ADHD for Smart Ass Women with Tracy Otsuka

Tired of ADHD strategies that don’t work? Start with my this training: Stop Trying to “Fix” Your ADHD. You’re Not Broken: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/sign-up

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Politics has a way of putting people into boxes. Danielle Ford has spent much of her life questioning why those boxes exist in the first place.

When Danielle first joined me, she had just won a seat on the Clark County School Board. Today, she’s running for governor of Nevada as a nonpartisan candidate with a philosophy she calls systems repair: the belief that education, health care, housing, affordability, and government accountability are all connected, and real solutions need to address them together.

Diagnosed with ADHD at 30, Danielle has spent years questioning rules that don’t make sense, connecting ideas others overlook, and being labeled difficult for challenging the status quo. But after losing her reelection campaign, she began questioning herself. She had so many ideas and interests, but where were they actually leading her?

We talk about the exhaustion of being misunderstood, how Danielle found the common thread connecting her seemingly scattered career, and why she refuses to let political labels define her approach. It's a conversation about finding your purpose, trusting the way your brain works, and realizing that doing things differently doesn't mean you're doing them wrong.

Resources: 

• Website: https://daniellefornevada.com 
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/daniellefordlv 
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/trusteeford 
• Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@daniellefordlv 

Send a Message: Your Name | Email | Message

Explore more from me:
🐝 AOK Hive: https://tracyotsuka.com/hive 
🧘 SHIFT: https://tracyotsuka.com/shift
📚 Free resources: https://tracyotsuka.com/learn
📖 Get the book, ADHD for Smart Ass Women: https://tracyotsuka.com/adhd-book
🧠 Join Your ADHD Brain is A-OK Academy: https://tracyotsuka.com/aok
🌐 Visit my website: https://tracyotsuka.com/

ADHD isn’t a productivity problem. It’s an identity problem.

That’s why most strategies don’t stick. They were not designed for how your brain actually works. If you’re ready to stop fighting your brain and start building a life that fits, start here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/sign-up

Connect with me:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tracyotsuka
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heytracyotsuka
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracyotsuka/

Are You Ready to Discover Your Brilliance? Order Now: https://tracyotsuka.com/adhd-book

Tired of ADHD strategies that don’t work? Start with my this training: Stop Trying to “Fix” Your ADHD. You’re Not Broken: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/sign-up

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What happens when a girl gets tested for ADHD and walks out with a different answer?

At 11, Molly Smith was evaluated for ADHD and ended up diagnosed with anxiety. Her teachers noticed she couldn’t sit still and talked out of turn, but she was a good student who loved school, so the daydreaming, the chewed pencils, and the tears during timed math tests got chalked up to nerves.

For the next decade, she blamed herself. When a therapist finally pushed her to get tested again at 21, the psychologist reviewed her childhood report and said she didn’t know how anyone could have missed it.

Today Molly is a freelance writer and creative marketer, and the host of the movie podcast Did That Age Well?

In this episode, we talk about what gets missed when a smart girl looks fine on paper, the cost of believing your struggles are a character flaw, and what changed when Molly finally understood her brain.

If you keep thinking you should be able to handle things by now, there’s a lot here you’ll recognize.

Resources:

• Website: https://www.portfoliomollysmith.com 
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/molly-smith 
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mollybirdsmith 
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/didthatagewell 
• Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@didthatagewellpod 
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@didthatagewell 
• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/did-that-age-well/id1546089548 

Send a Message: Your Name | Email | Message

Explore more from me:
🐝 AOK Hive: https://tracyotsuka.com/hive 
🧘 SHIFT: https://tracyotsuka.com/shift
📚 Free resources: https://tracyotsuka.com/learn
📖 Get the book, ADHD for Smart Ass Women: https://tracyotsuka.com/adhd-book
🧠 Join Your ADHD Brain is A-OK Academy: https://tracyotsuka.com/aok
🌐 Visit my website: https://tracyotsuka.com/

ADHD isn’t a productivity problem. It’s an identity problem.

That’s why most strategies don’t stick. They were not designed for how your brain actually works. If you’re ready to stop fighting your brain and start building a life that fits, start here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/sign-up

Connect with me:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tracyotsuka
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heytracyotsuka
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracyotsuka/

Are You Ready to Discover Your Brilliance? Order Now: https://tracyotsuka.com/adhd-book

Tired of ADHD strategies that don’t work? Start with my this training: Stop Trying to “Fix” Your ADHD. You’re Not Broken: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/sign-up

_____

One critical comment. You can get a hundred lovely ones, and that’s the one you’re still thinking about hours later. Then you’re frustrated with yourself because why do you care so much?

