Why Your “Disadvantage” is Actually Your Advantage with Liz Hutson 7-23-25

Summary

Summary of "Why Your 'Disadvantage' is Actually Your Advantage" with Liz Hutson

Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Host: Gracelyn Keller
Guest: Elizabeth Hudson, Principal Consultant at EGH
Release Date: July 23, 2025

---

Introduction

In the episode titled "Why Your 'Disadvantage' is Actually Your Advantage," Gracelyn Keller welcomes Elizabeth Hudson, a principal consultant at EGH, to delve into the transformative perspective that what we often perceive as disadvantages can be leveraged into significant advantages both personally and professionally.

Understanding Disadvantages

Elizabeth Hudson begins the conversation by addressing the universal experience of feeling held back by certain disadvantages. She identifies a range of factors that individuals might see as limitations, including:

• Personality Traits: Such as being an introvert in an extroverted environment.
• Fear and Uncertainty: Overcoming the fear of the unknown.
• Learning Challenges: Conditions like ADHD or dyslexia.
• Cultural and Physical Differences: Variations in height, skin color, or cultural background.
• Emotional Struggles: Such as pervasive worry.

“Most of us at some point in our lives have had something that we felt held us back. [...] there's something in us that we feel like is holding us back.” [00:31]

Transforming Disadvantages into Strengths

Elizabeth shares her personal journey of feeling different as an Indian girl in a predominantly white school. Her struggles with height, skin color, and accent made her yearn to fit in.

“One day, I remember talking to my mom and asking her if I scrubbed my skin harder in the shower, would this color go for my skin?” [02:10]

However, with time, Elizabeth realized that her cultural heritage instilled in her profound values such as deep faith, strong family connections, and a high priority on education. These core values became her source of strength.

“What I realized was that my Indian culture actually very distinctly and uniquely focused on deep faith and a high connection to family and community, and it a profound priority for education. [...] those values that were deep inside me made me really, really strong.” [03:03]

This revelation led her to understand that individuals have a choice in how they respond to their disadvantages: they can either let these factors limit them or transform them into their superpowers.

Creative Problem-Solving through Limitations

Elizabeth elaborates on how perceived disadvantages often necessitate creative problem-solving. Using her own experience of being notably short (under 5 feet tall) in professional settings, she explains how this initially caused her to be overlooked in meetings.

“When I walk into a room, people literally don't see me. They look right over me. I'm overlooked sometimes because of my height.” [03:46]

Instead of feeling defeated, Elizabeth turned this challenge into an advantage by developing strategies to engage others effectively. Her height became a tool to surprise and impress colleagues with her insights and solutions once given the opportunity to speak.

“Being short can be a superpower because I think sometimes when people underestimate you at first, you have the chance to surprise them.” [03:46]

She also references comedian Michael Jr., who overcame dyslexia by honing his creativity, which later became the cornerstone of his successful comedy career.

“Michael Jr. talks about how dyslexia built a lot of creativity, which is a huge foundation for his comedy now.” [06:00]

Embracing and Confronting Limitations

The discussion shifts to the importance of embracing one's limitations as a pathway to uncovering untapped potential. Elizabeth emphasizes that this transformation is a gradual process that requires dedication and a proactive mindset.

“When we can lean into that challenge [...] what you're doing, what you're building there is grit.” [07:34]

She advocates for seeking mentorship, education, and other resources to overcome areas of weakness, thereby turning them into neutral or even advantageous traits.

“I'm no longer going to let that hold me back. I'm going to let that become my superpower.” [09:08]

Elizabeth highlights that limitations are often self-imposed, and by changing our mindset, we can redefine these challenges as unique differentiators in our personal and professional lives.

Conclusion

Gracelyn Keller concludes the episode by expressing gratitude to Elizabeth Hudson for her insightful perspectives on transforming disadvantages into advantages. She hopes that listeners are inspired to reframe their own challenges and harness their unique strengths.

“I enjoyed our conversation immensely, and I hope that the listeners out there were inspired by the points you had to share today.” [09:08]

Elizabeth reciprocates the thanks, highlighting the value of the discussion and the importance of the shared insights.

“Thank you, Grace, always so good to talk with you.” [09:22]

---

This episode provides a compelling narrative on how perceived disadvantages can be reframed into powerful advantages. Through personal anecdotes and relatable examples, Elizabeth Hudson offers a roadmap for listeners to harness their unique attributes and challenges, transforming them into sources of strength and differentiation in both personal and professional spheres.

Transcript

[A]

This is Gracelyn Keller with the Becker's Business Podcast, and I'm excited today to be joined by Elizabeth Hudson, who is the principal consultant at egh. So, Liz, thanks for being here. And today's topic is about how disadvantages are actually advantages. And so I'm very excited to dig into this and see what your thoughts are around this. So let's start off with just having you explain a little bit about how you respond to disadvantages.

