Today we’d like to introduce you to LATOYA Clark.
Hi LATOYA, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My story is still unfolding, but a big part of it has been learning how to keep dreaming while living with chronic illness and pain. I know what it feels like to have ideas, ambition, and purpose while your body requires you to slow down or change direction. That experience shapes both my work and the way I connect with people.
Through Butterfly Chats, I work as a Social Wellness Consultant, encouraging thrivers with chronic illness and pain to rebuild confidence, advocate for themselves, and pursue goals that respect their capacity. I want people to have access to understandable information and meaningful support, especially when they feel unheard or unsure of what comes next.
That purpose also carries into my writing. I’m the author of The Iron Butterfly, a romantic suspense novella that includes chronic illness representation. It matters to me that people living with illness can see themselves in stories that also make room for love, ambition, complexity, and possibility.
Getting here has meant learning, adjusting, and continuing at a pace I can sustain. I’m still building my business, growing as an author, and finding opportunities to bring education and encouragement into the community. Through all of it, my message remains the same: your capacity may change, but your dreams still deserve room to grow.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Oh! Far from it. One of the biggest struggles has been building a business and pursuing my writing while living with chronic illness and pain. Having the vision doesn’t always mean having the physical capacity to carry it out that day. Sometimes the ambition is there, but the spoons the energy available to me are already spoken for.
I have to approach things differently. An appointment or event doesn’t just take up the hours I’m there; I also have to account for preparation, transportation, and recovery afterward. I can’t fill every open space on my calendar and assume my body will catch up. Sometimes I need to work seated or from bed, record several pieces of content when I have the capacity, or break a project into smaller steps instead of pushing through until it’s finished.
Even showing up for an opportunity requires planning that people may never see. The invisible math of is the space accessible? Will I have help carrying materials? How much energy will I have left afterward for everyday needs? An opportunity can be exciting and still require more than I can reasonably give. Learning to make those decisions without treating my limits as personal failures has been a process.
There’s also the challenge of putting your work out into the world and not always seeing an immediate return. I’ve had to learn from those experiences, adjust my approach, and keep building without making every outcome a judgment on my worth or the value of my work.
Those lessons inform what I offer through Butterfly Chats and the She’s Rising Collective. Through the SPARC framework, I teach women to recognize their capacity and organize their lives around it. We look at what their responsibilities require, what matters most, and where they need support or a different approach. The goal is to make room for their ambitions in a way that also respects their everyday needs.
I’m still learning, too. But I’m much clearer now that my health, peace, and values have to be part of the plan from the beginning.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Butterfly Chats?
Butterfly Chats is built around a belief that your diagnosis does not erase your ambition, creativity, or purpose. As a Social Wellness Consultant, I help thrivers with chronic illness and pain find the confidence and courage to dream again, while making practical room for the realities of their lives.
My work brings together education, self-advocacy, and capacity-aware planning. I focus on helping women understand what they have available physically, mentally, and emotionally, and use that understanding to make decisions about their goals, responsibilities, and businesses. Capacity can change, so the plan needs room to change, too.
Through the She’s Rising Collective, I teach women to recognize their capacity and organize their lives around it. That can mean breaking a goal into manageable steps, setting boundaries around availability, identifying where support is needed, or creating a schedule that accounts for rest and recovery. Those decisions matter when you’re trying to build something meaningful with limited energy.
I also offer one-on-one Dream Builder Sessions for women who want focused support clarifying a goal and identifying realistic next steps. My speaking and educational work creates space for conversations about chronic illness, disability, medical invalidation, and the everyday experience of navigating a world that often assumes everyone has the same capacity.
I also provide professional training for healthcare providers and care teams who serve people living with chronic illness and pain. These trainings bring the patient’s lived experience into the conversation, with a focus on respectful communication, recognizing medical invalidation, and understanding how a person’s daily capacity affects their ability to follow through with care recommendations.
What sets Butterfly Chats apart is that lived experience informs the way I approach planning and support. Before encouraging someone to add another task, I want to understand what their day already requires. Getting dressed, preparing food, attending appointments, and managing a household all draw from the same energy they need for creating content, sending an email and other daily task. Our plans have to account for that.
Brand wise, I’m most proud of making room for honesty and possibility in the same conversation. A woman should be able to say, “This is hard, and I need help,” and still be taken seriously as someone with ideas, skills, and something valuable to offer.
That purpose also extends into my creative work. My romantic suspense novella, The Iron Butterfly, includes chronic illness representation because we deserve to see ourselves in stories with love, ambition, complexity, and adventure.
I want readers to know they don’t have to have everything figured out before connecting with Butterfly Chats. Whether through The She’s Rising Collective, a Dream Builder Session, or an educational conversation, my goal is to help women see possibilities and take steps that fit the lives they actually live. For those building a business or finding their voice, my invitation is simple: let’s build your brand together.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
What I like best about Dothan is the openness I’ve experienced in bringing chronic illness awareness into the community. Our local commissioners and mayor acknowledged that work by awarding Butterfly Chats a proclamation recognizing May 12 as Fibromyalgia Awareness Day in the city of Dothan. Seeing that recognition from our local leadership meant a great deal to me, both personally and professionally. It helps make an often invisible experience more visible.
I’m also encouraged by the variety of events happening in Dothan and the surrounding Wiregrass area. I recently participated in the Opp Local Author Book Fair, and I’ll be a vendor at a community wellness event in October. These opportunities give local authors, businesses, and educators a place to connect with people and share what we offer.
Another area that excites me is our local medical education community, including our hospitals, medical students, and physicians completing their residency training. I see opportunities to bring lived experience into those learning spaces and help future and current providers better understand the everyday realities of chronic illness and pain.
What I’d most like to see improve is accessibility, especially transportation and the practical support that allows people with disabilities to participate in community life. As someone who uses mobility aids, I have to consider how I’ll get somewhere, whether I can navigate the space, and whether seating or assistance will be available. That planning can determine whether I’m able to attend at all.
I’d love to see accessibility become a routine part of planning events, services, and community spaces. There is so much potential here, and I want thrivers with chronic illness and pain to have meaningful opportunities to contribute to it.
Pricing:
- She’s Rising Collective: $88 per month.
- One-on-one Dream Builder Session: $111.
- Speaking engagements: Starting at $6,500.
- Professional training for healthcare providers and care teams: Contact Butterfly Chats for a quote based on your organization’s needs.
- The Iron Butterfly on Amazon: Paperback $20; Kindle edition $8.98.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.butterflychats.com
- Instagram: @latoya__clark_
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@butterflychat
