Britney Brown: Embrace Your Sparkle

Welcome to the pioneering podcast at the intersection of motherhood, mental health, technology, and cannabis. It's Mommy's New Medicine. Here's your host, Monica 

Monica: Olano. All right. Welcome back everybody to episode three of Mommy's New Medicine. Crazy to think we're already on episode three when I said I was going to do this.

I said 2024, I'm going to give it my all. I'm going to do 10 episodes and we'll see what happens from there. And we are on episode three. If you know anyone that wants to be a guest, by the way, anyone listening to this or watching it on the YouTube channel, send me a message. We are happy to interview anybody and everybody.

We cover quite a few different areas of life. It doesn't have to just be cannabis, alcoholism, infertility, ADHD. It can be anything. You have a stigma, we'll talk about it. Brittany, you're laughing, but my saying is, like, People don't want to talk about their stigmas. [00:01:00] I will be the face of anything. I do not care anymore.

Britney: That is my new favorite tagline of all time. Got a stigma? Let's talk about it. 

Monica: Seriously, though, like there's something you don't want to talk about on camera like. I'll be it as long as it is not harming another person without their permission. 

Britney: Correct. Consent 

Monica: is key. Yes, consent is key. I will talk about it.

So send it over. We're on Instagram, Facebook. I tried TikTok. I'll pick your brain about that later. I think I got shadow 

Britney: banned. Oh jeepers. It's a whole thing. Yeah, I'm on 

Monica: YouTube. YouTube's really where I shine, I think. So I'll send, I'll put all the links in the show notes. Before I introduce Brittany, I'm going to do my really quick community corner.

This is kind of where we've been sharing some of the messages and questions that we've been getting. I'm going to share one today with someone I know you'll know, lovely Alyssa Dowd, now Alyssa Phillips, who was one of my dearest, dearest friends in [00:02:00] high school. She had sent me a message that just said, You go girl, this is awesome that you're doing it and I sent back to you I'm like you go girl like you are like not and I even said I was like not that I'm jealous of you but like man you have a spark that I've always admired and she let me know she's like no she's like you have a spark you've never taken control of and it's amazing to see you embrace it and share it with others 

Britney: What a queen.

That's a great compliment. 

Monica: Yeah, that, like, melted my heart. Like, coming from anybody, but really coming from Alyssa, people see things in you that you can't see. Don't get bogged down comparing yourself to them or anyone else you see on these curated Instagrams or wherever. Support what they're doing, but embrace your strengths and we can all win together.

So that's my little tidbit from my community corner. I love that. But now I'm going to introduce Miss Brittany [00:03:00] Brown from Imperfect Inspiration. I have went down a rabbit hole of hers recently. You don't know this, but I had always seen you tagged in all these beautiful family photos from all of our friends through high school.

And I thought to myself, man, like if I ever have a kid. When I go back to Iowa, like, Brittany is totally doing my family photos for me. Well, my child was born November 30th, 2020, and I think that's about the time you did a public announcement that you are not taking on new clients. That 

Britney: is 

Monica: correct. Yes.

And I was like, well, damn, because I didn't know you were behind Imperfect Inspiration. I guess I'd seen some of the things, but I just didn't know. And so I went down that rabbit hole. I reached out to you, which you were so kind to just embrace right away and say, yeah, I'll help. I'll come on. But before I let you introduce yourself fully, that's my rabbit hole.

Were we locker mates in high school? I think we were. I have no memories of high school [00:04:00] as I'm learning my ADHD brain. So good. Now I know we were locker 

Britney: mates. I'm 90 percent sure that is 

Monica: correct. And I'm not crazy. And I told my husband, I was like, we might have been locker mates the whole four years. I just never went to school.

I never used the locker. Okay, okay. So, I'm going to let Brittany introduce herself and start her story, and as she likes to refer to it, we are going to have a neuro spicy. Good time. 

