#652 How Faster Brains Build Better Businesses with Peter Shankman

What if the very thing you’ve been told is a “weakness” is actually your greatest business superpower?

In this high-energy episode of Talking with the Experts, award-winning indie podcaster Rose Davidson sits down with Peter Shankman—entrepreneur, author, and advocate for neurodiversity—to explore how “faster brains” are shaping the future of business.

Peter reveals how leaders and entrepreneurs with ADHD or fast-processing minds can use speed, creativity, and authenticity to stand out in an overwhelmed world. He shares his signature “3-minute rule” for powerful networking, explains why trust and transparency beat perfection every time, and unpacks the surprising advantages of neurodiverse thinking in leadership and innovation.

This conversation is a must-listen for anyone who’s ever felt “too different” or “too distracted.” You’ll walk away inspired, empowered, and equipped with tangible strategies to turn your faster brain into your greatest business asset.

🔗 CONNECT WITH PETER

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petershankman/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PeterShankman

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/petershankman/

Website: https://www.shankman.com/

📌 PROMOTION: https://www.shankman.com/keynote-speaker/

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Chapters

• 2:47 ADHD individuals typically operate at two extreme speeds with no middle ground, which Shankman describes as either being completely calm or highly agitated, leading to rapid business decisions like launching companies within four days.
• 6:00 COVID-19 became unexpectedly beneficial for neurodiverse employees by allowing them to work from home without constant distractions, enabling them to shut their doors and focus in ways they never could in traditional office environments.
• 7:12 Customer service expectations have become so low that basic functioning is considered exceptional, with airline experiences serving as prime examples where simply departing and arriving on time without major incidents is viewed as outstanding service.
• 11:06 Neurodiverse employees possess superpowers in asking "what if" questions that challenge traditional "we've always done it this way" thinking, making them valuable for identifying necessary business changes.

Transcript

Intro | 00:00
Business insights on talking with the experts. Hosted by Rose Davidson. 

 Advert | 00:09
This episode of Talking with the Experts is brought to you by our future partners. Maybe that's you. If your brand aligns with authenticity, strategy, and transformation, let's collaborate. Visit talkingwiththeexperts.com/sponsor-talking-with-the-experts to learn more. Now, let's dive into today's conversation. 

 Rose | 00:31
Would you like to know how leaders and entrepreneurs can harness their strengths, build stronger personal brains and scale faster in an attention deficit world? My guest, Peter Shankman, is going to discuss just that with us today. And he is going to share how today's best people leverage speed, authenticity and neurodiverse thinking to drive innovation. Now, Peter believes in the power of people, neurodiversity and customer experience, whether it's the CEO who needs help empowering his employees to create magical customer moments, the Fortune 100 that needs a better understanding of neurodiversity in the workplace or the billion dollar brand wanting to better keep up with the times. Peter gets the call to come in and help make things better. Peter, thank you so much for joining me here on Talking With The Experts. I am really looking forward to learning about how faster brains build better businesses. 

 Peter | 01:31
That's great to be here. Thank you for having me. 

 Rose | 01:33
So what do we... What... 
 Well, maybe I should start with how you got to where you are now. 

 Peter | 01:41
Well, I've always had sort of a, you know, depending on who you ask, weird, crazy or successful streak. It depends on really who you talk to. But I've always been a little bit different. And growing up as a New York City public school kid in the 1970s and 80s, that difference was met a lot with sit down, you're disrupting the class. And there was never really an outlet for sort of that craziness. And it wasn't until... I think my mid thirties, about 20 years ago that I actually got a diagnosis of neurodiversity of ADHD, attention deficit, hyperactivity disorder, and everything that I did all my life from school all the way up to starting and selling businesses started to make sense. It started to make sense why I could. Easily work for 14 hours on one project and never look up. Right. And just, and you know why I could write a best New York times bestselling book on an airplane to Tokyo and back, but I couldn't remember to take out the trash or I would forget. 
 You know, my birthday or dates or whatever the case may be. And so when I finally got diagnosed, things started to make a lot more sense. And I realized, you know, if we understand neurodiversity and we understand ADHD and we stop looking at it as a curse, there are actually a tremendous amount of benefits here. And so I decided to figure out, number one, how to sort of craft a life that would allow me to have the best of all possible worlds while minimizing, the potential pitfalls, you know, and an example of that, just for, you know, off the top of my head, people like us tend to only have two speeds, right? When you're ADHD and when you're hyper-focused on that, you tend to have two speeds. And those speeds, pardon my French here, they tend to be namaste and I'll cut a bitch, right? There's really no middle ground for people like us. We're either all the way on or we're to fit the world in which I live. 
 You know, when you're when you only have two speeds, you tend to do a lot of things very quickly. Right. And those things might be starting a new company, I might come up with an idea and put something into launch within four days. Right. On the flip side, those tend to be there are negatives that you know, having that kind of speed isn't really good when you're out having a drink. 
 Right? Because you're not going to have one drink, you're gonna have six. 
 So you learn sort of what's important. So there are a lot of things in this world that I don't do on a regular basis, but on the flip side, I harness that speed in other ways. My day starts on average around three, 3.30 AM when I get up, I'm a single dad and my daughter is currently sleeping in her bedroom right there. 
 So as a single dad, the only time I really have to exercise and get my brain in the right space for the day is super early. So people might think, my God, you get up at 3:00 AM. What do you go to sleep at 8:00 PM? 
 Well, yeah, actually, but it works for me, right? Cause that eliminates going out and going out to a bar or doing whatever. 
 So you learn how to sort of ride your super fast car or super fast brain, without going off the rails. 

