Episode 79
· 01:04:16
What's up? I'm Ron Rapatalo, and this is the Ronderings podcast. Around here, I sit down with guests for real, unpolished conversations about the lessons and values that shaped them. And I'll be right there with you, sharing my own take, laughing at myself when I need to, and wondering out loud about this messy thing called life. Glad you pulled up a chair.
Ron Rapatalo:Let's get into it. Welcome back to Ronderings fam, where we lift up stories, lessons, and the moments that shape who we become. Today's guest, this one's a ride. I'm sitting down with the Dave Delaney, a Toronto kid turned Nashville neighbor, a twenty year podcasting OG and a master connector who somehow blended radio roots, improv training, and a lifetime of curiosity as one of the most authentic voices in the game. Dave Journey touches everything, rarely social media days when community was real and RSS ruled, the evolution of storytelling online, what it means to stay human in a world where bots outnumber people.
Ron Rapatalo:We go deep on his ADHD diagnosis at 50, how he reframed his entire life, inspired by his ADHD podcast, Wise Squirrels, and opened up a conversation about neurodiversity, stigma, and finding language for the things we've carried for decades. This episode feels like two guys grabbing a beer, saying the quiet parts out loud about connection, about communication, and about protecting the human spirit in a world that keeps trying to automate it. Let's get into it. Hey, friends. Before we get started, I wanna share something that's been a big part of my own journey.
Ron Rapatalo:Two years ago, I published my book Leverage. That experience cracked something open for me. I saw how publishing isn't just about pages, about owning your story, sharpening your voice, and amplifying your impact. The part that meant the most, readers reached out to me to say they felt seen. That's when I knew this work mattered.
Ron Rapatalo:I loved it so much I cofounded Leverage Publishing Group with friends who would make know this world inside and out. Now we help leaders, entrepreneurs, and change makers turn their ideas into books and podcasts that actually move people. Got a star in you, and I know you do. Let's chat. Find me on LinkedIn or at leveragepublishinggroup.com.
Ron Rapatalo:Because the world doesn't just need more books, it needs your book. Alright. Let's get to today's episode. Peace. Rondering Universe.
Ron Rapatalo:This is a real treat because Dave and I like, I would say a number of my guests over the seventy, eighty episodes by the time this gets published, I have not met yet, but we have a common person in common. My former colleague, Brett Kunch rhymes at lunch. Right? Yeah. I know Brett well.
Ron Rapatalo:And when I was asking Brett, because Brett is a very avid LinkedIner, if that's the appropriate noun. And he said, I think Dave should be someone you should chat with, Ron, and especially for your podcast. And so here we go. Davey Lady's on the mic. Dave, how are doing today?
Dave Delaney:I'm great, Ron. Thank you for having me. I'm excited to to be here.
Ron Rapatalo:Must be good to be on the other side of the podcast too, When you're not hosting and interviewing, you get to
Dave Delaney:Oh, yeah. Nothing to yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's easy peasy, man.
Dave Delaney:Yeah. I don't have to have my notes and figure out my questions and and all the all the things. Yeah. Usually with with Wise Squirrels, it's yeah. A ton of prep and it's just like yeah, takes a lot of time.
Dave Delaney:So, yeah.
Ron Rapatalo:Well, I know I told you right before I hit the record button, right, the fun and improv nature of this means I have no notes.
Dave Delaney:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Ron Rapatalo:But I know that doesn't work for everybody. Right? This comes from, like, decades of interviewing people for jobs and lots of convos, is that I am very much depending on my ability to improv, which is that's not every podcast. I wouldn't even tell a lot of people to do that, right, because it requires it's a skill. Right?
Ron Rapatalo:Yeah. But I think that's what makes it fun, because I can't bring my authentic self without doing that. Because you're gonna say things that I don't know about you. I'm gonna get curious. They're gonna be natural, like emotions that come up because I'm like, oh shit, I didn't know that about things.
Ron Rapatalo:Wow. Like, because I really, I don't know, which is why I, this is joy for me.
Dave Delaney:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Ron Rapatalo:Let's get it started. What's your story?
Dave Delaney:Yeah. What's my story? Morning Glory. I What is my story? There's so many stories, but my most recent story is being diagnosed with ADHD at 50.
Dave Delaney:So in being diagnosed, I did what every nerd with ADHD does, and I launched a podcast about it.
Ron Rapatalo:So, launched my podcast at like before I was formally diagnosed with ADHD. So where I was recently diagnosed too.
Dave Delaney:Yeah, I might, yeah, I might. Well, my challenge with the podcast and stuff is that like, I started podcasting in 2005. So twenty years last month, or whatever month we're in. So about twenty years ago, and I always joke that, you know, I've had multiple podcasts because I have ADHD, and undiagnosed at the time. So I always joke that had I started with a podcast about ADHD twenty years ago, I'd have like Joe Rogan money now.
Dave Delaney:Not be platforming freaks, but I would still be. Yeah. But, you know, that's okay.
Ron Rapatalo:What was your first podcast? Five podcasting. My God. What was the first one that you did back then?
Dave Delaney:It was called two boobs in a baby.
Ron Rapatalo:Kinda like two men and a baby. Is that what three men and a baby? Was it a rip off?
Dave Delaney:Yeah. Maybe they ripped it off us. I don't know. Yeah. Probably.
Dave Delaney:Yeah. Yeah. So we we were pregnant and just with our first kiddo, Sam. And so we decided to start a podcast because we have friends kind of internationally. So we called it sort of an audio baby book where we would just share the the, you know, what our experiences are, you know, being pregnant and kind of navigating that.
Dave Delaney:And then and then like all American sitcoms, when the ratings start to slip, you add a baby to the cast. And so suddenly we had a second baby eleven and a half months later. Wow.
Ron Rapatalo:Did the baby go zero five like a true American sitcom in the eighties?
Dave Delaney:Yeah, right. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
Ron Rapatalo:Why is the kid older all of a sudden? What the hell?
Dave Delaney:Right, right, right. Yeah, yeah, totally. Totally. But yeah, so so yes, I've been podcasting a long time. And, you know, I joke about American sitcoms, but I'm actually Canadian, or Kinarican now, as they say, or as Neil Young says, at least.
Dave Delaney:So born and raised in Toronto, went to Ireland, met my wife there who's from Tennessee.
Ron Rapatalo:Okay.
Dave Delaney:And that's that's how we ended up in Nashville.
Ron Rapatalo:Wow. So because you mentioned podcasting, like, weave in other elements of your story. Right? Because it's interesting. Like, what I find when I ask people, what's your story?
Ron Rapatalo:Generally speaking, I get the little bit of, like, what's what's my life? If that's the name of the show. I forget the name of the show in, like, the fifties. Right? People go through all, like,
Dave Delaney:Yeah, yeah, this is your life.
Ron Rapatalo:Yeah. You know, like, surprise guests. Right? But I'm really curious about someone like you who's been in podcasting for so long. So my curiosity is, like, all the podcasts that you've done, is that content still out there?
