Hello, welcome to ADHD owned an ADHD entrepreneur Podcast. I am so excited to be here and to have your ears tuning in to me today on our very first episode Actually, I'm really excited for this. So let me quickly just tell you who I am. And then we will get going. So I am Jessie Romero, I am an ADHD entrepreneur from Houston, Texas. I'm also a mother of a toddler, and a wife. So got a lot going on all the time. And that is just how we roll with things. And definitely being a mom entrepreneur is a whole different rodeo, which we will be talking about on this podcast at some points. But yes, I wanted to start off this podcast with really a bit of my story just so that you could really understand who I am and where I come from, and hopefully also resonate and connect with some of the things that I'm saying. So I am 27 No, I'm definitely 26. I've found that this is an ADHD thing where you can never remember what your actual actual age is, ya know, I'm 26. And I found out that I have ADHD last year only. And so many people always get shocked by how little I've known that I had my ADHD but really, it was just that like huge hyper focus that I feel like a lot of ADHD people go through when they discover that they might have ADHD. And they go through the Google rabbit hole of learning more about what ADHD is, and all of that stuff. So I definitely went on one of those. And my first exposure to ADHD was actually from tic toc. And I think a lot of people now I can actually say this too, but I was back on Tick Tock like before, it got crazy popular. And before there was really even an ADHD community on there. That wasn't a thing when I was on Tick Tock. And so one day, I'm just scrolling, of course, probably just laying on the couch, unable to move. And I come across this video of a young girl who it looks like she's doing homework, and she has her headphones, and she's trolling her hair. She's fidgeting with a pen. And there's really no context to that video other than the caption that says, This is what ADHD and girls looks like. And I remember feeling a bit confused and like shocked by that because I was like, wait, what, but she seemed so like normal. To me, it was normal, right? And I read the comments and I remember people talking about their experience with ADHD as girls and women and a lot of the things that they were saying I could really resonate with. So I was like, Whoa, that's interesting. I always thought you know, of course like everyone else. I thought ADHD was the jumpy a little boy who can't say still that gets in trouble in school all the time. And I just never resonated with any of that. I'm very much ADHD inattentive. So yeah, for me ADHD presents as really a lot of hyperactivity in my mind. Lots of racing thoughts, lots of daydreaming for sure. Yes, anxiety, and you know, the twirling of my hair and like that fidgety stuff I would do. But and I could say perfectly still in my seat. And I could even stay perfectly quiet to if I could tell that no one was going to listen. And I was actually really shy and introverted girl growing up very brutally, actually. I remember in seventh grade, no eighth grade in middle school. I was the new girl because I had just moved from Miami, Florida to Houston, Texas. I'm originally from Miami, Florida. And my parents are Colombian. So yeah, I'm Colombian American. Anyways, when I'm in middle school, in this new school, of course, I'm the quiet girl. I'm pretty shy. It was really hard for me to make friends growing up. I never felt like anyone really understood me. I always felt like the outsider. So when I'm in middle school, of course I connect with the most talkative girl I've ever met second to my dad. And she probably most definitely has ADHD to hyper kind, but she like literally would never stop talking. She was always talking and we were the perfect duo because she would talk and I would listen and stay quiet just listening to her and agreeing and so because she talked so much and was so bubbly and out there was pretty popular. So I kind of sat at the popular girls table. They were like all athletes and that was the most unathletic one sports was always really hard for me every single sport I was bad at all of them. I was good at music in choir though, so Okay, anyways, tell me why for a whole like half of a semester of school like that's like almost six months, I think, Wow. It's been a while. For the whole time that I'm sitting at that round table in the middle school cafeteria. For that whole semester, I probably spoke up and said, words out loud twice, or maybe three times. And the whole time that the girls around me would talk. I would just listen. And I would think about what would be a good thing to say, you know, because there's a good and a bad thing to say, and I would just overthink so much like, no, that's not good enough, like, Oh, no, I don't think that's good enough. Like, no, no one's gonna agree with that. No one's gonna know what I mean by that. And I literally was just so in my head, and I wanted to participate so bad in the conversation. And shoot, I had lots of like, I would reply back in my head, like, yep, me too. And I had so much to say, but I was so afraid. I was just so timid. And and then of course, I would overthink to the point where like, the conversation had already took a turn, and I'm like, damn it, that would have been a really good thing to say, but I already missed my chance. So yeah, it must have been really weird for them to like, have this girl that sits at their table kind of takes up a spot, and doesn't ever