0:00

I think the combination of doing

0:02

educational effort that was very

0:04

natural to me . Then

0:06

my products existed and it was solving a real

0:08

need . I never had a

0:11

marketing person consistently

0:13

. I would build my own website , maintain

0:16

it myself and just word of mouth people

0:18

are using and then they liked

0:20

the product . And then , once you fall into

0:22

the Smarty , the smart ears apps , they

0:25

got familiar with how it worked . And

0:28

then , 70 products later , they

0:31

would rather come back for another

0:33

one of our 70 than pick

0:35

a separate one that they don't know about

0:38

. Or is this good ?

0:46

Welcome to the Speech Source Podcast

0:48

. My name is Mary Brezik .

0:50

And I'm Kim Dillon . We are two

0:52

pediatric speech-language pathologists

0:54

with a combined 25 years of

0:56

experience .

0:58

We are your source for speech , language

1:00

feeding , play and much more in

1:02

between . Language

1:06

feeding , play and much more in between . This season , on the

1:08

Speed Source Podcast , we are going to be interviewing 12 incredible

1:10

SLP entrepreneurs who have all

1:12

built their own businesses . Some

1:15

of these women are app designers

1:17

, content and digital course creators

1:20

. Some are podcast hosts , speakers

1:22

, coaches , business

1:24

owners so much more

1:26

. These women are going to give us all

1:28

the inside scoop on how it's

1:31

done as a speech pathologist

1:33

, going off and building

1:35

your own business . So join

1:37

us each week as we hear their journey

1:39

and how they built their SLP

1:42

business .

1:43

On today's episode we have Barbara

1:46

Fernandes . She is an SLP

1:48

best-selling author , CEO

1:51

and founder of Smarty Ears and

1:53

Smarty Symbols , and she's also an advocate

1:56

and educator , and we are so

1:58

excited to have her on today to

2:00

talk about her journey

2:02

as an entrepreneur and how she got started

2:04

. So welcome , Barbara . Thank you so much for being

2:07

here . Thanks for inviting me . This

2:09

is fun . So

2:16

if you'll just tell us a little bit about you , how you became a speech therapist

2:18

and just into this , whole world as an entrepreneur .

2:20

I am originally from Brazil , so I actually

2:22

grew up there until I was 21 . And

2:24

that's where I started my journey . I

2:28

went to university there for my undergraduate

2:30

and I was 17 years old . Anything

2:34

that I say now to give any

2:36

kind of emotional

2:38

, inspiring reason to become

2:41

an SLP is just fake . Because

2:44

I was 17 years old , I

2:46

went into . No

2:48

, I don't like blood or medical

2:50

things . I'm not good

2:53

with visual , spatial things

2:55

. I want to be within healthcare

2:58

. I do not want to be a PT

3:00

let's see what speech therapy is about

3:02

. So that's how I got started

3:04

and luckily I

3:07

found a way to continue being myself

3:09

and doing the things I like within this field .

3:12

So then , after 21

3:14

, where did you get your master's degree ? And

3:16

then , when you came over to the States

3:18

, where did you land ?

3:21

In Brazil we have publicly

3:23

funded universities and that's . We

3:25

also have private ones , but we

3:27

are really proud of our publicly

3:30

funded universities as the top ones . Exchange

3:32

student program to bring four students from Brazil , with all

3:34

expenses paid , to do an . It's

3:48

not an internship , but it was a program right

3:51

, and I was

3:53

one of these four students that

3:55

they basically paid for everything

3:58

, housing , and I ended up at Temple University

4:00

in Philadelphia and the focus

4:02

was AAC . The concept

4:04

of this project was to

4:06

bring some students to learn how

4:09

the US is doing AAC

4:12

and bring it back to Brazil after the six

4:14

months and then have American

4:16

students go and

4:19

learn . How are you guys managing

4:21

this with nothing ? Because

4:24

there's a lot to be learned when we

4:26

really have nothing . You

4:28

have to be creative with solutions just

4:30

to help people communicate . We don't have access

4:32

to a printer when you have

4:34

software that is not in your language and

4:37

you don't speak that language . You still need to figure

4:39

this out . So I think , for the

4:41

students who did end up going to Brazil

4:44

, they also learned a lot , so I ended up coming . Students who did end up going to Brazil they also learned a lot , so

4:46

I ended up coming here . Obviously , I didn't

4:48

go back for the six months I went back but then

4:50

ended up returning after

4:53

I finished a project and I

4:55

ended up finishing my undergraduate in Philadelphia

4:57

at Temple University Long

4:59

crazy story with transferring credits

5:02

. In Brazil , you actually

5:04

are both an SLP and an audiologist

5:06

. I was on my last semester , so

5:08

I have a whole background in

5:10

audiology , speech pathology . I was already

5:13

in internship doing audiology

5:15

testing , all those fancy machines

5:17

back from 2004 . And

5:19

I had to end up choosing being an

5:21

SLP . That was the route I

5:23

decided to do . Then

5:32

ended up in Texas because I got a scholarship for my master's

5:34

and no student debt there on that aspect of tuition and

5:36

an emphasis in bilingual , since I ended

5:38

up learning Spanish , even though a lot of

5:40

people think , oh , you're Brazilian , you speak Spanish , brazilians

5:42

speak Portuguese . So

5:45

I ended up learning Spanish in the process

5:47

of learning English , because I didn't know English either at

5:49

the time and then got my master's , learned

5:51

Spanish and that's in that period

5:54

of four years . I finished my undergraduate

5:56

, learned English , spanish and got the master's . Wow

5:58

.

5:58

Wow . And this is not when you're five

6:00

. This is when you are a young

6:02

adult , you're learning English .

6:04

Yes , I was 21 .

6:06

Yes , that must give you so much compassion

6:09

for the children that you work

6:11

with , who are learning the crazy

6:13

nuances of English . It

6:16

is nothing like Spanish and Portuguese .

6:18

Not only that , actually it adds

6:20

a lot of perspective for the

6:23

kids that we are supporting too . A

6:25

lot of people see individuals who

6:27

come and they don't speak the language

6:29

that is spoken by the majority as

6:32

less than , and you start even having things

6:34

attached to cognition , right , smart

6:38

, because you talk like this . And

6:41

so when you think of our own students right

6:43

, how much they get judged when

6:45

people blending , how well

6:48

they communicate to , how well

6:50

they can perform on so many different tasks

6:53

of us as we have as human beings , so

6:55

it does open up that perspective

6:57

that I did not have before 21 .

7:00

I think back about that grad

7:02

school experience and everything you're trying to

7:04

learn and process for this field

7:06

in general , and then , on top of that , you're

7:09

learning two languages , changing

7:11

your complete environment

7:13

. That's a lot happening

7:15

at one time .

7:17

Yeah , but I think the cool thing here is that

7:19

, because the program in Brazil is actually

7:21

a combined master's and undergrad , I

7:24

felt that I was coming

7:26

in with a lot of our content

7:28

, information , and

7:30

I was learning the language and the nuances

7:33

of , for example , specifics

7:36

on assessment of bilingual students , for example

7:38

, right , and even though I had a training , we

7:40

don't have a lot of bilingual kids in Brazil

7:43

, so it's not something that I would even think about that

7:45

. It's needed because the culture and

7:47

the population is so different and unique . Or

7:50

phonetics yes , I had taken phonetics

7:52

and Portuguese , so you know

7:54

already the concept . You're just

7:56

translating some of this knowledge

7:58

as you're picking out the language .

