From Healing to Helping with Matt Raekelboom

May 10

For the next few weeks, we’ll be talking with ADHD influencers. You might have seen them on YouTube or TikTok or Instagram talking about their experiences with ADHD — we want to talk with them about their experience leading them to become creators.

Kicking off this series we welcome Matt Raekelboom. Matt’s a Toronto-based influencer predominantly on TikTok and Instagram sharing his tools and strategies around ADHD, fitness, and healthy living with his 300,000 followers. What you don’t get if you just stumble across Matt’s one-minute videos, though, is any taste of the long road he had to take to get it posted.

He was an ADHD kid of the 80s, when we were wandering the wilderness of ADHD and medication, and ended up over-medicated and misunderstood. He battled substance abuse and homelessness, but regained his footing with an explosive passion for discovery of how his ADHD had played a part in all his troubles, and how it would play a part in his future successes, too.

You can find Matt on Instagram and TikTok, naturally, and check out his community at Journey2ADHD.

Pete Wright:
Hello everybody, and welcome to Taking Control: The ADHD podcast on TruStory FM. I'm Pete Wright, and I'm here with Nikki Kinzer.

Nikki Kinzer:
And I would just like to introduce you as Sicky Pete.

Pete Wright:
I know what you're trying to do, but you know it's not as good as just Sicky.

Nikki Kinzer:
Sicky. Sicky Pete.

Pete Wright:
No, yours is better. I see what you're trying to do. It's a whole rubber and glue thing.

Nikki Kinzer:
No, I like Sicky Pete.

Pete Wright:
It's been a hard five days, Nikki.

Nikki Kinzer:
Sounds like it.

Pete Wright:
I don't care for being sick, and you know what it is? It's just because when you haven't been sick for a very long time at all-

Nikki Kinzer:
It hits you.

Pete Wright:
It hits so hard. And I thought I was sick last weekend when my son got sick, but it turns out, that was allergies. When I started taking my Flonase again-

Nikki Kinzer:
You were fine.

Pete Wright:
Everything was fine. Everything was fine.

Nikki Kinzer:
Oh no.

Pete Wright:
So yes, it's really stinky. And-

Nikki Kinzer:
Do you want me to do this? Do you want me to do the introduction?

Pete Wright:
Just the whole thing?

Nikki Kinzer:
I can try.

Pete Wright:
This would be an unprecedented.

Nikki Kinzer:
I can try.

Pete Wright:
You know what?

Nikki Kinzer:
My top self.

Pete Wright:
I'm going to let you do it. All right. I'll let you do it. I bow to you.

Nikki Kinzer:
I'm taking over for Sicky Pete. Here we go. Hello everybody, and welcome to Taking Control: The ADHD Podcast on TruStory FM. I'm Nikki Kinzer and over there is Pete Wright.

Pete Wright:
You know what? This is all broken. Let's just go into the other thing. It's too weird. It's just too weird.

Nikki Kinzer:
All right, we tried.

Pete Wright:
Look, we have a great conversation today. We're starting our series on ADHD influencers and I feel like this conversation started maybe with Aaron Croft in my head because we're talking about people who are turning their experience with ADHD in some way, shape, or form into a platform to help and inform others with ADHD across the social media landscape. And today's guest is super charming, a lot of energy. His name is Matt Raekelboom and he's so nice. So nice. He's a good Canadian guy.

Nikki Kinzer:
He is lovely.

Pete Wright:
He is really lovely. So we're going to kick off this series with Matt in just a minute. But before we do that, head over to takecontroladhd.com and get to know us a little bit better. You can listen to the show right there on the website or subscribe to the mailing list right there on the homepage and you'll get an email with the latest episode each week. You can connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest at Take Control ADHD but to really connect with us, join the ADHD Discord community. It's super easy to jump into the general community chat channel. Just visit take controladhd.com/discord and you will be whisked over to the general invitation and login. If you're looking for a little bit more, particularly if the show has ever touched you or helped you to understand your relationship with ADHD in a new way, we invite you to support the show directly through Patreon.
Patreon is listener-supported podcasting. For a few bucks a month, you can help guarantee that we continue to grow this show, add new features, new podcasts, invest more heavily in our community. Visit patreon.com/TheADHDPodcast to learn more. Thank you everybody who joined during our pledge drive a couple of months ago. We have launched the placeholder podcast, we have launched Coaching with Nikki, we have launched Coffee with Pete. We have... What else have we launched? Accountability Anchors are out, but the accountability sessions that are being run by you and by Melissa in the community. We have so much going on now, and it is really thanks to your support in this community. So if you want to help and get a little back in return, jump in patreon.com/TheADHDPodcast. Do we have any other news?

Nikki Kinzer:
Nope. I think we're ready to go.

Pete Wright:
All right. Let's call Matt. Matt? Matt Raekelboom is an ADHD positive online influencer, public speaker, and the founder of The Journey to ADHD online platform. He's got over 300,000 total followers and he's out to teach those in need how to smile again, even when their minds can be their biggest competitor. Kicking off our series on ADHD influencers, we can't think of a better place to start than right here. Matt, welcome to the ADHD podcast.

Matt Raekelboom:
Thank you so much guys. It's a real honor to be here.

Pete Wright:
Thrilled to have you on the show.

Nikki Kinzer:
Yes. Thrilled to have you. And we know you're in Canada. We figured that out.

Matt Raekelboom:
Yeah.

Nikki Kinzer:
So tell us, I want to learn a little bit more about you. When were you diagnosed? What was your journey to get where you are today?

Matt Raekelboom:
Interesting. So to get started, I had the very, very typical hyperactive male diagnosis rate. I got diagnosed when I was 12 years old and instantly back in the early 2000s. That was the time when medication was the one and true answer and that was it. They were sitting there with a slingshot ready for me to launch it into my mouth. And I had the typical upbringing of, I believe, somebody in the early 2000s with that fresh diagnosis. I got put into special education right away. I grew up in a very, very small town as well, so information was very, very limited to us. I grew up in a town of 4,000 people. My school had 400 people. So to have any bit of a different label on me back then, it was interesting. My special education class had seven kids total throughout the entire school. I grew up with that feeling of being very singled out as a child.

Nikki Kinzer:
I was going to say, that had to have been just awful, to put it bluntly. And the way that I relate to that is I had speech therapy growing up. And I remember being in elementary school and I lived in a very small town. And being in elementary school and the speech therapist would pull me out of class so we could do our therapy sessions. And I thought that was awful. I can't.

Pete Wright:
Yeah. Right. That's the end.

