% to 70% of female entrepreneurs that have diagnosed ADHD. What do you think are the benefits of that? Because a lot of women listening to this probably haven't. What are the benefits and what are the challenges and the struggles of having ADHD and growing and running a business at the same time.

Sharon Collon [00:17:59]:
I mean, I think we've done women huge disservice, right. Because the kids that present with, and it's not all just boys that present with hyperactivity, we know that girls can do that, too, but they get diagnosed early, right? Like my kids with the hyperactivity, they get diagnosed early. You can't miss. They're on the roof, right?

Tina Tower [00:18:16]:
Yeah, yeah. And they really are, yeah. I've seen your kids in all sorts of precarious places going, that's not safe. That's not safe.

Sharon Collon [00:18:23]:
My poor dog just comes into me all the time. He's like, look at me. Look at what your puppy they're doing. Sort that out. They're like, so women, they, in the past got misdiagnosed. It's not that they didn't have ADHD or that we, like, all of a sudden they were seeing increased rate. They often got misdiagnosed as anxiety because that hyperactivity can present. Their body is calm, but it's hyperactivity in your brain, which looks a lot like anxiety, or they got misdiagnosed with bipolar, so it can present in a different way.

Sharon Collon [00:18:56]:
Now, how that plays out in terms of being an entrepreneur, we know that ADHD, people with ADHD have incredible problem solving brainstor. So if we look at ADHD as a genetic. I'm just going to go out on how out there do you want me to go?

Tina Tower [00:19:12]:
I'm going geek out. Go for it.

Sharon Collon [00:19:14]:
So if we were going to look at it as an evolutionary trait, which is what research is leaning towards at the moment, and we were in tribes, and you had the tribe of people, you had the followers at the back, and you put the risk takers at the front. And the risk takers are the people with ADHD in that gene, and their job is to take risks, push forward, and their nervous system is heightened because they're scanning for safety, safety all the time. So people with ADHD usually have very good periphery vision. They spot things like my kids are like, how about that guy? And I'm like, what guy? I didn't see it. They usually see things, they've got good pattern recognition. They're not afraid to take risks and back themselves. And so some of those traits that come through as an evolutionary advantage lend themselves to actually being a very good entrepreneur. Because what do we value in entrepreneur? Like the stepping out on a limb, like backing yourself and taking a risk, being able to recognize patterns or perhaps where things are falling over.

Sharon Collon [00:20:14]:
Being able to assess for safety. It's risk assessment, essentially putting yourself forward. So there's a lot of things that outside of the box thinking, being able to think, okay, if you've got a problem solving brain or a brain that's wired for problem solving, being able to go, this is a problem that I need to solve for people, I'm going to create something, a product around that. And that's why I think we see it so, so beautifully in the entrepreneurial community, in women.

Tina Tower [00:20:44]:
Yeah. I do often think it would be difficult to not have ADHD and run a business because often I never realized until I got older, probably into my mid thirties when I started coaching people privately. And the way that I thought, and I would go, okay, we can do this, this, this and this. And then you put everything together and you'd see everything there and you go like, and then people didn't have that ability. And I go, how do you, what do you mean? Like, how do you, what do you think? Oh, you just do one thing at a time and at a normal pace and just, you know, you do your things for the day and then you stop working and you just go and take a rest because you're tired. Interesting, interesting. And so I think it's once harnessed and I have had to really, there's a lot of disciplines that I employed into my life in my early twenties to do that that are now second nature. But once it's harnessed, like, I think it's a superpower.

Sharon Collon [00:21:37]:
Yeah, I mean, I think, I kind of view it like Spider man. So he learn, he gets at the start, gets the web. I know everyone's probably heard me say this analogy before, but he gets the ability to web and he's a bit chaotic with it. He webs himself and he goes away and he practices it and practices it and develops skills around it and then he uses it to his advantage. ADHD can web you any day of the week. He can web you if you don't have the right skills around it and the right strategies that work for you, it'll web you. But what you can do is develop skills to work with your brain like an ADHD coach. Like, what I'm training is literally about creating systems to work with executive function challenges that we know are common challenges with ADHD.