Dr. Catherine Mutti-Driscoll knows this feeling. She’s the Director of Executive Function Coaching at the Hallowell ADHD & Behavioral Health Center in Seattle and the author of The Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria Workbook. I had the honor of writing the foreword, and I’m so happy to have her back.

We talk about why rejection can hit so hard, how the fear of it can influence choices we don’t even realize we’re making, and the part I especially love: the strengths Catherine sees in this sensitivity. Because when you’ve spent years wondering why you take everything so personally, there is a lot more about yourself you deserve to understand.

If one critical comment can take over your week, this conversation will help you understand why it stays with you long after everyone else has moved on.

Resources:
Website: https://catherinemuttidriscoll.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/catherinemuttidriscoll
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/catherine-mutti-driscoll-ph-d-b9847919
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/@catherinemuttidriscoll

Send a Message: Your Name | Email | Message

Explore more from me:
🐝 AOK Hive: https://tracyotsuka.com/hive 
🧘 SHIFT: https://tracyotsuka.com/shift
📚 Free resources: https://tracyotsuka.com/learn
📖 Get the book, ADHD for Smart Ass Women: https://tracyotsuka.com/adhd-book
🧠 Join Your ADHD Brain is A-OK Academy: https://tracyotsuka.com/aok
🌐 Visit my website: https://tracyotsuka.com/

ADHD isn’t a productivity problem. It’s an identity problem.

That’s why most strategies don’t stick. They were not designed for how your brain actually works. If you’re ready to stop fighting your brain and start building a life that fits, start here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/sign-up

Connect with me:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tracyotsuka
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heytracyotsuka
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracyotsuka/

Are You Ready to Discover Your Brilliance? Order Now: https://tracyotsuka.com/adhd-book

Need help actually getting started? Join the A-OK Hive and get things done alongside other ADHD women: https://tracyotsuka.com/hive
____

Anita Robertson prepared for everything when she became a mom. Then the parts nobody warned her about showed up anyway.

Anita is a licensed clinical social worker, therapist, ADHD mom, and author of ADHD and Us. She's back on the show with her new book, Being a Mom with ADHD, and I was honored to write the foreword.

Knowing her ADHD history, she had a plan for postpartum mental health. That part went fine. What blindsided her was everything else: a birth that left her barely able to move, sensory needs suddenly going unmet, hormones changing how her brain worked, and a son who didn't sleep through the night for three years. When an occupational therapist fixed his bedtime in a few weeks with a simple sensory routine, her first thought was, why is this not common knowledge?

In this episode, Anita and I get into how pregnancy and hormones affect the ADHD brain, why she gave mom guilt a name and a villain's hat, what mom rage is actually telling you, and why she says stop fighting for consistency and redesign your setup instead.

If motherhood has made you feel like you're losing your mind, this conversation will show you how much of it was never your fault.

Resources: 

• Website: https://www.anitarobertson.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/anitarobertsonlcsw 
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anitarobertsonlcsw 
• Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@strengthinyourmind 
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anitarobertson 
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@strengthinyourmind

Send a Message: Your Name | Email | Message

Explore more from me:
🐝 AOK Hive: https://tracyotsuka.com/hive 
🧘 SHIFT: https://tracyotsuka.com/shift
📚 Free resources: https://tracyotsuka.com/learn
📖 Get the book, ADHD for Smart Ass Women: https://tracyotsuka.com/adhd-book
🧠 Join Your ADHD Brain is A-OK Academy: https://tracyotsuka.com/aok
🌐 Visit my website: https://tracyotsuka.com/

ADHD isn’t a productivity problem. It’s an identity problem.

That’s why most strategies don’t stick. They were not designed for how your brain actually works. If you’re ready to stop fighting your brain and start building a life that fits, start here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/sign-up

Connect with me:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tracyotsuka
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heytracyotsuka
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracyotsuka/

Are You Ready to Discover Your Brilliance? Order Now: https://tracyotsuka.com/adhd-book

Need help actually getting started? Join the A-OK Hive and get things done alongside other ADHD women: https://tracyotsuka.com/hive
____

Some jobs make you feel brilliant. Others make you wonder what happened to your brain.

