In Episode 47 of the Transcending Humanity Podcast, hosts Vanessa Joy and guest Sarah Wayte delve into their personal experiences with late diagnosis of neurodiversity and the challenges they face in balancing this with high-intensity careers. Both Vanessa and Sarah share how understanding and accepting their neurodivergent identities have influenced their creative endeavors and personal growth. The conversation takes a deep dive into their career transitions from emergency services to creative fields. Sarah, who started as a dispatcher before becoming a paramedic, recounts the intense burnout and emotional toll of the job, leading her to pursue copywriting and brand photography. Vanessa also shares her journey from emergency services to real estate and wedding photography, highlighting the specific challenges faced by neurodiverse individuals in these high-stress professions.
The episode isn't short on humor, as Sarah recounts a particularly memorable childbirth experience in an elevator—proof that babies have terrible timing! Vanessa and Sarah discuss their reasons for moving to Canada, driven by political shifts in their home countries. They emphasize the importance of recognizing and managing burnout, especially in creative and high-pressure environments. The episode also touches on the unique experiences of working with neurodiverse clients, the benefits of having others write business copy, and the validation that comes from self-diagnosis and online testing.
The conversation wraps up with actionable insights on coping strategies for ADHD, the importance of community support, and the power of creative pursuits in personal and professional growth. Through a blend of empathy, dark humor, and practical advice, Vanessa and Sarah offer a candid look at the intersection of neurodiversity and career.
For more about Sarah
Website: https://sarahwayte.com
IG: https://instagram.com/sarahwaytecreative
LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahwaytecreative/
Medium: https://medium.com/@sarahwayte
Executive Producer and Host: Vanessa Joy: https://linktr.ee/vanesstradiol
Vanesstradiol Podcast - Copyright © 2023-2025 Vanessa Joy
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Vanessa (00:01):
Welcome, everybody, to Episode 4047, I think yeah,
because last week was 46 Thatwould make this 47 of
transcending humanity. My nameis Vanessa Joy, aka even
Australia. And I am joined todayby the amazing Sarah Wayte, and
(00:23):
we will get into Sarah in asecond here. First, I want to
remind everybody, that wholePatreon thing where you send me
money and it helps me make thisshow. Be awesome if more people
did that, and you know, thanksto the people that are already
and more people, the merrier.
Because podcasting surprisinglyexpensive. And also, don't
forget we have the merch storejust received in one of our new
(00:48):
items. A little mug that saysconservative tears, which is
very fitting for the show.
Especially since a certainsomeone got missed by an inch a
couple days ago. Yeah. Soanyways, welcome back to the
(01:15):
show. My guest today is Sarah,wait. Sarah, what are your
pronouns that she had? She heardOkay, let's see it on your
thing. But I like to just pushthat forward. So, me, I'm
currently live streaming thisepisode just to see how it
works. Because I am hoping to doepisode 50 as a live stream, and
(01:40):
I'm looking at the Instagramfeed. If anyone is watching this
on Instagram, it probably looksreally bad. So yeah. It even
says adios. Oh, holy crap. Yeah.
You're back. So I'm sorry. Idon't know why it's doing that.
So how did I disappear for asecond? Okay. And then YouTube
(02:02):
is also live streaming inAbsolutely. No one's watching
it. So. Sarah? Yes. Funny. Sotell us a little bit about
Sarah Wayte (02:19):
you. Oh, my gosh, big the unending question. And I
am Sarah and I, as you can hear,I am an English woman who now
lives in Canada. I, gosh, whatto say I always struggle with
these things. I am a copywriterand a brand photographer. These
are the things that I do for mywork. And I am a very creative
(02:42):
person. I'm writing a novel Ialso co host a podcast I
recently well recently, I saytwo years now it's been
discovered that I have ADHD. Iwas diagnosed at the age of 42,
which was quite a shock. And Icome off the back back of having
a 20 year career as a paramedicin the UK before I moved to
(03:04):
Canada and decided I wasn'tdoing that anymore and and
seeking a creative life instead.
So yes, that's me. Well,
Vanessa (03:12):
that's fine. It's kind of funny. Episode 44 was a brand
photographer, Episode 45 was acopywriter. And so now we have a
brand photographer slashcopywriter. I too was recently
diagnosed as neurodivergent. Andthat's kind of what we're gonna
be talking about this episode isthe choice of being
neurodivergent and being latediagnosed. I was also actually I
(03:37):
was 42 when I was diagnosed, Iwas diagnosed with art as Autism
Spectrum Disorder, ADHD, seePTSD at the laundry Licious
continues to go as it does. AndI don't know about you, but once
I was finally diagnosed, itreally answered a whole lot of
(03:59):
questions, and I had a whole lotof things from the past make
sense?
Sarah Wayte (04:03):
Yep. 100% Definitely. There was a lot of
moments after after I wasdiagnosed and started to do some
reading up and learning andspeaking to some of my friends
who'd also been late diagnosed.
And yeah, there was definitely ahole. Okay, it's not it's not
me. I'm not a terrible humanbeing and my brains not broken.
And yeah, it was certainly a bigreveal.
Vanessa (04:29):
Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Yeah, it's like it. Like I in my case,
I had started following likesome autistic and neurodiverse
kind of influencers on Facebookand Instagram and things like
that. And it started like, Whoa,this is all making a whole lot
of sense and explaining a lot ofthings. And I did the self tests
(04:52):
and the self tests are like,holy shit, you're autistic. And
yeah, you just kind of go fromthere. So Um, but you being a
paramedic for 20 years in the UKwhile being ADHD that's that's
(05:14):
why we have you here today totalk stories because I want to
hear all about your experiencesand that madness and the your
work trying to balance,neurodiversity and such an
intense, intense position. Howdid you get into paramedics in
(05:37):
the first place?
Sarah Wayte (05:38):
Well, this is the this is the funny and
interesting thing I became aparamedic by accident is what I
always tell people, it was neverin my plan at all. My husband is
also a paramedic. And for him,it was a lifelong vocation. He,
you know, at the age of fourdecided he was going to be a
paramedic, that's what he wantedto do. I had no such aspirations
(05:59):
whatsoever. I was 19, I had justmoved back to England from the
tiny island of Malta, where mymum was from, and we'd lived
there for my teenage years. Andall I knew was I did not want to
go back to Malta, it was a verydiverse to smaller place, I
wanted to be back in living inEngland and being independent.
And I needed a job. So I saw aan advert in the paper, I think
(06:25):
it was for tech, it was fortaking emergency calls,
actually. So I started off onthe phone lines. And it was just
that I saw this ad in the paper,I thought, oh, that sounds
interesting. I can do that untilI figure out what I want to do
when I grow up. So I joined theambulance service and got
trained to take the calls. I didthat for about six months. And
then very quickly progressed upto dispatching ambulances, which
(06:50):
I actually ended up doing forthe next like six or seven
years, really sort of highstress environment being in a
very busy control center withbut like, if you can kind of
like picture. I don't knowwhether you're into Star Trek,
but with all the screens aroundit was kind of like that there
was screens everywhere, andyou're busy managing ambulances
driving all over the place andyou know, going to calls and
(07:12):
stuff. So there was that kind ofenvironment for like seven
years, I think it was. And Ireached a point where I now
looking back, I realize it wasburnout. I was I was done. I've
been in there for so long. And Isaid to myself, at that point I
was with my not not quite thenhusband, it was my boyfriend
back then. And he was he wastraining to be a paramedic
(07:34):
already. And he said why don'tyou Why don't you try being a
paramedic? And I thought well,it's either that or I go and
work in a grocery store one orthe other. So I might as well
just apply and see what happens.
And yeah, they accepted me theytook me in and the next thing I
knew I was training to be aparamedic. So it was kind of
Yeah, I always say it was anaccident. Really. It was never
replaced.
Vanessa (07:56):
You just fell into it.
Transcending Humanity (07:59):
Yeah.
Which I think is like I can'teven imagine.
Vanessa (08:03):
Yeah, pretty much it's we just kind of just do things
like, like my background. I rana manufacturing company for
years. And I left that andpivoted now I'm a real estate
photographer, because it makestotal sense if you're ADHD. So
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Vanessa (09:15):
So for people that are neurotypical, though, I imagine
most of our listeners to thisshow are neurodiverse. But when
you have narrow divergence,there's I would say kind of
common theme with it is beinghaving stimuli thrown at you.
(09:43):
And you have no idea what to dowith them sometimes. How did you
cope with the absolute madnessof being in dispatch? You said
that you are that you got burnedout and I can't believe you
lasted that long. I would have60 seconds About six or seven
years, what did you do to try tojust keep yourself sane
(10:04):
throughout that? Yeah.
Sarah Wayte (10:06):
Oh, that's a really good question. Actually, I think
a lot of it, I mean, in a word,I managed it terribly. It's
probably the it's the, it's thebest way to explain it. But I
say to people, once I became aparamedic, yeah, once I became a
paramedic, and was out on theroad, I say to people that
working in the control room, Iwas just a very angry person for
(10:27):
for eight years, and I'm notI've never I'm not an angry
person. But that place made mevery, very angry all the time.
It was I was carrying a lot ofemotional weight and like
struggling in in there justbecause of the environment that
it was by also really, what whatthis is the thing I discovered,
after leaving the ambulanceservice that actually people
(10:48):
with ADHD, manage emergencysituations really well, and
obviously, you know, canmultitask really well, which,
which probably explains how Imanaged to stay there for so
long. And I also loved what Idid, I loved that I could help
people. I loved the team ofpeople that I was working with.
I also really liked the shiftwork, not having to do Monday to
(11:09):
Friday, nine to five was a was abig bonus for me. And you know,
having having a week off everyfour weeks because of the way
our shifts worked and stuff likethat just it suited me at the
time I was very much a night owland it just kind of worked
really nicely. So it did theelements to it that kept me
there because they obviouslyappealed to what I now realize
the ADHD part of myself. Butyes, it was it was hard.