 Rose | 04:55
It's a bit like bipolar. I have bipolar disorder. In a week. 

 Peter | 05:00
In a way. 

 Rose | 05:02
I've been diagnosed as bipolar disorder and it's, you know, sometimes the same as, you know, you have two speeds. It's either deep depression or you're like racing a mile a minute and you're full of all these ideas and you just can't stop your brain from thinking about stuff. And, you know, it can be a detriment when you're... Trying to have a quiet moment and your brain just won't shut off, especially if you're trying to get asleep. 

 Peter | 05:29
It's 100% true. I mean, neurodiversity, all the different neurodiversities are very similar. And neurodiversity is really sort of the diversity of diversities, because you have, you can be a successful CEO, you can be, you know, a bartender, it doesn't matter what you do, you can still have this brain that thinks differently. And fortunately, in the workplace, we're finally starting to understand that a different brain isn't a liability, as long as it's managed correctly, as long as you give the person with that brain the ability to work in a way that suits them. 
 You know, COVID was crazily enough, a blessing for people, because all of a sudden they were working at home. And for the first time in their lives, neurodiverse people were able to work the way they wanted to. They are able to work without 50 different distractions every 20 minutes. They were able to shut the door in their bedroom, wherever they were, and work. And so we're finding really a lot of... Fascinating use cases for neurodiversity and why it's so beneficial. I look at, you know, several examples I give on the concept of the stoplight. 
 You know, we've helped several companies implement these sort of. The lack of a better word, they are literally traffic lights on people's top people's desks. Red is don't bother me. I'm head down and focused. Yellow is bother me. If it's important, green is I'm open. Come talk to me. Because when someone, when anyone, neurodiverse or not neurodiverse, is deep in thought and deep in work, if you come up with, hey, I have a quick question. 
 Well, the question might be quick, but it's still 15 minutes to get back into that deep work. So you get interrupted twice an hour. You're not getting anything done. 

 Rose | 07:00
Absolutely. So, Peter, you know, why is trust and transparency and not perfection? 
 You know, how does that win loyalty in today's markets? 

 Peter | 07:12
We live in a society where the bar for customer success is so incredibly low. Right? I don't need you to be. Think about your last flight. 
 Right? You took a flight and you left. You bought a ticket, you got to the airport, you got there three hours early as they told you to, but, you know, and you get to the gate, you're going through security, you're like, all right, I have an hour and a half to make my flight, this is fine. And everything works until you get up to security. And for whatever reason, they choose you. And you get the full pat down on the full, you know, behind the scenes. Okay, well, 45 minutes later. Right now you're out of the out of security a little less dignity. Now you only have 45 minutes to get to your gate, which is okay because it's gate four it says it right there, except they changed your gate they didn't tell you now it's gate 279, and it's like six airports and like four provinces over that way so now you're running. Directly through the airport, your luggage is falling out behind you. You finally get to the gate, you're 20 minutes before your flight, it's okay, it's 20 minutes. Except you weren't there 30 minutes in advance they gave your seat away right you were in seat 3a now you're in seat 45 bathroom all the way in the back so That's what you expect. 
 So if you have a good flight in your mind, a good flight is you get to the gate, your flight's there, you get on the plane, you're not pulled off the plane by your nose. You take off on time, you land on time, you don't crash into a mountain. That in your mind is the best flight you could ever have. When in reality, that's just called a flight. It's a very basic, they didn't do anything special. 
 So companies, you know, we expect companies to fail and companies to do poorly in the customer experience so often that the simple act of doing. Slightly better, one level above the worst possible outcome is considered a win. 
 So if a company is transparent, hey, we're delayed for 25 minutes because we are checking the manifold on one engine. Shouldn't be a problem. Just tell me. Everyone gets delayed. Delays are fine, but let me know why. That's transparency. If we're about to take off and we're sitting on the runway and all of a sudden that two-minute person on the runway turns into 30 minutes and no one tells me what's going on it's probably just that giant storm cloud out there it's probably just weather but if you haven't told me it could be because the wing is falling off i have no idea Let me know. Transparency is simply the act of getting in front of any problem before it becomes a major noticeable problem. Once you do that, I'm happy to wait. 
 Yeah, I'd much rather have you check that wing and make sure it's not falling off. But tell me what you're doing. Otherwise, I'm going to the worst possible place and thinking the worst and I'm going to start sharing it, posting it. But why is this so terrible? Just let me know what's going on. That's transparency. Companies who do that tend to see much higher success rates in their customer experience. It's not rocket science. 

