Business development for ADHD entrepreneurs: why it never feels urgent - until it REALLY is!

There’s a better than fair chance you know what you should be doing to grow your client base.

You've read the books, been to the webinars, listened to the podcasts, and made a plan (multiple plans, actually). You genuinely mean to stay focused…But then delivery commitments to your current clients ramp up, someone else needs something urgently, a new and compelling idea appears on your radar and that BD plan quietly sinks to the back of the pile.

Again.

If you have a sparky or ADHD brain there's a reason it keeps repeating.

And so I have more than a pep talk about the value of discipline to offer because a lack of business development has very little to do with discipline. It's far more likely to be a design problem and once you understand this (and stop berating yourself) you can start to build something that will actually work with how your sparky self best operates.

The feast and famine sales pipeline cycle - and why ADHD makes it harder

Most service-based business owners experience some version of feast and famine - full client roster that demands all your attention, so the pipeline runs a little dry, you scramble for new clients, and things even out again… But if ADHD is a part of your world, the cycle tends to oscillate a little more wildly, you tend to beat yourself up rather harshly, and it can become a pattern that’s significantly harder to interrupt.

Why?

When you're in delivery mode, your brain is all lit up. The client sessions are interesting, the relationship is stimulating, the problems you’re solving are engaging, and you’re very much in the NOW. In contrast, business development - the following up conversations from days ago, sending marketing messages and invitations out into the void, sitting down to write content when you’re not feeling particularly inspired - these all ask your brain to care about something that feels intangible, non-urgent, and… not that interesting.

And since you’re the owner of a sparky brain that runs on an interest-based nervous system if it's not urgent, novel, or meaningful right now, it’s genuinely is harder to initiate. Not impossible. But definitely harder. That's not personal - it’s the reality of neurology that creates the perfect conditions for a business that's always either overfull or anxiously empty.

Why business development keeps slipping when you have ADHD

It doesn't feel urgent until it's right here, right now (or even a crisis). You know building a pipleline is important. But it doesn’t really feel feel urgent until you’re looking at an empty calendar or a lean bank account and suddenly it's the only thing that matters. And then you're powered by anxiety rather than strategy, and the actions you take are likely to reflect that.

The gap between knowing and doing is wider. You don't have an information problem. You likely know what needs to be done. The gap is between intention and initiation, and that gap is neurologically real, not a reflection of how much you want it.

Business development actions carry a high emotional cost. Sharing your ideas in an article or video, promoting a virtual or in person event, reaching out to a warm lead who’s gone quiet, sending a proposal and then following it up, asking for the sale - these all carry risk. And if Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria is a part of your ADHD experience, that risk can feel stressful, even terrifying. It’s worth understanding that avoidance is protection and designing around this with compassion.

Warm leads disappear from your mental radar. A conversation that felt alive and exciting two weeks ago can feel like ancient history today. Out of sight, genuinely out of mind - and so the intention to follow up can evaporate without a system in place to recapture the energy and trigger the action.

The all-or-nothing thinking trap. You decide if you can't do BD properly this week (the time aside each day for comments on LinkedIn, the full hour of personal messages, the content publishing, the whole kit and caboodle), then there’s no point in doing any of it. A week becomes a fortnight… which becomes a month… which might even stretch into an entire quarter and no business can survive that.

The feast amplifies the famine. During quiet delivery periods, you might find your hyperfocus kicks in and your business development action is intense and brilliant. But then during busy periods, it vanishes completely.

What a sparky-friendly Business Development system actually looks like

Spoiler - there is no off the shelf perfect system for us. Your BD approach needs to be shaped around your business model and market, your audience, your strengths, values, and energy levels.

I call the framework that I use, teach, and personalise with my clients the Dual Pipeline (with a Human Touch).

The first stream is Visibility - it’s the actions that build your “known for” factor, your visibility over time. Examples include SEO and AEO work and content development - LinkedIn posts, email newsletters, podcast appearance, thought leadership - articles that positions your thinking. It’s usually one to many and it keeps working on your behalf.