Ron Rapatalo:Do you have like, do you ever look back on it and go, oh my god. I can't believe I put this together. Do I wanna, like, restart these ideas? I'm curious, like, when you look back at all of it, like, you've learned and, like, what that journey's been.
Dave Delaney:Yeah. I mean, yeah, I do look back at some of them. I don't listen to most of them. Maybe occasionally if I have, like, a thought about a guest on a previous episode or one of the other podcasts, because I've had everything from like, Two Boobs and a Baby was sort of more of a what I call a ramble kind of couples cast, right? Or more of a couples cast in that case.
Ron Rapatalo:Yeah.
Dave Delaney:So we were sort of inspired early on by like Dawn and Drew, who were pretty early into podcasting. And so I sort of modeled it kind of off of their their format. And then I've had podcasts where it's just me solo. I had one called Walking With Dave, where I'd be walking the dog and I just ramble. So I called that a ramble cast, just one solo person.
Dave Delaney:And then the interview format, which is what I'm doing now. So yeah, I sometimes think of it like an actor in a way, I dabbled in that, but that, you know, it's too cringey to like watch or listen to yourself from years ago, but will And some of them are still out there, some of them aren't. Yeah.
Ron Rapatalo:What inspired you is you you gave a little bit of the background of, like, how Tube Is In A Baby started. Right? But, like, these other podcast ideas aside from the one that you now are doing, I think, on ADHD. Right? The Wise Girls.
Ron Rapatalo:But then where were the inspirations for the other podcast? Where there's just like a, fuck it. I'm gonna record because this would be fun. Or, like, what where was there some Genesis story?
Dave Delaney:Yeah. That's a good question. I've so I majored in radio and television broadcasting back in the day. And so I really into I majored in radio actually, and worked in television years later. But and, and so that was like, you know, mid 90s.
Dave Delaney:And in the, you know, in 2004, I'm also nerdy. So I've always loved internet culture. Well, I used to love it. Not as much now, but that's a different story.
Ron Rapatalo:It's it's getting to be dregs. You have to find Yeah. The I know. My god.
Dave Delaney:But, yeah. But early days, you know, was I mean, I ran a BBS on my Commodore 64, which dates my my that reference, but that was, you know, 80s. That was pre Internet when I was a kid. Yeah. So I've always been into online online, but I was never into gaming or anything.
Dave Delaney:I was into years later reflecting on my career and my life and working with coaches myself.
Ron Rapatalo:Yeah.
Dave Delaney:As well as, you know, now coaching others. But I learned that I'm really about communication at the end of the day. And so and people like I genuinely, there's no point in communicating if it doesn't involve people, right? And so, you know, starting podcasting was a way to kind of build a community, we had a forum and, and listeners could interact with us and things. So it just made sense.
Dave Delaney:So yeah, so I've been in that space forever. Some of the other podcasts I had, I did some work with a business accelerator, sort of a startup incubator here in Nashville, interviewing, you know, entrepreneurs both locally and then more popular names, people like Seth Godin and Yeah. Kawasaki and Yeah. Mhmm. And so I had that podcast, not chronologically speaking, but I had one, as I mentioned, that of me just walking the dog.
Dave Delaney:I had another one of me sort of reciting old, like, short stories and things that I journaled over the years. I had another one called the called NBN Radio, which was stood for New Business Networking Radio, which my book is called New Business Networking. So I started that around the same time to promote the book and also just to talk to people about networking, good networking, not icky networking. And then, and then what else? Oh, and the Nice Podcast, which was the last one I had before starting ADHD, Wise Squirrels?
Dave Delaney:But I'm now 63 episodes today or 60. Yeah, a little over 60. Congratulations. Thanks. Yeah.
Dave Delaney:And, and yeah, I love it. It's definitely this one's different in a lot of ways, and and it's really special and important.
Ron Rapatalo:Yeah. It makes so much sense, and it's nice to meet someone that has had formal training to get into this world. Right? I don't wanna assume this is all podcasters. Right?
Ron Rapatalo:But, you know, this makes me think of what I referenced at time of this recording. Right? Was it a career day earlier this morning? Right? So I'm talking to middle schoolers about what I do.
Ron Rapatalo:And you know what was the thing that interested them most? It wasn't my full time job. It was saying that I was a podcaster Mhmm. And saying that I was a storyteller. And it's the part about my journey that I'm like, that's not what middle school Ron ever would have thought.
Ron Rapatalo:And this I just had this thought bubble. I remember we had to write for, in my middle school class, like, I had to write this, like, mini book about something I enjoyed. And interestingly enough, it was about video games and playing the old NES back in the late eighties. Right?
Dave Delaney:Yeah. Sure. Yeah.
Ron Rapatalo:Yeah. It was fascinating that I think I'd been so consumed with, like, how good I was academically, the things I was good at academically in terms of test scores Mhmm. For math and science. And yet, as I got older and I realized being around people that my even more genius skill was the emotional and social intelligence and being able to communicate and inspire people. Right?
Ron Rapatalo:Yeah. That's I'm curious, like, how did you choose radio and TV to be something you majored in when you did that? Right? Because it makes sense, like, in the world that you're in and what what I know about you so far, Dave, that, like
Dave Delaney:Yeah.
Ron Rapatalo:Of course you would have majored in that. Right? But I don't know podcasters who I told, like, I majored, like, in something in, like, median. Right? That seems to be a much smaller percentage.
Dave Delaney:Yeah, I think I, I always I actually wrote a blog post about this at on my blog at Dave Delaney. Me a long time ago, but it was about this. You know, I'm a child of the 70s 80s. So radio was obviously a big a big part of that. It was.
Dave Delaney:And, you know, being sort of a person who is maybe annoyingly, you know, undiagnosed, right? So I'm the Bart Simpson hyperactive kid back in the day driving my teachers crazy. I was the class clown. I've always been quick witted and funny or funny looking at least. So I would love to get people laughing.
Dave Delaney:And that's still something I do with my presentations and my like, when I do a keynote or workshop or something. It's a big part of what I do. But so I always loved getting people laughing. I would do like crank calls and record the call. And so I had those cassettes of crank calls that my friends and I absolutely loved listening to.
Dave Delaney:Had the video And Dover
Ron Rapatalo:is a Benjamin Dover here.
Dave Delaney:Right. Yeah, we did some pretty fun ones. So stuff like that, the medium of recording it, idea of using media was just fascinating to me. And as I got older, I got more and more, you know, into making mix tapes for friends and ex girlfriends and all the stuff. So performance has always been part of it, too.
Dave Delaney:I studied improv with Second City in Toronto and kind of have done a lot of improv and comedy in my biz in my career, and that plays a role in my my
Ron Rapatalo:People don't know. If the audience doesn't know, like, Second City and the Canadian, like, geniuses that have gone through there, as someone who, like, consumes a lot of pop culture. I mean, Second City, my, that is Yeah. Mean, did you train with there? Did you get to see any of the, like, folks?