Rosemary Hollinger is a certified ADHD coach who works with female lawyers and other analytical professionals. Before coaching, she spent 32 years at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, eventually becoming Head of the Chicago Regional Office and Deputy Director in Enforcement. She was trying cases, shutting down Ponzi schemes, working alongside people she liked, and getting plenty of stimulation from the work itself.

Now she coaches lawyers who are every bit as smart and capable, but sometimes feel like they’re failing at the very careers they worked so hard to build. 

And this is where it gets really interesting. Because what happens when the problem isn’t whether you can do the work, but the way the work is set up?

In this episode, Rosemary and I get into the parts of the legal profession that can be especially brutal for an ADHD brain, why the usual advice about priorities doesn’t always help, and something she discovered about her ADHD lawyer clients that genuinely surprised me. We also talk about what her own 32-year legal career taught her about the kind of work, people, and environment that can completely change how a brain performs.

Resources:

• Website: https://www.partnerupcoaching.com 
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100048929782976
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/partnerup_coaching 
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rosemary-hollinger-2379453 

Send a Message: Your Name | Email | Message

Explore more from me:
🐝 AOK Hive: https://tracyotsuka.com/hive 
🧘 SHIFT: https://tracyotsuka.com/shift
📚 Free resources: https://tracyotsuka.com/learn
📖 Get the book, ADHD for Smart Ass Women: https://tracyotsuka.com/adhd-book
🧠 Join Your ADHD Brain is A-OK Academy: https://tracyotsuka.com/aok
🌐 Visit my website: https://tracyotsuka.com/

ADHD isn’t a productivity problem. It’s an identity problem.

That’s why most strategies don’t stick. They were not designed for how your brain actually works. If you’re ready to stop fighting your brain and start building a life that fits, start here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/sign-up

Connect with me:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tracyotsuka
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heytracyotsuka
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracyotsuka/

Are You Ready to Discover Your Brilliance? Order Now: https://tracyotsuka.com/adhd-book

Need help actually getting started? Join the A-OK Hive and get things done alongside other ADHD women: https://tracyotsuka.com/hive
____

I’ve been doing this since college, and until I was diagnosed with ADHD, I just thought I was a little odd. I work better when other people are around. Not helping me, not talking to me, and definitely not asking me how it’s going. I just need them there, doing their own thing.

In college, I couldn’t study in my quiet apartment, so I’d pack up my books and head to the noisiest floor of the library. My friends thought I was nuts. Decades later, when I had four months to write ADHD for Smart Ass Women, I ran into the same problem. I could spend an entire morning avoiding my manuscript at home, then walk into a coffee shop and write for hours.

So why does the same brain struggle in one environment and work brilliantly in another?

In this episode, I’m exploring why working around other people can help us get started, why silence isn’t always the answer for an ADHD brain, and what we might actually be borrowing from the environment around us. I’m also sharing how this led me to create the AOK Hive, a place where we can work alongside each other and get things done.

Maybe we need to stop asking why we can’t make ourselves do something and start paying attention to where our brains actually work best.

Send a Message: Your Name | Email | Message

Explore more from me:
🐝 AOK Hive: https://tracyotsuka.com/hive 
🧘 SHIFT: https://tracyotsuka.com/shift
📚 Free resources: https://tracyotsuka.com/learn
📖 Get the book, ADHD for Smart Ass Women: https://tracyotsuka.com/adhd-book
🧠 Join Your ADHD Brain is A-OK Academy: https://tracyotsuka.com/aok
🌐 Visit my website: https://tracyotsuka.com/

ADHD isn’t a productivity problem. It’s an identity problem.

That’s why most strategies don’t stick. They were not designed for how your brain actually works. If you’re ready to stop fighting your brain and start building a life that fits, start here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/sign-up

Connect with me:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tracyotsuka
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heytracyotsuka
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracyotsuka/

Are You Ready to Discover Your Brilliance? Order Now: https://tracyotsuka.com/adhd-book

Tired of ADHD strategies that don’t work? Start with my this training: Stop Trying to “Fix” Your ADHD. You’re Not Broken: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/sign-up
_____

Jenny Dietsch was the kid with papers flying out of her backpack, missing shoes, forgotten assignments, and parents asking, why can’t you just get it together?

Today, she runs a seven-figure professional organizing company. And weirdly enough, that makes perfect sense.