8:00

So it helped . That probably

8:03

was a good match for AAC

8:05

. When you're really thinking more conceptually

8:08

versus specific

8:10

language , the grammar

8:12

, yeah , yeah , I

8:15

really want to get to all the amazing things

8:17

you've created . But just so we

8:19

understand your story , where

8:22

was your first job working with

8:24

students ? Were you ever in the schools or hospitals

8:26

, or what kind of settings have you been in ?

8:29

Yeah , so I actually worked

8:31

here in Texas at public school and

8:34

the interesting thing of that first

8:36

job is that you throw

8:38

in into a system that you didn't go through

8:40

. So this is actually

8:43

much harder , I feel . For me

8:45

, even learning the nuances of what

8:47

first , second grade

8:49

and all of that is involved and how teachers

8:52

move around the culture of the workplace

8:54

as an SLP , it was harder than

8:57

actual roles of an

8:59

SLP , which is something we don't think often when

9:01

people are coming from different

9:03

cultures . Didn't grow up . He didn't go to school

9:05

here . Yes , I worked in pre-k

9:07

servancy , primarily

9:10

100 percent spanish-speaking students

9:12

in the schools , and then I

9:15

started my business when I was working in the schools

9:17

and in the transition into

9:19

the business full-time . I did home health evaluations so I was doing a lot of bilingual

9:21

vows for a couple companies at the time when I was transitioning to the

9:23

full-time . I did home health evaluations , so I was doing a lot of by the new vows

9:25

for a couple of companies at

9:28

the time when I was transitioning to the full-time in the

9:30

business .

9:31

So you had the background in AAC

9:33

from the program that you were in , and

9:35

is that something that you felt developed

9:38

naturally a passion for

9:41

that or was it something you just felt knowledgeable

9:43

about and there was something missing here when you

9:45

started working with kids that you wanted to implement

9:47

? Or how did you stick to

9:49

that one area ?

9:52

Actually it is a bunch of 360s

9:55

In Brazil . I

9:57

wanted to be a voice therapist . All

10:00

my books , all the extra things that

10:02

you don't have , and it was on voice

10:04

. I was like fan

10:06

of this SLP in Brazil

10:08

that had tons of voice books . I

10:10

had a book signed by her . This was

10:13

what I was going to be as an SLP . In

10:15

Brazil we have Carnival , have all these singers

10:17

. I was going to be the SLP working

10:19

on top of one I don't know if you've seen some of these trucks

10:21

. I was going to work with those people

10:23

, those singers , as an SLP on voice

10:25

therapy . That was going

10:27

to be my job . So from

10:30

that to AAC is like massive

10:32

transition . Right , because from

10:34

there , when I came here and started

10:36

learning Spanish , not

10:39

only I wasn't doing technology , aac

10:41

or voice , I was actually working

10:43

with bilingual students , which

10:46

is very different from all the other two

10:48

options . I was doing almost no AAC

10:51

. I was doing nothing

10:53

related to voice . It's something I wouldn't even work and

10:55

do in the schools to begin with . So

10:58

the transition

11:00

into doing a lot of technology I'm doing today

11:02

it is actually

11:05

on the other end of technology

11:08

, where technology meets our field as opposed

11:10

to where AAC is , I

11:12

end up going to AAC , but it's later on in

11:14

this path . That's how it

11:16

brings me in .

11:17

Okay , that's interesting . Tell

11:19

us what was the start

11:21

of your business . I'm picturing you in

11:24

that preschool classroom

11:26

and I can tell you have

11:28

so much knowledge

11:31

and experience that is really fresh

11:33

and a total different perspective

11:35

. Like you said , coming into a system that

11:38

gosh the public school systems , you

11:40

probably saw lots of opportunities that

11:42

could be improved . So what

11:44

did you do with that and how did that become

11:47

a business , mary ?

11:49

I'm loving your questions because

11:51

you really you have so much active

11:53

listening , but not only active

11:55

listening , but you listen and

11:58

you go back to the why

12:00

on a lot of the things , and I've loved

12:02

your angle . It is nice

12:04

to be able to look back because

12:07

you don't see this at the moment and when people are starting

12:09

and thinking about business , they think that

12:12

they already see the future . I

12:14

don't know what other powers people have . I

12:16

know I didn't , and I think our

12:18

personalities , on how we are , structures

12:20

a human structure human beings being diverse

12:23

allows us to function and see

12:25

these problems in different ways , Not only how

12:27

we're structured , our neurodiversity

12:30

, but our experiences . And

12:32

for me , I am somebody who

12:34

tends to take steps

12:37

before I know where I'm going . I

12:40

know it's really hard for planners I

12:43

don't know if I'm going to trip . If

12:46

I even know how to walk , I'll try

12:48

anyways , and I've been doing

12:50

this since 2009 . There was no iPad

12:52

in 2009 . I am sitting

12:54

in a classroom with the most expensive

12:57

piece of equipment I've ever owned in my life , which was

12:59

an iPhone 3 , maybe it

13:01

was actually my first purchase when I signed

13:03

up for that job . Maybe

13:08

it was actually my first purchase when I signed up for that job and I started

13:11

using my phone , downloading Google pictures

13:13

on it and started using with the students for simple

13:15

tasks like vocabulary , picture

13:18

identification . But really it's from

13:20

the photos because we had nothing . But

13:23

really it's from the photos because we had nothing . And I decide

13:26

that I was going to put an ad on Craigslist

13:29

. I don't know how old you guys

13:31

are , but I

13:34

meet with this guy at

13:37

a coffee shop and

13:54

I say , hey , buttons , I want a button for

13:56

correct , incorrect and I want an approximate

13:58

button . And

14:00

this guy said , okay , I can do this

14:02

for you . Which technology do you want ? And we

14:05

agreed on a price which was $4,000

14:07

. He said pay me 50% now

14:09

and 50% when it's

14:11

done . I used my salary

14:14

, which is around probably $4,500 a

14:16

year , a month , if I had to guess . So

14:19

basically it was set for my salary . I had just bought a

14:21

house and it's okay . I

14:23

had no references . I had just bought a house and

14:26

it's okay . I had no references . I had no resume . I literally just

14:28

met a random guy online and

14:31

the crazy thing is I went back

14:33

home . I started figuring

14:35

out how to license pictures to

14:37

organize in an Excel file . Then

14:40

I'm emailing him the folder full of pictures

14:42

, by folders , by sounds . Then

14:44

I'm on PowerPoint creating the screens

14:46

I wanted for

14:48

the iPhone app . Ipad didn't exist and

14:51

sometime later he says OK , here

14:53

is a prototype . What do you think ? We made some adjustments

14:56

. I learned how to upload

14:59

this very first app on the App Store and that was

15:01

the very first articulation app on the app store

15:03

before the iPad

15:05

was out . So you see , it's not related to AC

15:07

, but it brings together some

15:09

parts of who I am trusting

15:12

and just jumping on it . This guy could

15:14

have run away with my $2,000 . We had no contract

15:16

, with nothing . This is how it all started

15:18

. A Craigslist ad .

