Meet S.g. Willoughby

We were lucky to catch up with S.g. Willoughby recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi S.G., thank you so much for joining us today. There are so many topics we could discuss, but perhaps one of the most relevant is empathy because it’s at the core of great leadership and so we’d love to hear about how you developed your empathy?

“Lord, help me have compassion.”

I joke now that one should never pray that.

You see, shortly after, I got sick . . . and I never got better. Chronic illness turned my life upside down in high school. I watched my peers ask out their crushes, move to college, and pursue their dreams, while I was passed through seventeen doctors until I found one that could treat me.

It sucked. But it also grew me in ways I never would have if my life had continued along the bubble-wrapped trajectory it was on.

Going through my own physical pain, perpetual grief, and falling apart community gave me empathy . . . and the experience to use it. Not only could I connect to what others around me were facing, I knew how to enter in because I’d been in their shoes. My own experience of suffering gave me insight and courage to wade into the pain without awkwardness and fear.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

My experience facing chronic illness as a young adult led me to write. As I wrestled with the realities of suffering through my writing, I started to connect with others walking similar journeys. Writing turned into hosting online conferences for those facing long-term health challenges and building a community of like-minded people. My passion is fighting to make sure chronic illness warriors know they aren’t alone through creating specialized content and community. Our next conference is coming this summer and details will be shared with our email list found on our website.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

When I started creating a conference for people who are chronically ill, I had no experience and no connections. But what I did have were vision and courage. Being able to communicate the why behind my goals is what prompted others to get on board and lend their expertise. Having the courage to have those conversations in the first place is the catalyst that got it all going. I thought, “the worst people can say is no.” If they said no, I wouldn’t be any worse off than I was now. So I got to work, contacting people I never thought would even read my emails. I did get a lot of no’s. But to my surprise, I also got a lot of yes’s, one leading to anther until a network, a team, and a mission was born.

How can folks who want to work with you connect?

We are looking for volunteers who are passionate about serving the often-overlooked chronic illness community through a couple of specific roles (all of which are remote):

-Website Manager
-Assistant Email Managers
-Virtual Assistants

We value good communication and team players, and as an organization, we want to always value the person over what they can do for us, seeking to be as flexible as possible. We love training volunteers in different skills in an environment that is friendly to the chronically ill, and have loved getting to help launch some of our volunteers into starting businesses of their own.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://diamondsconference.org/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sgwilloughby/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sgwilloughbyauthor/?modal=admin_todo_tour
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/sgwilloughby
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@sarawilloughby3304
• Other: https://sgwilloughby.com/