Introducing “ADHD-ish” 🌟

It’s been an amazing four-year journey since I launched The Driven Woman Entrepreneur podcast, and it’s time for an evolution.

Earlier this year, I recorded an episode hinting at a rebrand, and now it’s finally here!  

Rebranding the podcast has been a journey, motivated by the desire to help individuals with big ideas and busy brains—regardless of their gender or whether they carry the ADHD label officially or not. 

Our new focus is on those who think, feel, and do things differently, celebrating their uniqueness and helping them thrive.

Whether you're an entrepreneur, a freelancer,an independent professional or someone simply looking to make a living on your terms, this podcast is for you. . 

What to Expect:

A Broader Audience: We are expanding our community to be more inclusive, welcoming listeners of all genders who resonate with the topics and discussions.

Expanding the Definition of Neurodiversity: Acknowledging and celebrating those who think, feel, and do things differently, whether you are officially diagnosed or self-identify as neurodivergent, this podcast is for you.

Calling All Creatives &  Indie Business Owners: Helping people bridge the gap between working in their area of passion and making a living doing so. Say goodbye to the starving artist and burned-out entrepreneur narratives!

Exciting New Content: We’re planning a variety of valuable and engaging content, including shorter episodes perfect for busy individuals. 

Companion episode: Ep # 217 - “ADHD or ADHD-ish?” 

I Want to Hear from You!

As we navigate this change, your feedback is invaluable to me. What topics are you most interested in? Who would you like to hear as a featured guest? 

Your voice matters here, and I am eager to create content that resonates with you.

• Email me:  diann@diannwingertcoaching.com
• DM me: Instagram or LinkedIn
• Send me a Voxer message: dwinge176 
• Leave a voice message on my SpeakPipe 

And, don’t forget to Follow/ Subscribe to ADHD-ish NOW, so you don’t miss a single episode! 

Apple Podcasts     Spotify   YouTube Music (formerly Google Podcasts)

© 2024 ADHD-ish Podcast. Intro music by Ishan Dincer / Melody Loops / All rights reserved. Outro music by Vladimir / Bobi Music / All rights reserved. 

For those of you that have been my ride or dies, it has been 4 long years since I first started the Driven Woman Entrepreneur podcast in the earliest days of the COVID pandemic, and it feels so weird not to start this episode with, hey, and welcome back to, you get it. It was all the way back in January of this year, though, that I first recorded an episode talking about the fact that it was time to rebrand, so what took so long? Well, change is hard. If you've been following along, I left you a few little clues just 10 episodes ago in number 217 called ADHD or ADHD-ish.

Now if you missed that one, there's a link to it in the show notes so that you can go back and listen to it if you haven't already done so. On that episode, I shared my personal thoughts about the need to evolve this podcast beyond being directed exclusively towards women, beyond being directed exclusively toward entrepreneurs, and bringing the focus toward traits that most of us come to think of as ADHD. What's become important to me is helping people with big ideas and busy brains do their most important work in the world.

What they call themselves, how they identify, whether they've been to see a doctor and gotten a diagnosis, whether they take medication, don't take medication, whether they disclose, don't disclose, all of that is considerably less important to me now than helping really bright, really creative, really talented people do their most important work in the world.

I kind of fell out of love with labels even though this very show has kind of a label, doesn't it? I'd like to think that ADHD-ish is a little squishy. It leaves a little room for interpretation. And I understand in leaving that room, it's going to be triggering to some people. I talked about this in episode 217 because I never want to offend anyone. I never wanna trigger anyone, and I never accidentally and certainly not intentionally want to upset anyone who lives the day to day challenges of ADHD. But I realized that there was a specific group of people that I wasn't sure I was reaching. I regularly had people reach out to me and say, I really like your podcast and I really identify with what you're saying, but I'm not a woman, is that okay?

And I realized, maybe I need to broaden the lens. Maybe I need to drop the gender focus. After all, there are plenty of other podcasts that are speaking directly to women who live with these traits. Right now, I believe we are in the age of identity, whether we're talking about our cultural identity, our gender, or sexual orientation identity. And increasingly, people are talking about their neurodivergent identity. You don't have to pass a test. You don't have to take an exam. You don't have to do anything at all to identify as being neurodivergent.

