Hello.

Hello.

So great to see you, and thank you very much. You've been wonderfully look, you wouldn't be at an ADHD Conference if we ran on time. It would be like that would be preposterous. I honestly didn't do it on my own.

My colleague said to me, you better go now, Otherwise, you'll be late. And they were right. So I I made a concerted effort to get here half an hour early just at the risk of missing the whole thing. So thank you, though. I can't take the credit.

Well, that that that just shows the kind of team player you are. It's so we met recently, and I was just bowled over by what you're doing. And.

It was a great chat. Tell you. Yeah. I have to say I was you know, my my lifestyle or sort of my life workflow has changed considerably over the past two years having been an artist and now being an agent that I realized in our chat that it takes it takes a lot of straight line neurotypical thinking to be an agent. And your my my interaction with you was so fun because I I I realized that I don't necessarily think like that. And we had I don't know. At one point, you were lifting your desktop computer up and showing me where the the the disk drive burner thing is.

And and, yeah, it was meandering and wonderful, we covered lots. It was yeah. I was grateful. Yeah. Which was was trying to go back to the nineties or whatever it was and burn a DVD because we're going to prison with Tanya Bardsley. And yeah.

Which we were Well, thank you for having me. It's it's a real honestly, a real honor to be here. And, yeah, I'm happy to continue the conversation with some friends. Pleasure.

Pleasure is is mine and ours. And so, like, yeah, so you're thank you for being part of the Global ADHD Conference. We've had 5,000 people register. If history is anything to tell by, generally, get double the number of viewers. They've registered from need to go and check the exact number, over 90 countries, which is a lot of countries.

Where are we at now?

I have no I've honestly no idea. Well, they won't all be here now because like, you know, sometimes zones are asleep.

But Hello to you, whoever whoever you are. Thank you for joining. That's that's very kind of you. What you're doing is.

Absolutely exciting and fascinating. Like when we talk about every workplace, you're talking about how does the neurodiverse, how does the ADHD fit in, how can they do it? And when you you were very blunt in your description that otherwise this talent you represent would be excluded. Like they have the talent but they don't fit. And so look, do you wanna do like I've got an intro here, but it'd be better from you. I don't know. Just like some kind of simple question like tell us your life story.

Well, I mean, that's that's Crazy information. I mean, my life story is one that I don't remember much of given my I guess I just feel like I live in a constant present. It's either now or not now. And recalling things is, as I'm sure many of you will be familiar with, is is often how the question, how did I get here? Is is very strange. But I will trace the the origin of my current role as as CEO of Divergent Talent Group and give you some insight into why I started it. Would that be helpful?

That would. That's that was where I was going for. Well, fair play.

I mean yeah. I I think so I'm Adam. I'm from the Northeast Of England. I moved to London when I was 18 to be an actor. And I, yeah, I sort of, like, got an well, I mean, I applied to a musical theater course, which I don't often admit to, but I I got on a musical theater course and thought, what is this? This is rubbish. I've done the wrong thing, but it was the only thing available and sort of, like, developed a career from graduating from drama school out of hyper focusing on something to the detriment of everything else to the point at which I either got bored of it or got sacked or, you know, realized that it was not what I thought it was originally and sort of, like, moved through various sort of, like, careers for one of a.

Better way of describing it. Like, an actor, became a sound designer, sort of taught myself how to do that for theater, was in a pop band for a bit. And I I then sort of, like, started making my own work because I thought, well, it'd be really interesting to try and, like, have more ownership of what I'm doing rather than sort of being in other people's things and, like, getting bored with them and thinking that, you know, I was arrogant in the thought I thought I could I thought I could do it better, and I did it and realized it was it was miserable and difficult. And the rewards were they were good. The payoff of creating original.

Work that other people would come and see and connect with and resonate with was very, very, you know, valuable. But there was always this thing which was like, oh, it's the end of the project, and it's over, and what's next? And nothing. And the inability to think ahead and to coordinate a future or to, like, manage the, I guess, the sort of business side of being an artist, which is about developing, like, a sustainable system in which you can grow and thrive, which so I I wasn't diagnosed with ADHD. Although mates had told me, oh, you're ADHD. And I'd be like, yeah. Fine. Whatever. And and as an artist, there is an element of, you know, being able to thrive with ADHD because part of the creative process is so, like.

You know, nonlinear and, you know, associations and lateral thinking's involved and, you know, seeing the world with fresh eyes, which I think is, you know, my definition of good art. But there's this other part, which is like, how do you organize your finances? How do you organize a budget? How you know, all of this stuff that you will all know too well as as as being a material challenge. So when my when the pandemic happened, obviously, all our lives changed. The environment changed. We had time to think, and I was like, oh god. Maybe I actually don't like being an artist at all. I was a new father. I was to a to a one year old at the time, living in a small flat in North London. And.

I was just like, I have no desire when this is all over, when this pandemic's finished, to go back to it. It does not it does very little to a few people, usually my mom and my dad or my family or my mates who would come and support. And it's just so so I thought, oh, right. I know what I'll do. I'll do something meaningful. When this is all over, I'll be an m I five. I'll be an agent. I'll that there's a lot of, like, risk involved, and I'm not supposed to tell you that, but, you know, that's probably why I didn't get the job. And, yeah, and then I thought, well, my wife thought I was losing the plot, which I probably was. And then I thought, okay. I won't apply for m I five. I'll just.