15:22

Wow , and you just jumped

15:24

, like you said . You just went

15:26

forward , you saw a need and thought I

15:29

need this for myself , I need this for

15:31

my own patients

15:33

, and so if I need it , then probably other people might

15:35

need it .

15:37

Yeah and , honestly , I

15:39

know that other people and now that I've been in business

15:41

for I don't know 15 years , I

15:44

know that there's tons of other ways that people

15:46

do this . Let's write a business plan

15:48

, maybe raise some money and

15:50

go through all this , bring in more

15:52

people . But in the end , it's

15:55

trying to figure out what works for you with your personality

15:57

, with things , and how you envision how you're

15:59

going to work with other people . And

16:02

I'm very much a spontaneous person

16:04

, not much of a planner

16:06

, and so all that worked for me and I just

16:08

got lucky . I found a developer

16:10

who was trustworthy and he delivered for

16:12

me .

16:12

So it worked . It's

16:15

just amazing to me that so early

16:17

on , for you to see how an app could

16:20

work in that way where

16:22

a lot of people it takes a long time to even

16:24

accept or understand what an app is

16:26

and what it does and to pull it in on your phone and

16:28

that you jumped on that before

16:30

it was even popular , is

16:33

really incredible to me . And have

16:36

you always felt comfortable

16:38

with technology and being

16:40

able to see ahead of where it's going ?

16:42

Yes , again , I did not major

16:45

in any field related to

16:47

technology whatsoever . The reason

16:49

why I actually got some English

16:51

like two semesters of English is

16:54

because I learned how to create websites

16:56

back in Brazil . So I was bartering

16:58

English class at night for

17:01

creating that English schools website

17:03

. So when I was in Brazil I was

17:05

already building some websites just

17:08

to be able to go learn English

17:10

. So I already

17:12

had a little bit of that in there . But

17:14

when it comes to the technology on iPhone

17:17

, it's not only wasn't popular . When

17:19

I had my first booth at Tisha , I

17:22

also had no clue what I was was doing . This is something that I'm

17:24

really bad and probably reason why I didn't stay

17:27

as a clinician in the schools or any

17:29

other setting is I'm not

17:32

very crafty , I don't have a lot of manual

17:34

type of planning

17:37

, very disorganized , all

17:39

those toys and all that is a

17:41

bit overwhelming at the end for me . Even

17:44

the idea of putting back those flashcards

17:46

and backup cards . It doesn't

17:48

match with who I am . Probably

17:51

if I was still in the field , all of my flashcards

17:53

would be on a table case mixed

17:55

with bees and chaos

17:57

. But my first booth at Tisha

17:59

, I would show

18:02

people that they could use this app

18:04

on their phone to track their data . Actually , by

18:06

the time I had my first booth , I had five apps

18:08

out . People

18:10

are like you're crazy , this costs too much . There's no

18:13

way I'm going to let a kid touch my phone and

18:15

I'm like I get it because

18:17

it wasn't expensive . I mean , it still

18:19

is right to be used for therapy . And

18:22

then the iPad came out and things really shifted

18:24

for me there .

18:25

So yeah . So how

18:27

did you go from having one

18:30

app to five just in

18:32

the marketing ? Because that's

18:34

something that is really hard

18:36

Coming up with an idea . You have a wonderful

18:38

idea , you have a great product , but then

18:40

how do you get the word out there ?

18:43

This is something that over the decade

18:45

I've seen that it's really hard for everybody

18:47

, but I think particularly for SLPs

18:50

. I can't count how

18:52

many times I've got emails

18:54

from SLPs who hire

18:56

John Doe and they didn't spend

18:58

$4,000 . They spent $40,000

19:01

, right , $50,000 , $100,000

19:03

. I've seen some numbers that were crazy

19:06

. People like mortgage their homes

19:08

to develop one app and

19:12

they've made $ thousand dollars on it . So

19:15

your question is

19:18

huge , especially

19:20

when you start thinking of back when

19:22

I started . Probably 2013

19:24

was the peak of , especially

19:27

for ipad apps development , because you know , the ipad

19:29

came out in 2010 . People , people started

19:32

to develop these 2011 , 2012 , 2013

19:34

. And then everybody wants to jump

19:36

on this with RSLP background

19:39

or a parent . There's tons of parents back

19:41

in that 2012 , 2013

19:43

time and today

19:46

, probably

19:48

if I had to estimate 5%

19:51

of those people their

19:53

app don't exist anymore . They

19:55

are no longer a business , not

20:01

only because it cost them a lot , but because of the marketing aspect and getting the word out and

20:03

things like this . I know that for me it

20:05

was one of these things of right timing

20:08

, right place , right action , right time

20:11

. A lot of people started learning about

20:13

smart ears and I'm also

20:15

doing a lot of traveling around the country

20:17

doing presentations on technology implementation

20:20

, special ed departments

20:22

and SLPs . So

20:24

I would do an entire day training

20:27

where

20:29

I'm teaching them . Look , you can use Angry Birds

20:31

for therapy and this is how you , if you

20:33

have a group session , this is how you'd manage

20:35

one device for five kids and

20:38

I think the combination of doing

20:40

educational effort that was very

20:43

natural to me . Then

20:45

my products existed and it was solving a real

20:47

need . I

20:52

never had a marketing person consistently . I would build my own website , maintain

20:54

it myself and just word of mouth people

20:57

are using and then they liked

20:59

the product . And then , once you fall into

21:01

the Smarty Years apps , they

21:04

got familiar with how it worked . And

21:06

then , 70 products later , they

21:09

would rather come back for another

21:12

one of our 70 than pick

21:14

a separate one that they don't know about

21:17

or is as good .

21:19

That data collection piece within all of those

21:22

is huge when you have a big caseload

21:24

, especially in the schools , and to be able

21:26

to have one place to just keep

21:28

track and use and let

21:31

parents be a part and let

21:33

parents be a part , I could see why you'd want to stay across

21:35

that same company

21:37

because you know how it works and you're familiar

21:39

.

21:40

I think this became even more important as

21:42

time went on and

21:44

people who would come in with an

21:46

app three or

21:48

four years later the app

21:51

had no support . Now things are a lot more stable

21:53

because it's a more mature market

21:55

, right . But if somebody emails

21:58

me today and says , barbara , I have an idea for an app

22:00

, I don't know what is

22:02

not there yet . But now

22:04

it's much harder . You can't just hire a

22:06

$4,000 guy on Craigslist to

22:09

create an app and hope they even make $10

22:11

on it , because it takes a lot more effort , because there's

22:13

a ton more out there , a lot of quality .

22:16

How did that transition from that

22:18

one person who created that one

22:20

app to how it's

22:23

being created now in a team

22:25

? Where did that change and how

22:27

did that change so

22:29

?

