S2E8: Building the Play on Words Practice with SLP Annie Gist

SLP Annie Gist joins us this week to share her remarkable journey from an employee to a proud owner of the speech therapy practice, Play on Words.  After working for a private practice for several years, Annie was staying home with her 2 little girls and living the mom life when she found herself in a position as a single mom needing to bring in income.  Annie shares about the growth from seeing kids in her neighborhood to running a successful brick-and-mortar practice in an old home that offers a curiosity for kids and endless language opportunities.  It's a path that might have blossomed out of necessity, but when in a conversation with Annie you realize there is no mistake in where she has landed.  She has a passion not only for serving kids and their families for speech therapy, but also in creating and guiding a team of employees that are happy and fulfilled.  

Annie delves into her process for hiring therapists, including the interview process and finding the right candidates. She prides herself in taking care of her team and making sure they all feel connected, keeping a close-knit environment through team lunches and closing the office during lunch hours.  She shares her decision-making process around taking insurance and how partnering with a credentialing company helped streamline the process.  

Additionally, Annie talks about her experience participating in the Independent Clinician's Start Your Private Practice course for independent clinicians. She highlights the importance of her admin team, consisting of a receptionist and front office manager, in keeping her practice running smoothly.

We really enjoyed this interview with Annie, so tune in for practical tips and inspiration to pursue your dreams!  Annie is kind, focused and knowledgeable and will leave you smiling as you listen to the interview.  

Check out Annie's website - Play on Words and her IG Account!

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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

Annie: 0:00

I'm one of those types. That's like I can mow my own lawn, I can clean my own house, I can do all of it. But sometimes it's a better use of your resources and your time if you outsource, if you know what you don't know, basically, and if you have the ability to outsource it. I've learned that's the best way to go, because I've paid to put out some fires that I've started a couple of times.

Mary: 0:30

Welcome to the Speech Source Podcast. My name is Mary Brazik.

Kim : 0:40

And I'm Kim Dillon. We are two pediatric speech-language pathologists with a combined 25 years of experience.

Mary: 0:42

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 : 1:28

Today's episode we have Annie Gist and she is a speech therapist that has gone out on her own and started her own practice. We get to hear about her process and starting her own practice. So welcome Annie.

Annie: 1:41

Thank you, I'm so excited to be here.

Kim : 1:44

We're excited to have you.

Annie: 1:46

So if you'll just start off and tell us a little bit about yourself, yeah, so I have been a speech therapist for 10 years now and I got into the field after trialing and airing a bunch of different degrees. Like when I was in college, I could not figure out what I wanted to do. My mom is a teacher and she said I really think you should come shadow the speech therapist that's here on staff. And I did. I shadowed her and I enrolled in a class the next semester and it was a game changer for me. I had changed majors five times before I found speech and I just was not settled. And then the second I found it was like this is it? This is exactly what I want to do and where I want to be. And yeah, it's been speech ever since. So I did that and then worked in skilled nursing right out of grad school. So I went and worked in a SNF for my clinical fellowship year and then I moved back to the DFW area and onboarded in a private practice in the area.

Mary: 2:47

How long were you in the private practice and then how did you transition to starting your own thing?

Annie: 2:55

Yeah, I was at that private practice for four years and then I started having babies and I just wanted to be home with them and really, truly, that was what I wanted to do.

Annie: 3:08

Is I really wanted to stay at home and just work part time, if at all? I wanted to take a break, but then I went through a divorce, so it was just me and I was not working at all at the time, and so I had a neighbor who kept asking me if I would ever see clients on the side and I'm sure you guys do too, have people ask you all the time but I started seeing that one and it just grew word of mouth from there and I felt like I was seeing every kiddo that needed speech therapy in my neighborhood and I honestly didn't market. Well, it was just word of mouth. And so I was seeing kids out of my home office and I built two big double doors that closed off the backside of my house from the front part of my house and my girls were in the back portion with their nanny and I was in the front portion doing my thing and could check in on them because they were little.

Annie: 4:06

They were one and three at the time. It was a really nice setup to still be present but be able to do what I love at the same time.

Kim : 4:17

Being able to just know that they're that close that's huge.

Annie: 4:21

It was huge because that was why I decided to do it. It was either I go work full time for a school district, for another private practice in another setting, basically go work somewhere else, or, if I can make this thing work on my own and just hope and pray that I get enough clients to support myself and the house we were in and everything that we needed. I was like you know what, if I do this, I have to succeed. There will be like no failing at this. I started networking with other professionals in the area and built relationships with a lot of the pediatricians and dentists that were close by.

Annie: 4:56

It wasn't an option to fail, because I did not want to leave them. I didn't want to put them in daycare, I wanted to be present. I was still like nursing full time. It was just a lot of balancing and spinning plates trying to make it work, but, goodness, it's been such a fruitful journey. I've learned so much about myself and so much about just who I am and how I operate in this whole journey. So, yeah, it's been really good. It's been really rewarding, honestly.

Mary: 5:26

So how did you make the decision? I'm guessing it's been really good, it's been really rewarding, honestly. So how did you make the decision? I'm guessing it's because of growth.

