#186: Hilary Jastram on Running a Freelance Business When You’re Chronically Ill or Disabled

Welcome to the High Income Business Writing Podcast, helping you propel your writing business to a whole new level. And now, here's your host, Ed Gandia. Hey there. Welcome to the High Income Business Writing Podcast. I am your host, Ed Gandia, and this is the podcast for business writers and copywriters who want to earn more and less time doing work they love for better clients. Just a quick reminder that you can find detailed show notes for this episode@b2b launcher.com episode 18 6. Those notes include a summary of our discussion as well as links to resources we mentioned during the show. You know, running a successful freelance business is challenging when you're physically healthy, but when you're also dealing with a chronic illness or disability, those challenges are greatly magnified. Simple things that many of us take for granted are huge obstacles for those dealing with major health issues, which just adds more stress and anxiety to an already stress filled life. What do you do if you're facing those health challenges now? Or what if you get unexpectedly and seriously ill? Or have you become disabled? My guest today addresses those questions head on. Her name is Hilary Jastrem. She is the editor to a number of successful and high producing entrepreneurs. She was also the editor at the Goodman Project, a blogger for the Huffington Post, and writer for the Might and Influenceive, among other publications. Hillary was forced into entrepreneurship when she became chronically ill a few years ago. She now realizes that it's the best thing that happened to her because, in her own words, it allowed me to take a no excuses approach and to settle for nothing less than the results I wanted. Since then, she's launched a nonprofit called Sick Biz where she provides support to entrepreneurs who are chronically ill and disabled. And she also runs a thriving copywriting, editing and book editing company. Whether or not you're disabled or chronically ill, I think you're going to find this conversation to be very inspirational and you're going to get to see what it's like to work with a new set of challenges that many of us don't have to deal with. If anything, I think you'll just have a better appreciation for people who are dealing with challenges that you may not be dealing with today. So I hope you enjoy it. I hope you get a lot out of this. Let's get to it. Hilary, welcome. So great to have you here.

Oh my goodness. Thank you so much. I am so thrilled to be here.

Well, I am as well and I'm very, very excited to talk with you about this. Such an important topic that we never addressed on the show before, and I'm dying to get into it, but before we do that, why don't you explain a little bit about what you do, because I know you got several things going on. You have a nonprofit. You also do work on your own. So why don't you give us some background here?

All right, so what do I do? That's like the million dollar question of the day. Right now, my time from a professional perspective is between two businesses. The first business is a digital marketing agency, and we just launched an editing house division, which is bookmark editing. So a big chunk of our business now is doing book editing, mainly for nonfiction entrepreneurs and business owners and things of that nature. And then we also do the marketing aspect of it. So whatever the digital direction that's taking us in. And I launched a nonprofit in 2017 because after my own illness, which I now know as long term Lyme, and that caused my transverse myelitis, which is a form of multiple sclerosis, I wanted to give people a place to go for resources if the same thing should happen to them. And we're trending upward in this way in this country. We are getting sicker. We are not getting better. As we gather more information, we are making some changes. But right now, six in 10 people have at least two chronic illnesses. That's 60% of people out there with two chronic illnesses. Yep. Yep.

I had no idea.

It's crazy.

That is a very, very large percentage. So this became just kind of a passion of yours after what you've gone through, Right. Just to. To help others who might be facing the same thing. Because I'm assuming you face or you came across the same issue. I don't really see a lot of people talking about this, at least in the entrepreneurial communities.

You know, I think there's a stigma that's applied to it. We always want to, in terms of our professional face or Persona, want to be unbreakable. We don't want to be vulnerable. We always want to be perceived as competent, capable, all of those things. When you have a disability, and I want to make a very clear distinction, you are not your disability, but when you have it as part of your life that you are managing just the very word dis disability, it's a taking away or it's an implication that we're less than. We have less than the ability. So already we have this mindset keyword in our head. And so we need support and we need other people who understand. And I think that has a lot to do with why People don't stick their neck out and say, hey, this is me. This is what I'm dealing with. My hustle does not look like anyone else's. And your hustle, actually, I don't want to use the word should, but consider that maybe you don't want it to look like anyone else's. You are. You with your unique challenges in your business, in your health, in your life. And even if you don't have something that's debilitating or something that is life changing at this point, you still have stuff. We all have stuff. Whether it's physical or mental health challenges or whatever the case may be. So I think people are afraid to stand out there and say, this is me. This is how I do it. The perception is that that is not success. We have to change that perception.

