I need opinions... Can an Aspie be a mentor/consultant?

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Hey all, First post so here goes nothing!

I'm going to try and get to the point the best I can here as it's a rather complicated topic.

Can an aspie be a Couch/mentor/consultant? the reason i'm being mildly vague about what exactly im calling it is that I haven't exactly what title i'd give said career/path since if I did go ahead with it, it would be me going self employed and its not in an overly dominated area, hence why I can call myself whatever I want essentially. The small details are irrelevant for question though.

So, yeah, I guess what I'm scared of (read: utterly terrified) is my "Quirks" showing though, whether or not the times I miss the odd social que would hold me back, a client noticing, or just being an aspie in some way impeding me within a one to one consulting type scenario.

I currently Work in retail, and somehow i've gotten away without anyone ever working out i'm an aspie, i'm just quirky, lateral thinking and a little opinionated in their eyes. However i'm not happy, feel suffocated and can't be myself, I guess i've learnt to go through the motions and put on the "mask" many of us use to get by, but more importantly I just don't like my job, I need something which is going to align with my values and give me some satisfaction, working in retail is draining for me, it's all the things i'm not particularly great at, I feel my skills are wasted. oh and yes i've tried other areas of retail, so that's not the issue, in fact I went through about 4 jobs in a year once...

I'm hoping though I wont find doing this "idea" as a job quite as draining as retail since I wouldn't have a boss, colleagues, or any superfluous hierarchy going on, not to mention I would be able to spend hours per day talking/advising about areas which I actually find interesting and have extensive knowledge about, which IS where i'm hoping me being an aspie might just shine through.

Not to mention i'm also severely Dyslexic so thinking outside the box is extremely easy for me, its annoying I can spends hours writing/co-writing an article and/or blog on a subject i'm interested/knowledgeable in, but try and get me to quickly spell something in my current job... well.. forget it.

I guess I want someone to say "just do it, being an aspie won't matter!", it's just sat there burning in the back of my mind and getting the opinion of some fellow people on the spectrum might help, since everyone else I know is NT, so they don't quite get the problem.

For what it's worth I feel i've won the Autistic lottery so to speak, I don't seem to have too many issues with it affecting my people skills, it's just taken a lot of trial and error to "learn" how to read people etc, so while i'm never going to be as smooth and fluent as everyone else, in say fast group situations, I seem to do just fine on a one to one basis, my empathy isn't too bad either (or so my wife says), I'd say I can be a little 'objective' when someone asks for my opinion, so that can occasionally come of as 'cold' but for the most part its all gravy, I think being fairly intelligent has helped me adapt too, and no that's not being big headed, I genuinely thought I was "thick" for about 18 years, so yeah I recognise i'm far from average, in a good way.

So, any Aspie Couches, mentors, consultants or Counsellors out there? if so please share!

Ooops, looks like I didn't quite keep to the "get to the point the best I can", us aspies love a good backstory don't we... *sigh*

Olly.

It depends on how good your executive functioning skills are. If you become a consultant, you will need to market yourself, do your bookkeeping (or manage hiring someone to do it), keep a disciplined schedule, and all the things that come with running your own business. Usually companies hire consultants who have employment experience in their field, and are better at it than the people already working there. If your only work experience is in retail, are you thinking of becoming a retail consultant? If it's just your special interest you want to advise people about, unless you have a degree and a successful track record in the field of your interest, why would anybody hire you to consult for them?

Have worked as a consultant, i can do it, but prefer not to. It's more of an individual thing than an Aspie thing.

My executive functioning skills are not too bad, however I've not really had much chance to improve them with the setting I'm in at the moment, I work best when I have a goal and I'm left to complete it without the dictation of management etc, so yeah you could say I'm self motivated etc. I work analytical and have always been a natural problem solver.

All the things to do with running my own business don't worry me, the book keeping I partially do already and if I got stuck them my other half is qualified in business admin and secretary work. So I've got that covered.

