As we continue to put a spotlight on personal well-being for Mental Health Awareness Month, we were honored to get to talk with MAPS coach Tyler Elstrom. Tyler has been a MAPS coach for over 5 years and before that, ran a top-performing team that measured up against the best of the best worldwide for units sold.

Tyler also has ADHD.

Tyler learned to see his ADHD diagnosis as something that benefits him rather than hinders him in his career. As a coach, his specialty is working with agents who share a similar diagnosis and have a Gross Commission Income (GCI) of $350,000 or above. In doing so, he aims to help them understand how to use the differences in the way they interact with the world in a way that helps them to succeed in real estate at a high level.

Through his own personal experiences and his experiences in coaching, Tyler often recognizes these key attributes in his client:

1.  Inability to focus

It can be hard to focus on something for a long time, especially when you aren’t interested in the activity. Instead, someone may find that they have a lack of motivation, procrastinate or are easily distractable.

2. Hyper fixation on things they like
   The things that someone with ADHD likes doing, however, can have the opposite impact. They can get stuck working on the things that they like doing, even at times at the expense of other things. They may find when they are hyper fixated on a task they like that they forget to eat, drink or even use the restroom.
3.  Time blindness

It can be hard to recognize or gauge how long something will take. As a result, someone with ADHD may find that they are chronically late. 

4. Emotion Regulation
   It can be challenging to regulate emotions. Those with ADHD can go from being under stimulated to over stimulated and swing between the two multiple times throughout the day.

Whether or not you recognize these traits in yourself, the techniques Tyler and those he coaches utilize in their day-to-day approach to their activities can benefit you too. One key technique is known as the INCUP analogy.

What is INCUP and How Do I Use It?

One of the keys to successfully harnessing the gifts of a neurodivergent brain are to work with it in a way that embrace its traits. In other words, finding a different way to achieve your overall goals. One such way is the INCUP Analogy.

INCUP stands for Interesting, New, Challenging, Urgent, and Passion. For someone that may struggle to sit and work on a task for a long time, these are some great traits to tap into. Find a way to make the task fit into one of these categories by changing up the process to make it interesting, new, challenging, urgent, or something that you are passionate about.

For instance, some of Tyler’s clients have a hard time sitting down and lead generating for a set time block. So they’ve been creative and found greater success lead generating in ways that work for them. Some set a timer and create urgency around a goal they’ve set for themselves. Others made it interesting by sending lotto tickets and following up with their database about sharing the winnings. Clients have also found lead generation success by tapping into hobbies they are passionate about, whether they added to their database by attending the estate and garage sales they already love or hosting micro events for clients around pets. For the neurodivergent brain, the process isn’t as important as finding a way to meet your objectives.

If you’re struggling with focusing on sitting down and completing a task, try taking a new approach. Ask yourself how you can make it interesting, new, challenging, urgent, or around an existing passion. By reframing the problem you’re trying to solve, you can find a better way to attack it so that it works for you.

ADHD and ADD are more common than you may think in our industry. Whether or not these conditions impact you personally, our goal is to create a space where we can bring visibility to issues we face that impact our mental and physical well-being so that we can lead the best professional and personal lives possible. How can incorporating the INCUP technique help you or someone you know and respect?