Annie: 5:35

but to move out of your house and then into a brick and mortar and pay rent. Basically, I was just turning away so many people because my time was full and I actually hired on another speech therapist that was working out in the community under the Play On Words umbrella but she would like pop into my office during breaks where I would go pick up my girls from school. This was last year, so as they got older they started going to school and she would pop in the morning when I would take them to school and then she'd come back in the afternoon from two to three 30 and see clients then. So it was just a lot of Tetris of our schedules sharing this space and for her to still be out in the community seeing kiddos at daycares, preschools and Montessori schools all throughout the area. She was traveling so for stability for her and she had so many patients that we could have easily put with her if we'd had the space.

Annie: 6:30

I did a lot of research on different places in the area and I actually ended up going with an older home. It's a really neat location because it's right on the main road but it's zoned, commercial but it's a house and I love that because so many of my clients would say we're just going to Miss Annie's house, so this is a bigger version of my house, and so I feel like it just worked out really well.

Annie: 6:53

So now we're in a space, this location can. There's a let's see one, two, three or five rooms upstairs, and then my office is downstairs and we have a therapy gym, and it's really neat how it worked out to be another house.

Mary: 7:08

Do you have an elevator or how does that work with ADA compliance and old houses?

Annie: 7:14

Yeah, so those kids will come into my office or they use the therapy gym to set up there, but no, they can't get up the stairs and we don't have any like handicap parking per se, because there is a, there's a lip to get in here, but we do. People just pop right over it and they do just fine. We just shuffle around as needed for those cases.

Kim : 7:34

Talk to several therapists that have mentioned what a great setting that is to be in a house.

Annie: 7:40

Definitely it's come with unique challenges, just the fact that it's an older home. We've had some issues with the AC and we're on septic here and so that's been fun, but all in all there are. There's so many opportunities for language, like with the stairs Even I carry a really hefty insurance policy for this place because of that but we haven't had any issues to date and, honestly, kids love going up there. I have several clients on my caseload that they want to go on a tour every visit they come in. Can we go on a tour upstairs, like their kids are just curious like what's up there. So we do a lot of that and there's so many opportunities just going up for our little language friends that come. It's been really great.

Mary: 8:26

So you started off hiring one person and then now I believe that you hire is it five?

Annie: 8:34

Yeah, there's, let's see there's. I have one that just comes in the afternoon, but then I have two full-time and two part-time employees, one that's here Monday, wednesday and then the other is just here from four to six, two days a week.

Mary: 8:48

How'd you go about hiring them and do you have a certain interview process, or did you know them in advance?

Annie: 8:54

No, the one has been with me from the get-go. One of my full-timers has been with me. She really trudged through the mud with me as I was trying to figure out the space and she was the one that was out in the community. She's still with me and she's full time. I found her actually through the schools. We had a lot of mutual clients that we were connecting on and I sent her an email that said I'm looking for this, if you know of anybody, because, all in all, I feel like speech is a pretty small world.

Annie: 9:23

All things considering, I feel like there's a lot of connections. She was actually you know what. I think I might be interested in this, and so that's how I found her and the others were. I've had a few. A lot of Facebook. Honestly, if I post on Facebook that there's an opening and that we're expanding I've had two onboarded that way and then the other one I put out an email through UT Dallas. The Callier Center is amazing for job connections, so she's a clinical fellow under me right now. We have an Indeed listing right now, but I need to put out another.

Mary: 9:56

Okay, I wanted to hop back to what you were saying about finding real estate, because I feel like that's a transition that so many people are wondering about. Is that when you're seeing people in your home or out in the community and you're trying to decide whether to get space and I'm going to pay this rent and how much you should even what's okay to pay?

Annie: 10:20

That's a great question. The tipping point for me was it was a Friday I don't work Fridays and it was a Friday. I was out getting my mail and my socks and there was a family that drove up and they said that they were here for speech therapy and I said do you have an appointment? I didn't recognize him. He's no, we're here for it's a walk in. And I was like, okay, let me go get you a card, as I'm like shuffling back in, and I was like this is such a cross of my home, that's an amazing story. Yeah, anyway, I got them a card.

Annie: 10:58

It was like I was at that time with that capacity, with the families that I see. Anyway, it was like I think it's time. I just think it's time.

Annie: 11:05

I didn't love the idea of my home address being on the internet and, honestly, I went back and forth taking it on and off Google for the longest time. But most families will search speech therapy near me and that's like the number one search engine keywords that are used when people are clicking on us and giving us calls through Google or looking at our website. It's really neat that you can look up that information, but that's what they're typing in and so when I pulled that off, my inquiries went way down, and when I added it back in, they went back up. So I felt like if I'm going to do this, I have to just be bold and put it out there, just because this is where I am. I did feel like some safety concerns occasionally, but not often. All in all, the families I see are just phenomenal. There was a few times that I felt a little uncomfortable, but again that was at the end of things, when I just felt affirmation that it was time to branch out.

Mary: 12:03

Did you have security cameras in place?