 Rose | 09:52
Now, it isn't rocket science at all. I mean, our airlines here, you know, using the airlines as an example, have a really poor... Reputation because They either delay or cancel flights without letting people know why their flight's been cancelled, you know, and so they miss their connecting flight to wherever. And, you know, it's just a nightmare for the passengers. And, you know, airlines just need to do a lot better. 

 Peter | 10:21
And that's the thing. We are, as customers, as consumers, we are well aware that things happen. Things happen. Life goes on. But it's the problem that there's no transparency and no communication in it. 
 You know, 70, what is it? I think there was a stat that came out several years ago that said 92% of people who complain on social media actually don't need an immediate resolution to their problem. What they need is to feel heard. 
 So if you simply reply, simply respond, Simply say, yes, we are having some issues right now. We're hopeful to get you out in the next hour. That's all I need. 

 Rose | 10:55
Yep, absolutely. And I agree. I agree. Peter, how can we use our faster brain to outmaneuver our slower competitors? And why is ADHD such a superpower? 

 Peter | 11:06
Well, it's a great double set of questions. ADHD is a superpower because we think differently. We look at things that are. Happening in the world and we ask ourselves, what if? And a lot of old school companies really don't ask themselves what if, because they're afraid of what if, right? What if is one of those questions that might lead to different answers rather than the one that says, this is the way we've always done it. And if you're afraid of changing because this is the way we've always done it, you're not really going to have much success and, you know, moving on. I'm reminded of the great story of the woman who... Is cooking with her very young daughter, and they're making a pot roast. And they put the pot roast into the pan, and they slice off a quarter inch of edge or centimeter on each side. And the young girl asked the mother, "Mommy, why do we slice off an edge of the pot roast on each side?" says, well, I don't know. That's the way grandma did it. Let's call grandma and ask. They call grandma and they ask, and they said, why do we slice off an edge, a centimeter on each side of the pot roast? And grandma says, I don't know. That's the way my mother did it. Let's call great grandma. They call great grandma in the nursing home, and they finally get her on the phone. They say, great grandma, we're trying to figure, your great granddaughter wants to know why you slice off an edge, a centimeter on each side of the pot roast. And the great grandma said, well, I don't know why you do it. I did it because the oven was really small. 
 You know I love that story because it's so indicative of how businesses think. They think that, well, we've done it this way for years. They forget that things change and that times change. And when you're neurodiverse, we tend to see those changes even before they happen. 
 So listening to those neurodiverse employees might be your best bet because they're seeing things and a lot of times they're afraid to. Tell you what they're seeing because they don't want to rock the boat. But listening to them and understanding that they might have a different perspective on things is actually very beneficial. We've done countless studies at Mental Capital, my consulting company, where we sit down and we explain, hey, you know, doing something. There's a great story about a university that, put down a whole new grass in front of one of their buildings. They laid down a whole new field. And they didn't put paths. They didn't create cement paths for people to walk on. Instead, the president of the university got very angry. Why are there no paths? The groundskeeper said, wait one month. They waited a month and They found that the people who were going to classes or going used made their own paths and the paths were all perfectly aligned and they were aligned the best way that it was for the university because that's the way people needed to go. 
 Right? So they let the people make those decisions. 
 So asking your employees, what's the best way to do this, as opposed to this is the way it's always been done, does tend to generate higher revenues and higher profits and increase productivity as well. If you allow your employees to work the way they want, the productivity could skyrocket. 