22:29

that first developer never created a second app

22:31

for me , went on and he took a

22:33

job . He continued on his daytime

22:35

job . He had a full-time job working

22:37

for verizon , I think and I

22:39

still have contact with him . Sometimes

22:41

he messaged and he says my biggest regret of my life

22:44

was not tell you I'll do it for free

22:46

, but we'll partner . And

22:49

sometimes it comes up with ideas of things

22:51

he wants to create , but

22:53

that that transition there is

22:55

. I needed to find a

22:57

way to streamline . Every time I had a

22:59

second idea and , by the way , when

23:01

I created that first app , I did not think

23:04

I want to have 70 apps one day . I want

23:06

to have all this stuff . I'm

23:08

a very minimalistic person but

23:10

I ended

23:12

up hiring somebody and with this personality

23:15

, I didn't have a business plan and

23:17

my goal was , if I sell one a day , it

23:19

was $30 the app . Okay

23:22

, I can have vacation money for

23:24

my summers off in the schools . That

23:27

was all my vision . Right , there was

23:29

no big vision of nothing . So

23:32

, from just being glad that

23:34

I paid back , I got back my four thousand

23:36

dollars . I was just happy . There . Anything is

23:38

like positive , it's like games

23:40

. Now I'm like okay , I made my money

23:42

back . Let me get this money , see

23:44

if I can make a second app . And then I made a wh questions

23:46

app and as

23:49

you start building and you start

23:51

having , that was was , let's say , my second developer

23:54

. He did four apps right , and

23:56

then all of

23:58

a sudden , we have iPad and

24:00

then we need a developer with a little more experience

24:03

and now I have more budget to

24:05

hire somebody with a little more quality . And

24:08

then apps aren't just development . You

24:10

have to create content , you have to create

24:13

illustrations , you have a voiceover

24:15

artist . So , as you can see , it takes a

24:18

special kind of people to appreciate this accent

24:20

and they cannot be in speech therapy

24:22

products , especially back in 2009

24:25

. So I had to hire voiceover

24:27

actors . These , basically , are people who read

24:29

your question and display

24:31

on the app . So for every

24:33

single one of these new projects , I

24:35

need to hire several people . And

24:38

then the iPad came out with a camera . So

24:41

then , next thing , you know you start meeting

24:43

more people because your apps become more

24:45

complex . You have student

24:48

management , but it also depends

24:50

on the technology coming in and out . So

24:53

over the years it's been just navigating

24:55

bringing in new people , letting go of people that

24:57

don't have that resource that I need for

25:00

where we're going . For example

25:02

, three or four years ago we realized

25:04

the web is much more secure to where

25:06

we can have a massive

25:09

system for

25:11

special education SLPs to use for special education

25:13

SLPs to use . So instead of having 70

25:15

apps now

25:19

we ported all those 70 apps into a bigger platform , smart Years

25:21

Online . So now they don't have to

25:23

just use it on the iPad , they can

25:25

use it on a computer , they can use it on Google Chrome and

25:28

now they don't have to buy individual apps . They don't have

25:30

to say which app is for our tech again

25:32

, what is it called ? I

25:37

have our tech , language , literacy , social skills . All of the

25:39

content we developed is on this new platform . But

25:42

the developer for iPhones they

25:44

can't create web apps . It's

25:47

a whole new team of seven people that

25:50

I knew nothing about and I

25:52

still feel like I'm struggling Today

25:55

. I was right . Before I joined , I was on

25:57

a call to try to hire somebody who was a developer

26:00

for systems . Ios apps

26:02

, ipad apps didn't need this

26:04

specialized person . So

26:06

this whole hiring and identifying

26:09

and managing all of this

26:11

is the hard part here , but it's evolved over

26:13

time .

26:13

That must be really hard to keep up with

26:16

children , just in

26:18

the sense that children are so

26:20

used to very advanced

26:23

animations . Now Everything

26:26

is so good and the quality

26:28

is so amazing on just Disney

26:31

Plus at your fingertips that must

26:33

be very difficult to keep up with that

26:36

level of creator .

26:39

One of the things that frustrated me always within

26:41

materials for special education in general

26:43

is that I felt like the it

26:45

still is . The industry is 20 years behind when

26:49

you look at pictures used on some AAC

26:51

devices . For some reason , we still think

26:54

that using outline images

26:56

just because this used to be great

26:58

40 years ago and

27:01

people are struggling with the change because

27:03

this is not so good . We're

27:05

still using outline images with no colors

27:08

, when this is not the expectation

27:10

, or a lot of the graphics

27:13

that we're using for AAC or

27:15

for creating visual support , which is why I ended up

27:17

creating my second company . Right is exactly

27:19

to address this need to have

27:21

something that looks fresh . So , not only

27:23

in the terms of the visuals but

27:26

the technology , you can

27:28

see a lot of the technology that we use as clinicians

27:31

that that special education uses . It's

27:34

not up to par to like math

27:36

programs Not

27:38

at all , and it drives me bonkers

27:41

when I look at this and I know how big

27:44

these companies are , with a lot more

27:46

resources than smart ears . Why

27:48

are we not bringing this industry

27:50

forward , both in terms of

27:52

image quality and

27:55

technology that we are offering to SLPs

27:58

?

27:59

and the kids . You really got

28:01

the timing right . Like you said , timing

28:03

was everything for your apps

28:05

and for really

28:07

navigating , like you said , the first in the

28:09

field . So if we're thinking

28:12

today , you're right , that would be a really hard game

28:14

to get into . But the

28:16

new game is AI and

28:19

I wanted to talk about that because

28:21

I know that you have given a

28:23

talk on AI and assessments

28:26

intervention . How should

28:28

SLPs be using

28:31

AI or just thinking

28:33

about it ? If you're an entrepreneur , can

28:35

you share a little bit about your thoughts

28:38

on that ? The cool thing .

28:41

I had an encounter at ATIA just

28:44

last month . It was somebody from an organization

28:47

and she asked Barbara , I'm

28:49

afraid the SLPs are using

28:51

AI all wrong and there is

28:53

so much that it's misused

28:55

. And I think it was in the context

28:58

of translating

29:00

resources for bilingual students . And

29:04

I said the way we always need

29:06

to look at some of the potential

29:08

problems . Is this currently replacing

29:11

a better system or

29:13

is this currently replacing something worse ? We

29:17

always tend to think of , oh , but the

29:19

translator is not as good as the translator . No , it's

29:21

not . If they had one , we're

29:24

not going to take a translator and put chat GPT , but

29:27

the reality is , how many have translators

29:30

, right ? So

29:32

, as far as this

29:34

question of how SLPs are using

29:36

AI is obviously

29:39

per situation , but

29:41

in general , I think I

29:44

love it . I already integrated

29:46

it on my systems . It creates automated reports

29:48

. So , to give an idea , I created an assessment

29:50

for articulation back in 2010,

29:54

. Right , it

29:58

is , to this day , my most favorite work . It's you assess the child , there's

30:01

a phonetic transcription at the top , you tap

30:03

on the sound and it

30:05

calculates everything automatically . It generates

30:07

a report automatically . This

30:10

has been in existence since 2010 . Now this report

30:12

. Barbara had to think of the

30:15

flow of what

30:17

am I going to show at the top ? These

30:25

are the sounds we already know age of acquisition , and it's very similar to what

