Amy Taylor had been driving across Missouri and Kansas for nearly 12 years, visiting over 100 social work clients in their homes, following the same routine day after day. “I was bored,” she reflects. “I was doing the same thing every day. I’d worked at the same company for almost 12 years and done the same job there that whole time.” Yet at the time, she wouldn’t have called it boredom. “I think I would just say I was on autopilot.”
A routine blood test at age 50 changed everything. Basic thyroid screening revealed irregularities, leading to an ultrasound that confirmed cancer. While medical professionals reassured her that thyroid cancer was “the best cancer you can get,” Taylor’s response revealed something deeper: “I was scared and I was kind of mad that everybody said it’s the best cancer you can get. Don’t worry about it, you’re in good hands. And I thought, you know, I deserve to be upset that I have cancer.” Her thyroid cancer diagnosis two years ago didn’t just disrupt her health—it became the catalyst that shifted her from decades of autopilot living into intentional, purposeful action that transformed her career, education, and entire approach to building the life she actually wanted.
When You’re Forced to Put Yourself First
The treatment protocol for thyroid cancer involves surgical removal of the thyroid gland followed by radioactive iodine therapy. This treatment requires complete isolation from family and friends for weeks to prevent radiation exposure to others. Taylor had to live separately from her 13-year-old daughter, eat only from disposable plates and utensils, sit on trash bags to protect furniture, and maintain strict dietary restrictions.
“I basically lived off for two, for a month before and two weeks after a diet of nuts and cranberries and crackers,” Taylor said. The isolation was so complete that when her daughter forgot her school iPad at home, Taylor couldn’t retrieve it or pass it through a door without contaminating it.
But this forced separation created an unexpected gift: uninterrupted time for reflection. “During the weeks of isolation, I had a lot of time to think, and I thought a lot about how cancer is pretty scary. And I was not happy with the way my life was going. And there were things that I had wanted to do for years and had not done. And I thought, you know what? I’m not going to put it off anymore. I’m going to make these changes.”
The physical isolation became emotional and psychological clarity. Without the daily distractions of routine, Taylor faced the reality of her unfulfilled aspirations and the assumption that there would always be “more time” to pursue them.
How to Build the Life You’ve Always Wanted
Taylor’s first major change involved completing something she’d started 20 years earlier: her master’s degree. She had begun an MBA program in her thirties but was forced to stop when she was laid off and lost tuition assistance. Two decades passed without revisiting this goal.
“I hadn’t even had the inkling of the idea to do that in 20 years,” Taylor explained. “And it seemed like way too much work and like, it would take too long if I did think about it. And so now I just thought, I don’t care how long it takes. I’m just gonna do it.”
The university accepted most of her previous credits despite the 20-year gap, and Taylor completed her MBA in about 18 months while working full-time and caring for her daughter. The online format presented challenges for someone who learned better through lectures and discussion, but she persevered through coursework that included her longtime struggle with mathematics and finance.
With her MBA completed, Taylor made her second major change: leaving the job she’d held for over a decade. Her dissatisfaction wasn’t with social work itself—”I still have a heart for social work. It’s part of what I do today”—but with the constraints that prevented her from being effective.
The extensive travel, overwhelming caseload, and paperwork burden had worn her down. “When you have over 100 members and you have to go see them in their homes, it’s kind of tough. So I just felt like I couldn’t be as effective as I wanted to be,” she said.
Using her new credentials, Taylor transitioned to a member advocate and ombudsman liaison role at another organization. The position eliminated travel requirements, reduced her caseload, and allowed her to spend more meaningful time helping people over the phone. “I actually get to help them get what they need, and I spend more time with them individually,” she noted.
When Crisis Becomes Your Inspiration
Taylor’s transformation extended beyond career change into territory she’d never explored: entrepreneurship. Despite growing up with an entrepreneur father who ran a locksmith business, she had never started her own venture. The health crisis changed that calculation.
She launched “Mental Health Warrior and Neurospicy Mama,” a podcast focused on mental health and neurodivergence advocacy. Drawing from personal experience raising children with autism eighteen years apart, Taylor works to destigmatize conversations about mental health and neurodiversity.
The podcasting venture represents more than a side business—it’s Taylor claiming space as an advocate and educator, using her voice to address topics that matter to her community.
