Why I Disappeared Last Year, And How I Still Get Everything Done with Doone Roisin

What It Covers

Doone Roisin, founder of Female Startup Club, explains her reduced podcast output in 2025 while participating in Techstars accelerator, managing ADHD diagnosis impacts, and building business systems. She shares her manifesting process, interview techniques from 700+ founder conversations, and plans for expanding the business in 2026 with improved structure.

Key Questions Answered

• •Manifesting through reverse engineering: Doone's process involves having a "wouldn't it be cool if" thought, then immediately mapping practical steps backward from the goal. She focuses on connecting specific dots and puzzle pieces rather than abstract visualization, leveraging her extremely practical brain to identify concrete actions that move her toward outcomes like speaking at events or securing opportunities.
• •Body doubling for ADHD productivity: After diagnosis, Doone discovered body doubling as a critical technique where having someone physically present helps maintain single-task focus. Without this, she attempts 50 tasks simultaneously on simple projects like building presentation decks or spreadsheets, taking excessive time and never completing work. This method keeps her on track through external accountability presence.
• •Interview confidence through preparation style: Doone manages pre-interview nerves by being a highly prepared speaker who needs talking points and structured messages rather than riffing spontaneously. She feels most confident when dressed well and tells herself worst-case scenarios like falling on stage aren't catastrophic. Her advice: acknowledge nervousness openly to audiences, which relieves pressure and builds relatability.
• •Systems collapse during high-growth periods: Doone's podcast output dropped because she lost operational systems while managing Techstars programming, building technology products, constant international travel, and health issues simultaneously. Without her irreplaceable team member Josephine working full-time, she couldn't maintain the one-woman-show structure. She prioritized immediate opportunities over consistent content production, accepting she physically couldn't do everything.
• •Common founder trait identification: After interviewing 700+ successful women founders, Doone identifies the primary pattern as rejecting conventional paths. These women find traditional nine-to-five work soul-sucking and choose harder entrepreneurial routes to design custom lifestyles, achieve financial goals, or create world-changing impact. Many display neurodivergent characteristics that make them unsuited for standard corporate environments.