Episode 49: When Advocating for Yourself Changes Everything

In this episode of Courage Is Built Here, Justine opens Pathway Five, Do the Work, with leadership and development consultant Holly Pyatt for a conversation about health, self-advocacy, and the courage to keep asking questions when you know something is not right. Holly shares how a miscarriage led to years of health complications, testing, procedures, and eventually a scheduled hysterectomy. Something told her to get a second opinion, and that decision changed the direction of her health journey.

After canceling the hysterectomy, Holly began searching for the root cause of symptoms she had experienced for years. Through additional testing and working with different providers, she learned she had hypothyroidism and Hashimoto’s. Six months later, testing showed that her ovaries were functioning again, and Holly eventually became pregnant with her second daughter. The experience taught her to come to appointments with her own information, ask questions, seek additional testing, and move on from practitioners who dismissed what she was experiencing.

Together, Justine and Holly explore what it takes to advocate for yourself while still staying curious and open to different possibilities. Holly shares how she talks about health with her daughters, intentionally focusing on movement, feeling good, and using food as fuel rather than labeling foods as good or bad. She also explains why she began sharing her health journey publicly, knowing that her experience will not look exactly like someone else’s but hoping it might give another person questions to ask or a place to begin.

That willingness to share became another form of courage. Holly initially questioned putting her health journey on social media, but the messages from people saying, “That’s me, too,” showed her the value of making her experience visible. For Holly, helping someone realize they are not crazy or alone is a win. She and Justine also discuss staying curious, listening to your intuition, trying what feels right for you, and accepting that the work may continue to change over time.

Holly closes by sharing the pattern she is actively working to leave behind: over-functioning. Instead of automatically doing more, fixing more, or moving to the next task, she is learning to step back and ask herself, “What is the best for me in this moment and what can wait?” It is another part of doing the work and learning that caring for yourself sometimes means giving yourself permission not to do everything.

Key Takeaways

• Pathway Five, Do the Work, brings together the skills of courage, including values, caring for yourself, authenticity, loving others well, boundaries, and restoring your story.
• Advocating for yourself can mean continuing to ask questions when you know something does not feel right, even when you are being told everything is fine.
• A second opinion can change the direction of your journey when the first answer does not make sense for your situation.
• Symptoms that have been part of your life for years can begin to feel normal, making it harder to recognize that they may be signs that something else is happening.
• Self-advocacy can include bringing your own information, tracking symptoms, asking for additional testing, and finding providers who will listen to your concerns.
• Modeling health for children can include talking about movement, food, and the body in ways focused on feeling well rather than restriction or labeling foods as good or bad.
• Sharing your story can help someone else realize they are not alone and give them permission to begin asking their own questions.
• Sharing from a place where you have begun healing allows your courage to encourage courage in someone else.
• There is not one solution that works for everyone. Staying curious and paying attention to your own intuition can help you decide what you want to explore.
• Connection can be as simple and powerful as hearing someone else’s experience and realizing, “Me too.”
• Leaving over-functioning behind can start with asking, “What is best for me in this moment, and what can wait?”

About the Guest

Holly Pyatt is a leadership development and organizational effectiveness consultant with more than 20 years of experience helping individuals and organizations grow. As the founder of Pyatt Consulting Company, L.L.C., she works with businesses, nonprofits, and franchises in leadership development, team building, succession planning, and talent development.

Holly is passionate about helping people build confidence, strengthen communication, and advocate for themselves. She also shares her personal health journey to help others feel less alone and empowered to ask questions about their own health.

Connect with Holly:

Email: holly@pyattconsultingllc.com

Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/hollyhashashimotos/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/holly-pyatt-development/