S2E4: A Hybrid Business Approach with SLP with Whitney McMullin

Whitney McMullin joins us on the Speech Source Podcast with an insightful conversation that shares her experience of balancing contract work with the entrepreneurial spirit. She discusses how she sidestepped the pressures of productivity quotas to craft a career that's both fulfilling and flexible. Her journey is a testament to setting boundaries that work with her dual role as a clinician and mother.

We discuss contracting with companies, her unique hybrid approach with ECI (Early Childhood Intervention) and a mobile private practice, the importance of knowing personal clinical strengths and when to refer out to other clinicians, creativity in childcare as a working mom, ways to organically get referrals, and travel boundaries as a mobile SLP and staying on schedule.   Whitney's candid reflections on the joys and challenges of creating the ideal work situation will be relatable to all clinicians!  Plus, we delve into effective parent coaching techniques and the importance of self-care, as Whitney opens up about personal growth and the strategic decisions she's made to preserve her well-being during this busy but exciting season of life. 

Enjoy this episode with Whitney McMullin that will leave  thinking about creative ways to structure your profession while laughing out loud throughout!

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Follow Kim and Mary on IG here! - https://www.instagram.com/thespeechsource/
For more information on speech, language, feeding and play - visit The Speech Source Website - https://www.thespeechsource.com/

Also, if you haven't done so already, follow our podcast! You will be the first to know when new episodes release. We would also love for you to leave a review and rate our show. The Speech Source appreciates your feedback and support! Follow here!

Follow Kim and Mary on IG here! - https://www.instagram.com/thespeechsource/
For more information on speech, language, feeding and play - visit The Speech Source Website - https://www.thespeechsource.com/

Transcript

Whitney : 0:00

you realize that when you work for someone, it's difficult sometimes to develop those boundaries. And I'm also able to say here are the things that I'm really great at and here are the things that I'm really confident in. And if you're looking for someone to work on fluency, I have a great girl for you, but it's not me. And so, knowing also when to refer, I do understand there's a point in your career where it is good to get out of your box and be uncomfortable. You see a lot of growth when you do have to have a fluency kit on your case. So you're like, okay, here we go.

Whitney : 0:33

I always want to give the best of myself, and so, whatever that is, in that area, of course, you do see a lot of growth, but I'm at the point where I just want to do what I'm good at.

Mary : 0:50

Welcome to the Speech Source Podcast. My name is Mary Brazeek and I'm Kim Dillon.

Kim : 0:56

We are two pediatric speech language pathologists with a combined 25 years of experience.

Mary : 1:02

We are your source for speech, language feeding, play and much more in between. This season, on the Speech Source Podcast, we are going to be interviewing 12 incredible SLP entrepreneurs who have all built their own businesses. Some of these women are app designers, content and digital course creators. Some are podcast hosts, speakers, coaches, business owners, so much more. These women are going to give us all the inside scoop on how it's done as a speech pathologist, going off and building your own business. So join us each week as we hear their journey and how they built their SLP business.

Kim : 1:48

On today's episode we have Whitney McMullen, and this is our first time to have a repeat guest. She was our very first podcast guest, and so for this series we wanted to bring her back because we feel like she's just the perfect person to talk about how she specifically kept working for a company but then also, at the same time, started her own business, which I think for speech therapists and really any therapist listening that sometimes seems like a safer way if you're really wanting to dip your toes into entrepreneurship. So, whitney, welcome.

Whitney : 2:29

Hi guys, I'm honored to be back. That was a nice little stat. I'm the first one.

Mary : 2:34

I'm excited. Whitney, tell us a little bit about what you're doing now and about that balance of what you have going on.

Whitney : 2:42

Yeah, okay, I work for UCI as a contractor. One of the things that is really positive about that is that whole thing, that productivity number, that SLPs and related fields. Just that's really frustrating and very hard sometimes, especially in the holiday months, to hit those numbers. So one of the greatest things I think about being a contractor is that does not apply to me. I am peer in. I build my hours at the end of the month.