say anything just eats. Yeah, it was crazy now that I think about like how insecure and timid and afraid I was, and how much I had dimmed my light because I had seen the annoyance in people's eyes when I over talked, or when I you know, just like was talking to faster, or when I got too passionate about something that no one really cared about. And that really started to dim my light little by little. So also I grew up with a very ADHD father, probably poster boy for ADHD, if that was something that they diagnose back in his day, and he would talk all day long, like, my dad is a guy who just like makes friends with everyone around like all of the mailman growing up, I always knew who he was. So I think a part of growing up in that I saw how annoying it could be when he talked so much. And I would see even the look in other people's eyes when my dad would talk too much. So I think somehow I like was afraid to be that person. And I didn't want to come off annoying. So I just tried to control how much I talked to so sad now that I look at it. So anyways, that's kind of what I was like, right? Super insecure, had a lot of emotional baggage, I guess. But I was able to move myself through that growing up. And after college, I kind of broke out of my shell a little bit started really actually working on some inner healing through college. College was a really good journey for me to really discovering and finding myself, but still so many questions about why I am the way I am, right? Because I didn't know it was ADHD. So anyways, back to the tick tock video that I was looking at, I saw that I read the comments and I was like, wow, that actually like really resonates. And of course, I just kept scrolling. And I did nothing with that information because I'm like, Okay, cool. Like that kind of relates, but like there's no way in hell I have ADHD, right. So it was not until actually like about four months later from watching that video that I am sitting at my kitchen island. And I'm rewatching a recording of a coaching session that I had with a new client. And this is when I pivoted my business to coaching so before coaching, I was doing a lot of marketing stuff. I was doing a lot of done for you marketing, social media marketing content, Instagram stuff, I was doing a lot of that for my clients. And I started with the ads I was like a Facebook ad expert and then I moved on to like Content Manager and like managing my clients accounts for their business. And at one point, I think I had like 10 different accounts that I was managing and posting on every single day. So of course if that made you feel overwhelmed, that's how I felt. But worse, it was very overwhelming. I literally felt like I was working all of the time and it became to a point where I just could not take it anymore. I used to be passionate about what I did and then that passion left because I was burned out with also juggling motherhood, it was hard and I think I finally realized one day like okay, I've actually woken up several days now where I wish I didn't have to do this and I knew that was a big red flag for me I've always said that I don't ever want to do something just for the money. I want to do something that I'm genuinely passionate and in love with. And I started seeing that love left right so I transitioned into coaching because I was actually already coaching a lot of my clients and I even had one like super loyal client who was she was paying for coaching sessions with me because she just like loved what I was doing and want to learn more. So anyways this is my first coaching client first one I'm a super newbie coach I'm super excited he's an awesome client like we resonate so well together. Also turned out he had ADHD as well. Anyways I'm watching myself in the zoom recording of that session you know taking notes. What did I do good. What could I have done better? Oh my God when I tell you I had like second hand embarrassment watching myself, I was literally snooped into my chair cringing, and I remember feeling so angry that no one had ever told me that I look like and that I talk. Because like, there is just so much wrong with that video. Like, I could not finish what I was saying, like I would start a point and never come back to it, I would get sidetracked by something else. I was talking super fast. My hands were all over the place. I couldn't even keep like steady eye contact. I was like looking all over the room. When I was talking. I was twirling with a pen. I think in my hand, man, I was just doing so much. I literally was getting anxiety from watching myself be so all over the place. Not anxiety from embarrassment. I don't know, have you ever talked to someone that's just like too much and you're just like, Whoa, calm down. Like you're kind of overstimulating you right now. That's how I was. And I just could not believe that. That's what I that's what happens when I talk. So yeah, that video shook me. And I was like, there's no way in hell, this is normal. This is not normal. There definitely is something wrong with me, because why am I doing that I just I knew that that was not okay. And of course, apart from that I was going through so much motherhood, new motherhood, like issues. And my journey of motherhood was really difficult. And I was having a hard time with postpartum anxiety and rage. And I'm still not sure to this day if it could have been postpartum depression. So it didn't quite feel depressed or sad. It was just a lot of anxiety and a lot of rage, too. I had never met the angry version of me that I didn't