Right. Because it's. You made a really important distinction there. I think people, when it's a physical thing, there's a stigma around it. But let's face it, whether it's physical or in many cases, just mental and emotional, like we're all dealing with something, but for some reason, if it's not physical, we feel like, okay, well, that's okay, you know, but I mean, we're all dealing with stuff, and the Persona we put out there is not going to reflect that. Right. So then that kind of adds to the problem because then now you're anxious about what you're dealing with, and then maybe you feel like a bit of a fraud because you're putting this Persona out there, but then you're dealing with all this stuff.

Absolutely. Imposter Syndrome 101. Absolutely. But that is, I believe, as a result of the hustle mentality.

Yeah. Like, you got your, you know what together. You got to appear like you got it all together. And let's face it, the people who are championing that message. Right. It's. That's the appearance.

That is the appearance. Yeah, absolutely. And they cannot sympathize with you because the sympathize comes from sharing a similar experience or having the same experience. They can empathize with you, but they cannot sympathize with you. And so if you're aligning with somebody who has no idea what you're talking about. If somebody who says, you know, if you just have the mindset, put it in place and you can lose that cane, that may not be your reality. You may have a physical distinction that does not enable you to walk without a cane. And that is okay. You may have other things going on. That one. It is none of anybody's business. But two. I also believe as a person who is living with chronic illness and disability, that I have a responsibility. I've been given this responsibility to pay the message forward and to continually help to educate the population that is not impacted personally by illness or disease or disability.

Now, you were pushed in this direction of entrepreneurship by a series of circumstances. And would you be willing to share some of your story with us so people understand kind of where you're coming from and how you got here?

I'm telling you what, it'd be weird if I didn't at this point, wouldn't it?

Yeah, I'm kind of putting you on the spot in a very gentle way. But yeah, basically. Hillary, just tell us, okay? Just tell us what's going on.

No, what I mean by that is I have the biggest mouth ever. So. So people would be like, why is she all of a sudden clamming up when you know, so what happened is that I finally got my ish together when I was in my 30s. Okay. I went back to college and I had found this fantastic job that I didn't even have to hop on the freeway to get to. And everybody who's a commuter right now is going, man, that'd be awesome. And it was, it was, it was me, my coffee in the car and my music and like a 10 minute back road drive to this office. I literally thought I'd arrived. I was a marketing manager. I was working in a furniture store for a multitude of different brands, different demographics. So I was doing the writing. I was even on the showroom floor sometimes I was allowed to do what I wanted to do within that company. You just had to throw your hat into the ring and say, what if we did this? And they were the in house marketing was small enough where they could say, yeah, let's try it. So it was fantastic. And then in April 2014, that was taken away. When I got sick. My first symptoms were initially that it had been probably a number of months that I noticed my feet were swelling, which is really weird because that never had happened. And I thought, well, you know, I'm just wearing a size too small or whatever. I mean, I was even walking on the tops of my shoes by the end of the day. That graduated into losing feeling in my feet. And then I started getting some patchy sensations of wetness on my legs until one day I was unable to stand up without assistance. That's the day that I went into the doctor. They thought I was having potentially a blood clot in My leg. It wasn't that it took five months to get diagnosed.

Oh, gosh.

Yep. With transverse myelitis. I mean, we went back and forth from Ms. To neuromyelitis optica to Sjogren's disease to a multitude. Lupus. I mean, it was like spin the autoimmune disease wheel.

Yeah. None of those sound good. Right. No matter what. And the anxiety, I'm sure that you were feeling, I can't imagine.