Britney: I often say neuro sparkly even because sometimes I think that's more magical. I like it. Um, yes, I am Brittany Brown. I live in Des Moines, Iowa.

I've lived many other places, but I ended up moving back when my husband and I Left Germany, he was stationed there. So we moved back to Des Moines. I was a full time professional photographer for about a decade, as Monica mentioned, and ultimately I. I always knew I wanted to be an artist of some kind, but it really didn't matter to me what I was doing.

Art has always been my hyperfixation. It did not matter which [00:05:00] version of an it was. Like, it was just the only thing I could ever do for long enough to, like, stick, I guess. So, we, uh, pandemiced it up, as we all did. Good times for everyone. My kids had already previously had, some of them had previously had ADHD diagnoses.

Uh, so, you know, as moms do. down the rabbit hole of learning about that and things that we could do and use, etc. So when the pandemic hit and I was home with five Neurodivergent children under the age of 11. How? Oh, ma'am. No one knows. No one is sure. We should have put cameras up because I don't remember any of it at this point.

You should have. But, um, that and my husband's still working because he's a military contractor, basically. So he's working from home. I could not work anymore. My entire support system, which was, I did aerial and pole fitness. So that was kind of my entire, like, Coping mechanism thing that kept my body [00:06:00] moving and kept me like engaged with pals and not you know, whatever So I got rid of work my only support system my only form of exercise and movement Oh my god, and I am deeply sensory adverse.

Like I want heavy pressure all times I want nothing surprising nothing shocking nothing like touching me and I have five tiny humans who are Beyond stir crazy, jumping all over me. They have to 

Monica: touch you. They have to. They must. They must touch you at all times, no matter who else is around, that even if they want touch.

Literally. 

Britney: It's got to be you. It's got to be mom. Much to the shock and surprise of everyone had a massive mental health crisis during that period of time. I'm sure it's. It's wildly alarming that such items could dive me into that. Shocker. Shocking. Ended up with a ADHD diagnosis and a presumed autism diagnosis.

One is official, one is not. Neither matters. The tools matter more than the diagnosis does, 

Monica: so. [00:07:00] I'm very interested. You said that. I don't mean to cut you off, but I had my ADHD diagnosis due to other things that happened recently, but I very much wonder if I have the autism as well as I go down like the research rabbit hole and as I see my kids interacting and doing things, even though they're still young, like I'm very much like you, like I can't stay in touch sometimes like Literally, certain just, and things have to be a certain way.

I don't know. 

Britney: So the more research you do, the more landy you'll end there. Most of the research and development that has been done around autism spectrum disorder is based on research from more than 10 years ago and was primarily done on middle class white little boys. So most of the presenting information that doctors have had access for diagnosis is based on research For most of our lives is not only invalid to us and who we are, but [00:08:00] also is deeply flawed because it doesn't represent the subsect of humans who need to be researched.

So it's complicated because based on the current information that's coming out, the likelihood that there is a vast population of undiagnosed or underdiagnosed humans is becoming. Quite 

Monica: apparent. Yeah, that is such a good way to put it. I kind of said it in my first one, like, with ADHD, they always just thought it was little boys bouncing off the walls.

Like, if you were successful, and you could get by, and you could get through. Why would they research you? It was only if it was to the extreme, but we've got to remember everything in life is on a spectrum. You don't have to be completely off the walls to have this and there's so many things that, like you said, tools.

So 

Britney: we are, you know, at home doing the things during the pandemic and I hopped on TikTok because that's What I had available to me, that and Animal Crossing, the two things [00:09:00] I had. So I hopped on TikTok and pretty much just kind of shared what life was like being home with five kids and struggling with my mental health.

And it started as not anything that exciting and rather quickly. People love seeing into other people's lives. I did a few times, a fair 

Monica: few times. Say it, I went viral rather quickly. 

Britney: Rather quickly. But really, I mean, people love to see, it's almost why we watch like cult documentaries or like weird, like other people's lives.