Dave Delaney:No. They were sort of before my time. I mean, they were like because it was, you know, but but yeah, I mean, Toronto's not that I mean, it it is now, I guess. It's the fourth largest city in North America now. Yeah.
Dave Delaney:It's crazy.
Ron Rapatalo:Because the show SCTV was second city, right?
Dave Delaney:That was second city. Yeah. So Second City
Ron Rapatalo:We're dating ourselves, Dave, by talking about some like, SCTV? What the? That's SNL?
Dave Delaney:Like Yeah. Well, for folks who might be a tad younger, or more into like more current shows, Yeah, you know, Schitt's Creek, which has wrapped, but Schitt's Creek is a great example because Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara were both alums from and Second City in Toronto. And so Martin Short, Gilda Radner was around, even though she's American, they let her hang out. John Candy. Yes, I think I said Catherine O'Hara there.
Dave Delaney:Andrea Martin, Rick Moranis.
Ron Rapatalo:Yes.
Dave Delaney:You know, Ghostbusters and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and all those guys. So yeah, there was like a yeah, SCTV or Second City, should say started in Chicago and then then move or open a location in Toronto. And that's where that crew of famous comedians and actors, Martin Short, I think I mentioned him, were also there. I know I'm forgetting somebody and it's driving me crazy.
Ron Rapatalo:I know. I'm like thinking too.
Dave Delaney:Oh, wait. Rick Moranis and This is terrible. Okay. It'll it'll come.
Ron Rapatalo:It'll This is the ADHD brain at work because our minds are moving so fast. It's like, wait, it's it's there.
Ron Rapatalo:I just need to slow down to get the name right in front of my face.
Dave Delaney:Yeah. Joe Flaherty, but there's someone else. Okay. Oh gosh.
Ron Rapatalo:You know, it's interesting. So because we have such a rich amount of, like, podcasting episodes, not as rich as yours. I'm not twenty years in. Right? But, like, I'm two and a half years in.
Ron Rapatalo:One of the podcast guests that I had was one of the cofounders or one of the, like, main teachers and coaches at a popular improv studio here in New York City, Magnet Theater. Had Rick Andrews on and just taking one class with him. And then my wife took several. And just when you get that taste of improv and what that means or, like, how well you can communicate with others, but how well that allows you to lead because he teaches leadership classes to use. That's what I did.
Ron Rapatalo:Right.
Dave Delaney:Yeah. I mean, I've got a like, I've got a keynote presentation I do. It's my kind of signature talk. It's the one I've done. Yeah, it's most popular.
Dave Delaney:And it's called the master communicator secret weapon. And the reveal to the audience is the secret weapon is improv. But and then I go through sort of these core concepts from improv, like overcoming a fear of failure, thinking faster on your feet, body language, active listening, all these things, leading with acceptance, all of these takeaways that that I learned from improv, but by teaching the audience how to apply these lessons to the way they show up in the world and network and meet other people and so on and lead people. So it's not sometimes improv actors become speakers, and then like, bring the audience on stage and, and things like that. I do some interactive stuff.
Dave Delaney:And I do some but I'm very careful not to make people feel uncomfortable. And so I'm I'm I'm quite, quite careful with that. I do do a workshop called the the secret weapon workshop, which sometimes conferences will hire me to do as a as a follow-up to the keynote. So that way like it's a breakout session at that point. So those who are keen to really get their hands dirty, imaginary dirty, of course, it's improv, but they will come to my breakout session, and then the other sessions can go on.
Dave Delaney:That way, those who want to really get into it, and of course, I do corporate workshops and training as well around using these skills. Because yeah, there's a lot there, but I'm careful not to make people feel uncomfortable either.
Ron Rapatalo:Alright. Let me keep it real. A lot of us have write a book sitting on our goals list, maybe for years. I sure did. Good news is there's more than one way to get it done.
Ron Rapatalo:If you've got more money than time, a ghostwriter can help bring your story to life. If you got more time than money, a great book coach can guide you through the process step by step. If you've already written a thing, you'll want someone to shepherd you through publishing so you don't waste time or cash. Here's the thing though, no matter how you do it, the real win is writing the right book. The one that builds your credibility, grows your business, and actually makes a difference.
Ron Rapatalo:That's what the team at Books That Matter is all about. Head to booksthatmatter.org and get some feedback in your ID or manuscript. Don't sit on it any longer, your book could be exactly what the world needs. Because it can be right when people feel like they're put on the spot or they're not being or they're doing something that's outside their comfort zone, it can get a little dicey. Right?
Ron Rapatalo:I've seen that when I the the one semester I took the improv class. Right? I mean, I think it's hard for some folks because it you know, the thing that I had to unlearn in doing improv was like, this is not about me being funny guy. I'm not doing stand up. Right?
Ron Rapatalo:And the...
Dave Delaney:That person that person never survives the class. They never graduate.
Ron Rapatalo:I had to learn to like, Rod, this is not about saying the funny line. You have to do it in the moment and in the yes, and structure of the improv. Right? And so you're just reacting off someone and just and in of itself, the insanity of some of the premises is where the fun is. Right?
Ron Rapatalo:And if you just leave it with it. Right? Yeah. Absolutely. And that's what I really learned is like, just like when you lead, you don't always have control over some of these leadership things.
Ron Rapatalo:And you and I coach, like, I'm like, they really this is really happening in their leader. This is crazy shit. I go then you have to, like, sort of, like, help make meaning, provide space, ask questions, and then really good stuff can come out when you listen really deeply and help build with somebody. Right?
Dave Delaney:Which is A 100%.
Ron Rapatalo:Like, it's total improv. Just like this podcast. Like Yeah.
Dave Delaney:Exactly. Yeah.
Ron Rapatalo:Well, something I think you and I are interested in, and I can't help but to bring, you know, Brett into this space. Like, my my colleague Brett connected us because he thought you and I would be good connects. And the fact that, like, you have also written a book on networking. I wrote one myself more like building a circle of champions. Tell me a little bit about what you wrote there and like what your approach is, because when I hear when people hear the term, it always wigs people.
Dave Delaney:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Ron Rapatalo:I get it. And here's how Dave explains it. So go.
Dave Delaney:Well, yeah, that's why the keynote is called networking for nice people. Because, you know, and I used to run a website called networking for nice people as well. So yeah, because networking does have kind of negative connotations, of course, and makes you know, you feel kind of icky if you think of networking, like in your stereotypical kind of networking examples that come to mind. Yeah, so when I moved from Toronto to Nashville, I didn't know a soul besides my wife, obviously, and kids and and like one other couple. And besides them, I didn't know anyone and I was looking for a job and and, you know, all that stuff.
Dave Delaney:And so, like, part of the book, New Business Networking, is about me moving here and not knowing anyone and how I networked my way to getting a job and then eventually launching my own business. And it's not just about me. I mean, there's plenty of examples in there. But as I mentioned earlier, as an early adopter of social media and social networks, I have chapters. Now the book's like 13 years old now.