(11:33):
Definitely I don't once I gotout and started training as a
paramedic once I was out in justbeing outside and actually
managing myself a bit more andnot being in this environment
because it was a very stressfulenvironment to be in. It had the
way I kind of described it wasbeing in the dispatch center was
mentally exhausting. Being outon the road as a paramedic at
(11:57):
the time was physicallyexhausting. Actually, it turns
out that mental exhaustion camelater, it just took a lot longer
to to kick in. But initially itwas it was like a breath of
fresh air going out and workingon an ambulance instead of being
in the control room all thetime.
Vanessa (12:14):
I can imagine because it allows you you can actually
focus on something, be itwhatever you're dealing with out
having the constant everythinggoing on around you. Like if
you're just driving or if you'repicking up patients and stuff
like that you can at least laserfocus in on what you're doing.
How many people on a team didusually work with, at on
Sarah Wayte (12:38):
on the ambulance or in the control room and the
ambulance on the ambulance, thatwould be me and one other person
usually. But I also did quite afew, quite a long part of my
career as a paramedic wasworking by myself just working
on a on a response car. So youwere your own boss basically all
day. So
Vanessa (12:58):
I can imagine that had to be pretty intense. So had its
moments. I can't even imagine.
Yeah, there was
Sarah Wayte (13:07):
that there were a lot of highs and lows, I would
say there were there were dayswhen I would I would come home
and say that was amazing. Wesaved a life today, you know, it
was a really good feeling. Thedopamine kick, you know, when
you got it was really intensebecause it would be very high
stress situations. And thenthere would be times when you
wouldn't save a life for a very,very long time you just be
(13:30):
dealing with the run of the millstuff, you know, picking up
people off the floor andbrushing them down and just
dealing with very sort of basicneeds for people we did we did a
lot of social aspect workbecause that's just the way the
emergency services are in theUK. They're very, they're very
sort of pushed to to have todeal with everything, lots of
(13:50):
mental health and lots of mutualissues and things so seemingly,
yeah, definitely that element toit and break then there were the
days when I cry and not want togo back to work the next day. So
Vanessa (14:03):
that's a way can attract us later. So yeah, that
live streaming thing does notwork. So I'm just gonna turn
that off. Anyways, okay, sosorry about that.
Sarah Wayte (14:22):
Okay. Did you get all of that and
Vanessa (14:26):
it was good to test it out. Yeah. Okay. Go away window.
There we are. Okay, so, back toit. So you went from dispatch to
paramedic to copywriting andbrand photography. Yes.
Transcending Humanity (14:49):
So in your progression, right.
Vanessa (14:52):
Yeah. How did that pivot work? Yeah.
Sarah Wayte (14:56):
Okay, so a bit of backstory. I always say to
people, I was always a writerbefore I ever became a paramedic
before I joined the ambulanceservice. When I left home at 19,
I had aspirations of being ascreenwriter and a novelist, and
you know, all of these wonderfulthings. But I was living on my
(15:18):
own in a country where I didn'thave any family. And it was you
need to pay some bills was wasthe the kind of the general
consensus. So I did a few I didsome temping work first before I
found the ambulance service. Butonce I joined the ambulance
service, it basically knockedany ability out of me to write
and I always say to people thatI, I basically had a 10 year
writer's block from that point.
And I think it was just likedealing with the emotional
(15:40):
capacity to do that job. But itwas like, it was probably a good
few years in, I realized, Istill, I knew inherently that I
was creative. And I needed somesort of creative outlet. And if
I couldn't write, I needed tofind something else. And along
the way, I found photography.
(16:00):
There's a whole meanderingpathway of how I came to
photography. But basically, Icame to photography, and
training as a paramedic. We hadsome people on my paramedic
course who were getting married,and they said, Would you
photograph our wedding and I waslike, Hell, no, I'm not going to
do that. But they twisted my armand persuaded me to do it. And I
(16:23):
went and shot their wedding andfell in love with wedding
photography immediately. Sopromptly set up a wedding and
portrait photography business,while still training as a
paramedic. And it was that therunning the photography business
brought me back round to writingbecause I had to write my
website, I had to write blogposts, and this is pre social
(16:46):
media. But you know, later onsocial media stuff came in as
well. So the writing kind offound me again, it came came
back, and I started doing thewriting again. And just to kind
of throw things into the mix alittle bit, I was feeling pretty
miserable with the wholeparamedic thing. At this point.
We're talking a few years later.
And my friend said to me, whatwould you do? You know, if if
money and time and everythingwas wasn't a wasn't, you know,
(17:09):
in your way, what would you do?
And I said, I really want to geta degree and she went, Okay, why
don't you have a look at that.
So I found an online degree increative writing, which I signed
up for, and started a weeklater, because you know, why,
why, why prepare yourself forthese things, just kind of throw
yourself into them. So I wasdoing a creative writing degree,
(17:30):
I was working as a paramedic, Iwas running a wedding and
portrait photography business.
And then my husband said, whydon't we move actually, I said,
Why don't we move to Canada. Andso that started happening as
well. So I had all of this stuffgoing on all at the same time.
And how I don't didn't fallover? I don't know. But yeah,
that's kind of like, how I cameround to the writing and the
(17:55):
photography. Basically, when I,when we moved to Canada, I knew
I didn't want to do theambulance service anymore. I was
in a really bad place with theambulance service mentally at
that point. I knew I was readyto leave it behind. I felt like
I'd done my time. So we came toCanada, and I said, I'm going to
try and work for myself, I'mgoing to try and see how I go
with setting up a businesswriting. Well, actually, mainly,
(18:17):
I was going to be a photographerwith doing just been people have
just started to somephotographer friends that just
started asking me to like writesome blogs for them. So I
thought, Okay, I'll be aphotographer, and I'll do a
little bit of blogging forpeople. And in the first year
that I was here, it very quicklybecame apparent. Actually, no, I
was going to be a writer andjust do a little bit of
photography. But and then ofcourse, you know, 2020 happened,
(18:38):
which I don't think I need to gointo in too much depth, because
I think we can all remember thatmassive trauma. And so yes, it
was definitely a thing. Andyeah, that was a good
opportunity for me to saygoodbye to weddings, and I liked
I still wanted to photographpeople because I liked having
people in front of my camera. SoI felt like the brand
(18:59):
photography really fit in withwith the copywriting really so
yeah, very long cord convolutedstory. There are no short
stories.
Vanessa (19:10):
There's no short stories with anybody that's
neurodiverse which, becausewe're, we talked about something
and then something else pops upthat other people like, where
did that come from? And we'relike, Isn't that how everybody
thinks and they're like now? Andwe're like, well, that's not
very fun for you. So weddingphotography terrifies me, like
(19:33):
I've had some people ask me, butwith different photography,
there's different skill setsbehind different kinds of
photography. And like, myspecialty right now is real
estate photography, becausethat's what I've been doing for
a while. And a portraitphotographer isn't necessarily
(19:56):
going to be a good real estatephotographer, because it takes a
whole different set of them.
gills lately and so I'm tryingto expand my skill set. But
events terrified me. i The factthat you dove into that, like,
headfirst girl, that's shit.
Getting heart palpitations justeverything
Sarah Wayte (20:19):
I do everything in life is just to throw myself in
there and see what happens. ButI've always said I might fly by
the seat of my pants basically,this is what I've done my entire
life. So
Vanessa (20:32):
do you legend, legend?
So why Canada? I mean, I wouldlike to live in Canada. But what
made you decide to pop overthere? Cross the pond?
Sarah Wayte (20:49):
Oh my goodness, I can. So this sounds very
specific. But we had I don'tknow if you knew in the UK in
2016, we had a referendum todecide whether we were going to
stay or leave Europe, the Brexitreferendum as it became. That's
the one yes. And the day was24th of June 2016, which
(21:10):
doesn't. This has nothing to dowith my memory because as
someone with ADHD, I have aterrible memory. But it was my
husband's birthday. And that'sthe only reason I remember this
date. So very, very clearly, wegot the results that the UK had
decided to leave Europe and Iprobably cried because for me,
it was really important to stillbe part of Europe because my
(21:30):
family all lived in Europe. AndI wanted to be able to have ease
of movement to be able to go andsee them that we've always had.
So I was really upset by it. Icried and excuse my my potty
mouth. But I turned around to myhusband and went Fuck it. Let's
move to Canada. To which heresponded, okay, then. We've
never visited Canada before.
Vanessa (21:54):
The recording just went out your audio went out. So can
you repeat the after some afterrefuse my party I heard refused
my party, excuse my potty mouth.
And then after that, hopefullyit recorded on your end, but I
didn't hear it. So I
Sarah Wayte (22:12):
shall repeat. So I said excuse my potty mouth. Fuck
it. Let's move to Canada. That'swhat I said it, my husband said
okay, then, because he goes, hegoes along with my crazy ideas,
bless him. Somehow, he seems tojust just run with these things.
And actually, if it hadn't beenfor him, we wouldn't have got
visas to move to Canada. So I'mvery grateful that he did that.
(22:33):
But it was weird. Neither one ofus had ever visited Canada, we'd
never been here before. We justkind of knew that it was a place
that didn't really appear in thenews that often. And for us that
felt like a good thing that feltlike, if it's not being talked
about all the time, then it mustbe okay. And you know, I know it
has its problems like any othercountry, but it just felt like
(22:57):
it felt like peace and quiet.
And we knew it was big. And weknew we could probably get a
nice distance away and maybehave some beautiful views and
which is why we looked at BCbecause mountains and they're
spectacular. Yeah, so it was acase of we were just like, shall
we just book a trip to Vancouverand see what we think for like
two weeks. So we came andvisited fell in love on day one,
(23:18):
with the place and as soon as wegot back to the UK, we started
applying for visas. And we werehere just over a year later. So
Vanessa (23:29):
I love Canada, especially where you are. The
Pacific Northwest is where Iknow I belong. I want to wind up
out there some time. Dependingon what happens with the US it
might have to be in Canada,which I'd be opposed to. But I
also know, Canada's alsoteetering and falling
conservative as well. So bad forme being trans. Yeah,
Sarah Wayte (23:55):
yeah, that's actually why we're my husband
and I have made the decision toactually start applying for
citizenship now because that'simportant to us that we get the
opportunity to at least try andvote and yeah, that is a slight
worry. That is something we areworried about here too,
actually. Yeah.
