The Invisible Condition Podcast

Redefining Strengths: Thinking Differently with Dyslexia - Nick Koshnick

• Tim Reitsma

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Nick Koschnik, a physicist and business founder didn't let dyslexia hold him back. Instead, he turned it into his strength, creating StoriedWork.com to help others communicate their thoughts and ideas. 

We discuss how important it is to get help early on for dyslexia, and how great it is when people understand and accept everyone's unique way of thinking. Talking about why it's good to let people know you have dyslexia, how special reading programs can help, and how much difference a supportive friend, teacher, or leader can make.

Nick shares his thoughts on staying positive and using what makes you different to deal with life's ups and downs. We also discuss some tools that can turn what you say into written words, making it easier to share your ideas. Listen as we support those with dyslexia and celebrate the strength found in sharing stories and coming together.

Takeaways: 

  • Embrace Neurodiversity: Recognize and value the unique perspectives and strengths that come from different ways of thinking, including dyslexia. Encourage environments, both professional and personal, that appreciate neurodiversity as a source of innovation.
  • Leverage Technology for Communication: Explore and integrate AI tools like StoriedWork.com to facilitate clearer communication and idea sharing, especially for those who may struggle with traditional writing methods. These tools can help articulate complex ideas and enhance creative expression.
  • Resilience through Challenges: View obstacles not as insurmountable barriers but as opportunities for growth and learning. Nick's story shows that overcoming difficulties can lead to developing resilience, perseverance, and unique problem-solving skills.
  • Advocate for Early Detection and Support: Awareness and early diagnosis of dyslexia can significantly impact individuals' lives, offering them the support and strategies they need to succeed. Advocate for screening and educational programs that accommodate diverse learning styles.
  • Promoting an Inclusive Environment: Creating supportive and inclusive settings that recognize and cater to neurodiversity is important. Take proactive steps to implement accommodations and foster an understanding culture.
  • Highlight and Celebrate Successes: Share and celebrate stories of individuals with dyslexia and other neurodiverse conditions. These narratives can inspire others and help reduce stigma, encouraging a more inclusive and supportive society.

Nick Koshnick - Bio:
I am a dyslexic entrepreneur.

I have a PhD in Applied Physics from Stanford. When I was in my thirties, I started a new venture, raised money from Andreesen, Khosla Ventures, and Google, and sold it to a Fortune 200 company. Now I'm building a new company called "Storied" that helps people communicate

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Nick Koshnick:

I actually got fired from the first lab I was working with because the professor could not read my handwriting and I spelled things wrong and he viewed that as being careless and not being competent. If you can't spell things right and I think one of the things dyslexics discover is that those kind of challenges are not uncommon in their life or articles.

Tim Reitsma:

I have so many ideas in my head and I struggle to get them organized in writing. With Storied, all I need to do is speak in my thoughts and the tool automatically organizes my ideas. I love it because it provides feedback and prompts me to fill in any gaps, to make my message crystal clear. Storied was founded by a dyslexic physicist who needed a new kind of tool to write. What their team discovered was that seeing your thoughts and ideas turn into clearly structured texts unlocks potential for almost everyone. If you're having trouble translating your thoughts into clearly written content, such as articles or social posts, try Storied for free. Go to storiedworkcom.

Tim Reitsma:

Hey, I've got a question for you. Does your invisible condition give you strength? Living with a condition can have its challenges, but let's think for a moment. What strength does it bring out in you? Hey, tim here, and thanks for tuning in to another episode of the Invisible Condition Podcast, where we talk about advocacy and unusually normal things, the conditions, diseases and illnesses we live with. We will end the stigma of invisible conditions by empowering voices, and today's voice is brought to us by Nick Koschnik.

Tim Reitsma:

Nick, a PhD physicist, is the founder of Storied Work, one of the supporters of invisible condition and if you listened to the ad for the last couple episodes, he is the founder of this amazing company and I get a chance to sit down with him and have a conversation about his story from diagnosis in college, being fired from his first lab job, to building and selling an agrotech business and now founding Storied Work. It's an episode of resilience, creativity and the strengths given to him by his invisible condition, dyslexia. Have a listen. Okay, even before we get into it, before I hit record, I was gushing over the product storiedworkcom and telling you how it has actually helped me write almost, I would say, 95% of my newsletter. I just wrote a blog post this morning on my morning walk, converted that into a couple LinkedIn posts and here I am sitting down with you, the founder of this amazing product, nick, thanks for joining me.