Nikki Kinzer:
That's just this short little period of time during the day. So yeah, that had to have been an interesting... Did that go through... Because I know Canada is a little bit different in their school system. Did that go all the way through high school too or?

Matt Raekelboom:
Oh yeah, absolutely, it did because I was in the educational system that I was. Or not the system but more so the classes. I was advised to my parents to not put me in either applied or academic courses in high school. I was put in special education without an option throughout my whole high school career even, to the point where I was still learning auditioned and subtraction in math and grade 12.

Nikki Kinzer:
Wow.

Matt Raekelboom:
And that was one of the more interesting things that I loved to speak about because I was insanely good. I think I had a 98 average and everyone was like, "No, no, no, you still have a broken brain. You still have"-

Pete Wright:
Wow.

Matt Raekelboom:
All of this going on." And I was like, "Okay, I guess so." I went through the typical thing of being a child, all of these adults telling me I am special needs. So I believed it and I think that was the toughest part. The other side, of course, just talking about the speech therapy thing, my God, you know what was the worst thing that... I don't know if school systems do this today. I actually have no idea but they used to announce it.

Nikki Kinzer:
Oh geez.

Matt Raekelboom:
They used to be like, "All right, everybody pull out your pens and papers. We're going to do an exam except for you, you, and you. You're going to get up and go to an easier classroom."

Nikki Kinzer:
Wowie.

Pete Wright:
Wow.

Matt Raekelboom:
Okay.

Nikki Kinzer:
I don't think that they announce it, but I will tell you, there's still very much a stigma because my daughter's 16 and she did not want the extra time on tests. And she didn't want to have to go into a different room to take a test because there is that singling out of feeling like something's wrong or something's different.

Pete Wright:
That's really interesting too, though, because in our experience, both of my kids had accommodations and had the extra time. But one of the things that the advisors said is, "We're going to give you these accommodations. The lesson you're going to need to learn is to advocate for yourself. We're not going to call you out, we're not going to just assume you're going to go to a different place. You're going to have to tell us when you need the time and a half on assignments. You're going to have to tell us if it's a test that you feel like you're going to need help on." And that, I think, taught the kids some really interesting lessons. They totally screwed up by not wanting to be embarrassed several times and eventually just got completely over that. They were like, "Okay, this is a test. I need to have a hundred percent attention as close to a hundred percent as I can muster. I'm going to the testing center and I don't care what it looks like." I just that is so interesting how tides change.

Nikki Kinzer:
Mm-hmm, Mm-hmm.

Matt Raekelboom:
Absolutely. I've talked about this very seriously for a long time where I believe people that were born in the eighties and nineties. I think we actually got the hardest time growing up with ADHD compared to anybody else because that was when ADHD really started to be known.

Pete Wright:
Yeah. There's no question.

Matt Raekelboom:
And unfortunately... And nobody knew what it was. Everyone just knew that, "Oh my God, that guy has ADHD. Get away from him." You might catch the ADHD if you-

Nikki Kinzer:
And it was all boys, it was never girls. And so, yeah. Yeah.

Matt Raekelboom:
It was insane amounts of just boys and only the hyperactive boys too, of course. I always call myself the poster child for hyperactive ADHD kids because I definitely was. But it was so interesting that they would say, "Okay, guys, group projects." And it was like being picked last for kickball. Nobody would come near me because they were like, "Oh, he's got ADHD. Better get away from him." And it made me feel... I believe that you guys could definitely relate to this, but the number one thing that I always tell people with ADHD is we have that stigma of feeling very alone.

Pete Wright:
Yeah.

Matt Raekelboom:
Nobody wants to work with you, nobody wants to know anything about you. Everyone just goes, "Oh, he has ADHD so he's just going to vibrate off the walls and never stop talking." And that's not ADHD.

Pete Wright:
Right.

Nikki Kinzer:
So you're a social media influencer. This is so exciting and I had a chance.

Matt Raekelboom:
[inaudible 00:10:23].

Nikki Kinzer:
Yeah. And I'll be honest. I don't follow you but that is not anything to do with you. It's just that I don't follow much of anyone on it and that's my age group showing me my age, right? I was born earlier than the eighties and the nineties. But I had a chance to look at what you're doing Matt and it is fabulous. And I love the authenticity that you're putting out there. You're so real, you're so vulnerable and you're really inspiring. This last post that I saw was like, you're not alone. You're going to be okay, you're going to get through this. And I think there's so many people that do need to hear that. And I'm really curious. How did this begin? Where did you start? Did you go out thinking this is the message I wanted to have or what?

Pete Wright:
And do I want to be the messenger?

Nikki Kinzer:
Yeah. Yeah, because you're the messenger, for sure.

Matt Raekelboom:
So if I can give you guys a little bit of background as to why I believe there is nobody more passionate than I am. And I'm very, very strong on that opinion. To give you a little bit of background. I was heavily medicated as a young child. Not even just normally medicated, I was given almost double the legal dose because my parents referred to my ADHD medication as the miracle drug.

Nikki Kinzer:
Oh.

Matt Raekelboom:
And whenever I showed one more symptom, if I gave my dad any back talk, if I didn't do a chore, they went to my psychologist to up the dosage. He's showing again.

Nikki Kinzer:
Wow.

Matt Raekelboom:
And I think I had a psychologist that was very okay doing that, to the point where by the end of it, I was on about 90 milligrams of Adderall.

Pete Wright:
Oh God, man.

Matt Raekelboom:
For those that are listening, if you don't know, at least in Canada, I believe the legal limit is around 45 milligrams.

Pete Wright:
And how old were you at this time when you were at your peak?

Matt Raekelboom:
I was probably around 16, 17 years old.

Pete Wright:
Good Lord, man.

Nikki Kinzer:
Wow.

Matt Raekelboom:
Yeah. And the thing that it taught me was one of two things. And by the way, I am not anti-medication. I want to put that out on the line right away. I talk very highly of medication but not in my circumstance as to what I'm about to explain. Medication taught me at a young age that my parents would only accept me, my friends would only accept me, if I took the pills, if I took the substance that made me likable. That was my normal people pill. I got to go out and I got to experience life and sniff air outside as long as I have this pill in my system. The other thing that it taught me was that there was no such thing as getting this on my own. There was no such thing as feeling comfortable without it. And that was all fine and dandy until truthfully speaking, until I got into the teenage years of finding alcohol, finding marijuana, and finding that much more.
And a big thing that happened to me very early on, living in a small town with not a lot to do with a bunch of kids that also had not a lot to do, we found our substances early. We found that kind of lifestyle early. And I realized that when I drink this liquor, when I smoke this thing, when I do these things, everybody likes me that much more. So there's another outlet that I can go to that isn't medication. And I always had parents that said, "No, you're not going to do sports. No, you can't play video games. Video games break your mind." They took away the stimulants that could have actually helped me now that we know what we know today. And I found my stimulants in ways that parents couldn't say no to and it was fantastic. That led me into a life of very, very tough drug addiction, food addiction, alcoholism, nicotine addiction. I was at a point where I used to drink about a bottle of whiskey at night by the time I turned 19 and I smoked about a pack and a half of cigarettes a day.