Dave Delaney:So I have chapters on Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn. A lot of that is still relevant, except Twitter, which I wouldn't recommend anyone use. Then I have chapters on these different social because I've been on them like forever. Like I was on Twitter February. And I've been on LinkedIn eighteen years, just a couple months ago.
Dave Delaney:And so because I'm an early adopter in this stuff, and use them to genuinely build relationships, meet people and then and then go to conferences like CES or South by Southwest or other tech sort of related conferences. I would would meet up with people there. So I do have chapters on podcasting. And then I also have chapters on how to organize your own events, how to attend conferences and network, you know, well. And so and part of that is, you know, one message I have is talk to strangers, unless you're my kids.
Dave Delaney:So if you're a kid listening, don't Yeah, don't talk to strangers. But to talk to strangers. And what's really funny is my book, New Business Networking came from me at a conference who I saw a woman sitting behind this table of she was a publisher, and she had some books on display, and I knew some of the authors. So I went over and just introduced myself and started chatting. And she's like, what's your book?
Dave Delaney:And I said, I don't have a book. And she's like, yo, what's your book? And I'm like, and I'd had this idea of like online and offline networking kind of combined, But I never articulated, I never even shared the crazy idea with my wife and she would hear all the crazy ideas. God bless
Ron Rapatalo:her. Yes.
Dave Delaney:Yeah. And so she got it out of me and I said, well, I have had this idea. And I explained it to her and she's like, I love that. And we exchanged information, like contact information. I followed up with her.
Dave Delaney:She sent me a book proposal. Next thing I knew, I had a publishing deal. I had an advance, a contract, all that stuff. And I'm like, Oh. And that's how somebody writes a book with undiagnosed ADHD, by the way, is with a legal contract.
Dave Delaney:Because otherwise, it's not easy. And it wasn't easy. But, yeah, so my book about networking came from networking, which I kind of like.
Ron Rapatalo:That's fascinating. I have a somewhat similar story.
Dave Delaney:Got Yeah. Tell me yours.
Ron Rapatalo:Tell I me got reached out to via LinkedIn by the same folks who helped me produce this podcast, by the way. So they also do podcasting, my friends at Thought Leader Group. Right? Yeah. And so I gotta reach out through it was either Randy or Kent.
Ron Rapatalo:I'd have to look back. It was one of them. Right? Yeah. But we'll we'll stick with Kent.
Ron Rapatalo:And it was like, hey, do you wanna write a book? And it just felt time it felt the message felt different enough. I was like, F it. Because, you know, when you have a lot of connections on social media like you and I do, you get hit up a lot. I I get it.
Ron Rapatalo:You know, I don't respond to most of it. But this one, I was like, I'm curious. So I had the convo and the sell was good because Kent and Randy that, like, asked me a lot of good questions and it went into, you know, we should write the book about. It was at a time in my life where I was like, I'd been thinking about it for a minute. Right?
Ron Rapatalo:I knew what I was good at professionally. Right? Yeah. Career coaching, career networking, giving advice. And then the book turned into more of a how to network into let's make it a story.
Dave Delaney:I love it.
Ron Rapatalo:And so it became around the seven archetypes of people you need in your circle of champions. Right? You know, be be your person board of advisers. There's all these terms for it.
Dave Delaney:Feel like a parable, I guess, in a way?
Ron Rapatalo:Yeah. It became, like, here are the things that each of these, like, archetypes have, but it tells it through the stories of these people and how they've helped me at different points in my career and life, including my wife. Right? She's And a personal so I like the book because it's not your usual, like, here's just advice. It's because the thing that I've learned over and over again, not only this podcast, but things that I consume, that I enjoy, if the story is good, I'm gonna keep coming back.
Ron Rapatalo:So I'm yeah. Curious
Dave Delaney:Go ahead. Sorry. Before you ask, I do, like, you know, coaching with with my clients on how to better know themselves, their strengths, and so on. Yeah. And I go through what I call the root down, which is this process with them.
Dave Delaney:The reason why I brought it up was, you know, like, if I do a workshop with a company, and we do profile analysis, or personality strengths, you know, that kind of thing, then it's kind of done as a team or a department or company wide. So they all know and there's strategies for that, like, you know, changing the color of their business cards or pinning up their type on their cubicle or door or whatever. But for you, for the book, and you'll have to excuse me for not reading it.
Ron Rapatalo:It's okay.
Dave Delaney:If you need to have this group of wise mentors in your life who fit each different category. How do you know your wife was a sage? I mean, that would be an obvious one, right? But for the others, were you actively looking for these different types of people? Or or did you just realize like, oh, wait.
Dave Delaney:This person is this and this person is that?
Ron Rapatalo:So a lot of their, like, magic sauce in the writing of the book, it was they just asked me about people influenced me. And then as they went through the series of questions about each person individually, then it became, what title would you give this person? So the the the title came much later, and the idea of the archetype came in reflection of talking about the story of the person.
Dave Delaney:That's cool. So do they ghostwrite it with you? Is that how it worked?
Ron Rapatalo:Yeah. I'm someone this is where the ADHD really comes down. So I struggled to write five page papers in high school and college.
Dave Delaney:Sure.
Ron Rapatalo:Yeah. You know, Ginkgo Biloba and Lipton black tea with a little bit of milk was my caffeine to stay up and pull all nighters. Right?
Dave Delaney:Right.
Ron Rapatalo:Right. To sit down like, my wife just wrote a dissertation for her doctorate, right, and graduated in May. I don't have not not don't have. It would be a lot of energy for me to, like, do that kind of stuff. Like, kind of like that detail long work is not it doesn't give me juice.
Dave Delaney:Like, a lot.
Ron Rapatalo:The hour or less. Right? The writing, reading an article versus a book. I, I mean, Dave, have too many books on my bookshelf, which is not in view, and the bookshelf where my TV sits in the living room, there's probably the three books that are below my laptop. It's like 25 books that I have bought or been given in the last three years.
Ron Rapatalo:I don't think any of them I've opened. I just have these books. Yeah. But I read avidly to be clear. Right?
Dave Delaney:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course, of course.
Ron Rapatalo:Yeah. I'm here, it's back to social media, right? Because I think you and I have in common, like being early adopters of social media, which isn't everybody in our Gen X age range, to be clear. Have, I mean, forgive me for saying this, but it's my podcast. I'm going say it like, there's some people I'm like, you're a Luddite.
Ron Rapatalo:Oh my God. It's like weird to me. Like you, It's like, it's really, I I'll say disconcerned,
Dave Delaney:but it isn't what it is.
Ron Rapatalo:So I'm curious, we've seen the evolution of what the social part of social media is. When you go back to, like, when you started, I started really adopting social media in the MySpace and Friendster days and AI and chat rooms. Right? That was my beginning of social media. So that was really, like, early two thousands when I started to have a laptop.