The Catalyst Effect of Crisis
What emerges from Taylor’s story isn’t a simple narrative of illness leading to inspiration. Instead, it reveals how crisis can serve as a catalyst for changes we’ve been avoiding or dreams we’ve been deferring. Her transformation didn’t happen because cancer gave her new desires—the dreams of finishing her degree and finding more meaningful work had existed for years.
The health crisis provided three critical elements: perspective on mortality and time’s finite nature, forced reflection during isolation, and the emotional momentum to overcome inertia. As Taylor noted, when asked if she might have made these changes without the cancer diagnosis: “I doubt it.”
The story resonates because it addresses a common human experience: living on autopilot while postponing the changes that could create greater fulfillment. Taylor’s journey from routine existence to purposeful action demonstrates that transformation often requires not just desire for change, but a compelling reason to overcome the gravitational pull of familiar patterns.
Her experience suggests that while we may not be able to choose our crises, we can choose how we respond to them. Sometimes the greatest gift of a difficult experience isn’t the experience itself, but the clarity it provides about what we truly want from the time we have remaining.This article was inspired by an interview with Amy Taylor and Amy Stone on The Art of Imperfect Adulting podcast. To hear more compelling conversations like this one and receive special offers from our guests directly to your inbox, join our email community today.
Interview Transcript Amy Taylor with Amy Stone | The Art of Imperfect Adulting | September 17, 2025
Amy Stone [00:00:08]:
Amy Taylor, welcome to the art of imperfect adulting. I’m super happy you’re here. Are you ready for a fun chat? I am. All right, let’s do it. I start all my conversations asking my guests what part of the world they call home. So share with us where you are today.
Amy Taylor [00:00:23]:
I am in Missouri, right next to Kansas State line and in the United States.
Amy Stone [00:00:29]:
Very nice. All right, very good. What part of so you’re right near. So does that mean you. Oh, so you’re in Kansas City. You’re in Kansas or Kansas City?
Amy Taylor [00:00:38]:
I’m just south of Kansas City, Missouri. Just south of Kansas City Royals and Chiefs.
Amy Stone [00:00:43]:
So I, my mom is from Kansas City. That’s where her family was from. And I actually went to the University of Kansas. So I spent four years of my life in Lawrence and loved every, pretty much every minute of it. So there you go. So we have that in common. I have fond memories of Kansas City. All right, so the next thing, I’m going to ask you one more warm up question before we get to the topic of the day, which is, so what was the most recent, like, last compliment, words of kindness that you gave someone else? It can be something small. It can be from earlier today.
Amy Taylor [00:01:19]:
Well, earlier today I went to Scooters for some coffee and the cashier that rang me up had these beautiful long golden braids that she had French braided in her hair. And I told her they were beautiful and that I was impressed that she did them herself.
Amy Stone [00:01:35]:
Very nice. Who doesn’t love a compliment on your hair, honestly? Right. All right, topic of the day. We are going to talk about how a diagnosis of thyroid cancer changed the path of, of your life. And so my first question about this is, how long ago did you get this diagnosis?
Amy Taylor [00:01:54]:
It was about two years ago.
Amy Stone [00:01:56]:
Oh, so pretty recent. Okay, Pretty recent. So anytime I talk to people about a health diagnosis like this, I don’t like to keep the audience in suspense for how you’re doing now. I like to sort of bring it right out so that I’m not like, you know, people are not worried about my guest. But so share with us how you’re feeling now, what your prognosis is, stuff like that, so that people know as we go through this conversation.
Amy Taylor [00:02:20]:
I feel great right now. I do have some side effects from the treatment, but they’re not bad. My prognosis is good. They actually say thyroid cancer is if you were going to get cancer, thyroid cancer is what you want.
Amy Stone [00:02:36]:
I’m not a cancer expert or a doctor of any kind, but I do know people who’ve gone through this treatment, and so I had the impression that it was something. That it is treatable for many people. So I’m glad to hear that. I’m glad to hear that you’re healthy, too, because, you know, things happen. There we go. All right.
Amy Taylor [00:02:54]:
Thank you.
Amy Stone [00:02:55]:
You are very welcome, of course, because. Yeah, otherwise people would be wondering how you were doing all the way through the conversation. That’s no fun. That’s not the point. All right, so very good. Let’s back up and talk about what life was like before the diagnosis, just so that we have a comparison, because we’re talking about change, right? So tell us about, you know, three, four, five years ago.