Nick Koshnick:

Thank you. Thank you for having me. It's been amazing getting to know you and your mission and the mission of Invisible Condition over the last few months.

Tim Reitsma:

Yeah, and so, for those who are listening, you'll hear the little promo. Nick and I met and got connected virtually a few months ago, and Nick is a huge fan of Invisible Condition as well as I'm a huge fan, as you probably know, of what you're up to. And so, yeah again, why don't you just tell us a little bit about who you are, the condition you live with and let's get into it?

Nick Koshnick:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'm a human. I grew up in a small town, went to college and at some point I basically struggled terribly. In elementary school. I was kind of in remedial help classes, a bunch of stuff, and then at some point they were like you're smart, or I started to do. Well, it's very confusing. I went to college and they were like you're dyslexic. And I was like, whatever, does that mean that I, you know, don't have to fail at language class? And they were like well, how can you not know? And it turns out that being dyslexic is one of these very, very common, invisible conditions that actually three out of four people don't even know that they're dyslexic, because we're still developing awareness.

Nick Koshnick:

So I view the world and, just a bit of a tangent, I view people as many different strengths, strengths, weaknesses, different ways, and that's just sort of the magic of the world. And spelling, reading fast reading, accurately and writing are not my strengths, but I have other ones that are, which I, which I love and I've done well by. So do you want me to just sort of introduce a few of those? I'm sorry A little little yeah.

Nick Koshnick:

No, no, go for it. I went to Stanford to get my PhD in applied physics. I'm a physicist, I'm a serial entrepreneur, I've started companies with sensors for farmers, and I did that because farming is the way we change our land and change the environment, and I wanted to improve the environment. And at some point along the way, I thought well, I want to help the way people interact with each other, because, although I care about the environment a lot, I also care about how humans. I care about humans more than plants and I wanted to help them communicate their ideas. And in that journey I learned a little, a lot about myself and about other people that were helping.

Tim Reitsma:

So going from school to being told, hey, you're dyslexic, and going well, what does that even mean? Like this is that was your normal. How you operated through school, through university, was just your normal. And getting a PhD in applied were there? Was there any naysayers that said, hey, you're dyslexic, you aren't going to be able to pursue your education?

Nick Koshnick:

Um, yeah, I actually got fired from the first lab I was working with because the professor could not, um, read my handwriting, um, and I spelled things wrong, and he viewed that as being careless and not being competent.

Nick Koshnick:

If you can't spell things right and I think one of the things dyslexics discover is that those kind of challenges are not uncommon in their life right, and that's one of the strengths I will say is that you end up being have a lot of perseverance if you can make it through it, because you can say, yeah, well, I sucked at that part, but I find another way around, and so I think, throughout my life, find another way around, and so I think, throughout my life, it's honestly just the way I am. I am just dyslexic and I've learned to read accurately and it's not like I don't spend a good chunk of my day reading email or whatever, but it's not my top strength, and what I've learned recently is that there are a world of people like me about one out of five people like me and that it's actually, first of all, there are a lot of people, and then, second, there are strengths that come with those weaknesses, and so that's one of the parts we're diving into with what we're building.

Tim Reitsma:

That's such an amazing story, you know, being fired from a lab, from your first lab job, and then going on to build a very successful company with a successful exit, and now you're building another organization to really help, as you said, to help people. You want, you wanted to transition from plants to people. Yeah, and, and what kind of made? You want to focus on building a product, for I think it was originally for people with dyslexia, but it's a tool and it's a product that could be used for um, for more people than um, than the dyslexic community.

Nick Koshnick:

Yeah, um, I um. When I sold my first company, uh, to a multinational company, I? Um, I started and became a VP and a 20,000 person organization, and I realized how important getting super clear on your own ideas and then articulate them in a way that other people understand it is. I mean, it was my whole job. I would have 30-minute meetings and one-hour meetings, and I would try to ask questions and help people get clear so that their passions and their work could have a bigger impact, and I originally did not think I'm building this for myself. I thought I'm building a tool that helps people talk out their ideas and then uses AI-generated questions and AI-generated writing to help them, sort of iteratively, get more and more clear on on their process.

