0:01

I stumbled on a large study

0:03

conducted by scientists at the University

0:05

of Toronto that found 42% of

0:09

all adults with ADHD

0:11

are in excellent mental

0:13

health. Excellent

0:16

mental health? Nearly

0:19

half of us? I was

0:21

floored. Why wasn't everyone

0:23

talking about this study? I

0:26

began to wonder, what would happen

0:28

if instead of pathologizing ADHD,

0:31

we looked at what these 42%

0:34

of people were doing to live

0:36

successfully with ADHD and

0:38

leveraged their strategies for ourselves?

0:47

Richard Branson. Michael

0:49

Phelps. Justin Timberlake.

0:52

James Carville. Wait a minute.

0:55

Where are the women? Greta

1:00

Gerwig. Lisa Ling. Audra

1:02

McDonald. Simone Biles. That

1:06

sounds like a list of highly successful

1:08

titans in a variety of industries.

1:11

They all have ADHD, but you don't hear

1:13

much about that now, do you? You

1:16

know what else you don't hear about? Are

1:18

the 43% of people with ADHD

1:21

who are in excellent mental health.

1:24

Why aren't we talking about them and what

1:26

they're doing right? I'm your

1:28

host, Tracy Otsuka, and that's exactly what

1:30

we do here. I'm a lawyer, not

1:32

a doctor, a lifelong student, and now

1:35

the author of my new book, ADHD

1:37

for Smartass Women.

1:39

I'm also a certified ADHD

1:41

coach and the creator of

1:43

Your ADHD Brain is A-OK,

1:45

a patented system that helps

1:47

ADHD women just like you

1:49

get unstuck and fall in

1:51

love with their brilliant brains.

1:54

Here, we embrace our too muchness

1:56

and we focus on our strengths.

1:59

My guests and I... credit our ADHD

2:01

for some of our greatest

2:03

deaths. And to those

2:05

who still think they're too much,

2:07

too impulsive, too scattered, too disorganized,

2:10

I say no one ever made

2:12

a difference by being too little. Hello,

2:19

I am your host

2:22

Tracey Otsuka. Thank you

2:24

so much for joining me here for episode

2:26

number 258 of ADHD for Smart Ass Women.

2:32

You know, this is such an

2:34

important episode for me personally. It's

2:37

been a really long time coming, more

2:40

than two years actually. It's

2:42

seen me through the hardest thing I've ever

2:44

done professionally, which is write a book, led

2:48

me through my son's journey and

2:50

three majors at NYU. He's

2:52

almost done. He's a senior. And

2:55

the passing, of course, of my beautiful

2:57

mother. These past

2:59

two years have been really hard. They've

3:02

also been really good. They

3:05

say that when you write a book, you

3:07

become a different person. So who you are

3:09

when you start is not the same person

3:11

as when you finish. And I

3:13

think that's really true. They

3:16

also say that you become a

3:18

much better writer and you become

3:20

more confident in your writing when

3:22

you write a book. And

3:24

I would say for me, I don't

3:27

know, that's probably not so true. And

3:29

I suspect that those of you with ADHD might

3:31

be able to relate to what I'm going to

3:33

say about that next. You

3:36

know, we have so many ideas and

3:38

we try to pack them in because

3:40

we're not always sure what's most important.

3:43

And we're not always sure what's most

3:45

important because we've noticed that it's different

3:47

for all of us. Because

3:50

we're all so different, that's exactly what

3:52

makes me feel like I need to

3:55

include everything and the kitchen sink just

3:57

to make sure that I've got you

3:59

all covered. It's

4:01

also why I will forever be

4:03

indebted to my amazing editors, Sarah

4:06

Toland and Maddie Pilari, who

4:08

knew exactly what to keep and

4:10

what to cut, and

4:12

my brilliant acquiring editor at

4:15

HarperCollins William Morrow, Lisa Sharkey.

4:18

I could never have done this without them,

4:20

and I am 100% certain of that. So

4:25

today what I'm going to do is I

4:27

am going to share the introduction

4:29

of my audio book for

4:31

ADHD for Smartass Women.