No. And the scariest prospect was that there was a spinal tumor that had just roosted its way. And I was really disappointed with the neurologist because they used very technical terms, neoplasm. You know, he said that in his office a number of times. So of course I run home to Google and I find out it's really just a cushion term for tumor. And I find this out by myself, you know. And so then the world got very dark and I lost my job. No fault of the company. I simply couldn't show up and do the job. Went on short term disability. I was denied long term disability because I went to the doctor in the wrong month. If I had waited 10 days, they would have approved long term disability. When I lost my job, I lost my health insurance. I lost everything. The year prior, we had lost our home. Everything was in major upheaval. There was nothing to hold onto, nothing to anchor onto. So what we now know is that I had symptoms in 2012 that they couldn't really point to anything but a vitamin overload is what they said, but they're too similar to dismiss. And so in talking to my neurologist, literally last week, I said, you know, I believe this manifested in 2012. We didn't have a diagnosis then. And then the transverse myelitis came on in 2014. We were able to diagnose it then. I had been diagnosed with transverse myelitis and fibromyalgia, which are two very different diseases and do not really have a lot to do with each other because the lesion in my spine doesn't explain other physical issues in my body. So they said, well, fibromyalgia. And last week I said, listen, don't you think it makes more sense that this is Lyme disease? Especially because I've had two positive Lyme tests. That doesn't it make more sense that it was caused this way? And they're finally. They're finally seeing that this is the direction we need to go for treatment. So I feel hopeful, but this is a long, long road.

Yeah. And you're still Obviously, dealing with this. Right. This is a daily thing for you.

This is a daily thing. I probably feel like 60% garbage most of the day versus, like 80%. So we're making incremental changes. A lot of that has to do with I am seeing a chiropractor, which I want to debunk the myth of the chiropractor, because I literally thought it was. Oh, you go and get your spine adjusted, and they massively crack you. This is a holistic approach to healthcare now. So I'm doing PMF therapy, which helps to drain the lymph system and the lactic acids in your body. Doing a lot of detoxification, oxygen therapy. I'm zapping my feet with a sort of TENS unit twice a day to get the circulation going again. And we're also using lasers on my feet. And I am starting supplements today to start to heal my gut as well as I've cut out just a bunch of really fun things that I used to eat. So spent a lot of mourning.

Yeah. So I'm assuming pizza and ice cream is not on the menu.

Oh, man. And it's like. It gets worse than that, Ed. It's like cheese.

Oh, boy. Now you're talking. Yeah. You lost me there.

I know. And I had never said, why me? This whole journey until they said, cheese, and I went, why me? Why is this happening to you?

Yeah, boy. Wow. So, yeah. And, you know, this is not to go off on a tangent here, but this is why it's so important for people to do their own research and be their own advocates. Because if, I mean, like our parents and grandparents, the model was you don't question. You just, like, put yourself in the hands of the physicians. And now if you do that, I hate to say this, but that could be the worst thing ever.

Oh, yes.

They're dealing with so many cases, so many patients, and they're trying to cure kind of like the big picture stuff, like the problem solving approach they use. It makes perfect sense. But when you get into things like what you're dealing with, Hillary, is. I mean, these are like outliers, and the system is not set up for that. So it's good that you became, you know, your own advocate. You took charge, but it doesn't change the fact that you've had to deal with a lot of other stuff. So when did, like, becoming an entrepreneur solopreneur? How did that come about?

Well, I used to call myself the reluctant entrepreneur. And the reason is because I saw my father launch multiple businesses when I was A girl. And they did not succeed. And so I carried that with me. And I thought, well, you always have to have a job. I mean, that manifested in me when I was 15 years old and I got a job secretly behind my mother's back. She had said, you're not ready to work yet, so let's do it next year. And I said, well, forget that. I'm gonna hop on the bus and go work at Shaky's Pizza Parlor.

I remember Shakies.

You do? You're like, the only one. Everybody else is like, what's that?

