Embracing your own neurodivergence at work (with Tina Tonielli from Haleon)

In this episode of Minds at Work, host Nathan Friedman sits down with Tina Tonielli. She’s the U.S. head of insights and analytics at Haleon — and a passionate advocate for neurodivergent women. 

Tina shares her personal journey of being diagnosed with ADHD as an adult and how it inspired her to serve on the Women’s Council at Understood.org. From navigating shame to embracing authenticity at work, Tina discusses how neurodiversity in the workplace drives creativity, empathy, and innovation. Learn how leaders can better support neurodivergent talent — and why “organized best friends” might be the secret to workplace success.

(02:06) Tina’s personal journey with her ADHD diagnosis

(11:06) How neurodivergent employees can thrive in the workplace

(20:15) What brand leaders need to understand about neurodivergent consumers

(25:02) What neurodivergent colleagues wish you knew

We love hearing from our listeners! Email us at podcast@understood.org

Nathan Friedman: Welcome to "Minds at Work," the podcast for leaders who embrace neurodiversity in business. I'm your host, Nathan Friedman, co-president and chief marketing officer of Understood.org, the leading nonprofit focused on helping those who learn and think differently thrive. Each week we're here exploring how neurodiversity sparks innovation and how we as leaders across industries can create a more inclusive future for all.

Today, I'm excited to be talking with Tina Tonielli. Tina currently leads the US Insights and Analytics group at Haleon, a consumer health company behind well-known brands like Advil, Centrum, Tums, and Sensodyne. Tina is also a member of Understood's Women's Council, which is helping to shape and accelerate our work on behalf of neurodivergent women. She's been bold and vulnerable in sharing her own neurodiversity journey, and she's using her platform to make space for others to do the same. Tina, welcome to the show.

Tina Tonielli: Thank you so much. Glad to be here.

Nathan Friedman: I'm glad you're here. I'm glad to see you in person.

Tina Tonielli: Yeah.

Nathan Friedman: So, talk to me a little bit about your background. Your career journey has been really interesting. It's taken you from brand marketing and now you're leading insights and analytics for a major healthcare brand. Where are you and how did you get there?

Tina Tonielli: Yeah, so I think for me what drives me the most is understanding people. And that's actually been my whole life. I actually didn't realize it, but it was masking how I masked effectively. And so what I've done in my career, unknowingly, was design my career around understanding people. And so I understand consumers, I understand businesses and how they tick. And then I also understand my partners in the commercial side, if I'm sitting in insights and analytics, to help drive that into impact to make a difference in people's lives and businesses.

Nathan Friedman: Awesome. And is understanding people linked also to understanding yourself?

Tina Tonielli: I would say that I've always understood myself professionally at a much greater level than understanding myself personally. And I've been on that personal journey for probably the last couple of years since I was diagnosed.

Nathan Friedman: Let's actually dive into that right now. You've shared publicly that you were diagnosed with ADHD as an adult. How did that come about?

Tina Tonielli: So, we were going through COVID and my son was trying to do second grade at home, and it was not going well.

Nathan Friedman: Never does.

Tina Tonielli: On many, many levels. And his teacher had suggested that we get him evaluated. So we got him evaluated, and he was diagnosed with combination ADHD, hyperactivity, like your sort of your typical boy sort of thing that you see a lot.

And my brother had been diagnosed when I was a kid. And my brother had a really tough life. He was diagnosed in the 80s, and there wasn't a real good structure and understanding and what not for it. So I decided with my son, I was going to become an expert in ADHD and managing it and helping with it. And as I did that, I learned that I actually probably had ADHD. And I think this is common with a lot of parents that I've talked to lately, is that they realize they have ADHD by investigating their kids' situation.

Nathan Friedman: Especially during COVID.