Sharon Collon [00:22:19]:
So things like task prioritization, short term memory recall, stress resilience, frustration tolerance, emotional regulation, those are the things that we see commonly. So if you have, if you have good structure around those things or things that you could. Awareness that, you know, that those are the things that you struggle with, you can use it to your adventure. I mean, like hyper focus when you, you know, when harnessed is amazing. Like, some people would dream of that. You probably get more work done in an hour than I'll ever get done in a week, you know?

Tina Tower [00:22:47]:
Yeah, yeah. I'll sometimes talk to Matt, my husband, about it, and he's like, like, that's incredible that you can do that. But it is, it's, it's a, you know, I'll only get up when I'm busting to go to the toilet and I can't possibly hold it any longer, which is not healthy to do do, but it's like you lose all track of time and space and it's just, yeah, it's wonderful. And I've heard you talk about, like, the new, the concept that's coming in of the high achiever, ADHD, being more recognized. How, like, is that a new thing that's come in and how's it influenced what you're doing in life and how you're parenting the kids and operating inside your business?

Sharon Collon [00:23:25]:
Well, the high achiever, I don't think it's new. Maybe we just were a little bit terrible at recognizing it before. But what we kind of see is one of the things that I'll do, a little bit of a diversion here in terms of the high achiever is that we're now seeing like, this burnout kind of component coming through. So we have these waves and most people with ADHD will recognize what I'm talking about here. So we go, okay, for a little while, we burn out, we crash. We go, okay, for a little while, we burn out, we crash. And so we have these burnout cycles. And the trap is that often we don't recognize the burnout until the waves crashed.

Sharon Collon [00:24:07]:
So where we should stray, I see you nodding. Where we throw the strategies in to protect ourselves from burnout should be on the waves as it's building, right? That's where we have our strategies. It's too late to do anything when the wave is crashed. So when we're out, when we're dysregulated, when we're in red zone, we just. Our only strategy is move to safety. So we throw our strategies as the way it's building and we're on the up. But the challenge is with the high achiever, ADHd. And we see this for women all the time, is this more and more concept.

Sharon Collon [00:24:41]:
So this is where you hit your goal also. You hit your target and you're straight onto the next thing. We don't stop, we don't market, we don't celebrate it. And so because of the brain's negativity bias, when we look back, we don't actually see any of the cool stuff we've done. We're onto the next super, super fast. And the more and more, like, that feeling of more and more, like, I'm always going for the next thing, always chasing the next rabbit. Is that, like, big driver behind that fast wave? Like, most people are on the wave, right? They're like, whether neurotypical, neurodivergent, whatever, they're on the wave, it's crashing. Right.

Sharon Collon [00:25:14]:
We all, we're all doing it, but the rate at which it happens with adhd, the waves are quicker. Yeah. So we've got to really guard ourselves from. From that wave.

Tina Tower [00:25:26]:
Yeah. I have noticed, like, in that, not to keep bringing my own self into it, but I've noticed in the last few years, as I've gotten older, that my nervous system can no longer keep up with the rate that. That my brain will go. And it does lead to that burnout. I used to be able to do it. I'd sleep 910 hours a night and be totally fine. Now, though, I get really tired. If I let myself go onto, like, that wave, I'll get really tired at the end of the day and go, okay.

Tina Tower [00:25:54]:
I can't sustain that day after day after day anymore. Yeah, it's a bit of a bummer getting old.

Sharon Collon [00:26:00]:
And it is. And, I mean, something that you've said that I've heard you say before is that you're a sprinter.

Tina Tower [00:26:04]:
Yeah.

Sharon Collon [00:26:04]:
Right. So you're not a marathon runner, you're a sprinter. And I would say that's true of most, of most people with ADHD. They are designed to do short bursts of intensive things. They're not the stable marathon runner. They're not the person at the back who's, like, doing, you know, like the stable job.

Tina Tower [00:26:21]:
Slow and steady does not win our race. Yeah. Okay, so switching to your entrepreneurial journey like everyone's, has its own ups and downs and learnings. Can you share a time of when you feel like you have, like, stuffed up in a way and the lessons that you learned from that experience that can help other course creators?

