Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Amy Knott Parrish. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, Amy thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard
Unlike traditional coaching that emphasizes optimization and “highest potential,” I create a safe space for authentic self-expression and neurodivergent experiences. I help clients challenge systemic barriers rather than try to find hacks and tricks that make it possible to conform to or deal with them. I’ve abandoned the package-only approach common in the industry, offering flexible individual sessions to make coaching more accessible and organic. By offering free community co-working spaces like House Stuff and Money Stuff, I’m creating accessible support beyond traditional paid coaching relationships.
This difference matters because it allows my clients to truly step away from the constraints of conventional thinking and get curious about who they are. I encourage self-paced curiosity and learning instead of optimizing for high potential, profit, achievement, or productivity. For me, working with a coach is about self knowledge and expression. My coaching philosophy centers on questioning established norms and my practice represents my serious commitment to helping people rebel against society’s pressures to assimilate. My clients and I go beyond the goals of typical coaching- together we invite deep reflection, engage natural creativity, and invite fresh ways of thinking.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Rebelling is inspired by two big personal identity shifts: quitting drinking in December 2012 and creating my own unconventional recovery, and being diagnosed with ADHD and Autism 2024. Knowing I’m neurodivergent explained so much about my life and deepened my already strong commitment to self-understanding and rethinking what a fulfilling adult life looks like. Even though going against the grain comes naturally to me, I’ve often had to do it alone—and it hasn’t been easy. That’s why I’m passionate about supporting others who feel the strong pull to live a life that challenges norms and assumptions and all the power structures that create them.
I started blackout drinking when I was 14 years old, and I quit when I was 41. You might think it’s weird to say that I *decided* to quit- but that’s exactly what happened. I’d been to one AA meeting back when I was 23, but somehow I knew that AA wasn’t what would work for me. Instead of going to AA meetings every day, I started a blog called Soberbia, getting up at 5am every morning to write about what it was like to get sober. Being accountable to anyone who read my blog was a big reason I was able to not drink. It also helped to read other sober blogs, I had a couple sober pen pals, and started reading tons of self help books.
After about 6 months of sobriety, I joined a women’s recovery group. I left that group after about 9 months, and started individual therapy. I continued reading books and listening to podcasts- learning as much as I could about addiction, trauma, codependency, attachment theory, communication- all the ways to be a healthy, well adjusted human. You name it, I wanted to learn about it!
I’d been waiting tables as my full time job since I was about 20 years old. I dropped out of college my junior year, then went back in my mid 30’s (with an eye on law school), but had to quit when childcare fell through. After I quit drinking, I started thinking more seriously about what I really wanted to do with my life.
I did a trauma-informed yoga teacher training in 2015 and taught yoga for a bit, but it wasn’t what I wanted to be my life’s work. In 2016 I decided I’d go back to school to be a therapist. I was telling a close friend about my plans and she asked me if I’d ever heard of life coaching. She sent me an article about it she’d just read that day (!) and as I read it my jaw dropped!
THIS WAS IT!! I found what I was supposed to be when I grew up! I immediately started researching the best life coaching certifications and decided to go to iPEC. My parents generously offered to pay my tuition and I would pay them back. The training took a little over a year, and in 2017 I became a CPC- Certified Professional Coach.
I started my own coaching practice called AKP Coaching that same year, working with clients who wanted to find more self love and self trust. I also saw clients through the coaching platforms GrowthSpace and BetterUp. The experience of working with people on both personal and professional challenges made me a well-rounded coach, capable of helping clients with specific goals or with deeper inquiry.
After 7 years as AKP Coaching I knew I was ready for a change. Getting diagnosed with ADHD in April and then Autism in October of 2024 solidified that idea, and Rebellion Coaching was born. My new coaching practice represents my greater commitment to helping people rebel against society’s pressures to blend in. My diagnoses explained *so much* about my life and increased my already strong commitment to self-understanding and rethinking what a fulfilling adult life looks like. Even though going against the grain comes naturally to me, I’ve often had to do it alone—and it hasn’t been easy. That’s why I’m passionate about supporting others who feel the strong pull to live a life that challenges norms and assumptions and all the power structures that create them. It’s why, shortly after opening Rebellion Coaching, I created Rebelling. Rebelling is a home for neurodivergent humans- it’s a community, a coaching practice, a blog/newsletter, a podcast (look for it in April 2025!), and a resource. They all explore what it’s like after diagnosis, how to break free from societal expectations, making sense of life and of yourself, and creating meaningful change in a world that force feeds conventionality.
