Changing-state active galactic nuclei (CS-AGN) do not align with our current understanding of AGN physics. In this short paper, we report recent work on Mrk 1018, a CS-AGN candidate at $z=0.043$ exhibiting dramatic, broadband spectro-photometric variability on a timescale of $\sim10$ years, which provides new insights into the CS-AGN phenomenon. A comprehensive analysis of the X-ray spectra, optical-to-X-ray spectral energy distribution, and photometry suggests that Mrk 1018 is indeed a CS-AGN. Indeed, evidence for the activation or strengthening of a relativistic jet during the state transition, similarly to what happens in star-black hole X-ray binaries, is compelling. It is further speculated that the transition is caused by the close passage of a gaseous cloud near the accretion disk, linking sub-parsec accretion physics to the large-scale phenomena occurring in the host galaxy.