Vanessa (24:11):
Yeah, cuz, you know, we all need someplace to go and
you're in a beautiful place withnice enough people and wonderful
surroundings, so and it'sprobably a lot less chaotic in
the UK as well. So
Sarah Wayte (24:26):
much less definitely. Yeah, the space to
breathe is just unbelievable. Ilove I mean, we traveled to Nova
Scotia last year, which is rightover on the opposite coast. And
I I was absolutely astounded atthe fact that we took two planes
it took all day to travel. Wenever even left the country that
was amazing to me for someonewho's been living on islands her
(24:49):
entire life and just have todrive a few a little while and
she leaves she finds the seakind of thing. It was that was a
big shock to me how big thiscountry is.
Vanessa (24:58):
North America is a very well I'd continents. So for
those unfamiliar with geography,she's in BC British Columbia,
which look at Washington Stateand look north. There you go.
Nova Scotia is a far east coastis even further east than Maine.
(25:18):
I believe. There's still alittle further here in
Greenland. Yes, so yeah, thatwas a big trip. But Canada,
like, there's so many differentplaces, and there's so much
variety of scenery. Why don't Ilive there? Prime Minister
(25:40):
Trudeau if you're if you'relistening to this, could you
give your girls some freecitizenship so I can get the
fuck out of America? That'd benice. Thank you. Bye.
Sarah Wayte (25:51):
So funny how I've got friends in the US the same
thing in the last week, they'veall been like, if it really goes
bad, can I just drive north andyou'll you'll come and find me.
I might, yeah, that's fine. Comeover here and just stay with us.
Vanessa (26:07):
I, I am terrified for what's gonna happen in November.
My hopes are bolstered by whatjust happened in the UK and what
happened in France. I know inFrance, it only the
Conservatives only really lastbecause a bunch of together like
(26:28):
save tons of parties and bunchof the other ones dropped out in
order to cause less competition.
But here, there's just, it'srough. And I'm not confident
that Biden has the chops to beatTrump this round. Which is hard.
So especially now that Trump hasbeen kind of murdered due to
(26:54):
getting his ear clipped. Soyeah, that's a whole other
story. But Canada sounds veryappealing. I would love to move
to Iceland, but they don't allowAmericans to become to live
there. Unless they'reindependently wealthy, which
makes sense. I wouldn't wantAmericans living in my country
(27:16):
either. So like, Norway, maybe?
I could do Norway. I've neverbeen there. But so sweet. It's
Sarah Wayte (27:28):
very sweet. It's beautiful.
Vanessa (27:33):
So your clientele, what kind of people do you work with,
with copywriting and brandingand stuff.
Sarah Wayte (27:40):
So I kind of fell into again, my niche as they, as
they call it, of working withcreative businesses, because
that's what I knew. I came fromthis background of running a
photography business. So Ialready had a huge network of
photographers. And I was doing alot of initially it was doing a
(28:01):
lot of blogging for them. So itjust felt like the right space
to be in. And from there, I kindof went into working with, like
coaches and course creators. Andfrom that as well, I realized,
actually, the people that I loveto work with other people who
have a really strong personalbrand, that they're the ones
that they want to sound likethem in their copy, they want to
(28:24):
look like themselves in theirphotographs, you know, they want
their personality to comethrough because that's their,
that's their main selling pointin their business. That's this
is I get so nerdy on this asit's a it's a whole big thing
that I love talking about. Butactually, and I guess by
definition of working with thosekinds of people, it turns out,
I've kind of learned that a lotof the people I work with are
(28:45):
neurodiverse, which makes thingsgreat for me and probably
actually really helpful for themtoo. I find a lot of the clients
that I work with who've never,they're just kind of exploring
their neurodiversity at themoment maybe or they're,
they're, you know, justwondering that they're stuck, or
they've just been diagnosedsomething along those lines. And
they've never really worked withsomeone like myself, who has
(29:08):
been there and gets it and, youknow, gives them all of the
different options for us to stayin contact. Because not everyone
can manage to write answers intoa form. Some people prefer to
talk to me. So I have ways ofcollecting, like verbal
information from them. And justbeing able to respond to that in
a really flexible way as I'vehad people come back to me
(29:30):
saying you just you saw me andthat was really helpful to me to
be able to get this job done andnot have to try and fit into
someone's awkward box of howthey run their business. You
were really open and flexible.
And we're like, Okay, fine. Ifthis isn't working, let's try
something else, you know, so.
Yeah, so I kind of, I think Iprobably do end up working with
(29:53):
a lot more neurodiverse peoplethan I'd ever planned to because
I feel like well, I feel likeneurodiverse people we can And
we, we connect to each othervery quickly and easily. I think
we see each other I don't readvery, very easily.
Vanessa (30:07):
I think we attract each other like, like bugs to a light
really so because most everybodyI'm friends with is neurodiverse
one way or another so and beingin the trans community, it's
very common in the transcommunity. It's just all sorts
(30:27):
of fun there.
Sarah Wayte (30:28):
Yeah.
Vanessa (30:30):
So let's, let's bounce back to the, to your experiences
in the UK. What is the absolutebatshit Craziest thing that ever
happened to you as a paramedic?
Sarah Wayte (30:46):
I'm trying to decide which one to tell you.
There are plenty of examples, Ithink. Okay, I think my favorite
example, because it's also ahappy story. And I don't want to
depress anybody with all the theother kinds of stories, but I
want well, actually, there aretwo very similar, I once
(31:08):
delivered a baby in the frontseat of a car in a McDonald's
carpark. And the other one was Idelivered the first of twins in
an elevator as we were going upto the maternity unit, but we
didn't quite make itunfortunately. So this I tell
the stories, yes. This issomeone as well, who does not
have children of her own hasnever wants children of her own.
(31:32):
And the delivering babies waslike one of the most terrifying
things that could possiblyhappen to a paramedic as far as
I was concerned. So yes, thesewere these were fun experiences.
I mean, babies basically deliverthemselves anyway. And it's
going to happen whether youwhether you want it to happen or
not. But they are coming. So Oh,absolutely. They're coming that
(31:55):
the baby in the elevatordefinitely taught me that the
mum was I think she was like twomonths premature. She was
waiting for a C section. And shewent into labor and she's she
lived she lives quite a long wayfrom the hospital as well. So we
had quite a long way to, tojourney in and I remember saying
to her look, do not pushwhatever happens. Do not push
(32:16):
which you know, it's impossibleto tell a woman not to try to
have a baby apparently, I haveno idea. I've got no frame of
reference. But yeah. We arrivedat the hospital justice. She
said to me, I think the head isout. And I was like, no, no, it
can't be it's not not happeningjust yet. So we we ran inside
(32:37):
with her and got her into theelevator. And as the doors
closed, I thought I better takea look. And I lifted the blanket
up. And yes, there was a babycrowning, ready to come out. I
had just enough time to put myhands out and catch the baby as
it flew out between mums legs,and we finished up with me
holding baby and the elevatordoors pinging open at the
(33:00):
maternity unit with his elderlycouple stood there looking
absolutely horrified at thescene in front of them. Yeah,
that was a movie was kind oflike that. Definitely if I you
know, if I if I don't think youcan make stuff up like that that
happens. It was just one ofthose crazy moments. And it was
(33:20):
I mean, luckily, baby wasabsolutely fine. We rushed them
in second baby was born likethree minutes later, and all was
good. Everyone was happy. Sothat's why I like to tell that
story. But that's probably oneof my craziest ones. That
Vanessa (33:32):
had to be pretty intense. I can't even imagine
like, I'm a mother. I didn'tgive birth. Because trans
obviously. But the whole, justthe whole birthing process is
just kind of absolutely wild.
And here in the US, it'sstupidly expensive to buy. It's
both close and amazing at thesame time. And yeah, I mean,
(34:00):
these things come out. They'relike these little purple aliens.
And I don't know how people doit. So I really don't I'm anyone
in the medical field. I don'tknow how they do it.
Sarah Wayte (34:20):
Oh, gosh, yeah.
Let's say childbirth wasdefinitely not a paramedics
favorite thing, because of allthe things that could
potentially go wrong. When mostmost births do just kind of
happen by themselves. And thoseones were great. We all had
happy stories that we couldshare about those. But there
were also the very many that didgo wrong, you know, and those
were the ones that we were mostmost terrified about because
(34:40):
there wasn't really anything wecould do and we weren't we
weren't midwives we know how tohandle those situations. And we
weren't really trained for thosesituations. So yeah, you just
kind of have prayed that itwould never happen to you
basically.
Vanessa (34:59):
Yeah, there's not the turn. meaning you don't have the
equipment. You know? If you'reactually on the road, like, What
the fuck do you do? I've been inthe back of an ambulance. And
they are pretty rowdy. Theythere's, you're just sitting
there bouncing all over theplace. It's and I can't even
imagine. I mean, I imagine itwould shake a baby out half the
(35:20):
time.
Sarah Wayte (35:22):
Probably.
Vanessa (35:26):
What about under dispatch level? She'd ever have
anything like, why would happenthere?
Sarah Wayte (35:39):
I mean, there were lots of stories, but we from
from the a lot of it was being adispatcher, we were probably
more distance to because we hadthe we were we were talking with
the ambulance crews as opposedto the patients. But we would
hear their stories through themand kind of almost like live
vicariously through them. Ithink there was, I've remember a
paramedic calling us and sayingthis baby is stuck. This is
(36:03):
another baby story. Why are theywhy am I telling all the baby
stories, but this is what itwas. This baby is in trouble.
Yeah. And we need help. Where'sthe midwife and the midwife was
a long, long way away from them.
So we had to speak to them overthe phone and say, right you
need to perform, the midwifewants you to perform in a Peasy
autonomy, which is where theycut the woman. And the two male
paramedics were horrified at theprospect of having to do this to
(36:28):
a poor woman who actuallyprobably was probably like, just
like, just do it because it'sgonna, you know, help, but they
did it. And they delivered thebaby safely. And the midwife
arrived. And they said, everyonegoes to the hospital, and they
took the baby to the hospital.