Yeah. Yeah. Obviously they're not around anymore, but I remember Shakies. Yeah.

Yes. Yeah. So I worked there for three days, and then my mom found out, and she. She was like, are you working on the sly? Other kids are going out getting drunk. You know, I'm like, I got a job, you know, so that was really ingrained in me. Work. This is what you can do to be in control of your life. If you don't know what to do, you can always work. And I fell back on that when I lost my job, when I lost my health insurance. But it was terrifying for me because I wasn't married at the time, and so my fiance and I were living together with two of my kids. My other child was out of the house by then, and I had made the majority of the family income, quote, unquote. Because first of all, I was like, it's not your fault I'm fertile. You know, like, I'm taking care of these kids, and I'm not expecting you to do this. So I had to get real nimble real quick and squash any sort of, you can't do this mentality, because now it was about taking care of my kids. It was about not taking them out of yet another home. It was about not taking them out of their school. You know, there was no choice but to succeed. I didn't know what that would even look like to fail, because I had never entertained it. It was just a matter of, these are the circumstances. This is a new challenge in life, and we're going to keep going until we find the right answer.

So it was really putting yourself. I mean, not that you did it, but you were in a situation where failure was not an option.

Absolutely.

And that was your driver. Yeah, I respect that so much. One of the things that my audience is facing. So there are many people who listen to the show who are struggling with some of these things. Chronic health issues, disabilities. And for a long time, I was trying to figure out why Is that because there seems to be a large percentage of people who email me and tell me what they're dealing with, and I'd never seen that anywhere else. And it hit me one day. Well, it's the fact that if you are homebound, for instance, because you're dealing with these things, writing is one of those things you could technically do and make a living, Right? So a lot of people are drawn into writing, copywriting because it's a flexible way to generate income. But here's the challenge, and maybe this is where we can kind of lead the rest of the conversation today. This is hard. Very, very hard when you're healthy, okay? So when you're dealing with chronic health issues and disabilities, which, man, if I'm sick for, like, a couple of weeks, I think I'm dying, Okay. I don't know how people who are dealing with these things all the time can do it. So if it's hard when you're healthy, how do you deal with this? And how do you succeed when you're dealing with these challenges?

Well, and I think you can anticipate this answer. There's a lot to the mindset. There's a lot to. What am I going to focus on? Where am I going to put my energy? What I tried to do with the inception of Sick Biz is really provide resources and hacks and hope to people who are dealing with this on a daily basis every single day. Interestingly, too, there are at least 75 jobs, if not more, that you can do from your home. We have a PDF that our community in our Sick Biz Facebook group created because we really wanted this community response. We really advocate for people to be not only their own advocate, but for others. So we do it together. I don't want this to be just like, this is my nonprofit. It's everybody's. And so what I wanted to do was make it easier for people, because you're absolutely right. It is difficult. I think it was easier for me. This is crazy, because I did not give myself a choice. So what is the difference between not giving yourself a choice due to illness or not giving yourself a choice when you know you have a net underneath you? The difference is mindset. In relation to Sick Biz, we try to provide the tool. There's a job board, for example, that we have that you can sign up for a subscription for that is run by Galena. Galena is our secretary. She also runs the largest VA job board on Facebook. And so she's vetting these jobs to ensure that they will earn you a living wage. That is highly, highly important because a chunk of this has to do with how you're pricing yourself, how you're marketing yourself. We focus too on how can I get money in the door today? So various ways to close sales. What do we need to do daily to take care of our business? So we're trying to make it into, it's a flexible, breathable business plan. That's not really a business plan, it's not a 30 page long business plan, but it's, you need to do this daily, you need to do this weekly, you need these resources, but you also need a place where you feel understood. Because if you don't feel understood and you can't get that validation from yourself, you're just going to keep cycling around and you're going to keep falling into this mindset that's damaging. So it's really, I wanted really tangible tools. We have linked up with Worth Living, which is a Canadian based but international mental health resource. Because a lot of this has to do with, well, I get up every day, I don't feel well, I don't know how to find the wherewithal to keep going. I don't know how to feel good about myself in comparison to others, their Instagram life or whatever. So we know that we need other resources. We have financial resources as well in terms of people that you can talk to. So how is your business doing? How is it performing? What do you need to do? I really wanted to get actionable and give people that kind of value.