4:34

You know, everyone told me, don't

4:37

release the introduction early. Release

4:39

chapter one. And I was like, no,

4:42

I need to start with the introduction. So

4:45

why was that? Because the

4:47

introduction was where I infused

4:49

as much hope as I

4:51

could possibly infuse. In

4:54

fact, I made my audio book

4:56

team sit through two recordings of

4:58

the introduction, one at the

5:00

beginning where it should have been. But

5:02

then over the next three days, as I was

5:04

recording, I kept thinking because

5:07

I was new at recording an audio book

5:09

that I hadn't nailed the hope. And

5:11

so I wanted to do it again. And

5:14

so they kindly obliged, even though it

5:16

meant that they had to hang around

5:18

longer on a Friday night. So

5:22

I'm really proud of this book. But

5:25

it's also kind of scary, right? Once

5:27

you write a book, there's not a whole lot of

5:29

places you can hide. And I

5:31

feel like, I

5:34

don't know, I'm kind of pitted against

5:36

many, many clinicians and

5:38

people and an industry who sees ADHD

5:41

only as a weakness. And

5:43

who am I to come in and say,

5:45

no, you're wrong. There's

5:49

science and medicine and studies

5:51

and you know what?

5:53

I believe in it all. But there's

5:55

also you, the thousands of ADHD

5:57

women that I've had the privilege of.

6:00

of meeting and I just

6:02

know after meeting all of you that they're

6:04

getting it wrong. They're getting it really wrong.

6:07

I've read all your emails. I've responded

6:10

to your DMs. I've met so many

6:12

of you in my programs. Everywhere

6:15

I go, there's another kick-ass entrepreneur

6:17

who tells me that, oh,

6:19

by the way, I have ADHD too.

6:22

So I don't have a choice, right?

6:25

I have to do this not only for you

6:28

and other women, but for the

6:30

young girls who will follow us because

6:32

if they can grow up in a

6:34

world that values their brilliant, albeit unique

6:37

brains, their life's

6:39

going to be completely different. You,

6:42

you've shaped who I've become and

6:44

so we fight for

6:47

ADHD women everywhere. Look,

6:50

this is about more than just turning pages in

6:52

a book. It's about

6:54

changing chapters in women and

6:57

then girls' lives. I

6:59

hope that my book, it doesn't just flip

7:02

the script on ADHD. I

7:04

hope that it totally rewrites

7:07

the ending. So

7:09

now I bring you the

7:12

Audible introduction for

7:14

ADHD for smart-ass women.

7:19

People assume that when you have

7:21

ADHD, you're lazy and motivated and

7:23

not living to your full potential.

7:26

Only one of those things is true. ADHD

7:29

for smart-ass women, the

7:31

book, helps readers understand the

7:34

different strategies that our unique

7:36

brains require to succeed so

7:38

that we can become the best version of

7:40

ourselves right now. And you know what?

7:43

It's available for pre-order

7:45

right now at adhdforsmartwomen.com.

7:50

If you've ever received any value from this

7:52

podcast or if you've ever felt supported by

7:55

me through this podcast, then it would mean

7:57

the world to me to have your support

7:59

in return. by pre-ordering a copy

8:01

of my book. You

8:04

might be thinking, well, I'll just wait

8:06

until the book comes out on December 26th. Thank

8:09

you, but we need you

8:11

to pre-order the book right now. Why?

8:15

First of all, if you pre-order the book

8:17

right now, you'll get some great pre-order bonuses.

8:20

You can find

8:22

them at adhdforsmartwomen.com/book.

8:25

Second, the more buzz this book

8:27

gets, the more reach we get,

8:30

the more booksellers find out about it,

8:32

the more press we get, the more

8:34

women will hear about it. And of

8:36

course, the natural offshoot of all of

8:38

this is we help more women fall

8:41

in love with their ADHD brain. So

8:44

please pre-order

8:46

right now

8:48

at adhdforsmartwomen.com/book

8:51

before you forget. Okay, now,

8:53

do it. Introduction.

9:00

How I became the fairy godmother of ADHD women.

