Standing on Your Rock: How to Turn Your Liabilities Into Superpowers

Perfect for job interview prep

A few weeks ago, I had a coaching session that reminded me why I offer ​free coaching sessions​. Angela, 52, wrote to me from a women’s shelter where she’s preparing for job interviews while convinced she’s hiding something shameful. Four years ago, she finally got answers—autism, ADHD, dyscalculia—that explained why she’d been fired before, why everything felt like swimming upstream. Now she’s terrified that employers will somehow see through her to all the struggles with anxiety, depression, and PTSD that led her here.

By the end of our session, we weren’t talking about hiding anything. We were talking about secret weapons.

The Weight We Carry Into Interviews

Here’s what hit me as Angela described her fear: imposter syndrome isn’t really about competence. It’s about carrying the wrong story about ourselves into the room.

Angela had spent her entire life masking. She’d developed incredible systems to manage her neurodivergence—color-coding emails, multiple calendars, strategic post-it notes, visual cues. She could read a room better than anyone. She knew how to manage up (because she had to manage herself). She had pattern recognition skills that were off the charts.

But when she walked into an interview, all she could think about was: What if they find out? What if I can’t do the job? What if my disabilities are too much of a problem?

She was carrying a rock. And it was blocking her path forward.

From Blocking You to Supporting You

I asked Angela something that changed the direction of our conversation:

“What if we took this rock and put it underneath you? What if instead of it being in front of you blocking your way, it became the foundation you’re standing on?”

Because here’s the thing about hardship, about disabilities, about any challenge that has shaped us: it teaches us things. It gives us skills. It creates perspective that people who haven’t walked that path simply don’t have.

Angela’s neurodivergence wasn’t a liability. It was a competitive advantage—if she could see it that way, and communicate it that way.

The Three-Step Reframe

We worked through a process that I want to share with you because it applies to whatever you think is “wrong” with you:

Step 1: Identify What Your Challenge Has Taught You

Not just how you’ve managed it. What gifts has it given you?

For Angela:

• Emotional intelligence from reading faces and picking up on non-verbal cues

• Systems thinking from having to create workarounds her whole life

• Managing up from needing to advocate for herself

• Balance from managing competing parts of herself daily

• Resilience from adapting constantly

Step 2: Translate Those Gifts Into Employer Benefits

This is where AI becomes incredibly useful. Take the job description, copy it into Claude or ChatGPT, then write out your challenges and what they’ve taught you. Ask: “How do I translate these benefits into value for this specific role?”

You need actual language. Not just concepts. You need to be able to say in an interview:

“I’ve developed really strong pattern recognition skills, which helps me identify issues before they become problems. For example, I can walk into a meeting and immediately pick up on team dynamics that might be affecting productivity.”

Notice: no diagnosis mentioned. Just strengths articulated clearly.

Step 3: Ask AI to Help You Frame It Without Disclosure

If you’re not comfortable disclosing (which is entirely your choice), prompt AI with: “How do I talk about these strengths without mentioning the diagnosis?”

The goal isn’t to hide. It’s to own your story on your terms.

What I Learned From My Own Rock

I have bipolar type II. Unmedicated and unmanaged? It’s destructive. I have hypomania that manifests as workaholism—great ideas, terrible boundaries, unsustainable for everyone around me.

But managed? It’s genuinely my superpower.

When people ask, “Claire, how do you do so much?”—the honest answer is: I have a mental illness. And I’ve learned how to harness it.

There’s a dark side to all of this. There always is. But with every dark side, there’s a light side. And I don’t want to hide that. I don’t want you to hide yours either.

The Privilege We Don’t Talk About

Angela said something in our session that I can’t stop thinking about. When I asked how she was managing living in a shelter, she said she’s actually proud of herself. She hired a financial coach. She goes to therapy weekly. She sees a psychiatric nurse practitioner. She’s created scaffolding around herself.

And I realized: the only reason I’m not in a shelter is privilege.

My family privilege. My grandfather built the building I live in, so I pay half-price rent. We’ve been in extreme medical debt from our son’s health issues, but we have family we could move in with if needed.

“There but for the grace of God go I” isn’t just a saying. It’s the truth.

Life can change in an instant. The difference between housed and unhoused is often not work ethic or intelligence or capability—it’s privilege. It’s health. It’s support systems. It’s luck.

So if you’re judging yourself for where you are right now? Stop. And if you’re judging others? Definitely stop.

Your Assignment (If You’re Job Searching or Interviewing)

Before your next interview, I want you to do this exercise:

1. List your “liabilities”—the things you think you need to hide or work around

2. For each one, identify what it has taught you or what skills you’ve developed because of it

3. Use AI to translate those into employer-relevant language specific to the job description

4. Practice saying them out loud until they feel natural, not scripted

And here’s the bonus assignment: Find a way to help someone else with a similar challenge. Even if it’s just answering questions online or volunteering a few hours a month.

When we serve others who remind us of ourselves, we’re actually working through our own issues. Every good coach knows this. We’re always a few steps ahead of our clients, but we’re on the same path.

The Real Secret Weapon

By the time we finished, Angela had done multiple interview rounds. She’d used Claude to redo her resume and got called in the next day. In her interviews, she didn’t mention her diagnoses, but she did talk about reading rooms, managing up, seeing the whole picture, planning ahead.

She was no longer hiding. She was standing on her rock.

The last thing I told her: Document this time in your life. Take photos (she’s a photographer). Journal. Because when you look back, you need to see the richness in this hard time. Every difficult period of our lives has gifts in it—but we have to look for them.

We can’t think our way out of mind problems. The antidote to the mind is the body. It’s taking your dog for a walk. It’s taking three photos a day. It’s physical movement that shakes loose the spiral.

What Are You Standing On?

I don’t know what your rock is. Maybe it’s a diagnosis. Maybe it’s being fired. Maybe it’s age or a gap in your resume or living situation or mental health or all of the above.

But I do know this: you’ve gained something from it. Skills, perspective, resilience, empathy, systems, insights.

Stop trying to hide it or minimize it or work around it. Stand on it.

Tell me: what’s your rock? What has it taught you? Comment below.

And if you’re heading into an interview soon, remember: they don’t get to just hire your skills. They get your whole journey. They get everything that rock taught you.

Make sure they know how lucky they are.

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Angela walked into our session ashamed of her story. She left standing on it. That shift didn’t happen by accident—it happened through specific exercises that transformed her relationship with her challenges. I’ve turned our entire coaching process into a 7-day Progress Plan so you can do the same work. Twenty minutes a day. Concrete prompts. By the end, you’ll have your Foundation Statement, your translated strengths, your interview ritual, and the confidence to own your whole story. Access it and future plans for $5/month.