Whitney : 3:11

Of course I try to hit my frequencies, because if I don't see the person, I'm not getting paid. So it works both ways. The flexibility with schedule is amazing, and also just being able to say no, I can't take any more kids. I cannot do that because when you are an employee, as you'll know, kids just pop up on your schedule and you're like okay, I got a new kid and so that part has been really great. I'm always complimented when they ask me every year to be an employee. I'm like thank you so much, but no, thank you. I've gotten better at saying no. I've really put off on being an employee for anyone because I do have a dream for myself and that I would one day want to just have strictly my own business. I've been dipping my toe in that I have private clients that I see on my own outside of ECI.

Kim : 4:04

How are you setting your schedule up for that? Do you have certain days that are allotted to ECI and then days that you're trying to find your own clients?

Whitney : 4:15

I don't say this day is gonna be at ECI kids. I really just again, my schedule is fluid in how I bill hours because I look at things in like blocks of time. Whether it's an ECI client or a client that I've acquired on my own, it's still. Do I have time to take on this client and for that family, when are they looking to schedule? Because I set up the perimeters before I start with ECI families and also my own private clients. Here's my availability. These are the days that I work. And when they say, oh really the Monday, I'm like I'm not your girl, cause Monday is my get stuff done day for my family and for myself.

Whitney : 4:54

An important thing is again, there's a boundary and saying these are the days that I work. As you get older and you work as an SLP longer and longer, you realize that when you work for someone it's difficult sometimes to develop those boundaries. And I'm also able to say here are the things that I'm really great at and here are the things that I'm really confident in. And if you're looking for someone to work on fluency, I have a great girl for you, but it's not me. And so knowing also when to refer, I do understand there's a point in your career where it is good to get out of your box and be uncomfortable, you see a lot of growth when you do have to have a fluency kit on your case. So you're like, okay, here we go.

Whitney : 5:37

I always want to give the best of myself and so, whatever that is in that area, of course you do see a lot of growth, but I'm at the point where I just want to do what I'm good at and that's where my brain is, because I'm a mom. When I was younger I had a lot of time to sit there and research and talk to other, speech pass and do all those things. But right now I don't have the capacity to do that and so I really stick like the movie hedge, like here you are, you're right here, you're right here. That's where I stay, and so I try to seek out intentionally families that are looking for someone like me, and then, if I find out that they're not and they need some more help in areas that I'm not so passionate about, I refer them out.

Mary : 6:24

So what are your hours right now, in the days that you work?

Whitney : 6:26

He said not Monday but then are they school hours or what are they?

Whitney : 6:31

Yes, so I work with my daughters in school. So she set up my working days. Tuesday and Wednesdays are like my heavy hitters. But another great thing this is a real life experience. They came to me. My daughter was in a really awesome program where they're here in the woodlands called All Ears, where after school care she was with kids with cochlear implants and AVT therapist and so she got that. I was thrilled like so excited she's hearing, but just to have that opportunity to be a model for these other kids. It was an excellent program and unfortunately they changed kind of their business model and it had been in the woodlands for a long time. So basically I was able to work. Those days when the program stopped offering after school.

Whitney : 7:17

I had to change my working days. There were other moms that were having a hard time with their jobs saying, oh my after school care has changed With me. I was able to flex and just change my days and call my families and say, hey, I know, we know Monday, tuesday, wednesday, how about Thursday afternoon? And a lot of them are like that's fine. And so that's another part, because if I worked for a company, that would have been a really uncomfortable email and it would have been a lot of scrambling as a mom. So again, it's a huge part that you can be flexible in your schedule. You can be flexible in your work days. So my work days are Tuesday, wednesdays and now Thursday afternoons.

Mary : 7:55

That's wonderful. And then what do you do when your kids are out on break or when they're out for the summer?