Amy Taylor [00:03:17]:
What were.
Amy Stone [00:03:17]:
What was life like? What was the career you had, your family, you know, were you happy, all those kind of things?
Amy Taylor [00:03:25]:
I was really. I don’t know that I was happy. I was bored. And I was doing the same thing every day. I’d worked at the same company for almost 12 years and done the same job there that whole time. And I, you know, went to work, came home, took care of my daughter, and went back to work the next day. So, I mean, it was really not exciting.
Amy Stone [00:03:50]:
Not exciting. Were you aware that you were bored, do you think? I mean, this is a weird question because, like, you can’t actually go back in time, but, you know, we get into routines. And so then the question is, you know, if you’ve been doing this job for 12 years, which you know is great, like stability, security, those kind of things, you know, who’s going to complain about having a stable job for 12 years? Right? So, but we. If we had run into each other then. Do you think you were aware that you were bored or you just were like, this is. This is life?
Amy Taylor [00:04:22]:
I don’t think I would have called it bored at the time. I think I would just say I was on autopilot.
Amy Stone [00:04:28]:
Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Very. Yeah. So very good. Because there is. There’s like a path right there, a path that we follow. And I talk about this with a lot of people. It’s like, you go to school, you pick a job that you’re gonna go for, you get the job, and then there’s this idea that when we do that, then we have a family, right? You get married, you partner, you have some kids, and in there is supposed to be happily ever after, but then sometimes that’s not. It takes some work to actually get there. So tell us. We’re gonna talk about how your life changed after the diagnosis, but share with us a little bit about how you discovered it. Like, what was the pro. What was in your life? Did you just go for a checkup and you found out, like, what’s the. What was going on?
Amy Taylor [00:05:13]:
I had some basic blood work done and it was just supposed to be everyday kind of run of the mill test. And they ran some tests on my thyroid just to check on it and came up that there was an issue. And so my doctor said, you know what, just in case, it’s probably nothing, but let’s go ahead and send you for an ultrasound of your thyroid. So we did, and it came back that there was cancer.
Amy Stone [00:05:45]:
All right. And so this is when, like, so when I go to the doctor, they have me swallow and they feel my throat and then they check, you know, the various levels as part of like a blood test. Is this the. Is that the test that you had were having done too? Just that regular health screening?
Amy Taylor [00:06:00]:
Right?
Amy Stone [00:06:00]:
Yeah. And then. So then they sent you for further testing of the sonogram when you were going. Stuff like this can be really scary when you think back to that moment when they said, hey, it’s probably nothing, but it. Let’s go ahead and check. How did you feel?
Amy Taylor [00:06:16]:
I was scared and I was kind of mad that everybody said it’s the best cancer you can get. Don’t worry about it, you’re in good hands. And I thought, you know, I deserve to be upset that I have cancer.
Amy Stone [00:06:28]:
Yeah, no, yeah.
Amy Taylor [00:06:29]:
And so I was a little. Little ticked off.
Amy Stone [00:06:33]:
And. Yeah, no, I get that because that’s a, you know. Sure. Right. And it’s not. There are cancers that are super aggressive and things like that. But at the same time, the best solution here is to, like, not get it. So you get to have the emotions, like you’ve got to go through it. And even though the treatment might be okay, I don’t know that it’s particularly enjoyable to go through any treatment. I mean, I’m a person who complains about getting a tetanus shot because it hurts.
Amy Taylor [00:07:03]:
Right?
Amy Stone [00:07:04]:
Yeah. So what kind of support did you have with you as you were going through this?
Amy Taylor [00:07:10]:
My mom and my dad live like two miles from me, and they are the most incredible people and very supportive. And so they were there with me the whole time. And they. Even when I had to be in isolation for part of my treatment, they took my teenage daughter and took care of her during that time, which was like two weeks.
Amy Stone [00:07:33]:
Okay, wow. All right, so let’s talk about this, because I do. I have. I did not look it up to double check it before I talked to you, because I’m a bad researcher. But I do. I’ve known. Like I said, I’ve known people who’ve gone through this. Take us through a little bit, just the high level. You don’t have to be too many details, but tell people a little bit about the way they do this treatment. Because there’s a part of this where you go through radiation and you can’t be around anybody. Right?
Amy Taylor [00:07:57]:
Right.