Tina Tonielli: One hundred percent. And for me, I think I discovered that I had it because I was looking at different things as I learned more about ADHD. And I think I had always thought ADHD was one thing, and that was like, “Oh, I might have trouble with deadlines and being on time and, you know, staying organized.” And then I was like, oh no, there's stuff called rejection sensitivity and there's executive dysfunction and all these things. It was super enlightening and I saw myself in that and I realized I needed to do something.

Nathan Friedman: And what were your first steps along that journey for you?

Tina Tonielli: It took me a really long time to get diagnosed, I'll be honest. I tried like five or six different ways. It's really hard to figure out how to get diagnosed. And so honestly, I went on a journey for at least a year and a half knowing that I probably had it. So then I found through a friend a really great diagnosis sort of clinic, and they went through very intense two days of evaluations.

And then on the other end of it, they said, "You have ADHD, but you also have something called anxious depression." And for a lot of women who are diagnosed later in life, we have a lot of comorbidities and it's usually one of those two, if not both. And that to me was this the big moment of saying, “Oh my gosh, it's ADHD and it's this and that's why I've been feeling so troubled and had so many issues internally my whole life.”

Nathan Friedman: So, you know, what you just talked about actually reminds me a lot of our "ADHD Aha" podcast, right? You had your aha moment.

Tina Tonielli: Yeah.

Nathan Friedman: There's oftentimes a lot of strong feelings that come with that. I remember the moment I got diagnosed and my feelings afterwards, my feelings after sharing it. What was that journey like for you?

Tina Tonielli: So, I wasn't surprised by the diagnosis, but I was incredibly emotional. Like, I started crying like a baby. And I was, of course, being a people pleaser, apologizing to the doctor for crying. And so I felt bad, but I also realized I felt validated for the first time, like really validated. And I felt sad, actually, because I looked back on my life, and I mean, I'm 50, and the having it that long before I knew, all the stuff that I suffered in silence and shame and isolation, I was really sad that I lost that.

And then also I was a little angry, honestly, that nobody noticed and nobody thought about it for me because I was getting good grades and being successful, but I was incredibly depressed and really, you know, torn apart on the inside and nobody saw that. But I've turned that anger into advocacy because now I'm like, every girl that I know that I think has any kind of chance of having neurodivergency, I am aggressively trying to get them diagnosed either in my family or other friends. And it's, I'm going to do something about it, you know?

Nathan Friedman: Getting the support you need at the right time is so important.

Tina Tonielli: Yeah.

Nathan Friedman: As you went through that process, how did that manifest at work?

Tina Tonielli: I think I tried to keep it separated for a while more. And a big piece for me was because I personally didn't know who I was. I had to figure out who I was personally, and then once I went through that journey, I think I was ready to sort of manifest it more at work. But there was a lot of shame and anxiety about revealing it at work. And so I still felt this degree of like hiding and trying to not make not have people know that I had the problems that I had or the issues or the challenges that I did.

And I had a conversation with a friend at work and I told her that I had ADHD and she was shocked. And I was like, I thought I had it like branded on my forehead. Like, I feel like I'm so obviously ADHD to everybody. That conversation convinced me to A, open up about it at work, but then also as I've opened up about it, I'm not ashamed, and I feel like I can actually ask for the help that I need and be open about what I bring to the table and where I need help.

Nathan Friedman: Yeah. I did a similar journey. I mean, I was diagnosed in the early to mid-80s, I'm not going to give away my age. But, you know, I think it was a very different, isolating journey back then, right? You were put in a different classroom, you were branded as different and not capable.

Tina Tonielli: Learning disability was my brother's.

Nathan Friedman: They have a disability, they need to go here. And you were made fun of, etcetera, right? And as that manifested at work, particularly in the early days of work in the '90s, it was different. You couldn't come forward with those things. If you didn't conform to the box that is expected of you, regardless of what type of role you had, you were out. And so, you know, Americans with Disabilities Act helped, but there's also a lot of awareness that helped.