30:27

every clinician will use . Even though it's awesome

30:30

the report is done automatically , it

30:33

doesn't have the nuances of

30:36

combining all of that data , because we didn't

30:38

have this technology in 2010 . When I integrate

30:40

ChatGBT now or the AI

30:42

system on SmartEars Online

30:44

, it can look at the data . It

30:47

can say look , mary has had

30:49

an articulation therapy

30:52

for the last eight

30:54

months and she

30:56

was working on these sounds . She

30:58

seems to be making progress on your

31:01

B's , p's and M's , but

31:03

for some reason , these other sounds

31:05

are not working . And then I can also tell

31:07

the system the person who will

31:09

read the report will be a parent , so

31:12

that report will come up with

31:14

the correct language

31:16

that is appropriate that we all should be using with parents

31:18

. Now , if this report is for another SLP at

31:20

another clinic , you look at the same data

31:22

, but the output language will be different

31:24

because it's assuming a level of

31:26

knowledge that it's different . Yes , maybe

31:30

it'd be better if we had the human

31:32

capacity to have an SLP

31:35

. Look at eight months of data

31:37

, which would take her an entire day to

31:40

make some of these observations , versus

31:43

no effort whatsoever on the

31:45

clinician part to still have maybe

31:48

90% correct information . Versus

31:51

nothing , because right now we're overwhelmed and we aren't going

31:53

to do it anyways .

31:56

So I think that's a really great way to look at it . The

31:59

way that you are thinking about things

32:01

and everything that you have going on . What

32:03

systems do you have in place for yourself

32:05

on how you're organizing

32:07

what you're doing day to day .

32:09

That's a hard question because

32:11

I think I go back to where we started . It's very

32:13

unique , right ? So

32:16

I have been diagnosed

32:18

with ADHD since I was a teenager

32:20

. I wrote

32:22

in my book that was published less

32:24

than three years ago that it was my superpower

32:27

and that's what allows me to

32:29

do all that I do . I can

32:31

get things done fast . I

32:34

have massive drive to actually

32:36

do it , even though I'm constantly

32:38

alternating intention . My

32:40

husband used to joke that he would go to sleep and he would wake

32:42

up and I build a new website or

32:45

I had a new business . He still tells this to people

32:47

and in this

32:49

process , if I was somebody , if

32:51

I took the time to plan , I

32:54

don't think I'd ever get to it . For

32:57

example , the book I wrote it in 30 days

32:59

. I had an intense

33:01

drive for an event at a national convention in 2022

33:05

. I believe it was very strong emotional

33:08

situation . I started writing

33:10

there , but I didn't know that I was going to write a book . I

33:13

thought it was going to write a blog post about the situation . I made a video . Hey , this happened

33:15

. Can was going to write a blog post about the situation . I made a video . Hey , this happened . Can you

33:17

believe this ? What can we do about this

33:19

? And then I start writing . I

33:22

come home I

33:24

go wow , I have a lot of things written . I don't know

33:26

how I'm going to do this . Maybe I'll write

33:28

a book . I look at my shelf and

33:30

I see I want a book this thick . I

33:33

want how long it would take . I looked up on

33:35

Google . It was the alchemist . How long is it going to take

33:37

to write a book with 30,000

33:40

words ? Which was the alchemist

33:42

, the amount of words ? And

33:44

I calculated . If I wrote a thousand

33:46

words a day for

33:49

30 days straight , I would finish

33:51

in 30 days . Now

33:53

if I had gone and felt overwhelmed

33:56

, or how the heck am I going to publish a book ? Do

33:59

I need to have to go to a company

34:01

to have an editor

34:04

? I was going to create my cover , all

34:06

these things . I had no clue because

34:08

I didn't know any of this information . Instead

34:11

of getting stuck on the how

34:13

, I'll do what I can

34:15

right now . Yes , I could open

34:18

a document I can type . I

34:20

don't know how this is going to end . I don't know if I'm

34:22

going to finish , quite honestly , but

34:25

I will do what I can right now

34:28

. What I don't know yet , if I have time I'll

34:30

look it up , or eventually

34:32

it will come to me . Maybe I'll meet somebody who will tell me

34:34

how to do this , but

34:37

I think doing what I can at the moment

34:39

it has worked

34:41

for me , but it might not work for other

34:43

people , so I

34:46

don't know if this answered the question there .

34:48

It definitely does , because I think back to even when

34:50

Mary and I started . So I don't know if this answered the question there . It definitely does , because

34:53

I think back to even when Mary and I started the podcast and we probably tried to plan . But then you

34:55

start doing it and you learn along the way and I

34:57

think if we had tried to figure all of that out

34:59

ahead of time , we would have never started . We wouldn't have

35:01

known where to start . I think that's really

35:04

great advice for anybody who's wanting to just start

35:06

something , because you can get caught up on all

35:08

of the details , for anybody who's wanting to just start something , because you can get caught up on all of the details and I

35:10

think in every field and everything we do , I

35:13

just I love doing home

35:15

DIY project .

35:16

We just did our garage floor with this epoxy

35:19

polyurethane I

35:21

just learned this term like last week , and

35:24

my husband does get overwhelmed

35:26

when he knows like I want to tackle the garage

35:28

floor because he knows it's not

35:30

going to end on . Let's just adjust the shelves . But

35:32

the next thing I know I'm researching what

35:35

kind of clear coat is this , but

35:37

I won't do it until it's time to put the

35:39

clear coat on , like first , we'll research

35:41

how to clean this floor . Whenever

35:44

the clear coat time comes , we'll figure

35:46

this out . There's plenty of information online

35:48

, but cleaners

35:50

can't do this , though , when it's okay , because it's how

35:52

they're structured

35:54

.

35:56

But I think you're right in the sense that's why they get stuck

35:58

sometimes is because it's

36:01

hard to get started when you're trying to think to

36:03

the end already .

36:05

Yeah , I am so impressed

36:08

that you wrote a book in 30 days and

36:11

was able to actually

36:13

execute that many words a day . So I want

36:15

to shift for a second to talk

36:17

about you as a person , as

36:19

a wife , a mom . You're doing

36:21

things like redoing your garage floor , so

36:23

lots of hobbies and I'm going to read a quote

36:26

that I saw on your website that I thought was really

36:28

amazing . It says we don't have

36:30

to run a company like others . We can

36:33

be moms , have hobbies , be empathetic

36:35

with others and still be a boss

36:37

. Authenticity is our

36:39

strength . That

36:51

. Tell us more about that . What do you mean ? That authenticity

36:53

is our strength and how has that really served you ? Well , to be authentic to who you

36:55

are , what strengths you have and what you have to give and

36:57

how your brain works .

