Hello, podcast listeners. I have got a dose of tough love today. I'm going to be talking about... I'm laughing because I don't want you to roll your eyes.
I'm going to be talking about 92507, but I'm not going to be talking about 92507. So if you're tired of hearing about it, stay with me because I can almost guarantee you that this is a much different message than the one that you have been hearing over the past several months.
I'm going to do my best to knock this out in the next 15-20 minutes. Let's see how this goes.
And yeah, let's dive in. All right. So I'm sure that you are all well aware. And if you are not, go to Fix SLP's website.
I'll link to it. In the show notes where you can educate yourself on what the 92507 episode or topic is, if you haven't heard.
But this is not another episode or another what to do, right? Everyone's talking about this and for very good reason.
I know that SLPs are worried. We are stressed. We're anxious. We feel like things are out of our control.
Private practice owners are worried and people are talking about and have been submitting comments and contacting lawmakers and understanding and running the numbers and preparing financially and really advocating for our profession.
And all of that matters. But this episode is not going to be another checklist of what to do because there is or really needs to be another conversation happening that's about what.
What is below the surface, in my opinion, a much deeper topic? Because yes, these proposed cuts, they're not just creating fear and worry and panic, but they're revealing something that has been in our field for a very long time.
Now, I'm going to be super clear here. Everything that I'm talking about here is my opinion, my perspective, my beliefs.
Take what you will, leave what you don't want. I want to be super clear about that. Some of you may have some thoughts and objections or responses to this, and I would love to hear them.
I welcome them. Please know that everything that I'm saying is truly coming from a love for our field, a love for what we do as SLPs, a love for...
Or all of you as professionals who work in our field, okay? Because I was talking about this, not 92507, but this, this deeper issue, okay, of what has been in our field.
I've been talking about this since I started coaching. And you can go back to some of the earliest episodes or Facebook posts and such and interviews, podcast interviews that I've done where I've been talking about how I wanted to change the culture of our field.
That was before all of this happened. And now as this is happening, this 92507 event, let's call it, okay, it is revealing what I have seen and felt and experienced within our field.
Things like scarcity mindset. Scarcity thinking, resentment, martyrdom, undercharging, feeling guilt around money and being paid your worth, feeling uncomfortable with asking, knowing what you, what the value of what you provide, asking for that.
And now what I'm also seeing is some of what I will say, how do I say this, is SLPs kind of turning on each other instead of recognizing that this scenario and everything that's happening is part of the culture that we have all been shaped by.
And that's really what I want to talk about today, not because advocacy doesn't matter, but because. If we're only fighting this external threat of changes to 92507, changes to our billable rates and all of that, without changing the internal culture, we're going to keep recreating the same problem in new forms.
Right now, it's 92507. Next year, it's going to be something else. Different packaging, same result, same inner work that needs to be done.
So, yes, the cuts right now are the crisis, but the culture is absolutely the deeper issue. Now, this is not to minimize the impact that this will have and has had on our field, on real clinicians, real businesses, real families, real patients, real access to care, real livelihoods.
This is not to overlook that or minimize that. But, what I have found... is that when crisis hits, it tends to show us the beliefs that we already carry, whether we realize it or not.
And one of the beliefs that I see in many shapes and forms, but the common belief that shows up over and over is that we should be valued more, but we shouldn't have to invest in ourselves.
We shouldn't have to sell our services, sell our products. We shouldn't have to set boundaries. We shouldn't have to rest and take breaks.
We shouldn't have to say no, right? This is the contradiction. And many of us are not outwardly saying those things, by the way.
I shouldn't have to. We shouldn't have to charge more. Like, people are not saying that. But what I'm saying is that's the belief.
Like, that's how we show up. When I see people. People in Facebook groups bashing other SLPs for creating paid resources, paid webinars, in particular about this 9-2-5-0-7 crisis, if you will, that to me is so counterproductive, counterintuitive, and unsupportive.
How can we push for and argue for being paid our worth, right, but then turn around and criticize SLPs for charging for their time, their expertise, their energy, their knowledge, their support?
It just doesn't make sense. Will there always be people who are going to take advantage of a situation? Yes.
But that's the exception, in my opinion, not the norm. So. Here are some things that I want you to consider, okay?
Now, again, brace yourself. Tough love, as I said, right? So in different professional spaces, in different, you know, Facebook groups or social media groups, right, SLPs are chiming in with all these judgments, you know, and also fair, like, you know, also concerns, venting, like, this is not, again, this is not about shaming any of us for being worried.