Like one of my favorite hyper fixation shows is the show that's in Alaska and people are like, Subsistence living people. I could not possibly be further from a subsistence living person. I have never hunted or fished anything in my life. I live in the middle of a city, but I'm obsessed with this show.

It's fascinating. 

Monica: It's outside your realm. So you want to, ADHD, you want to know everything. I [00:10:00] can't just know a little. I've got to know everything. Yeah, and I 

Britney: think that part of people's fascination with how other people live or do things or hope or get through things and, you know, being an ADHD mom of ADHD kids, and not only that, having five kids, not only that, being an adoptive parent, like there are so many facets of things that were there.

Interesting to people. And so that's, you know, TLC show without the TLC show, I guess, 

Monica: but it's never too late. You might be on one before you know it. Okay, so you touched on something I do want to bring up because one of my stigmas was infertility, and that was kind of what started this whole kicked off the whole journey for me.

So Do you mind sharing how you got to having five kids and being an adoptive parent and that whole realm for everybody? 

Britney: Yeah, so we tried for many, many years. I saw a fertility specialist both in the U. S. and in Germany and was told in pretty non uncertain terms I had a miscarriage and we [00:11:00] tried, um, We never did in vitro, but everything up to that, basically, we're headed up to that.

Um, and then we moved back to the U. S. and I was like, I'm done. Like, these meds are making me crazier than a bag of squirrels. I cannot, like, I'm, I'm nuts right now. I can't do this. So we fostered for a little bit. It was, um, an experience that is not the subject of our activities today. Season two. It's just season two.

Fostering is very hard, but also rewarding. So it's one of those where we did it for a while and then realized that we weren't the best fit at that time to do it. But we could adopt from the foster system if there were kiddos that had already had parental rights terminated. So My oldest was four and a half at the time, and they do this thing called photo listing.

Basically, once termination of parental rights has happened, they list kiddos to people that already have active home studies. I emailed her worker within five minutes of her being posted, and her worker was like, Oh, wow. Hi, you're [00:12:00] fast. Um, we actually really like you guys, but P. S. She has a nine month old little sister.

Are you still interested? And I was like, Well, I kind of just wanted the one, but I, you know. Two for the price of one, I guess. 

Monica: I can't say no. I can't, I mean, I can't leave that sibling 

Britney: hanging. So that's Kate and Evie. And then, um, three months later, I was getting ready. So they were, we were 70 ish families applied.

They picked us. They were placed with us in early June of 2015. Okay. In September, I was getting ready to head to a conference in Utah and felt like absolute crap. I was like, took a pregnancy test. It was positive. And this was after how many years of all the 

Monica: things? After they said it would never 

Britney: happen.

I was pissed, for the record. Absolutely livid. Absolutely livid. I was so mad. I was like, are you kidding me right now? I have these trauma affected babies already and I am already losing my mind. [00:13:00] Change is something I do very well. For the record, so I found out I was pregnant since September and I went on a business trip and I had a migraine the entire time and it was awful and we came back a month later.

It was actually our anniversary. I got a call from the girls worker and they said, Hey, what are you doing? And I said, Emily, what do you want? What? What? What do you want? And she's like, So, the girl's bio mom had another baby. Nobody knew she was pregnant. He's five days old and in the NICU withdrawing. Will you take him?

And I said, um, I'm pregnant. And she said, shut the fuck up. And I just said, nope. 

Monica: Oh my gosh. 

Britney: So, he was in the NICU for about three weeks. Then 

Monica: he came home. And how many months pregnant were you? Okay. So, you had a five year old, about basically a one year old. You're three months pregnant and you're taking a three week old baby home from the nicu.

A withdrawing 

Britney: newborn. Oh my gosh. 

Monica: Mm-Hmm, . Okay. Okay. Good times. Good [00:14:00] times. The layers continue. 