know that that existed, I could never pinpoint to you one time that I felt rage or anger before I became a mom. But as soon as I became a mom, it was like all hell broke loose. And it was actually really terrifying. Because I just didn't know that that could be in me. But really, what it was was just overstimulation, being overwhelmed, and having so much sensory overload. I had never experienced sensory overload, really, in my life, like being a mother. So I was having a really hard time with my transition to motherhood. And I felt super alone and ashamed with the way I felt, and just everything. And then on top of that, when it was time for me to go back to work, because I was on maternity leave, I just could not fathom going back to a job and like leaving my kid with someone else and having to structure my time like my schedule to be like, Okay, well, I can do this, because I'm this person can watch my kid. And then I just couldn't fathom doing all of that. Like, none of that sounded super attractive, and not enough to like the job that I was doing. I'm like, I have to be really passionate in order to do that. And I don't feel that way about my job. So it was a hard decision. And I didn't know what my life would look like, because I knew I did not want to be a housewife. And just just with my baby, like, I knew I didn't want that forever. But I didn't know what that meant either. Yeah, so I left my job, I didn't go back after maternity leave. And a few months passed by of me completely hyper focusing on being a mom, because here's the thing about ADHD, we can be hella good. At one thing. Like one main thing in our life, we could nail like, whether that's your career, your job, being a mother, being a husband, be a wife, whatever it is, we can be really good at one thing, the problem starts when you start adding more things to that, when you think that you could be a really great mom, and a really great business owner, and a really great wife, and a really great daughter, the list goes on. Like that's when the plates that are spinning, start falling. And that's exactly what I started to feel in my early journey with entrepreneurship. It was such a hard balance. But I also saw that it was something that I was passionate enough to wake up at 6am in the morning, before my baby would wake up and get work done for my clients. Like, I remember one One day, my husband, who worked early in the morning saw me up that early and he was like, Wow, you're really serious about this is not even he had seen me wake up that early for something like this. So yeah, I remember after I left my maternity leave, and then a few months of me just chilling, but like trying to find like, Okay, what am I gonna do with my life? Like, what does this mean? What do I do? And also we do kind of need another means of income. And I remember just having the desire, like in my heart, I don't know why. It just started that I just wanted something of my own. Like, I wanted my own business, but I had no idea what I would even offer. And I think it really started when I started seeing some of my friends, like have their own businesses. And I was like, Ah, that's I don't know, but that sounds exciting. Like, I want something of my own. to like, create and build anyway, so I remember having that like stir in my heart and in my gut, like, I want something, but I had no idea what my business could be in. Like, really, I didn't have any idea. So one day, I run across this ad to, like, teach you how to be a Facebook ads expert, and help people bring more, you know, clients to their business using Facebook ads, and I'm like, Oh my gosh, I love that, because I'm super passionate about small businesses like I've always been that I'm that type of person that leaves a good review for businesses, because I just love getting to support businesses in any way. My friends and family knew me as like the go to person for like, local places to go to because I just, I always knew I was always looking at new places. I knew which places were good. I knew how to spot the good ones. And here's where my marketing brain like had already developed. And I had no idea. I remember, I would go and my family can vouch for me on this, I would go to restaurants. And I'd be like, ma'am, this restaurant is doing such a good job, like there, this is good there. And I want to like pick apart the restaurant, like how amazing. So many of the things that they were doing was great. And then I'd be like, but you know what they're missing, they could really do this better. And I just will critique them. Like as if I were on a show or something. And it my brain just knew how to pick apart like winning businesses and winning offers in places that were doing a good job, and how they could be better. And so I started helping a one of our family friends with his restaurant. So I buy this course right for the ads. And I start like diving in and learning everything I can hyper focus on it. I'm like obsessed with it, I start helping our family friend with his restaurant. And with literally the first week that I helped him with is not even just as ads, I helped him with his content, I helped him with several different things in his business when it came to marketing. In that first week that I started working with them. They saw a 130% increase in sales. Like I remember getting that text from him that said, Man, Monday and Wednesday were our highest income days. We haven't had one of these days in a long time. And then I remember him telling me like, Oh, no, I went into the restaurant one