#27 ADHD is my Superpower

Find Your Voice, Change Your Life Podcast 

Podcast Host: Dr. Doreen Downing

Free Guide to Fearless Speaking: Doreen7steps.com

Episode #27 Matt Travis

“ADHD Is My Superpower”

(00:36) Dr. Doreen Downing:

Hi, this is Dr. Doreen Downing, and I am here today with the Find Your Voice, Change Your Life podcast. And before I introduce my guest today, I’d like to thank everyone who’s been going to Apple Podcasts and rating the show giving it fantastic reviews. And I have to say personally, I appreciate everyone saying how empathic I am, and how they feel that my interview style is something that brings out the best in my guests. So, thank you everyone rate and review on Apple Podcasts. And for today’s show, I get to interview Matt Travis, and I’ll say a few things about him first. He’s a rapid transformation hypnotherapist and we can learn more about what that means later. But he also has a Master of Health, a Certified Functional Strength Coach, he’s a Precision Nutrition Pro coach, a Certified Wild Fit coach. And some of these initials I don’t quite understand, but he’ll tell us about them, FMS certified. But this is easy, and a nonstop lifelong learner. Yes, he runs a company called The Potential-U. And that’s a potential dash, the letter U. He runs his company called The Potential-U to help women and mom entrepreneurs transform their subconscious mind, health and business habits to ensure sustainable growth without burnout. That sounds so valuable. And usually by the end of the show, we get back to what you do and how you do it and what people can do to find you. But I always like to start with, since this show is about having lost your voice or feeling like you never had it in the beginning. And then how you found it. However you want to start your story, it would be great. So just give you the platform, Matt. Hello.

(02:45) Matt Travis:

Sure. Thank you so much for having me. It’s such a pleasure and an honor to be on your podcast and you’re just doing such amazing things in this world. So, I really appreciate you allowing me to come on and talk to your audience. So, my name is Matt Travis and I, I feel like this all started at the very beginning for me when I was, you know, a younger child. In elementary school, I had just a lot of learning disabilities. And when you’re consistently pulled out of class, and you feel like there’s something wrong with you like there’s something different, right? I just had all this testing, all these tests done and things like that for my learning disabilities. And I just never, never really understood why. Why I was different, right? Like I couldn’t, I couldn’t understand that. But it definitely affected my self-esteem and believing like I was enough in all these areas, and I had to become like an overachiever in a sense in a lot of these areas so that I could feel like I was like I was enough. So that definitely was the start in the beginning that really massively impacted my comfort level and my ability to speak my truth and get in front of people and, and really find my voice and really what I wanted to do. So, I didn’t later, until I got into the hypnotherapy world, I started to understand that and that really had access to that myself. I didn’t realize for a very long time I thought my brain was broken. And I didn’t I didn’t really verbalize that until I was able to access it at a subconscious level. I didn’t, I didn’t really know that that was something that I internally believed about my brain. And of course, that was probably the main underlying thing for most of my life that really stopped me from really speaking my truth, especially in my earlier days. But as I continued on and you know I went through college and I, you know, I did Health and Physical Education and all that stuff, started to realize part of my voice was through the physical and learning how to move well and teach others how to move well. And that’s really what the FMS, FMS stands for Functional Movement Screen. So, it’s really like, I fell in love with helping people move better, and then move often. And really just find the joy in the love of moving and get out of pain. And what I also realized during that time was a lot of people would get results, and then they wouldn’t keep them. And I’m like, and that would discourage me as a coach. And really, any coach, right? Your job is to help people get results. You’re like, “How come these people are getting results, but they’re not keeping them?” So that was another thing that I, you know, kind of took on myself internally. And I was like, I need to figure this out, I need to figure out like, why do people why does some people get results and keep them? Why do some people, a lot of people, most people don’t. So that’s what led me to the nutrition world and getting all those certifications, I was like, that’s got to be the thing. And I was wrong, because that doesn’t actually just makes it even harder for people. But then I started to get into the mindset world, and then more importantly, the subconscious, and really understanding and learning what stops us from actually finding our voice, what stops us from speaking our truth, what stops us from taking action and getting results and actually keeping those results over the long term. And when I found that, I feel like I really truly found my voice in that because I started to realize, wow, I actually have a really powerful key that can help people break through anything that they want. But more importantly, just feel more confident in themselves. And that can lead them to, of course, finding their voice as well, right?

(06:57) Dr. Doreen Downing:

Yes. Oh, my goodness, what a story. Usually I have you stop and just stay with that early life experience. But just the whole movement from having been a young boy to this discovery of the deeper reasons why something gets lodged in our unconscious or subconscious and stays for so long. And throughout life. And I’m so glad you’re here today because people need to wake up that it’s not just about learning how to give a better speech, or, hey, you can be confident and just push, push, push, do the fear, or, you know, whatever it is do it.