Britney: It's a good time. So we get Archie home. Archer was born in October and then Rowan was born in May. And so I went from my 29th birthday on May 6th to my 30th birthday. On May 6th, from zero kids to four kids.

Rowan was born four days before my 30th birthday. 

Monica: Wow. Four kids in one year. Four kids in one year. Okay, I did three kids in 18 months and I thought I was, you know, I had something to talk about, but lame. 

Britney: It's still superhero vibes. Those, those Irish triplets are nothing to, nothing to guff out. And man, let me tell you.

Monica: Four kids in one year. Okay, tell me how you and your husband coped. What'd you use? What were your techniques? There were none. Fear. Because you didn't have your ADHD diagnosis yet. I did not. You just knew that this is how your brain worked. Well, you just thought this was normal. I had no meds. 

Britney: Okay. And I had not even really actively started therapy at that point yet either.

I had like dabbled in it, but [00:15:00] not to the level that was necessary for therapeutic intervention basically. Mm hmm. I was not a good parent at all. I mean, better than, you know, from whence they came, but also like not in some ways. 

Monica: Not the parent you wanted to be. No. Not the parent you know you're capable of now.

Looking at 

Britney: the amount of work I've had to put in to be a decent mom, I I would never say that I was embarrassed because I was doing the best I could with what I had, but also it was incredibly hard and I don't remember a lot of it. I see pictures and videos from that chunk of time. I don't remember most of it.

Um, I was very overwhelmed. 

Monica: I'm like, if I cry, I'm sorry. Like, I really am getting tears because you're That is the exact same experience I had in my first [00:16:00] year, you know, I had some trauma and my daughter was hard and there was three kids all of a sudden like that and I mean at one point like I locked myself in a closet.

Yes. And I told my husband like I can't do it. I didn't come out for 24 hours. Yep. That's not the parent my kids needed or wanted. So I'm crying because. I feel like I'm in your body with you telling that story. I was right there too, and it's the whole purpose of having this podcast is so another mom hopefully can hear, you are not the only one doing this.

Britney: I remember Googling and being like, can I still love my child but not like them? Like thousand percent. And feeling like the worst mother on the planet. And felt like, I was given this fucking gift of being able to adopt these kids after so long of not having, and now I'm like throwing it away because I hate it.

Like, what the hell. Mm hmm. And I didn't hate it, I was overwhelmed and I had no [00:17:00] tools and I did no idea how to deal with any of it. You didn't know any better. I had no idea what to do. I had no clue. And what was really hard was I was also the oldest of five and grew up with a brother with a terminal illness.

So I had already gone through a lot of raising of kids just by nature of having to be around all the time when, you know, my brother was sick. But part of that too was really activating for that as well. And I had no idea that was being activated during that time. I had no clue. And it was also I have a lot of, you know, underlying deep fear things of people just randomly dying because my brother was sick for my entire childhood.

Yeah. And feeling like, if my kids are out of my sight, they're gonna die. Like, trauma is real cool. Mm. And you have no idea why without examining those pieces and figuring out what's triggering you and all that jazz and Yeah, of course I was overwhelmed. I had no idea what I was doing. [00:18:00] Yeah. That was 

Monica: miserable.

And there's no resources out there. No. They just send you home. They just send you home and say, Come in for your six week checkup. Uh huh. No. No. And then you're afraid to say those things like, Uh huh. I would beg my husband every night. And I'm sorry, Lisey Lou, when you hear this as an adult. But I would beg him, please let me bring her to the fire station.

Like, I don't want her. I don't, like, That's not 

Britney: normal. No, and the chemicals in your brain. It's so hard. And then those 

Monica: traumas are coming up. My traumas from the delivery that I didn't know, you know, and you don't know that those traumas are coming up. And there's such a stigma around therapy and reaching out for help.