Amy Stone [00:07:58]:
Yeah.
Amy Taylor [00:07:58]:
Radioactive iodine therapy is what it is. You have to swallow something that is radioactive, that they hold gloves to touch, and yet you have to put it in your mouth and swallow it.
Amy Stone [00:08:11]:
All right, so you get the sonogram, they come back and it’s cancer. Do you then go to a new doctor, an oncologist, that tells you what the treatment plan is going to be?
Amy Taylor [00:08:20]:
Well, actually, I went to endocrinologist, surgeon, and he actually removed my thyroid.
Amy Stone [00:08:29]:
All right, so they remove your thyroid and then they do the radioactive treatment.
Amy Taylor [00:08:34]:
Well, they removed the thyroid and then they did some testing, a whole body scan.
Amy Stone [00:08:39]:
Okay.
Amy Taylor [00:08:39]:
To see if it was anywhere else in my body. And they found there was a little bit left in my thyroid bed.
Amy Stone [00:08:46]:
Okay.
Amy Taylor [00:08:47]:
The radioactive iodine.
Amy Stone [00:08:49]:
So then you take it and, you know, it’s. It’s gotta be super unnerving. It’s like, here’s this thing that’s dangerous for me, the medical person. I’m gonna protect myself. You please put it in your. But I feel that way about X rays, too. The same kind of thing. It’s like, they tell you. They’re like, wear this lead thing. I’m gonna go outside. But you just stay there. And it’s like, this seems like it’s a bad plan, honestly.
Amy Taylor [00:09:10]:
Right.
Amy Stone [00:09:11]:
And this is. And so what you’re going through with thyroid is times a million they bring you. Is it like it’s a pill or a drink that you took, or a shot pill, a big pill, and they won’t touch it and they don’t want it, but then you take it. And then what does it mean that you’re in isolation? What does that actually mean for people?
Amy Taylor [00:09:31]:
It means I had to put, like, I put trash bags in my car to sit on so that I didn’t get anything on the car. And I got home and I didn’t sit on any furniture that my daughter usually sits on, like the couch. I sat in my love seat, but I put blankets on my loveseat so that. That I could wash them later and get rid of anything that got on Them and I had to eat with plastic silverware and paper plates and things because you don’t want to infect your, your normal cookware and stuff. And you, you have to eat a very special diet. I basically lived off for two, for a month before and two weeks after a diet of nuts and cranberries and crackers, really crackers.
Amy Stone [00:10:26]:
So they give you this and then you can’t even, you can’t even touch anything because it’ll, it’ll contaminate and other people can. Would it pick up the radiation? Right.
Amy Taylor [00:10:37]:
It could affect their thyroid and cause problems with their thyroid.
Amy Stone [00:10:41]:
Oh, my goodness. All right, so you have this treatment so that you have this surgery which has some impacts. The thyroid regulates things in our body. And then you also have this follow up radiation treatment. Were there any other things that went through that were a part of your follow up treatment?
Amy Taylor [00:10:59]:
Just the whole body scan and then body scan. Unfortunately, when I had the thyroid removed, it normally is just a one day stay in the hospital, but due to a previous surgery on my stomach, I had problems taking in the calcium and calcium can affect your heart. So they wouldn’t let me leave until they got my calcium regulated. So I was there for like 11 days. And my parents, God bless them, took care of my daughter during that as well.
Amy Stone [00:11:28]:
My goodness. Okay, so this is actually, this is a, this is a very, you know, you went through a lot of, for this treatment, even though. And so probably I can imagine that after the diagnosis when people said, hey, it’s the best of the options and you were like, hey, yeah, please say something else. Say anything else. Then your treatment plan was actually pretty rough. You had a surgery that could have been simple, but you had complications. 11 days finding care for your family and being separated, that’s a big deal. That’s a big strain on your life, separation from your daughter. And then the radiation treatment, while it sounds like it was successful and we’re happy to have, have this kind of medical intervention that sounds like it’s very, you know, a lot of work. You modified your diet beforehand very dramatically. And for two weeks you modified how you were living in your life. You kept separate from the people who you love. You putting trash bags down on your seat so you don’t touch any fabric, using different utensils and not coming into physical contact with anything you’re going to use again, that’s a big process.
