"How many are you allowing the substandard treatment?" What are the ways Jessica Wilson teaches her audience to speak up |

Mar 23, 2022

Discover the strategies the self-advocacy expert Jessica Wilson uses to sell coaching, talk about her experience, and empower others to confidently advocate on behalf of themselves.

On the 17th of July, 2020, Jessica Wilson was diagnosed with stage 3 of inflammatory breast cancer. She was 32 years old and had no background of cancer in her family or gene.

"I am in the office of my oncologist for my first visit, and realize that he doesn't have the same drive to keep me alive the way I do." Jessica remembers. "He showed up to my appointment 40 minutes late -- no explanation, no apology."

"Immediately, my brain goes into self-preservation mode. If you do not seem to consider whether I will survive or not, and my treatment lies in your own hands ... then I must make a change. I immediately started speaking up in front of any person who will listenfor example, to my doctor who recommended me as well as the surgeon who operated on my breast and to anyone else -- 'Hey, this isn't working for me.'"

Her doctor kept pushing a standard course of treatment. "Maybe my situation does not meet the standard" Jessica thought. "Maybe I need to think outside of this box."

After a while, Jessica switched doctors and hospital networks to find an medical team who listened to her. "I am convinced that if I stayed there that I would not be alive today. It's not a regret at all," she says.

The incident prompted a question for Jessica her: What other people are experiencing this?

"Having been through this experience I had an epiphany how many who are out there accepting this subpar treatment, either because they don't know any better or they're just afraid and don't know how is best"

Jessica knew there had to be other people out there who were in similar circumstances, and some of whom may not have the confidence or the knowledge to stand up for themselves the way she had.

She was inspired to share the lessons she learned from her personal experience:

You can remain firm in rejecting treatment or a test you're not interested in, even the doctor you consult with says there's no alternative.

Inform your physician if you need additional time to talk about or contemplate something.

Be prepared to ask a lot of questions -- as many as you'll need to comprehend what your doctor is explaining to you.

"I was thinking, obviously I've had to advocate for myself," Jessica explains. "When you consider the world in general, it's pretty obvious that you must be a voice for yourself in every situation."

Her idea was narrowed to the three areas where self-advocacy has most impact: Medical, employment, and interpersonal relationships.

With those foci in mind, Jessica launched her coaching company, Advocacy Alley.

Presently, Jessica helps members of marginalized groups learn to build confidence and be advocates for themselves throughout every aspect of their life. She's also known as Jess the IE as an "industrial engineer by profession and the guru of intuition by love".

"I am a finance professional for a major home improvement retailer as well as doing this as a side job. Since I am passionate about one thing as well as the other one is more of a passion. I'm passionate about helping the processes, people and technology more effective. Additionally, I'm excited about helping people get the care that they need."

Keep reading to learn the ways Jessica utilized her love of improving processes -- as well as her site -- to launch her coaching career, share her experience, and encourage individuals to be advocates on behalf of themselves.

21 Questions Every Patient Should ask their Doctor

Jessica is a highly successful industrial engineer. She is a naturally logical thinker and complex problem solver. She is passionate about improvements in processes, and is aware of the power of creating an effective game plan.

With the assistance of a coach for business, precisely what she accomplished.

"I have all these items lying around. What can I do to tie it up into a neat bow that I can package? Here's the impact that I'd like to achieve. What steps will I need to complete in the direction of achieving this?"

"How do you negotiate this delicate space of "I'm not wanting to be disrespectful, but I also have to show force"?" Jessica describes.

"This is me. This body. It's the only thing I'm willing to accept. What I'm looking for is to get a second opinion about. This started at that point after which I've put together this idea -- but how do I communicate it for the public to see?"

Offering valuable free resources is a great way for budding creators to begin building their businesses.

In order to reach that market, Jessica needed a place to store the digital version of her download.

"This might be a good fit for me. It's something I can grow into."

"I loved the difference in price ... It was nice to know that I did not have to get through the very top of the line to make it be suitable for my requirements. I was impressed by the versatility of the system, andit was very user-friendly. I tried the 14-day trial, and I thought, 'Ooh, this is a completely empty canvas. The possibilities are limitless.'"

At first, Jessica used to host her downloads for free and provide details on her coaching services. In the process of developing Advocacy Alley, she built her own website.