Tina Tonielli: I agree. And I think for me, as I accepted what I have, and I personally connected with who I was, I was able to see my work through different eyes. And I would say that's been probably even in the last three or four months, I've really looked at my work with different eyes and thought about with pride what my neurodiversity brings. Because I think I've always been ashamed of it. And now it's like, it's out there and I have amazing things that I bring with it. And there's things that I just need help with. Everybody needs help with things. So being open to what you need help-wise actually makes you, it allows your superpowers to shine versus having those superpowers dulled by the shame and trying to hide the things that you're ashamed of.

Nathan Friedman: It also probably helps others who are struggling with similar situations at work.

Tina Tonielli: Right. Absolutely.

Nathan Friedman: You know, they see a leader like yourself proudly identifying as neurodivergent or having a difference like ADHD. Yeah. And it enables them to ask for the help they need. And, you know, I think how we all work together to support each other at work, but also enable the best output from each one of us is absolutely critical.

Tina Tonielli: Well, and I've had people actually reach out to me confidentially since I sort of came out and was public about it. I've had people come up to me, ask me how to get diagnosed, say they've always struggled with it, and also people have asked me to mentor them on the side because they didn't know who before to talk to. And they said they just went through this diagnosis process of ADHD and they were trying to figure out how to handle that at work and how to navigate work now that they had that.

And so that made me feel so good. And I think when I first came out, I was like, “I'm going to tell people and I know it may affect my career and it might affect how they perceive me. And that's OK, because I'm going to cash in on the equity of what I have built for decades to now create a space for people where they can feel safe to have conversations. Because if you don't do it, nobody's going to feel safe.” And let's start there.

Nathan Friedman: When you initially disclosed it, you did it in a really big way, right?

Tina Tonielli: Yeah, I kind of did.

Nathan Friedman: You kind of went all out.

Tina Tonielli: I kind of went all out.

Nathan Friedman: Yeah. You went on LinkedIn. Tell us about that post and what made you finally decide to do it and speak up.

Tina Tonielli: So I had started um, some thought pieces on LinkedIn earlier this year called "Unleashing Your Inner Badass." Yeah. And it's created a lot of buzz and people love it and it's, it's about being your authentic self, honestly. And so there's definite connections to neurodivergence and I didn't realize it at the time. I said, "You know what, I'm going to use that platform and I am going to tell, I'm just going to come out and tell everybody what I am, who I am, and how to help people like me."

So I was terrified. I have over 5,000 connections on LinkedIn. And so the thought of literally everybody I know from a career perspective knowing it, I was really scared to hit submit. And I did. And I was just really, I felt relieved and I felt more free after I did that.

Nathan Friedman: It's amazing. It's like a weight lifted, authenticity forward, and enabled and empowered. Um, and you know, I think that it links back to some of the mentorship conversations you've had, right? And have those conversations identified opportunities or ways in which you work differently or, you know, things that need to change in work?

Tina Tonielli: Yeah, so one of my favorite things that I talk about is, and this is for me, like everybody's different, but for me, I am incredibly creative, visionary, I have lots of great ideas. I'm not as good with the execution and project management of those ideas. And generally people who are really, really good about those are not as good with the wacky idea and the creative and the magic wand kind of conversations.

So what I've done informally, and I didn't even realize this, is very often I have what I call an "organized best friend." And so my organized best friend is someone who's really good with project management and things like that. And if I'm doing a project that's a big project that's going to need a heavy lift to it, it's really good if I have an organized best friend with me on that project. And I think now that I've come out and realized that, I actually ask for an organized best friend or I refer to someone as an organized best friend, and I'm not ashamed of it. And that's really, I think that's a big change for me in terms of how I think about my work and how I've operated.

Nathan Friedman: And it's interesting, I think those roles are very specific, right? And the people who excel at those roles. Yes. And I think for those listening, I mean, think about the career choices you're making and find the role that is right for you. Oftentimes, particularly in neurodivergent communities, people don't necessarily lean into their strengths all the time. And when they don't, that's when people tend to falter, which then has a circular effect of self-esteem and, you know, goes in that virtuous cycle that we hear so much about.