Amy Taylor [00:12:37]:
Yeah, it was a little overwhelming at times. And like my daughter, God bless her, forgot her laptop at home or her iPad at home, which was her school iPad. And so I didn’t know that she had left it in her bedroom, and I couldn’t get it for her and give it to her. So she had to go to school and ask them to loan her another one and start her homework over because I. I couldn’t get it and bring it to her or give it through the door or anything because I would contaminate it.
Amy Stone [00:13:07]:
Oh, my goodness. That’s a very, very. That’s a lot of dedication to your care, and so I can see how this would be. All right, so I want to take a second talk directly to the audience. I am talking to Amy Taylor today about her diagnosis of thyroid cancer that happened a couple of years ago and then how it changed her life. And so I post a question to social media on Instagram and on YouTube, and I invite you into the conversation. So go check it out. I’ll be there in the. Maybe Amy will come to the comments, too. You can chat it out with other people that are part of the community. It’s fun. You’re invited. If you’re not already following the show on social media. The links will be in the show notes, of course. Okay, back to the topic. All right, so after you get the diagnosis or tell me if I’m wrong about that, you can let me know when this happens. But you decide that you need to truly live the life you want from here on out. And so in a second, I’m going to ask you about the actual changes you made. But first, I want to take you back to the time when you realize that this was a decision you could make, when you were really thinking about your life intentionally. And does that include, like, trying to remember where it was and what it felt like when you realized you’re like, I’m not living the life that I want to.
Amy Taylor [00:14:27]:
Yeah, I. I thought that during the. The weeks of isolation, I had a lot of time to think, and I thought a lot about how cancer is pretty scary. And I was not happy with the way my life was going. And there were things that I had wanted to do for years and had not done. And I thought, you know what? I’m not going to put it off anymore. I’m going to make these changes.
Amy Stone [00:14:53]:
That is very interesting. Sometimes there’s a quote that floats around on social media that I’ll see and it’ll say, and it was probably something that floated around before there was social media, now that I think about it. But it says something like, you know, the mistake is thinking that we’re always going to have More time like that. There’s more time to do the things we want. And then again, I want to be, like, gentle with myself and with everybody else because, like, you know, we are human and there’s something about us that we need these sort of big life moments to jog us into action. Sometimes. I don’t know what it is about human beings that we’re like that, but I’m the same way, too, sometimes. Sometimes I’m just motoring along and it’s like, oh, I need something big. And then I’ll think to myself, why do I need such a big event to kick me into action?
Amy Taylor [00:15:36]:
Action.
Amy Stone [00:15:36]:
But I don’t know if that’s super helpful. So where. So you were in isolation alone when you were going through this thought process? And how did. So isolation is tough. Isolation is tough. Yeah. Yeah. Isolation is tough. And you probably did you. I mean, at the time, it was probably a little scary, too, because you’re going through this. Treatment for cancer is a scary word. Even if somebody tells you you’ve got the good cancer, cancer is a scary word. So how were you feeling at that time? Just things overall about, you know, would you have said that you. If you had to pick three words to describe your mindset at that point, what would it have been?
Amy Taylor [00:16:17]:
It was hopeful. I think that I was a little anxious about contaminating something. And so, like, when I had to clean before my daughter came home after the two weeks, I mean, you have to clean the toilet, you have to clean everything. And I was nervous because I thought, oh, my God, how would I feel? It’s one thing to have it myself, but how would I feel if I caused my daughter to have thyroid problems? So I was. I was very anxious.
Amy Stone [00:16:46]:
Yeah. So something has popped into my mind, and I. How old was your daughter, if I can ask, at the time?
Amy Taylor [00:16:51]:
She was 13.
Amy Stone [00:16:52]:
Thirteen. There’s a part of this, Right, which is like you’re concerned about seeing people who are of reproductive age. Right. Like this. Radioactive. Yes. So I do have a memory of that. Whenever you’ve got somebody who’s, like, doing the radioactive treatment for prostate cancer or thyroid or what you were going through, the thyroid, there is a separation. It’s like we’re concerned about your exposure to everybody, but specifically girls who are of reproductive age, they’re like, don’t go anywhere near anybody else. Exactly. Yeah. That’s a lot of pressure. It’s interesting. Not surprising, but interesting that even in this hard time, you’re saying, I’m not living the life I wanted, but Your concern is really for the people you are taking care of.
Amy Taylor [00:17:36]:
Yes, definitely.