Jenny is a certified professional organizer and the founder of Getting It Done Organizing, a seven-figure home organizing and move management company in Dallas.

She was diagnosed with ADHD in her 40s after two of her three kids were diagnosed first. Suddenly, a lot of her own life made sense too. Her doctor saw the irony right away: Jenny had spent years building the systems she needed to function, then built an entire business around helping other people do the same.

Then the business scaled, and some of the chaos she thought she had left behind came right back with it.

In this episode, Jenny and Tracy talk about why structure can create more freedom for an ADHD brain, what happened when Jenny’s growing business became too chaotic even for her, and how she rebuilt it using repeatable systems, workflows, and routines.

If your life looks like chaos from the inside, this one is about what can change when you stop fighting your brain and start building around the way it actually works.

Resources:  

• Website: https://gettingitdoneorganizing.com 
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gettingitdoneorganizing 
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/getting-it-done-organizing 
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gettingitdoneorganizing 

Send a Message: Your Name | Email | Message

Explore more from me:
🐝 AOK Hive: https://tracyotsuka.com/hive 
🧘 SHIFT: https://tracyotsuka.com/shift
📚 Free resources: https://tracyotsuka.com/learn
📖 Get the book, ADHD for Smart Ass Women: https://tracyotsuka.com/adhd-book
🧠 Join Your ADHD Brain is A-OK Academy: https://tracyotsuka.com/aok
🌐 Visit my website: https://tracyotsuka.com/

ADHD isn’t a productivity problem. It’s an identity problem.

That’s why most strategies don’t stick. They were not designed for how your brain actually works. If you’re ready to stop fighting your brain and start building a life that fits, start here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/sign-up

Connect with me:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tracyotsuka
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heytracyotsuka
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracyotsuka/

Are You Ready to Discover Your Brilliance? Order Now: https://tracyotsuka.com/adhd-book

Tired of ADHD strategies that don’t work? Start with my this training: Stop Trying to “Fix” Your ADHD. You’re Not Broken: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/sign-up
_____

Dr. Ann Bennett has spent more than 20 years studying what helps people learn, adapt, and thrive. So when she decided to look at what ADHD podcasts were actually doing for women, she was not expecting the results to be THIS strong.

Dr. Bennett leads Applied Research & Evaluation at Understood.org and identifies as disabled, autistic, and AuDHD. In a first-of-its-kind study with Torrens University Australia, she and her research partner looked at how podcasts hosted by and for women with ADHD affect self-perception, health literacy, relationships, and hope for the future.

What they found was bigger than “podcasts are helpful.”

Women were moving from “something is wrong with me” to “I am a woman with ADHD, and I can navigate this.” About 85 to 86 percent reported a stronger sense of hope for their future, and the benefits showed up across every dimension of thriving the researchers measured.

In this episode, Tracy and Ann talk about why lived experience matters as much as credentials, why being talked with feels different from being talked at, what clinicians could learn from podcasts, and why hearing another woman say “me too” can genuinely change the way you see yourself.


Resources:
Website: https://www.understood.org/en/people/ann-m-bennett
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-annbennett
TEDx Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=noZM8CRmrBo
Podcast Study: https://www.understood.org/en/research-and-surveys/the-power-of-podcasts-how-podcasts-are-supporting-women-with-adhd

Send a Message: Your Name | Email | Message

Explore more from me:
🐝 AOK Hive: https://tracyotsuka.com/hive 
🧘 SHIFT: https://tracyotsuka.com/shift
📚 Free resources: https://tracyotsuka.com/learn
📖 Get the book, ADHD for Smart Ass Women: https://tracyotsuka.com/adhd-book
🧠 Join Your ADHD Brain is A-OK Academy: https://tracyotsuka.com/aok
🌐 Visit my website: https://tracyotsuka.com/

ADHD isn’t a productivity problem. It’s an identity problem.

That’s why most strategies don’t stick. They were not designed for how your brain actually works. If you’re ready to stop fighting your brain and start building a life that fits, start here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/sign-up

Connect with me:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tracyotsuka
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heytracyotsuka
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracyotsuka/

Are You Ready to Discover Your Brilliance? Order Now: https://tracyotsuka.com/adhd-book

Tired of ADHD strategies that don’t work? Start with my this training: Stop Trying to “Fix” Your ADHD. You’re Not Broken: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/sign-up

_____

Holly Fowler was the kid who got told she was too loud, too distracted, too much. She was also a C-grade student barely passing maths and science until an academic scholarship gave her a reason to care.