Nick Koshnick:

Um, one of the things you do when you build a tool, though, is you start to use it yourself, right, and I think, um, because I haven't spent my whole life reading, I dream a lot, right, I have a lot of sort of crazy ideas, and they're not necessarily super linear, and I need this tool to talk out my ideas, to get them into a linear format that other people need, that other people are sort of able to understand, to sort of linearize that. And so it was initially a project where I was thinking, wow, you know, I wish I could help. Instead of being a person helping people, I wish I could build a tool to help people get clear and, you know, take their ideas and really get them expressed to being a tool where I was like I need, I need this and when I use it, people understand my crazy ideas. Um which um, which is when we started to change the company and start to focus more on that dyslexia component.

Tim Reitsma:

I was using the tool recently and writing, stuck writing a fundraising campaign and trying to figure out my script and using the tool and the one of the questions that came back to me just stopped me in my tracks and I thought what an incredible tool and I know here this isn't an advertisement for story to work, I just think it's an awesome tool.

Tim Reitsma:

It asked me why is it so important for Invisible Condition to become a charity? And I, honestly, I sat there, I talked with my wife, I went for a walk and thought that is a profound question and I was able to talk through it and answer it. But having this, that thinking partner, having somebody or something not someone, somebody, but something there to help prompt and to help flush out the ideas, where we live in a busy age and not everyone is just available through text or just give them a call, hey, I have this like crazy wild idea. Do you have time to think about it? Can you prompt me or poke holes in this? So having that ai tool to support you, it's fascinating yeah, yeah, it's um.

Nick Koshnick:

And it turns out that if you can take your ideas and get them out of your head and into a format that everyone understands, it's tremendously unblocking. It's unblocking for myself. If I'm struggling with an idea, I get myself in a mental loop and I'm maybe angry. The little inside thinking fast, not slow brain can send me not the most helpful place. I talk it out, I get clarity around it, then I stop worrying about it, or I talk it out, get clarity and I can share the part that's really key in a way that really lands with other people.

Nick Koshnick:

And, of course, my condition is dyslexia. People may notice that I'm not good at writing spelling. They may see that I get behind. That's frustrating, but many people have various different whatever it is like, you might be a stay-at-home parent and you have to be at home at a certain hours and that's hard right. Or you might have a medical condition and if you can find tools that can help you get clear and get heard despite your challenges and maybe your challenges actually give you a unique perspective you can get amazing work done, which is why I'm so, so inspired by the invisible condition, mission and purpose.

Tim Reitsma:

Yeah, igniting, igniting voices and you know we have to raise our voice and share our voice. And often I hear from from folks who want to share a story but aren't sure how and don't know where to start and there's amazing writing coaches and formats and processes and I would say to anybody who is thinking about sharing their story is speak it out, just in a non-linear way, just speak out the story. Or recently I went for a walk and I just was thinking about this word disclosure.

Nick Koshnick:

And.

Tim Reitsma:

I'm not an expert on disclosure and when you should and how you should and why you should not, but just being able to speak it out and then look at those coaching questions, if you will, to fill in some of the gaps. Because then it's often for me I think about something and then I make up my mind and then I move on. But how often do we then just think about something, pause what we're doing, open up a search engine, search for that topic, look for 16 different opinions and then make up your mind. Some people do, some people don't. And I think having an opportunity to just use this often is just to hurry up and slow down, just think about it, talk it through and see what comes out the other end and see how those thoughts are reorganized.

Nick Koshnick:

Those thoughts are reorganized, and David Perel, an online writing expert, says that writer's block is not a lack of ideas, because people have ideas all the time. Right, the writer's block is the difference between your you know, your idea of voice and the voice you want to see on paper. And it turns out that talking it out is a very like tried and true, for all time thing that we're good at and that helps us. You know, we are for 100,000 years. We had developed an oral tradition. About 100 years ago, maybe 200 years ago, we started developing factory education, where non-priests learned to write. I mean, before that it was a very you know, basically nobles and priests learned to write. And so this writing thing is not that natural, it's not a given, it's something that you don't learn like. You learn talking in your family.

Nick Koshnick:

And then some of the best writers of all time you know you think of, like even the greats, like I think it was Henry David Thoreau, it turns out he would go on talking tours.