I felt very similar to you. Like I was told by my fertility specialist, I would never have kids. And then I have a very, very close friend that Went through infertility. Went through the ringer with adoption. Ringer. You and her could have some stories. Very 

Britney: Most adoptive parents have [00:19:00] some stories. And it's a lot.

So 

Monica: I felt so wrong. I'm like, how am I I can't say these things out loud. I'm so blessed, but you can still be blessed and have something wrong 

Britney: with you. Interestingly, we are capable of feeling more than one thing at once. And that's been a lesson that I have had to drill into my head over and over again.

I can be overwhelmed. 

Monica: Slow down, Brittany. Society doesn't allow 

Britney: that. I'm sorry. There's no more than one feeling at a time. That is deeply inappropriate. It's true, because I get really caught up in the like Well, but I'm, I'm thankful for this. Okay. Yeah. You can be thankful and overwhelmed. You can be honestly thankful and pissed.

You can be all of the things. There's no rule that says you can only have gratitude. You can also struggle while being grateful. It's totally a thing. So, 

Monica: yeah. You just have to let yourself be. You have to be fully open and authentic to yourself, which is so hard. [00:20:00] I say that and someone's probably like, yeah, okay.

It's hard and therapy. I think everyone needs to go. I honestly, I said in my last episode, I thought it was you go to therapy and they tell you why you hate your parents and then everything's fine. You blame them for everything. Oh, no. 

Britney: Turns out you get to do that for about And A half an hour, and then you get to just dig much, much deeper.

Monica: And the tools are so good, you guys. The tools are so good. So if anyone's struggling, Brittany and I are telling you, Go. Book a therapy session. Do it. Get your mental health right, because any other steps you take, this is my theory, any other steps you take is not going to make a huge difference if your mental health isn't in the space that it needs to be.

If you're unhappy now, you're always going to be unhappy no matter what you do. 

Britney: Agreed. Thousand percent. It can be really complicated, but It's worth it. I promise. 

Monica: So we've got the infertility, we've got the adoption, you went four kids in a year. We all swear by therapy. We agree that [00:21:00] you can feel more than one thing at once.

Correct. But I want to talk to you also about why we still have some time, some neuro spicy things with the kids. Because your view is a little bit different than my view is now. Yeah, I know. I got my diagnosis while my kids, you know, are still two and under. So now I'm seeing their behaviors come out and I'm able to be like, Ooh, that's an ADHD character of mine.

And I'm able to parent it. The way I was never parented through it. But yours is you kind of got diagnosed after your kids were showing signs. So I'm curious the contrast, how your take is 

Britney: so it is actually super interesting in that my mom was diagnosed with ADHD about a month before I was. So it is very interesting to me that I grew up in a household that was inadvertently designed for ADHD humans.

My mom is incredibly hectic. If I had to guess, she's also on the spectrum. When I say guess, I mean, [00:22:00] um, go ahead and just hand me the DSM 5 and I'll go ahead and check them all off. It's, it's a thing. But we had an insane amount of structure. We had an insane amount of very specific things that happened at specific times.

And even in the struggle of having me. You know, a really hectic environment with my brother being sick. Everything was incredibly regimented. And I know now that was a coping mechanism for my mom to be able to, first of all, manage having five kids as a neurodivergent human with no resources. Talk about not having resources.

They didn't have the internet. They didn't have phones the way that we had. They didn't have I mean, nothing, literally nothing. That's crazy. Your 

Monica: mom's a 

Britney: angel. Oh, I would not go that far. She is hysterically funny and insane, but angels pushing it. And she'll probably watch this and tell me I'm a bitch. So it's fine.

Hi, 

Monica: Brittany's mom. 

Britney: Hi, mother. But a huge portion of that is I was modeling a lot of the things that I already [00:23:00] knew because that was what she had done. And so I was putting things in place that That honestly just made sense to me because it's how my mom had done it, and so a lot of those things helped me structure how I was raising my kids.