Pete Wright:
Well, you got to see too just how the... And heavy air quotes. The support system starting when you were a small child in school, like pulling you out, isolating you, all of those things that were purported to help actually avalanche, right? It creates this avalanche to this teenager and young adult that ends up having nowhere else to go but rebellion.

Matt Raekelboom:
That's exactly it. We were talking about your kids earlier and how they got all these accommodations. I got a laptop.

Pete Wright:
Yeah.

Matt Raekelboom:
And I did what any other kid with ADHD did at the time. I loaded StarCraft onto it when no one was looking and I'd play video games for most of the [inaudible 00:14:26].

Pete Wright:
Absolutely.

Matt Raekelboom:
Hundred percent. But nobody knew how to block video games back then. It was awesome.

Pete Wright:
My God, man.

Matt Raekelboom:
It was one of the simplest things but it brought me to this world where everybody isolated me and where everybody didn't accept me. Everybody did the second that I took a shot. Everybody did the second that I became the kid that always smelled like smoke, that was always partying, that was always doing something. And it led me to a very, very tough life where I gained over a hundred pounds after high school.

Nikki Kinzer:
And you talk about this journey because I've seen it-

Pete Wright:
A lot.

Nikki Kinzer:
On your social media too. So you talk about this weight loss as well, right? Yeah.

Matt Raekelboom:
I absolutely do. And if anybody goes on my Instagram, I'm very open about this. I have tons of before and after pictures of just how different my face looked, how different my body looked. To this day, I've lost over 80 pounds. I'm completely sober. I live a very, very good life and this all started the day that I learned about ADHD. Because what was interesting is even though I had the diagnosis... I don't know if you guys hear this a lot. But my favorite thing to tell people is medication is very different than education towards ADHD.

Nikki Kinzer:
Ooh, I like that because a lot of times people will say medication... What will they say? It doesn't teach the skill, right? Or whatever they're saying about that-

Matt Raekelboom:
Absolutely.

Nikki Kinzer:
But I haven't heard that. It doesn't give you the education. That is really good.

Matt Raekelboom:
Yeah. To be perfectly honest, I don't know if I made it up or not. One day I just started saying it and I was like [inaudible 00:15:55].

Nikki Kinzer:
We're going to say you made it up.

Matt Raekelboom:
All right. I'm into it because I really like saying that.

Pete Wright:
Yeah, no, it's really good. In fact, I just put it on a T-shirt and it's cited to you.

Nikki Kinzer:
Yes.

Matt Raekelboom:
Amazing. Well, yes. Education over medication I believe is so unbelievably important. And the number one thing that you could tell all parents and people in their early twenties today are I believe the people that need to be affected by that the most. And the day that I did this, I could tell you where I was, what I was wearing, and what job I was doing and what I was doing in that job.

Pete Wright:
Well, then tell us. I want to hear all that.

Nikki Kinzer:
Well yeah, I want to know now.

Matt Raekelboom:
I was in landscape architecture and that was where I found myself after many failed jobs but we can get into that later on if we have time. But I found landscaping as a way to just make me happy, at least to get through until I got to go home and get messed up again. But there was one day where I was looking for my 1780th diet to go on. And here I am, I was 260 pounds, really, really not happy with life, not in a good situation. I was borderline hoarder. I had moldy food everywhere around my bedroom, clothing all over the ground, the typical failing mindset type of human being. And I found actually Faster Than Normal with Peter Shankman, if you ever have ever seen that before.

Nikki Kinzer:
Yep.

Matt Raekelboom:
Before I found Faster Than Normal, I found Peter on a random podcast. I can't tell you what the podcast was, which is very upsetting but it was diet and ADHD. And I went, "What? I'm the only person with ADHD. Why are they talking about it?" And that was actually my mindset.

Nikki Kinzer:
Really?

Matt Raekelboom:
I never met someone in my entire life with ADHD and I was about 23 in this.

Nikki Kinzer:
Wow. Were you still in the same little hometown?

Matt Raekelboom:
I was, yeah. I actually was up until last year.

Nikki Kinzer:
Yeah. Yeah. I just asked because it would feel more like that if you were in a small town that you really probably... It's truth you felt like you were the only one. That makes sense.

Matt Raekelboom:
Absolutely. My parents were told that I was broken, so they went, "Hey, you're broken." And I went, "Okay." And I accepted it in my life. But the day that I heard that, I listened to this because I was like, "What does ADHD have to do with diet?" And I can't tell you perfectly what was in this podcast. But the thing that I kept noticing that Peter Shankman would say is he kept saying, "ADHD can be amazing." And I kept saying what everybody else with ADHD says. They go, "How dare you? How dare you say that something that has ruined my life and made me so isolated and so uncomfortable. How dare you say that this can be a great thing, that this can create some of the greatest entrepreneurs in history, that this can create such an unbelievable mindset, give you the ability to not only obtain but retain more information than the average human being. How can you say these things?"
But while I said, how dare you, I listened to him a little bit more. And I looked up his name and I found his podcast, which was phenomenal. And I listened to, I think, every episode. He had over a hundred episodes at the time. And I listened to, I think, every episode in five days. I was not sleeping, I was not eating, I wasn't doing anything else but just listening to other people talk about ADHD. And I went, "Oh my God. I think there's a way to not be such a terrible human being." And I don't mean to say that in an invalidating way but I truly saw myself as that. I saw myself as just somebody living until I die.

Nikki Kinzer:
Wow.

Matt Raekelboom:
And it's very upsetting to hear but that is truly my mentality. And I started focusing on my ADHD... And I'm sorry if I'm dragging on.

Nikki Kinzer:
No, it's great. You're keep going. This is why you're here.