day, and his manager was like, I don't know what kind of magic you're doing. But the phones have been on the hook the whole day. And we're just getting call after call. And I remember that feeling of like, wow, I did something like I was able to really help someone. It was incredible. It was amazing. And that's really where I knew I was doing the right thing. I was in the right spot. So I keep doing that. But somewhere along the line, I realized that like Facebook ads is like super techie. And there's like all these little things that were really kind of turning me off about the whole shebang. And to be honest, also, I wasn't that great at them. I mean, I was good at them. But there was just so much that I require that I'm like, Oh, I don't feel like doing all that. So yeah, I just realized it wasn't a great fit anymore. So I moved into like Instagram and putting out content because I was really good at creating content, and kind of doing marketing in that way. And that's kind of how it led me to become a coach. Right? So going back to like, I felt burnout. And then I was like no coaching. And so I'm watching myself be a maniac on this zoom recording call. And automatically, I come back to that Tick Tock video that I had watched months ago. And I was like, Oh my gosh, what if I have ADHD? And I think I tried finding the video again, and I couldn't find it. So then, of course, I went onto Google and I typed in symptoms of ADHD. And I don't know why I knew that this moment was going to be pivotal for myself. Maybe it was my subconscious brain knowing I was onto something. But do you ever like experience something and you like want to savor that moment, like you don't want to forget it, you want to keep that memory in your brain. Like I did that I can vividly remember that day. And where I was sitting on my island and my husband was playing the Xbox next to me, and my kid was like playing with some toys. And I remember just my Brain exploding from all of the ADHD symptoms that I could relate to that I was like oh my god, this is so me and I do remember crying just like the relief that I felt that I'm not crazy. And there's reasons for like all of these things, unexplainable things. I've never been able to explain about myself. It was quite quite a journey. So yes, that is what kind of showed me that I totally have ADHD. So the next step was to get formally diagnosed because I knew me and I knew that I overthink it and I would try to undiagnosed myself even though the the proof was very valid. So when I got a formal diagnosis, and sure enough, they were like, yep, yeah, you definitely have ADHD, ADHD and attentive, you've always had it and so that was really valid. Dating and everything in my life finally made sense. So yeah, and then of course, it was like, Oh, this is why I've been struggling in my business. And that's when I realized, Ah, that's why I've hired so many damn neurotypical business coaches. I mean, I didn't know but I was hiring all these coaches and buying all of these courses, and joining and downloading all the freebies. And like, none of that was working for me. And it was so frustrating, because I did feel like something was wrong with me, because I'm like, Why can everyone else get these results, but I can't. And that was really frustrating. But it was because I have an ADHD brain. And you know, they didn't. So their strategies and the way that they were teaching and the way that they were laying things out, just did not work for my brain. So yeah, that was a really great realization. So I did what I feel like most ADHD peers would like to do if they had the chance to, because I had just started being an pivoted into being a coach, I said, You know what, no, I can't continue on my journey as an entrepreneur, without really figuring out like, my ADHD brain. If I have an ADHD brain, this kind of changes a lot of things for me, and I want to learn how to work with my brain so that I can be successful. So I took a three month hiatus, it was almost three months that I took a hiatus and I stopped working, I like stopped marketing, I stopped my whole business. I mean, I was able to finish up with my one client, but I stopped after that. And I took three months to really just learn about ADHD. And man, I consumed information from all of the places and I started piecing together, what it meant for my life, and then what it meant for my business, and how it meant I should operate my business from here on out, and that I'm so glad that I did that, like pat myself on the back, because it has really helped me on my journey and really created a solid foundation for my brain and for my lifestyle, that I've been able to grow my business from zero to like 19k launches, and 10k months. And it's just been really, really cool to see it all unfold. And I'm just really excited to share a lot of these findings that I had with you guys, and bring in some guest experts that can really help us as well. So what I did in those three months is I took a lot of the gurus, the experts, all of the course creators, I took a lot of the general online business education and strategies and what they preach. And I reverse engineer them for our ADHD brain because I realized Yeah, this is not going to work for this reason, and what could we do so that it could work for an ADHD brain and I would try out different things. So I reverse reverse engineered a lot of different things. And I've found so many Winning Solutions to running a business with ADHD and that's what I help my clients with now. So I am an ADHD business