The second is Proximity - the interactions that fuel connection with your presence, in rooms (virtual and IRL), and build relationships. You show up in real time, one to one, one to few, or one to many, so people experience you directly. Examples include hosting or attending events, masterclasses, dinners, speaking, a follow-up call, the coffee conversation, the direct message that says I was thinking of you. This is where your next client almost always comes from.

Most neurodivergent business owners do one or the other, in bursts. The goal is to do snippets of both, in a rhythm that fits you style and capacity - a habit, not a heroic effort.

There’s a third layer that changes how the whole thing feels - I just call it the Human Touch. These are small, specific, genuine acts of connection for the people already in your world. This isn’t about content or crowds. It’s about one person, one moment, one thoughtful gesture that says “I see you, I hear you, I understand you, and I think this will be helpful”.

Examples include sending an article or podcast episode you think they'd love with a simple and specific "this made me think of you because…." message, leaving a genuine comment on their content, inviting them to something - a coffee catch-up, a co-working session, a class you're hosting.

This is the layer that makes BD feel less like selling and more like just being a good human.

The mindset shift that actually changes things

One thing I’ll never say is “just be more consistent”.

We've both heard that too often in and out of business. About exercise, about admin, about content, about following up. And to me it almost feels like an indictment, as though consistency is an admirable character trait that we missed out on.

It's not. Consistency is an outcome. And when we have sparky or ADHD wiring on board, what we need to create for ourselves is a BD approach that removes the cognitive load of daily decisions about whether or not to take action.

I’ve found instead of relying on motivation or momentum to trigger business development activity, it’s much better for us to deliberately create the conditions that make it almost automatic.

In practice, that looks like:

• Having a short list of decided in advance Visibility and Proximity actions to choose from so you're not going into decision mode and reinventing your system from scratch each time you sit down. Take some time to consider where your current clients came from and what actions leverage your strengths to help you select these. You do not have to do all the things and be in all the places - that’s a recipe for burnout. And try not to chop and change too often - give yourself the opportunity to gain confidence and skill and for your prospects to warm to you.
  

• A way to see your activity - not to grade yourself, but because what's visible is tangible and protects against our vulnerability to "out of sight, out of mind." A simple tracker, a note in your calendar, even a running list in a notebook, something that shows you the rhythm you're building, especially on the weeks it doesn't feel like enough.
  

• Protected blocks in your calendar (in a bright, active colour - mine is orange) small enough to be non-negotiable, significant enough for you to create traction within. I recommend then being at the same time each week, and treated like a client commitment.
  
  For me, this is 2 hours on a Monday for Visibility and Proximity actions, 15 minutes each morning for the Human Touch, and at least one Proximity event I host each month (a Masterclass and an Insight Dinner). My growth edge is at least one Proximity event I’ll participate in each month - I can tend to hermit out in my home office!

That's it. No elaborate system. No all the bells and whistles dashboard. Nothing that requires a whole Sunday afternoon to set up and a force of will to maintain.

Simplicity does work. I’ll only speak for myself here, but my sparky brain has a track record for creatively and enthusiastically complicating things… and this tendency has seldom added value to my world!

The goal isn't to become someone who loves business development. It's to build a rhythm you’ll be able to maintain during your busiest of weeks - not one designed to only work during an ideal week. A little can indeed go a long way and B+ work is 100% better than never done work, I promise.

You just need, Frank Sinatra style, to do Business Development your way!

Want to go deeper?

This article draws from the Smart Business Development & Confident Sales Conversations June Masterclass I hosted for the Business Sweet Spot Mastermind and community I co-founded with digital strategist Leanne O’Sullivan.

It’s taking place on June 18, so if you’re reading this article before then, pop over and register to come along as a guest, and if you’ve found this afterwards, the replay and full suite of resources (including a full menu of Visibility, Proximity, and Human Touch ideas) will soon be available too.

Or of course, you can book a connection call with me where we can explore how business development looks in your world, and how we can change things together.