Tired of ADHD strategies that don’t work? Here’s what actually does. FREE training here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/signup

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You walk into a room and forget why you're there. You miss deadlines even though you care deeply about the work. You can remember a random conversation from 15 years ago but not what someone just told you five minutes ago.Welcome to life with an ADHD brain and a memory system that works differently.

Dr. Daniella Karidi knows this firsthand. Diagnosed with ADHD in her fifties after a therapist friend sent her a book she initially dismissed as "for kids," Daniella finally understood why she'd always felt "off" despite being highly successful. A researcher who earned her doctorate from Northwestern University studying memory and ADHD, Daniella is now the founder of ADHDtime, where she works as a professional ADHD and executive coach. She's spent years translating complex memory research into practical strategies that actually work for ADHD brains and in this conversation, she breaks down exactly why our memory fails us and what we can do about it.

Daniella and Tracy dive deep into prospective memory (remembering to remember in the future), why time-based cues are terrible for ADHD brains, and the five steps where memory can break down. Daniella explains why we forget we took our medication, why she needed multiple cues instead of just one, and why she believes people who master their own memory patterns can finally stop feeling like they're failing at life. She also shares the grief and relief of late diagnosis, and why she'll never stop advocating for better understanding of how ADHD women's brains actually work.

Resources:

Website: https://www.adhdtime.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ADHDtime
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ADHDtime

Send a Message: Your Name | Email | Message

If this podcast helps you understand your ADHD brain, Shift helps you train it. Practice mindset work in just 10 minutes a day. Learn more at tracyotsuka.com/shift

Instead of Struggling to figure out what to do next?

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

That’s why most strategies don’t stick—they weren’t designed for how your brain actually works. Your ADHD Brain is A-OK Academy is different. It’s a patented, science-backed coaching program that helps you stop fighting your brain and start building a life that fits. 👉Learn more here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/aok-academy

Learn more by connecting with Tracy through Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, or visit adhdforsmartwomen.com.

Are You Ready to Discover Your Brilliance? Order Now: https://tracyotsuka.com/book2

Visit our website: https://tracyotsuka.com

Tired of ADHD strategies that don’t work? Here’s what actually does. FREE training here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/signup

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Kiersten Lyons spent most of her life being told she was too much. Too loud, too dramatic, too many feelings all at once. She was also told she wasn't enough. Not pretty enough, not the right fit, not what Hollywood was looking for. The dichotomy nearly broke her. But it also became the foundation of her story.

As a working actress in LA for over a decade, with recurring roles on Grey's Anatomy and Mad Men, Kiersten kept hearing the same feedback: "You're great, we just don't know what to do with you." So she created her own work, writing and starring in her award-winning one-woman show Crushed. It was supposed to become a TV series. Then the producer ghosted her.

At 42, while advocating for her son's ADHD evaluation, she finally got her own diagnosis and suddenly all those years of rejection, of being "too much" and "not enough," made sense. She understood why she could memorize all 50 states in under 20 seconds to impress boys (it didn't work), why she felt everything so intensely, and why masking had left her exhausted for decades.

Her debut memoir Crushed: The Boys That Never Liked Me Back opens with her fiancé confessing he didn't love her and had cheated at The Magic Castle while she was addressing their wedding invitations. Six months later, he won $100,000 on reality TV. Her life unraveled publicly, but the book isn't about revenge. It's about reclaiming yourself when everything falls apart.

In this conversation, Kiersten and Tracy explore pattern recognition, rejection sensitivity, and why so many creative women with ADHD end up in industries that require constant validation. They talk about the loneliness of being the eldest daughter who takes care of everyone, the grief of late diagnosis, and why acceptance, not positivity, is what allows us to heal.

Resources:

Website: https://www.kierstenlyons.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kierstenlyonsroar
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@kier

Send a Message: Your Name | Email | Message

If this podcast helps you understand your ADHD brain, Shift helps you train it. Practice mindset work in just 10 minutes a day. Learn more at tracyotsuka.com/shift

Instead of Struggling to figure out what to do next?

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

That’s why most strategies don’t stick—they weren’t designed for how your brain actually works. Your ADHD Brain is A-OK Academy is different. It’s a patented, science-backed coaching program that helps you stop fighting your brain and start building a life that fits. 👉Learn more here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/aok-academy

Learn more by connecting with Tracy through Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, or visit adhdforsmartwomen.com.

Are You Ready to Discover Your Brilliance? Order Now: https://tracyotsuka.com/book2

Visit our website: https://tracyotsuka.com

Tired of ADHD strategies that don’t work? Here’s what actually does. FREE training here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/signup

_____

Nicole Bela was brilliant at her job. She could read a room in seconds, remember every donor’s story, and raise millions for causes she believed in. But behind the polished professionalism, she was quietly unraveling. The same systems designed to do good were slowly breaking her down, and she couldn’t understand why.

After being diagnosed with ADHD at 37, just after the birth of her second son, Nicole finally had the missing piece. Suddenly, the patterns made sense: the anxiety that exercise once kept in check, the brain fog after Zoom meetings, the guilt of forgetting critical details while remembering someone’s cat’s name. What began as relief quickly turned into a mission. Nicole wrote a groundbreaking article for the Association of Fundraising Professionals, “Unmasking Burnout,” connecting the dots between masking, mental health, and why so many fundraisers, especially women, are burning out.

In this conversation, Nicole and Tracy unpack why the nonprofit world may be full of undiagnosed neurodivergent professionals, how the pandemic exposed the cracks in traditional workplace culture, and what leaders can do to build real belonging. Nicole also shares how unmasking her ADHD changed the way she leads, works, and parents proving that inclusion starts when we stop pretending and start asking what people truly need to thrive.

Resources:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unmaskedartstudio
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicole-bela-msw-cfre-a484571b

Send a Message: Your Name | Email | Message

If this podcast helps you understand your ADHD brain, Shift helps you train it. Practice mindset work in just 10 minutes a day. Learn more at tracyotsuka.com/shift

Instead of Struggling to figure out what to do next?

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

That’s why most strategies don’t stick—they weren’t designed for how your brain actually works. Your ADHD Brain is A-OK Academy is different. It’s a patented, science-backed coaching program that helps you stop fighting your brain and start building a life that fits. 👉Learn more here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/aok-academy

Learn more by connecting with Tracy through Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, or visit adhdforsmartwomen.com.

Are You Ready to Discover Your Brilliance? Order Now: https://tracyotsuka.com/book2

Visit our website: https://tracyotsuka.com