Then she got straight As.

That same intensity now fuels Wable, the global social network Holly founded for neurodivergent people to connect across friendship, dating, work, and support. A Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, she has since scaled the company across four continents.

Diagnosed with ADHD in her early 20s, Holly can now see the clues all over her childhood, including years of school reports calling her easily distracted and distracting to others.

In this episode, Holly and Tracy talk about ADHD as an entrepreneurial advantage, what rejection taught her about RSD, how she manages overthinking and constant decision-making, and what building a company has revealed about how her brain works under pressure.

If you have ever been told your brain is too much for the room, this conversation explores what can happen when you build around it instead.

Resources:
Website: https://www.hellowable.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itshollyfowler
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/holly-fowler-3b36b9163
Mindbridge Coaching: https://www.mindbridgecoaching.com
Wable: https://www.hellowable.com

Send a Message: Your Name | Email | Message

Explore more from me:
🐝 AOK Hive: https://tracyotsuka.com/hive 
🧘 SHIFT: https://tracyotsuka.com/shift
📚 Free resources: https://tracyotsuka.com/learn
📖 Get the book, ADHD for Smart Ass Women: https://tracyotsuka.com/adhd-book
🧠 Join Your ADHD Brain is A-OK Academy: https://tracyotsuka.com/aok
🌐 Visit my website: https://tracyotsuka.com/

ADHD isn’t a productivity problem. It’s an identity problem.

That’s why most strategies don’t stick. They were not designed for how your brain actually works. If you’re ready to stop fighting your brain and start building a life that fits, start here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/sign-up

Connect with me:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tracyotsuka
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heytracyotsuka
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracyotsuka/

Are You Ready to Discover Your Brilliance? Order Now: https://tracyotsuka.com/adhd-book

Tired of ADHD strategies that don’t work? Start with my this training: Stop Trying to “Fix” Your ADHD. You’re Not Broken: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/sign-up

_____

Tessa MacKay can spend hundreds of hours on a single painting. Her photorealistic work can look almost indistinguishable from a photograph, but for Tessa, that precision became more than technique. It became a way to work with her ADHD, dyslexia, and the way her brain processes the world.

An Australian oil painter diagnosed with inattentive ADHD at 18, Tessa built a career around the kind of detail and focus that once helped her make sense of the world. But success also brought her face-to-face with the art world's complicated relationship with photorealism, forcing her to question how she thought, learned, and defended her own work.

In this episode, Tracy and Tessa talk about what happened when she decided to retrain her brain, why painting could feel easier than everyday life, and how her latest project, Social Realism, turns forgotten Facebook photos into art.

If you have ever wondered how someone can do something extraordinarily difficult while struggling with things that seem simple, this conversation goes there.

Resources:

• Website: https://www.tessamackay.com 
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tessamackayart 
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tessa-mackay-8a7121289 
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tessamackayart 
• Arrowsmith Program:
  https://arrowsmith.ca
  https://thetrailblazersbook.com 
• Trailblazers by Howard Eaton - https://www.amazon.com/Trailblazers-Spearheading-Educational-Australian-Difficulties/dp/1779414250  
• The Woman Who Changed Her Brain by Barbara Arrowsmith-Young - https://www.amazon.com/Woman-Who-Changed-Brain-Transformation/dp/1451607946  

Send a Message: Your Name | Email | Message

Explore more from me:
🐝 AOK Hive: https://tracyotsuka.com/hive 
🧘 SHIFT: https://tracyotsuka.com/shift
📚 Free resources: https://tracyotsuka.com/learn
📖 Get the book, ADHD for Smart Ass Women: https://tracyotsuka.com/adhd-book
🧠 Join Your ADHD Brain is A-OK Academy: https://tracyotsuka.com/aok
🌐 Visit my website: https://tracyotsuka.com/

ADHD isn’t a productivity problem. It’s an identity problem.

That’s why most strategies don’t stick. They were not designed for how your brain actually works. If you’re ready to stop fighting your brain and start building a life that fits, start here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/sign-up

Connect with me:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tracyotsuka
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heytracyotsuka
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracyotsuka/

Are You Ready to Discover Your Brilliance? Order Now: https://tracyotsuka.com/adhd-book