And I remember afterwardscalling the crew and saying Are
you okay, because neither. Ithink neither one of them were
(36:51):
parents. At that point. I thinkone of them had a baby on the
way. And that was that was it.
They just hadn't ever dealt withthat situation before. And my my
guy I spoke to sounded veryshell shocked. He was like,
Yeah, I think we're okay, but mycrew mate is currently throwing
up in the flower bushes acrossthe ways. It was it was a
situation where you just wantedto like hold, you know, give him
(37:12):
a big cuddle and everything,because it must have been
horrific for them. But they gotthrough it and somehow carried
on doing their jobs for the nexthowever many years. So, yes,
there's a lot of things I thinkhappened in the ambulance
service that you kind of justyou put it into a place and then
you try not to think about itever again. It definitely it has
a real impact. One of the thingsthat I started talking about a
(37:33):
lot before I left was how, youknow, so many paramedics I knew
were struggling with like posttraumatic stress and, you know,
mental health issues, and butyou couldn't ever really talk
about it because you were aparamedic, and people look to
you to care for everybody else,you know, if the if the carer is
struggling, then what you know,how is anyone else going to
(37:55):
manage kind of thing, but it wassomething we saw an awful lot.
And it was one of the reasons Iknew I had to get out as well.
Vanessa (38:05):
And I don't blame you at all, I would have absolutely
just lost my mind if I wouldhave shut down. And under
dispatch or the paramedic level.
So I have tons of respect forpeople that can do that. Because
I'm just not built that way. Sowhen it comes to copy and
(38:27):
photography, what's your breadand butter? What's your favorite
thing to do for people?
Sarah Wayte (38:34):
Websites, I love writing people's websites for
them, it's usually because whenby the time they come around to
thinking about hiring acopywriter, they've got a DIY
website, usually that they'vedone themselves. And I sort of
come in and go, Okay, we'regonna fix all of this. Now this
this doesn't need to be on thispage. And we need to put this
over here and, you know, kind ofread just reimagining even like
(38:56):
the path through their websitefor them, which they didn't
really take into considerationbefore. And I love being able to
do that and show them that, youknow, the, the just that how
different it can be when theystart to talk when they start
talking about themselves all thetime and actually talk about
their the kind of clients thatthey want to work with and what
they do and how they helppeople. That's that's all of
(39:17):
that when by the time we get tothe end of it. It's usually a
really fun experience of like,oh, that's that's what a website
should look like.
Vanessa (39:25):
Yeah, like a lot of people are like what anyone can
do make a website. That's notnecessarily true. Like even me
being pretty, pretty creativeperson. I use a crutch in that I
do my websites, the podcast andmy photography through
Squarespace. Because sometimesit's nice to just build a drag
(39:46):
and drop ship on there. Butcoming in with like actual copy,
talking about yourself. It'smuch better to hire someone to
do it for you because, like inyour case, like you said how
people can communicate to you indifferent ways, like some can
fill out a form, or some have todo it verbally. And so you
(40:06):
actually learn about them andlearn how they tick. And you can
see their business from anoutsider's perspective. And it's
easy to get lost in the littledetails of things, when you're
when you're in the business andlose interest of anybody that is
(40:27):
perusing your page. So
Sarah Wayte (40:30):
yeah, it's a it's a, I mean, even from the
perspective of trying to writemy own website I've done it is
still very hard. It's so muchharder to write about yourself
and to sell yourself to otherpeople, I think. But yeah,
there's a I mean, what was Igonna say? There we go. ADHD is
(40:51):
just kicked in after the thoughtthat was in my brain has flown
away completely. Oh, wait. Oh,what were we talking about? We
were talking about websites.
That's
Vanessa (41:02):
just Yeah, websites and your own copy? Yes.
Sarah Wayte (41:05):
writing your own copy is yeah, it's even from the
perspective of being acopywriter writing your own
copies? super difficult. Istruggle with it, too. I think
it's just something very muchabout the idea of, it's even
like, when you know, somethingin your business, it's so much
easier to hear somebody else sayit to you. I think that's one
(41:28):
why we get coaches why coachesdo so? Well, because we need,
you know, when I've worked withother people, I've worked with a
coach, for example, and they'vetold me something that I've I've
known all along. But for somereason, when someone else says
it to you from outside, it justlands differently than it does
with yourself. Yeah. And I thinkthat's the same with with copy.
(41:48):
Basically, it's, I mean, Ialways sort of say to people,
when there's no, there's nomagic to what I do. I talk to my
clients, I ask them a ton ofquestions. I do things like
this, where I record whatthey're saying. And then I go
away, and I take their words,and I put them in their in their
copy. And then they go and readthe stuff. And they're like, Oh,
this is really great. Where didyou get this from? And I'm like
(42:10):
you said it, this is what yousaid, I'm just giving you your
words back to you. And it comesacross as being this very
magical thing. But it's reallynot at all it's just, it's fun
to be able to show them theyalready know their stuff, they
just need someone to kind ofrefine your message for them.
Vanessa (42:27):
To trust the insights of others, especially someone
who is is a creative like Sarah,or previous episodes, Gianna,
and Emily, the copywriter I hadon a couple episodes ago, like
she was saying the same thingthat, you know, writing copy for
about yourself is fucking hard.
So if you're struggling, don'tdo it alone. Reach out in touch
(42:52):
a copywriter or
Sarah Wayte (43:00):
give me some of our coffee magic.
Vanessa (43:02):
So trying to get in close to the end here. Is there
anything else you wanted to talkabout? While we're on the air or
on the recording, or whatever itis? I
Sarah Wayte (43:13):
goodness, I don't know if we've kind of meandered
a little bit around like my myworld real release. If you made
sense of any well done is what Iwill say if
Vanessa (43:24):
you made sense of our conversation, you're
neurodiverse because we bouncedon the workplace. It was not
linear.
Sarah Wayte (43:30):
Most probably Yeah, definitely. And also Yeah, I
guess maybe the only thing Iwould I would really like to add
is that, you know, I when Ifirst came to the idea that I
might be neurodiverse neurospicy ADHD or you know, whatever
you want to call the things.
There was definitely a sense of,oh, well, there was there were
lots of feelings. There wasabject horror, I think, grief,
(43:54):
shock, surprise, you know, andthen finally, acceptance,
acceptance did come eventually.
But I think if you're if you'rein that position where you're
think where you think you mightbe. It's, I think it's nice to
know, I found it really nice toknow when I was in that stage
(44:16):
that actually, it's not the endof the world. It's, you know,
you will figure this out. And itmight take a little while until
you find your way. And you'redefinitely not alone. In fact,
there are way more of us nowthan they ever realized there
was before, so
Vanessa (44:30):
don't consider it a weakness either. neurodiversity
in all its myriad forms. It's asuperpower. But remember, all
superheroes have a weakness. Soyou have to be able to adapt
with that like being autistic. Isee the world differently from
other people. It also means Istruggle a lot with a lot of
(44:50):
things. So you have to you know,adapt as you go. And don't be
afraid to reach out and if youfeel this certain way, if you
pop on Reddit type in how youfeel like what's going on your
brain, like Does anyone elserandomly think of video game
(45:13):
soundtracks every time they getin the shower happens to me. I
guarantee you someone else does.
And you can start connecting thedots, you can build a community
that way, you can have some funconversations, and just learn a
lot about yourself. Most of ourlisteners are in the US. So
(45:35):
actually finding therapy, andmental health professionals and
stuff like that is out of reachfor a lot of people,
unfortunately, which is fuckingstupid. But if you have any sort
of insurance, dive into it tosee what you can get covered,
and just talk to people even goto support groups, find some
(45:58):
support groups in your area,Google, Facebook, whatever, I'm
sure some things will pop up.
And you're not alone. You know,Sarah, and I, you know, we come
from, quite literally, like halfa world apart. And we have a lot
(46:19):
of commonalities. The humanbrain is an absolutely wonderful
and horrible thing all at thesame time. So yeah, that's
definitely a good advice. Youknow, you're never too, you're
never too old to get diagnosed,just like you're never too old
to come out as any thing. And itcan provide a lot of answers.
(46:43):
But also remember, selfdiagnosis is valid. There are
many ways to test yourselfonline. There's a lot of studies
that have tests for all sorts ofneurodiversity online. And if
that helps you just get someanswers to explain some things.
And do it. Trust me, it's worthit to to get that load off your
(47:07):
chest. And to know that you arenot know that you're not alone.
So well, Sarah, I am so jealousof where you are right now. I
wish I could press a transporterand just come and go have a
coffee with you rather than sithere and red, Ohio. But thank
(47:30):
you so much for being on theshow. Where can people find you?
Sarah Wayte (47:35):
Oh, okay. Yes. So the easiest place is my website
is sarahwayte.com. And you canfind me on I'm mostly on
Instagram, as ceraweek creative.
So that's probably the easiestplace to find me. And my my VA
makes me do reels and thingslike that. But I mostly I like
the stories. That's mostly whereyou'll find me. So
Vanessa (47:59):
Instagrams probably my favorite of the platforms. So I
use Facebook the most becausethat's where I get my clients.
But I do wish Instagram movedback towards the photography
side of it over the video side,because it's a whole different
(48:19):
monster trying to create reelsand reels and Tiktok. You know,
there's a lot of carryoverbetween the two and trying to
come up with the hook and allthat stuff so badly. Yeah, yeah.
So yeah, check out Sarah. And doyou work with people from
anywhere or just locally? Likeif someone if a listener wants
(48:39):
to hire you to make them a site?
Sarah Wayte (48:41):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I've got clients all
over the world. I'm working withsomeone in Australia at the
moment and someone in UK andEurope, but as long as it's
English speaking, that is theonly language I can do. But yes,
pretty much anywhere. Well,
Vanessa (48:54):
that's perfect that because, yeah, especially if you
are neurodiverse and you'relooking for someone who kind of
gets you understands how yourbrain works, because just some
neurotypical creatives might notunderstand it. So look up,
Sarah. And please, Sara, we'llget some business out of this.