That's fantastic because that's exactly what you want, right? Where can I find some resources to get the help I need? Can you maybe give us a couple of examples of things? You know, you unpacked quite a bit there, but maybe some just so people can have an idea. Because it sounds good on the surface, but what do I need to do on a daily basis? What do I do when I'm like, I can't even get up because I'm in pain and how am I even going to complete this project? It's due tomorrow. What are some ideas there?

I think describing what I go through may help you. A lot of what I feel is electrical, so it feels like somebody plugged me in and I'm buzzing or I lose sensation in my body. It's very disorienting and there's a degree of vertigo that goes along with it. So I can decide. It feels like I'm on a ship, so I can decide, am I going to focus on that Am I going to sink into that sensation and make it worse for myself and have that be my only reality today is my pain? Or am I going to do what I can to pull myself out of that? And that might be I'm writing an article, and if I'm too tired to type, then I might voice the article. That might be that. I love talking to people. So maybe I'm talking to a client, but somebody else is sending the paperwork. Somebody else is doing other parts of this project. There's a lot of honesty that needs to take place within yourself. So it's easy to say, well, I can do it or I can't do it. But how do we come to that decision? First of all, we have to show up as our best selves every day. And you know what? Even if that means you're in bed and you're doing your podcast from bed, because I'm guilty of that sometimes. I absolutely am. Even if that means a good day for me is when I'm out of bed and I'm on my sun porch. That's a great day for me. An even better day is when I make it upstairs to my office. So we have to change the standards by which we measure success. It really starts with the mindset. So I love the distraction. The other thing is that you can be really proud of yourself for being as efficient as possible. And I've said this before, that people who are chronically ill and disabled are the poster child for work smarter, not harder.

Oh, so true.

Yeah, we have.

We have no choice.

No, absolutely. And build in a cushion for yourself. So if I say to somebody, I'm going to have this done today, I know that I've put in a cushion of two or three days and run your business that way. Do time blocking. That has been a lifesaver. Absolutely. I also have massive support. And one of the people that I work with, who's one of the executive editors at J Home Marketing, and she's one of my very closest friends in the whole wide world. I consider her my sister and she will call me on it. You're done. You're done today. You're exhausted. It's okay. You need to have that support system. If you don't have that support system, you can start as simply as your support is not helping me right now, I'm going to try and do this by myself. If you have people who are toxic, you don't believe that you're suffering because you have a quote unquote invisible illness, you can simply say, I'm going to get the support from myself. Please don't offer anything at this moment. Stop that toxicity. You have to be responsible for those boundaries and, and reinforcing them. So a lot of stuff that we talked about, but mainly I love having a distraction and it reminds me in a world where I can't clean my house top to bottom in one day anymore. I can't change the wall color if I want to, which I used to do. You know, I can't do any of those home improvement projects. I can still kill it in business and I can do it my way. And by telling my story and by telling your story, you can empower other people to do the very same thing.

That's powerful, powerful stuff right there. And in fact, it leads me to my next question, and this is with clients, if you're dealing with these things, is it necessary to communicate your health challenges to clients or is it really kind of one of those things? Well, you know, it's really not any of their business. As long as I can deliver what I've promised on time. How do you feel about that?

