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Welcome to the ADHD Women's Wellbeing

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Podcast. I'm Kate Moore-Yousuf and I'm

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a wellbeing and lifestyle coach, EFT

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practitioner, mom to four kids and

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passionate about helping more women to

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understand and accept their amazing ADHD

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brains. After

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speaking to many women just like me and probably

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you, I know there is

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a need for more health and lifestyle

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support for women newly diagnosed with ADHD.

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In these conversations you'll learn from

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insightful guests, hear new findings and

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discover powerful perspectives and lifestyle tools

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to enable you to live your

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most fulfilled, calm and purposeful life

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wherever you are on your ADHD

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journey. Here's today's episode.

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Today I've got Natalie Brooks and

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Natalie is the founder of Dyslexia

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in Adults, which is a company

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on a mission to help ambitious

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dyslexic adults thrive in the workplace.

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We talk about neurodivergence so much on

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the podcast, obviously always through the lens

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of ADHD, we blend it in with

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autism, but Dyslexia hasn't been a conversation

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that we've had on the podcast and

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I've really been looking forward to this

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conversation because I know the

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overlap is huge. We're going to go into all

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of this, but I just wanted to welcome you

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Natalie to the podcast and I

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hope we're going to bring lots more awareness

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and a lot more understanding to this topic

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today. Thank you so much. I

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feel exactly the same. I feel like I'm

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constantly talking about ADHD through

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the Dyslexia lens. So yeah, there's

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just an almighty overlap

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both in my own brain and in

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the work as well that I do.

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So yeah, it's going to be really

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interesting to dive into it. Yeah, you

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got your Dyslexia diagnosis when you were

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six and you went to a specific school

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that was very sort of helpful and

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supportive of Dyslexic students and

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you were diagnosed ten times

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with Dyslexia and you never went to it. how

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much time are you having to take to

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really understand what that has

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said and really feel clear on what that's

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written. When you're reading aloud

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is it a little bit janky?

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Is it a little bit like over all

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over the place and how much do you

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have to concentrate to really keep yourself together

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and keep it clean and keep it clear?

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With spelling I guess there's the classics of

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you know difficulty of spelling is an obvious

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one but it's a lot more nuanced than

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that you might see a lot of difficulty

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with homophones particularly so we're talking Derry and

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Diary, Angel and Angle, There

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and There, Witch and Witch all the classics. You

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would also be looking out for

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the divergence of

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how you're articulating yourself verbally

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versus how you're articulating yourself

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in written format. You

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probably hear me talking now and you think oh wow

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this you know this girl's really articulate not

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in an email unlikely in an email

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and particularly if it's a long-form written piece of

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contact. I used to work in sales because I

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was like oh sales people they just talk all

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the time and I somehow managed to get myself

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in a sales role where I was writing 25

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page bid documents and I

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was like oh no I've gone too

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far I've messed this up. So again

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it's a lot about you know mental

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load of making those sentence structures make

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sense and how clear

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and clean they are to read. If you're reading

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your sentences back and thinking I

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see what I'm trying to say but it doesn't

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sound great it sounds a bit off that's

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the kind of thing that we're looking for really

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in adulthood. I mean I have to

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say I've had the paid

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version of Grammarly for the past couple

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of years and my goodness that kind

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of AI tool of what you know

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how it helps me write my emails

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it brings my thoughts together a little

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bit better it just kind of and

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I'm very good at waffling

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in my emails and waffling in like anything

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that I do and it needs

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to be a bit a lot more concise. He

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doesn't write his reports. He doesn't read

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his contracts. Like he has someone because

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he knows how severe his dyslexia is.

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And probably I think he knows now

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it's ADHD as well. So-

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If he doesn't, then it's shocking. Yeah, no, I think he

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does. Because it's blindingly obvious. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think he

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is a bit, for him, it's always been about the dyslexia.

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And now I think as he's got older, he's,

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I've heard him on a couple of interviews where

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he's kind of said, you know, intimated that there's

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probably ADHD there as well. So,

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but at least he's coming out and saying, I'm

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a success, but I've had a lot of help

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along the way. So we just need more people

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coming out and telling people that it's okay. You

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don't have to do it all on your own.

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There's a really nice story that I really like that

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the initial starting point might put you off,

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but it's a story that I really, really

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like. There's an MP that I really admire

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and I think has a really interesting story

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with dyslexia. His name is Peter Kyle and

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he's part of the Labour Party. And

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he's dyslexic. And if you think of MPs

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that are dyslexic, you usually think of Matt

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Hancock and he's obviously not everyone's favourite person

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in the world. So I really like politics

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and I wanted to be, come an MP

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one day. And so

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I was really inspired by his story. And

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he tells this incredible story. He's from Brighton and

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I'm also from Brighton. So I think that's why

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I really connected so strongly with it is

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Anita Roderick who started the body shop is

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dyslexic and, you know, she talked a lot

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about how powerful her dyslexia was

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as part of that journey. And

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she, he was

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working for her, but just in an admin, like

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a kind of a junior member of staff and,

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you know, really minor role. And because

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he was neurodiverse, he was working harder to try

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and, you know, manage things. So he was there

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at weekends and he was there working late and

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he was there early. And they were there in

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the office at the same time and she spotted

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him and she was like, what are you, why

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are you here? Like, what is going on? He was

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like, oh, well, I'm dyslexic. And, you know, things are

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just taking me a little bit longer. And

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she was so. inspired

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by his hard work that she paid

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for him to go back to school

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to get his grades because he didn't

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get his grades to go to university,

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pushed and badgered him into going to

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university, and even I think rang up

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a few transfers at universities and was like, this kid

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needs to go to university, he's so bright, so capable.

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He went back to school when he was like 23

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or 24, you know, because of her

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support and her help and

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now he's a senior shadow

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cabinet minister in the probably

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incoming Labour government. I mean, I just

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thought that was just the coolest story

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and I love to like share that

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one. So yeah, if you

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ever want to look him up, his name is

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Peter Kyle, it's a cool story. Thank you for

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that and I agree it's a great story and

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it's inspiring and it's nice to leave that on

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a high point because I think what

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you're doing is amazing. Just remind me what's

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the website called that if people want to

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just go and check you out. Dyslexia and

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adults, you can find it in kind of

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all the major places. Can you tell I

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have ADHD? I've started about five different social

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media channels just like Scatagon, TikTok, Instagram, podcast,

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LinkedIn, you can find it all on Dyslexia

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and Adults. Yeah, so hopefully that

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will help some people get some answers

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on the challenges that they're facing and

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encourage people to be

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ambitious, shoot for the moon, achieve

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anything that you want. It's just about

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learning to do it differently. Amazing. Thank

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you so much Natalie. Love this

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conversation. I'll make sure all the details are in the

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show notes and yeah, hopefully speak very

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soon. Thank you so much for your time. It was

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lovely. I

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really hope you enjoyed this week's episode.

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If you did and it resonated

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with you, I would absolutely love

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it if you could share on

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your platforms or maybe leave a

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review and a rating wherever you

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listen to your podcasts. Please do

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check out my website adhdwomenswellbeing.co.uk for

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lots of free resources and and

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paid for workshops, I'm uploading new things all

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the time and I would absolutely love to

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see you there. Take

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care and see for the next episode.