Whitney : 8:03

Yes, great question. Ok, here's something that is really hard, and I live away from my family. We do not have nearby family. I've gone to dentist appointments with both kids on my lap while getting dental work done. I am very picky about who watches my kids and who's around my kids, and so the consequence of that is my kids are always with me. Anyone who knows me knows like my kids are always with me. Now that Jack is older there's more camps and programs during the summer, so that kind of takes care of him. And then for Hannah, I poached a girl that was in her afterschool care and she comes and has her at my house, and that was important because my house is my hub so I can see what Hannah is doing throughout the day, and for me that is comforting. We don't have a lot of the same places in Fort Worth that you all have with some of that hourly day care, and there just really hasn't been a solution like that for me. So the best luck I've had with it is getting someone in the house so that someone is home during the day. Either my husband's working from home or I'm working from home. I had a video I found on my phone of Jack doing pretend speech therapy when he was like four or five and talking about targets, is what we're targeting today.

Whitney : 9:18

I do think it really is a great opportunity for your kids to see you doing the work, woman shuffle, and see you bouncing all those things, and see you coming in and out and understanding who's paying for their sports camp so that they can go to sports camp, and see you sometimes being frustrated because moms come up to me all the time and they go oh my gosh, I wish I could do something like you where you just work a little bit and then you don't and I'm like oh, I'm great, I'm glad that it looks so easy that I'm doing and I'm glad that I come off that way. But when you decide to work and I had a friend that was wanting to work and I said that's great, and I know that it looks like it might be efficient and easy and I'm doing it I said but a lot of mornings I am thinking why did I sign up for another kid? I don't have time, I'm rushed, I feel flustered, I feel this. But then there were times as a mom, before I went back to speech, where I felt very unfulfilled. I was bored, I wanted to use my brain, I wanted to get out of the house.

Whitney : 10:21

So I think the main thing to consider is what you're giving up and what you're leaving behind. I don't think there's ever going to be a perfect balance. I know there's all these work, life balance books and that's great, but I think your C-cell is always going to be a little up or a little down. I think it's really hard because life is happening around you and I wasn't expecting Jack to get flu A on the first week of December. We didn't get a Christmas tree until the third week of December. It was the smallest Christmas tree you've ever seen. We went to 13 nurseries to find this group. I mean, it was just. Our life was put on hold. I think that you have to be flexible and I think you have to be really aware of that really cute word, balance, because I just don't know that that is a goal to really strive for.

Mary : 11:07

Yeah, it's more. So what are you okay with maybe putting on the back burner?

Whitney : 11:13

Yes, yes.

Mary : 11:15

And what is the priority at the time Because that's what we're learning too is you can't have it all at once. You can have it all, but not all at once. Yeah.

Whitney : 11:23

And I think people will look at you and go oh, I'm envious that you have this job and your part-time and this, and I'm like I'm really envious of your very clean house. There's always going to be something that you aren't going to be able to fulfill and you're going to have to let it go, and you also don't need to be in a shame spiral that your house is not perfectly clean or you don't have this perfect part-time job. It's important to be honest. Being holistic is one of the most important parts in deciding what your caseload is going to be and what you can live with every day.

Kim : 11:55

I think that's a really good point about balance, because even if you find balance next week, that's all going to change. If it's not two months from now, it's going to change six months from now, because if you do have kids and you're balancing a job with kids, your kids are going to grow and their lives are going to change. Even if you don't have kids, your circumstances are changing season to season.

Mary : 12:17

Whitney, how did you start with your private clients? Where did you find them? Did you do any kind of marketing?

Whitney : 12:25

word of mouth, they find me, people are just naturally what do you do? And then immediately as soon as it comes out of my mouth, they go oh you are. And then they start going over all their kids' sound errors. And for my neighbor it is something that I think, once people find out what you do and they get to know you, whenever someone else brings it up you pop into mind and now I try to keep it a little hush because I can't take any more kids, but there it is. I think your best referral is from a three to four or five year old that talks to their parent about you, and that's what families want to share. When someone really likes you, they're like you've got to call her. I know you have another someone else in mind, but no, you need to meet this person. Referrals from family and word of mouth has been the biggest source of referrals.