Be a postman maybe and, like, deliver mail in the morning and, like, do my music in the afternoon. I applied to be a postman, like, five times. Post person. Didn't get past the theory test at the beginning. So I see post people. I was going, what did you do? How did you like, how did you get through it? And, no, it didn't work. So I just sort of forgot about it for a while and then got on with, like, lockdown as it were. And I was finding things, really simple things, really difficult. So, like, changing a nappy became, like, anxiety inducing, almost panic attack level at times, any fiddly sort of thing like that or wash like.

Things that I feel some shame in saying, which is, like, I guess, part of the issue, really. But, like, washing up, I would just you know, I was just basically struggling with very basic tasks. And I thought, well, maybe this is something to do with ADHD And, obviously, sort of hyper focused on that for a bit and realized that, you know, I I should go and get checked out, spoke to a GP. And, you know, we all know what that that system's like, so I won't go into it. But I think it was a long road. I finally got a diagnosis, and it was a bittersweet moment of, ah, you know, that's the way I that's why I am the way I am and why this whole life has been the way it is. But not all the not everything was solved. And.

Because I'd sort of forgotten about what I wanted to do for a career, I was in a space of, like, freedom, but also, like, thoughtfulness. And I was mentoring a student I'm sorry. This is very long. I'll I'll I'll I'll No. No. It's good. I like it. I know I know where you're getting to. So Yeah. So I was mentoring a student. He was at a drama school, actor, and he graduated. And I loved that. I loved teaching at drama schools because it was a very, like, very good way of, like, getting rid of the cynicism and being, like you know, working with people who are optimistic and at the beginning of things, and I was really reinvigorated by it. And one particular student who, you know, I had a real rapport with materialized that he had ADHD.

And I was like, okay. That's why I liked you.

And then We do we do often flock together. That's for sure. Yeah. Yeah. So.

But he was constantly telling me about his agent. And, you know, without disclosing anything about that, like, he was in a relationship with his agent, which which was all too familiar to me because everything this person said to me was like, hey. I've got this agent. He's they're saying this to me. Is that normal? And, like, I was like, sadly, yeah. It there's a sort of, like and for those of you not sort of familiar with the the sort of the agenting business, like, it's quite unregulated. Like, pretty much anyone can be an agent. I'm an agent, and I just decided one day.

And And the story of how you decided was that you you looked at this guy and and saying and then said, did they say it to you or you said to them like Well, he left. He left the agency, and I was like, what are gonna do?

And he was like, I don't know. And I was so like, I was in awe of the fact that he'd left this agent because it's very rare that a graduate so soon after graduating will will make that take that risk. Yeah. But I just had this compelling urge having directed him at drama school, knowing him inside out, like, really knowing what he was capable of. I just had a compelling urge to be like, well, I'll get you a job. And, you know, there's gotta be you know, like, looking at knowing what you've been through so far with your agent journey, like, I know, like, I can do do a job which will, you know, serve you well. And I was like, well, I can't just be Adam, like, ringing around my mates and going, hey.

National. Yeah. You've got this friend. Like, would you see him? Or, like, it was like, have to come up with a business idea, like a name, and the word divergent came first. And it was kind of one of those, like like, ADHD sort of, like, moments of, you know, it just landing and not quite knowing where from, but it was there. It was like the word divergent, and I thought, well, what if this agency is for neurodivergent artists like me, you know, who have had similar roots and, you know, like this first client that I took on Yeah. Who I was whose story was so familiar to me. And and, and, yeah, so from that point, we sat down and was like, what do you wanna do? And we, like, came up with a game plan.

And, you know, this client is now smashing it. Doing, like you know, two years in is, like, I'm really proud of where we've got to. We've, you know, we've grown the agency from one client to 30. We haven't I think we could have grown more, but I think, intentionally, we've gone, well, what doesn't work about agents traditionally is the fact that there's a 100 clients and none of them get any of any attention. And sometimes more clients and neurodivergent people require, like, the focus and attention that Yes. It's an interesting one because the business model is, like, dependent on commission. Right? So I don't I work for free until my client gets a job.

And, hopefully, the passion drives you to be like, okay. Yeah. This is you know, it's it's it pays off in the end. But, like, having it's a numbers game. So the more clients you have, the more likely you are Yeah. To make a living. And and and the problem with that is that there's a there's a big bunch of people within that group who don't do anything and don't get any don't get pushed and don't get the attention they require. So we just yeah. Always thinking about alternative ways of doing it. That is always, like, centered around yeah.

And it's interesting. Like, and if you're neurodivergent and therefore, like, need a bit more attention, if you're not one of the big earners for that agency, they're looking at their ratio of work to money and you worry about disturbing. Yeah, wanted to say, divergent talent groups are two years old. Two years old. Years old. Two months, yeah. Congratulations. 30 artists placed in the productions. ITV, Disney, BBC, Netflix, many more.

Yes, it's a big deal. Yeah. I mean, we've got like mean, 30 is my list. We've just taken on a new agent who's growing the actors division. So the, you know, the the the number of actors is now pushing the the overall client list up and a junior agent who's, yeah, building out her own list as well. And so, yeah, so the so the so the game plan is to cap my list where it is because I think, you know, that's that's my that's where I am. And and to grow the agency sort of sustainably through, yeah, partnering with other agents who have who are neurodivergent and who have, you know, a real sense of what it is we're doing. You know?

So one of the things I was, again, fascinated by, like, it's like, when you're when you're talking, when you're representing your clients, what are some of the differences you've needed to ask for? Like.

Yeah. I mean, it's it's bespoke and varied according to client. When we sign a client, we sit down and we go we have an access discovery meeting, and we go people will never have thought what they need. It will.