Nick Koshnick:

People would go on talking tours to clarify their ideas and then write afterwards. So that talking it out is a very natural and essential part of how we process our information and turn it into clear writing. And if you have an invisible condition and like, broadly speaking, you know, maybe you don't have an environment where you can go on a talking tour, a platform, you don't have a coach that's there to listen to you or you know a partner that's willing, I think actually a lot of people find it easier to talk than to write and then dyslexics are like. The people who advertise themselves as dyslexic are just on the extreme end of that awareness because they're like, yes, I'm very like I'm, I'm like diagnosed unable to write. And I'm used to the fact that the very few people that say they're dyslexic out loud, you know, as part of their persona, are just very comfortable with that and looking for ways around them.

Tim Reitsma:

Yeah, looking for ways around it, and I think that's a good segue to just go a little bit back in time, because I'm curious about your diagnosis, the stigma around dyslexia and any stigma or anything that you experienced yourself. I know you already mentioned you got fired, but I'm curious about that diagnosis process and that diagnosis story for you yeah, um.

Nick Koshnick:

So, um, there's a, there's an emerging movement to detect um, dyslexia early. Um, you, you, it's very hard to detect uh, before let's first or second grade because, you, you, there is no reading and writing. You know at scale before that, um, and if you detect it early, there are ways that you can teach. It's called the orton gillingham method or they're, they're certified, they certified a bunch of different programs, um, that are very effective. You, basically, no matter how many times I see a word, I will not learn to spell it just because I'm seeing it. I need structured literacy. I need to know that the PH sound is a Greek root for the F, and then, once I learned that that is just the history of the word and not sounded out, I can get it, cause I'll be like oh, you know phonetics, I happen to remember that that is a Greek word and so I can spell it now. But I will not learn it just through rote. You know, you can hit and unfortunately, I've heard from some of our users they grew up in Africa. They were literally beaten with a stick because they're not trying hard and it was just so sad. So if you are dyslexic or know something about it. Just a really quick screening can really help.

Nick Koshnick:

In elementary school. I'm without that case. I got to college before I was diagnosed. I know people in their 30s and 40s that were diagnosed. Then these people are coming out of the woodwork to connect and at that point it's kind of like a okay, like I am just the way I am and you've given me a label and I don't even know what that word means Um but um, but there's hope still Um. There's amazing books that describe um, the advantages of it, and people. Uh. The dyslexic advantage is one of them. The gift of dyslexia is another, and people literally cry when they read these books because they're like it's my story and often it's the story of my family. It's the story of someone who can start a business but not write a business plan or other things, and so there's great organizations and you should learn about it if, because if you have children, they're likely to have it too, so you'll, you'll get get a second chance to experience it that's uh, it's amazing.

Tim Reitsma:

You know, before we connected, I was thinking do I know someone who has expressed that they have dyslexia? Yeah, and I couldn't think of someone. And so hearing you and saying I love what you said, it's like, okay, you've given me a label, now what? This is just who I am and how you've learned uh, through how you were able to process things and and read things and come up with those systems for yourself to get you through all the way into college and through your PhD. That's amazing.

Nick Koshnick:

Yeah, I mean, it's one of the I think it's one of the things about neurodiversity that's amazing is it turns out that adversity is connected with greatness. Uh, because it's. Unless you face some challenge, you, you don't have very much resilience, and you need resilience to be great. Um, and it's also um, a lot of you know everything from fortune 500 ceos. Many of them are dyslexic. They're often very, very creative, um, but you find that with, also with adhd and with people on the autism spectrum, um, there's, you know, there's a lot.

Nick Koshnick:

Being different is actually a great strength if you can get comfortable with it. Um, on the flip side, um, and I I mentioned this often not only are you three times more likely to be an entrepreneur if you're dyslexic, but you're three or four times more likely to end up in jail if you're dyslexic. And so my son, we went to a dyslexia school and another parent said well, how do you, what's the difference between those two? And it's all the other things that are human right, like it's, it's resistance, it's confidence, it's feeling comfortable with yourself, it's it's learning to try hard and so, and it's honestly having the support you know, if, if, if you, you know, all things being equal you really, it really helps to be literate and to read and write.

Nick Koshnick:

So you need this, you need the strengths, the steps, to do that, um, to the best of your ability, and I, I worry that some of those people in jail are very creative but without those steps, um, you know, ended up having, uh, very down on themselves and end up choosing a, you know, ended up having very down on themselves and end up choosing, you know, a path that's less good. I'm sorry, I went a long way there. You were asking about my initial condition. I mean, it is just the way we are.