Mary : 13:15

The way that you're able to achieve that is from being really good at what you do, for what you're doing right now with your patients privately. One of the things that is happening in our field is that a lot of companies are putting in place non-competes and different rules and restrictions for their employees. But tell us a little bit more about you and how your company feels about you seeing people privately. Are they totally fine with that? Is that part of being PRN for you, or how did that all work?

Whitney : 13:52

Yeah, I am a contractor and so that works both ways. So, like during COVID, I really didn't know if I was going to have a job through ECI, because I was a contractor and I really thought that that time was going to be done. I knew I would probably pick up again, but I didn't know. I was able to just do a ton of teletherapy for ECI during that time. So in my particular case, no, it's not a really a conflict of interest. Because I am a contractor, I know that I can be in as well as I could be out one day, and with our job there is just so much demand. So do I foresee that happening? No, I don't, but there were. Like I wasn't expecting COVID to happen. But also, a great thing about dipping your toe and having your own clients is you have those relationships with your families and those are gold, those are your people, and so if that would have fallen by the wayside and ECI would say, hey, we don't need you anymore, thanks, no, thanks, then I would have my private kids and I guarantee you they have friends and they have other families that they know and you can say something like, hey, some spots open up on my schedule if you hear of anyone that might need and I assure you your phone would be ringing, especially in our area.

Whitney : 15:10

Every private clinic around this area is on major wait list.

Whitney : 15:14

They're like we can give you speech if you take OT and PT too, and then we can get you on the schedule. So it is getting really hard for those traditional kids that just need speech to get in and you're getting really bad time slots. I could make a brochure of all the benefits of seeing someone in a private setting versus going to a big clinic and trying to get on a wait list, and I think, especially if you're going to their homes, that is a huge selling point because you're not having to get your other kids in the car, drive to the clinic, sit in the waiting room with all the other kids that have flu A and do all the things that moms just don't want to do. And sitting in a waiting room is on the top of my list with my other child. I don't even like to call it selling because I feel like that seems like you're misleading people, like you're selling them something. You're telling them all the benefits that you can provide that a traditional public clinic cannot.

Mary : 16:10

So then, whitney, since ECI ages out at age three, did you keep these kiddos on privately past that? Do they transition there or no? Are they totally separate?

Whitney : 16:20

No people have asked, but I feel really yucky doing that because I just feel like they have been acquired by ECI, like those leads, ethically. On my side there's been some kids that I've really wanted to keep, but I do refer out for them just because I felt weird about that and so I refer them out. There's one clinic that I recommend, and the only reason I recommend this one clinic is because I've had several families talk about it. I've visited it, and so I don't recommend places that I've never been in the door, and you would be surprised at how many people do recommend clinics. I just feel like they've been wearing back. They come back and they say, yeah, that didn't work, do you have anything else?

Mary : 17:00

Yeah, when you see kids privately, one of the things about not having an office space is that you have to drive around, and going to their home does mean you're eating into the time that you could be seeing a kid because you're driving. I know what kind of boundaries do you set in place? Because, houston, my goodness, you could just keep going and going in any direction and there's more children. So when I was younger and greener?

Whitney : 17:27

I didn't because I was just thinking I'm getting paid for this.

Whitney : 17:31

But then when you get more efficient in your time as a mom and you realize time is money and money is all those things I do a pretty tight radius around my house and even if parents say, oh, I'll pay you more, and I'm like you know what the time just itself and the stress of driving I know that sounds silly, but you're in traffic or it's a rainy day or it's this and you have to be back in car line and is that going to bring you more stress.

Whitney : 17:59

So that has led me, especially in this last year, talking about what it's going to cost me mentally and the stress and the workload. And that's what I really helped get because, like when I was younger, I probably would have hustled, I know myself, and I would have been working 12 hour days probably and just doing the hustle. But now to me, like I would rather orgo the money and just have the peace and knowing that when I show up to a house I'm not going to be flustered and I'm not going to be in that state of mind, because they deserve that too, because we regulate our clients, whether we want to admit it or not, when you're frazzled, kids pick up on that so quickly, and when I was a teacher, you learned that you were the thermostat with your children.