Amy Stone [00:17:37]:
Yeah, that is okay. So one of the things that you do as a change that you make is you go decide to go back to school. So tell us about that. Like what, what kind of school did you go back to do?
Amy Taylor [00:17:53]:
Well, I went back to get my master’s and it’s kind of funny because I was 52 at the time and I had started my master’s 20 years before and I had been laid off at that age. And so I lost who was paying for my college. And then, you know, life happens and 20 years go by and you’re like, why didn’t I ever finish that? And I wasn’t happy in my job anymore. And I thought the only way to really move forward is to go back and finish that. So I went back and got my mba.
Amy Stone [00:18:27]:
So I have some practical questions about this because I’m fascinated by the fact that there was a 20 year gap. Were you able to go back to the same school? School where you had started 20 years ago?
Amy Taylor [00:18:37]:
Yes.
Amy Stone [00:18:38]:
Okay. And then were. Was it the kind of thing where they were like, okay, great, all of Your credits from 20 years ago are the same here. Was it like, was it an easy process or were they like, like it’s like. Or was it like, well, okay, but the program has changed. Like now you have to do it. Like, what happened?
Amy Taylor [00:18:57]:
They definitely said, okay, the program has changed and the classes you took aren’t all relevant anymore.
Amy Stone [00:19:03]:
Okay.
Amy Taylor [00:19:04]:
But they took what they could and transferred it and then they went ahead and took some, did some waivers on a few others and said, it’s close enough that we’ll let these slide.
Amy Stone [00:19:17]:
Okay.
Amy Taylor [00:19:17]:
So I got most of it passed through that.
Amy Stone [00:19:20]:
Well, that’s good, I’m glad about that. And then when, what was it like for you? As in your 50s? So you had been in school in your 30s, which is still considered non traditional, but school changed a lot in those 20 years. So what was your experience as like a student? What was different when you went back 20 years later?
Amy Taylor [00:19:41]:
Well, first of all, I was doing it online.
Amy Stone [00:19:43]:
Okay.
Amy Taylor [00:19:44]:
And so it was a totally different classroom relating to your peers. There weren’t any so called lectures there, which I, I gotta say still to this day, I learn a lot better from hearing someone speak and being able to ask questions. And this was. You could ask questions, but it was after you’d read so many chapters or done certain things. So it was just a different environment and a different way of learning.
Amy Stone [00:20:10]:
All right, so then instead of going to a classroom, sitting in a classroom among your peers, listening to a lecture, you. It was all text based. It was all reading things and interacting by chat. No video lectures.
Amy Taylor [00:20:21]:
Right.
Amy Stone [00:20:22]:
Interesting. Oh, my goodness. Were you still interested in the classwork? Was it like, was it interesting to you what you were studying?
Amy Taylor [00:20:29]:
Yeah, it was. It was very interesting. I struggled with the. I’ve always struggled with math, so find finance and accounting. Man, I just thank God that I passed them.
Amy Stone [00:20:40]:
That’s what I talked to a lot of business people who are like, just let me. Just let me get through this. And then on the, like, when you’re talking about psychology, the statistics, let me make it through statistics, and then I’m golden. So. All right, how long does it take you to finish this? So it’s online, you’re still working, you’re doing this nights and weekends and in free time. How long does it take you to finish this master’s degree?
Amy Taylor [00:21:01]:
About a year and a half.
Amy Stone [00:21:02]:
Okay, and how long had you worked on it? 20 years ago?
Amy Taylor [00:21:05]:
About a year.
Amy Stone [00:21:06]:
Okay, so. Yeah, that’s fast. Good job. Very, very good. All right, so. And the reason you hadn’t finished it before was because you had been in a job that was paying for your master’s program. And then when you left that job, you were like, ah, too bad, so sad. Not going to do this.
Amy Taylor [00:21:22]:
Right.
Amy Stone [00:21:22]:
All right, and the second time, were you paying out of pocket or did you also have an employer?
Amy Taylor [00:21:26]:
No, I have an employer or had an employer at the time that paid for it. I’ve switched employers now after I graduated.