36:59

This is a really cool thing

37:01

to always talk about , right , and we

37:03

all want to be authentic . We

37:06

all have been to where we're trying to fit in with

37:08

other people , considering everything

37:10

that I've done in my life , gone through

37:13

my journey , when

37:15

we try to fit in into doing

37:17

things the way , even

37:19

if the majority is 99% right

37:22

, that's where we get

37:24

stuck , and sometimes

37:27

being okay with what

37:30

is true to ourselves makes

37:32

a lot more sense than what

37:35

other people's definition of success is . So

37:37

I'll give some concrete examples on things

37:39

that are very recent , other than the last three or

37:41

four years . Right , I was

37:44

considering

37:47

when I was transitioning from my iOS

37:49

and web . I was struggling a lot emotionally

37:51

with this transition , a

37:53

lot of my plate , having to hire . I have

37:55

a separate business called Smarty Symbols . We

37:57

have 30,000 , 40,000 images there

38:00

. It's a whole separate entity , whole

38:02

set of employees development team

38:04

business . We do playground

38:06

communication boards , all of that . Right , we

38:09

haven't even gone there yet . But

38:11

smart years I'm here , transitioning

38:13

into a system that

38:15

I'm familiar with to something that

38:18

the industry needs and

38:20

, honestly , the business needed to , because

38:23

you see , apple and the iPad

38:25

app wouldn't do a great job wrenching

38:27

into the school , supporting people to deploy

38:29

devices there . And

38:31

I said , no , I'm going to take this program , which is

38:33

an accelerator . Maybe I'll get an investor

38:36

, an advisor , somebody who knows more than I know

38:38

about business , who

38:40

can navigate

38:43

me through all these other

38:45

angel investors and all these big words

38:47

. Right of the business industry

38:49

. There are a lot of other companies , especially

38:51

telehealth companies in our industry that

38:54

are coming in with $100 million

38:56

in investment $100

38:58

million . They come in . Imagine

39:01

they can literally buy state associations

39:04

. They can buy ads anywhere . They

39:06

can send you material . They'll

39:08

close their eye and they'll write a check like this

39:11

they're creating

39:13

platforms that are significantly inferior

39:15

than the technology I have , but they have money to

39:17

spend blindly . They

39:19

can convince people that what

39:22

they have is the most

39:24

people can get . So I said you

39:26

know what I think ? Maybe I need to get

39:28

more money . I need to get my company , our own 50

39:30

million and

39:33

I started on that journey . It was

39:35

grueling , but what I realized

39:38

as I'm going through this process there was a time I was in this

39:40

meeting and my Zoom was an

39:42

image of me in my office on Halloween

39:44

with a cat

39:47

outfit that pink cat from Alice in Wonderland

39:49

. So

39:52

I had a photo of my office working with that outfit as my started Zoom

39:54

image photo and then , in private

39:56

, my advisor said Barbara , you need to replace that

39:58

image . It's not professional

40:00

. I wasn't doing anything sexy

40:02

. It's literally a freaking Alice in Wonderland

40:05

cat costume that

40:07

I wore my house for Halloween and

40:13

a week or two later dropped off the program , not because of this

40:15

comment but that comment was a reality

40:17

check that I do not fit

40:19

any rooms where there's tons of white men

40:22

who run businesses off of

40:24

a hundred million dollars with no

40:26

regard to the end user's quality on the

40:28

product , that they prefer to

40:30

portray me in a suit

40:32

in a certain way and

40:34

manner . That is not

40:37

who I am . It's not even how I enjoy running

40:39

the business . I feel

40:41

that I need to have joy . I

40:43

went to bed at 2 am last night . I was working and

40:45

I was happy working . I woke up

40:48

at six I I slept four

40:50

hours , but I'm happy . I don't

40:52

do this because I have to . I

40:54

have the energy and drive because it still brings me joy

40:56

. If I was going to go on the path of getting

40:58

that $100 million investment , it

41:01

would take a lot of my freedom , a lot of the

41:03

joy and decision making that works

41:05

for me who I am . I just

41:07

spent 30 days in Japan and

41:09

Hong Kong and Korea

41:12

with my kids in December . I took

41:14

them out of school for a week and I spent

41:16

a whole month in Asia

41:18

with my kids . Yes , I worked

41:20

a couple times in the month , but if I had

41:23

somebody up my ass trying to tell

41:25

me you really need to put in some time working

41:27

, it would not have worked

41:29

with my lifestyle and I know that's very different

41:31

for each person . So that's the whole authenticity

41:33

aspect . I'm not

41:35

making the millions that maybe I

41:37

could make if I went in the route of the

41:40

traditional , out of business , but

41:42

you take away a lot of the joy and the creative things

41:45

that are very important to who I am as a

41:47

person doing what I do today .

41:49

And you're setting such a good example to your children

41:52

of what that looks like , that

42:01

you are showing them what it's like to be a mom who is very driven and is able to achieve

42:03

her goals , but also that your family is a goal and

42:05

that your family is very important and equally

42:07

worth your time and energy .

42:10

Yeah , it's different for each person

42:12

, right ?

42:12

Maybe other people , they

42:20

just want to be able to work , I only want

42:22

to work three days a week for my business , and that's what works for

42:24

them . That's what's so great about

42:26

our field , too , is we have so many different options to

42:29

do things in different ways , and I know you mentioned

42:31

the symbols that we didn't even talk about

42:33

. I was reading about the playground boards

42:35

, which we've seen going up in some

42:38

of the parks around here too

42:40

, and I think that's amazing . And

42:42

one question I did have your

42:45

teams . We were curious just how big

42:47

your teams are , how you're managing

42:49

that , how you find people

42:52

.

42:52

Yeah , so honestly I

42:54

would have to stop and count how many people I have

42:56

. My teams are separate . I

42:58

have Smarty Symbols has their own team

43:01

. It's also a little

43:03

bit interconnected . We have a development

43:05

team and have customer support . Smarty Symbols is

43:07

a lot easier to manage . It's a business . It's

43:10

much more uniform . There's a lot less needs

43:12

for development . The

43:14

team there has an illustrator . We're constantly

43:16

creating illustrations . We , for

43:18

example , when we started this , we

43:21

did a color only and then we

43:23

realized everybody wanted outline for certain

43:25

aspects of creating resources

43:28

. So we had to go back and redo all the outline

43:30

, and now we want high contrast

43:33

to be able to serve some of our students

43:35

that have visual needs . So then

43:37

I'm not going to necessarily need

43:39

a team of two or three illustrators for

43:43

three years . It's massive

43:45

effort . Now Then maybe I'll

43:47

have one person who has been my main person

43:49

. He stays on board . For example , we had

43:51

a project of a communication board where we needed

43:53

a cube . Apparently

43:56

there is this thing you go inside this cube

43:58

and we didn't have that word

44:00

. I don't even know what the word is . They

44:02

just sent me the pictures . I said , okay , go ahead and tell

44:04

him to create it so that we can have that

44:06

vocabulary edit . So he's available

44:08

. Tell him to create it so that we can have that vocabulary edit . So he's available

44:11

. He created the image . Then he's going

44:13

to go on the website . We have a technical and a

44:15

year and a half ago I had this

44:17

brilliant idea that I'm like I'm bored

44:19

, I'm not doing anything . Let's create

44:22

communication boards to public spaces and streamline

44:24

this process . I already have my

44:26

illustration team , I have my design team

44:28

, and

44:31

then I had to learn all materials . I already have my illustration team , I have

44:33

my design team , and then I had to learn all what materials . I have three boards in my

44:35

backyard for like an hour because I want to keep an eye on which

44:37

materials are withstanding Texas

44:40

weather . Right , sometimes I've gone there

44:42

to match your temperature . Is aluminum keeping

44:45

the same temperature as my wood board , and then eventually

44:47

we let go of the wood . So all of

44:49

this to say is that managing

44:52

this , the way

44:54

the business looks today , looked

44:57

very different a year ago , based on crazy ideas

44:59

barbara has and crazy ideas barbara

45:01

decides that she's going to actually do

45:04

. And then I'm like , okay , who do I need to hire

45:06

to get this done ? And then I'm like , okay , who do I need to hire to get this done

45:08

and then if that is a temporary

45:10

need , then we handle it . So

45:13

, managing all this or

45:15

the way I function , my business is

45:17

very fluid on

45:19

needs and

45:21

ideas and development

45:23

needs for products and things like

45:26

that .