Matt Raekelboom:
Thanks. I started focusing on my habit formation, I started focusing on little things like they said, "Make your bed." Because as we all know, it's not about the habit you complete. It's about the fact that you completed the habit. And I love those kind of sayings. And those kind of things can create your dopamine, they can create your serotonin. So all of a sudden, girlfriend at the time had no interest in caring about any of this. And I went, "I got to make our bed" and she'd be like, "What for?" And I'd be like, "I don't know but I'm going to do it." And I started doing that and I started doing five pushups in the morning and five sit-ups. And just instead of the double Big Mac that I would eat at McDonald's every single day, I switched over to a Big Mac, and then I switched over to a chicken burger.
And then I just started looking for positives in my diet in any way possible. Instead of Coca-Cola, I changed over to energy drinks. And even though that is not a healthy alternative, it had caffeine so it just kind of boosted me. And I was like, "Oh, caffeine can help the brain. So yeah, sure. Why not?" And the day that changed my life, guys... I can get into the story way deeper, but the day that changed my life was the day that I accidentally fell asleep sober. It was my first day in probably five or six years of actually being loaded every day of my life. And I fell asleep sober while I was getting ready to actually do some MDMA with my girlfriend at the time. It was just something we did to be happy at night. And I was just fine not getting messed up to go to sleep. I was like, "Hey, before we get messed up, let me stretch first. Let me change my clothing, let me do some deep breathing." And then I fell asleep and she didn't wake me up.

Nikki Kinzer:
Wow.

Matt Raekelboom:
And the next morning, I woke up and I looked in the mirror and I saw the acne on my face and I saw the shape that I was. As I said, I had gained over a hundred pounds since high school. And I never knew. I never thought about it, I never cared about it. I just saw myself progress and that was it. And I looked at myself and I went, "Something's here and something can be different." And that was the day I actually left that girlfriend we had a house together, we had a dog together we bought all of our furniture, all of our everything. And I said, "I'm leaving. I don't want to do this and I need to change my life. And I don't know how and I'm changing everything about it."

Nikki Kinzer:
Wow.

Matt Raekelboom:
At the time, I didn't have a good relationship with my family. I didn't really have any friends left because I stole from each one of them and I did some pretty terrible things. So I left to be homeless. I left the home that I had and just said, "I'm going to live in my car until I can save up enough money to buy an apartment." And I went and got a gym membership and I did that so that I could park outside of the gym and use their free wifi and go walk on the treadmill so I could watch TV every so often and shower. And for those that are-

Nikki Kinzer:
How long did you do that for?

Matt Raekelboom:
I actually can't give you an exact amount but I know it was at least over a month.

Nikki Kinzer:
Wow.

Matt Raekelboom:
And I had my dog with me at the time, the girl didn't want the dog.

Pete Wright:
How was your relationship with substances? Were you able to bid adieu of the molly and the alcohol? This is when that transition happened?

Matt Raekelboom:
So this is when the transition happened and I decided to do the worst thing in the world. And I'm telling everybody that will be listening to this, do not do what I did, but I decided to stop everything cold turkey.

Pete Wright:
Oh man.

Matt Raekelboom:
I stopped my medication for ADHD, I stopped MDMA, I stopped cocaine, I stopped whiskey, I stopped smoking cigarettes. I developed [inaudible 00:22:35].

Pete Wright:
Meanwhile, kidneys and liver turn inside out.

Matt Raekelboom:
Yep.

Pete Wright:
In a number of weeks.

Matt Raekelboom:
Yep. And for that next month I sat there in my vehicle that I had and I twitched and I sweat and-

Pete Wright:
Good Lord.

Matt Raekelboom:
My dog. And the one thing that I had though, being a millennial, the one thing that I had even being a homeless person was obviously I still had a cell phone with a decent data plan.

Nikki Kinzer:
Right.

Pete Wright:
Yeah. [inaudible 00:22:57] From your cold dead hands, right?

Matt Raekelboom:
Yep. And what I did during that time was I started Googling, why am I sweating? Why am I twitching? Why am I freaking out right now? Why does it feel so empty? Why is life not worth living right now? And the one thing that I realized after doing all of this was there was an answer for absolutely anything if I looked hard enough. And that was the day that sparked in my head. I went, "Holy crap. I actually think I'm not a dumb person." That was the day where I went, "I'm starting to learn things about myself. I'm starting to figure things out." And I started learning what food that I could eat on a very budget-restricted diet with no help from a kitchen. And I started just learning about addiction and I started learning about all these things. Now, wait a second. This correlates perfectly with ADHD. And then I started just Googling, why does ADHD do this? And I found all of those really, really rough to read black and white articles that were everywhere. That I just started reading. And I developed a hyper-fixation that, to this day, I study for over an hour a day, every day. And I've been doing this, again, since I was about 23. So I'm 29 now, so about six years of studying one hour a day.
And I learned that I knew more than the average person, which was very, very interesting to me. And when I started learning about the brain, before I started caring about fitness, before I started caring about health in total, I lost over 50 pounds, which taught me two things. It taught me that, number one, my body was never meant to be as big as it was. And number two, it taught me that, wow, my brain had so much to do with the bad things that were going on in my life.
From doing this, I continued to landscape. I actually ended up owning a franchise for a little while, which was fantastic. I was very, very proud of that. And I decided to take everything into the next levels which is where I wanted to start helping other people. I wanted to start teaching people just about things I read on the internet and that was almost the way that I described it. I started helping people for free. I started just saying, anybody who wants to... I had local groups, local Facebook groups for just my small county. And I'd be like, "If anybody has a kid with ADHD can I just tell you about what happened to me? And if anybody wants help losing weight, I'll help you for free. I'll go running with you. I'll do whatever for free." And I just started helping people to the point where I had over 35 weekly clients that would talk to me. When I say clients, I just mean people I talk to for free. I just had fun with it.
I couldn't put them down. I couldn't stop talking to them. I was talking to them at two in the morning and then waking up at six for work. And while that was not healthy to do, I just loved it. I loved talking to people, I loved doing all this kind of stuff. And I swear to God, the story is almost done. But what ended up happening to me next is I said, "I want to try and do this full time. I want to see if I can turn this into a career." So I decided to get into the health and fitness industry and I decided to try and help people with no degree to teach people about diet and exercise. And that was a terrible idea but I did it anyways.

Nikki Kinzer:
Got to try it.

Matt Raekelboom:
I went out with a good friend of mine. I went and traveled. For the first time in my entire life, I went and traveled. I finally took time to do something for myself. And for an entire week, I went down to British Columbia, which is the most beautiful place in all of Canada. And I went hiking and I went running down there and I met up with a friend of mine who actually does course creation for a lot of big coaches out there in the world. He works heavily in the fitness industry and the mental health industry, all that kind of stuff. And him and I just had a long, long talk. And I told him about everything that I do. And he said, "Can I be honest with you, Matt?" And I went, "Yes, of course." And he went, "I do not care about your health and diet tips." [inaudible 00:26:35]

Pete Wright:
Good morning, humiliation.