9:04

Your number one job as his parent

9:06

is to reduce his expectations so he

9:08

won't be disappointed in life. The

9:11

child psychologist looked me straight in the

9:13

eyes as she leaned forward and hooked

9:15

her pewter hair behind one ear. I

9:18

stared back blankly. Miss

9:20

Otsuka, do you have any questions, she

9:22

asked. Yes, I had

9:24

a million questions about what she had just

9:26

told me about my son Marcus. Reduce

9:29

his expectations for life? At

9:31

age 12? Simply because

9:33

he had ADHD? Her

9:36

words burned through the air, but I

9:38

didn't ask any questions. She

9:40

had her mind made up and I wasn't going to

9:42

change it. Instead, I

9:45

just shut down. Marcus

9:48

had been diagnosed with attention

9:50

deficit hyperactivity disorder or ADHD

9:53

by a clinical neuropsychologist after

9:55

enduring a battery of psychological,

9:58

visual, and educational trauma. tests

10:01

and undergoing various therapies for much

10:03

of the last three years. My

10:06

husband and I were confused by the

10:08

diagnosis, so we had been working with

10:10

the psychologist to learn more. She

10:13

had come highly referred as the ADHD

10:15

expert. But after

10:17

she harshly scolded Marcus and my daughter for

10:20

playfully pushing each other in one of our

10:22

sessions, I started to question her

10:24

approach. Now she was

10:26

suggesting we lower his expectations

10:29

in life, so we no

10:31

right mind would ever suggest limiting

10:33

a child's potential for any reason

10:35

whatsoever. She clearly

10:37

didn't know Marcus. Charismatic,

10:39

confident, and incessantly curious,

10:43

he wouldn't stop until he had

10:45

answers to all the questions that

10:47

interested him. He feared

10:49

nothing except bugs and walked

10:51

around like an explorer sticking his

10:53

claim in the new world. He

10:56

was driven and spent hours a

10:58

week researching potential careers and the

11:00

universities that would prepare him for

11:03

those careers, starting at the

11:05

age of nine. He

11:07

had big dreams and high aspirations.

11:10

Why would I ever quash his

11:12

ambitions? But this

11:14

wasn't what I asked the psychologist.

11:16

Instead, I gathered my bag, walked

11:19

out of her office, and never

11:21

looked back. About

11:23

months later, my world changed again

11:25

when I received the same diagnosis.

11:28

Like Marcus, I also had ADHD. I

11:32

received this diagnosis only after learning

11:35

everything I could about the condition

11:37

once Marcus was diagnosed, eventually

11:39

seeing in myself many of the

11:41

same symptoms, then proactively seeking

11:43

out an adult ADHD specialist

11:45

to confirm my suspicions. This

11:48

is how I realized that ADHD is

11:51

often passed down from parent to child

11:53

and that the condition doesn't primarily affect

11:55

boys and men, as plenty of doctors

11:58

still believe. Many

12:00

girls and women have ADHD, and

12:03

they often go undiagnosed for

12:05

years or are misdiagnosed with

12:07

mental health conditions like depression,

12:09

anxiety, or bipolar disorder. ADHD

12:13

also manifests differently in everyone,

12:16

and you don't have to

12:18

exhibit the stereotypical symptoms that

12:20

many people, including doctors, associate

12:22

with ADHD, like fidgeting,

12:25

misbehaving, or doing poorly in

12:27

school. I was gobsmacked.

12:30

How could I have made it through four

12:33

decades of life and never considered

12:35

that I might have ADHD? Pretty

12:39

soon, I learned, I wasn't alone.

12:41

As many as 75% of

12:43

girls and women with ADHD

12:45

go undiagnosed. Once

12:48

I realized how many misconceptions there

12:50

were about ADHD and how many

12:52

women were undiagnosed or misdiagnosed or

12:54

were diagnosed and told to lower

12:56

their ambitions as a result, I

13:00

decided to make it my mission

13:02

to change the conversation around the

13:04

condition. Because I

13:06

was certain that I'd been

13:08

successful in life because of my ADHD,

13:11

not despite it. The

13:14

truth is, I felt different my

13:16

entire life because I was always

13:18

too much. I was

13:20

too chatty, for example. My

13:22

parents called me the Burlingame Blab

13:25

after my hometown, Burlingame, California, because

13:28

I'd tell family secrets to anyone who'd

13:30

listen. But I was also

13:33

too intent on challenging the status quo.

13:36

On a lark, I met my husband through

13:38

a personal ad well before there was online

13:40

dating. Despite telling him

13:43

I wasn't interested in anything serious, I

13:45

was the one who proposed because when I know

13:47

what I want, I'm driven to make it happen.

13:50

And what I wanted was to get married

13:52

in a very specific place, and I didn't

13:54

want to wait another year to reserve it.