(49:15):
And hopefully we'll get somepatrons out of this. So don't
forget, like, comment,subscribe, but rate us five
stars on Apple and Spotify,whatever, we really need to get
that algorithm to keep pushingus up. I am hoping to have the
show by Iran at least breakingeven. Which would be very nice
because especially come wintershake. It's expensive for me. So
(49:39):
Sarah, thank you so much forjoining us are joining me on the
show. And next week, I don'tknow what's going to be
happening. I have it scheduled.
But I guess I can look it uphere so people know what's going
to happen next week. Oh, NikkiSmith. The death doula. I was on
her Cast comes out on July 17,which is actually gonna be
(50:05):
before this airs. So and this isalso a good test for the whole
live streaming thing. I don'tthink it's going to work. So,
unfortunately, I don't think I'mgoing to do a live stream
episode 50 Unless I can find abetter way. So. All right. Thank
you everyone for joining us.
Sara, thank you for your thankyou for being here. And see you
(50:27):
next week.
Welcome, everybody, to Episode 4047, I think yeah,
because last week was 46 Thatwould make this 47 of
transcending humanity. My nameis Vanessa Joy, aka even
Australia. And I am joined todayby the amazing Sarah Wayte, and
(00:23):
we will get into Sarah in asecond here. First, I want to
remind everybody, that wholePatreon thing where you send me
money and it helps me make thisshow. Be awesome if more people
did that, and you know, thanksto the people that are already
and more people, the merrier.
Because podcasting surprisinglyexpensive. And also, don't
forget we have the merch storejust received in one of our new
(00:48):
items. A little mug that saysconservative tears, which is
very fitting for the show.
Especially since a certainsomeone got missed by an inch a
couple days ago. Yeah. Soanyways, welcome back to the
(01:15):
show. My guest today is Sarah,wait. Sarah, what are your
pronouns that she had? She heardOkay, let's see it on your
thing. But I like to just pushthat forward. So, me, I'm
currently live streaming thisepisode just to see how it
works. Because I am hoping to doepisode 50 as a live stream, and
(01:40):
I'm looking at the Instagramfeed. If anyone is watching this
on Instagram, it probably looksreally bad. So yeah. It even
says adios. Oh, holy crap. Yeah.
You're back. So I'm sorry. Idon't know why it's doing that.
So how did I disappear for asecond? Okay. And then YouTube
(02:02):
is also live streaming inAbsolutely. No one's watching
it. So. Sarah? Yes. Funny. Sotell us a little bit about
Sarah Wayte (02:19):
you. Oh, my gosh, big the unending question. And I
am Sarah and I, as you can hear,I am an English woman who now
lives in Canada. I, gosh, whatto say I always struggle with
these things. I am a copywriterand a brand photographer. These
are the things that I do for mywork. And I am a very creative
(02:42):
person. I'm writing a novel Ialso co host a podcast I
recently well recently, I saytwo years now it's been
discovered that I have ADHD. Iwas diagnosed at the age of 42,
which was quite a shock. And Icome off the back back of having
a 20 year career as a paramedicin the UK before I moved to
(03:04):
Canada and decided I wasn'tdoing that anymore and and
seeking a creative life instead.
So yes, that's me. Well,
Vanessa (03:12):
that's fine. It's kind of funny. Episode 44 was a brand
photographer, Episode 45 was acopywriter. And so now we have a
brand photographer slashcopywriter. I too was recently
diagnosed as neurodivergent. Andthat's kind of what we're gonna
be talking about this episode isthe choice of being
neurodivergent and being latediagnosed. I was also actually I
(03:37):
was 42 when I was diagnosed, Iwas diagnosed with art as Autism
Spectrum Disorder, ADHD, seePTSD at the laundry Licious
continues to go as it does. AndI don't know about you, but once
I was finally diagnosed, itreally answered a whole lot of
(03:59):
questions, and I had a whole lotof things from the past make
sense?
Sarah Wayte (04:03):
Yep. 100% Definitely. There was a lot of
moments after after I wasdiagnosed and started to do some
reading up and learning andspeaking to some of my friends
who'd also been late diagnosed.
And yeah, there was definitely ahole. Okay, it's not it's not
me. I'm not a terrible humanbeing and my brains not broken.
And yeah, it was certainly a bigreveal.
Vanessa (04:29):
Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Yeah, it's like it. Like I in my case,
I had started following likesome autistic and neurodiverse
kind of influencers on Facebookand Instagram and things like
that. And it started like, Whoa,this is all making a whole lot
of sense and explaining a lot ofthings. And I did the self tests
(04:52):
and the self tests are like,holy shit, you're autistic. And
yeah, you just kind of go fromthere. So Um, but you being a
paramedic for 20 years in the UKwhile being ADHD that's that's
(05:14):
why we have you here today totalk stories because I want to
hear all about your experiencesand that madness and the your
work trying to balance,neurodiversity and such an
intense, intense position. Howdid you get into paramedics in
(05:37):
the first place?
Sarah Wayte (05:38):
Well, this is the this is the funny and
interesting thing I became aparamedic by accident is what I
always tell people, it was neverin my plan at all. My husband is
also a paramedic. And for him,it was a lifelong vocation. He,
you know, at the age of fourdecided he was going to be a
paramedic, that's what he wantedto do. I had no such aspirations
(05:59):
whatsoever. I was 19, I had justmoved back to England from the
tiny island of Malta, where mymum was from, and we'd lived
there for my teenage years. Andall I knew was I did not want to
go back to Malta, it was a verydiverse to smaller place, I
wanted to be back in living inEngland and being independent.
And I needed a job. So I saw aan advert in the paper, I think
(06:25):
it was for tech, it was fortaking emergency calls,
actually. So I started off onthe phone lines. And it was just
that I saw this ad in the paper,I thought, oh, that sounds
interesting. I can do that untilI figure out what I want to do
when I grow up. So I joined theambulance service and got
trained to take the calls. I didthat for about six months. And
then very quickly progressed upto dispatching ambulances, which
(06:50):
I actually ended up doing forthe next like six or seven
years, really sort of highstress environment being in a
very busy control center withbut like, if you can kind of
like picture. I don't knowwhether you're into Star Trek,
but with all the screens aroundit was kind of like that there
was screens everywhere, andyou're busy managing ambulances
driving all over the place andyou know, going to calls and
(07:12):
stuff. So there was that kind ofenvironment for like seven
years, I think it was. And Ireached a point where I now
looking back, I realize it wasburnout. I was I was done. I've
been in there for so long. And Isaid to myself, at that point I
was with my not not quite thenhusband, it was my boyfriend
back then. And he was he wastraining to be a paramedic
(07:34):
already. And he said why don'tyou Why don't you try being a
paramedic? And I thought well,it's either that or I go and
work in a grocery store one orthe other. So I might as well
just apply and see what happens.
And yeah, they accepted me theytook me in and the next thing I
knew I was training to be aparamedic. So it was kind of
Yeah, I always say it was anaccident. Really. It was never
replaced.
Vanessa (07:56):
You just fell into it.
Transcending Humanity (07:59):
Yeah.
Which I think is like I can'teven imagine.
Vanessa (08:03):
Yeah, pretty much it's we just kind of just do things
like, like my background. I rana manufacturing company for
years. And I left that andpivoted now I'm a real estate
photographer, because it makestotal sense if you're ADHD. So
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Vanessa (09:15):
So for people that are neurotypical, though, I imagine
most of our listeners to thisshow are neurodiverse. But when
you have narrow divergence,there's I would say kind of
common theme with it is beinghaving stimuli thrown at you.
(09:43):
And you have no idea what to dowith them sometimes. How did you
cope with the absolute madnessof being in dispatch? You said
that you are that you got burnedout and I can't believe you
lasted that long. I would have60 seconds About six or seven
years, what did you do to try tojust keep yourself sane
(10:04):
throughout that? Yeah.
Sarah Wayte (10:06):
Oh, that's a really good question. Actually, I think
a lot of it, I mean, in a word,I managed it terribly. It's
probably the it's the, it's thebest way to explain it. But I
say to people, once I became aparamedic, yeah, once I became a
paramedic, and was out on theroad, I say to people that
working in the control room, Iwas just a very angry person for
(10:27):
for eight years, and I'm notI've never I'm not an angry
person. But that place made mevery, very angry all the time.
It was I was carrying a lot ofemotional weight and like
struggling in in there justbecause of the environment that
it was by also really, what whatthis is the thing I discovered,
after leaving the ambulanceservice that actually people
(10:48):
with ADHD, manage emergencysituations really well, and
obviously, you know, canmultitask really well, which,
which probably explains how Imanaged to stay there for so
long. And I also loved what Idid, I loved that I could help
people. I loved the team ofpeople that I was working with.
I also really liked the shiftwork, not having to do Monday to
(11:09):
Friday, nine to five was a was abig bonus for me. And you know,
having having a week off everyfour weeks because of the way
our shifts worked and stuff likethat just it suited me at the
time I was very much a night owland it just kind of worked
really nicely. So it did theelements to it that kept me
there because they obviouslyappealed to what I now realize
the ADHD part of myself. Butyes, it was it was hard.
(11:33):
Definitely I don't once I gotout and started training as a
paramedic once I was out in justbeing outside and actually
managing myself a bit more andnot being in this environment
because it was a very stressfulenvironment to be in. It had the
way I kind of described it wasbeing in the dispatch center was
mentally exhausting. Being outon the road as a paramedic at
(11:57):
the time was physicallyexhausting. Actually, it turns
out that mental exhaustion camelater, it just took a lot longer
to to kick in. But initially itwas it was like a breath of
fresh air going out and workingon an ambulance instead of being
in the control room all thetime.
Vanessa (12:14):
I can imagine because it allows you you can actually
focus on something, be itwhatever you're dealing with out
having the constant everythinggoing on around you. Like if
you're just driving or if you'repicking up patients and stuff
like that you can at least laserfocus in on what you're doing.
How many people on a team didusually work with, at on
Sarah Wayte (12:38):
on the ambulance or in the control room and the
ambulance on the ambulance, thatwould be me and one other person
usually. But I also did quite afew, quite a long part of my
career as a paramedic wasworking by myself just working
on a on a response car. So youwere your own boss basically all
day. So
Vanessa (12:58):
I can imagine that had to be pretty intense. So had its
moments. I can't even imagine.