45:27

Chaotic . I have no doubt that we're going to continue

45:29

seeing all of your crazy ideas

45:31

come to fruition . I

45:33

have seen the one at Dream Park the

45:35

communication board . Yes

45:38

, that was .

45:38

Yeah , it's great it is

45:40

. It was so nice . I was really proud of that one because

45:43

one was one of the very first more custom

45:45

ones . That park is so custom . Yes , and

45:48

a lot of these projects projects . We just did a baseball field

45:50

. My designers are not slps

45:52

. I have to come up with the vocabulary

45:54

still , and I love who send me the images . Oh

45:56

, I don't know . Move this

45:59

. We need these nouns , they need to be this

46:01

way . We still want to keep the integrity of a

46:03

regular playground board

46:05

, but still with news vocabulary . I also

46:07

don't like how we're using

46:09

the image for this word . Let's

46:11

update to put some baseball shirts on

46:13

these characters on this communication board . So

46:16

it's a cool project . Uh , so

46:18

sometimes I'll just say drop everything , I'm not

46:20

going to do anything , I'll just do this one communication

46:22

board design here and that's all

46:24

I do for the day your

46:26

vision for things in the future

46:28

, the way you embrace it , are really encouraging

46:30

.

46:31

We have just a couple of fun questions . I

46:34

know that you love to travel just by reading about

46:37

you on your website , and then you also

46:39

have a motorcycle , which I think is so neat

46:41

that you ride . One of

46:43

the questions was what do you do for

46:46

just self care , time for you

46:48

? What ?

46:49

do you do for just self-care time for you ? When I initially thought of this question

46:51

, I was going to list

46:54

things that I do for fun , which I

46:56

can do that too . But

47:03

I think the core of what is for me is I love what I do so much . Self-care

47:05

sometimes is only

47:07

needed when I'm in a mess of

47:09

like right now there's a very stressful week but

47:18

even then for me , getting things wrapped up helps me ease my stress . But on a day-to-day , I think

47:20

whenever we're doing something we love and that it matches who we

47:22

are and doing it authentically , we

47:25

don't have as much of a need for all of that . Everything

47:28

just falls in place . Seems a little

47:30

surreal , but on that it's

47:32

because I think in part of

47:34

being authentically doing the things you like

47:36

. You will allow yourself to float through

47:39

these needs as you need . So

47:41

, for example , I love to dance . I

47:43

am a certified Zumba instructor and

47:45

I love to go do Zumba . So

47:49

sometimes Zumba's at 10 o'clock in the morning , I'm

47:52

like you know what ? I'm going to Zumba today and I put on my shoes

47:54

and I'll go . I would go to the gym

47:56

five to six times a week

47:58

to dance and that worked for me . I

48:01

love to travel . I travel a lot only if it's

48:03

international and it's long-term . I

48:05

just like the process of traveling

48:07

term

48:13

. I just like the process of traveling airport , airplane , car ride , packing

48:15

, all of that . So

48:19

a lot of my trips are massively long term . I do six weeks . I spent six weeks in Croatia and I rented

48:21

a car with my kids , traveled from Italy , took a boat and

48:23

then I drove . So I'm the driver internationally

48:26

in my house . I

48:28

learned to drive manual cars in the last

48:30

three or four years just so I could drive

48:32

out there , and usually

48:35

it's just my massive decompressed

48:38

time . I'm not thinking much of work but

48:40

, as you can imagine , I can't just say nobody

48:43

, message me . When you own the business , you have that responsibility

48:46

. I'm always available . Whether

48:48

it is one o'clock in the morning , two o'clock in the

48:50

morning , things go offline . I have to wake up . Even

48:53

if it's not my fault , it's my business

48:55

. I have to just do whatever it takes to handle

48:57

it . So yeah

49:00

, these are a few things that I enjoy to do .

49:03

Those are great . What about cooking

49:05

? Do you like to cook ?

49:07

No , that's the greatest thing of having

49:09

married somebody who also lives

49:12

authentically . It doesn't necessarily

49:14

need to fit the traditional male role . It's

49:17

that he cooks for me , right , wonderful

49:20

. And it's 1.41

49:22

here . He brought me breakfast

49:24

in bed and he

49:26

will probably eventually offer me lunch

49:28

in

49:34

bed . And he will probably eventually offer me lunch , and I usually don't eat . Uh , because

49:37

I'm in the midst of this . We eat with my kids . When I get home , I only cook for pleasure

49:39

. On special occasions my kids like oh , I want to

49:41

eat x your lasagna

49:43

and I'll go there , get the ingredients , so

49:45

make it work , but not on the no , not

49:48

on a on a regular , not my skill .

49:51

You have some special requests from the kids

49:53

sometimes .

49:56

And that's the only time , and we have some Brazilian

49:58

dishes that I make and

50:00

that they love , some dessert things

50:03

that are quick and we

50:05

just sit , watch movie and eat some dessert

50:07

.

50:08

My last question for you is if you were

50:10

not a speech therapist

50:12

, is there another dream job

50:14

that you've ever thought you might want

50:16

to have ?

50:18

Nobody . If I ask you a question , return to that one . Sure

50:21

. Do you think of yourselves

50:23

actually both of you as

50:26

speech therapists , in

50:28

the roles that you are doing today with

50:30

me ? Right , all

50:33

the questions you've given me ? You've never asked

50:35

me , barbara , what is the age

50:37

acquisition ? Now they are . How

50:39

do you do an assessment of a bilingual student ? What

50:42

we are sitting and doing here today , it's

50:45

so much more than you guys being slps

50:47

. So as far as another role that

50:49

I would do , I'd obviously stay right where I'm

50:51

at . I do

50:53

have a background as an SLP we all

50:56

do . I cannot envision doing

50:58

other things , though I have always wanted to be an FBI agent

51:00

. There'd be a lot more stress when I would

51:02

need a lot more down time there . I

51:04

wouldn't be doing exactly what I'm doing because

51:07

I think us as a whole , we're

51:12

already doing a lot more than being an SLP . And profession-wise , my background

51:14

does support me because I do have all this knowledge

51:16

of what is needed on the systems and for

51:18

the kids . But when people ask

51:20

me these days , what do you do ? I

51:23

still have not come up with an answer , because

51:26

everybody loves to ask when you meet a stranger what

51:29

do you do with an answer , because everybody loves to ask when you meet a stranger , what

51:31

do you do ? I think I stopped saying I'm an SLP

51:33

five to six years

51:35

ago . I still don't

51:37

know exactly what I say .