Matt Raekelboom:
My heart dropped out of me and I felt so upset, but he said, "Can I tell you what you don't realize that you keep talking about?" And I went, "Yeah, sure." And he said, "You keep mentioning ADHD. You keep talking about your ADHD." And I go, "Yeah, but nobody cares about ADHD so that's why I talk about health and fitness." And he went, "I think if you talked, somebody would care."

Nikki Kinzer:
Oh, for sure.

Matt Raekelboom:
I went home from BC and I decided to join this random thing called TikTok. Literally didn't even have the app before this night. And I heard TikTok was a great organic place to reach people, to get to talk to people, get to do all this kind of stuff. So I made a video and it was the first video that I ever created and I talked about ADHD and why it can be a superpower and not a curse, provided that we put in the work. I said, "Do you guys not realize how amazing your brain can be if you do these things? I've been in a bad place and I promise you can get out of it." And while I'll be honest, looking back at it. it was a very invalidating video. I was very blunt about it because of how strong opinionated I was at the time. I went to bed with that video at 90 views. And here I am going, "Wow, 90 views. That's that organic reads that people are talking about. 90 people read my message. That is so cool." And I woke up the next morning at 180,000 views on that video.

Nikki Kinzer:
Wow.

Matt Raekelboom:
And to this day, that video exploded so much that I got over 2.2 million views on the first video with the first message and the first minute of anything I ever tried to do.

Nikki Kinzer:
Wow.

Pete Wright:
Wow.

Matt Raekelboom:
And the reason why-

Nikki Kinzer:
Someone's listening.

Matt Raekelboom:
Yeah. Someone.

Nikki Kinzer:
A lot. A lot. Yeah. Yeah.

Matt Raekelboom:
There were over 15,000 comments and they were one of two things. They were either, screw you or please tell me more. And what's interesting is I was in the screw you phase. And that I became in the tell me more phase and I realized that there was something there. I realized that there were people that might be able to change their lives the way that I had. And I wanted to help so badly because I'd been alone my entire life.

Nikki Kinzer:
Wow.

Matt Raekelboom:
And that's how I got started.

Nikki Kinzer:
Amazing.

Pete Wright:
How do you move from the waking up and having 180,000 views to, "What the hell am I going to post for my second video?" And I don't mean that as you building a curriculum but I mean, if I put myself in your shoes, I'm sitting there deep in the valley of imposter syndrome and I'm just completely this is a one-hit wonder. I'll never do anything as good as that again. But how do you get over that because clearly, clearly you did.

Nikki Kinzer:
You did.

Matt Raekelboom:
The ultimate thing that I did was I just realized that everybody had questions. And one of the beautiful parts, it was a sense of privilege but also obviously, I got the attention for a reason. But like I said, I had 15,000 comments from people being like, "Well, what about in my relationship? What about in addiction? What about my video games and my parents hate them?" And I just took those comments and I answered everyone. Actually, I take a lot of pride in this but also I look back on it and I'm like, you idiot, Matt, that was horrible for you. I answered over 700 comments in that first video.

Nikki Kinzer:
Wow.

Matt Raekelboom:
And it's because I wasn't willing to put it down. I had changed my life and it was the most passionate, amazing thing that's ever happened to me. And I wanted to talk to every single person. I actually tried to keep up with the comments for a while. And I made myself real sick. But making content, the best advice that I could possibly give about making ADHD content or content in general, you got to make it for you. And if somebody appreciates it, they'll watch. I never ever looked at it like, what do I need to educate others on? It's what do I need to speak on my experience that might help somebody, might hurt somebody but it has to be for you. And that's the way that I've made over 400 videos to date because every single video I make, I don't care about the views. I'm not trying to make another one-hit wonder. In fact, any influencer that... If you guys are doing an influencer series, I'm sure that you will hear this a million times over.
Nobody wants to go viral after you've been viral three times. If you make three viral videos the entire time, the panic that goes through your body... You want to talk about the panic of imposter syndrome, the panic of looking down and seeing that you have 180,000 notifications in your phone. There's nothing like that panic. And every so often when it calms down, you go, "Oh, thank God." So while going viral is an amazing and very special thing, it's insanely hard and no one in the world can handle it. I've never met an influencer that goes, "Oh yeah. I love when that happens."

Pete Wright:
Yeah.

Nikki Kinzer:
I have it all down. So a question though about the content because I know just from us doing a podcast on a weekly basis, there's a lot of thought that still goes through like what are we going to talk about? Who are we bringing on? I mean, we have a theme that we like to go off of. I have to imagine there's some thought to you or do you just honestly maybe not? Maybe you just open up the video and you just talk about whatever you want to talk about that day. I can see that happening too.

Matt Raekelboom:
So for me, truly everybody, including my assistant, including anybody that works me, they all think that I'm sick in the head for doing this. But I make every video an hour before or I decide to make the video an hour before I actually make it. And I just talk about whatever's on my mind that day.

Nikki Kinzer:
Awesome.

Matt Raekelboom:
And I have the privilege of working with some unbelievable clients that I do one on one sessions with and I get to talk to some amazing people around the world and I get to hear what's on their mind. And I speak about what maybe we talked about that day or maybe just what I learned that day. Like I said, I study for an hour a day and sometimes just what comes to mind. What a lot of people don't realize, the difference between you guys talking about an entire podcast as opposed to a one minute video, there is no video I've ever made that was a complete fact in one minute. That is actually the hardest part because I believe I'm actually... I can't wait to get into YouTube, I can't wait to get into podcasting, truthfully. But the one minute videos I can talk about addiction with 70 different videos and I still won't be out of content for that.

Nikki Kinzer:
Right. Interesting.

Pete Wright:
Right.

Matt Raekelboom:
And truly, by the time that you've made 70, how many people watch the first video through the next 69 of them?

Pete Wright:
Sure. How many people are able to keep up with that? Well, for example, this morning, as I'm scrolling through your feed, I stop at toxic positivity in ADHD. And I find that a provocative topic and I find your video, a provocative video. And I get to the end of it and I'm like, "Wait a minute, clearly, there's more." How do you decide to that point specifically? How do you decide I have to do this as a teaser for some future content and I know I have to stop right now? I know there's more to say and it pains me to have to stop, but I have to stop right now because of what the algorithm has demands. I don't know. What goes into your thought process there?

Matt Raekelboom:
Sheer and utter panic as to what is the right decision.

