987: Sumur Williams: ADHD in Women: Why High Performers Are the Last to Get Diagnosed | Inclusive Leadership

Shameless Leadership

Sara Dean

Self-improvement, How To, Business, Management, Education

4.7 • 800 Ratings

🗓️ 14 April 2026

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ever since my own ADHD diagnosis in my mid-forties, I’m on the lookout for other women who are talking about their later-in-life diagnosis. I stumbled across Sumur Williams on LinkedIn, and her posts on ADHD consistently resonated with me. So, I reached out to ask her to join me on the show to talk about high-performing women who have ADHD. Sumur Williams is the founder of The Unpolished Brain, and an ADHD coach and AI strategist for late-diagnosed professionals. She helps newly diagnosed adults finally understand how their brain actually works and build systems that support their current needs. She is passionate about changing how ADHD is understood and helping people move from survival mode into intentional, supported growth. As a woman who was diagnosed with ADHD at 47, Sumur didn’t fit the traditional narrative. She spent decades masking, overcompensating, and performing at high levels while quietly struggling underneath it all. Today, Sumur combines lived experience with practical tools, including AI, to help people reduce overwhelm, improve task initiation, and stop spinning their wheels. Her work focuses on building real-life scaffolding, systems that still work on hard days, not just good ones. Listen in to hear Sumur share: How she was diagnosed with ADHD at age 47, and the layers of grief that ensued after her diagnosis Some of the misconceptions and common characteristics you see in high-performing women who have ADHD Her experience in choosing to disclose having ADHD at work and her recommendations around workplace disability disclosures What executive dysfunction looks like for middle-aged women The importance of energy regulation and boundaries for neurodivergent women How to use AI as a tool for task management, decision fatigue mitigation, and emotional regulation Links Mentioned: Free Workshop on April 16th: Trust Your Voice: Communicate with Courage When the Stakes Are High: https://saradean.com/trust Connect with Sumur: https://theunpolishedbrain.com Sumer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sumurwilliams Sumur on Instagram: @theunpolishedbrain Hire Sara to speak: saradean.com/speaking Coach with Sara: https://saradean.com/executive-coaching-services Connect with Sara on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saradeanspeaks Watch Shameless Leadership episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@saradeanspeaks Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to shameless leadership. I'm your host, Sarah Dean. This show is for women, transgender people, non-binary folks, as well as allies, who are committed to advancing their leadership while also advancing the leadership of those around them. In each episode, we will offer practical tips, leadership strategies, and inspiring
0:21.9	stories to help you become a more confident, compassionate, and inclusive leader. The truth is,
0:27.5	you were born to lead. What might happen for you if you were to wholeheartedly embrace that
0:32.2	part of yourself? So let's start now, together. Hello, shameless leaders. Today we are talking with Summer Williams.
0:39.3	Ever since my own ADHD diagnosis in my mid-40s, I've been on the lookout for other women
0:44.3	who are also diagnosed later in life.
0:47.3	And I stumbled across Summer Williams on LinkedIn, where her posts just every time a new post
0:52.3	from her would pop up, everything would resonate with me.
0:54.9	And so I at one point finally reached out and said, hey, I had this podcast. Would you ever want to come and talk to me? And would you specifically want to talk about high performing women who have ADHD? Because I'm finding that there's kind of a lot of us out there. And we don't talk to each other. We don't know that we exist.
1:10.1	So I invited Summer in.
1:11.7	She said yes.
1:12.6	And today we get to have, you get to hear that conversation. and we don't talk to each other. We don't know that we exist. So I invited Summer in. She said,
1:12.1	yes, and today we get to have, you get to hear that conversation that we got to have recently.
1:16.9	So Summer Williams is the founder of the unpolished brain and an ADHD coach and AI strategist
1:21.9	for late diagnosed professionals. She helps newly diagnosed adults finally understand how their
1:27.2	brain actually works and build systems that support their current needs.
1:31.3	She's passionate about changing how ADHD is understood and helping people move from survival mode into intentional and supported growth.
1:38.7	As the woman who was diagnosed with ADHD at 47, Summer did not fit in the traditional narrative.
1:45.7	She spent decades masking,
1:49.9	overcompensating, and performing at high levels while quietly struggling underneath it all.
1:55.6	Today, Summer combines lived experience with practical tools, including AI tools, which we talk about, to help people reduce overwhelm, improve task initiation, and stop spinning their wheels. Her work focuses on
2:03.0	building real-life scaffolding, systems that still work on hard days, not just the good ones,
	...

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