Our bedtime is non fucking negotiable. My child will be 13 next week, and it is still non negotiable. She will go in her room and be in her bed at 8. 30. If she listens to a book or reads or listens to music, I don't care what you do. That's your vibe, boo. Mm hmm. You don't want to go to sleep? Fine with me.

That's not a fight I'm fighting. But it is done time. I am done being mom at 8. 30 p. m. non negotiably, and you will remain in your bed unless you are dying or bleeding from your eyes. That is just how it is. I love it! And I think that some of those boundary setting tools, my mom was always good at. And therefore, I was immediately good at, because That's just how it was done in our house.

And so that is just how it's done. And you know, my house now, and I think having that [00:24:00] in a family environment, I was able to apply those things without the tools and knowledge that I have since gained, but have been really, um, So what I'm looking for desirable for other people to learn how to do things maybe that don't have a ton of tools or resources yet and are just looking for, you know, first step things to make their house work or run a little bit more smoothly with neurodivergent tiny humans in it.

So when my kids got their diagnoses, I was already not surprised by a lot of I'm like, Oh, yeah, that tracks actually. And they're like, Okay, have them on a routine have a very strict schedule. I'm like, I already do that. Like, I'm already there. 

Monica: It's funny you say that because I do the schedule too, and I didn't know that's why I was doing it.

Well, 

Britney: we still build in the things that feel right to us. Yeah. As we go, kind of thing. So it's, some of it is going to be really innate, some of it's going to be trial and error. And one of the things that I talk a lot to, [00:25:00] you know, people that I've coached or people that follow me or whatever, is neurodivergent people get extra tries.

If you think about, like, a punch card. Neurotypical people get five punches to figure out a system or a tool or a situation or a setup. We get about 20. You're not going to find the right thing right away. You just aren't. And sometimes tools will expire and you need to shift and do something different.

And that level of flexibility does not come innately to us. We get really, really, um, We beat ourselves up when we can't make a thing work because we're told that we're too much or it's, you know, people are done hearing why we can't do a thing. And so there is a level of boundary setting and flexibility that we have to hold for ourselves in order to say, You know what?

No. I need a little extra time to figure out why this isn't working for me. You can buzz off and I will let you know when I'm ready. And I think that there is a piece there that we have to stand up for [00:26:00] ourselves in that we would do that same thing for our children if our kids were, you know, in a kindergarten and you're realizing That your five year old cannot retain the number 19, but they don't want to give her an IEP because otherwise she's performing perfectly fine and is not a disruption to class.

Um, no, there is a missing piece here. Yes. We're going to find out why and doubt that this comes directly from reality of when Caitlin was in kindergarten and we had to figure out why she wasn't retaining information. They didn't want to give her an IEP because. She was not a disruption to class. She was not a, you know, risk as far as how far things were going and I was like, okay, but if you don't do it now in second grade, you're going to have a hell of a problem on your hands.

Mm hmm. And unfortunately for you, I have a loud mouth. So we're going to figure it out. Me too, girl! And that same level of [00:27:00] tenacity needs to apply to you. As well, standing up for your boundaries, standing up for your needs in the workplace, standing up for your tools, not just your kids. It's just as valid for adults.

You 

Monica: are amazing. You are amazing. Thank you. I don't, like, I am chills. Like, I am full of chills. Um. Also, I'm going to give you a huge shout out for your business here because I didn't know that you had a coachee place as part of it. So, 

Britney: I've gone in and out, yes. And I found 

Monica: it this morning and I was like, I'm going to be signing up for that after this.

Here's my 

Britney: credit card. I've been going, yeah, in and out of coaching. So basically I've built this really incredible business. I have hired a lot of humans who are neurodivergent and my friends and got them out of terrible, shitty working situations and have built this company where we design. Stationery and tools and resources and funny gifs and all kinds of things that are snarky and mouthy and sweary and basically [00:28:00] support people who struggle with their mental health or diagnoses but in a way that's very palatable, in a way that's very millennial centric, in a way that's very like Welp, everything's on fire.

