We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Cam Sherman a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Cam, appreciate you joining us today. What do you think Corporate America gets wrong in your industry? Any stories or anecdotes that illustrate why this matters?
It’s hard to pin down a specific industry for NeuroDev. We’re definitely in the human services industry, but that’s not very specific. We help neurodivergent young adults become more independent. We are partially education, partially health and wellbeing, partially social, and partially career-oriented. The best way to describe our industry would probably be the industry of human development.
To answer your question, a major problem in our industry is that we’re not very good at meeting neurodivergent people’s developmental needs. We address the symptoms of developmental differences (depression, anxiety) as if they are the core issues and fail to address development directly. Take the current process for example, as explained by our founder, Jason Grygla:
“The most common sense thing nobody thinks about is, if neurodivergent children in elementary school aren’t acting out, we tend to think academics with IEPs is all that matters. Then when they hit their teenage years and become depressed and lonely and fall really far behind, we tend to think mental health counseling is the cure. It’s a classic 1-2 punch that fails every time. A developmental approach with basic needs being met first cures both problems.”
That’s not to throw any shade on IEPs and counseling. Individual education is important and helpful, and Jason and I are counselors, so we think there’s a lot of good work done in the counseling setting. This formula just isn’t working well enough for neurodivergents.
What would work better is to create a plan that focuses on development: an Individual Development Plan or IDP if you will. This plan would emphasize the life experiences we need that help us grow, challenge us to see the world in new ways, and instill in us new confidence in our abilities. A plan like that, which emphasizes things like belonging, navigating social nuances, leadership, being a part of a team, and exploring individual identity through acting in a play, for example, would go a lot further in helping neurodivergents prepare for adult life than academic success alone could ever do alone. As Jason says, this developmental approach would meet students’ emotional and social needs while securing for them the developmental experiences that would otherwise become extracurriculars. And for development, a lot of the time the extras are the curriculum.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I’m the executive director at NeuroDev’s Raleigh location, and I got into the field of human development like most of us get into our fields: through a lot of career changes. Initially, I started off thinking I would go into medicine, then education, then psychology. I ended up with my master’s in clinical mental health counseling and have been focusing on neurodevelopmental mentoring here at NeuroDev ever since.
At NeuroDev, the thing that sets us apart is that we’re not therapeutic or clinical. We mentor. We join our students in their developmental experiences. We’re not looking to give them fish, and we don’t stop at teaching them how to fish. We go fishing with them.
Our students come to us looking for developmental experiences that can help them become more independent. Some navigate college with us. Some prefer a vocational school. Some just need career experience.
What makes us different is that we belong to become. We believe that meeting our developmental needs (physically, emotionally, and socially) in effective, sustainable ways is the process of development.
As for what I’m proud of, I’m proud of how effective mentoring is. I’m proud that it works. And I’m proud of all our students’ hard work. There’s no shortcut to development, so we lean into discomfort and face difficult things together, and that’s worth being proud of.
What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?
We try to focus on two things to attract clients.
First, we want to make sure we offer a truly remarkable product, and in our industry. As I mentioned earlier, for us, that’s development. We constantly evaluate our effectiveness and adjust for what our students need. We work hard to avoid assembly line philosophies and try not to get comfortable letting the process do the work. We stir ourselves up to be proactive mentors all the time, not just passive or reactive ones, and we develop genuine relationships with each student individually and as a group.
The second thing is we add value. We want to be helpful immediately whether we are surrounded by potential clients or not. We want people to know what works, so we share. We talk openly, host a podcast, speak at conferences, offer community trainings, and more. Parents, consultants, clinicians, and others who refer to us know a fluffy sales pitch and a poor product when they see one. Adding value helps show them that we care about real development not just running a business.
Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?
Yes! Here are a few books I recommend:
“How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie is a classic. This is great for developing fundamental attributes of people who make and keep genuine business relationships. It’s also great for building and sustaining any important relationship.
“An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization” by Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey is good for shaking up the way things are at work. It talks about different businesses that have broken the mold of business culture and done it well. There is an analogy in it about tennis that impacted me. Everybody has a forehand that they will naturally play to. This forehand represents our strengths. To do great work, we need to develop and favor our backhand, our weaknesses. In the analogy, everybody plays intentional backhand strategies, and their forehands come into play naturally.
I would also have to add “The Adventures of Telemachus” by François Fénelon. This is my new favorite. It’s a remarkable story about mentoring and leadership. It’s a difficult read, but well worth it. It’s very insightful into the character of truly excellent leaders.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://neurodevmentoring.com/
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/neurodev.mentoring/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/techieforlife/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cambron-sherman-94b32b226/
- Other: Another great resource for parents or supporters of neurodivergent children, teens, and young adults is jasondebbie.com.
Image Credits
Flitch Creative