Tim Reitsma:

No, I love where you went. I'm just fascinated with your thought process and where you land yeah, I think it's just even a testament to where we started, where you said, hey, I'm not linear and to think like where we landed was having that support system. So, regardless of that condition you live with and this kind of ties into this word, I've been thinking about disclosure. In order to get to support or to have support, we need to tell people, and telling people is often scary. There's sometimes shame wrapped around that, there's fear, there's maybe lack of trust, maybe some past experience or past discrimination creeps in. How did you, or what made you, choose to say, hey, I'm dyslexic and you are disclosing. You've disclosed publicly I mean, you're building the business right Even your bio and your LinkedIn. So what made you choose to disclose in that way? Did you always think you were gonna disclose very publicly or was that something that happened by accident?

Nick Koshnick:

No, you know I've become comfortable with my dyslexia. You know it runs in families, so you know I've become comfortable supporting, you know, my family in that I initially did not envision this company as a tool that really enables dyslexic leaders, although it turns out that's a, that's a huge, huge strength of ours. Um, it is a tool and it and it functionally it's not a reading tool. It is a tool where you talk out your ideas, including nonlinear ones, right when I was kind of winding a story there, and then it helps clarify that questions and with writing. And as part of that, I joined a writing class. This guy, david Perel his right of passage is the name of the class and they encourage people to talk about their stories and one of them was like the assignment there's like hundreds of people in this class and one of the assignments was to take a contrarian view, like that's a very common article online and so they looked at our bios and I, you know, in my bio I'm like, actually I'm taking this class because I'm building a tool for writing and also because I'm dyslexic and I've feared writing my entire entire life, for good reason, and you know, with my experiences. And they said you know how do you view that, as that? A contrarian view is, that might be your superpower. And it was kind of like a joke.

Nick Koshnick:

There was like in a moment in the class they mentioned different things, but when they said that, I was like, well, that's the easiest essay in the world for me to write, which says something. Because it's not easy for me to write an essay, because I really believe that. I believe that there are strengths, major strengths, with dyslexia. And so I thought, well, you know, only for the purpose of that class did I label myself a dyslexic and I decided to write an article on that and it was. You know, it wasn't too hard. I think I see the world's people having different strengths and weaknesses, and that's sort of where the greatness comes from. And the more you can see the world like that, the more you can respond to challenges. And the response was overwhelming, you know, which is saying something, because there's a lot of writing online.

Nick Koshnick:

People were coming out of the sort of in the class and outside the review system saying I met this guy once who was so bright but he's leading a $300 million company right now, but no one could understand his writing.

Nick Koshnick:

People know people like that and that connection, and I think before that my teammate Frank had been telling me, nick, this tool is really good for everyone, but it's especially good for people that have good ideas but they struggle to get them on paper, like you, and so we sort of reformat the tool also to focus on these. And I mean it's it's a decision, that a happenstance thing, where I happened to write about it, I felt comfortable, especially because you know that little bit of initial feedback that I got and it's really, I mean, it's just opened up new pathways. People write to me almost every couple of days about their stories and how it helps them and how they're experiencing it, how they just tried to hide and never tell anyone, but now that their child has been diagnosed or you know that they're realizing that it's something that we should talk about, the strengths and the weaknesses, and so it's. It's uh, it's been a very empowering journey for me and, and uh, one that I'm still on.

Tim Reitsma:

I think it's there's, uh, there's a lot of pride in what you're talking about as well as, and pride, and I mean that in a good sense, yeah, but I think of like just that, hey, I'm in a writing class because, hey, I avoid writing and I need to hit it head on, right, right, and then say you know what I've got to write about this condition called dyslexia, and even just writing about it had an impact on people. And writing about this tool and and I think that's just such an aspirational identity for someone who's living with, regardless of your invisible condition, to just take that and sit back. Maybe this is an exercise. Maybe I should write this down or maybe I'll come up with a little document to attach to this episode. But just write down your strengths, don't even think about the weaknesses. So what are your strengths?

Tim Reitsma:

I was talking to somebody recently who lives with Lyme disease and she was saying that her condition kind of comes in three-week cycles. Every three weeks she has symptoms. Yeah, so she knows in those three weeks she is the most productive person. She knows she can get so much done in those three weeks. She is the most productive person. She knows she can get so much done in those three weeks and then she's down for a week or two, yeah, and so that's a strength that she has because she knows that's the cycle she's on. And I just think about, you know, living with Crohn's and arthritis and some mental health stuff myself. It's so easy to fall into the weaknesses. What is this taken away from me versus what is the strength that this has given me? So for anyone listening, take that inspiration from Nick just to think about what are the strengths that your condition has given you and if you're stuck there, maybe you can reach out or use story to play around with that.