This is not about shaming or judging any of us for being upset about these proposals. But this is an invitation for you to look within, within yourself at the beliefs that you are opposite.
Operating from, right? Because there really is a contradiction between saying SLPs deserve to be paid more, and then criticizing SLPs who charge more.
Oh, must be nice, right? Oh, I wish I could charge that amount. That would never work in my area.
And again, I am saying this with love, okay? I'm asking you, inviting you to notice those thoughts, notice those responses, and challenge them.
Because in my opinion, that is the message that we have been sold. That is the culture that has existed for decades.
I've been in this field for almost 20 years. This is not something that's just in a few different areas, a few different...
... ... ... To me, this is the overall tone of our field and the only people that can change it are ourselves.
We need to be asking ourselves, right? As we submit comments, as we contact lawmakers, as we get information and educate ourselves about what all this information means and how to prepare and what to do with it.
But yes, all of that is great and important and super empowering and necessary. And I'm not telling you to stop doing that.
But we also need to ask and consider, how do we talk about money, right? How do we respond when colleagues charge different rates?
How do we treat our own expertise? And where do we confuse service with sacrifice or... Busy being a badge of honor, right?
Where are we calling boundaries as selfish or unavailable for us, right? Where are we waiting for permission to build sustainable businesses?
I'm talking to my private practice owners right now, but I'm also talking to those of you who are in the field and have other streams of revenue, right?
And chances are, if you are a private practice owner or you're an SLP with other streams of revenue, chances are you've probably done some of this work yourself.
You've probably asked some of these questions yourself, whether you realize it or not. You may have a slightly different perspective.
However, I know from personal and professional experience, people who are running private practices, but running them like they are nonprofits.
And if that's That's what you want to do. By all means, go and do it. But you can't run a private practice as a nonprofit and then complain about not being able to keep the lights on, keep the doors open.
Right? And this is the other thing that I want you to think about. We all think about things and through our vocabulary, vernacular, the things that we say, the things that I'm reading, we think about costs.
Right? We think about, oh, now I have to like fees. Now I have to go pay for this. I already have to pay the, you know, ASHA whatever, ASHA membership, which, you know, I'm not going down that rabbit hole, but, you know, pay for your C's or not.
ASHA membership, state licensure. I'm paying for this. I'm paying for that. I'm getting charged for this. I'm getting charged for that.
What if you reframed? That thinking and thought of these as investments. And I want to be clear here, I'm not gaslighting you.
I am not telling you that you have no, you don't have a leg to stand on, that you don't have any reason to be upset.
I'm not telling you that you should happily hand over your money to ASHA every month or every year or whatever and, you know, and just suck it up.
That is the opposite of what I am saying here, right? But think about these as investments. And investments are not just financial, right?
Investment includes, yes, money, but also time, energy, support, education. Investment includes rest and boundaries and leadership, right? These are all forms of investment, but we're thinking through a lens of scarcity.
And this is how you know if you are thinking through a lens. How dare they charge for that? Oh my gosh, that's so expensive.
I can't pay that. I can't invest. No one will pay that. Oh, guess I'm just going to have to figure it out myself.
I can't take a day off. I can't rest. I can't do this. I can't do that. Scarcity, scarcity, scarcity.
And I have found this to be true for both myself and for many of the women who I coach, that how we think about money is often very similar to how we think about our time.
I've done podcast episodes about that. And while that is not the purpose or the topic of today's episode, I think it's relevant and worth mentioning.
So when you hear yourself with those types of questions, those types of thought, check in with yourself about this, right?
Is this actually true? What facts do I have about this? Is this a story that I'm telling myself? Or is this a story that I have been sold and I've never stopped to question it, right?
And you can ask yourself, what is the story that I want to create here? What could leadership look like?
How can I show up as the person who is paid what they are worth? How can I show up as somebody who knows the value of her expertise, knows the value of the service that she provides, and isn't willing to settle for less, right?
And this, again, is not just financial. This can be in terms of the clients that you take on in your practice, right?
Are you willing and happy to continue taking on clients who don't value the service that you're providing? Do you want to continue working with clients who don't respect your time?
Or don't respect your boundaries? Do you want to continue serving clients who are late on their payments if they're paying out of pocket, who are canceling last minute, who are leaving the, you know, home-based session and seeing it as a form of childcare instead of being an active role, playing an active role, an active participant in the service that you are providing?