Tina Tonielli: I totally agree. And I think it impacts the business and the output too, because like for me, how I've thought about myself as I've gone through corporate America, and I've been working for large publicly owned companies for a long time, the mindset right now or or historically has been, you need to be both super creative and super productive and super efficient. And that's like the output comes from that.

I do think there's an opportunity a little bit for, especially corporations, to have a little bit of a different bend and say, there are different types of people that bring different types of strengths, and how do I combine them together versus trying to make a person all of those things? Because your creativity is going to be sacrificed if you're really focusing on the other. And vice versa, if you're really good at that organization and thing, you're going to sacrifice the creativity. So how do you find the magic of the combination? I think we're still catching up from a corporation perspective. I see more creative agencies and folks like that, I think are leaning into it a little bit more and comfortable in that area. And I think corporate America has a little bit to go, but I'm ready to blaze that trail.

Nathan Friedman: So we've talked about a lot, and I think it's so amazing. I think the one area I'd love to go a little bit deeper on is how this has impacted what you do at work. Yeah. Um, has this changed how you work?

Tina Tonielli: So, I work the way I work. Like I've, I've been working for decades, so I don't think that I'm working dramatically differently, but my mindset about how I'm approaching things is wildly different.

Nathan Friedman: How so?

Tina Tonielli: Well, I think first of all, I've taken the energy that I used to put into hiding and shame and channeled it into advocacy for people and making a difference, both for the business, people, and other neurodivergent folks. So for me, I used to spend so much energy hiding and being ashamed of it. And now I'm like, wow, I have all this energy that I used to spend there. Now I'm spending it in places where I'm helping an ERG or employee resource group get started and sort of initiated the Women's Council. Like there's things I'm doing with that energy that's way more productive and that's exciting to me.

Nathan Friedman: That's awesome. And you know, how you work is just as important as what you work on. Right? Are you bringing neurodiversity into the brand work you're doing?

Tina Tonielli: Yes. So, um, I'm incredibly proud of some work that the Sensodyne team just did with Vox Media. They created a documentary called "Sensory Overload," and it's about people with sensory issues going to the dentist. I think everybody always has anxiety, not everybody, but most people have anxiety going to the dentist. People with sensory issues have even more issues and they don't go to the dentist often enough.

So this documentary talked about how there are dentists out there who are actually being more inclusive in their practices for people with sensory issues and showed how people with sensory issues sort of navigate going to the dentist. And so to me, that was shining a light on a group of people that we don't think about a lot and how to help them very specifically and the people that are doing the work to help them. So I'm really proud of that work. I think it's an amazing piece of work.

Nathan Friedman: It's a great work. It is very good work. Yeah.

Tina Tonielli: Yeah.

Nathan Friedman: And I think, you know, infusing the lived experience you have into a campaign that may or may not have been done by neurodivergent individuals makes it land so much better because it feels more authentic. It is more aligned with how people actually live their lives versus, "This is how we think you live your life." And "This is how you should feel about it," versus, "This is how you do feel about it."

You know, a lot of what you do is research and insights. How has this come into play around the research you do and the insights you generate?

Tina Tonielli: So, I think that for me, what's really interesting, and again, I realized this probably in the last couple of months, honestly, is I am incredibly empathetic, and that's from my neurodivergence comes from like really seeing other people for who they are and and really trying to understand. And I've had a unique ability my whole career to really put myself in other people's shoes, and putting yourself into the consumer's shoes has come incredibly naturally to me. Because it's just so easy for me to go, "OK, well, I'm a, you know, 75-year-old woman with arthritis who's struggling to, you know, get to her doctor's appointments." And I'm like, I know how that feels. I've not 75 years old or a woman with arthritis, but I can immediately empathize and put myself into her sort of moment and do that in a way that I don't, it surprises people every time I do it. And for me, it was just very natural. I never realized that that was coming from the way my brain is wired.