It's okay. Like we tend to think a little levity never hurts anybody. So that's how we handle it. Do 

Monica: you want to share the website for that business? What your social handles are? Give it to them all. Yeah. 

Britney: Almost everything is imperfect inspiration. So add imperfectinspiration. com. Um, we're on almost everything.

TikTok's probably our biggest avenue of things. For the most part, I actually don't even run it as much anymore. I have a adorable Abby Jo that runs most of our TikTok stuff. I still am on it occasionally. But a lot of what we do now is in direct response to what people need. So it's, you know, if people are struggling with Spring cleaning, then we're designing spring cleaning, you know, checklists or, um, we do a lot of, [00:29:00] like, uh, dry erase things because that tends to work really well for neurodivergent humans.

We do a lot, like, just 

Monica: I'm trying to find a good dry erase board for my office right now. I want one of those big glass ones. Yeah, you do. You know, that aren't bright white, but they're so expensive. So if anyone knows a good, like place to get a glass dry erase board. But yes, so dry erase, you're onto something 

Britney: there.

Yeah, it's been, it's been a whole thing because I, you know, I ran a business, but I only ever ran me. I didn't run, you know, an entire 10 person team and I had no idea we would become what we are. And we just celebrated our third birthday. On the first. So, yeah, 

Monica: it's very exciting. John, insert some, um, clapping there.

I'm trying to clap, but it's not too loud, so when you read this or hear this, John, insert some clapping. 

Britney: Please insert clapping here. 

Monica: I want, like, the good, like, TV sitcom applause. That's what I would like. Like, Friends Backtrack? That's what, yes. Please insert the Friends Backtrack, or Brittany and I are gonna be pissed.

And your ADHD [00:30:00] women are gonna come after you.

Britney: Incredible. Okay. 

Monica: Um, you will be back for season two because I could talk to you for hours, Brittany. Like, I have a lot of topics. I am truly so inspired by you and you are into this realm. Like, I feel like for me and maybe some other listeners, like I'm just getting started. I saw on your website, because again, I have been psycho stalking you since I found you, what, two weeks ago?

Three weeks ago. Refound me from our locker days. Refound you? Yes, refound you. I actually should show you, my kids did find the yearbooks. My mom just brought 'em to me. I have like nothing from my childhood. My mom randomly brought 'em to me. I threw them. In an empty drawer in our guest room, and my kids found them.

I was like, what are the chances of this? This weekend? Yeah. And I open it and there we are on the same page. We're so cool. [00:31:00] I'm going to send you a picture. I will not put it in the show notes. I'm going to send it to Brittany separately. But I'm just getting started on this journey. And when I was on your website, you said.

Art was always your thing, and then you also said on your website that you've never worked in corporate America, and you never will if you can help it. And I'm the complete opposite. Like, I didn't know these things were happening. My brain never stops, which I'm sure yours is, and the only way I could ever fit in Or make it work was I numb down with alcohol.

That was my coping technique was I'd numb down enough and then I always did very well in corporate America. Right. Because I could do what people needed quickly and succeed but I was miserable. Like I don't fit in a box. I'm learning that. Like I've always put myself in these boxes and I don't fit in them.

Right. So I'm just starting this journey where I feel like you have so much more. And not necessarily a head start. You just have such a different perspective on it that [00:32:00] I can learn so much from and then I hope my perspective other people can learn so much from and we can just keep helping people grow.

Britney: Absolutely. And it's important to remember and recognize that I was raised by somebody with ADHD, and no, she didn't know that, but it gave me heads up and head starts in a lot of ways that a lot of people don't have. I was constantly told how good I was at things. I was constantly told how I could do literally anything and needed nobody.