I'd hate to dig deeper into retail, it's everything I hate, commercialisation included.

The area I'm wanting to become a consultant/couch in is sort of a special interest (hate that term), but I have plenty of other interests too, so don't worry, it's not a passing obsession. I would certainly gather qualifications to prove the knowledge I already have, and I do already have projects Im a similar area on the go, which I can reference to for experience, but yes I get your point.

@ichinin how was it for you? Did you find being an aspie got in the way?

Was in my 20's back in 1998, didn't know i was an Aspie then, found it to be stressful, political and the culture of staying at the job late to "Party hard" wasn't for me.

That wouldn't be a problem for me since this would be a solo, self employed, side project, So no colleges to be worrying about. I can see how that sort of life style would cause issues, and not just for an aspie either, good if you're into that sort of thing but if not then yeah.

Just to put this out there, maybe I'm miss using the term consultant, for now we'll just say "couch", as that'll be more likely what I'll be doing, just don't like the title of it that's all, but yeah personal "coaching" or "advising" is what I'm getting at

Yes, I do believe an Aspie can be a mentor/consultant.

Aspies aren't dumb people, and they learn from life.

Anybody who learns lessons in life can be a mentor.

So do you think we still have an equal chance of getting that information across to someone else in a 1:1 setting? Or is that just another thing to we simply learn how to do, to do it as effectively?

I've probably over thought all this, I guess I've let a seed of doubt plant its way in, being accepting of having ASD still isn't sitting well with me, for some reason, probably because I get away without anyone knowing I've kept it that way, whereas if I'm self employed there is a greater fear/risk of exposure.

It’s a longer learning process for us.

But we CAN become at least as good a communicator as an NT.

Many NTs suck at this, too, it must be remembered.

In my current job my customers are internal employees our company. They may think I am odd or weird, but it will not hurt the company. Some time ago I refused offer to be a consultant for our supplier. I think I am not able work with external customers - subscribers. It scares me the insecurity to work everywhere else (I need work in one company, know my work place, not visit suppliers and work at their place) and communication with customers. This could also cause problems for my employer and then me, if I had some problems with subscribers.
It scares me too be self employed, self-grabbing orders. And I can't be mentor, because for me is difficulty explain someone something. But I think it is individual, maybe you can.

If you want to consult or mentor in this area, get one client. Just one. Keep your job and devote 5 hours a week to your new business. Make very little marketing material, do very little apart from talking to this one client, however, make sure you keep all your receipts obviously.

Once you have one client, consider what to do going forward.

You need to be there to know if it would work. It may be a bad idea because you don't know enough, then you need more training. It may be that there isn't a market for what you offer. It may be that you find your communication skills need some help or that you just loathe doing it for some reason. So get one client. Just one.

It is, btw, the hardest client to get, your first one, but then you can evaluate a little bit instead of trying to make it up.

So what if you are quirky if your mentees learn from you, your clients value your input and it all works, then fine. It's not the end of the world to be odd. But there's got to be a sweet spot somewhere where you are odd enough to offer some unique insights while being able to function around NT's enough that your advice is relevant to them. Only a trial can really tell.

What would your credentials be? How do you know this isn't a saturated field? This sounds like something that you have thought about but have you researched it?

It sounds like you're talking about being a life coach. Generally a mentor is career specific and not a paid position. For example, a senior software engineer would be a mentor to a new employee who she had taken an interest in helping professionally. A consultant does get paid, but generally a consultant is a professional with significant higher education and professional experience who has a high level of expertise that is of value. For example, an attorney might be a consultant for a start-up. So it sounds like what you want is to be a life coach, which is someone who basically gives advice. From what I've seen there are a LOT of life coaches out there, who are constantly trying to drum up business from their friend group.
I went on the bureau of labor statistics website to read some facts about the average income, education level, and future employment prospects. It isn't even listed there.

Here is a tool you should use:
https://www.mynextmove.org/explore/ip