Sonja:
Hi, welcome to my podcast.
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My name is Sonja Lekahena and
I'm the founder of Femme on Fire.
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I'm also the founder of
The Irresistible Workplace.
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So Femme on Fire is a place where
I want to help women with ADHD to
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turn their unique way of thinking
into their greatest asset and to
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help them advance their careers.
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While the Irresistible Workplace
helps entrepreneurs and organizations
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to create a workplace that actually
attracts the most talented people,
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not in the last place, of course,
those fantastic neurodivergent women.
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And in this podcast, I want to
reflect on my own experiences and the
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latest knowledge around the subject
of neurodivergent women and create a
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place where we celebrate the positive
and overcome the negative in order to
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maximize our success and our happiness.
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So before I tell you about my own
story in tech and entrepreneurship,
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let me take you back to where
this story really begins for me.
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In a classroom where there is a young
girl that was constantly being told
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she wasn't living up to her potential.
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I was that kid.
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I was that kid that the teachers would
frustratingly label as highly intelligent,
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but, and there was always a but.
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But she's lazy, but she doesn't pay enough
attention, but she's always daydreaming.
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And my report cards were
a real contradiction.
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In some subjects I had outstanding
results, and in others I barely passed
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at all, or I didn't pass at all.
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And my parents would sit in
teacher conferences hearing the
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same message over and over again.
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Sonja has so much potential, if
only she would apply herself.
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And you can probably picture this.
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Here is me staring at French vocabulary
lists and feeling completely paralyzed.
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The words would swim before my
eyes, refusing to stick to my
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brain, and I was unable to make my
brain focus on the topic at hand.
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Because I really was not interested in it.
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I was unable to make my brain
focus on the topic at hand.
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It just keeps wandering in any direction.
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Any distraction at all.
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It could be the great outside
world through the window.
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It could be the smoke
coming from the cup of tea.
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Anything.
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Anything that's not my French vocabulary.
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But yet in the same week, I could
passionately explain every intricate
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detail of the French Revolution to my
history teacher, including facts that
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were not even in our textbooks, simply
because it had captured my interest
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and triggered my magical hyper focus.
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As we had no internet at the time, I was
reading all the books I could about the
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Scarlet Pimpernel, who I really loved,
any historical books that I could do some
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fact checking with, biographies of all the
main characters of the French Revolution,
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and anything I could get my hands on.
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My teacher was really impressed, but
also very, very confused, because
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why couldn't I just show this kind
of dedication in other subjects?
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And that's what nobody understood
back then, including me.
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No one recognized that this wasn't
because I was being lazy or unmotivated.
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This was ADHD presenting quite
differently in girls than it does in boys.
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While in boys, who couldn't sit
still, I mean they got all the
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attention and support they needed.
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Girls like me, who were quietly
struggling with our internal
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chaos, we were always overlooked.
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And the message I
internalized I was a failure.
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A structural, consistent failure
who couldn't meet up to expectations
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no matter how hard I tried.
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And every time I couldn't force
myself to focus on something that
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didn't interest me, every time I lost
track of time while deep diving into
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a fascinating topic, every time I
forgot an assignment despite my best
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intentions, it reinforced this belief.
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So now, fast forward to today, and,
well, the tables have turned quite a bit.
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That same brain that made me
feel like a failure in school,
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it's now my greatest asset.
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That ability to hyper focus on topics
that do interest me, It made me an
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expert in my field and the tendency
to see connections that others miss.
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It is what makes me
innovative in business.
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The way my brain jumps from idea to idea.
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It's perfect for entrepreneurship
and for problem solving in tech.
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Now I run multiple successful
businesses and I work with
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international tech companies.
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And yes, I still manage the beautiful
chaos of a household with four children.
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But the journey there, well, it was very
lonely and filled with trial and error.
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Honestly, I was never understood.
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But because of that, I found it hard
to understand my, why my daughter
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was making the same mistakes
as I was when I was a child.
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Now, I realize that it wasn't us being
lazy or rebellious, it was our brain just
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not ticking the way it does for others.
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It shouldn't have to be that hard
for other women who are just like us.
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And that's why I created Femme on
Fire and especially this podcast.
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Every week I'm bringing you real stories,
uh, practical strategies, game changing
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insights about thriving with ADHD.
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We'll talk about everything from
managing executive dysfunction in board
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meetings to leveraging your unique.
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brainwiring for career advancement.
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We're also dealing with
everyday challenges.
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I am in no way perfect.
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And even though I have figured
out a lot, there are always
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new challenges to overcome.
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We live, we learn.
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You'll not only hear my stories,
but also from other incredible
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women who've turned their ADHD
traits into professional advantages.
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This isn't about fitting into a
neurotypical box or something like that.
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It's about embracing your unique wiring
and using it to set your career on fire.
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So if you're ready to transform your
challenges into your strengths, Then
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join a community of women who get
it, and you're in the right place.
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So welcome to Femme on Fire, where
we turn ADHD into our advantage.
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Only one strategy at a time.