I think live authentically, whatever that means to you. So if you're connected on Facebook, for example, I'm not hiding any of my life. I'm letting the work that I do speak for itself. And if somebody has a self limiting belief or value that's deeply entrenched in their own brain that prevents them from seeing it's okay to work with human people who have human challenges, they're maybe not the right person that I want to work with anyway. I don't mask anything. Absolutely not. Because what is that feeding? It's feeding a lie as a narrative. So you have the right to absolutely defend those boundaries. And you can say, if somebody says, hey, may I ask you what's wrong with you? First of all, you can say, no, you may not. You know, you absolutely can. Or you can say, yeah, I'd love to tell you because I want you to understand that I want you to have the awareness and I want to do the work for other people facing the same thing. So you get to decide that without judgment. It's kind of like, how would an introvert or an extrovert handle this? Extroverted person is probably going to make a lot of jokes about it and they're going to push things in your face and whatever. But that doesn't mean that the work or the feelings of the person who is not comfortable talking about it are any less valuable, because that's not the case. You still have to work, you still have to feel okay. And you can't just rip the COVID off of something when you haven't done the work behind it. You can't just go from I'm telling nobody to I'm telling everybody. You have to make incremental changes and those are more meaningful anyway. And they're lasting, they're sustainable, when they're not drastic.

I love how you're thinking about this because you're putting it on the person to decide, you know, based on who they are, what they're like, what they feel comfortable with. Any advice on, you know, how far to take it? And by that I mean, you know, should you just kind of go deep because you feel comfortable? Should you go deep with some of the stuff with your clients? Or is it better to just kind of keep it contained within certain boundaries and just kind of keep it professional? So in other words, maybe the question really is, do you open up completely or do you just open up to a certain extent based on your comfort level?

You can open up to a certain extent based on your comfort level, but understanding that masking what you're going through is not going to serve you. It's not going to help change the perception of what it means to work with a chronic illness or disability. We all have to use our voices. It's one of those things where it's like, man, I'm sick. I'm sick and disabled. Like, I don't want to use my voice. I'm tired. You know, why do I have to do this? We're doing it look outside yourself, not just for yourself. We're doing it to change the frickin world. We have to link and join our voices to do this. So I know it's tiring, I absolutely know it is. But I also know there are people on your behalf that are speaking for you. So we need to do the same thing. We need to make this like a vibrant chain of change that can enact how people think in the world. And it can change how people work, it can change your lifestyle, it can change your income, can change anything you want it to, but we have to do our work with it. Now if you don't want to do your work, you're not ready to do it yet, that's okay, but try to aim for that. So I don't hide. And I don't want to say hide. I don't hold anything back, let's put it that way. So if I'm traveling, I have to use a wheelchair in the airport because My transverse myelitis means that my electrical system in my body will short out repeatedly throughout the day. Not from walking, not from doing anything strenuous, from being a person, even having just sensations and how my body is communicating. It might be like, well, your legs are not working today. So I'm letting people know you can travel by yourself through the airport. This is what you need to do. This is how you need to do it. Your work is not suffering, your drive is not suffering. Your motivation is not suffering. Do I need to build in time to recover after flying all day? Absolutely. So then I fly in a day early. So you can work with these adaptations and you can talk about it.

Well, and I'm with you 100%. I think one of the things that you need to, and you've alluded to this, is if you understand your purpose and you're clear about that, then you have reason to find solutions. Right. So many people try to get into these things without really defining what's driving them. And I see a lot of dissonance there because it just becomes even more of a struggle than it really is. So just I think getting clear on your purpose and like you were talking earlier about you had to succeed. I mean, you got kids. If one thing's going to make you and drive you to do well, it's like, I got to put food on the table for my kids. But what about someone, as we start wrapping things up here, someone who's thinking about going out on their own. So what advice would you give to someone who's chronically ill or disabled and they're thinking about doing this on their own to make a living. So they're not already there, but they're thinking about it. Any thoughts and advice?