13:57

More of this story will be told later. I'm

14:00

too ambitious and too willing to say

14:02

exactly what's on my mind, like when

14:05

I recently told a Zoom room full

14:07

of college professors that their

14:09

teaching methods were terrible for

14:11

neurodivergent students. Yikes. Neurodivergent

14:15

describes a person's brain, like

14:17

mine, that processes or learns

14:19

differently from what's considered standard.

14:22

Thinking through my diagnosis more carefully, I made

14:25

an important connection. Some

14:28

of what others perceive as my

14:30

ADHD weaknesses are exactly my

14:32

greatest strengths. And my

14:34

son is no different. You

14:36

see, we're not hyperactive, just

14:39

otherworldly energetic. We're not

14:41

distractable, just incessantly curious.

14:43

And yes, we can be

14:46

impulsive, but some experts believe

14:48

that creativity is simply impulsivity

14:51

gone right. But

14:53

one reason why many believe that

14:55

Leonardo da Vinci, Vincent Mango, and

14:57

Pablo Picasso all had

15:00

ADHD. My

15:02

ADHD diagnosis confirmed that

15:04

I had been right about Marcus and

15:06

his big ambitions. Given

15:09

the right environment, he could accomplish his

15:11

wildest dreams because I had.

15:14

With two graduate degrees, I passed the

15:16

bar, worked as an attorney, and

15:19

started three different companies. I've

15:21

had a 30-year successful marriage and

15:23

have remained happy and healthy throughout

15:25

life. Today, I

15:28

can see that my personal drive

15:30

is a great form of hyperactivity

15:33

and that my interpersonal intuition is the

15:35

reason I can walk into a room

15:37

and read how people feel before

15:40

anyone utters a word, which

15:42

has helped me successfully predict the mood of

15:44

a group and ensure that

15:47

everyone feels heard. It's

15:49

not that I don't have weaknesses. I'm

15:52

never on time for anything that's

15:55

not business-related, and I'm

15:57

incapable of washing a load of laundry

15:59

just once. because I

16:01

forget about the wet clothes and the

16:03

dryer for days. The smoke

16:05

alarm is the only reason my house hasn't

16:07

burned to the ground, and

16:10

I cannot balance a checkbook to

16:12

save my life. But despite

16:14

my issues with time, memory,

16:16

and money, I shouldn't

16:19

be pathologized for having a brain that

16:21

works differently, and neither should

16:23

you. The

16:25

more I learned about ADHD, the

16:28

more frustrated I became with how

16:30

many misconceptions and roadblocks there are

16:32

for those of us who are

16:35

neurodivergent. At the same time,

16:37

I was meeting so many accomplished, successful,

16:39

and brilliant women with ADHD. How

16:43

come no one was talking about and

16:45

celebrating us? This

16:48

is how I decided to start

16:50

the podcast ADHD for smart ass

16:52

women, so that I

16:54

could help us all better understand

16:56

our brilliant creative brains.

16:59

I had an additional motive to meet more

17:01

women with ADHD. And

17:04

what better way to find my people

17:06

than by letting them know that I

17:08

am their people? What

17:10

I didn't realize at the time,

17:12

however, was just how many of

17:15

my people were out there. In

17:17

a little over a year, my podcast was

17:19

ranked in the top half of 1% of

17:23

all podcasts in the world on

17:25

any subject. Clearly, there

17:28

were many other women and some

17:30

men who resonated with my

17:32

strengths focused view of ADHD. Even

17:36

more surprisingly, I started

17:38

to receive messages from

17:41

psychiatrists, psychologists,

17:43

neurologists, therapists,

17:45

and other medical professionals from

17:47

around the world. Who

17:49

commended me on the quality of my work

17:52

and told me that they were

17:54

learning about ADHD from me. Some

17:57

also said they had referred their ADHD. patients

18:00

or clients to my podcast.

18:03

Then one of the country's leading ADHD

18:06

experts, psychiatrists, and former

18:08

Harvard Medical School professor Dr.

