What's your biggest weakness?

When I was growing up, “autistic” meant you were non-verbal. So it never crossed my mind that I could be autistic until I was randomly scrolling Reddit about 2 years ago.

I found some thread about things autistic people do— and one of those things was walking on the balls of your feet. My heart kinda stopped, because I’ve always done that without thinking anything of it.

“Wait… that’s an autistic thing?!”

So I read the rest of the thread, and checked just about every box for autistic behavior. I talked to my psychiatrist about it, and it made my whole life click into place.

For those who don’t know, a lot of autistic people feel like we live in a world that wasn’t made for us.

We have to constantly think about everything we say or do and every facial expression or movement, because if we don’t it’s likely that we’ll offend or upset someone by mistake.

(this is called masking, I found out)

Which as you can probably guess is f***ing exhausting, and sometimes makes me think I’ll never fit in with normal people.

→ And I’ll be real with you, it’s a daily challenge for me.

→ Sometimes an hourly challenge.

But here’s the thing:

I realized that this “weakness” (autism) is also what makes me so good at what I do.

The reason I’m so good at helping other people articulate how to get their message across in an incredibly nuanced, specific way is because I’ve been doing that my entire life.

I’ve picked apart my every word and action for decades, constantly observing how other people reacted, and tucked those notes away into my mental file cabinet filled with incredibly detailed maps of human communication.

It’s second nature to me, so it’s easy for me to apply that same process to my clients.

And I see the results it gets for them, sometimes literally overnight.

Which brings up my larger point:

Your biggest “weakness” is also your biggest strength.

The thing you’re most nervous about?

It’s going to be the exact thing that makes your content connect with your audience— if you learn how to flip it and make it work for you.

→ The creativity that makes corporate life miserable for you? That’s a massive asset when you use it to make great content that builds your personal brand.

→ Or if you’re a hyper-analytical Excel nerd, that probably didn’t make you the life of the party in college... But it also means your content will have a level of depth and rigor that will immediately make people say “damn, s/he knows their shit.”

And to keep it super, super real:

I met an investor who confessed to me that he went to prison years ago for getting a bunch of DUIs. I totally understand why he’s embarrassed by that, but at the same time— what an amazing story!!

Sharing that would instantly make him into a totally unique figure in the very, very bland world of investors, right?

So here’s my point:

I know it sounds incredibly cliche, but it’s also true: you have no choice but to be yourself.

And the more you lean into that as the foundation of your content, the more successful you’ll be (and the better you’ll feel).

PS - Here’s the part where I try to sell you something If you want to talk about how you can use LinkedIn or YouTube to grow your business, reply to this email or just set up a call here!