Sharon Collon [00:26:41]:
Oh, my gosh. I am a. I'm brilliant at stuffing up. I think I fail forward very well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I don't think that I sweat too much these days about everything having to be perfect, because I just don't think it's achievable. Like, done is better than perfect in the online space, for sure. Because if we worry about it being perfect, we just don't get anything done.

Sharon Collon [00:27:09]:
I guess the biggest step up for me, and this is a very personal example, but, you know, I have no filter, was really about going in too much at the cost of my own health and my own family a little bit. So, you know, it's all very good to be a families trained coach, to be supporting other families and everything, but not if I. Not at the expense of mine. So that will always be my biggest challenge. Like, a lot of my listeners know I have psoriatic arthritis, which is. It's an autoimmune condition that eats healthy tissue. Right. It is no fun, and it's actually a real bugger to manage.

Sharon Collon [00:27:48]:
But it has had plus signs, like, it's made me not scared of anything. But I don't get scared about embarrassing myself. I don't get scared about the only thing I'm scared about is nerve pain. That's awful scared about that. But I think this will always be the challenge and always where I have to fall down and pick myself back up is knowing that I've got a. Something that works, that I can help a lot of people, but I'm not going to be able to do any of it if I don't look after myself first and over different periods of my life. And, you know, also raising, you know, we know I'm raising nine kids now, you know, not handling that very well, not having the right boundaries in place, saying yes when I should have said no, like, you know, all of these common ones that I'm sure that entrepreneurial women, you know, stuff up on all the time, but I'm getting better at it. I'm getting better at saying no.

Sharon Collon [00:28:44]:
And I'm getting. I just don't, you know, I think the more confident that you get with what you do, the less these things, less times you sweat stuff.

Tina Tower [00:28:53]:
Definitely. And I think when you start as well. There's a period where you kind of have to say yes to everything. You don't know what opportunities are going to stick and what isn't, and you get in that, you know, you're hungry for growth, so you just say yes to everything and then all your dreams come true and your business grows and you're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What have I done? And you're on this freight train that you need to wind back and then get a new filter in place to say yes and no to different things that you didn't before. So it's all. I think it happens to everyone going through. Yeah, yeah.

Tina Tower [00:29:24]:
Okay, so on the flip side, what are some of the things that you believe that you do exceptionally well in your business that have helped get you to this stage that others could learn from?

Sharon Collon [00:29:35]:
One thing that I think that we do well is we run free training twice a year. We do challenges or like a free sort of masterclass series that always goes well. I think the last one, I think we had like 5000 sign ups to that. Like, you know, like crazy, crazy numbers. Those ones we always do seem to do very well. People want to invest in, or they like that, you know, I'm qualified, but also leave it. And I think that the more I can get in front of people and share their story, share my story, and, you know, really let them know that we're there to support them and that I actually care. Like, I actually give a crap about their family's outcome.

Sharon Collon [00:30:18]:
It's not. It's not a business to me. It's never actually been a business. You know, people say you should separate yourself personally. Like, I am always way, way over invested in everyone's outcomes and ride this. This roller coaster with all my clients. But the free training, like, we called it a festival. Cause I recognize that fun is important, right? And if we call things a masterclass or a webinar, we're gonna make it a festival, right? Yeah.

Tina Tower [00:30:47]:
I love that. Yeah. I'm like, that sounds great. I wanna do a festival. I want that. That sounds really fun.

Sharon Collon [00:30:53]:
It all sounds like there's some sort of punch and, like, garland and things, and that's what was on my website. But. So we create that free training that goes really well. But I think the one thing that really helps my business that I am quite good at is discovery calls. Because once I get people on the phone and I know you're good with this as well, and I can hear a little bit about what's going on for them, if I already know that I'm not the right person to support them, I will refer them to the person who is. But being able to, for a person, for 15 minutes, for them to tell me what is going on for their family and really feel heard of and acknowledged with that, and then, you know me make some recommendations, whether it be for one of my services or someone else's, that is important. That's an important thing that I do for my community because I want to be able to hear their story and for them to have some clear, practical strategies. This is what they're all crying out for.