 Rose | 13:50
Yeah, I agree. I used to do a lot of temp work many years ago. And, you know, I've mainly for training organizations and you know they'd had a process that they had been doing since day dot and I'd go in there and I said well why don't we not do this but do this and Yeah. How dare you come into my business and tell me how I'm supposed to run it? And I thought, you know, I could see that. Cutting out three steps is going to make the process a lot quicker and more time efficient, but the same outcome. And, you know, why wouldn't the business owner see that as a win? But no, because that's the way they've been doing it since time memorial. They just, you know. Didn't want some newbie coming in and telling them that they could do it better. It was, and I used to get in so much trouble. 

 Peter | 14:46
I remember I worked at America Online when AOL, if you know your history, AOL was the internet at one point. And my first job at a college, I helped launch the newsroom at AOL. 
 So I was super early on the internet train. I remember leaving AOL and having conversations with people. Who you know, we're looking at, How do we get, how do we better get to our customers? How do we, you know, we should invest in more fax machines. I'm like, you guys need to look at where we're going, you know, and stop looking behind you because you're not going that way. And it was fascinating how many people clung to the past and still do in a lot of ways. 

 Rose | 15:24
Yeah, they do. Absolutely. Absolutely. Last question. What's the three minute rule for smarter networking and faster relationship building? 

 Peter | 15:33
The best rule I ever heard, and I've been using this for almost 30 years now, is the premise that There is no such thing as networking. Networking is simply life. The concept of shutting up and letting the other person talk. Is something that no one Nearly does enough. We live in a society where we say hello and introduce ourselves and let someone respond and we go quiet when they respond simply to wait for a break in the conversation so we can start talking again. If we stay quiet. And we let the other person talk, two things are going to happen. Number one, they're going to think, wow, this person's a phenomenal conversationalist. No, we're not. We're just being quiet and letting you talk and no one does that enough. And the second thing that's going to happen is you're going to build a Rolodex with every single person you meet. I, my joke is that, If you're sitting next to me in a plane, Unless you fake your death. I'm going to know everything about you by the time we land. Now, I didn't say that you're going to know everything about me. I'm not going to bother you. If you want to put your headphones on and go to sleep, that's fine. But if you're willing to talk. I'm going to let you talk. And I'm going to let you speak and I'm going to let you tell me your story and I'm going to take notes and I'm going to listen and I'll learn because doing that allows you to build this incredible Rolodex. I started and sold a multimillion dollar company based on that whole premise. We connected journalists with sources. And the reason I was able to build this company was because. Journalists would Dall-E and say, "Hey, you talk to everyone. I need someone who does... I need an expert on whatever." " sure. Call this guy." And I became known as that guy who connected people. 
 So the simple act of listening twice... I had an ex-girlfriend years ago who had a southern mother, a very southern American proper mother, and she spoke with this wonderful accent and the mother did. And she always used to say, and one thing she said to me, I'll never forget it. I was saying something, we were at dinner at her house in the South and I was not used to the South. I'm a New York city boy. And, I was saying something and I guess I was talking too much and the mother should You got to remember the good Lord gave us The good Lord gave us two ears and one mouth so we could listen twice as much as we talk. And I remember that stuck with me. It must be like 25 years ago. And that stuck with me so hard. We should listen twice as much as we talk. 

 Rose | 17:42
Absolutely. No, I totally agree with that. I think there isn't enough listening being done in the world in general. I think it's not just workplaces and leaders and managers that need to listen more to employees. It's the whole world in general. Peter can be found if you want to look for Peter and I'm sure you do because he's so fascinating you can find him on LinkedIn on Facebook Instagram and on his website shankman.com and you have a keynote speaker thing that you want to promote Peter. 

 Peter | 18:14
Yeah, so I'm a corporate keynote speaker. I speak around the world on customer experience. I've spoken To pretty much everyone in the Fortune 500, American Express, Disney, Oracle, SAP, United Airlines, Marriott Hotels, you name it. My goal is that the concept of customer experience doesn't need to be hard. It just needs to be a little bit better than what we do. 

 Rose | 18:32
Yeah, I agree. And then, yeah, I'd be, it'd be fascinating to hear one of your keynotes. I think that'd I'll have a look at that and I'll search a YouTube page and put it in the show notes that people can have a look. 

 Peter | 18:38
Be... You can find a lot of them online, actually, on my YouTube page. 

 Rose | 18:48
Peter, it's been an absolute pleasure. Thank you so much for joining me today and I look forward to catching up soon. 

 Peter | 18:53
Thank you. It's been my pleasure. Bye. 

 Outro | 18:58
You've been listening to Talking with the Experts with Rose Davidson. The podcast that brings you real stories, bold insights and strategies that work. Be sure to subscribe on YouTube or your favorite podcast channel so you never miss an episode. And dive into our full library anytime at talkingwiththeexperts.com. Until next time, keep learning, keep growing, and keep talking with the experts.