Nick Koshnick:

And I think the way the brain works, like we're, we're conditioned to look for fear, right? So, you know, a deer is freaked out all the time that the wolf might come, even though it's not, and so the mammalian or sorry, the reptilian, that's a ganglion pathway is it's, you're it's, and it sucks when you really do have pain and you really do miss things. And you really, you know whether for me, it's like I just completely misunderstood what someone wrote to me, or I just can't find the email. So I'm, you know, missing email, which is essential, and then it's so frustrating, which is essential, and then it's so frustrating. But or, you know, your condition keeps you at home or your condition puts you in cycles where it's really really uncomfortable.

Nick Koshnick:

So, you know, those are real, those are real struggles. But when you talk through ideas, you go, you're more cognitive, more conscious, and you go beyond that, Unfortunately, you know, just reacting to that negative stimulus, and you start to say, well, and now that I do miss that one out of three weeks, you know, I kind of come out of that missing some things but noticing what I can pay attention to, and so, or having a refreshed perspective that the rest of the team doesn't get because they're stuck in the same loop or you know anything else, and so it's finding those things and engaging the cognitive mind, whether talking or writing or stepping back in any other way that helps you do that.

Tim Reitsma:

Yeah, I feel that often with myself, where it's. You know, I haven't had a big flare in a while. Today, the day we're recording this, I'm, you know, feeling some a little bit of pain and just thinking, you know that there's some good days, there's some not so good days, and how do I maximize that? I'm still going to honor those not so good days. There's days when I have way too much on my to-do list and I skim through things and I miss things or misinterpret things. And then there's days when I try and just slow down, but I think what you're saying is so important. I try and just slow down, but I think what you're saying is so important, and something that I'm going to really resonate on or really take away is trying to focus on those positives. Because you're right, we're programmed just from the DNA of our brain to think of fear, to look for that danger and for everything that's negative.

Tim Reitsma:

There is something positive and you know my son lives with anxiety and we work on that, we talk about that. It's like, well, there's well. What if it doesn't work out? But what if it does? Well, what if it's raining when we go camping? But what if it's sunny? Oh, interesting. I could just kind of try it. And it's hard, I'm not good at it. I'm working at it, but it's so, so important yeah, I, I mean anxiety.

Nick Koshnick:

Um, most scientists are a little bit. I mean, ocd is an extreme, which is, you know it's a disorder, but obsessive, compulsive personality, which is a variety of anxiety is, is actually a great thing because you really pay attention to those details. It's really hard to sit hard, hard to stop. There's there's often like these, like little edges, especially with the neurodiversity things. It's almost like they were there for a reason.

Nick Koshnick:

Right Like there's, there's a variant that is positive and and that version that's too, too much. And balancing the strength without the weaknesses is a is a great thing.

Nick Koshnick:

I want to say one more thing, it's hard not to just fall into those negative parts. Um, if you can do it now, it's more important than ever because advertisements are just hitting your negatives and hitting your fears and you know there are more distractions than ever online. And if you can spend a little bit of time to say, actually I'm going to talk through, you know the negative and the positive, or I'm going to figure out a way to write, or I'm going to figure a way to feel comfortable so that I could talk to someone about this, you can really control your. You know not only how you view yourself, but also how you navigate through life the stories you tell yourself, but also how you. You navigate through life. The stories you tell yourself are. They can be extremely empowering or they can be very limiting, and there's no more important story than the story you tell yourself.

Tim Reitsma:

So true. The stories we we make up, the narrative we make up in our mind. Somebody told me maybe I don't know where I read it or somebody said it is there's three sides to every story. You know your side, my side, and then the truth, and so when I'm just in my own brain and I'm making up a narrative, I I have to and I and I've been working on this for years just consciously stop and go. Is this reality?

Tim Reitsma:

I was telling my wife about a dream that I had. I had to go on a business trip, which I work for myself, so I don't know where I was going, but I had to catch a plane and I had to go now and I forgot my laptop charger and I was on the plane and nobody else had the same laptop as me and I woke up feeling so much anxiety. I went. Was that real? No, okay, so what am I going to do with that? Have a good laugh, make sure if, when I go somewhere, make sure to bring my laptop charger and then move on with your day.