Sharon Collon [00:31:50]:
They're all going like, what the hell do we do? Like, we're so burnt out. So discovery calls mastering that, I think, has been a clear winner because I know that when I. When. When I get people on a discovery call, that the outcome is great.

Tina Tower [00:32:04]:
Yeah.

Sharon Collon [00:32:05]:
The free training. And also I have a support group, a free support group that is on Facebook. It's like the ADHD and families group. And people can go in there. Now, I don't answer inquiries in there very often because I keep my answers for the membership group, but that group has been something that we have done very, very well. I think it's got 14,000 members in there. So it's a big group where I can and put all my free resources, like my podcasts and all of that stuff. And that is something that we have done well.

Sharon Collon [00:32:39]:
We've nurtured that beautiful community. I kick anyone out who's not kind. I really make sure that that is a place. Cause that's what I wanted at the start. I just wanted a community of people who got it. And so they're the three things that I think we do, like outside of the office, of course.

Tina Tower [00:32:56]:
So with discovery calls, because this is something I talk to people a lot about as well, and I think they're so valuable. But how do you maintain that? And what boundaries do you put on that one so they don't become free coaching calls. And second, so that you have, you know, you don't get burnt out doing too many calls as well.

Sharon Collon [00:33:13]:
So I have a form on Kajabi that I fill out while I'm doing the discovery call, and it has a prompt question before we even go into it. I let people know what the structure of this call is.

Tina Tower [00:33:26]:
Yeah, nice, right?

Sharon Collon [00:33:27]:
So it's not a coaching session. It is a. Tell me a little bit about what's going on for you. I'll see if I can help. Then we go into, like, can I now tell you a little bit about what I'm trained in, what I can offer. And we have this kind of set structure that we go through which allows that. I also time myself because I love listening to people's stories and I could totally get in, like, everyone's.

Tina Tower [00:33:51]:
I'd be like, and an hour's gone.

Sharon Collon [00:33:53]:
By, two and a half hours. Sharon's still on the phone. You know, I have to time myself. I have these little, you know, for people with ADHD, these on Amazon, these little timers everywhere. I time myself making sure that I'm sticking into that 15 minutes thing. I know that it takes me about, you know, five to eight minutes to get through my services so I can match it up. So we're getting to that story part, then I'm coming in with talking a little bit about what we're going to do. And really the objective is to let people know what services we have, but also for them to feel acknowledged because people are crying out for support, and I want to make sure that they know that there is support out there for them.

Sharon Collon [00:34:33]:
Love that.

Tina Tower [00:34:33]:
Love that. Good tips, Sharon. Good tips. So you started with idea to launch in 2018 was when we put that out and you did that one. And now part of her empire builder. What do you love about being part of her empire up?

Sharon Collon [00:34:52]:
I like, I think probably this is an ADHD skill set. Right. For you. I like that you can take lots of information and you have a way of just giving me the steps. Right.

Tina Tower [00:35:07]:
And that's an add thing.

Sharon Collon [00:35:08]:
Well, you're really good at absorbing, like, whole big concepts and, like, narrowing in because you're interested in it. If you weren't interested in it, I don't think it would be it, like, yeah, I. Yeah, because we know that the ADHD brain is an interest and novelty based brain. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Tina Tower [00:35:22]:
Whereas yourself to do something you don't want to do is very difficult. Yes.

Sharon Collon [00:35:25]:
And neurotypical brain is based on importance, so you can sequence that way because. Yeah, but anyway, you have this ability because you're interested and it's probably new. Each thing that you're doing of looking at the bigger picture and then coming up with action steps. Now, that works well for my brain because I'm not a detailed person. I'm like, okay, you just tell me the bits to do and I'll do it because my priority is helping families and allowing, like, doing my genius bit. And so what you shortcutting it for me has been a huge benefit because I don't have time to research all the different platforms. I don't want to. That's not my zone of genius.

Sharon Collon [00:36:03]:
Right? I don't know. I don't. Like today you presented on key metrics. Like, I was like, oh, my gosh, I would never have thought about that. But now I will action it because you've told me the same steps. Right. So I just need someone to break it down and make it simple for me because I want to do what I'm good at, which is the family stuff.

