192: Angela Vega: Expedia’s Martech leader on ADHD, discernment, and the art of picking battles in martech

What’s up everyone, today we have the pleasure of sitting down with Angela Vega, Director, Capabilities and Operations at Expedia Group.

• (00:00) - ‌Intro
• (01:18) - In This Episode
• (04:55) - Building an ADHD Techstack
• (11:11) - Why ADHD Shapes Better Decision-Making in Marketing Operations
• (19:06) - How to Turn ADHD Patterns Into Martech Leadership Strengths
• (23:38) - Why ADHD Helps Marketers Build Better Systems
• (31:25) - Building a Bridge Between Strategy and Execution in Marketing Ops
• (37:21) - Execution Defines Whether Ideas Live or Die
• (41:19) - Why Recent Execution Experience Builds Better Marketing Leaders
• (46:09) - How to Build Discernment in Martech Leadership
• (52:52) - Energy Economics for Marketing Ops Leaders
• (01:00:39) - How to Build a Personal Growth Formula in Marketing Leadership

Summary: Angela built her ADHD tech stack as a way to survive the noise in her own head, turning distraction into design. Her workflow (Offload, Shape, Prototype, Loop, and Anchor) channels restless thought into motion through AI tools like Whisper and GPT. After her second pregnancy and a diagnosis that reframed her chaos, Angela stopped fighting her wiring and built systems that worked with it. Her fast, pattern-driven brain now thrives in marketing operations, where complexity rewards connection. She reads emotion like data, earning trust through clarity and transparency, and reminds leaders that execution, not strategy decks, moves companies forward. These days she measures success in energy and her mantra is “It’s just marketing, we’re not in the ER”.

About Angela

Angela Vega has spent over 13 years in FinTech, health, and travel, she has unified global martech stacks, accelerated execution ninefold, and led CRM for Expedia, Vrbo, and Hotels.com, supporting over a billion monthly customer interactions. Her leadership grows both teams and ideas. She blends creative intuition with operational rigor, translating insight into systems that last. As a late-diagnosed ADHD professional, she experiments with AI to help neurodivergent leaders thrive, proving that marketing can be both human and scalable.

Building an ADHD Techstack

Angela built her ADHD Tech Stack to make her brain an ally instead of a hurdle. The system blends ADHD science with AI practicality, turning common executive function challenges into structured momentum. Each part of her workflow (Offload, Shape, Prototype, Loop, and Anchor) acts as a circuit for channeling mental noise into clarity. It is both a workflow and a survival strategy for people who juggle too many tabs at once, whether they are digital or mental.

Her starting point came from frustration. Lists, sticky notes, and phone alarms worked for a while but always hit a ceiling. The real struggle was never remembering to do things but figuring out where to start. Executive function is about getting from idea to action, and for ADHD professionals, that gap can feel massive. Angela found her bridge in AI tools that could listen, capture, and organize her thinking in real time. Whisper transcribes her thoughts. GPT shapes them into frameworks. Gemini helps her plan and communicate with clarity.

“I talk out loud all the time. Instead of saying things into the abyss, I say them into AI,” Angela said. “One system holds my to-dos, another handles updates for my boss, and another helps me break big goals into smaller steps.”

Her stack follows five steps that anyone can adapt:

1. Offload: Speak or type ideas into AI to clear mental clutter.
2. Shape: Ask AI to sort and group ideas into logical categories.
3. Prototype: Turn thoughts into quick drafts or mockups to trigger dopamine and action.
4. Loop: Use AI for feedback, reflection, and gentle nudges that replace self-criticism.
5. Anchor: Set reminders, templates, and adaptive systems that help you return to projects smoothly.

Angela’s framework works because it aligns tools with real human behavior instead of forcing people into rigid systems. The design rewards momentum over perfection. It gives permission to think out loud, change direction, and experiment without shame. Every ADHD brain operates differently, so every system should too. AI’s flexibility makes that possible by turning scattered thoughts into structured workflows without losing the spark that drives creativity.

Key takeaway: Treat productivity as a design challenge, not a discipline test. Use AI to capture ideas before they vanish, shape them into usable form, and build adaptive anchors that forgive interruptions. That way you can create a personal martech system that channels ADHD energy into consistent output, steady progress, and fewer moments of paralysis.

Why ADHD Shapes Better Decision-Making in Marketing Operations

ADHD rewires how people handle complexity, and marketing operations thrive on complexity. Angela discovered that her diagnosis reframed everything about her work and leadership. Years of restless multitasking, late-night thought spirals, and endless side projects suddenly made sense. Her mind was not unfocused. It was constantly building new connections, scanning for patterns, and searching for stimulation that most work environments suppress.

Her diagnosis arrived during a storm of personal and professional change. After her second pregnancy, her coping systems stopped working. Therapy no longer grounded her, medication clashed with her body, and grief from losing her father-in-law blurred her focus. Meanwhile, the pressure at work continued to grow. Leadership demanded stability while her world spun faster each week. Reaching for help was not an act of surrender. It was a recalibration of survival.

“I have a lot of thoughts in my head. It’s sometimes super hard to fall asleep. I think of the twenty things that might go wrong and the hundred hobbies I have,” Angela said.

When testing confirmed ADHD combined type, disbelief gave way to validation. The diagnosis gave shape to her chaos. She stopped labeling her quirks as flaws and started understanding them as traits with purpose. Her curiosity was a strength, not a distraction. Her brain thrived in dynamic systems where rules shifted and creativity met precision. That explained her pull toward marketing operations, where nothing stays still and every campaign or data sync has moving parts that need decoding.

Angela began building systems that complemented her wiring instead of fighting against it. She used visual workflows to clear mental clutter, broke large tasks into tight sprints, and surrounded herself with teammates who balanced her energy with structure. ADHD did not make her less capable. It made her more adaptive. In a field that rewards fast problem-solving and parallel thinking, her mind became her greatest operational advantage.

Key takeaway: ADHD changes how leaders process and prioritize information, and awareness turns that difference into strategy. Identify where your energy peaks and build workflows around those cycles. Use external systems to store what your brain refuses to hold. Protect deep-focus windows instead of forcing consistency. The goal is not to tame your wiring but to design with it, that way you can turn what once felt chaotic into sustainable momentum.

How to Turn ADHD Patterns Into Martech Leadership Strengths

ADHD often gets framed as distraction, but in martech leadership, it can function as accelerated pattern recognition. Angela’s brain fires fast. She sees connections before most people finish explaining the problem. “I can jump from one topic to another pretty quickly because in my mind I’ve already created the five c...