18:11

Edward M. Halliwell, whom I

18:13

interviewed on my podcast, called

18:15

me a marvelous fairy godmother, liberating

18:18

women from their negative labels and

18:20

helping them lay claim to the

18:22

wonderful life they can have. This

18:25

is how many women started calling me

18:27

their fairy godmother, a title that

18:29

has stuck. With

18:32

time, I began to realize the immense

18:34

value of belonging to a community of

18:36

like-minded ADHD women. My

18:39

podcast, along with the online programs

18:41

I subsequently launched for women with ADHD,

18:43

was helping

18:46

them recognize their own brilliance by

18:48

seeing the same traits in other

18:50

incredible women. Today, our

18:53

community of ADHD women includes

18:56

professors, scientists, doctors,

18:59

lawyers, CEOs, entrepreneurs,

19:02

contractors, artists, restaurateurs,

19:05

writers, and everyone else who wants

19:07

to tap into the strengths

19:09

that ADHD has to offer

19:11

and rewrite their own script.

19:15

Meeting these women is inspiring

19:17

and motivating. Throughout this

19:19

book, I'll introduce them to you because

19:22

it's important you meet them too.

19:25

What these women have in common

19:27

is the shared belief that they

19:29

are successful because of their

19:31

ADHD, not despite it.

19:34

They know that, given the right environment,

19:36

they can take advantage of their

19:38

natural strengths and interests. Many

19:42

of these women are also action-oriented.

19:44

They don't think about what

19:47

they can't do or wish they

19:49

could do. Instead, they go out and

19:51

do it. And because they do

19:53

it, you can do it too. In

19:56

my quest to learn all I could

19:58

about ADHD... I eventually

20:01

became an ADHD coach, which

20:04

is a trained professional who helps

20:06

people with the condition better manage

20:08

their lives and symptoms. While

20:10

there is no one regulating body

20:12

that certifies coaches, most

20:15

educational institutions that offer ADHD

20:17

coach training have robust

20:19

and specific criteria people must

20:21

follow before becoming a coach.

20:25

Some of the world's leading coaching

20:27

organizations like the nonprofit International

20:30

Coaching Federation certify ADHD

20:32

training programs to help

20:34

add credibility. Research

20:36

shows that people who work with

20:39

ADHD coaches end up improving

20:41

their motivation, concentration, time

20:43

management skills, self-esteem, and

20:45

satisfaction with their school

20:48

or work in

20:50

addition to other aspects of their daily

20:52

function and life. This

20:54

is one reason that many

20:57

psychiatrists, psychologists, pediatricians, and

20:59

other medical experts recommend working with

21:01

an ADHD coach. In

21:04

the epilogue, I'll give you guidelines on how

21:06

to find a good ADHD coach.

21:09

I started taking ADHD coaching classes

21:11

to better understand how my brain

21:14

worked. While I never set

21:16

out to become a coach myself, once

21:18

I started taking the classes, I couldn't

21:20

stop. I was so

21:22

interested in putting together my own

21:24

personal ADHD puzzle and understanding what

21:26

makes my brain tick that

21:28

I wanted to keep learning as much about the

21:30

condition as I could. I

21:33

also finally understood why life coaching has

21:35

never worked for me. It

21:37

wasn't that I was uncoachable, as I

21:39

had believed after my less than satisfying

21:42

experience with a top life coach, but

21:44

that I wasn't being coached in the right ways

21:46

for my differently wired brain. At

21:49

the same time, I began to see

21:52

just how effective ADHD coaching can be

21:54

and what a difference the right

21:56

coach can make when added to our

21:58

overall toolkit, which can also include

22:01

medication, exercise, mindfulness,

22:03

and other treatments and

22:05

therapies. I

22:07

also saw how often ADHD

22:09

doctors insist their patients partner

22:12

with ADHD coaches because these

22:14

medical professionals understand the value

22:17

of ADHD coaching.

22:20

After I became a coach and started

22:23

working exclusively with female clients, I saw

22:25

how quickly they improved after realizing the

22:27

reason they'd been struggling their whole lives

22:30

wasn't because they were flawed or not

22:32

smart enough. They simply had

22:34

ADHD. It was

22:36

no longer an excuse, just

22:38

a reason. Once

22:41

this clicked, they were able to

22:43

develop new workarounds and strategies that

22:45

better leverage their symptoms rather than

22:47

allowing themselves to remain hamstrung by

22:49

their traits. Through

22:52

my podcast and the other ADHD

22:54

groups I created, my

22:56

clients were also able to connect

22:58

with other successful happy women

23:00

with similar symptoms, which did

23:03

the most work to dissipate

23:05

the shame many felt. By

23:08

seeing themselves in other successful

23:10

women, many of my clients

23:12

have finally been able to acknowledge and

23:14

accept that they're not broken

23:17

and they don't have some character flaw

23:19

or moral failing. Instead, we

23:21

women with ADHD have a unique

23:23

brain that runs on a different

23:26

operating system, like being

23:28

a Mac in a Windows-driven world.

