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Every ADHD founder gets told the same thing. Get organised, get disciplined, get a system. Nick Shoolingin-Jordan directed one of the biggest shows on the planet with none of that, and without knowing he had ADHD at all, and he says the thing that made the work possible is the same thing that nearly got him fired.
Nick Shoolingin-Jordan is an Emmy nominated series director and a tech founder. He is the series director of The Dinosaurs, the four part Netflix series executive produced by Steven Spielberg, narrated by Morgan Freeman and made with Industrial Light and Magic, which went to number one in 70 countries and holds 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. He has also directed on Life on Our Planet, One Strange Rock and A Perfect Planet alongside Sir David Attenborough, and has founded Planet Lab Studios, whose AI platform George helps everyday investors make smarter decisions.
He explains:
• Why directing might be the perfect job for an ADHD brain, and how he splits a film into parts he can rotate through when his focus drops
• Why starting the task is the hardest thing he does, and the trick he uses to get himself into it
• Why rigid time blocking fails ADHD brains, and what he does instead
• How he built a memory vault with AI to hold the short term memory he doesn't have
• How his son's diagnosis explained his own brain at 50, and what changed after it
• Why crews have read him as rude, and how close that has taken him to being fired
• He opens up about the overwhelm nobody sees at the end of a shoot, and the one thing that always fixes it
Timestamps:
(00:00:00) Directing Netflix's No.1 Show Without The Manual
(00:02:09) Why School Called Him A Space Cadet
(00:06:03) Why Directing Is The Perfect ADHD Job
(00:08:59) Starting Is The Hardest Part
(00:09:24) Why Rigid Time Blocking Fails ADHD Brains
(00:11:55) Working At 11pm And The Three Body Clocks
(00:13:03) One Thing At A Time In A World Built To Distract
(00:17:03) The Three Tasks That Actually Move You
(00:18:55) What Working Memory Does To You
(00:20:10) How To Trick Yourself Into Starting
(00:23:26) Building A Memory Vault With AI
(00:26:29) The App He's Building With Claude
(00:28:28) Hiring Staff Who Aren't Even There
(00:28:37) Our Brains Are Not Easy To Live With
(00:29:48) The Scaffolding Every ADHD Founder Needs
(00:30:29) How His Son's Diagnosis Explained His Life
(00:34:21) What Actually Changed After The Diagnosis
(00:37:53) The Dual Brain: ADHD Connects, Autism Obsesses
(00:40:19) The Book That Made Him Feel Less Alone
(00:41:25) The Overwhelm Nobody Sees On Set
(00:43:16) The Only Cure For Overwhelm That Works
(00:44:15) What He's Most Proud Of In 20 Years
(00:45:41) What He'd Tell Himself 30 Years Ago
(00:47:04) The Attenborough Habit Worth Stealing
(00:48:00) Where To Find Nick
Nick Shoolingin-Jordan:
• tellthestory.tv — https://tellthestory.tv
• LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickdirects
• Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/nick_shoolingin_jordan/
• George AI, for everyday investors — https://mygeorge.ai
• Planet Lab Studios — https://planetlabstudios.com
Mentioned in this episode:
• How Not to Fit In by Jess Joy and Charlotte Mills
• Why Can't I Just Enjoy Anything by Pierre Novellie
• Limitless by Jim Kwik
The ADHD Entrepreneur:
- Get The Debrief, Jack's daily email for ADHD founders: thehunterbrain.com/debrief
- Follow Jack on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the.jacktaylor/
- Watch more on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@the.jacktaylor
- Connect with Jack on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hunterbrain/
Aug 13 202627 mins