Nathan Friedman: Exactly. And that's such a powerful tool. And if you think about that and transpose that to another type of neurodivergence, who can code and think their brain thinks that way or people who connect dots and can see things in the future, right? And we need to ensure that that is celebrated, right? I think there's also a huge opportunity to celebrate women who do this. Um, and you know, you joined the Women's Council, right? Which is working to shine a light on these women's experiences, particularly in neurodivergence. Why did you want to be a part of that work?

Tina Tonielli: So I said when I had that anger, I turned it into advocacy. And for me, there's the two pieces of advocacy. There's making sure that every girl has a chance to have the life that I didn't have, who is neurodivergent and not recognized because she's doing well in school. And the other piece for me is about all of the women who are late diagnosed or think they might be neurodivergent, who are feeling deep shame about the way that they can't keep up with the expectations that society has of women.

And I think one of the big insights for me was executive dysfunction and that challenge of like being organized, managing multiple things, all that kind of stuff, is directly tied to the cultural norms and expectations of women, especially mothers. Yes. And so mothers feel like they're a failure and that they are just not, they're they're not succeeding in life when it's, in fact, just how their brain is wired.

And when I've had that conversation with women and say, "You're not a bad, you're not a bad mom." Like people think, "I'm a bad mom, I'm a bad wife, I'm a bad sister because I forget people's birthdays," or, "I didn't sign my kids' papers when they went back to school. That makes me a bad parent." No, it means your brain is wired differently. So let's start there and figure out how to make it work for your brain instead of feeling deep shame, because when you feel shame, you just you avoid the things that you could be doing to work with your brain. And so that to me is like the first step and I feel really passionately about that, especially for women who are late diagnosed.

Nathan Friedman: It's it's it's an under-researched category.

Tina Tonielli: One hundred percent.

Nathan Friedman: It is an under-appreciated category, right? And I think that goes across the board for a lot of things relative to women, particularly in healthcare.

Tina Tonielli: Yes. Yes.

Nathan Friedman: Um, and, you know, we see that a lot of women are unfortunately misdiagnosed.

Tina Tonielli: Yes.

Nathan Friedman: Whether it's, you know, depression, anxiety disorder, etcetera, versus the root issue, which could be ADHD.

Tina Tonielli: Yeah.

Nathan Friedman: Um, you know, going back to some of the work you've done in the brand space, and this is like a multi-trillion dollar market.

Tina Tonielli: Mhm. Yeah.

Nathan Friedman: Um, and whether it be moms, whether it be families, whether it be individuals who learn and think differently, how do you think about that may come into play in some of the research you're doing and some of the work you do with insights and brands as a whole and what other leaders in marketing or brand leaders who listen can can take away?

Tina Tonielli: So I think there's a couple of things for me. So one is when you look at as a marketer, you always look for your target audience. Like your biggest target audience, how can you help the most people? That kind of stuff. And I think that in the past, we would look at the classified ADHD or neurodivergent as a very small piece of the puzzle. And I think that when you look at the younger population, it's exploding. And by the way, I think it's also exploding in the older population.

So there's a lot of people that need that help. And I think that when you look at the help that they need, it's not hugely different than the need that everybody has. Like, who wouldn't want a little more help to be organized or on time or that kind of stuff? And our society and the way that our society is right now, it manifests ADHD-like symptoms in a lot of people. So there's a lot of people are like, "Oh, I'm ADHD, or I have a little bit of ADHD." Everybody's dealing with those factors in their lives. So there's a need for literally everyone, I would argue, to have more support in executive function because there's so many macro forces against executive function. How do we give that support for everybody? And that will benefit both the ADHD folks and everyone. And so it's that, I think you've talked about it before, like design for all mentality.