Whitney : 18:49

And if you're stressed out and you're worried and you're anxious and you're thinking about something, your kids know that and I worked with kids that had some pretty significant needs. I was giving a test early and I got a call that my aunt had a stroke and I was very upset and they could see these are kids that aren't supposed to be able to read body language and kids that aren't supposed to understand sarcasm, and there's no way they could have lived with me as a teacher if they didn't know sarcasm. But these were kids that were socially not supposed to pick up on these things. And as soon as I got off the phone, a non-verbal kid came up to me and put his hand on my hand and he knew that I was worried and I was sad and I was all those things. And so it stuck with me that you are the thermostat, also as a mom too.

Whitney : 19:41

That and that's hard, because when your kid starts acting eight, you wanna act eight too, immediately. I don't know what it does, it just makes you like, oh, I'm so frustrated with you, I made you and you're frustrating me, and they know how to do it. And so when you go to their level, get ready, because again, you're supposed to be the co-regulator with your child and so going into a speech appointment stressed and anxious and just not in it for the right reason. I think that's why some of those speech paths that are working for these companies that have outrageous productivity are burnt out and done and their families probably aren't that thrilled with the therapy that they're getting, because they're stressed out and they're anxious and they have to run and they're thinking about the next 50 kids that they have to see.

Mary : 20:29

And that therapist's personal family probably isn't very thrilled with the person they get either. Yes, absolutely so. About how many minutes would you say you drive between homes and then how long are your sessions?

Whitney : 20:41

Okay, you're gonna think I'm a diva when I say this, mary, because it's probably a five to eight minute radius around my house and that's what I'm telling you. The word of mouth where you plant your flowers is where they're gonna bloom. Talking to moms at pickup line even though it's awkward and you don't want to and you can't remember a name again, and you're like they're talking to parents about what you do and who you are and what matters to you, because I think moms really wanna like the person that's coming in their house. You want them to feel comfortable, to have the laundry unfolded on their couch. That's a compliment to me. I'm like thank you that I don't care about your dirty laundry and that you feel comfortable enough for your house not to be clean because those are your real friends.

Mary : 21:24

One thing that I think is hard, now that I'm going into parents' houses and I feel like this is probably all speech pass we are all such big talkers. How do you stay on schedule and are you doing? 30 minute, 45 foot, what are you doing? And then how do you leave? It's you just wanna stay and play with them all day and work with them and talk, and you gotta go.

Whitney : 21:47

Yep, no. So with ECI it's an exhausting hour, and that's just because of their coaching model. We're not doing direct therapy for an hour, so that's 40 minutes of direct time with the child and the family and then 20 minutes of note writing, and so when I have it my way I wanna go to five minutes of note writing. But that is the least favorite part of my job, like any clerical duty, you can just know that's my least favorite because I am a creative brain and I like to be in therapy. So those tasks are hard for me, and especially being time blinds like I am. So the kids are really good at keeping you on time. So with my private sessions I always tell parents, especially the young kids, I'm like 30 minutes tops. So 25 minutes direct, five minutes, and so that's another piece of having people close to you, because that wouldn't be really worth your time if you're driving really far to do a 30 minute session.

Whitney : 22:41

I'm just gonna be practical from a monetary standpoint.

Whitney : 22:45

I do 30 minutes, I do 25 minutes direct, and so we sing the hello song, we sing the goodbye song, and the kids cue is when she sings goodbye that means she's done with me and she's gonna talk to my mom, so that's a kind of a clue for everybody. A good way to do that with parents, especially that you're gonna talk to, is I have to get to my next kiddo, cause they respect that. They're like we don't want her to be late to her next kid because we wouldn't want her to be late to ours. If you know you have someone that is a talker and you enjoy their time and you don't mind going over, put them. At the end of the day you can always say to hey, if you see something great video and send it to me. If you get a new toy and you're trying to figure out target words, take a picture and send it to me. So keep the engagement open. They still feel like you're present and you're open to communication, but they also know that you have another kid to see.

