I Used to Stutter. Now I Speak for a Living.

Read time: 2.5 mins

I used to stutter. A lot.

To the point where even introducing myself felt like a battle.

Every sentence was a landmine. Every conversation felt like an obstacle course.

And for a kid who always knew he wanted to impact people, lead, and build something meaningful, that was a tough pill to swallow.

Because how do you make your mark on the world if you can’t even get through a sentence without tripping over your own words?

And to make it worse — people noticed.

Friends would joke about it.

I never took it personally, but when the comments came from family?

Yeah, that stung a little more.

And to make matters even worse — at some point, I started believing the story.

• That I was just "the shy one."

• That speaking wasn’t for me.

• That I wasn’t meant to be in front of people.

But my dad? He wasn’t having it.

He told me something I’ll never forget:

In other words:

If you’re not stepping into friction, you’re coasting.

And if you’re coasting, you’re not growing.

So, as much as I hated it, I started throwing myself into the exact situations that triggered my stutter.

• Speaking in class when I didn’t have to.

• Volunteering for presentations I wanted to avoid.

• Even talking to myself in the mirror just to practice speaking without tripping up.

But here’s what actually made the biggest difference…

I stopped creating myself as someone who stuttered.

Because the way you see yourself determines the way you show up.

For the longest time, I kept reinforcing the identity of:

And guess what? That’s exactly what I kept experiencing.

The real shift happened when I started choosing who I wanted to be — not based on my past, but based on my future.

Instead of "I’m shy," I told myself: "I am a strong communicator."

Instead of "I struggle with speaking," I decided: "I am confident in my words."

And little by little, my actions followed.

Fast forward to today — people assume I’m a natural speaker.

They tell me I have a way with words. That I connect, move, and inspire when I talk.

And it’s funny… because if they only knew where I started, they’d never believe it.

But the truth is, it wasn’t talent.

It wasn’t luck.

It wasn’t something I was "born with."

It was discipline. It was commitment. But most of all — it was belief.

Because at the end of the day, being is a choice.

And when you choose who you are first, your actions start to align. And when your actions align, the results take care of themselves.

That’s the real secret to transformation.

You don’t "achieve" your way into a new identity. You choose it first.

And once you do? Everything else starts to follow.

Thanks for reading!

Much Love,

Julian

PS. I’ve been thinking a lot about something recently — about how top entrepreneurs’ biggest roadblock is always themselves.

Because at a certain level, it’s no longer about strategy or tactics.

It’s about who you are when you make decisions. How you think. How you operate.

And I imagine a lot of you reading this are feeling that firsthand.

If you’re an entrepreneur who wants to move faster, lead stronger, and execute at a level most will never reach, keep an eye out.

I’m opening something up tomorrow, and I’ll share more soon.