Tina Tower [00:36:19]:
I love that. Thanks, Shaz. That's beautiful. Okay. As you continue to grow, what does success look like for you? What are you really excited about that you have coming up, and where are you headed?

Sharon Collon [00:36:35]:
Success for me is always. I'm going to say, like, probably what everyone says is, like, it's actually having work life balance. I think I've got to maintain that. That's very important.

Tina Tower [00:36:45]:
Everyone says that. I ask everyone this question. Everyone's always different.

Sharon Collon [00:36:48]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. See, for me, it's never been a like, yes, my business is profitable. I love what I do. It's not. It's for me. That's not my main driver. My driver is helping families like mine, and so I've got to make sure that I protect mine as well. And so I think having that work life balance is always my gauge for success.

Sharon Collon [00:37:08]:
So when that falls off or gets off kilter, I always feel like I'm failing. So I want to make sure.

Tina Tower [00:37:13]:
What does life balance look like to you?

Sharon Collon [00:37:16]:
Being able to go for a walk around the block every day, because that's important to me. Not feeling like I am scheduled to my eyeballs because I get really, like, not working on the weekends and having time for connection individually with all my children, that is success for me. You know, paying the mortgage is great, too, but those are the things that are important to me. And what it looks like in the future is obviously maintaining that I want the membership to grow. I know that it's good. I know that it helps a lot of people. And the more people that we get in there, the more families I can support and the more awareness I can raise for neurofirming approaches and parenting strategies that actually work for ADHD. Like, of course I want to grow, and I will continue going on in exactly the same rate that I am because it is like, just building on building.

Sharon Collon [00:38:07]:
You don't have to do it all at once. Like, how long? I announced my podcast six times to my audience before I released.

Tina Tower [00:38:14]:
Oh, Sharon.

Sharon Collon [00:38:17]:
I was like, hey, guys, really exciting news, doing a podcast. So excited and everyone, I'm sure by the 6th time they're like this lady, we get it.

Tina Tower [00:38:25]:
Where is the podcast? Yeah, but this is why I use you as an example as well, because it's the accumulation over time. A lot of people, you know, I'll get people join her empire builder in each round and some people will go for six weeks and go, well, I haven't got my podcast yet and my speakers real and my website made and my course launched, so it's taking too long. I'm like, what? Like it's, we're sold way too much online of this like overnight success stuff and that it's, but good, quality, sustainable, profitable businesses happen over time. And that doesn't matter whether you're online or offline or how that works. Works. And, and I think you can build a really good business in six to twelve months. But it's when you get to your level of like years and years in that, you know, the tap to turn on and off when you need more time or when you need more money in the business or you want to hire an extra person, like you're so aware of the different levers that you have and how to pull those. And I think, I think there's, you know, it's been really valuable to you to go at the pace that you've gone.

Sharon Collon [00:39:27]:
Yeah, I think, I think we're all in a hurry to get to a and that's awesome. But we just got to be careful that the spot that we get to, we actually want to be in.

Tina Tower [00:39:37]:
Right?

Sharon Collon [00:39:38]:
Like, it's no good pushing for the finish line if you don't like your life when you get there.

Tina Tower [00:39:43]:
Yes.

Sharon Collon [00:39:43]:
So I think what I've always like, really tried to do is create a business that works for my family and works for my health and works for my clients as well. Like that. That is the goal and that is what success looks like for.

Tina Tower [00:40:01]:
Thank you so much, Sharon. You're wonderful.

Sharon Collon [00:40:03]:
Thank you so much.

Tina Tower [00:40:07]:
This episode was brought to you by my signature group coaching program, her empire builder. The best online education for female course creators in the world. Check it out @tinatower.com. along with so many free resources to help you get building your empire and seeing those results that you deserve. If you loved this episode, please don't keep it a secret. Share it with a friend on social media and tag me @tina_tower and give it a review. It really does help us to be able to bring you bigger and better content as we grow. Have the most beautiful day.

Tina Tower [00:40:44]:
I'm Tina Tower. And I'm cheering you on all the way.