23:32

Inspired, I started offering free

23:34

workshops like My 5 Days to Fall in

23:36

Love with Your ADHD Brain. That's

23:39

when it became even clearer to me

23:41

that teaching ADHD women how their brains

23:44

work can greatly reduce shame,

23:46

help overhaul self-image, and change their

23:48

belief in what they think they're

23:50

capable of, sometimes in

23:52

just a matter of days. And

23:55

this is possible for you too, even

23:58

if you've lived with ADHD. for

24:00

years or have already tried

24:02

multiple sessions of traditional therapy

24:04

or life coaching. For

24:07

all these reasons, I knew that

24:09

I had to write an ADHD book for

24:11

women that didn't just disperse

24:14

the same old or traditional advice

24:16

like to keep a to-do list

24:18

and write everything in your planner,

24:20

which may or may not work

24:22

for you. Since

24:24

the COVID-19 pandemic, medical

24:26

professionals who don't understand ADHD

24:29

have chided women who diagnosed

24:31

themselves with the condition by

24:33

using TikTok, a real phenomenon

24:35

chronicled by Good Morning America,

24:37

Time Magazine, and many other

24:40

eminent media outlets. The

24:42

reason women have turned to TikTok to

24:45

get help with ADHD is

24:47

because we haven't felt heard or seen

24:49

and we've been undiagnosed, misdiagnosed,

24:52

or were still told that

24:54

it's all in our head.

24:58

Other times when doctors believe we

25:00

have ADHD, we're given a

25:02

prescription or a bunch of literature

25:04

highlighting how we're disordered or defective

25:07

when in reality, our brilliant

25:09

brains just work differently.

25:12

Recently, while reading the latest research

25:15

on ADHD, as I often do,

25:17

I stumbled on a

25:19

large study conducted by scientists at

25:21

the University of Toronto that

25:24

found 42% of all adults with ADHD

25:29

are in excellent mental

25:31

health. Excellent

25:33

mental health? Nearly

25:36

half of us? I

25:38

was floored. Why wasn't

25:41

everyone talking about this study? I

25:44

began to wonder what would happen

25:46

if instead of pathologizing ADHD,

25:49

we looked at what these 42%

25:52

of people were doing to live

25:54

successfully with ADHD and

25:56

leverage their strategies for ourselves?

26:00

Discovering what your best life can

26:02

look like with ADHD isn't

26:04

always a straight path forward, and

26:06

it may mean upsetting the apple cart in places

26:09

as you step into the brilliance of your extraordinary

26:11

brain. Those of

26:13

us with ADHD think differently, and

26:16

not everyone likes different. I

26:19

don't have tips on how to fit in because

26:21

I don't believe we need to fit in. Instead,

26:25

I believe we should embrace our unique brains

26:28

so that we can work with

26:30

our biology, not against it, to

26:32

be truly successful and happy. This

26:35

is what I want to teach you,

26:37

how to work with your exceptional brain

26:40

so you can do things your own

26:42

way and live the life you are

26:44

meant to live. If

26:46

you're struggling with your ADHD, one

26:49

reason may be because you're still

26:51

trying harder to do things society's

26:53

way. A lot of

26:55

ADHD women think they're broken because they

26:58

live outside the status quo, but

27:00

instead of kicking it to the curb where

27:02

it belongs, they end up

27:05

trying to improve the areas

27:07

of their brains that society

27:09

tells us need shoring up. I

27:12

strongly believe, however, that there are far

27:14

better ways to spend your time, like

27:17

embracing what makes you special and

27:19

living up to your potential. You

27:22

don't have to fit a square peg into

27:24

a round hole. In fact,

27:26

you can go ahead and ask why the

27:28

damn hole needs filling in the first

27:30

place. This

27:33

book is not packed with

27:35

incomprehensible, confusing, or pathologizing medical

27:38

jargon. It's written

27:40

the way most of us speak, simply

27:42

and directly with a sense of humor.