Amy Stone [00:21:34]:
That’s a terrific perk of employment. I have to say. I really am jealous about that. All right, very good. So you mentioned this. This is a good segue. I wrote these questions in a good order. You mentioned that you changed your job after this. So you stay, you’ve got the diagnosis, you go through the treatment. You have this revelatory experience while you’re in isolation that you’re not loving some things about your life, you’re not loving your job. You didn’t finish this degree. You have the ability that your current employer at that time will pay for you to finish your degree. So you do that. That gold star. Check that off the box. Then thanks for the help, employer. Goodbye. You leave the job. What was, what was the reason you decided to leave the job that you didn’t like? Like, what was going on?
Amy Taylor [00:22:19]:
Well, my, my first degree, my bachelor’s is in social work, and I’ve been doing social work for almost 30 years. And I Still have a heart for social work. It’s part of what I do today. But I had become very tired of driving all around Missouri and Kansas to see members in their homes. And I had. I’ve never liked traveling anyway, so that was just not fun for me. And then I just got tired of all the paperwork and the not being able to help my members the way I wanted to because I had too many members. When you have over 100 members and you have to go see them in their homes, it’s kind of tough. So I just felt like I couldn’t be as effective as I wanted to be. So once I had my master’s behind me, I was able to get a job at another organization that does exactly what my company had done. I tried to get a job with my initial company first, but couldn’t. Couldn’t find anything that fit me. And then the perfect job just opened up at another company doing the same thing. Except for the job was member advocate, and it’s called non Budsman liaison.
Amy Stone [00:23:32]:
Okay.
Amy Taylor [00:23:33]:
And so it was. It’s a little bit of reporting and then a lot of just helping members that call in and are unhappy with their services. And. And I actually get to help them get what they need, and I spend more time with them individually, but it’s all over the phone.
Amy Stone [00:23:51]:
Very nice. All right, so when you. So you used going back to school as a way to level up professionally and to modify some things about this job, even though you care deeply about the type of job it is, and the work you’re doing going back to school enabled you to get into a position where you didn’t have to drive around and do casework person to person, and you were able to impact greater change with your skills. Does that sound like.
Amy Taylor [00:24:17]:
Yes.
Amy Stone [00:24:18]:
All right, that’s. Do you think. All right, so let’s talk about the connection between the diagnosis and the job change. Do you think. Think that there’s a chance that you might have done this, gone back to school and tried to level up the job, even, you know, at some point in the future without the diagnosis of cancer?
Amy Taylor [00:24:37]:
I doubt it. I. I hadn’t even had the inkling of the idea to do that in 20 years. And it seemed like way too much work and like, it would take too long if I did think about it. And so now I just thought, I don’t care how long it takes. I’m just gonna do it.
Amy Stone [00:24:55]:
I think that’s fascinating because the employment that you had covered it. And so. And so I just think that’s really Interesting. I think that’s helpful for people. It’s like, yeah, I was in the spot. The resources were there that didn’t appear after you had the diagnosis. But it’s the confrontation with the diagnosis, I guess, is the way to say it, and the time and isolation that pushed you to make these decisions. And so that is really. That is very cool. Okay. Another change, change you made is that you started your own podcast and side hustle as a result of this. Probably not while you were in graduate school, but let me know because I feel like you were probably very busy then. So I’m going to ask you about those things directly. But before I do that, I wanted to ask you whether or not you are a person who had had other side hustles before. So you had this job for 12 years. You’ve got a degree, you’ve got a master’s degree. Some people just always sort of have things going on on the side. Are you a person that sort of always has things going on aside, or was this the first time that you had started a side hustle?
Amy Taylor [00:25:57]:
This was the first time ever. I’d grown up with my dad being an entrepreneur and having his own locksmith business my whole life. And so I knew what that world was like, but I had never done it myself.
Amy Stone [00:26:09]:
All right, and so you had been somebody who is. I’ve got my job. I’m settled. If I don’t have this job, I’m going to do another job. And then now you’ve got a side hustle. All right, very good. So tell us about your podcast and your side hustle. What are you doing on?
Amy Taylor [00:26:22]:
Well, I am what I call a mental health warrior and neurospicy mama. I’ve got a podcast by that name and I talk about mental health and neurodivergence and try to end the stigma and make talking about these issues a common day occurrence.
Amy Stone [00:26:40]:
That is very nice. So I based on. Because I have this podcast and because I am in the entrepreneurial space, I talk to people about neurospiciness and neurodivergence, and I feel like there’s a lot of conversation about it. I don’t remember this from, like, the 1980s and 1990s. I will be like, when I was a teenager and a young adult, I don’t remember people really talking about it. But then when I had kids, I knew people who were dealing with specific autism, which now we put into the spectrum and neurodivergence. But, like, do you. Do you find that people are talking about it? More now. Are you happy to have people talking about it? Do you think it, like, people. Is it possible people are always talking about. I guess not.