marketing coach. So I only work with ADHD entrepreneurs. And back when I started the ADHD female entrepreneurs community that's the brand that I started a year and two months ago now there was nothing like there was no community for ADHD entrepreneurs anywhere because I looked for them I nearly like thought about logging back into my space to look for it. There was nothing on any platform like it and it was really frustrating cuz I'm like man, I could really use this I need some ADHD entrepreneurs around me to like bounce ideas off of and see how they do things. And then that community did not exist I think on the Instagram hashtag ADHD entrepreneur, it was like 500 posts and under like that it was ADHD entrepreneurship was not being talked about those two keywords were a ghost town and it was really frustrating cuz I'm like, I know I'm not the only one. I also know that there's so many entrepreneurs that have ADHD whether diagnosed or undiagnosed. So I went ahead and just made it happen. I'm like okay, well, I guess I'm starting the community cuz if it's not out there then someone has to do it and I've like started Facebook groups before so I guess I'll just do it and I literally took it on and said alright, this is what I'm going to start and I hope it can help people and we'll see how it goes. And I started the Facebook group I started the Instagram accounts. And within a month we had grown so much organically I was not doing any ads or I was not doing much to market it. I was marketing online like you know, I was posting another Facebook groups trying to find other ADHD entrepreneurs to come and join but man it really grew super quickly. And it was so amazing to hear the resounding yes. Where has this been my whole life. I didn't even know I needed this. And so many people would message me just thank you For creating the community, and for finally feeling like they had a home, it was really, really rewarding, it still is really rewarding because I'm still getting those messages today. So yeah, that's a little bit about my journey and how I started here. And so I now I dedicate my life to my baby boy, my husband, and helping ADHD entrepreneurs with their business. And in that is, you know, going through ADHD mindset blocks, ADHD strategies that work like time management, and emotional regulation strategies for when imposter syndrome and RSD kicks in. And then, of course, all of the business strategies that actually help scale and grow your business, but in an ADHD friendly way. So you may hear a lot of conflicting advice from this podcast from other things that you've heard that gurus are just preaching about. Because there's a lot of the things I found, do not work for our brains. And by the way, this is not just something that's worked for myself, it's something that I've tested with my clients. And I think we counted last month, we've had over 160 paying clients since I started a year ago isn't that wild? So I've tested a lot, all of my strategies, and a lot of them have worked incredibly game changing for my clients. So I'm really excited to have you here and to be learning from me and from different guest trainers that I will bring in. But please go ahead and join our Facebook group, it is for women only. So it but if you're on Facebook, we do have that Facebook group, it's called ADHD, female entrepreneurs community, I also have a membership for those who are wanting to take that extra step into really investing into their education, and getting a biz besties community support. We have a girls party every month, we have two co working sessions a week and a quarterly course where I teach about business or ADHD or anything really that you guys request that you want to learn about. There's a lot of great things in the membership. And if you use the code 10 off one zero off all in caps, then you'll get $10 off the first month of the membership. So we have 130 plus ladies in there. So join the party, it is amazing. And so many have seen such great results when they finally learn how to do things properly for their business and for their brain. So yes, that's a little bit about me about my story. I'm sure I missed a bunch. And I'm sure it'll come out in later episodes. But you can expect really awesome content, everything to do with ADHD and entrepreneurship, and how to balance and manage that and have thriving businesses not just surviving but thriving. So I'm going to show you exactly how to do that, my friends. So if you love this episode, and you're excited for this podcast to even exist, and to learn from me for free, then I would really appreciate the exchange of you writing a Apple review for us for this podcast that'll really help us rank so that people can find us and maybe even discover they have ADHD as they resonate with some of the things we talked about. So how incredible would that be. So all it takes is for you to write a quick review for us or even share with your friends and family. You will see some really great content coming out of here so so I'd be really grateful if you were to write us a quick little review about this podcast so please follow this podcast so you can see when you episodes drop, I'm really really excited to just get to share some of the things that I have learned throughout my time and some other amazing ADHD entrepreneurs. So yes, that is it for today's episode. Make sure you check out the next one when it drops. Okay, that is it. Thank you so much for listening. I hope you resonated with at least some bits and pieces of my story. See you at the next one.
