IAM2821 – Why Your Struggles Can Become Your Strength

The Asset of Authenticity

Many builders feel the pressure to hide their struggles, fearing that admitting to failures or personal challenges might be seen as a liability. However, the reality of entrepreneurship is that your “non-heights”—the scrapes, the bruises, and the low points—are actually some of your most powerful assets. In this episode, inspired by a conversation with nutrition coach Eleonora Bastos, we explore how overcoming personal depression and eating disorders became the very foundation for her to help others.

Scratching Your Own Itch

When you solve your own problems, you gain a level of empathy and a “walk the walk” understanding that is nearly impossible to replicate without having lived through the experience. This concept of “scratching your own itch” allows you to transition from merely offering a product to providing a deeply human connection.

When people see their own journeys reflected in your story, the trust and connection between you and your “tribe” strengthen exponentially.

Engineering Your Impact

The core takeaway for any CEO is to stop viewing personal history as separate from the “nuts and bolts” of business strategy. While systems and structures are essential, they shouldn't take away from the human connection that actually drives impact. Ask yourself: “What challenge have I overcome that could help someone else right now?”. By leaning into your healing journey, you can leverage your solutions to serve the people who are currently going through the exact same struggles.

Previous episode: https://iamceo.co/iam2820-the-importance-of-taking-action-and-not-waiting-for-the-perfect-moment/

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Transcription:

Gresham Harkless 00:00
Many builders try to hide their struggles. It's a very human thing. No one likes to talk about how they're not good at something or how they stubbed their toe or scraped their knee or did something that was absolutely ridiculous. But here's the thing. We've all done that. But on a deeper level, those experiences often hold the absolute greatest value.

If you're building something meaningful, you're in the right place. This is the I Am CEO Podcast. I'm gresh, and for over a decade, I've had the honor and the privilege of Learning directly from CEOs, entrepreneurs and business owners just like you on how to build. After recording more than 1600 episodes, one thing has become clear. Success isn't about following someone else's blueprint. And as I like to say on the show, if you run your own race, you can't lose, even when you feel the journey should be a straight and linear path. What I've come to find out is success is a lot more like a plate of spaghetti. So in this special segment and episode, I'm starting to curate and share some CEO hacks and CEO nuggets that I've been dying to share. Drawn from thousands of episodes with phenomenal guests that have provided awesome value on the show, but also my 10 years of business experience as well, too. These lessons are designed to strengthen the foundational principles that every business is built on and guided by a simple equation that we always go back to with our content. Visibility plus resources times connections equals success. This is practical wisdom you can apply almost immediately. So be sure to check out the show notes for more resources and next steps on how to level up. And of course, enjoy this special episode of the I Am CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 01:46

Many builders try to hide their struggles. It's a very human thing. No one likes to talk about how they're not good at something or how they stubbed their toe or scraped their knee or did something that was absolutely ridiculous. But here's the thing. We've all done that. But on a deeper level, those experiences often hold the absolute greatest value. In episode number 38 of the I Am CEO Podcast, I spoke with Eleanora Bassos, and she's a nutrition coach who overcame depression and eating disorders. Very powerful conversation. We've always heard, or you may not have heard, this idea of scratching your own itch, so to speak. The idea is that a lot of times when we solve our problems or the experiences that we go through actually allow us a great opportunity to not just create a product or service, but actually to have that empathy and Understanding and walk the walk of the people that we want to serve. So that's what really stood out to me. Personal challenges become a foundational element of helping others. This lived experience, experience and the idea of it actually creates a deeper understanding that it's really, really difficult to know unless you've gone through that experience. For builders, this is an absolutely powerful insight. Your story, the heights, but also the non heights I'll call them, are actually not a liability. It's actually an asset for you. Not just your opportunity to create a solution or to heal yourself, but actually something that allows you to make the impact that you hope in other people as well. Here's the real takeaway. Authenticity builds trust. Why does it build trust? Because you are who you are, for better or worse. The really high highs and the really low lows all make up who we are as individuals, and that builds trust. When we're able to express and go through those things. When people see themselves in your journey, the connection actually strengthens. It's crazy, but we so often try to look at business as the nuts and bolts. And don't get me wrong, you don't run a business without the processes, the systems, structure, all of those things, but don't feel like those things take away from the human part, the connection that we actually want to strengthen. And of course this shows up in the human and the people pillar. Here's something worth considering. What challenge have I overcome that could help someone else right now? We often think about products and services and things that we want to build, but we don't think about the struggles that we had and how we solved those struggles. When you're able to do that and lean into that and understand that you can help so many more people because they're probably going through the exact same struggles, and that's your tribe, that's your people, that's who you want to serve. Often that's where the impact actually begins as well. This episode we explored resilience, healing, and turning struggles into purpose. You have to check out this episode if you've ever struggled or gone through anything, how you can take that healing journey or that solution that you created and be able to leverage that to help out many more people. Powerful conversation.