Mary : 23:39

That's great. So then do you use an EMR system or you pen and paper for your private clients, or how do you mesh the two?

Whitney : 23:46

I'm a beautiful word doc. That's about as fancy as I get and, honestly, if I could get away with it, I would do a post-it note. It just depends on the parent. I have some parents like I have a family that I'm thinking right now and both of the parents are physicians and a post-it note is just not gonna work with physicians. Okay, read the room. They want information.

Whitney : 24:04

So fill out like what your families want, and a great way to figure out is say what do y'all want. People get really overwhelmed. I'm like you wanna research how to go on that. If you want an Instagram account, I can give that to you too. I am one of those parents where I'm like give me something that's in bite-sized morsels, give me that, because I can't read research articles right now. I don't want anything to do with that. I'm never gonna look at it again.

Whitney : 24:30

Eventually I would like to potentially I'm going to leave it open go back to work at schools, because I do miss the camaraderie. I was a teacher before. I miss working with teachers. I don't think people understand the wealth of knowledge that teachers have, especially the teachers that are teaching your kid how to read Like speech pass if you want to really learn about phonemic awareness and all of the stuff that makes the wheels turn. Go talk to a kindergarten now. Kindergarten teacher, first grade teacher, second grade teacher will blow your socks off with all the information and resources that they have. So if you still have teachers that have stayed in the teaching field, take those people out to eat and just treat them to dinner and talk to them and figure out like what is the newest research in reading.

Whitney : 25:17

I think that that has been really helpful because I would never, when I go back and work in the schools or if I work at a company, I will involve the parent in so much more meaningful ways. Because now that I've worked with parents and I have that open communication, I realized when I worked in the schools and I worked in the private clinics that that was not all connecting. They were not understanding what I was doing in therapy. I wasn't making those phone calls home as a school-based speech therapist, I just wasn't. Now I realize, oh my gosh, the progress should have been so much greater if I would have just picked the phone and just looping that parent in, because there's a huge disconnect between parent communication, especially with me as a school-based therapist and also even in the clinic. But that parent coaching piece is just huge and that has been very eye-opening by being in people's houses.

Kim : 26:15

Yeah, parents are coaching, for sure.

Mary : 26:18

Yeah, and Whitney, it sounds like the hybrid that you have going on right now is serving you so well the ECI with private patients but I love that you're open to other settings and thinking, hey, this is what's working for now. Kevin and I were talking earlier about just the flexibility of our field. But, I think this is not a field where you have to go in saying I'm a school therapist or I'm a hospital SLP or private practice. You can change. You learn so much from each setting and take that with you.

Kim : 26:50

What's one thing that you don't like to do at home, that you would like to outsource, or that you do outsource?

Whitney : 26:57

Cleaning Kelly, your sister. She was my roommate, she would know that it would be cleaning.

Kim : 27:02

Hey, oh, I was your roommate for one week, oh so you would also know that I could be cleaning.

Whitney : 27:06

I can also vouch for that.

Kim : 27:08

I lasted one week living with them. Yeah, she's like I'm out of here and I'm out. What's your favorite activity to do for self care?

Whitney : 27:16

Okay. So I work out every day, not for vanity, but just for mental clarity, and I think my number one self care is giving myself the opportunity to not be rushed with myself or with my kids. So what that means is I have ADHD shocker, and when I give myself five minutes to do a task, now I give myself double or triple that amount of time that I think that my brain needs. So then that way I give myself the gift of not being rushed, and I always tell my kids what are you going to do today that's going to make tomorrow easier? What are you going to do today to make tomorrow easier? And so I'm always asking myself that question.