Ron Rapatalo:Right? Yeah. But you were there before that. Right? It was, like, audit so I'm curious from, like, the journey arc that you've seen and the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Ron Rapatalo:How would you describe that to the audience?
Dave Delaney:Yeah, it's a great, great question. I think early on, well, I mean, it's pre internet, but there's BBSs. But the connection, I mean, I won't bewilder that, but people can look up bulletin board systems. Yeah. And, you know, you were at the mercy of a phone line, like traditional phone lines.
Dave Delaney:Exactly. Mom, put down the phone. But in the earliest days, you know, there were sort of listservs that kind of popped up and, and wikis and things like that and forums. And then you could create your own forums if you had a little tech savvy. And so I started doing that creating forums.
Dave Delaney:And then, you know, podcasting, of course, and blogging and web blogging before blogging or whatever it's called now. Now it's called a content management system. Yes. You know?
Ron Rapatalo:So it's just an acronym, same thing. Yes.
Dave Delaney:Yeah. I mean, either way, if it has RSS, the real simple syndication that was created by our our godfather, our father of of all this stuff, one of the fathers, I guess, Dave Winer, who created RSS.
Ron Rapatalo:Yeah.
Dave Delaney:You know, without RSS, we wouldn't have blogging or podcasting or any of that stuff.
Ron Rapatalo:Yep.
Dave Delaney:Not anyway, like it's grown and like it's become. The state of social media is a good question because what's happened is these different social networks or companies, let's say Facebook and Twitter and so on, or Meta or X or whatever you want to call them, They seed they took funding to grow their businesses. Naturally, they had to. You know, the joke was always that Twitter has no business model because they have no idea what it is. And over time, what happened was they went public and they had investors and investment, and their shareholders and investors wanted an ROI and wanted to see that.
Dave Delaney:And so these companies started aggressively trying to find ways to increase time on-site and engagement and all this stuff. And unfortunately, through algorithms that are much more toxic now than they were, but they were also, we're right back to traditional media. So like newspapers, you know, there's a line in newspapers and journalism that was, if it bleeds, it leads, which is like, it it gets to the front page of the paper because, know, people like they don't like it, but they wanna read it because they're curious, the train wreck or whatever. And so social networks have gone that way, unfortunately. And now they work on a shock and awe model that, you know, if they don't have people on their sites interacting and spending time, then the advertisers aren't interested in advertising.
Dave Delaney:And if the advertisers aren't interested, then they lose that money, and then their investors are pissed off, and their companies will go away. And so I'm concerned about the future right now, just and I haven't even talked about AI yet. But I'm concerned about the future just because even with podcasting, like the podcasters I enjoyed, some of the podcasters I enjoyed, I now don't trust anymore. Because they've started selling weird things, or they're, you know, they've become hypocrites, or they're, or they're platforming people with terrible ideas. And they're only doing that.
Dave Delaney:Either they have bad ideas, which could be the case, or they platform these these people, it just really in order to get the rage and get people talking about it. Because did you hear so and so on this podcast? And then everybody goes to listen, that increases views, that increases time on-site, etc. And their advertisers are happy. So I'm not sure what the future looks like.
Dave Delaney:But right now the model has gone a long way from social networking because you want to network, not icky networking, but genuine networking on social networks to what we're looking at now. And yeah, it's it's it's definitely concerning.
Ron Rapatalo:I feel you and I have been around the block enough. I think when I give my pitch for, like, why I'm still involved in these things, because I think what you have to say is very much in alignment of how I've seen social media change. Right? The socialness is more of, you know, you add the media part and the revenue and the investor part. Like, that's a huge thing.
Ron Rapatalo:It's like, you know, the the breakdown of lot of journalism, I think, can really be attributed to how much how prolific social media has become. Right? You can make a pretty clear line. Right? Where did all the ad revenue that funded journalism, you know, print journalism go?
Ron Rapatalo:But to social, some on a simplified level. Right? And so the money went, and so boop. Right? And so, you know, one of the things that I've seen in doing social for myself is, like you, it's a means to an end.
Ron Rapatalo:I wanna build relationships with people. It is not as interesting to me just to, like, comment on people's things and message people. Now granted, there are still a number of people my if I use LinkedIn as the one platform I tend to focus on, that I've just done that with. Right? And probably similar to you.
Ron Rapatalo:Right? Because you have a brand and you're putting out a lot of stuff. Right? There's this push pull of, like, people feel like they really know you, which I find fascinating. Right?
Ron Rapatalo:And I think I mean, this is my ADHD at play. I think I can overshare a little bit too much around good, but give feedback about that, about my missus, which is true. Right? Always continually working on what that kind of, like, line is. And I'm extroverted, so I enjoy the kind of dopamine effect of having people engage with me.
Ron Rapatalo:Yeah. And what I care most about is to build an offline relationship. Even if that
Ron Rapatalo:starts as a phone or Zoom. Right? I think that for me, I think for you is like, this is where the networking part of it, because we grew up when it was without as much of that infiltration. Right? It was like Yeah.
Ron Rapatalo:You know, I remember building my LinkedIn methodically, and now that I've been on it for twenty years, like people are like, how did you get that many followers? I'm like, that's a twenty year journey. If you would have met o six, like o five to 13, didn't really use it a lot in the last decade. Totally different. Right?
Ron Rapatalo:And then when Microsoft bought it and did things to invest in it to make it more social, LinkedIn dynamically changed my estimation. Right?
Dave Delaney:Yeah. Know. I agree. I agree. I think, you know, roughly, I know certainly Twitter definitely, or x or whatever, but 50% of the users now are are bots.
Ron Rapatalo:Oh, lord.
Dave Delaney:And the same is happening on LinkedIn to some degree. I don't know what the percentage is.
Ron Rapatalo:Yeah. All these crazy third degree things that ask me like, Do you want a job? Do you want this? I'm like, Ew, you're a
Dave Delaney:Well, also like, but also
Ron Rapatalo:weird.
Dave Delaney:Yeah, I mean, I have the same two or three or four people that are liking everything I write and commenting on it. And I just wrote a post about this on my LinkedIn profile at Dave Delaney called how to automate everything on LinkedIn. And the gist of it is don't, like stop. Because what's happening now is people are using AI to just generate content without even thinking about it. I'm all for aspects of AI.
Dave Delaney:Certainly I use it too. But if you write if you use AI to write an article, and then you post it on LinkedIn, guess what you'll start noticing over time, and I'm noticing it more and more now, where and this is part of the the gist of that article that I wrote on LinkedIn. What's happening now is people that I know are commenting on my articles, my posts, but I can tell from the comments that they're posting that they're not writing that. And so they're using an automated tool to AI to generate automatically comments on certain people's posts. So when you think about that, if you take a step back, that's AI creating the content and AI responding to the content.
Dave Delaney:So we're kind of like removing the human element from the equation there.
Ron Rapatalo:Yeah.