[B]

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you, Grace. Great to talk with you today. So when I think about this topic, and I feel like I've been thinking about it a lot of late, and I'm not really sure why, maybe it's kids, maybe it's society, whatever it is. I think about how most of us at some point in our lives have had something that we felt held us back. So maybe it was something that we noticed when we were little kids, or maybe it's something that popped up as an adult that people had, like, poked at you or hearing your feedback or whatever. It might be in personal or professional settings. So things like that in that disadvantaged bucket might be being an introvert in what feels like an extrovert's world, or it could be fear of the unknown. It could be learning struggles people have, like ADHD or dyslexia or things like that. It could be cultural differences. It could be physical different, like height. It could be worry. It could be any one of those things. But I think every single one of us, somewhere, whether we say it out loud or we're thinking it in our heads, there's something in us that we feel like is holding us back. I mean, I'll tell you, as a kid, I remember as a little Indian girl in a mostly white school, I remember looking around and realizing I didn't look like everybody else. On top of that, I was a lot shorter than everyone else. I had darker skin. And some of my words I pronounced a little differently. One day, I remember talking to my mom and asking her if I scrubbed my skin harder in the shower, would this color go for my skin? And so I felt like that in being Indian, being short made me stand out in a way that I didn't want to. I really wanted to fit in. But years later, what I realized was that my Indian culture actually very distinctly and uniquely focused on deep faith and a high connection to family and community, and it a profound priority for education. And what I realized was that thing that made me different was actually something that differentiated me. And so those values that were deep inside me made me really, really strong. And so, Grace, I think that brings us to this first idea that really have a choice in how we respond to our disadvantages. Right. We can let those things limit us, or we can unleash them as a superpower.

[A]

Absolutely. I love that point. And I think that every individual person probably has their unique things that maybe, just as you said, things that they often did not like about themselves or things that they had to kind of change their frame of mind of thinking around, so that they took that and turned it into kind of a superpower almost, or what you're saying, like, turning it into an advantage. So I love that frame of mind and that lens in which to view the world. And that's a great segue, actually, into this next point that you've brought up, which is how you address challenging situations and how you figure out workarounds for those situations.

[B]

That's exactly right. That second point around creative workarounds, when you feel like you're at a disadvantage, when you feel like other people can do something better than you can, or feels that way anyway, you get really good at creative workarounds, as I mentioned in the beginning here. And Grace, you and I have not met each other in person, but I'm short. Like, really short. Like, when I. When I have really tall posture, I can hit 4ft, 11 inches, but I don't break 5ft tall. So in a crowd at a meeting where I walk into a room, people literally don't see me. They look right over me. I'm overlooked sometimes because of my height. I'm brushed aside. I'm dismissed even before I've had a chance to say my first word. But what I realized is being short, actually, just like being Indian, as I mentioned in the beginning, can be a superpower, because I think sometimes when people underestimate you at first, you have the chance to surprise them. You learn to move differently. You become really agile, creative. You build tenacity. You have grit, you know, like, it's. It's silly things. And I think about this now, that. That seemed very benign back then, but when I was little, even now, like, I can't reach a high shelf in the kitchen, I. I can't do it. So even at that early age, I had to build in workarounds, right? I. I'd climb up onto the. The counter, or I'd pull up a chair or I'd jump higher or whatever that might be, but I had these workarounds that I had to figure out. And. And again, that seems very simple, trying to get A plate off of a. Off of a cabinet height. But when you're at a young age learning to figure out different ways to solve a problem than is traditional, that actually is very pervasive into other areas of creative thinking. Or when I meet a new client and I can already tell by their body language or things that they're saying, that they judge me based on what they see. Oh, she's little. She probably doesn't have a lot to say. I wait for it. Like, I let them kind of almost be lulled into that false sense. And then I surprise them, delight them with what comes next. Whether it's my speaking or how I'm listening to them or offering solutions to hard problems, I think it really does catch them off guard in a good way. One last example of this, and I love this one. There's a comedian that I follow, Michael Jr. Who's just. He's so funny, but he's also so profound. And he talks about having grown up with dyslexia, and when he was a kid, it was really hard for him to read, and so he'd have to kind of look at context clues, see and watch for sound, see how other people were interpreting things. And so it built a lot of creativity. And he talks about how that was such a huge foundation for him in his comedy now as an adult. And I've heard him speak her and give comedy talks and things like that for a long time. But recently he did a TEDx talk, and he talks about this idea, and it's fantastic. So I highly recommend that if any other listeners are interested in that.

[A]

Awesome. And, yeah, I love kind of that idea of. One of the things that I say all the time is like, the only limitations that truly exist are the ones that we put on ourselves because we, you know, there are things that will be setbacks or hurdles that we have to climb, but limitations truly only come from us deciding we cannot do something. And that's actually kind of a great segue into this final point of how do you embrace limitations or confront those things?

[B]

Totally. Yeah. Grace, when we. When we do embrace them, when we can look at those things and say, all right, you know, this is a hard area for me. It's not to say that they become your superpower overnight. Right. These are things that we might have to go, okay, I don't understand finance that well, so I'm going to get a mentor. I'm going to take a course or whatever that might be so that you can build it up. But there are. When you lean into those limitations. Oftentimes we find untapped potential. And so when we can lean into that challenge, start to make something that might seem like a weakness or a disadvantage, and we turn that into minimally, something that's at par, it's neutral, or sometimes even something that becomes strong for you, that unique characteristic, what you're doing, what you're building there is grit. You're really learning how to take that thing that you feel like might be holding you back, or other people are telling you that it's holding you back, and you flip that script and you figure out how you're going to make that thing that is your limitation and make it be your differentiator. The thing that makes you different can become your differentiator. So I think it's all about leaning into it and going, I'm not going to let that hold me back. It's a mindset. It's a mindset shift that we have to say, I'm going to take that thing that I'm worried about, I'm scared about, I'm fearful about, and say, I'm no longer going to let that hold me back. I'm going to let that become my superpower.

[A]

Absolutely. Well, Liz, thank you so much for joining me today on the Becker's Business and Private Equity podcast and sharing these thoughts. I enjoyed our conversation immensely, and I hope that the listeners out there were inspired by the points you had to share today.

[B]

Thank you. Grace, always so good to talk with you.