"How many of us are accepting unjust treatment?" How Jessica Wilson teaches her audience to speak up |

Discover the strategies the self-advocacy expert Jessica Wilson uses to sell coaching, talk about her experience and encourage individuals to be able to speak up on behalf of themselves.

On 17 July 2020, Jessica Wilson was diagnosed with stage 3 inflammation breast cancer. She was just 32 years old, with no family history or breast cancer gene.

"I am in the oncologist's clinic to make my first appointment and realize that he's not got the same passion for keeping me alive like I do." Jessica remembers. "He showed up to my appointment 40 minutes late -- no explanation, no apology."

"Immediately, my brain goes to self-preservation mode. If you don't seem to care about whether I live or die, and the treatment I receive is in your hands ... then I must make a change. I immediately started speaking up, speaking out to any person who will listenfor example, to my doctor who recommended me, to the breast surgeon as well as to all people -- 'Hey, this isn't working for me.'"

Her physician kept pushing a standard course of treatment. "Maybe the condition I'm experiencing is not standard," Jessica thought. "Maybe I have to look beyond this particular frame of reference."

Soon after, Jessica switched doctors and hospitals to locate the medical staff that was listening to her. "I strongly believe that, had I not been there, I would not have been alive now. I don't regret it whatsoever," she says.

The story sparked an inquiry for Jessica her: What other people are experiencing this?

"Having experienced that incident, it gave me the realization: How many people are out here accepting such low standards of treatment, whether because they don't know any better or they're just afraid or don't know what to do?"

Jessica realized that there would have been other people who were in similar circumstances, and some of whom may not possess the confidence or knowledge to speak up for themselves the way she was able to do.

She wanted to share lessons she had learned through her own experiences:

It is possible to remain firm when rejecting treatment or a test that you do not want the doctor you consult with makes you feel like there's no alternative.

Inform your physician if you require extra time to discuss or contemplate something.

Don't be afraid to ask lots of questions as you're able to grasp the explanations your physician is giving to you.

"I looked around and realized, obviously I've had to advocate for myself." Jessica explains. "When you look at your life, in general, it seems like you pretty much have to be a voice for yourself in every situation."

She narrowed her idea down to three areas where she sees self-advocacy having the most effect: Medical, employment, and personal relationships.

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

Today, Jessica helps members of marginalized groups learn to build confidence and stand up for themselves in every part of their life. She's also often referred to by the name Jess the IE is an "industrial engineer by trade and an intuition endorser with a passion".

"I work in finance for the largest home improvement company as well as doing this as a side job. because one is something I enjoy and the other has more obsession. I'm passionate about making people, processes as well as technologies more effective. Additionally, I'm excited in helping folks get the help that they need."

Read on to find out the ways Jessica utilized her love of process improvement -- and her website to start her coaching career, tell her story, and empower individuals to be advocates for 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 process improvement and knows the power of creating an efficient game plan.

And with the help of a coach for business, precisely the way she went about it.

"I have all of these things lying around. How do I tie this to form a neat bow, which I could then package? The effect that I'd like to have. What are the steps I need to complete to get there?"

"How do you navigate that delicate area of "I don't want to appear inconsiderate, but I need to be forceful'?" Jessica describes.

"This my body. It's the only thing I'm willing to accept. That's what I'd like an opinion from a different source. It started from there, then I've packaged this thing -- how do I get it out to the masses?"

The provision of free and valuable resources is an excellent way for new creators to begin building their business.

In order to reach that market, Jessica needed a place to host her digital download.

"This might be a good fit for me. It's something could be my next step."

"I appreciated the price difference ... I did not have to get up to the highest level to ensure the right product for my requirements. I liked the flexibility of everything, and [the interface was extremely friendly to use. I did the 14-day test, then I realized, "Ooh, this is a completely unfinished page. There are no limits to what you can do with it.'"

Initially, Jessica used to host her free downloads and details about her one-on-one coaching services. While she was developing Advocacy Alley, she built her own website.

"Over time, it's continued to grow to where my whole website is comprised of ['spages for landing and sales pages," Jessica describes.