Dave Delaney:And that's where we're going. And so my firm belief, having co founded a couple of unconferences, pod camp and bar camp in Nashville, and running monthly networking events over the years, and doing a lot of work as a speaker, going to conferences and writing about networking is I wrote a post about this not that long ago, too, called The Power of Proximity. And my belief now moving into the future, unless things change, is the only place to build relationships will be in person. And you can use online to keep in touch, like Facebook or LinkedIn or whatever to keep in touch between whatever events. But the proximity piece of this is key.
Dave Delaney:And I think about this a lot. And we're almost, we're not quite, but we're almost at the point where, well, one, you and I could be talking, and I may not know that you're even a human. Right? Because you could just be an AI generated avatar of yourself or someone else. And I could be speaking with you virtually here and not know whether you're human or not.
Dave Delaney:That technology, I'm sure is already in existence.
Ron Rapatalo:I mean, inside the platform that I used to record this in Riverside, there's an AI voice feature. It sounds kinda close to me. It's not exactly Ron, but I played with it and just like, let me type how I sound. And I was like, I hit the button. I said, I asked my missus, my daughter, does this sound like me?
Ron Rapatalo:It's like, it's a decent approximation. We know it's not you because, like, there's a way that Ron sounds is very Ron ish. Right? But it was like, it's not
Dave Delaney:that but it's weird, right? It's weird because the more you think about it, it's like, well, I mean, like smartphones have already made us dumb. And we know this because what is your kid's or best friend's phone number? I don't know. I don't know my two kids' phone numbers.
Dave Delaney:I have no idea. You could hold a gun to my head.
Ron Rapatalo:I know my wife's phone number only because back when we were dating in
Dave Delaney:Yeah.
Ron Rapatalo:2010.
Dave Delaney:Sure. You would probably remember your childhood phone number.
Ron Rapatalo:Yeah. Because it's the the dialing portion of it. There's something about automating that into, like, my, like, physical memory that's, like, in my head.
Dave Delaney:Well, not just that. I think I think there's something to that. But also, you had to learn it. Like, couldn't call your mom to pick you up from somewhere if you didn't have her phone, the phone number. So like, it wasn't even a question of like how to learn it.
Dave Delaney:It's like, I know it. Like, this is my number. Right? Like Yeah. Because you could argue that, like, pressing the buttons on a smartphone, assuming you actually dial a phone number, so I suppose there's that point.
Ron Rapatalo:Yeah.
Dave Delaney:Yeah. So maybe if you started dialing the phone number on your smartphone, that might work because they're designed to be addictive anyway. So They are. Yeah.
Ron Rapatalo:So I mean, I wonder if you have a perspective, Dave, having been in this space and run, like, can we stop it? Or is there an in between of, like, do we just need to create more in person spaces, like mitigate? Like, what's your, like, talk because this tide at every damn conference I'm at, and so certainly my what I what I get paid to do is, like, watch the k 12 ed and social impact spaces. And AI is talked about at every damn conferences, AI products left and right. Some good, some not really.
Ron Rapatalo:Right?
Dave Delaney:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of it is not good. AI is just like, it's it's a tool that, I mean, agents are out there for for us to use.
Dave Delaney:If you're if you're a Luddite or if you're fearful and you don't use them, then you're gonna fall behind because this is the tool. Whether you like it or not, this is the tool we need to use. We heated our houses with coal, even though it was terrible for the environment, but that's what we had. So that's what we had to do. Or drive the car and we're putting off emissions, but we got to get from you got to drive.
Dave Delaney:But I think it's important to be smart about how people are using AI, what personal information you're sharing, understanding the ideas of AI hallucinations and aspects of making up answers, not knowing, and even citing sources that aren't real. So it's important to keep that in mind where the future is going, though. As I said, I really do believe in person is is key. And until, you know, until until you and I meet up in person and I find out you're a bot or I find out you're like, it's Blade Runner. Once we're at Blade Runner, I don't know, man.
Ron Rapatalo:Or we are in Black Mirror. That's the show. You know, it's funny when you gave the Bart Simpson reference, right, I was like, the, like, the whole, like, if it bleeds, it leads. I thought about the the la the I didn't watch the whole recent season of Black Mirror. The one episode I
Dave Delaney:watched It's too dark, man. I couldn't watch it.
Ron Rapatalo:It's super, like, the one where I forget the, the actor's name, he's an Irish guy, and Rashida Jones is in it as his wife.
Dave Delaney:Oh god, I know the episode
Ron Rapatalo:you're And talking episode, like, you think about just the cringe factor of, wait, I'm loaning money. She has wait. It just it's soup. But it
Dave Delaney:That was the one. That was the one that stopped me from watching the rest of Black Mirror. I was like, that's enough. Don't need this in my life.
Ron Rapatalo:Because it felt too possible Yeah. In terms of, like, where this is all going.
Dave Delaney:Oh, absolutely. I mean, that is happening. Like, people are, you know, you are getting like, you go to like a porn site and you unknowingly download malware that or spyware that activates your camera and you're watching porn and God knows what and you're recorded and then you're sent that video and you have to send X numbers of Bitcoin or whatever, some currency as blackmail for this. Like this stuff is happening. And it's even happening at the human level when, you know, I think, you know, sending a like sexting an image to your girlfriend or boyfriend and then you break up and then they have these images still and, you know, Yeah, it's real.
Dave Delaney:Yeah, it's tough. I mean, the space that you work in, especially with the kids too, like I'm a big fan of Common Sense Media. Yes. And they're doing great work. But I do encourage any parents out there or teachers to definitely check out Common Sense Media because they do great work.
Ron Rapatalo:Quick pause in the action here. I know a lot of us leaders, entrepreneurs, folks who are trying to do good work, have felt that grind of pushing a boulder uphill by ourselves. The learning is you don't actually have to do it all alone. Genius discovery program at thought leader path like having a think tank in your corner. It's not some cookie cutter formula, but your story, your plan of impact, giving you the clarity and assets to take the next big step.
Ron Rapatalo:I've seen people go through this and walk out with their voices amplified and they sharpened. Some even launching podcasts like this one, Rondering. So if you're tired of grinding in the dark and you're ready to step into your impact with right support check out geniusdiscovery.org. Thanks for that, Dave. Well, before I ask you the Rhondar question, I wanna like, because we had both talked about our own very recent diagnosis of ADHD.
Ron Rapatalo:So tell me a little bit about the Wise Squirrels Podcast and what you've been learning from others and your own diagnosis as you've been doing this, the Wise Squirrels Podcast.
Dave Delaney:Yeah, thanks. Yeah. So, well, I've learned a ton about ADHD and also in my own therapy and research as well.
Ron Rapatalo:Yeah,
Dave Delaney:but I in doing the podcast, I mean, it's incredible just learning so much about it by speaking to subject matter experts, but then high achievers. You know, I spoke to the former director of the International Space Station for NASA who ran it for sixteen years and was diagnosed at 60 after he left, you know, and people like just really cool people doing great work. And I think there's so much misinformation and disinformation about ADHD that I'm doing my best to kind of course correct and inform people to the best of my ability, always with the caveat that I'm not a doctor and nor do I play one on the internet.