Yeah, there was
Sarah Wayte (13:07):
that there were a lot of highs and lows, I would
say there were there were dayswhen I would I would come home
and say that was amazing. Wesaved a life today, you know, it
was a really good feeling. Thedopamine kick, you know, when
you got it was really intensebecause it would be very high
stress situations. And thenthere would be times when you
wouldn't save a life for a very,very long time you just be
(13:30):
dealing with the run of the millstuff, you know, picking up
people off the floor andbrushing them down and just
dealing with very sort of basicneeds for people we did we did a
lot of social aspect workbecause that's just the way the
emergency services are in theUK. They're very, they're very
sort of pushed to to have todeal with everything, lots of
(13:50):
mental health and lots of mutualissues and things so seemingly,
yeah, definitely that element toit and break then there were the
days when I cry and not want togo back to work the next day. So
Vanessa (14:03):
that's a way can attract us later. So yeah, that
live streaming thing does notwork. So I'm just gonna turn
that off. Anyways, okay, sosorry about that.
Sarah Wayte (14:22):
Okay. Did you get all of that and
Vanessa (14:26):
it was good to test it out. Yeah. Okay. Go away window.
There we are. Okay, so, back toit. So you went from dispatch to
paramedic to copywriting andbrand photography. Yes.
Transcending Humanity (14:49):
So in your progression, right.
Vanessa (14:52):
Yeah. How did that pivot work? Yeah.
Sarah Wayte (14:56):
Okay, so a bit of backstory. I always say to
people, I was always a writerbefore I ever became a paramedic
before I joined the ambulanceservice. When I left home at 19,
I had aspirations of being ascreenwriter and a novelist, and
you know, all of these wonderfulthings. But I was living on my
(15:18):
own in a country where I didn'thave any family. And it was you
need to pay some bills was wasthe the kind of the general
consensus. So I did a few I didsome temping work first before I
found the ambulance service. Butonce I joined the ambulance
service, it basically knockedany ability out of me to write
and I always say to people thatI, I basically had a 10 year
writer's block from that point.
And I think it was just likedealing with the emotional
(15:40):
capacity to do that job. But itwas like, it was probably a good
few years in, I realized, Istill, I knew inherently that I
was creative. And I needed somesort of creative outlet. And if
I couldn't write, I needed tofind something else. And along
the way, I found photography.
(16:00):
There's a whole meanderingpathway of how I came to
photography. But basically, Icame to photography, and
training as a paramedic. We hadsome people on my paramedic
course who were getting married,and they said, Would you
photograph our wedding and I waslike, Hell, no, I'm not going to
do that. But they twisted my armand persuaded me to do it. And I
(16:23):
went and shot their wedding andfell in love with wedding
photography immediately. Sopromptly set up a wedding and
portrait photography business,while still training as a
paramedic. And it was that therunning the photography business
brought me back round to writingbecause I had to write my
website, I had to write blogposts, and this is pre social
(16:46):
media. But you know, later onsocial media stuff came in as
well. So the writing kind offound me again, it came came
back, and I started doing thewriting again. And just to kind
of throw things into the mix alittle bit, I was feeling pretty
miserable with the wholeparamedic thing. At this point.
We're talking a few years later.
And my friend said to me, whatwould you do? You know, if if
money and time and everythingwas wasn't a wasn't, you know,
(17:09):
in your way, what would you do?
And I said, I really want to geta degree and she went, Okay, why
don't you have a look at that.
So I found an online degree increative writing, which I signed
up for, and started a weeklater, because you know, why,
why, why prepare yourself forthese things, just kind of throw
yourself into them. So I wasdoing a creative writing degree,
(17:30):
I was working as a paramedic, Iwas running a wedding and
portrait photography business.
And then my husband said, whydon't we move actually, I said,
Why don't we move to Canada. Andso that started happening as
well. So I had all of this stuffgoing on all at the same time.
And how I don't didn't fallover? I don't know. But yeah,
that's kind of like, how I cameround to the writing and the
(17:55):
photography. Basically, when I,when we moved to Canada, I knew
I didn't want to do theambulance service anymore. I was
in a really bad place with theambulance service mentally at
that point. I knew I was readyto leave it behind. I felt like
I'd done my time. So we came toCanada, and I said, I'm going to
try and work for myself, I'mgoing to try and see how I go
with setting up a businesswriting. Well, actually, mainly,
(18:17):
I was going to be a photographerwith doing just been people have
just started to somephotographer friends that just
started asking me to like writesome blogs for them. So I
thought, Okay, I'll be aphotographer, and I'll do a
little bit of blogging forpeople. And in the first year
that I was here, it very quicklybecame apparent. Actually, no, I
was going to be a writer andjust do a little bit of
photography. But and then ofcourse, you know, 2020 happened,
(18:38):
which I don't think I need to gointo in too much depth, because
I think we can all remember thatmassive trauma. And so yes, it
was definitely a thing. Andyeah, that was a good
opportunity for me to saygoodbye to weddings, and I liked
I still wanted to photographpeople because I liked having
people in front of my camera. SoI felt like the brand
(18:59):
photography really fit in withwith the copywriting really so
yeah, very long cord convolutedstory. There are no short
stories.
Vanessa (19:10):
There's no short stories with anybody that's
neurodiverse which, becausewe're, we talked about something
and then something else pops upthat other people like, where
did that come from? And we'relike, Isn't that how everybody
thinks and they're like now? Andwe're like, well, that's not
very fun for you. So weddingphotography terrifies me, like
(19:33):
I've had some people ask me, butwith different photography,
there's different skill setsbehind different kinds of
photography. And like, myspecialty right now is real
estate photography, becausethat's what I've been doing for
a while. And a portraitphotographer isn't necessarily
(19:56):
going to be a good real estatephotographer, because it takes a
whole different set of them.
gills lately and so I'm tryingto expand my skill set. But
events terrified me. i The factthat you dove into that, like,
headfirst girl, that's shit.
Getting heart palpitations justeverything
Sarah Wayte (20:19):
I do everything in life is just to throw myself in
there and see what happens. ButI've always said I might fly by
the seat of my pants basically,this is what I've done my entire
life. So
Vanessa (20:32):
do you legend, legend?
So why Canada? I mean, I wouldlike to live in Canada. But what
made you decide to pop overthere? Cross the pond?
Sarah Wayte (20:49):
Oh my goodness, I can. So this sounds very
specific. But we had I don'tknow if you knew in the UK in
2016, we had a referendum todecide whether we were going to
stay or leave Europe, the Brexitreferendum as it became. That's
the one yes. And the day was24th of June 2016, which
(21:10):
doesn't. This has nothing to dowith my memory because as
someone with ADHD, I have aterrible memory. But it was my
husband's birthday. And that'sthe only reason I remember this
date. So very, very clearly, wegot the results that the UK had
decided to leave Europe and Iprobably cried because for me,
it was really important to stillbe part of Europe because my
(21:30):
family all lived in Europe. AndI wanted to be able to have ease
of movement to be able to go andsee them that we've always had.
So I was really upset by it. Icried and excuse my my potty
mouth. But I turned around to myhusband and went Fuck it. Let's
move to Canada. To which heresponded, okay, then. We've
never visited Canada before.
Vanessa (21:54):
The recording just went out your audio went out. So can
you repeat the after some afterrefuse my party I heard refused
my party, excuse my potty mouth.
And then after that, hopefullyit recorded on your end, but I
didn't hear it. So I
Sarah Wayte (22:12):
shall repeat. So I said excuse my potty mouth. Fuck
it. Let's move to Canada. That'swhat I said it, my husband said
okay, then, because he goes, hegoes along with my crazy ideas,
bless him. Somehow, he seems tojust just run with these things.
And actually, if it hadn't beenfor him, we wouldn't have got
visas to move to Canada. So I'mvery grateful that he did that.
(22:33):
But it was weird. Neither one ofus had ever visited Canada, we'd
never been here before. We justkind of knew that it was a place
that didn't really appear in thenews that often. And for us that
felt like a good thing that feltlike, if it's not being talked
about all the time, then it mustbe okay. And you know, I know it
has its problems like any othercountry, but it just felt like
(22:57):
it felt like peace and quiet.
And we knew it was big. And weknew we could probably get a
nice distance away and maybehave some beautiful views and
which is why we looked at BCbecause mountains and they're
spectacular. Yeah, so it was acase of we were just like, shall
we just book a trip to Vancouverand see what we think for like
two weeks. So we came andvisited fell in love on day one,
(23:18):
with the place and as soon as wegot back to the UK, we started
applying for visas. And we werehere just over a year later. So
Vanessa (23:29):
I love Canada, especially where you are. The
Pacific Northwest is where Iknow I belong. I want to wind up
out there some time. Dependingon what happens with the US it
might have to be in Canada,which I'd be opposed to. But I
also know, Canada's alsoteetering and falling
conservative as well. So bad forme being trans. Yeah,
Sarah Wayte (23:55):
yeah, that's actually why we're my husband
and I have made the decision toactually start applying for
citizenship now because that'simportant to us that we get the
opportunity to at least try andvote and yeah, that is a slight
worry. That is something we areworried about here too,
actually. Yeah.
Vanessa (24:11):
Yeah, cuz, you know, we all need someplace to go and
you're in a beautiful place withnice enough people and wonderful
surroundings, so and it'sprobably a lot less chaotic in
the UK as well. So
Sarah Wayte (24:26):
much less definitely. Yeah, the space to
breathe is just unbelievable. Ilove I mean, we traveled to Nova
Scotia last year, which is rightover on the opposite coast. And
I I was absolutely astounded atthe fact that we took two planes
it took all day to travel. Wenever even left the country that
was amazing to me for someonewho's been living on islands her
(24:49):
entire life and just have todrive a few a little while and
she leaves she finds the seakind of thing. It was that was a
big shock to me how big thiscountry is.
Vanessa (24:58):
North America is a very well I'd continents. So for
those unfamiliar with geography,she's in BC British Columbia,
which look at Washington Stateand look north. There you go.