Amy Taylor [00:27:22]:
I think people that were affected by it were talking about it. I mean, I know when I had my kids 18 years apart, so there’s a big difference there. But my son, when he was little, had a friend who had autism, and so I talked with his mom about it, and then my daughter ended up having autism years later when I had her. And so that’s one of the things that interests me.
Amy Stone [00:27:44]:
Yeah.
Amy Taylor [00:27:44]:
And now I don’t find that very many people talk about it in my community in the. In the world that I’m in right now.
Amy Stone [00:27:54]:
Okay.
Amy Taylor [00:27:54]:
Online, I talk about it, I’m in Facebook groups for it, and things like that. So I think it’s more common in the social media world.
Amy Stone [00:28:03]:
Sure.
Amy Taylor [00:28:04]:
But not so much in, like the school system and the regular hanging out with your kids friends kind of world.
Amy Stone [00:28:12]:
Okay. That makes that. I. That makes a lot of sense, and that’s very, very helpful. So I’m actually glad that I asked that. So that’s one of the great things. So social media and online stuff gets a lot of heat for causing a lot of problems, but one of the things that it does really, really well is it can connect you with specialized communities around the globe if you need it. Now, the thing that I think makes that hard is that you have to know what you’re looking for. So, like, you have to know, hey, I’m looking for a neurodivergent community. And then you can go and find it. But if you were to rewind the clock to 1970, 1985, that was a lot harder to do. And so that makes a lot of sense. So within the online communities, it is there, but you do not feel it in your face to face community and within the school district. All right, so tell us again the.
Amy Taylor [00:29:00]:
Name of the podcast, mental health warrior and neurospicy Mama.
Amy Stone [00:29:04]:
All right, very good. All right, so you have an offer for. In a minute, we’re going to do the final fun questions. But first you have an offer for the listeners, which is who am I? Which is a guided journal to unlock the the power of self discovery with the who am I? Journal. It’s about self understanding, clarity and direction, emotional growth, empowerment and mindfulness. This is a free resource that is available@advancingwithamy.com and that link is in the show Note, there’s no coupon needed or anything. And so the easiest way to get these links, even though it’s in the show notes is to be a subscriber to the email list@imperfectadulting.com because then I zip it. Zip right into your email and you can just click on it. All right, thank you for that resource. That’s really good. Are you ready for the final question? I am. All right. If I took a peek in your kitchen, would I find pre made food? Or is your kitchen what we call an ingredient kitchen, where it’s full of ingredients that you look. That you use to cook and make food?
Amy Taylor [00:30:03]:
Both. I. I gotta say, I’m more likely to be making a. A pre cooked meal, but I also. We love salmon and chicken and things like that. So I will get those fresh and make them myself.
Amy Stone [00:30:16]:
Very nice. Many, many years ago, somebody was in my house and they opened the kitchen and they said, where’s the food? And I was like, what are you talking about? The refrigerator is full. And they’re like, no, this is ingredients, Amy. This is not food. And I was like, I think that’s food. Like that. That was the first time I had ever heard that. But so that’s definitely. Yeah. So which do you do? What do you do to relax? So which of these sounds more like what you might do to relax? Listen to music, read a book or listen to a book, watch TV or a movie, or maybe something like crafting?
Amy Taylor [00:30:45]:
I like to listen to podcasts and listen to books, audiobooks.
Amy Stone [00:30:49]:
Very nice. Thank you. All right, so in. I think the world can be divided into two groups. This is not a political question. Don’t worry. So I would divide the world into two groups. Those who have a karaoke song ready to go at any time, and those of us who would never, ever willingly participate in karaoke. Which do you fall into?
Amy Taylor [00:31:09]:
Oh, I would definitely have my song ready. I will survive.
Amy Stone [00:31:12]:
There you go. See, I love it. It’s one of two things. People either have it, or there’s people like me that are like, no, no, let’s go play darts. That’s it. Amy Taylor, thank you so much for being a wonderful guest today on the Art of Imperfect Adulting.
Amy Taylor [00:31:27]:
Thank you for having me.