Ron Rapatalo:No, the cows are here. Yeah. Right.
Dave Delaney:Yeah. And I've always loved coaching and helping people, whether a one on one or groups or workshops or presentations, as I said, I love it. And I've always coached. But, you know, I was a speaker for Google for about six years, because I was teaching small business owners and operators how to use digital marketing, being the early adopter that I am. And, so with Wise Squirrels, though, what's happened is a lot of my coaching clients are now coming through Wise Squirrels, which is fantastic, because knowing what I know about my own operating system and the different presentations of ADHD, One type, three presentations.
Dave Delaney:You know, there's all this incorrect information out there. I'm trying when I started doing the podcast, over time, I learned that from Russ Ramsey, who's one of the authorities of ADHD and very well respected, I quoted him that with undiagnosed and untreated ADHD, your life expectancy can be up to thirteen years less. And so it's not just that kind of shifted my little passion project to a bit of a mission to help educate people and help inspire people. Have a free ADHD assessment that anybody can take at wysquirrels.com. I don't see the results.
Dave Delaney:But of course, I also add that with that, regardless of the outcome of that, you should obviously speak to your doctor or healthcare professional to investigate whether you may or may not have ADHD. I always recommend that you always ask your doctor first about ADHD. Like, what do you think about ADHD? What are your thoughts? Because what you may hear them say, because there's still quacks out there is it's, it's over diagnosed, or it's not real, or it goes away after childhood or all these things which are not true at all.
Dave Delaney:And so, you know, if your doctor happens not to believe in ADHD or what it was formerly called ADD, if they don't believe in it, then it's time to find a new doctor because they may also not believe in cancer, or diabetes, or blood, hearts. Yeah. So run away is what I'm saying. Yeah. It's a good test, even regardless of like, even if you have no iota about ADHD and you don't think you do, and whatever, next time you see your doctor, ask them about ADHD and see what they say, and if they say any of what I just mentioned, get the hell away.
Ron Rapatalo:Yeah. It's so funny. Right? Because I gave think the tell for me at a younger age, I particularly go back to, like, post college. Right?
Ron Rapatalo:Yeah. Because my friend like, I could be very stream of conscious when I chat. Right? I'm the it's almost like everything I have to say has parentheticals and tangents that I have to get out before I say the thing. So my conversation is like this.
Dave Delaney:Yeah. Yeah.
Ron Rapatalo:Yeah. I get to my point eventually, but I wanna tell you all the story and all the context is in my fucking head. And then that that that context leads to something else I have to tell. It just it's never direct.
Dave Delaney:Yeah. I'm exactly the same, by the way. Yeah. And so Hashtag land the plane, Ron.
Ron Rapatalo:Bingo.
Dave Delaney:That's what I'm always saying. Land the plane, Dave. Land the plane.
Ron Rapatalo:What I've learned, because I've had to coach myself to do it and others to, like, interview is think like a PowerPoint slide run. Structure like a PowerPoint slide, like PowerPoint deck. Right? Which is not easy because I when I get excited, I'm just on. Even when I talked early, say, the career day, I had a slide deck, but I I feel I'm a lot more in my element when I have the deck as background, and then I'm just sort of reacting to it and sort of feeling the moment.
Dave Delaney:But that's great because like the master communicator secret weapon, that keynote, I did that in front of 600 people. The governor was my opening act. And a group it of like security or it was a group of like health security professionals, but it was a very male testosterone type of group, very kind of blue collar group. And the AV team could not it was the first time ever in fifteen plus years of keynotes and speaking that they could not get the slides to work. And so I had to deliver the hour keynote with no slides, which was fine, because I know the material.
Dave Delaney:It would have been I liked the visual aspects, because I designed my own slides most of the time. So knowing the material, like your point, and using the slides as part of what I do with teaching when I teach presentation skills, because I do a lot of that, or coach people on design present designing presentations and actually delivering the Yeah. That's that's important to to know that material. And, yeah, if you get off script, you get off script.
Ron Rapatalo:Yeah. That's what rehearsing these things like. I think, like, there's so much about, you know, your radio and TV background, the scriptedness of having a PowerPoint or Google Slide or a Canva, right, to know your material so that you then can improv as need be and adjust to the audience. Right? I mean, for me, this is like if I take comedy, are there incredible scripted comedies?
Ron Rapatalo:Yes. You know my favorite one of my favorite modern day comedies of all time will be the most non scripted comedy ever. Curb. Curb Enthusiasm.
Dave Delaney:Oh, absolutely. Yeah. It's amazing. Brilliant.
Ron Rapatalo:Yeah. That's all improv.
Dave Delaney:Yep. It is. It's all improv.
Ron Rapatalo:Yeah. And to think and to do that level of comedy, but it's harder.
Dave Delaney:Right? Yeah.
Ron Rapatalo:And I find, like, this kind of podcast where people's like, this seems effortless, Ron. I'm like, you don't see the thirty years of me interviewing and talking to people? Like, for me, Dave, to go back and forth, and you're an easier guest because you run up, like and you and you just not a talk. Right? This is a thing where it's like, you're the prototypical guest because I could just shoot the shit with you and like, oh, we're almost in an hour.
Ron Rapatalo:I mean, we're at the fifty plus minute point for God's sake. Right? And we just kind of went where we went. Right? But I don't think, like, that's not a lot of people's comfort zone.
Ron Rapatalo:Right? Like I am, I'd like to just be curious. Like, I know questions to ask because in my head of all these decades of interviewing people for various things and having conversations, I just recognize the patterns, sort of the built in rubrics in my head. Like, Yeah. I can tell it to
Dave Delaney:It's from your experience.
Ron Rapatalo:Yeah.
Dave Delaney:Right? Like, it's like, you know, when I listen to like, like a couple things that I go for in my podcast, one, you know, is I want the guest after to say something to the effect of that felt like we were just having a beer. Non alcoholic preferably because I'm five years sober, but but non alcoholic. That's okay. But that felt like having a beer.
Dave Delaney:Or the other one I always go, I hope for, is something I noticed from Terry Gross, who's one of the best, from Fresh Air, the NPR program. And I noticed it listening to her interviews over years that her guests will say something to the effect of, I've never been asked that before. Oh, like something to that effect. And she's able to get a question. Like on my last podcast, I interviewed Richard Turner, who's in his probably 70s, maybe 80s now, who's a completely blind magician.
Dave Delaney:One of the like, he fooled Penn and Teller. He's like an incredible guy. And there's a documentary about him and stuff. And Okay. He's he's one of the best, like, up close magicians, but he's completely blind.
Dave Delaney:And and he does decks of cards, which is crazy.
Ron Rapatalo:Yeah, I know. I gotta find it.