Whitney : 28:00

So I've built in time for tasks that I don't like, and getting my kids out the door is one of those tasks that I do not like, and so I'm trying to be really conscious about saying to my kids all the time hurry up, we're going to be late. Hurry up, because what are you teaching them? Hurry up, you're going to be late because you didn't allow enough time to get this thing done. And so I'm really my number one self care is giving myself the opportunity to not be rushed, and that has helped me more than like a spa day or anything. The cortisol is not rushing through my body at all times.

Kim : 28:36

I love that idea. And last one if you weren't a speech therapist, what would you be, whitney?

Whitney : 28:41

Oh, my gosh, I can do that. I'm always dreamed of being a greeting card writer, although I think greeting cards are going out.

Whitney : 28:52

They're no longer in vogue. I still like greeting cards, but that or something in interior design or something creative. It would have to be something creative, because I am not a desk person for sure. I did want to share with y'all. I read this and I thought about y'all, because I saw that we're going to talk a little bit about self care and this really hit. It says if you demand a strong work ethic from yourself, then also grant yourself a strong rest ethic, because if you're serious about progress sustainable long term progress quality rest has to become a priority. Rest isn't an occasional reward. It's a consistent requirement for strong, purposeful work and I was like, yeah, I like all of those things so perfect.

Kim : 29:40

Where did you find that I?

Whitney : 29:43

followed the chalkboard mag on Instagram and let's see someone named Sean wrote that and I thought that's really good for me, because it's very hard. If you're a go-go person and I am I don't like to be sitting down to give yourself rest and allow yourself to rest and not judge yourself for resting.

Kim : 30:02

Yeah, and I think anybody who we're going to be talking to that is entrepreneurial at all, is going to struggle with this.

Mary : 30:10

So along those same lines, whitney, just in practical terms, when do you go to bed, when do you wake up and when do you work out? Because in light of rest and moving your body, some of that just comes down to logistics.

Whitney : 30:27

Yes, so I am a grandma. I go to bed earlier than most people would think, although I like to have fun, I just like to have my fun early and go to bed. I'm not someone that you would invite to Cabo, probably. I would probably have one fun night at Cabo and then be like I'm going to be sleeping this off for four days. So I like to go to bed early. I don't like to wake up too early.

Whitney : 30:49

There's several groups like workout groups that meet at 5.30. That is not for me. At that point I'm losing sleep and losing to me valuable recharge time and that's not going to help me because I'm just going to be more tired. So I don't work out super early and I schedule my workouts like I schedule my kids with the block Okay, I have this time open and then I get on my gym app and I see what class is available. I used to be really particular about what class I'm like body balance. That sounds lame. I'm not doing that. It's open and my schedule is open. My thing now is more about movement and moving my body and sweating, and regardless of its chair yoga or HIIT, or I had a kickboxing the other day and I hadn't done that since my dorm room at TCU doing Taibo.

Whitney : 31:38

I hadn't done that in 20 years and I felt like I got in a car accident the next day and I was like that was a great workout and so now I'm open to the workouts I do because it's available. What I'm going to do is what I'm going to do, and so my husband laughs at me because he'll be like what did you do today? I?

Whitney : 31:55

got ripped into a chair yoga class. It's a real story and I hung out with some 70-year-olds. I got invited to the Methodist Church. It was great, like I made some friends, but I just could do whatever is open. The most important part to me has not been about the classes, about the movement, and there's a class that I really love. There's two classes that I never miss every week because I love them, and so I put them in my schedule and I don't schedule any clients at 10 o'clock on Monday or Friday, because 10 o'clock tone Monday and Friday. That's how I work it in, and if things are important to you, you will work them in your schedule.

Kim : 32:32

Okay, I know you need to go get Hannah, so Hannah.

Mary : 32:35

Thank you, I feel like we could talk to you.

Kim : 32:37

Thanks for the last time I know I was like we could talk to you for hours.

Whitney : 32:41

Oh my gosh, I hope you all got some good stuff.

Kim : 32:43

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