The Advocacy Crossroads

Smarter Patients · Office Hours

The Advocacy Crossroads

You didn’t apply for this kind of career. Nope. You get drafted into it — by your own body, or by watching someone you love get failed by a system that isn’t supposed to let a single patient fall through the cracks. Now you know they do.

It sucks. It’s not what you thought your future would be. But then one day, you look up and you’re doing the work anyway: explaining things to strangers, running the group, sitting on the call, writing the thing at 2am. Suddenly the question stops being should I and becomes what is this, exactly, and can it …pay me?

I’m going to ask you nine questions. They sort out which version of this advocacy career is actually where your story is leading you, where you’re most likely to stall, and the three things to do about it next.

This isn’t a horoscope, babe. I’m not just giving advice about following your passion. I’ll tell you what the jobs are and how to make them yours.

9 questions ~4 minutes Two tracks 8 possible results

Built by Ilana Jacqueline — patient advocate, and author of Medical Gaslighting and Surviving and Thriving with an Invisible Chronic Illness.

Start here

Your result

The rest of it — what usually stalls people here, the three moves to make next, and what an hour with me would actually do for you — is on the other side of this box.

Your result

The read

Where this usually stalls

Your next three moves, in this order

    What an hour with me would do

    Office Hours is a private 60-minute working session for individuals — not a discovery call, not a sales pitch. You come with the thing you’re stuck on and we take it apart. You leave with a plan, the handouts that go with it, and where it makes sense, introductions to people in my network who do what you’re trying to do.

    It is not therapy, it is not medical advice, and it is not advocacy casework. If you’re a business rather than a person, you want my consulting instead.

    First session
    $500 + tax
    Follow-ups
    $180
    Length
    60 min, Zoom
    Free sessions
    None

    No insurance, and not HSA-approved.

    How booking actually works

    1. Intake form, at least 72 hours before you want to meet.
    2. Pick your time on Calendly.
    3. I read the intake and approve it — or tell you honestly that it isn’t a fit.
    4. You get a confirmation email with a payment link. Payment confirms the session.
    5. We meet on Zoom.
    Read the full details and apply

    Everything above, in full, is on my Office Hours page — read it before you fill anything in. I read every intake and I do turn people down. If a free resource would get you further than a paid hour, I’ll say so and send it.