Dave Delaney:Oh, yeah. But but I heard him interviewed on a bunch of podcasts. And for him, was nervous because I'm a magic nerd. Like not that much, but I like magic. And so I was really excited to interview him.
Dave Delaney:And I made it a point to not because I noticed on interviews, and a lot of like actors or famous people do this, is they just recite the same stories always, right? And if you listen to their interview, you'll hear the same anecdotes, the same stories. He was going there and I kept getting him off of it and away from those stories. And afterwards, he was really pleased with the outcome of the interview. He was really thankful because I was like, No, no, no, no.
Dave Delaney:I don't want to hear about the thing I've heard about in every other interview with him. You know? But yeah. No. I love podcasting.
Dave Delaney:Yeah, you're clearly really good at it.
Ron Rapatalo:So, thank you. Well, we're at that time, Dave. So because this is called rounderings, I have to ask you, your roundering, what's the lesson or value you want to share today?
Dave Delaney:I guess from this conversation, I think if you feel that you have ADHD or you think you might, go and see your doctor and get an assessment and get a test. As I mentioned, ask him about it or her about it. But also go to wysquirrels.com and you can try the free assessment there. And again, I don't see the results. So that's a good starting point as well.
Ron Rapatalo:I think there's a lot more of us out there, is what I I find it's like being a part of, if I use my love of Marvel comics, having ADHD formally diagnosed makes me feel like an X Men. It really does.
Dave Delaney:Well, yeah.
Ron Rapatalo:It's both good and bad, right? It's like, I think it's mostly good, but it also comes with things I have to be really conscious of.
Dave Delaney:Yeah. And there's one it's one out of every fifteen and a half Americans at least have ADHD. And that's adults, by the way, and twenty percent don't know they do. Wow. And if you look at like, as I mentioned, life expectancy when you don't know, unfortunately with ADHD, not everybody, of course, but some people are prone to addictions.
Dave Delaney:Some people are prone to anxiety or depression or other comorbidities. You're more impulsive, which can cause you to crash your car more likely. The prison population, I don't know the numbers on it, but my understanding is a huge amount of the prison population are ADHDers undiagnosed or untreated.
Ron Rapatalo:Fascinating, yeah.
Dave Delaney:Yeah, it's very serious. It is something you should take care of. And it's also almost as heritable as height, just about as heritable as height, which means that if one or more of your kids has ADHD, it means that highly likely you or your spouse also has ADHD, which also means one or both of your parents also had or have ADHD, which can then start to help you look at any childhood trauma in a different way, at least with some more empathy. And I should also add that don't listen to the freaks out there like Gabor Mate and others who are dispelling they're sharing disinformation at this point, intentionally telling people that trauma causes ADHD, which is not true at all. ADHDers suffer from trauma?
Dave Delaney:Probably. Apparently, as a kid, hear like 20,000 worse negative feedback from teachers and adults in your life. So we do face not everybody, but people do face trauma, but they don't. The trauma, it doesn't cause the ADHD. It's an irritable thing.
Dave Delaney:The only exception, again, my understanding is that ADHD can be caused by head trauma. But I think that's a pretty small percentage of people. And then also pollution. So if you have lead in your water, or if the mother drinks that and the child is born, they might. But it's largely heritable, most likely heritable.
Dave Delaney:So it's also important to keep that in mind. If, if that's why so many more women are being diagnosed now, because they're taking their kids, the stigmas are thank God being, you know, reduced at least, so that they're taking their kids to get diagnosed or to get tested. They find out they have ADHD. As the mother sometimes the father, but usually the mother as the mother goes through the process, they suddenly hear all of this and go, oh, shit. I have ADHD.
Dave Delaney:And it makes complete sense. So that's why a lot of older or a lot of women now are being diagnosed. And and people aren't being overly diagnosed. It's just we're catching up now.
Ron Rapatalo:Yeah. Well, thank you for your wisdom there, Dave, and sharing that rathering. So before we leave, how do people find you? What would you like to promote? You've been promoting a number of things very organically.
Ron Rapatalo:You know how this goes, right? But I wanted to give you space.
Dave Delaney:Yeah. I mean, people yeah. I mean, you know, if we're listening and talking, if you're here to explore, you know, ADHD or not, check out Wise Squirrels? That's you know, if you wanna check out the podcast, just search ADHD, Wise squirrels? And you'll you'll find it in your podcast player.
Dave Delaney:But that's probably the best place, and you can find the links from there to all the other places. So
Ron Rapatalo:Right. Dave, this is a real pleasure chatting with you. When you get two ADHDers to chat, we could have gone another three hours to be clear. There's so many other things I was gonna ask you, but I'm like, we're just gonna go Part two. And, like, be a part there I think there's gonna need to be a part two.
Ron Rapatalo:I just might need to be a part of wise squirrels, by the way. This what
Dave Delaney:I Absolutely. Yes. I'm gonna have
Ron Rapatalo:you on it. Yeah. For
Dave Delaney:sure. Yeah. I definitely wanna have you on.
Ron Rapatalo:Awesome. Well, in the words of one of my favorite sports heroes that I leave every ROM the Rings podcast, Deion Sanders, with this wisdom and this call out, we always come in hot with amazing guests like Dave Delaney. Peace, y'all. Thanks. Wow.
Ron Rapatalo:What a gift of a conversation. Dave reminded me and hopefully reminded you that so much life is about presence, not the algorithm, not the metrics, not the airbrush version of ourselves online. It's about slowing down, listening deeply, remembering that our quirks, patterns, and squirrel moments actually tell a story about how our brains are wired, that those stories deserve compassion, not judgment. His improv mindset, leading with acceptance, moving through fear, listening with your whole body, that's leadership, that's connection. And his honesty about ADHD, diagnosis, and the learning myths is a reminder when we understand ourselves better, we can love ourselves better.
Ron Rapatalo:If you haven't yet, check out his podcast, Why Squirrels? And take the free assessment at wisesquirrels.com And as always, if this conversation resonated with you, share it with someone who might see themselves in Dave's journey. Thanks for tuning in. Thanks for being part of this community.
Ron Rapatalo:Stay curious. More Ronderings coming your way. Peace. Before we wrap, I've gotta give a huge shout out to the crew that helps make Ronderings come alive every week, podcasts that matter. Their mission, simple but powerful.
Ron Rapatalo:Every great idea deserves a voice. So if you've been sitting on that spark of a show or story, don't overthink it. Just start. Head to podcastmatter.com, and let their team bring your vision to life. Till next time.
Ron Rapatalo:Keep pondering. Keep growing. Keep sharing your voice with the world. Peace. Thank you for listening to today's Rondering.
Ron Rapatalo:I enjoyed hanging out with me and my guests, and I hope you leave with something worth chewing on. If it made you smile, think, or even roll your eyes in a good way, pass it along to someone else. I'm Ron Rapatalo, and until next time:
Ron Rapatalo:keep rondering, keep laughing, and keep becoming.
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