Right? Now, I'm all about meeting people where they are at. I am not trying to, I'm not trying to suggest that we should only, that SLP should only serve certain types of people, like none of that.
But I just want you to notice, like, what are you saying yes to? Because you've told yourself that you have to.
What are you, what are you accepting and complaining about or be feeling either internally, or externally, feeling resentful about that you wish could be different, but you're not changing the way that you show up, the way that you think, the boundaries that you set, right?
None of that can change unless you yourself are changing. What are you and where are you refusing to invest in yourself, whether that's by investing in yourself for taking some time off or stop burning the midnight oil and work harder, push more, get this done, do this, do that, right?
Where are you refusing to say no to things that are not in your best interest? Where does that pattern show up in your rates, in your boundaries, in your caseload, in your schedule, your calendar, right?
In your business decisions. Those are the things that we need to be asking ourselves, right? So if we're talking about what we can do with this, right?
I want to give you some questions and some thoughts that I've given you a lot already, but I want to give you a few questions and thoughts to take with you that will hopefully help you to recognize the opportunity that we have in this moment, okay?
So culture, going back to that term, the culture of our field and needing it to change. That culture, our field changes when individual SLPs lead differently.
And I haven't said this yet, which is kind of was an oversight on my part. It is worth acknowledging, important to acknowledge the leaders who are out there tirelessly working to educate our colleagues, to advocate for what our service, the value of our service, who are actually changing the shape of our field.
I don't want to imply that that isn't happening, okay? Like we need that, that exists, thank you so much.
And we need to do our part as well so that, like I said, in a year from now, two years, five years from now, we're not having this same conversation just with a different, you know, with different details.
So thinking about the culture of our field, not as some... It's thing, not as something that exists outside of us, but that it comes from within.
And it's created by repeated, tiny choices. It's created by how we talk about money, how we talk about our colleagues, how we price our work, how we respond when someone else charges for something.
How we model boundaries, how we rest, how we invest in our personal growth just as much, if not more, than our professional growth.
How we treat our own expertise and how we define being a good, air quotes here, SLP. Right? And I want you to ask, what am I doing internally that's either reinforcing the old culture or helping to build a new one?
Because the culture is not coming from the insurance companies. Right? We all need a villain. And I'm not saying that they are, that they have.
Yes. Okay. I've really tried to stay on topic here. Leaving that aside, right? But the culture is not created by the insurance companies.
And that, while we might want to place blame and all of that, it's easy to look outside of ourselves.
It's easy to place blame in other places, but it's way more helpful and way more empowering to do that from within.
Because the new culture is not going to change when insurance companies are finally deciding to value us. It's not.
I'm telling you it's not. It starts when we are no longer available to give our value away. It starts when we stop asking permission to build sustainable businesses.
When we stop. Confusing sacrifice with service and integrity. When we stopped treating burnout as the price of being good at this work.
So I want you to ask yourself, where am I asking to be valued while I'm still undervaluing myself? Where do I feel resentment toward others, other SLPs, other administrators, other practices in terms of their pricing, their boundaries, or their visibility?
And what does that resentment tell me, right? If that's information, we treat that as information. What is it revealing to you?
Where have I been waiting for the field to change before I give myself permission to lead differently? What's one investment that I am resisting right now?
Not just a money investment, not just money, okay? Okay, but time. Time, support, rest, boundaries, and how can I ease that resistance?
If I believed that my expertise was valuable and that others value it, what would I do differently this week?
These are the types of questions that we ask in coaching. This is what we dig into to support SLPs just like you with creating a work-life balance, creating in most cases for the women I work with, a business, a private practice that lets them serve the people and the way that they want, love their work, love what you do, and love your personality.
At the same time. And the only way that that can start to happen is if we start looking inward.
All right. Definitely went over that 15 minutes. That is all I've got for this episode. Okay. I will wrap this up and invite you to continue this conversation.
Join me in the Work-Life Balance for Speech Pathologists Facebook group if you are not in there. And if this is the type of change that you want to create from within for yourself, instead of waiting for other people to start providing the value that you know you deserve, reach out to me.
I will show you exactly how to do it. All right. And in the meantime, take deep cleansing breaths. Keep advocating.
And also... Look inward because the shift in culture starts with us. All right. Talk to y'all soon.
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