"The blog is mostly to keep track of my journey through breast cancer, as I'm not entirely sure where to find folks like me, with a diagnosis around the age of 30or just having just started your own family." Jessica shares. "What is going through our heads?"

Jessica uses 's course builder to build her own blog and share new posts. "The course feature is robust enough to provide me with everything I want. I need to be able post my posts and have the opportunity for users to make comments," she says.

Each blog post is set up as a class in . The readers can browse through Jessica's blog posts through her blog by previewing each lesson and are able to sign up to make comments and receive regular updates.

The flexibility of 's all-in-one platform allows Jessica is able to set up any of the website features she needs.

"There may not be something which on paper actually will be what I'm seeking, but I've been able to manipulate the system in order to get it to fulfill my demands for everything," Jessica shares.

Learn how to make it work for your own business as a creator. Sign up for a free 14-day trial , or check out our weekly demo.

"I had a desire to make classes available because I wanted to reach most people possible."

This course is designed for individuals who've been recently diagnosed and need to identify the next stepsbut without taking a Google web of the most likely scenarios.

"I decided that I needed to create a program for folks to anchor themselves to ensure that their minds don't get lost, no matter what diagnosis they may have," Jessica explains. "Sometimes it's just a matter of having something to keep your feet on, something which can help you navigate your way so that you don't just spiral."

As she continues giving one-on-one sessions to clients, an online class lets Jessica scale her impact and assist more clients.

"I was aware that I needed to offer courses in order to reach the greatest number of people possible. It is only possible to work with so many people one-on-one and only manage so many things.

With the course, it's an activity that a vast number of people could participate at any point in time -- whether I'm immediately available to work one-on-one or not. And have the same kind of impact."

Hospitals are able to sponsor enrollment in courses for a certain number of patients or hire Jessica for consulting to work closely with her. "That means I will be the most effective."

Building an audience "If you're uncomfortable, you're not growing."

"While you're still working to create your list of email addresses, you can't just email folks," she says. "I should also remain active and noticeable via Facebook and other social platforms."

In the beginning, putting her online via social media wasn't something that came easily.

"Being a creator has forced me to stand present in front of the camera, and to stand on the front of the camera. And initially, of course it can be a bit awkward and scary. But if you're not uncomfortable it's not a sign that you're expanding.

Therefore, I required myself to perform the live stream with no one watching, with the one person who was watching and it was all that mattered. This was more an exercise for me. And if I can complete it just once, I could do the same thing a million times. So it was pretty much making myself comfortable being uncomfortable."

The author explains how coming up with something to say is easy -- but creating and posting consistently with a packed schedule can be difficult.

"There are just so many things that I want to share. It's not like I've faced any roadblocks with coming up with the information that I want to share with people," she shares.

"If you're trying to build a following, they have frequent visits to your page. So to get around this, I began trying to find ways to batch posts ... In lieu of getting long and rambling Let's break [a blog postinto three posts. This means I'll have three of five posts for this week."

"You can do your image posts, you can make [Instagram] Reels and be funny, you can do Reels as well as be professional ... just anything in order to broaden the ways people can discover your profile," she recommends.

Jessica's tips for creatives who are just starting out: "Follow your passion, and the money will come."

"Mindset is essential. If you believe that you'll never become prosperous, you will never succeed. There will be wonderful days when you're all the way enthused, and there are going to times when you're feeling like, "I really don't have the desire to. Both are good."

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

If you're a creator who's only beginning to get started , Jessica encourages you to take things in small steps.

"Don't think about getting an entire beautiful site set up in the beginning. Only worry about the individual pages for each product. Focus on having [those pages] built out first. As the product line expands, as you grow, as your company expands it is possible to add more pages."

Presently, Jessica offers one-on-one coaching, free resources, an online training course designed for both individuals and healthcare providers, and three active social media channels -- and she's just starting to build her presence.

Keep in mind that the journey of creation is a race, not a sprint.

"You don't have to become millionaire in a matter of hours. Find your passion and you'll be rewarded with money."