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May 7
What if the systems you were told to follow just… never worked for you?
Latrice Prater spent years trying to fit into traditional jobs and structures, feeling like she was always falling short, until her ADHD diagnosis in her 30s made everything click. A Navy veteran, certified Director of Operations, and now founder of The Digital Solutions Team, Latrice has since built a thriving agency that helps women create neurodivergent-friendly businesses built around their actual brains, not just business blueprints.
In this episode, Latrice and Tracy dive into the realities of being an ADHD entrepreneur, the problem with cookie-cutter strategies, and the power of building systems that serve your energy, not drain it. Latrice shares how her military background shaped her discipline, why she believes in automations as acts of self-kindness, and how she transformed chaos into clarity for herself and hundreds of clients.
They also talk about how motherhood, burnout, and masking pushed Latrice to the edge and how the decision to embrace her neurodivergence became the foundation for her agency, her book, and her healing. She opens up about the pressure to “do it all,” the toll of hiding her struggles, and the freedom she found in building a business that finally worked with her brain.
You’ll also hear how she redefined leadership, what finally helped her stop feeling “bad at life,” and why your zone of genius is the one place you should never outsource. Whether you’re a business owner, a creative, or just someone tired of trying to do things the “right” way, this conversation will give you permission to build something better.
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"I couldn’t keep doing things the way everyone else does. I had to build systems that didn’t punish me for being different."
- Latrice Prater
"I need my environment to do the heavy lifting. That’s why automation is my number one ADHD workaround."
- Latrice Prater
"I stopped forcing myself to do things that don’t work for my brain. Now I build structures that actually support how I think."
- Latrice Prater
"When I’m hyper-focused, I can do in four hours what most people take eight hours to finish. That’s the power of interest for an ADHD brain."
- Latrice Prater
"You keep thinking, 'If I just try harder, it'll get better.' But it's not about trying harder. It's about understanding your brain."
- Latrice Prater
- Latrice Prater shares how she discovered her ADHD in her thirties while already in therapy for generalized anxiety disorder and bipolar II, when her therapist sent her an article from ADDitude magazine that prompted her to take an online quiz about adult ADHD.
- She explains how her diagnosis helped make sense of lifelong struggles, including her inability to study effectively despite academic success (she was 7th in her high school class) and her pattern of knowing answers in math but being unable to show her work.
- Latrice reflects on her childhood experiences of feeling different, describing herself as one of the tallest kids in elementary school, socially selective with a small circle of close friends, and tough despite her sensitivity—a quality her mother encouraged when she told her, "I'm not raising you to let anybody beat on you."
[11:00 - 27:00] Military Experience and Professional Development
- Latrice Prater discusses joining the Navy at 19, serving for four years before leaving after having two children 17 months apart, noting how military structure helped provide organization and routine that benefited her ADHD brain.
- She describes her complex relationship with authority in the military, explaining that while she respected rank, she refused to be disrespected as a person, which made her both valued for speaking up and occasionally viewed as problematic.
- Latrice reveals her pattern of job-hopping before entrepreneurship, never staying in one position longer than 18 months because she got bored quickly, needed dopamine hits, and struggled to focus during traditional 9-5 work while paradoxically being able to accomplish in four hours what most people do in eight when hyperfocused.
[27:00 - 44:09] Building a Neurodivergent-Friendly Business Model
- Latrice Prater shares how she founded the Digital Solutions Team in February 2020, starting as a virtual assistant before evolving into systems design and automation for entrepreneurs, with her first client still with her today.
- She discusses how understanding her ADHD led her to create neurodivergent-friendly business practices, including automating workflows, setting boundaries like no calls before 10 AM, embracing her natural creative problem-solving abilities, and delegating tasks that don't align with her strengths.
- Latrice emphasizes the importance of automations as her number one ADHD workaround, explaining that "I need my environment to do the heavy lifting for me," and advises overwhelmed ADHD entrepreneurs to either automate their processes or hire help for tasks outside their zone of genius rather than continuing to struggle with activities their brains resist.
- Website: thedstagency.com
- Linkedin: latrice-prater
- Facebook: virtualsolutionsforher
- Instagram: thevirtualpro