Absolutely. This is not a one trick pony. So this is not. I'm going to send out one email to somebody that I used to work with and tell them, you know, I'm now working from home, I'm looking for gigs. And then you're done and you sit back and wait. This is not going on to monster.com or indeed or whatever and putting in that you are interested in remote positions. This is not only working with recruiters, this is not only signing up for job boards, it is doing all of that, all of it. And so make sure that you have launched this multi pronged networking approach. That is how you're going to catch the fish in the net. It's not. I'm going to go out there once a day and I'm going to fish around and See what I come up with, we have got to focus on what is going to come in, what is working. Be ready to, I don't want to say fail, but be ready to learn that some methods don't work as well. And so you want to focus on the ones that are. Additionally, as you are reaching out specifically to try and find gigs, make sure that you are networking at the same time. You should be daily networking. That is just a part of what you do every single day. Majority of my deals I close through Facebook so you can be where your client is. If you identify yourself as an expert in a group of your ideal clients, for example, then you can build a pipeline. That way there are a multitude of things that you can do. I would not focus so much on the marketing aspect of it in terms of, or the branding, rather, what's my logo, where's my website? There are things that you can do in the interim to focus on sales. So if you have a Facebook presence, that is your website, that is your branding right there. Now you focus on sales and then you deliver and you make sure that you're implementing these strategies, these closes to get money in the door. A lot of times it has to do with letting the client know that you absolutely understand their pain points. You also understand you've never worked together before. So they want to know that they can trust you. So then you meet them halfway and go, listen, I understand where you are, but I also understand your pain point. So this is what I think we should do. I think we should start at X amount of price. I'll start immediately. I'll send you a contract immediately. It can be signed with two clicks and then we will ramp up services. After you look at this first project together, the idea is to get rolling, make sure that.

Ready, fire, aim. Right, Ready.

Yes, yes, absolutely. Because you have a different criteria and your business looks different than somebody who has the quote, unquote luxury of being able to sit back and go, what am I going to do tomorrow? What am I going to work on tomorrow? What can take a little bit longer? Right now you have to demonstrate that you can work. You have to work to your ability and with your adaptations and you need to deploy strategies and get money in the door and everything else is going to come after that.

Well, and you've been proof, Hillary, that this is entirely possible. Is it more challenging? Absolutely. I find though, that the more challenges we have, the more resourceful we become. I mean, if you want to be successful. Right. So in a way it can be a hidden Blessing in that it just makes you better, stronger, more resourceful. And those are gifts that always stay with you. Right. These are qualities that always stay with you. So I think this is fantastic. And I just can't thank you enough for sharing this inspiration and these ideas with us because I agree 100%. This is something we need to talk about, we need to address. And I know you're really serving a lot of people in my audience right now with this. So, Hillary, where can I send people to learn more about you? Learn more about your nonprofit, learn more.

About these resources people can head to. SickBiz.com is the best way to get in touch with me. So just as it sounds S I C K B I Z Com, you can reach me via email or social media that way. And I would love, love, love to have people join the community on Facebook. We have such high engagement in this community, it is unreal because people are finding other people with the same conditions running their businesses. They're running up against the current narrative that needs to be changed, and they're finding that support. We're hearing a lot of, oh, I'm so glad this is finally here. This is an overdue service to such an incredible population. Wow.

And you know what? I guess in a way, there's never been a time to be dealing with these issues because of all these communities and the fact that you can have immediate access to it online as opposed to having to get in the car and go somewhere.

Absolutely. And the same holds true for your business. There has never been a better time to be remote. There's never been a better time to be in control of what you want your life to be. So this is something that I wake up every day. I am so grateful that it is not, you know, 10 years ago or 15 years ago. We have the ability to get out of the cycle, even of collecting disability by investing differently in ourselves and making more money than we ever made before, because that is what happened to me. I at least tripled my own salary when I worked on my own. So it's feasible. It's feasible.

You just have to. Exactly. You just have to know how to work through it. So, Hillary. Yes. Thank you. Thank you again.

I really cycle even of collecting disability by investing differently in ourselves and making more money than we ever made before, because that is what happened to me. I at least tripled my own salary when I worked on my own.

I appreciate you coming on. We'll make sure to include all these links on the Show Notes page. I encourage everyone to check them out. And I appreciate you.

I appreciate you, Ed. Thank you.

The High Income Business Writing Podcast is a production of B to B business launcher. Learn more at b2b launcher.com.