A Geek Leader Podcast - inspiring technical and creative leaders around the world AGL 432: ADHD with Frankie Berkoben
About Frankie
Frankie Berkoben is an executive coach and sought-after speaker whose clients include engineering, product, and design leaders at Google, Airbnb, and the White House.
Known for her work at the intersection of leadership and executive functioning, she helps intellectually brilliant professionals move from cycles of overwhelm and inconsistency to clarity, confidence, and sustainable success. Frankie’s process blends design thinking, the scientific method, positive psychology, and ADHD-specific expertise to help her clients do their best work (and scale their professional impact) without relying on grit, shame, or heroic acts of willpower.
Executive functioning (the brain’s ability to prioritize, plan, and execute those plans) and systems thinking take equal billing in Frankie’s work. She translates the complexity of how our brains manage decisions, focus, and prioritization into practical tools that resonate with high performers. Taking a systems approach, she moves beyond quick fixes and productivity hacks, diving into neuropsychology and environmental dynamics in order to help clients understand the “why” behind not only what causes them friction and heartache, but also how to elegantly address those underlying needs.
An unapologetic behavioral psychology nerd, Frankie combines intellectual rigor with a gift for making complex ideas accessible. She’s fascinated by how context (stress, social dynamics, or even internalized beliefs) shapes our capacity and impact, especially at work. These themes are woven throughout her coaching, speaking, and writing: instead of focusing on what’s wrong, let’s understand what makes it feel or go “right”, and optimize for conditions that make success more likely, rather than aiming for rigid definitions of success.
Today We Talked About
- Fankie’s background
- ADHD
- Executive Function
- Phsychological Safety
- Prep-work
- Advocating for yourself
- Experiements
- Take an Iterative Approach
- Without Awareness you can’t change
- Reflection – We learn from reflecting on experience
- Imposter Syndrome
- Identity Shift
- Who am I to be here?
- ANTs – Automatic Negative Thoughts
- Focused on Solving Problems
- Working Memory
- What’s the thought?
- What is the belief that causes that thought?
- Blending Emotion and Strategy
- Coach the person… not the problem