The Invisible Illness Club | Chronic Illness, Auto Immune11 Marras 2025

031 Boundaries, MS & Building a Business on Your Terms (with Stephanie Boyle)

Virtual assistant agency owner Stephanie Boyle shares how living with multiple sclerosis reshaped her work, motherhood, and mindset. We dig into boundaries without guilt, pacing work with alarms and self-check questions, co-parenting through flares, and starting a business small (on your body’s timeline). This one’s a masterclass in honoring limits without losing your ambition.

Key Topics

The schedule that listens: using alarms and self-check prompts to pace work with MS
Boundaries that stick (and why “no” often becomes a better “yes” later)
Recovering people-pleasing: serving well without self-abandonment
Parenting in a flare: resilience, honest language with kids, and asking for help
Building a values-first business: starting with one client and growing sustainably
Finding your people: support systems that celebrate your “no”
Faith as a trust fall—releasing what you can’t control

Highlights & Takeaways

“If I don’t take care of myself, I can’t please others.”
Set expectations early: deadlines met, but on a spoon-friendly schedule.
When guilt creeps in, remember a past boundary you kept—and how light you felt afterward.
Compare less. Chronic illnesses—and capacities—are different in every body.
Start small in business. Five hours a week can become forty.
Choose community that congratulates your boundaries.

Quotable Moments

“My faith is a trust fall. I’m trusting God will catch me.” — Stephanie Boyle
“Hustle culture won’t get you there faster when your body needs slow.” — April Aramanda

Connect with Stephanie

Work with By Friday
Say hi on social:
- Instagram: finished_byfriday
- Facebook: assistancebyfriday

Connect with April / The Invisible Illness Club

Newsletter: The Unseen Sisterhood
Social Media:
- Instagram: the_invisibleillnessclub
- TikTok: theinvisibleillnessclub
Need ops help? Tell Stephanie April sent you 💌

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(76)

075 When Your Labs Are “Normal” but You Still Feel Sick, with Joy Stephenson-Laws

The results say everything looks normal. You still feel exhausted, foggy, or unlike yourself. What do you do with the distance between those two things? In this IIC conversation, April talks with heal...

6 Loka 1h 1min

074 A Valley of Worship: Faith When You’re Still Hurting

You pray for healing and wake up hurting again. You pray for answers, and another test leaves you with more questions. What does worship look like in that kind of waiting? In this episode of The Invis...

29 Syys 7min

073 Learning to Enjoy Life With Chronic Illness, with Lauren Watt

What does it mean to enjoy your life when illness still shapes it? For Lauren Watt, that question includes eight years spent largely in bed, the loss of expected teenage milestones, and the work of bu...

22 Syys 1h 8min

072 The Fear That Never Fully Leaves: Living With Chronic Illness Uncertainty

A familiar ache. A lower energy day. A call from the doctor's office. A test result in the patient portal. Sometimes one small moment is enough to send the mind racing toward the next flare, the next ...

15 Syys 12min

071 How to Talk to Children About Chronic Illness, with Sara Olsher

Trigger Warning: This episode includes conversations about cancer, chronic and terminal illness, death, anticipatory grief, and talking with children about a loved one’s health. Children notice the ca...

8 Syys 40min

070 The Apology Habit: You Do Not Have to Be Sorry for Having Limits

How many times have you said “I’m sorry” this week? Sorry I canceled. Sorry I am tired. Sorry I need help. Sorry my body changed the plan again. For many of us living with chronic illness, those words...

1 Syys 12min

069 Building a Business That Lets You Rest, with Randi Pullar

What if your business expected your body to have hard days? For chronically ill and neurodivergent entrepreneurs, conventional business advice can feel impossible to follow. Post constantly. Stay visi...

25 Elo 1h

068 Chronic Illness and the Lonliness of Being Misunderstood

Some of the loneliest moments happen beside people who genuinely love us. They may pray for us, bring dinner, sit in waiting rooms, and help however they know how—and still struggle to understand what...

18 Elo 14min