Tim Reitsma:

But being able to talk that out and sometimes we don't have that luxury or that opportunity to have someone to talk to I have for years. I go for a morning walk and I do that now with my son, so I don't record myself very often anymore, but I would just hold up my phone and voice record myself and I'd never listened back. But it was just a way for me to get the ideas or the thoughts out of my brain. It was almost like journaling. I have a hard time sitting down and just writing, but being able to go for a walk and just talk it out is therapeutic for me, and maybe somebody's listening to this is like, yes, I do the same thing. Now I can go back and say, well, turn that into. I think I said something pretty interesting. Maybe we can turn that into a blog post or a LinkedIn post, social post or just a journal entry and just file it away, right, May, it's a good time to introduce story.

Nick Koshnick:

What it does, yes, let's do it. Okay, so it's a. It's a. The simple idea is simple. You talk out your idea and it creates crystal clear writing. But that word clarity and writing you know there's a lot to it, as I know, as we know, and so what it does for clarity is you can talk out your idea, questions and it won't interrupt you. So it's not like Siri, that every time you pause for a second it's going to do something crazy. That's not what you intended. But when you are ready to pause, you can ask for a question or, if it's really clear that it needs one, it will prompt you for one, and that helps you get clear. And then the second part is it writes it for you in a way that everyone can understand. So it's using the powers of these large language models to not just provide a transcript of what you said, but a restructuring that makes sense from every word that it interpreted. So you know I could use it to write my weekly newsletter. It sounds like you're starting to use it to write your weekly newsletter. And when you, when you can write a weekly newsletter, even if it doesn't have the most reviewers. It clarifies your own mind. It it builds this connection. It's a. It's a tremendous, tremendous builds this connection. It's a tremendous, tremendous. It's a tremendous way to build community and get things done.

Nick Koshnick:

People use it to write out their plans, and that's personal plans, but also like a project plan. Mark Andreessen was just I just saw a clip today and he said look, in an organization, it's the person who writes the plan that gets an unusual amount of credit Because it doesn't have to be their ideas. They shouldn't. They've not seen that. It's their ideas. But if you can say, hey, these things are going on and I pull them together in a way that other people can understand, it helps everyone. And people really, really value that when you can say, all right, this is our three-step marketing plan. Or here's our plan for data science field that I'm you know, I love. Here's our plan for you know the operations, or the launch or the you know whatever else. And so you know, people use it for, basically, marketing.

Nick Koshnick:

People use it for plans and the strange thing is, if we run a large language model on our data, people use it just to clarify their ideas. Is, you know? I used it once when my dog died and I was just a wreck and I wanted to get my head together before I talked to my kids. So it's just, it has this power of having someone to listen, having someone to organize, and it helps you be your best self, which is not surprising because, remember, those little sort of half ideas that are negative, that are all tangled together. That's not our best human self.

Nick Koshnick:

Our best human self is when we can pull it together and say, hey, I know where I'm sad and you know, here's what I want to do. I want to support you. Or you know, this thing that happened at work was confusing. Or you know, this thing that we're doing at, you know, with your podcast I'm just so damn proud of, and here's why. And then, when you can clearly say these are the three things that I'm so excited about, and when you can clearly say these are the three things that I'm so excited about, it has a huge, huge positive impact. So, writing questions, reformatting, and then, if you don't like what it is, you just Tim, I think you've done this you say, well, rewrite that as an email. You know you can talk to it like a friend, like I. Would like that to be rephrased without that long boring section in the middle or whatever yeah, often when I'm writing it's a long, boring sections in the middle.

Tim Reitsma:

I think of it as from a practical perspective. I mean, it's all practical, but here's something I think if somebody's listening to this, you live with something that's invisible. You're struggling, maybe, with an accommodation request or to advocate for yourself with your doctor. Speak out your frustration, just let it out, yeah, and just let go let loose. Talk about the feelings, your emotions. Talk about your desired outcome. Tell. Talk about what you hope, what you need, your aspirations for your life. Whatever it is, yeah, and let it process.

Tim Reitsma:

If you have to get prompting questions, do it. But I just think of there's so much power in using using this as a an opportunity to get your point across in a in a clear, concise way, and I've written on this about self-advocacy and came up with a model for self-advocacy, and part of it is just taking that emotion out, knowing what you need and maybe you don't know what you need, but that's also what you need, right? I don't know what I need, but I need support or I need you to listen. Whatever that is, being able to take all those ideas out of your brain and put it down it's powerful.