The thing I am most proud of is my commitment to trying new things, widening perspectives, and thinking outside the typical boxes. My work is based on lived experience and years of study fed by curiosity and a deep longing for well being. What I most want people to know about me is that I am a rebel, but I am a thoughtful, steady rebel. To me, rebelling against normality is an act of disobedience that honors our humanity and our world.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Being a small business owner is a testament to resilience. It’s such a strange thing to be totally responsible for your own livelihood, and such a wonderful thing to be totally responsible for your own livelihood. When I first started my coaching business eight years ago I was still waiting tables full time. I would have clients during the day and evenings when I wasn’t working, coupled with being married, taking care of two kids (12 and 8 when I started) and other life stuff. It was tough to juggle it all!
Being new at something is hard, and not only was I trying to run a business- which I had no idea how to do- I was also responsible for bringing in money to help support our family. The ebbs and flows were and are still the hardest part- I thought once I started getting clients I would just keep getting clients- tada! That was kind of true, I do- but at the same time there were many lean months of nothing new happening that seemed to last forever. It really did something to my confidence when I would be in a client drought- I would start to have self doubt, worry that I really didn’t know what I was doing, think that I was going to have go back to waiting tables, go back to school and get a few degrees.
It took me about five years to settle in to the ups and downs of owning my own business. Something that really helped is the advice my long time best friend (who is a successful small biz owner herself) gave me when I was first starting out. She said “You can’t quit until you’re ten years in. You have to give it ten years, and if it still isn’t working, then you can try something else.” I turn to that advice every time I start to doubt myself. (I still have two years to go before I hit the ten year mark!)
What her advice slowly built for me was a deep sense of trust in myself and my business. That trust helped me quit waiting tables two years ago and coach full time- with my own clients and trying out working for a corporate coaching company. I’ve never worked in the 9-5 corporate world so I didn’t think I could do executive coaching. I remember when I got my first clients, how nervous I was! Would they be able to tell I wasn’t fluent in corporate speak? Would they think I was a total hack, even though I had six years of coaching experience and was fully certified? It turns out my lack of corporate experience was the thing that helped me coach best. I remember in that first executive coaching session, I decided to just take the chance and be myself.
That experience has given me the confidence to guide my business in my own direction, and it’s what led me to the creation of Rebelling, and being willing to talk about it while it’s still wearing it’s first new feathers. It’s what gives me the willingness to be open about my Autism and ADHD, and was what over twelve years ago inspired me to be open about my sobriety and recovery. My resilience has been created and shaped by seeing that, no matter what, I am willing to try, and I always, always, have my own back.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
When I started my business in 2017 I was trying to do it “right”. That to me meant trying to do what other people were doing, so I looked like I knew what I was doing. I hired someone to build me a website, one that looked like other people’s websites. I tried to figure out how to do social media. I paid to join professional organizations. I did loads of continuing ed.
But when it came to talking about what I did I couldn’t figure out what to say. It felt like the image I was supposed to project as a coach and the person I am never matched. In sessions with clients I’m totally comfortable, but when I tried marketing myself I felt lost. I didn’t understand why I couldn’t just make myself go to networking events, do marketing things like sales funnels or freebies, or spend hours making reels- enthusiastically hopping around in the right outfit while I raved about how I change people’s lives, or planning Instagram and Facebook posts- like, none of that was for me.
I’d been feeling like changing things like my website and my biz structure for a long time. But I worried…what if I did that, and went broke? Then I discovered that I’m Autistic and ADHD (AuDHD) in 2024, and it explained a LOT of things.
Why easy things are hard for me. Why I feel like I’m missing something all. the. time. Why I couldn’t spend time on things I’m not remotely interested in. Knowing I am multiply neurodivergent clicked the right lenses into place and for the first time I could see myself clearly. It validated the sense that I wanted to do things differently. Getting on meds for my ADHD helped things make more sense. Learning about my autistic self helped me stop judging myself. It started the pivot in my business.
Getting my diagnoses gave me the energy to pivot. To unmask in my marketing. To stop trying to look like what I was shown and taught a small business owner *should* look and sound like, and instead try looking and sounding like…me.
I got to work with a renewed sense of purpose.
I redesigned and built my website, choosing colors, fonts, and graphics that reveal my personality. I rewrote my copy. I gave myself the freedom to try things, to experiment and see what works when it comes to everything- my rates, how I do sessions, what support I offer clients, who I want to be in the business world. What I want to represent. How I want to make my life’s work. Rebelling- coaching, writing, and connecting that’s dedicated to figuring out how ND folks can face our emerging future with curiosity and backbone- was born from this freedom.
It’s hard to write about a pivot when you’re in the midst of it. It’s where I am now, in the turning. It feels like a turning towards. and it’s not a finished story. But perhaps the most important part of the pivot has already happened: the willingness to turn.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.rebelling.me/
- Other: https://sober-bia.blogspot.com/