Language is ever evolving and this label in particular is evolving very, very quickly. A lot of people are starting to think of themselves as neurodivergent even though nobody but them confirms it and I am okay with that. I don't think it disrespects anyone who's gone the official route. Because as I talked about in the ADHD or ADHD-ish episode, it's really daunting to go through the official channels. And it's not something that everyone has access to. What has become really important to me is talking to people who know they think, feel, and do things differently. Celebrating them, applauding them, supporting them, and helping them figure out how to make the very most of the fact that they are different.

If you spent any time in the corporate world, the world of academia, nonprofits, anything other than entrepreneurship or self employment, then you don't need me to tell you that the world around us was made by and for neurotypicals. They believe they know the right way to do things. Well, if you're not like them, doing things their way can be challenging at best and often lead people to feeling like they're a complete failure even though they may think they have the best ideas in the room. Lots of people who are neurodivergent, neurospicy, ADHD-ish, end up working for themselves not even because they want to, but because they find the typical workplace completely inhospitable to their unique needs, traits, and tendencies.

I want to create a welcoming place for just those people. Because in my experience, some of the brightest, some of the most original, some of the most creative, some of the most divergent thinkers I've ever met are people with these traits and tendencies. And it is so frustrating to me and to them, I know, that we are so often misunderstood. We are often misunderstood by the very people we seek out to help us by psychiatrists, by therapists, by coaches. We can even be misunderstood by them.

I cannot tell you how many people I've met over the last 10 years who were inaccurately diagnosed after going through all the hoops to get in front of a qualified professional. So I'm here for the people who know they're different and know they need to do things differently and they have the audacity to be self employed. They may be entrepreneurs. They may be small business owners, freelancers, side hustlers, gig workers, serial entrepreneurs, small business owners. All of it, I'm here for all of it because these are the people who have chosen to live life on their terms and make a living on their terms.

You know what else I'm here for, with ADHD-ish? Helping people who want to bridge the gap between working in their area of passion and purpose and making a profit doing so. I'm tired of the starving artist narrative. I am tired of the struggling small business owner narrative. I don't see a contradiction between doing work you love and making a decent living doing it, but that requires a few things. One of the things it requires is a very deep appreciation for the unique brain you have and what that brain needs in order for you to thrive, what conditions you need to create, a respect for your actual bandwidth.

Can you work with clients or do you need to do non client work? How many clients can you serve? How big do you want your business to grow? Do you want to manage people or do you want to stay solo? All of these are really important questions, not in figuring out how big an empire you want, but what kind of business serves you best, is in alignment with your needs, your preferences, and, yes, your not so typical brain. So in this newly rebranded show, I am wide open for feedback. I want this show to not just be about me and my evolution and what I wanna talk about, although there will be some of that. But I want to know what you wanna hear from me. What kind of guests you want me to interview.

One thing I know for sure is I will be doing some minisodes because even though I'm very chatty, as you know, not everything needs a lot of words to get the point across. And I love the idea of being able to create short episodes in the ADHD feed that when you only have 5 or 10 minutes, you can still get something worthwhile and I am committed to making that part of this show. Beyond that, I've got the next few guests lined up. I've got the next few solo episodes lined up. And I am wide open for feedback on what you want to hear from me. Whether you are brand new or you have been with me for the last 4 years as a faithful listener, I want to hear from you.

So there's a link in the show notes so you can let me know what's on your mind. And even if you're, like, really pissed at me for changing the show because you really like the driven woman entrepreneur, I'm gonna pull up my big girl panties all the way to my chin, and I'm ready to hear that from you as well. So I promise to keep this first one short and sweet. I've got some really terrific stuff for you starting next week. And let me hear from you, it matters. Creating content for podcasting is a lonely journey. And I can tell you I speak for all podcasters when I say we thrive on hearing from people who actually take the time to listen, let that be you. And if you love it already, share it with somebody who needs to hear it too, you know the one. That's all for now, I'll be back next week and hope you will too.