Pete Wright:
Outstanding. Outstanding. So you're human. Okay.

Nikki Kinzer:
Yeah.

Matt Raekelboom:
Yeah. There is the thought of, do I talk about this forever? Do I make a series on this, because some people really love some series. Some people really hate some series and some people like the fact that I don't really have a niche. ADHD is a topic that I cover but I teach people about addiction, parenting, brain hacking, understanding ADHD.

Pete Wright:
Food, sex. Yeah. [inaudible 00:34:01] you got it all.

Matt Raekelboom:
Unbelievable amounts. And I believe that's actually why I am smaller than I believe I could be. If I had picked a niche and stayed with it, I believe I would actually have a more dedicated audience. But the thing that I want to do is I want to teach everybody that there is a broad spectrum of things to understand. And one of the issues that I truly have is figuring out, do I keep talking about this? Do I keep talking about my toxic positivity? Do I keep talking about food and all this kind of stuff? I have little mini series for everything and all I can do is just add to it when I'm passionate about it. And I find that because I put my passion into each one of my videos, I'm never truly straining myself in what content gets created next, which I believe is actually easier on myself.

Nikki Kinzer:
Oh, I was going to say, that's probably the key of the success, right? Is that it's not a strain. It's not something you feel like you have to do or that you're dreading, it's coming so naturally. And I suppose if there is a time where it does feel differently, then you would probably need to sit back and think about what you're doing next. But it makes sense. Okay. So there's a lot of platforms out there. I know you're on TikTok, you're on Instagram are those the two main ones-

Matt Raekelboom:
Yes, they are.

Nikki Kinzer:
That you do? Okay. So we have this ongoing funny thing about TikTok. I'm never going to be on TikTok it's not going to happen, but I also have this idea that TikTok is all about dancing and stuff like that and it's not. Can you shed some light about like what you're seeing when people are commenting and what they're getting out of that? Because that is not what TikTok is all about.

Matt Raekelboom:
You're right. And it was. And originally-

Nikki Kinzer:
At one point, yeah.

Matt Raekelboom:
Originally, TikTok was made for singing. It was made for music. It wasn't even made for dancing or any of that kind of stuff. And I think one of the beautiful parts about TikTok is they offer organic reach for anybody to talk about anything, and mental health naturally became a part of that. Same with education in general. And one thing that a lot of people don't realize is before people like myself, Connor DeWolfe, Katie Asores, Kobe Watts, some of the bigger creators that are out there, there was no ADHD talk on there. We created the subject on a platform where we didn't know, none of us. I'm good friends with a lot of the bigger creators that are out there and not a single one of us were doing this to get to the level that we were at. We were never trying to become famous influencers. We were never trying to develop these audiences, we all just wanted to talk about it. And it ended up actually sparking the trend. ADHD is one of the biggest trending topics in the world right now, and it started with platforms like TikTok and Instagram.

Nikki Kinzer:
Bringing the awareness up front, right?

Matt Raekelboom:
That's one of the most beautiful parts about what TikTok has done. There's always controversy about differences in the platforms. I could tell you that TikTok clientele are very different than Instagram clientele.

Pete Wright:
Tell us about that. That's literally my next question. What goes into who you're talking to on each platform?

Matt Raekelboom:
It's interesting. People on TikTok, they're there to learn more about you. where Instagram, I believe that they are there to learn. And I believe that's a difference, which-

Pete Wright:
It's a really interesting distinction.

Matt Raekelboom:
Right. They are there to learn everything about what you're saying, but also they want to see you dance. They want to see you do trends. TikTok is a more playful platform. It absolutely is. When you talk about the song and dance, yes. A lot of even good influences in the ADHD space, they do the dances while posing ADHD facts. I've never done that. I am a terrible dancer and there's no faking that.

Nikki Kinzer:
So someday we'll have to do one together where we're both like uh uh uh. [inaudible 00:37:41].

Matt Raekelboom:
But the interesting part is. people are there more to be entertained on TikTok. And I think that's what it's become is a very, very entertainment based platform, where Instagram is a place where people go to really want to learn actually what you know. They want to see exactly what you do. It's very interesting. Something that I notice creator-wide is Instagram has more interaction than TikTok, even at a much smaller following. I myself have about 45,000 followers on Instagram and 260,000 on TikTok. And I actually get more interaction from Instagram than TikTok.

Pete Wright:
Is that because the primacy of TikTok is that inertia? It wants you to watch a video and then watch another video, because that feels like what we were talking about the algorithmic demands. TikTok is just keep creating, keep creating. But Instagram gives you a little bit more time to pause.

Matt Raekelboom:
I believe that's a hundred percent right. Instagram is very, if you have a following, that following will see you. But on TikTok, everybody is all about you look at a video and then you go... And then you go to the next video and-

Pete Wright:
Then you move on.

Matt Raekelboom:
And then you go to the next video. You're like, "Oh" and then next video. And every so often, you'll hit the follow button. The average person on TikTok will have 3000 to 5000 people that they're following. Even when you're a followed person-

Pete Wright:
3000 to 5000.

Matt Raekelboom:
Look at it. Look at just an average TikTok account. You will see thousands of people that they're following, which means that even your followers barely see your content.

Nikki Kinzer:
Right.

Pete Wright:
Wow.

Matt Raekelboom:
But on Instagram-

Nikki Kinzer:
It's different.

Matt Raekelboom:
You're not just having people. I say this very playfully but I always joke about TikTok being just people sitting there drooling at the mouth two hours into a doom scroll, as they call it. And just going, "Hahahaha" just going over and over again. Where on Instagram, I believe that people follow you because they're like, "Wow, I actually want you in my newsfeed." I believe by having the feed as an available option. Nobody wants to see a million people that just are posting cats if they only think cats are cute sometimes. So they won't follow those people.

Pete Wright:
What's your favorite platform?

Matt Raekelboom:
Instagram.

Pete Wright:
As a publisher? Instagram.

Nikki Kinzer:
Instagram.

Matt Raekelboom:
Hundred percent. Yes.

Pete Wright:
Okay.

Matt Raekelboom:
People on Instagram are so thankful. They're so happy. And I believe it's actually an age demographic that truly creates that. But people are very open, and not to mention you can actually message people on Instagram. I get an average of 50 to 70 new messages a day, and I'm not talking previous people that I've already talked to. I mean, message requests from new people, 50 to 70 a day on average of people just being like, "You are so helpful. Thank you so much." People are so appreciative. I want to give them all of my time.

Pete Wright:
Wow.