51:47

It varies depending on the context but I think we are much more encompassing

51:49

in what we do in our professions . Definitely and that's been across the board

51:51

with some people that we've interviewed that

51:53

have been able to go out on

51:55

their own is they're getting to tap

51:57

into some of those other desires that they have

52:00

within our field . Even

52:02

doing this podcast , it's helped

52:05

us realize some of the things that we love to do

52:07

outside of just speech therapy

52:10

.

52:11

And it is very uniquely who you guys are Like

52:13

. I could never do a podcast . I'm an introvert . Even

52:15

though you might think differently

52:17

, people know me . They know

52:19

that I didn't need to leave my

52:21

house for anything for

52:23

months on end . I can go to the gym

52:25

. I don't even go to a grocery store . I hate malls

52:28

. Conventions are very hard and stressful

52:30

. Talking all day long I

52:32

couldn't do talking

52:34

to new people like this . What you guys

52:36

are doing like so impressed not

52:40

my skillset is so

52:42

draining . I'm

52:44

so low , individual on

52:46

my day-to-day function . But it's all

52:48

very uniquely . You guys writing

52:51

the joy and doing this for other people .

52:55

My last question for you is

52:57

what advice

52:59

do you have for

53:01

women who might be in your position , where

53:03

you say , yes , I was trained

53:06

as a SLP , but

53:08

I'm so much more than that . I have so many more

53:10

skill sets . I've designed websites , I love

53:12

Zumba , I

53:16

love all these different things about me . I think so much of the

53:18

burnout in our culture is

53:20

when you aren't authentic

53:22

and true to who you are and all

53:24

the aspects of what

53:26

you want to do . So what advice would you give

53:29

to someone who wants

53:31

to re-find that joy and passion

53:33

and find who they are more than

53:36

their profession

53:38

?

53:39

I think people

53:41

think they should change and even discover

53:44

who you are , because a lot of us don't know

53:46

who we are . I've became

53:48

obsessed with personality

53:50

tests for a while several

53:52

years back and there's

53:55

tons of free things online and

53:57

sometimes that's something I even put it on my

53:59

book . It's just go do tons of free

54:01

personality tests . Sometimes it's questions of

54:03

do you enjoy shopping

54:06

online or shopping in your house ? Sometimes

54:08

people don't even stop to think , but they've set

54:10

a routine of going to get groceries every

54:13

day , even though they dislike being

54:15

at the grocery . If they realize

54:17

you know what , I can put everything

54:19

on a cart on Target or Walmart

54:22

and they will literally deliver

54:24

everything to my door . Now , obviously , that became

54:26

more popular with COVID , but everything

54:28

in life that we do , sometimes

54:31

day to day , there is

54:33

an alternative way , but first you need

54:35

to know what do you like . If

54:37

I tell this to some people who love shopping , hate shopping

54:39

, like what I

54:41

need to go to the mall , look at every item

54:44

and then pick the shirts , try it on

54:46

, and then

54:48

they don't have time to go to the mall . Maybe you're ordering

54:50

on amazon and then they're unhappy when they got the

54:52

clothes or whatever . I think

54:54

the very first step is

54:56

start questioning what

54:59

things make you who you

55:01

are . What do you like ? For

55:03

example , a lot of the consultants , when I had

55:05

them consultant out there I said , said hey

55:07

, slps , you want to become a consultant

55:09

for smart ears ? Your job

55:11

is to email

55:13

schools if they

55:16

want to see the product , to do a demo , and

55:18

then you teach them about this . And

55:21

I had 150 applicants . Sifting

55:23

through all of those SLPs was hard . There was clearly

55:26

a lot of people who wanted to make a change

55:28

. So let's say we picked 10

55:30

people and from those

55:32

10 people , several people were

55:35

introverts and didn't feel comfortable

55:37

talking to strangers on a meeting just for

55:40

a product . But they applied

55:42

for a job because they're looking for a change

55:44

. But they didn't know about themselves

55:47

that they're like Barbara . But

55:51

they didn't know about themselves that they're like Barbara . Barbara cannot

55:53

be doing demos for school districts . I would be miserable doing this every day

55:55

. But then I have somebody who

55:57

has been with me for two years selling

56:00

the communication board . She loves

56:02

to talk to people . She talks to city

56:04

departments to explain to them the process

56:07

. What is a communication board ? She does outreach

56:09

when people say hey , I

56:11

want to see how many boards we need . Just let me hop on

56:13

a call . My phone doesn't even

56:15

ring . If you called me , my phone would be sorry

56:18

, I don't like speaking on the phone . Send me a text

56:20

message . That's literally my voicemail

56:22

. But

56:24

because of this , people

56:27

need to know who they are so they can know what

56:29

position they're going to apply for . Otherwise they're

56:31

going to waste three months because

56:33

these people who are introverts who did this with

56:35

me , they wasted three to four months to

56:38

figure out the no . I like talking to strangers

56:41

to sell a product If they

56:43

knew that they could have applied for something else

56:45

. I sometimes have needs for somebody

56:47

who will just create Pinterest pins for

56:51

something else . I sometimes have needs for somebody who will just create Pinterest

56:53

pins If they knew that I might

56:56

talk to people and they're good in graphics . Barbara

57:00

, I'm going to help you with marketing Pinterest pins . Can you pay me for that ? And

57:02

you know what ? I paid them for that , but they needed to know these about themselves

57:04

first so they can fit and find things

57:06

that fits them .

57:08

So that they don't waste time . I love

57:11

those personality tests too . My husband

57:13

may go into work with another guy , and that was the very

57:15

first thing he asked my

57:17

husband to do was to take this personality

57:19

test , and I thought that was so smart

57:22

to see how they would work together . And

57:24

then he used AI to print

57:26

out a report on both of their outcomes

57:28

and how they would work together in business , so it

57:30

really is a great idea .

57:32

Yeah , and sometimes with

57:35

the personality test . If you're doing

57:37

this with people that are in your close circle , I

57:39

tell this to everybody . I know so my nieces

57:41

, everybody that is within my circle , has

57:44

done one , and sometimes right next to me , and

57:47

they'll be like what

57:49

do I like to do on weekends ? I

57:51

don't know . Most people that I have

57:54

them do the test and I watch them . They

57:57

think all answers apply and I'm like I

58:00

think we need to have other conversations because

58:02

it's the self-discovery journey

58:05

which is lifelong .

58:08

And changing too . It's

58:10

because your experiences change Absolutely

58:13

. Thank you again , Barbara . We really

58:15

do look forward to watch what you

58:17

continue to do and enjoyed

58:19

talking with you .

58:21

This is fun . Thank you so much for having me

58:23

. You guys are clearly

58:26

on the other end of this

58:28

self-discovery journey because

58:30

I can hear very empathetic listeners

58:33

here . Obviously , I

58:35

think , people who are doing things

58:38

like what you guys podcast or even

58:40

my presentation . It takes energy

58:42

to do this that you're putting out for

58:44

other people and I

58:47

hope other people are seeing through this , because

58:49

this is your energy that you're putting out there

58:51

, that you're taking away from whatever else

58:54

that I'm sure you guys have going on . So

58:56

I appreciate that .

58:58

Thanks for listening . Make sure you subscribe

59:00

to our podcast and check out our website

59:03

, thespeechsourcecom .

59:05

Also check us out on Instagram for more

59:07

ideas on speech , language , feeding

59:09

and play .