Nova Scotia is a far east coastis even further east than Maine.
(25:18):
I believe. There's still alittle further here in
Greenland. Yes, so yeah, thatwas a big trip. But Canada,
like, there's so many differentplaces, and there's so much
variety of scenery. Why don't Ilive there? Prime Minister
(25:40):
Trudeau if you're if you'relistening to this, could you
give your girls some freecitizenship so I can get the
fuck out of America? That'd benice. Thank you. Bye.
Sarah Wayte (25:51):
So funny how I've got friends in the US the same
thing in the last week, they'veall been like, if it really goes
bad, can I just drive north andyou'll you'll come and find me.
I might, yeah, that's fine. Comeover here and just stay with us.
Vanessa (26:07):
I, I am terrified for what's gonna happen in November.
My hopes are bolstered by whatjust happened in the UK and what
happened in France. I know inFrance, it only the
Conservatives only really lastbecause a bunch of together like
(26:28):
save tons of parties and bunchof the other ones dropped out in
order to cause less competition.
But here, there's just, it'srough. And I'm not confident
that Biden has the chops to beatTrump this round. Which is hard.
So especially now that Trump hasbeen kind of murdered due to
(26:54):
getting his ear clipped. Soyeah, that's a whole other
story. But Canada sounds veryappealing. I would love to move
to Iceland, but they don't allowAmericans to become to live
there. Unless they'reindependently wealthy, which
makes sense. I wouldn't wantAmericans living in my country
(27:16):
either. So like, Norway, maybe?
I could do Norway. I've neverbeen there. But so sweet. It's
Sarah Wayte (27:28):
very sweet. It's beautiful.
Vanessa (27:33):
So your clientele, what kind of people do you work with,
with copywriting and brandingand stuff.
Sarah Wayte (27:40):
So I kind of fell into again, my niche as they, as
they call it, of working withcreative businesses, because
that's what I knew. I came fromthis background of running a
photography business. So Ialready had a huge network of
photographers. And I was doing alot of initially it was doing a
(28:01):
lot of blogging for them. So itjust felt like the right space
to be in. And from there, I kindof went into working with, like
coaches and course creators. Andfrom that as well, I realized,
actually, the people that I loveto work with other people who
have a really strong personalbrand, that they're the ones
that they want to sound likethem in their copy, they want to
(28:24):
look like themselves in theirphotographs, you know, they want
their personality to comethrough because that's their,
that's their main selling pointin their business. That's this
is I get so nerdy on this asit's a it's a whole big thing
that I love talking about. Butactually, and I guess by
definition of working with thosekinds of people, it turns out,
I've kind of learned that a lotof the people I work with are
(28:45):
neurodiverse, which makes thingsgreat for me and probably
actually really helpful for themtoo. I find a lot of the clients
that I work with who've never,they're just kind of exploring
their neurodiversity at themoment maybe or they're,
they're, you know, justwondering that they're stuck, or
they've just been diagnosedsomething along those lines. And
they've never really worked withsomeone like myself, who has
(29:08):
been there and gets it and, youknow, gives them all of the
different options for us to stayin contact. Because not everyone
can manage to write answers intoa form. Some people prefer to
talk to me. So I have ways ofcollecting, like verbal
information from them. And justbeing able to respond to that in
a really flexible way as I'vehad people come back to me
(29:30):
saying you just you saw me andthat was really helpful to me to
be able to get this job done andnot have to try and fit into
someone's awkward box of howthey run their business. You
were really open and flexible.
And we're like, Okay, fine. Ifthis isn't working, let's try
something else, you know, so.
Yeah, so I kind of, I think Iprobably do end up working with
(29:53):
a lot more neurodiverse peoplethan I'd ever planned to because
I feel like well, I feel likeneurodiverse people we can And
we, we connect to each othervery quickly and easily. I think
we see each other I don't readvery, very easily.
Vanessa (30:07):
I think we attract each other like, like bugs to a light
really so because most everybodyI'm friends with is neurodiverse
one way or another so and beingin the trans community, it's
very common in the transcommunity. It's just all sorts
(30:27):
of fun there.
Sarah Wayte (30:28):
Yeah.
Vanessa (30:30):
So let's, let's bounce back to the, to your experiences
in the UK. What is the absolutebatshit Craziest thing that ever
happened to you as a paramedic?
Sarah Wayte (30:46):
I'm trying to decide which one to tell you.
There are plenty of examples, Ithink. Okay, I think my favorite
example, because it's also ahappy story. And I don't want to
depress anybody with all the theother kinds of stories, but I
want well, actually, there aretwo very similar, I once
(31:08):
delivered a baby in the frontseat of a car in a McDonald's
carpark. And the other one was Idelivered the first of twins in
an elevator as we were going upto the maternity unit, but we
didn't quite make itunfortunately. So this I tell
the stories, yes. This issomeone as well, who does not
have children of her own hasnever wants children of her own.
(31:32):
And the delivering babies waslike one of the most terrifying
things that could possiblyhappen to a paramedic as far as
I was concerned. So yes, thesewere these were fun experiences.
I mean, babies basically deliverthemselves anyway. And it's
going to happen whether youwhether you want it to happen or
not. But they are coming. So Oh,absolutely. They're coming that
(31:55):
the baby in the elevatordefinitely taught me that the
mum was I think she was like twomonths premature. She was
waiting for a C section. And shewent into labor and she's she
lived she lives quite a long wayfrom the hospital as well. So we
had quite a long way to, tojourney in and I remember saying
to her look, do not pushwhatever happens. Do not push
(32:16):
which you know, it's impossibleto tell a woman not to try to
have a baby apparently, I haveno idea. I've got no frame of
reference. But yeah. We arrivedat the hospital justice. She
said to me, I think the head isout. And I was like, no, no, it
can't be it's not not happeningjust yet. So we we ran inside
(32:37):
with her and got her into theelevator. And as the doors
closed, I thought I better takea look. And I lifted the blanket
up. And yes, there was a babycrowning, ready to come out. I
had just enough time to put myhands out and catch the baby as
it flew out between mums legs,and we finished up with me
holding baby and the elevatordoors pinging open at the
(33:00):
maternity unit with his elderlycouple stood there looking
absolutely horrified at thescene in front of them. Yeah,
that was a movie was kind oflike that. Definitely if I you
know, if I if I don't think youcan make stuff up like that that
happens. It was just one ofthose crazy moments. And it was
(33:20):
I mean, luckily, baby wasabsolutely fine. We rushed them
in second baby was born likethree minutes later, and all was
good. Everyone was happy. Sothat's why I like to tell that
story. But that's probably oneof my craziest ones. That
Vanessa (33:32):
had to be pretty intense. I can't even imagine
like, I'm a mother. I didn'tgive birth. Because trans
obviously. But the whole, justthe whole birthing process is
just kind of absolutely wild.
And here in the US, it'sstupidly expensive to buy. It's
both close and amazing at thesame time. And yeah, I mean,
(34:00):
these things come out. They'relike these little purple aliens.
And I don't know how people doit. So I really don't I'm anyone
in the medical field. I don'tknow how they do it.
Sarah Wayte (34:20):
Oh, gosh, yeah.
Let's say childbirth wasdefinitely not a paramedics
favorite thing, because of allthe things that could
potentially go wrong. When mostmost births do just kind of
happen by themselves. And thoseones were great. We all had
happy stories that we couldshare about those. But there
were also the very many that didgo wrong, you know, and those
were the ones that we were mostmost terrified about because
(34:40):
there wasn't really anything wecould do and we weren't we
weren't midwives we know how tohandle those situations. And we
weren't really trained for thosesituations. So yeah, you just
kind of have prayed that itwould never happen to you
basically.
Vanessa (34:59):
Yeah, there's not the turn. meaning you don't have the
equipment. You know? If you'reactually on the road, like, What
the fuck do you do? I've been inthe back of an ambulance. And
they are pretty rowdy. Theythere's, you're just sitting
there bouncing all over theplace. It's and I can't even
imagine. I mean, I imagine itwould shake a baby out half the
(35:20):
time.
Sarah Wayte (35:22):
Probably.
Vanessa (35:26):
What about under dispatch level? She'd ever have
anything like, why would happenthere?
Sarah Wayte (35:39):
I mean, there were lots of stories, but we from
from the a lot of it was being adispatcher, we were probably
more distance to because we hadthe we were we were talking with
the ambulance crews as opposedto the patients. But we would
hear their stories through themand kind of almost like live
vicariously through them. Ithink there was, I've remember a
paramedic calling us and sayingthis baby is stuck. This is
(36:03):
another baby story. Why are theywhy am I telling all the baby
stories, but this is what itwas. This baby is in trouble.
Yeah. And we need help. Where'sthe midwife and the midwife was
a long, long way away from them.
So we had to speak to them overthe phone and say, right you
need to perform, the midwifewants you to perform in a Peasy
autonomy, which is where theycut the woman. And the two male
paramedics were horrified at theprospect of having to do this to
(36:28):
a poor woman who actuallyprobably was probably like, just
like, just do it because it'sgonna, you know, help, but they
did it. And they delivered thebaby safely. And the midwife
arrived. And they said, everyonegoes to the hospital, and they
took the baby to the hospital.
And I remember afterwardscalling the crew and saying Are
you okay, because neither. Ithink neither one of them were
(36:51):
parents. At that point. I thinkone of them had a baby on the
way. And that was that was it.
They just hadn't ever dealt withthat situation before. And my my
guy I spoke to sounded veryshell shocked. He was like,
Yeah, I think we're okay, but mycrew mate is currently throwing
up in the flower bushes acrossthe ways. It was it was a
situation where you just wantedto like hold, you know, give him
(37:12):
a big cuddle and everything,because it must have been
horrific for them. But they gotthrough it and somehow carried
on doing their jobs for the nexthowever many years. So, yes,
there's a lot of things I thinkhappened in the ambulance
service that you kind of justyou put it into a place and then
you try not to think about itever again. It definitely it has
a real impact. One of the thingsthat I started talking about a
(37:33):
lot before I left was how, youknow, so many paramedics I knew
were struggling with like posttraumatic stress and, you know,
mental health issues, and butyou couldn't ever really talk
about it because you were aparamedic, and people look to
you to care for everybody else,you know, if the if the carer is
struggling, then what you know,how is anyone else going to
(37:55):
manage kind of thing, but it wassomething we saw an awful lot.