(07:40) Matt Travis:

Yeah, “feel the fear and do it anyways.” Yeah, totally.

(07:42) Dr. Doreen Downing:

Yeah, feel the fear, it’s doing the fear. But you know, it’s not, I’m, I’m, again, really happy that I get to talk to you, because my whole background is psychology and the underlying patterns that get developed really, really early. So, I would like to go back to that though.

(8:02) Matt Travis:

Oh, absolutely.

(8:04) Dr. Doreen Downing:

Because what you said, Oh, my goodness. And you didn’t even know at a young age that you were making a tape inside of your brain that I—“my brain is broken.” And I have interviewed several people on this podcast who have had a learning challenges, learning, you know, I guess they call them disabilities. But let’s just say challenges. Because in some ways, those challenges are still part of you that may be able to help you be totally different than anybody else. And it’s like we make it less than rather than something that has a unique characteristic a unique quality. So, I guess that’s what I’d like to just think back and see if you have anything to offer about how did that even though you were comparing yourself to others, and kind of wondering what the heck is this all about? And why me? Did you ever? Or now that you look back, do you see that it provided you with a unique point of view or unique opportunities?

(09:13) Matt Travis:

Absolutely. Yeah, I you know, I think of my ADHD sometimes as my superpower. Because, you know, I’m able, the thing with me is I focus on everything. So, I have learned over this period of time, how to, I don’t even want to use the word “cope,” I think more just utilize my strengths and improve on my weaknesses. And really step into the things that make me unique, and the things that I can actually help others with. Because I mean, like you said so many other people struggle with these learning disabilities and learning challenges. And, you know, we’re all on some kind of spectrum of learning, right? Like we all and we all learn differently as well. And we all have different experiences and perceptions and interpretations of what that is. So, I feel like in the early days, I definitely felt self-conscious about having to be pulled out and having to get tested and all these things and being in learning center and all that stuff. And yet, I also feel like it pushed me, like it lit a fire, there was a drive behind it. I remember my, my high school counselor told me, he was like, you know, “your LSAT scores aren’t great, I think you’d probably be lucky to get into college.” And it’s not a great thing to tell a kid. But I was like, “You can’t tell me what I can and can’t do.” And so I ended up getting into college, and I went to college. And ironically, the person there as well was like, you know, “we take 16 out of the 100 people in the Health and Physical Education Department. So, you’d be lucky to get into the program.” I’m like, “you can’t tell me what I can and cannot do.” And then even at the end of it, they were like, “you’d be lucky to get a job out of school. Because you know, it’s kind of tricky.” We, you know, I was coming out in between 2006, 2007, 2008. Like, those were the time periods when I was coming out. And, you know, I ended up getting a teaching job right out of the gate. And it really helped me visualize one of the most profound lessons in my life, which was, you should never accept a diagnosis that doesn’t empower you. And that really stuck with me in a massive way.

(11:48) Dr. Doreen Downing:

Oh, say it one more time, please. Say it one more time.That’s powerful. I love it.

(11:52) Matt Travis:

You should never accept a diagnosis that doesn’t empower you. A lot of times, we are told what we can’t do, or what’s not for us, or, you know, there’s a lot of people that put their stuff on you, right? Your perceptions, their perceptions, and interpretations of what you can and can’t do. And if you buy that as truth, right, if you take it as truth, whether it’s an actual diagnosis of something like ADHD, or something like that, or anything in life, if you accept it as truth, that it will be a truth. But you get to decide, right? It’s mostly interpretations, folks. So, I realized, you know what, I’m not ever going to let somebody I’m never going to be the victim. I’m never going to let somebody tell me what I can’t do.

(12:40) Dr. Doreen Downing:

Fabulous. This is so inspirational, I’m sure, for people who are listening. And so, you do coaching? Is that what you do? Tell us more about what you’re currently, how you’re using your voice now, currently.

(12:55) Matt Travis:

Yeah, so like I said, I gotten in the fitness world, and I ended up opening up a fitness facility. And I ran that for six years, but I really felt like there was something more. I was like, I was looking for the thing that lit me up. But you know, my voice, right? So, I fell in love with nutrition and fitness and all those things. But I really fell in love with helping people shift these, you know, internal beliefs, the, you know, the identity, the beliefs, the values, the patterns, the habits, all of this internal stuff that actually allows us to shift and get our results that we that we want. And, most importantly, keep them because what’s the point of getting them if you can’t keep them? Right? So, I decided, you know, I really, when I was running my fitness facility, I had a lot of moms in there. And I just fell in love with helping a mom get healthy and happy. It should there’s something unique about I, I’ve worked with hundreds and hundreds of moms, and I feel like they’re like the linchpin of the family. And you know, and they tell you this when you get married too, they’re like, “happy wife, happy life,” that’s what they told me when I was on my honeymoon on the island. They’re like, “happy wife, happy life, man.” And I think that’s one of the most true statements, I took that belief as true. And it has served me very well. Because when mom’s healthy and happy, there’s just a ripple effect throughout the rest of the family. You know, there really is and there’s just something, there’s something that lights me up about helping moms. And so that’s kind of like what I stepped into. And then I just started to realize, you know, I can help moms get healthy and happy. And I’ve also just learned how to build, you know, a six figure plus business and I was like, why wouldn’t I help you know, mom entrepreneurs as well and help them really step into like, what it takes at a subconscious level to actually build this and make it work for them in an authentic way, rather than… so my thing is “helping align your mind with the life plan you design,” so it’s helping them put those pieces together. Because a lot of times people pick a plan, right? So, they pick a diet, they pick an exercise plan, or they pick a business strategy, and they start trying to do it. And then they stop. Why? Well, their mind was not aligned with that plan, it wasn’t set up. So, we need to create the plan that’s right for you. And get your mind, both conscious and subconscious, on board. You put those together, wrap it in a bow, you have a really massively, massively powerful transformational tool.

(15:37) Dr. Doreen Downing:

What a great visual. Can you say that one again? Get your mind…

(15:41) Matt Travis:

Yeah, so “align your mind with the life plan you design.”

(15:48) Dr. Doreen Downing:

That’s it.

(15:49) Matt Travis:

So I started to realize it’s really about getting your– it’s all about getting your mind on board with the plan that you’ve either chosen or you’ve designed yourself. I recommend people design their own plan, like I’m not a fan of diets, like because the diet is not specific to you. Like it doesn’t work, right. Same with exercise programs. And I mean, just being an entrepreneur for 12 years, like I, I’ve watched so many people searching for that strategy, right? The magic bullet, like, this is the thing that’s going to get me clients, this is the thing that’s going to build my business. And I’m like, well, it’s really you have to choose the thing you’re going to do and be consistent with, right? You’re going to be persistent and consistent with this particular way of connecting with people. And for me, I’ve just, I’ve fallen in love with speaking. Like, it’s my favorite, favorite, favorite way to connect with people. Because you get to really get on, get on a level with people, and you can tell stories, and you can help them make those shifts they want to make.

(16:56) Dr. Doreen Downing:

Well, you’re definitely– and I’m sure that people can hear the resonance in your voice and the joy in your voice. But I get to also look at you and this video is going to be on YouTube. So, people will get to see your warmth and your smile and how just being in your presence can help people I’m sure. So how do– if there’s something more you want to say about your experience? If not, then I’d love to have some way that people can find you.

(17:27) Matt Travis:

Yeah, absolutely. I think the last thing I’ll leave you with is just like, what you’re doing here with helping people find their voice, I mean, this, this is everything. What you’re doing is it’s everything. It’s like, I find so many people come to me for whether it’s weight loss, or business or whatever. But it’s really the feeling and thing that they’re trying to have, right the experience they’re trying to have. So, when you’re out there, folks, and you’re like, you know, I want to lose weight, I want to do this or– ask yourself, what is the thing that you actually are, what is the feeling you’re trying to have? What’s the experience that you’re trying to have, because it’s usually you just want to feel more confident and happy. And you want to be living in your authentic truth, like you want to be doing what you’re on this planet for right? Living in your dharma. And when you find that, never stop. Keep going because when you find that, you will, you’ll find your voice like it’ll, it’s just it’s hiding right in there right in that space. And I just love that you’re bringing so many people on to share their stories so that people may find a piece to that truth within the stories that you have people share. So, I absolutely love that. And I’m super grateful to be here and if you feel like, folks, that you want to have a conversation with me and want to chat you know, you can connect with me on any of the social media at the potential you and its POTENTIAL-U, and you can always connect with me on LinkedIn or Facebook as well, Matt Travis, and you can go to WWW.THEPOTENTIAL-U.COM and you can jump on a breakthrough transformation session and see what you really, what you need to be doing in order to shift that and step into your power.

(19:19) Dr. Doreen Downing:

Breakthrough transformation. I think that just listening to you, people get a sense that it is possible just by listening to you so why not get closer to you and but their full body and unconscious mind with you. And liberation, I think is what I felt that what I, when you were talking about when people find their voice, its freedom and in just being with you today in watching you I think that’s what you inspire is people waking up and being free to be who they are.

(19:55) Matt Travis:

Yes, exactly.

(19:57) Dr. Doreen Downing:

Yes. All right. Matt. Yeah, it’s a wrap. Thank you so much.

(20:03) Matt Travis:

Thank you.