ADHD Wise Squirrels for late-diagnosed adults with ADHD. WS72 Leadership, Production and Mindset Tools with Bryan Yates.
Mar 25, 2026
Bryan Yates, former Disney producer turned leadership coach who helps high-capacity leaders combine creative vision with tactical execution. He discusses the producer mindset of visualizing the future and working backward. Conversations cover enduring messy stretches, deep listening from survivor testimony work, momentum and muscle memory for rewiring habits, and practical tools like the Over and Next exercise.
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Producer Mindset Solves Stalled Leadership
- A producer mindset looks forward by visualizing the desired future state and then works backward to define the next steps.
- Bryan Yates uses his rare right-and-left-brain capacity to imagine outcomes and then build directionally sound tactical plans to get there.
Break Winning Into Mini Finish Lines
- Define smaller, intermediate winning moments instead of making success a zero-sum end point.
- Bryan advises chopping projects into iterative steps and tolerating the messy middle — the "misery miles" — to reach the final result.
Listening Lessons From Holocaust Testimonies
- Bryan spent ~3 years cataloging 4,000 hours of Holocaust survivor testimonies, training him in deep attentive listening.
- That work developed generative listening: hearing what's said, what's avoided, and the "trailing thought" beneath words.