27:45

You can also start the book wherever you want. See

27:48

what interests you. You have my

27:50

permission not to finish a chapter if

27:52

it doesn't resonate with you. I

27:55

want this book to feel fun and easy

27:57

so that you feel good about listening to

27:59

it. it and keep listening to

28:01

it. What I want to

28:03

foster in you with this book is positive emotion

28:06

when we feel satisfaction, success,

28:08

happiness, or joy because

28:10

that's exactly what our ADHD

28:13

brains need to feel inspired to

28:15

keep going. One

28:18

of the most important lessons I

28:20

can impart to you is start

28:23

to get curious about what works for

28:25

you. Whether you realize it

28:27

or not, you already have systems

28:29

and procedures in place that function

28:31

best with your ADHD brain. Together,

28:34

we'll get curious about your systems

28:37

and how you can leverage and

28:39

implement them. That's a

28:41

big secret with ADHD. You

28:44

are already the expert on you.

28:48

No one knows what will work best for

28:50

you other than you. And

28:52

while many of us may have stopped

28:54

believing in ourselves years ago after being

28:56

told we were too much, I'm

28:59

here to teach you how to start trusting

29:01

in yourself again. I

29:04

have never met a person with ADHD

29:06

who wasn't truly brilliant at something,

29:09

not one. That

29:12

includes you, me, and my

29:14

son Marcus, who has been my

29:17

greatest teacher. He's

29:19

now in his junior year at New

29:21

York University and was recently offered a

29:23

summer internship at an international bank after

29:26

beating out 870 applications for one of

29:28

15 spots.

29:33

Not bad for a kid who was

29:35

told to lower his ambitions. Marcus

29:38

taught me that often our

29:41

creative ADHD brains need more

29:43

structure, not less. By

29:45

finding the right environment and surrounding himself

29:48

with people who believe in him, my

29:51

son Sky has become limitless,

29:54

and so can yours. Marcus

29:58

didn't need to have his expectations. lowered,

30:01

he needed them raised. Once

30:04

he knew how his different

30:06

brain worked and understood how

30:08

smart and capable he was,

30:10

hope took hold. Hope

30:13

is the bridge to our success. It

30:16

fuels our intentions, drives

30:18

our determination, and gives us

30:20

the confidence to soar. Hope

30:24

is my promise to you. So

30:29

there we have the introduction

30:31

of ADHD for smart ass

30:34

women. It's a good,

30:36

hopeful start to falling in love with your

30:38

ADHD brain, don't you think? So

30:40

right around now when I have a

30:43

guest, I will ask the guest something

30:45

like this. So Tracy, are

30:47

you working on something that you wanna tell

30:49

us about? Or usually I'll say, guest name,

30:51

are you working on something that you wanna

30:53

tell us about? Well, actually,

30:55

I am. I

30:58

have a book that's available for pre-order

31:00

called, you got it, ADHD for

31:03

smart ass women. And

31:05

you can order

31:07

it right now

31:09

at adhdforsmartwomen.com/book. Look,

31:12

once we all understand ADHD, we

31:16

can work together in a more powerful

31:18

way to accomplish almost anything.

31:20

Because I have a neurodivergent brain,

31:23

I know that I need people

31:25

with neurotypical brains to help me

31:27

with structure and direction and planning

31:30

and follow through. At the

31:32

same time, people with neurotypical

31:34

brains need my neurodivergent brain

31:36

for its creativity, hyper focus

31:38

and ability to do big

31:41

things. And you know what? Together,

31:43

we unstoppable.

31:47

So that's what I have

31:49

for you for this week. If

31:51

you like this episode with me, please

31:54

let me know

31:56

by pre-ordering my

31:58

book at adhdforsmartwomen.com/book.

32:00

My goal, you know my goal, it's

32:03

to change the conversation around ADHD, helping

32:06

as many women as I possibly

32:08

can learn how their ADHD brains

32:11

work so that they too may

32:13

discover their amazing strengths. As

32:15

always, you're listening to ADHD for

32:17

Smartass Women. Thank you so

32:20

much for listening and I'll see you

32:22

here next week. You've

32:25

been listening to the ADHD

32:27

for Smartass Women podcast. I'm

32:30

your host Tracey Aztica. Join

32:32

us at adhdforsmartwomen.com where you

32:34

can find more information on

32:37

my new book ADHD for

32:39

Smartass Women and my patented

32:41

Your ADHD Brain is AOK system

32:44

to help you get unstuck and

32:46

fall in love with your brilliant

32:48

brain. you