Nikki Kinzer:
So what are some things I'm curious? I know you probably have a million different experiences of different situations where people really touched you. Does anything just stand out? When I ask you, what is a situation or somebody that's reached out that you were just like, "Wow, that really, that is why I'm doing what I'm doing."

Matt Raekelboom:
If anybody was ever to look in my cell phone, I have screenshots of literally thousands of messages that I've gotten over this time of people saying, "I never knew I could be this amazing. I never knew that I could do these things. I'm doing such incredible things, I have never had a closer relationship with my children, I've never had a better relationship with my partner. "Things like that changing people's lives, it's a scary thought to be completely honest because that's when imposter syndrome really kicks in of I was told I was terrible my whole life, I was told that I was broken and these people are telling me how great it is to hear my voice. And it's very difficult sometimes but hearing that these people possibly went from where I started in my very, very bad phases. I've had people say that I'm not suicidal anymore after finding you and a few and things like that as somebody that has gone through the darkest moments of his life and changed and hearing that I'm helping others. I've cried more on the last year than I have. Probably the total flow of tears is probably a bit 28 years prior compared to this year. I not a question as to which one has more

Nikki Kinzer:
Well, and it's interesting because I have to say, I'm speaking on behalf of my daughter a little bit, but she's 16. She's on TikTok, she looks at Instagram, she's on Snapchat, all of those things that you would expect 16 year old to be in, are on. And she has ADHD and I just talked to her over the weekend about RSD and what it is and why I thought that there was a particular situation where I think that's how she was responding to it and giving her that education. And it's so inter interesting to me how she's really hung onto that and she's learning more about it. And she's trying to figure out more about how her brain works and why she reacts this way. And I think that I feel the same, a lot of ways, what you're saying about what Pete and I do in the community and how we want this show to come across to people. What you do in the regard especially to TikTok and that younger demographic is so important because they are paying attention because she just posted a little cartoon thing about RSD that she found on TikTok.
So I don't know if she actually responded to that person but she was paying attention to it. And I just want to say, I think it's a really important and respected thing that you're doing because these kids, these young adults, these young kids that are still trying to figure out what this means as adults, we're still trying to figure out what it means. They want to hear your story and they want to be able to flip that and see it. And I'm going to just keep running, going on and on and on. So I'll stop talking now but I hope you get my point.

Matt Raekelboom:
I really appreciate that. That is where the passion comes from is making people feel less alone in the world. In my opinion, I believe that people with ADHD are the most alone people and there's so many people out there in the world that have ADHD. But because of our misdiagnosis rate, especially if you have ADHD who cares so does 16 other kids in the class except many of them are dopamine deficient or many of them just can't find their keys. They say "Oh, I can't study either so I must have ADHD." And then you as somebody that's actually struggling you're seeing these people interact with others fine. You're seeing them not go through the emotional dis regulation, the RSD you're you're seeing them get their homework done, get to school on time and you're going, "Why am I so much worse than them? I better ever tell anyone." Yeah.
And I find that the feeling of being alone with ADHD is it's so real in the world that I believe that's the best part about being an influencer right now is that we're reaching those that have not been reached yet. I believe that the key to changing the world in ADD is to teach people the why, you have RSD let me tell you why. Let me tell you why this is happening. My favorite very, very quick story because I know that we're getting a little bit up there in time. My favorite quick story was I never used to wash my hands when I was a kid. And the reason why I never used to wash my hands is because my parents said, "Wash your hands And I'd go, "Well, no." My dad used to wait outside of my bathroom door with his ear pressed against it. Be like, "I don't hear the sink yet."

Pete Wright:
Oh, the worst.

Matt Raekelboom:
Naturally, I would turn on the sink and hover my hands around the water. I would never even touch the water or I'd put a little dab water on my finger, rub it on my hand. I'd be like, "See, they're even glistening go away dad." But the day that I changed my washing my hands habit, I hate to tell you this, this is kind of gross. But it was in high school when I took an economics course where they actually taught us about what germs are doing to your skin. And I went, soap cures that?" And from that day I washed my hands [inaudible 00:45:44]. It's because nobody ever told me why I had a parent-

Nikki Kinzer:
Why? Yeah.

Matt Raekelboom:
I had a parent that I worked with recently that her kid refused to brush his teeth. And I was like, "Does he know why?" And she goes, "He doesn't need to know why." And I went, "That's why."

Pete Wright:
I think he does.

Matt Raekelboom:
Yeah.

Nikki Kinzer:
Yeah. It's massive because we have an over inquisitive brain. We need to know the answers in order to care. That's the same reason on why, for some reason you can't learn one fact about cardboard. You got to learn about the manufacturing, the differentiation and the materials, everything just about cardboard. And for some reason, all of us know these ridiculous facts.

Pete Wright:
God, don't get me started on my love for corrugation.

Nikki Kinzer:
I'm going to wrap it back around to the education piece. And that's awesome because that's exactly what you're saying is that giving them that education and having them learn more about themselves. Yeah,

Matt Raekelboom:
Absolutely. Tell me what medication does for me. Are you nuts? The day that I learned about medication I went, "Wow, I don't have to take medication." And while that is not easy and one more thing, I'm going to stress to everybody. I am not medicated by the way, I feel like we probably should have mentioned that at this some point in the podcast.

Pete Wright:
You still probably have enough in your system after a regular dose of [inaudible 00:46:54].

Matt Raekelboom:
Maybe I do. I've never thought of that.

Pete Wright:
If you're a gay man, it's in your bones.

Nikki Kinzer:
It's in your blood now.

Matt Raekelboom:
But I live a very, very holistic lifestyle. And the one thing that I tell people is it's not easy but it's a hundred percent possible.

Nikki Kinzer:
Right.

Matt Raekelboom:
And because of that, because of that thought a holistic lifestyle can be effective up to 95% of what medication can do for your brain. And because of which it is possible but it's a lot of work and you got to be well-educated to be able to live that properly. And I think that's the part that a lot of us don't realize. We just think it's either... The question is always, I love saying this, the question is never medicated or un-medicated. It's treated or untreated. And if you just get off medication, then sit there on the couch still and eat crappy food. Then you're going to have a very tough time.

Nikki Kinzer:
That's a really good point because the treatment it's a puzzle is what I always say. It's a lot of different things. It's sleep, it's how you're eating, it's exercise, it's how you're managing stress. Medication can be a part of it, therapy can be a part of it, coaching can be a part of it, community is a part of it, education is a part of it. There's so many pieces and I think it's really important for people to see that it's not just one thing. If medication doesn't work for you, it's not the end all. There are other things that can help. So it's great. And I'm not anti-medication either, it's a one piece of it. It's just one piece of it.