And it was one of the reasons Iknew I had to get out as well.
Vanessa (38:05):
And I don't blame you at all, I would have absolutely
just lost my mind if I wouldhave shut down. And under
dispatch or the paramedic level.
So I have tons of respect forpeople that can do that. Because
I'm just not built that way. Sowhen it comes to copy and
(38:27):
photography, what's your breadand butter? What's your favorite
thing to do for people?
Sarah Wayte (38:34):
Websites, I love writing people's websites for
them, it's usually because whenby the time they come around to
thinking about hiring acopywriter, they've got a DIY
website, usually that they'vedone themselves. And I sort of
come in and go, Okay, we'regonna fix all of this. Now this
this doesn't need to be on thispage. And we need to put this
over here and, you know, kind ofread just reimagining even like
(38:56):
the path through their websitefor them, which they didn't
really take into considerationbefore. And I love being able to
do that and show them that, youknow, the, the just that how
different it can be when theystart to talk when they start
talking about themselves all thetime and actually talk about
their the kind of clients thatthey want to work with and what
they do and how they helppeople. That's that's all of
(39:17):
that when by the time we get tothe end of it. It's usually a
really fun experience of like,oh, that's that's what a website
should look like.
Vanessa (39:25):
Yeah, like a lot of people are like what anyone can
do make a website. That's notnecessarily true. Like even me
being pretty, pretty creativeperson. I use a crutch in that I
do my websites, the podcast andmy photography through
Squarespace. Because sometimesit's nice to just build a drag
(39:46):
and drop ship on there. Butcoming in with like actual copy,
talking about yourself. It'smuch better to hire someone to
do it for you because, like inyour case, like you said how
people can communicate to you indifferent ways, like some can
fill out a form, or some have todo it verbally. And so you
(40:06):
actually learn about them andlearn how they tick. And you can
see their business from anoutsider's perspective. And it's
easy to get lost in the littledetails of things, when you're
when you're in the business andlose interest of anybody that is
(40:27):
perusing your page. So
Sarah Wayte (40:30):
yeah, it's a it's a, I mean, even from the
perspective of trying to writemy own website I've done it is
still very hard. It's so muchharder to write about yourself
and to sell yourself to otherpeople, I think. But yeah,
there's a I mean, what was Igonna say? There we go. ADHD is
(40:51):
just kicked in after the thoughtthat was in my brain has flown
away completely. Oh, wait. Oh,what were we talking about? We
were talking about websites.
That's
Vanessa (41:02):
just Yeah, websites and your own copy? Yes.
Sarah Wayte (41:05):
writing your own copy is yeah, it's even from the
perspective of being acopywriter writing your own
copies? super difficult. Istruggle with it, too. I think
it's just something very muchabout the idea of, it's even
like, when you know, somethingin your business, it's so much
easier to hear somebody else sayit to you. I think that's one
(41:28):
why we get coaches why coachesdo so? Well, because we need,
you know, when I've worked withother people, I've worked with a
coach, for example, and they'vetold me something that I've I've
known all along. But for somereason, when someone else says
it to you from outside, it justlands differently than it does
with yourself. Yeah. And I thinkthat's the same with with copy.
(41:48):
Basically, it's, I mean, Ialways sort of say to people,
when there's no, there's nomagic to what I do. I talk to my
clients, I ask them a ton ofquestions. I do things like
this, where I record whatthey're saying. And then I go
away, and I take their words,and I put them in their in their
copy. And then they go and readthe stuff. And they're like, Oh,
this is really great. Where didyou get this from? And I'm like
(42:10):
you said it, this is what yousaid, I'm just giving you your
words back to you. And it comesacross as being this very
magical thing. But it's reallynot at all it's just, it's fun
to be able to show them theyalready know their stuff, they
just need someone to kind ofrefine your message for them.
Vanessa (42:27):
To trust the insights of others, especially someone
who is is a creative like Sarah,or previous episodes, Gianna,
and Emily, the copywriter I hadon a couple episodes ago, like
she was saying the same thingthat, you know, writing copy for
about yourself is fucking hard.
So if you're struggling, don'tdo it alone. Reach out in touch
(42:52):
a copywriter or
Sarah Wayte (43:00):
give me some of our coffee magic.
Vanessa (43:02):
So trying to get in close to the end here. Is there
anything else you wanted to talkabout? While we're on the air or
on the recording, or whatever itis? I
Sarah Wayte (43:13):
goodness, I don't know if we've kind of meandered
a little bit around like my myworld real release. If you made
sense of any well done is what Iwill say if
Vanessa (43:24):
you made sense of our conversation, you're
neurodiverse because we bouncedon the workplace. It was not
linear.
Sarah Wayte (43:30):
Most probably Yeah, definitely. And also Yeah, I
guess maybe the only thing Iwould I would really like to add
is that, you know, I when Ifirst came to the idea that I
might be neurodiverse neurospicy ADHD or you know, whatever
you want to call the things.
There was definitely a sense of,oh, well, there was there were
lots of feelings. There wasabject horror, I think, grief,
(43:54):
shock, surprise, you know, andthen finally, acceptance,
acceptance did come eventually.
But I think if you're if you'rein that position where you're
think where you think you mightbe. It's, I think it's nice to
know, I found it really nice toknow when I was in that stage
(44:16):
that actually, it's not the endof the world. It's, you know,
you will figure this out. And itmight take a little while until
you find your way. And you'redefinitely not alone. In fact,
there are way more of us nowthan they ever realized there
was before, so
Vanessa (44:30):
don't consider it a weakness either. neurodiversity
in all its myriad forms. It's asuperpower. But remember, all
superheroes have a weakness. Soyou have to be able to adapt
with that like being autistic. Isee the world differently from
other people. It also means Istruggle a lot with a lot of
(44:50):
things. So you have to you know,adapt as you go. And don't be
afraid to reach out and if youfeel this certain way, if you
pop on Reddit type in how youfeel like what's going on your
brain, like Does anyone elserandomly think of video game
(45:13):
soundtracks every time they getin the shower happens to me. I
guarantee you someone else does.
And you can start connecting thedots, you can build a community
that way, you can have some funconversations, and just learn a
lot about yourself. Most of ourlisteners are in the US. So
(45:35):
actually finding therapy, andmental health professionals and
stuff like that is out of reachfor a lot of people,
unfortunately, which is fuckingstupid. But if you have any sort
of insurance, dive into it tosee what you can get covered,
and just talk to people even goto support groups, find some
(45:58):
support groups in your area,Google, Facebook, whatever, I'm
sure some things will pop up.
And you're not alone. You know,Sarah, and I, you know, we come
from, quite literally, like halfa world apart. And we have a lot
(46:19):
of commonalities. The humanbrain is an absolutely wonderful
and horrible thing all at thesame time. So yeah, that's
definitely a good advice. Youknow, you're never too, you're
never too old to get diagnosed,just like you're never too old
to come out as any thing. And itcan provide a lot of answers.
(46:43):
But also remember, selfdiagnosis is valid. There are
many ways to test yourselfonline. There's a lot of studies
that have tests for all sorts ofneurodiversity online. And if
that helps you just get someanswers to explain some things.
And do it. Trust me, it's worthit to to get that load off your
(47:07):
chest. And to know that you arenot know that you're not alone.
So well, Sarah, I am so jealousof where you are right now. I
wish I could press a transporterand just come and go have a
coffee with you rather than sithere and red, Ohio. But thank
(47:30):
you so much for being on theshow. Where can people find you?
Sarah Wayte (47:35):
Oh, okay. Yes. So the easiest place is my website
is sarahwayte.com. And you canfind me on I'm mostly on
Instagram, as ceraweek creative.
So that's probably the easiestplace to find me. And my my VA
makes me do reels and thingslike that. But I mostly I like
the stories. That's mostly whereyou'll find me. So
Vanessa (47:59):
Instagrams probably my favorite of the platforms. So I
use Facebook the most becausethat's where I get my clients.
But I do wish Instagram movedback towards the photography
side of it over the video side,because it's a whole different
(48:19):
monster trying to create reelsand reels and Tiktok. You know,
there's a lot of carryoverbetween the two and trying to
come up with the hook and allthat stuff so badly. Yeah, yeah.
So yeah, check out Sarah. And doyou work with people from
anywhere or just locally? Likeif someone if a listener wants
(48:39):
to hire you to make them a site?
Sarah Wayte (48:41):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I've got clients all
over the world. I'm working withsomeone in Australia at the
moment and someone in UK andEurope, but as long as it's
English speaking, that is theonly language I can do. But yes,
pretty much anywhere. Well,
Vanessa (48:54):
that's perfect that because, yeah, especially if you
are neurodiverse and you'relooking for someone who kind of
gets you understands how yourbrain works, because just some
neurotypical creatives might notunderstand it. So look up,
Sarah. And please, Sara, we'llget some business out of this.
(49:15):
And hopefully we'll get somepatrons out of this. So don't
forget, like, comment,subscribe, but rate us five
stars on Apple and Spotify,whatever, we really need to get
that algorithm to keep pushingus up. I am hoping to have the
show by Iran at least breakingeven. Which would be very nice
because especially come wintershake. It's expensive for me. So
(49:39):
Sarah, thank you so much forjoining us are joining me on the
show. And next week, I don'tknow what's going to be
happening. I have it scheduled.
But I guess I can look it uphere so people know what's going
to happen next week. Oh, NikkiSmith. The death doula. I was on
her Cast comes out on July 17,which is actually gonna be
(50:05):
before this airs. So and this isalso a good test for the whole
live streaming thing. I don'tthink it's going to work. So,
unfortunately, I don't think I'mgoing to do a live stream
episode 50 Unless I can find abetter way. So. All right. Thank
you everyone for joining us.
Sara, thank you for your thankyou for being here. And see you
(50:27):
next week.
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