"Over time, it's continued to grow to where my entire website is ['ssales and landing pages," Jessica describes.

"The blog is mainly to follow my battle with breast cancer because I'm not sure where to find people like me with a diagnosis around the age of 30 -or just having just started your own family." Jessica shares. "What thoughts are going through our minds?"

Jessica uses 's course builder to set up her blog and publish new content. "The features for courses are robust enough to provide me with what I need. I'd like to post posts on my website with the possibility of people to comment," she says.

Each blog post is set up as a class in . Readers can check out Jessica's blogs through her blog through a preview of each lesson. Visitors are able to sign up to make comments as well as receive updates regularly.

The versatility of the all-in-one platform means that Jessica can create all of the web-based features she needs.

"There may not be something that on paper literally will be what I'm seeking, but I've been able alter the system in order to get it to meet my needs for everything," Jessica shares.

Find out how you can benefit your own business as a creator. Sign up to get a 14-day free trial , or check out our weekly demo.

"I wanted to get courses out there because I wanted to reach as many people as feasible."

This course is designed for people who have recently been diagnosed with a condition and are trying to determine the next steps- without going down the Google tunnel of the worst-case scenarios.

"I was aware that I wanted to have a course that would help people to secure themselves in order to not get lost, no matter what diagnosis they may have," Jessica explains. "Sometimes there's nothing to keep your feet on, something that can guide you so that you don't just go down."

While she plans to continue giving one-on-one sessions to clients, an online course allows Jessica increase her reach to help more individuals.

"I knew I wanted to offer courses as I wanted to help the most people possible. I can only work with the majority of people in one session and can only handle so many things.
Through the course, it's an activity that a vast number of people could participate at any time regardless of whether I'm in a position to collaborate one-on-one with you or not -- and in reality, get the same type of impact."

Hospitals can sponsor course enrollment for a specific number of patients or hire Jessica to be a consultant and collaborate directly with her. "That way, I can have the most impact."

Building an audience "If you're not comfortable and uncomfortable, then you're not advancing."

"While you're trying to build your email list You can't simply email people," she says. "I also have to still remain active and visible on Facebook and other social platforms."

In the beginning, putting her out there on social media didn't come easily.

"Being creative has made me to appear present in front of the camera, and to stand on the front of the camera. It's not easy, and at first this can be awkward and scary. If you're not comfortable it's not a sign that you're developing.
Then I made myself be live without anyone in the audience, or with just the one person who was watching the stream. It didn't matter. This was more an exercise for me. And if I can accomplish it one time, I could do it a million times. So it was pretty much forcing myself to get comfortable in my own skin."

She explains the process of coming up with ideas to share is easyhowever, creating regular posts with an already packed schedule is difficult.

"There are just so many things that I want to share. It's not like I've faced any roadblocks with finding the right material to offer to the public," she shares.

"If you're trying to create an audience, they need frequently visit your site. So to get around that, I started trying to come up with ways to batch content ... Instead of being so long-winded Let's break [a blog postinto three posts. So I'll have three of five posts for the entire week."

"You are able to make pictures, make [Instagram] Reels and also be humorous, you can do Reels and also be seriously ... basically anything to try to diversify how users can possibly discover your profile," she recommends.

Jessica's advice for new creators: "Follow your passion, and money will follow."

"Mindset is essential. If you start to believe that you'll never become successful, then you won't succeed. There will be wonderful days when you're all enthusiastic, but there'll some days when you're like, 'I just do not want to.' And they're both acceptable."

"Take a day and completely unrelated to your work and observe if you feel refreshed later," she recommends.

If you're an artist who's only beginning to get started , Jessica encourages you to start small and take it by taking one step at a.

"Don't think about getting an amazing website set up at first. You only need to worry about these separate pages per product. Concentrate on getting those pagesconstructed first. Then, as your product portfolio grows as you grow, as your company expands and expands, you are able to build additional pages."

In the present, Jessica offers one-on-one coaching and free materials, as well as an online course for individuals as well as healthcare professionals, and three social media platforms that are active and is just beginning to get started.

The creator's journey is a race, not a sprint.

"You do not have to be millionaire in a matter of hours. Find your passion and money will follow."