Matt Raekelboom:
Absolutely.

Pete Wright:
I'm so pro-medication just in general.

Nikki Kinzer:
Because you're on cold medication right now. So that you can't even be here to talk [inaudible 00:48:30]

Matt Raekelboom:
Floating away.
Excuse me. I have to go buy stock and Tylenol right now.

Nikki Kinzer:
Cold medication is awesome.

Pete Wright:
Black Snow, Smith Cline, whoever.

Matt Raekelboom:
The one thing that I say in all of my medication talks, Any time that I've ever educated people on medication. The one thing that I always tell people is that medication does what it's supposed to do. 100% it helps with the things that we struggle with and cannot create on our own. The difference however, is that it also has the ability to have negative side effects. So that is why a lot of people are scared of it. And a lot of people are like, "Is medication working for me?" Yes, it is. But it might be reacting with your body different, which is why you need to be open to trying different kinds of medication. It's why you need to be open to even playing around with stimulation versus non stimulant based medication. Why you have to be able to play around with diet, exercise?
Medication. It is so well-known that medication is not enough. If you live a very... If you eat chocolate cake all day, every day and you never move from the coach but you're like, "But I took my meds and it's not working." That's because medication is a fantastic crutch, it's a fantastic aid but it is not the cure, it is not a cure for ADHD. And I believe that there's actually thoughts in my brain of trying medication again because it's been about six, seven years now since I've tried medication. And I always think because I'm so good at it now, what if I'm running at a 90 at the moment all the time, and what if medication? What if five milligrams of Ritalin? What if five milligrams of Adderall? What if that pushed me into a hundred? What if I'm this awesome without medication? What if I become better? And it's always, you need to be open mind with this kind of stuff, because it's your brain. Let's figure out how to push it to the best possible limits before not to the burnout, because that's what most of us do. But let's figure out how to unlock our brain to do amazing things because the one thing that I was told my entire life. And this is going to be the end to this point.
But the one thing that I was told my entire life was that I could never have an education that I could never remember things that I could never pay attention long enough to do anything that requires my brain. And I am extremely proud to say that I have an unbelievable memory, that I'm very well educated in the topics that I talk about. And I'm very proud of how I use my brain to help hundreds of thousands of people around the world. And that almost got ruined by everybody telling me that I was something that I wasn't when it was in my control. That's what I love about the brain is it is in your control, provided that you take the time to learn how.

Nikki Kinzer:
Love that.

Pete Wright:
All right. Well, you got to tell us about the journey to ADHD, the community and all the work you're doing there. Where do we send people to learn more about all of your good works?

Matt Raekelboom:
Yeah, thank you. So I decided after becoming an influencer very early on, I really, really wanted to find a way to create a community or a way to create a platform because what we actually have as a platform to help people understand their brains a little bit better. And I got a little team together and I saved up every dollar that I made from being an influencer from coaching, from everything. I lived on my savings for about six months and I put every dollar into creating the journey to ADHD platform, which is its own social media platform dedicated to ADHD. We have the ability to host courses, host webinars, host events, all inside of our program. We have body doubling, we have food preparation services, we have movie nights, we have social calls where everybody can just go in there and meet other people with ADHD. We have an entire platform made for others to just talk like in a Facebook newsfeed style for forum, where they can just scroll through. You can dedicate the posts that you see by choosing topics such as addiction, relationships, habit, formation, all of those kind of things. We also have a full resource library inside of our platform. I just ran out of breath there. Boy.

Nikki Kinzer:
That's a lot.

Matt Raekelboom:
We have a full resource library that actually gives people the ability to not be social. If you ever don't want to be where you can go in there and see, it's just a dedicated link resource library that we've made very simplistic with lots of big colors and big buttons to make everything very simple for people. And you can dedicate, again, whether you're looking at information for being pregnant and having an ADHD brain, or if you want to learn more about your food, your medication, you have the ability to learn on your own or with others. We have people like myself. I have Camille Coomans, who is a full-time naturopathy major. And she specifies under ADHD. We have a full-time perinatal coach on our platform that actually teaches mothers and soon to be parents as well, how to take care of their brain when they're going through pregnancy, when they're going through early adaptation of their lives.
And what we're trying to do here is give people a one stop shop to make them comfortable with their ADHD brain. And because we've made our own dedicated platform. What we have had to do is we put a paywall behind it of as low as $5 one time for you to be able to have access to the entire platform. And we are just looking to give people the ability to not only be a part of this platform, but also with the paywall behind it. We're looking to not create a series of trolls, a series of people that just want to post nonstop memes inside of there. We want people to really be there with a financial dedication to helping their brain.
We have created a community of such dedicated people. Most of our community runs the groups, most of our community runs the events. They all just say, "Hey, can I do a body doubling session?" "Yeah, absolutely go for it." We give people the freedom to be who they want inside of our platform. And that was the one thing that I kept seeing almost in every single forum. When you look at the Reddit forums, when you look at the Attitude forums, when you look at all of that kind of stuff, I noticed that they were there but they were also black and white. And if you look at the journeyed ADHD platform, the one thing that you'll never see as a single color, we have multiple colors everywhere that you look. We have exciting, gigantic buttons. We are trying to make things stimulating so that when you go in there you feel happy, you feel wholesome, you feel excited every second that you're in our platform.

Pete Wright:
That's awesome.

Nikki Kinzer:
That's great.

Pete Wright:
That is awesome. Well, we sure appreciate your time and putting up with my voice today. You've done great.

Matt Raekelboom:
It's nice. Actually, I want you to record me a lullaby later.

Nikki Kinzer:
Right.

Matt Raekelboom:
Over phone, right now.

Pete Wright:
Well, we deeply appreciate you being here. We appreciate you kicking off this series with us. You can find him, Matt, everywhere you need to find Matt journey2 ADHD. Definitely a good follow on Insta and TikTok and go check out the community. It's fantastic place. Fantastic resource, Matt Raekelboom. Thank you.

Nikki Kinzer:
Thank you.

Matt Raekelboom:
I really appreciate your time.

Pete Wright:
And thank you everybody for downloading and listening to this show. Thank you all for your time and your attention. Don't forget if you have something to contribute about the conversation we are heading over to the show talk channel and the discord server and you can join us right there by becoming a supporting member at the deluxe level or better. On behalf of Nikki Kinzer and Matt Raekelboom. I'm Pete Wright and we'll see you right back here next week on Taking Control: The ADHD Podcast.