I'm still told that. If I called my mother right now and said, Mom, what am I good at? She's like, you can sell ice to a fucking Eskimo. Literally, when I tell you, that is how I've been treated my entire life. And that I could do anything and I would be great at whatever I was doing. That is so uncommon. So uncommon.

I am a weird anomaly in this realm. I 

Monica: have chills this entire 

Britney: time. It makes me uniquely, uh, positioned to be able to help people recognize some of these things in [00:33:00] themselves that they just cannot see because I had a leg up there that other people didn't have. And it had nothing to do with me. You know, being further along, I just didn't have to battle that the same way other people did.

Monica: So that is a really good way to look at it. I love that. I'm so inspired by you. 

Britney: Thank you I feel insane 99. 9 percent of the time. So thank God someone is 

Monica: Well, I think more people are gonna be after this We do have I'll send you a screenshot of where the listeners are from. We've got like 20 states right now Wow, really cuz my journeys have taken me all over this world 

Britney: So I have many, many avenues of things, but it will sure be posted on all of my stuff.

Monica: I am going to wrap it up. So thank you. Thank you so much for being on. I'm going to link Brittany's website and Perfect Inspiration. I'm going to link her coaching one specifically too. For any of my listeners or Brittany's listeners, if you have any questions after this, that we might not have gotten to, because it's a lot of information and in a [00:34:00] short time, go on either of ours, Instagram, TikTok, websites, however you want to submit the questions.

You can put your name, you can put it anonymously. And if there's a lot of them, I may convince Brittany to do a live Q& A where we just rapid fire these questions because I think that would be, oof, amazing. 

Britney: It would be a hoot, let me tell ya. If we do that, I'll broadcast it on my TikTok too. I kind of have 600, 000 followers, so it could be a little bit, um, hectic.

Monica: When I saw that, that day I reached out to you, I was like, how did I not know this about her? And then when you actually responded to me, I was like I fangirled. I fangirled. I was like And y'all, you can't, anyone watching this, I post the videos on my YouTube channel, um, I am wearing one of Brittany's sweatshirts, it is the former gifted students, which we 

Britney: both are.

Yeah, we are. Former gifted kids. And 

Monica: you told me, thank you for telling me to Google the Latin because I never would [00:35:00] have. But what is it? Eternal wasted. 

Britney: It's eternal wasted potential. My husband just 

Monica: shook his head at 

Britney: me. When I tell you, I like, hackled designing this. cackled because I'm, I think I'm so clever.

And you are. Only people that think it's funny are of their former gifted kids. Everybody else is like, cool. Wow, you guys are so cool. 

Monica: Yeah, that was, my husband is not ADHD. Whatever. And so when I told him, he just shook his head at me and was like, literally, okay, Monica. And I'm 

Britney: like, this is so funny. You don't get it is so funny.

Monica: Um, so go to her store, buy some stuff, y'all. It's amazing. She does have a ton of TikTok followers. Brittany's amazing. If you haven't gotten that from this episode. So I'm excited for my listeners to hear it, your listeners to hear it. If we do the Q& A, one of my things is I'm trying to reduce the stigma of cannabis.

So I am going to have one of my little THC seltzer drinks. That's okay 

Britney: with me. You know what? I would do the [00:36:00] same thing. I didn't, like, 

Monica: know how people feel about it, so I was going to do it 

Britney: kindly. I am more of an edible girl by nature. That is my vibe. 

Monica: That's what I do. I do like the little drink at five.

But thank you everyone for listening to me and Brittany reminisce, talk about ADHD, talk about all the things. There were a lot covered here. We will see you for the Q& A, that is going to happen. And then we hope to have the amazing Brittany Brown back for Season 2 of Mommy's New Medicine. Bye, everybody.

Bye. Thanks for listening to 

Britney: Mommy's New Medicine. Don't miss an episode. Follow our show for free on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you're consuming the show right now. And let's keep the conversation going between episodes. Connect with us on social. Just search Mommy's New Medicine.