Nathan Friedman: Universal design concepts.

Tina Tonielli: If you make it better for the people who are neurodiverse, you are absolutely going to make it better for the neurotypicals, one hundred percent. Yeah.

Nathan Friedman: I think there's also a clear opportunity to engage directly in how people are positioned visually, right? Seeing yourself in an ad or a commercial or in a product that feels like it's supporting you holistically is a huge opportunity. And a lot of brands aren't engaging in that opportunity. They're going what I would call for the traditional demographics.

Tina Tonielli: Yes.

Nathan Friedman: Right? Which feels almost like you're using a big paintbrush to paint like Bob Ross did, you know?

Tina Tonielli: For those who know Bob Ross.

Nathan Friedman: Yeah, I totally know Bob Ross, so we'll we'll we'll date ourselves together on that one.

Tina Tonielli: Um, what I think is fascinating is when I look at the macro trends, so obviously I I study consumers and macro trends and things. One of the biggest macro trends is this desire for personalization. Yes. Everybody wants things to be personalized, but the brands haven't cracked that code yet. Like the brands haven't figured out, I think, not every brand. Some brands that are TikTok brands have really dialed that in.

So I think there's something really interesting, again, as a marketer, and I look at the future, personalization and seeing yourselves and being connected to in an authentic manner is becoming required by brands. So you see a lot of those more native brands that are like smaller and nichier, nichier, quote unquote, quote unquote. They are, they're really coming into their own and the big brands are trying to figure out how to navigate around that kind of space.

Nathan Friedman: And I think there's a huge opportunity here for bigger brands, right? And small, I mean, all types of brands to engage through personalization. The big brands have a challenge right now, right? Yeah. They have a macro headwinds coming from the geopolitical landscape. Yeah. But they also are harder to turn. It's like turning a battleship around in a bathtub. Yeah. You know, a nimble brand with 15 people working on it can flip a switch almost and do that. Yeah. You know, any any thoughts on how big companies, um, and by big companies, I mean, it doesn't need to be like like Haleon or Procter & Gamble or Unilever of the world, although they can benefit from this, but people advice for those who are looking to make these types of changes?

Tina Tonielli: Well, I think first they need to really embrace that idea of personalization. Um, I think another thing that I'm seeing happen more and more which can help enable that is partnering with content creators versus always doing that one 30-second ad that you run on networks. So if you understand sort of your audiences and the people who you can help the most, I think finding those content creators that you can partner with that you have shared values. Those are the ones that I've seen work really well. So if the content creator also has the same values as the brand and you're trying to do the same mission, you can actually connect with consumers in a much more authentic and personalized manner. And I think the people who figured that out have really sort of jumped on that trend and I think are making more of a difference. And that's a relatively easy thing, relatively speaking. Yes. But in terms of like big changes for a company, that's something where if you just start there and you start doing things like the sensory overload work that we did in the documentary, like starting to make those connections can really pay off in the long run and you don't have to try to turn the whole ship around. Let's start small.

Nathan Friedman: So what do you think organizations, companies could be doing differently or better to support neurodivergent individuals? What has helped you at work?

Tina Tonielli: So, um, there's a couple of things for me. I am a big fan of the "gentle nudge," I call it. And so my, the people who work with me know that I'll say, "Thank you for the gentle nudge." Because people, it's OK to remind people. It's OK to ask a second time. Like, they know that I bring a lot of gifts to the table. It's going to be fun, creative, we're going to come up with amazing ideas together, and I'm going to really deeply care about people, but the idea of needing that extra nudge to say, "Hey, Tina, that's happening this Friday." "Hey, Tina, you know." Or me saying, "Hey, I can't find that deck. Can you help me find it?" Knowing that I have safe spaces and gentle nudges that people, I've given people permission to give me, I think is a huge piece.

