Life, Values & Legacy: Our Chat with Amy Pickard of Mid-City

We’re looking forward to introducing you to Amy Pickard. Check out our conversation below.

Amy, so good to connect and we’re excited to share your story and insights with our audience. There’s a ton to learn from your story, but let’s start with a warm up before we get into the heart of the interview. Have any recent moments made you laugh or feel proud?
A client called me to tell me his Dad was going into hospice and he asked me for some helpful tips to share with his family. The first thing I thought of was “Be aware of what is sonically happening.” I told him the story of walking into the ICU to visit my Dad and the obnoxious sounds of the gameshow ‘The Price Is Right’ blaring! All I could think of was, ‘Are the last sounds my dad hears will be the bells and whistles of TPIR? COME ON DOWN!!!!’ I turned off the TV immediately. This most recent client then called me after his Dad passed away and told me that he instantly thought of my advice when he walked into the hospice room to find his entire family watching the news! He knew it was loud and abrasive, so he turned off the news and put on his Dad’s favorite audiobook that he often listened to, which was Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’, read aloud in a soothing British accent. My client told me that he noticed his Dad instantly relax and be at peace. When he told me that, I cried and was so PROUD that Good To Go! impacted him so much that he changed a tiny detail that made the death experience for his Dad more peaceful! What a gift!

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Good To Go! is an unconventional advance planning company that helps people get organized and prepared for their deaths while they are young and healthy. Death is such an intense topic, I use humor and my personal experience with death and grief after my entire family passed away within a four-year period. I created an over 50-page booklet called the Good To Go! Departure File that contains all of the everyday details not included in a will or trust.

Good To Go! provides private consultations but we also facilitate advance planning parties that include a pot luck dish to share (based on a loved one’s recipes), a rock and roll death-themed soundtrack (Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door, Stairway to Heaven, Another One Bites The Dust, etc…), and cocktails because if you’re talking about the hard stuff, you might need to drink the hard stuff! With laughs and possibly a few tears, we go through what everyone needs to know before something happens to them, but in this case, it’s a fun environment with no pressure or urgency! They’ve been jokingly called ‘Death Tupperware parties’!

I created this company after having to face the death duties by myself and finding myself in the impossible position of grieving AND playing detective to get the answers not left behind by my relatives. I have found that if a pill for grief was invented to make the experience easier, everyone would want to buy it instantly! However, there isn’t one, but ADVANCE PLANNING makes grief easier, less complicated and it conserves valuable energy and time when you need it most. In a way, Advance Planning is that grief pill everyone needs to take.

I went live every week for three years on the G2G! Facebook page for a show called “Grievers and Groovers”. Because FB threatened to delete any videos over a year old, I uploaded all those lives to my Good To Go! You Tube channel. Though it is a ‘replay’ of those live shows, I still feel there is some amazing, practical advice on how to get through death and grief, so I post a ‘new’ old video every Saturday and it’s been a trip to watch old clips, but the humor and good advice still shines through, so please like and subscribe to the G2G! You Tube page!

Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
When my family died, I knew that I could be of service. My mantra has always been, ‘How can my talents best serve others?’. My mom’s death helped me realize how society is unprepared to face the deaths of their loved ones and their grief is kept in the dark. I now see the world as running on limited time. The leading cause of death is BIRTH and we are all going to die. We need to have the difficult, awkward conversations, and by knowing we will be able to get through the hard times in life. Not many people take time to consider their deaths (which is really about the life they are leading) and I’m here to try and convince people that there is a more positive, healthy perspective! It’s my purpose to give people an instruction manual to leave behind for their loved ones.

Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
Every day? I am a female and own a small business that is trying to empower people to face a subject they don’t want to face. I’m trying to convince them of a peace they don’t know they’re going to need yet, but because it’s abstract, it’s a tough sell! It is difficult to try and bring awareness to a topic that is normally viewed as ‘morbid’ or ‘negative’. I almost give up on a daily basis, but I want to make sure my pain is channeled into purpose, so I keep moving forward regardless!

So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. Whom do you admire for their character, not their power?
I love that Stephen Colbert and Anderson Cooper are talking openly and profoundly about death and grief. I initially considered Good To Go! as a Death Positive company, but now I feel it’s more of a GRIEF POSITIVE company because it lessens the heaviness of grief if one has planned and left behind specific instructions for their loved ones. Anderson Cooper is consistently revealing his grief journey to his podcast listeners and I know by sharing stories of his grief, he is helping all of us work through the bizarre, strange process. I’d love to just give him a hug and help him clear out his mom’s house. I’d consider it a dream to be a guest on his podcast.

Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. When have you had to bet the company?
I’ve had to bet the company from the beginning as I’ve poured everything I have into Good To Go! I am without a pension and retirement savings, so it’s been a difficult process trying to survive as an entrepreneur! But I have zero regrets, because I moved all my ‘chips’ onto the unyielding belief that I can cut through the chaos of pop culture today and bring a truthful, necessary approach to living a better life by planning for death. I never thought of myself as a gambler, but I suppose I have gambled my life and energy to help empower others so that they don’t have to go through what I went through!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.goodtogopeace.org
• Instagram: @goodtogopeace
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amypickardgoodtogopeace/
• Facebook: @goodtogpeace
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@goodtogo7391