Nick Koshnick:

if you're in a challenging situation, like how the hell can't they allow this, you talk it out and then you'll actually probably talk to the part that you need and once they tone out the emotion or whatever it will be, it will lead to much better effects. And, you know, maybe not just for you, maybe for everyone, everyone around.

Tim Reitsma:

Yeah, and even in a workplace context, maybe somebody's listening to this and they have to write a, a workplace accommodation process or whatever that is. You know there's lots of opportunities online to take somebody else's, but maybe you want to personalize it. There's so many use cases for this tool and you know, I think, as you'd said and one of your partners, frank, had also mentioned like there's a need in the dyslexic community for this, and I'm curious from your user base are you finding that it's a tool for everyone?

Nick Koshnick:

Yeah, I think what we found is that there's this dyslexic, this small community of people who are publicly dyslexic very small community, small community of people who are publicly dyslexic, very small community that are that so resonate with like, wow, if you know, if I can talk them ideas and get them heard. That is a huge benefit for us. And we find that everyone from um you know people that are um trying to support their kids to people that are trying to get business deals done, like big and complex, and they just want to move faster. Um, but then we're seeing that expand and what we find is podcasters like to use this right, because you're out for a walk and you want to capture those ideas and we give you the original transcript as well as the ability to evolve it, or the first evolution, and you can continue to evolve it. So we're seeing people that are trying to create marketing narratives. We're seeing people that prefer to speak in a different language and need to create English, use it. We're starting to learn those verticals and we're honestly just looking for feedback.

Nick Koshnick:

I think one of the hardest parts is just that part of getting someone to talk in the first place and the stigma that when you think of AI, you think of it writing your ideas for you, which we just don't do. And because there's a very difference of like, hey, I've got this condition and here's the environment and those things, which has an amazing effect, and people like what, oh, you used ai, that's you know. It just told you what your condition and your environment was, which we're like, no, that doesn't work. But but still there's like, know, we're so new in this that, uh, just trying to get the word out and get get feedback.

Tim Reitsma:

I love it. Um yeah, as we wrap up, nick uh, I asked this to pretty much every uh uh podcast guest is. You know, when we think about ending the stigma of invisible conditions, what do we need to do? How are we going to do it?

Nick Koshnick:

Yeah, I think getting comfortable for dyslexia and neurodiversions of other kinds, getting comfortable with the idea that people think differently, that there is no one standard way and that you want to honor those different strengths. Some people are more visual, you know some people like to hear things. Some people need an interactive kind of environment to get that feedback, and you know some people. I'm one person who loves really clear writing, even though I don't, it's, it's maybe not the easiest thing for me to create. So creating, um, you know, uh, uh, multiple environments for people to process and trying to find ways for everyone to bring out those strengths, I think is super important and surprisingly, um, surprisingly untalked about uh in work and uh and and home conditions, um and so I think increasing the awareness really would help it. On the on that stigma, Absolutely.

Tim Reitsma:

It's that awareness. Talking about strengths, Nick, it's so good to have you on.

Nick Koshnick:

And where could people find you? I know people are going to be curious about your story. You know our companies at storiedworkcom storied as in, like legendary work or storied as in we want to hear your stories. You can find me there. You can find me on LinkedIn. That's pretty much the only platform that I work on, although maybe you can drag me in somewhere else and then you can email me. It's just my last name, koshnik, at storiedworkcom Not the best email reader, but I've built systems to help keep up and I really I would love to connect and support anyone who's listening to this podcast, because it's a really important mission.

Tim Reitsma:

I appreciate that and I'll have all your contact detail in the show notes. Please head to visibleconditioncom and, for those who are listening, if you have questions for me maybe you have a story that you need to tell that you want to tell please reach out. My contact information's up on my website as well, as you can find me on Instagram as well as LinkedIn, and perhaps you have the means to support this endeavor. It's called Invisible Condition. We're building this as a charity, as a nonprofit, and so if you have, maybe the financial means to help produce episodes like this, I would really appreciate that, and there's other ways to do it as well, which is to subscribe, to share, to subscribe to the newsletter multiple ways to get involved in helping end the stigma. So with that, nick, thanks again, and I hope everyone has an amazing day All right, thank you, hit like.

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Tim Reitsma

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