And then the other piece, like I said before, is this "organized best friend." And so for me, it's, it's knowing who your complements are, whether it is the organized best friend, or whether you need a creative idea generating fire hose, like what do you need to compliment you and going out and having that open conversation with a person and say like, "Would you, I think we could work amazing things together. How do you feel about that?" And getting that sort of agreement.

Nathan Friedman: And that concept actually just reminded me of something of when I was coming of age, so to speak, in the advertising industry, you always paired people together.

Tina Tonielli: Yes.

Nathan Friedman: Creatives were paired together.

Tina Tonielli: Yes. You had a writer and a visual, right? You had the combination and the pair.

Nathan Friedman: Exactly the same skill sets.

Tina Tonielli: I said one of my best friends actually is an organized best friend. Like, she's so good at like figuring out how to make things happen. And I said to her, I was like, “Dang, if we just worked together all the time, we could do amazing things.” And I'm like, “Why don't companies do that?” Like, why don't companies say, I need creativity. So many companies need creativity now. It's, it's, we've gotten really good at getting things done efficiently and cost savings, but we haven't gotten really good at is being creative. Right. And so to me, like if you could figure out how to unlock that creativity and combine it with the efficiency that they're really good at, it would be unstoppable.

Nathan Friedman: It would be. And I think that's a direct correlation between top line and bottom line. Exactly. Right. How do you get top line revenue growth through new market, either expansion, deepening penetration, whatever you want to do in that area, but also pairing that with realities of today's operating environment, right? And there's by engaging neurodivergent individuals constructively and holistically, you can solve more complex problems. You can identify new things because the way the neurodivergent mind thinks. You can also also address the efficiency, lower turnover, improve morale in the bottom line. So there's a whole different way in which to look at it. Um, I want to thank you for joining us. But I have one last question before we go. You referred to yourself as a badass.

Tina Tonielli: Yes.

Nathan Friedman: So how do you see that role as a badass neurodivergent leader moving forward? Like what, where do you see yourself inserting yourself in the broader ecosystem and advocating for those who learn and think differently?

Tina Tonielli: So I think the first thing I can do is continue doing what I'm doing, which is putting myself out there and being vulnerable and honest and transparent about my situation. So I do that at work now. I do that, um, online now. I do my badass posts. I still put stuff on LinkedIn. I'm very much more vocal now on LinkedIn about neurodiversity and my and my advocacy for it.

I also have TikTok channels, which I'm more open to now when I started them when I wasn't, um, more transparent in the corporate world, but I'veseen that just a tremendous response. I have something called the ADHD Bestie TikTok channel, and the women who have joined there and talked about, “I finally feel seen for the first time,” it's just, it's very motivating for me. So I feel like I'm going to do both, the advocacy for women who are feeling alone and the same thing in terms of making sure that people have the support they need. And again, those girls, I'm going to make sure that they have the lives that I wasn't able to have.

Nathan Friedman: That's amazing. And you're doing phenomenal work. So thank you for everything and thank you for joining us today.

Tina Tonielli: Awesome. Thank you.

Nathan Friedman: Thanks for tuning into "Minds at Work." I hope today's conversation inspired you to think differently about what's possible and how we approach our work as business leaders. If you want to know more about our guest today or the work we're doing here at Understood.org, please check out the show notes. For those looking for resources to better advocate for themselves and others, please visit u.org/work.

"Minds at Work" is brought to you by Understood.org. Understood.org is a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering people with learning and thinking differences like ADHD and dyslexia. To help us continue and expand our work, please donate at understood.org/give.

The show is produced by Julie Subrin and Allison Hoachlander. Mixing is by Justin D. Wright. Samiah Adams is our supervising producer. Briana Berry is our production director and Neil Drumming is the editorial director. Our executive directors are Laura Key, Scott Cocchiere, and Seth Melnick. And I'm your host, Nathan Friedman. Please join us next time as we'll continue exploring how difference can spark connection and shape a more inclusive, creative future of business.