Ep #203: Todd Hagopian: Burned Out, Brilliant, or Bipolar?
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How did Todd Hagopian's bipolar diagnosis change his leadership style?
When I finally got diagnosed, they were like, yeah, you're very bipolar. The medicine worked. It was amazing. The good part of that also went away, and I had to systematize that. That was terrifying. My whole life changed. Grandiose goal setting, 80-20 squared, orthodoxy smashing. The easiest way to make money is to do something completely different and smash an orthodoxy. Welcome back, everyone. Today, Todd Hagopian from Stagnation Assassins is going to answer my most challenging question I want to start with, and that is, can a mental health diagnosis make you a better leader? I really appreciate that question. I think it's an incredibly important question to be talking about, especially now when anxiety is through the roof for a variety of reasons that I'm sure we'll touch on.
But yes, mental health diagnosis can make you a better leader. Not only that, but it should make you a better leader and it should make the people around them a better leader potentially. All of us read the same 20 books, right? The same 20 leadership books. We all know how to act in according to the consultants and the sanitized kind of white paper way that you're supposed to run a business.
What is the HOT system and how does it help in business?
Everybody knows that. If you really want breakthrough results, you need to have differentiated thinking. So when you're talking about neurodivergent thought, that really does play into how you can become a better leader. We have people like me who are bipolar and have different types of hyperfocus and grandiose goal setting and things that can drive differentiated thinking and differentiated results. You have folks who are OCD who can dive deep into a topic that you wouldn't be able to do and really go deep on it. And you can utilize that. But more importantly than just the neurodivergent folks being important to the organization and becoming good leaders, people around them need to be able to learn those skills, need to be able to systemize some of the stuff that they do.
In order to make themselves better leaders, you don't have to be neurodivergent to become a good leader. You have to understand neurodivergency to become a great leader. My message is it's not just about the folks who have neurodivergence. Those folks should become differentiated and breakthrough leaders, but the people around them need to be able to systematize that and learn it. and and emulate some of those aspects themselves so that they can get out of this 20 book leadership thing that that we've kind of developed over time. And now everybody leads the same and you can't have breakthrough results if that's how you're managing your business. So I have now a thousand questions, of course.
How can mental health awareness improve leadership?
So let's start sort of at the beginning. I mean, were you always aware that your thought process is different or diverse? Interestingly, I wasn't. So I went 15 years undiagnosed, so I did not know I had bipolar. I knew that I worked more hours than everybody else and slept less hours than everybody else. That's about the extent of what I knew was wrong, quote unquote, wrong with me is I knew there was something different there. I mean, because I would sleep two hours a day for 15 years and I would work, I would basically be obsessively working for the other 22 hours. And when I finally got diagnosed, they were like, yeah, you're very bipolar. You've got a very bipolar. And I went to a couple of doctors and they all agreed and I took the medicine and
And the medicine worked. It was amazing. If you don't know bipolar, you get this hypomanic high where you go, go, go, go, go. And you just got all this energy and you set these major goals and you think outside the box and find ways to hit it.
What unique strategies does Todd use for goal setting?
Then you have the bipolar depression that hits usually right after you've set a huge goal or hit a huge goal. And the bipolar depression comes in and you're like, oh, my God, how am I going to live up to what I just promised? So all that went away. the problem is, is the good part of that also went away, right? And I had to figure out, do I choose between sanity and success?
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
How did Todd Hagopian's bipolar diagnosis change his leadership style?
0:00–1:17
2
What is the HOT system and how does it help in business?
1:17–2:44
3
How can mental health awareness improve leadership?
2:44–3:42
4
What unique strategies does Todd use for goal setting?
3:42–7:42
5
How does Todd define 'profit per minute'?
7:42–10:09
6
What are the challenges of managing neurodivergent teams?
10:09–11:17
7
How does Todd approach team transformation during messy transitions?
11:17–12:28
8
Where can listeners find more resources and connect with Todd?
12:28–31:42