Annie: 12:07

Yep, yep, definitely Inside and outside, or I didn't have any inside. Hindsight I probably should have and would have. If I were to go back and do it again, I definitely would have. It was just awkward when people would say they needed to use the bathroom and I didn't have a bathroom that was within those double doors that closed off the back half of my house because it was really the foyer and the office of just the layout of my house. That was all that I had available. But of course I let people go back and they would be using the same bathroom that my girls use. So every night I'd like police the toothpaste situation and all of that to make that okay, presentable. And then, but other than that, that was the only times that I ever felt like uncomfortable.

Kim : 12:52

I think it's also just exposing kind of your life when someone is walking around your house, and that's sometimes what was hard for me if I didn't know someone very well when I was having people come in, was that and these are my Christmas decorations and this is what I chose for this and that's personal, and so when it's people you don't know very well, it sometimes does feel different.

Annie: 13:15

Yeah, definitely. It made me very aware of how tidy I am and sometimes I'd be like I'm just going to close these doors just in case to my kids' rooms. It is, it's very personal, but in some ways though, I think that helped families feel connected to me as well, because it makes you relatable, and sometimes my dog would slip in and kids love dogs, and so that was a really sweet thing for many kids. They loved when that kind of thing would happen and there's a lot of language opportunity there too.

Mary: 13:51

So very true. Did you start off as private pay and then add insurance when you got your building? Or how did you switch to that? Because I saw that you're taking Blue Cross and then also United UMR. So tell us a little bit about that decision, cause I feel like that's another huge jump for therapists is deciding to take insurance or not.

Annie: 14:07

Yeah, that was a really tough call. I was private pay for a really long time and I just kept losing inquiries unnecessarily because we didn't take insurance. People have great benefits and they pay a pretty penny for them and they want to use them, which is understandable. So I wanted to be able to help those families because I knew I could help, and I just felt weighty about turning them away just because of the fact that I didn't file. That was a massive learning curve, though, but, yeah, once my schedule was full and once we had decided to make the leap over to expand, I was thinking there's no way I'm going to make it fully private pay and have to support the overhead of having rent now at this location, so it was out of necessity that I felt like we're going to lose a lot of clients that we could really help if we decide not to take insurance.

Mary: 15:04

And then, how did you determine your rates? Your private pay rates Are those in conjunction with your insurance rates. Are they totally separate? How does that work?

Annie: 15:13

What we did was a lot of market analysis, but I had to raise rates pretty significantly coming to this location just to make it work. But we're still lower than everybody, because when I was out of my house my overhead wasn't as high. It really was nothing. I was able to charge a lot less, which I also think helped me to grow faster. And then word of mouth is huge and mom's talk and moms are constantly communicating about good people in the area to help their kids especially. So I feel like my name came up a lot being affordable. And then when we moved here, we're still low, but we did it all through market analysis.

Mary: 15:52

Have you ever considered taking Medicaid? I know that's a whole different ballgame. What are your thoughts on that for your business?

Annie: 16:01

Maybe eventually. I feel like anything that has to do with government, taxes included, is just very confusing. I'm not sure that I have the capacity to take that on at the moment, but maybe eventually, because I'm still very heavily involved in patient care and so I don't have a lot of time to dedicate to it. But maybe down the road I could consider that you said that the insurance was a learning curve for you.

Kim : 16:33

Did you have a mentor in that area or did you have any courses that you took?

Annie: 16:39

I did take the start course from an independent clinician, but for insurance I contracted with a credentialing company. It was Supero. I'm not sure if they're still in practice, but they're based out of Austin and I had to choose five different insurances to try to become in network with. And I went with the big top players Blue Cross United, cigna, aetna and Tricare. That was the fifth one that I did.

Annie: 17:08

We just learned really quickly Cigna and Aetna they don't love to pay for therapy services and they do it in a weird way and it just wasn't aligned with the organization system or the rates that we had in place. Even for private pay they were very low. So we decided not to file with them but did go through that whole process. But that was really helpful to have the credentialing company help walk through. Here's even how you do it and you need to go to this page and sign here, cause I just I didn't know really truly what I was doing.

Annie: 17:40

They don't teach this kind of stuff in grad school, so it's been the biggest learning curve about just the business side of things and the admin side of things. I can do therapy all day long. I'm a clinician through and through, so the business side of things has really been the biggest learning curve and the thing I've had to spend the most time learning through, and sometimes it's you don't know what you don't know it's oh, I didn't realize I needed to have X, y or Z in place, or that was even you can renegotiate your contracts, like I recently learned that and like how to do that. There's a lot that goes into that type of thing. Do you use?

Kim : 18:16

a billing system, computer software, or do you have a biller?

Annie: 18:20

I have an electronic medical record that we use. I started with Simple Practice and then switched to Clinic Source because I knew Clinic Source really well and I really liked the color coding system of it. I'm a very visual person and so I liked being able to see the colors. Simple Practice didn't offer that and I thought it was such a small change they could have easily made but did not care for that, especially when you have multiple clinicians. I used Simple Practice for a long time when I was on my own and then when we had more professionals join our team, I thought I really need the color coding system for schedulers to quickly be able to see what's available, and I was comfortable with it.

Annie: 19:01

Who does your scheduling right now? So we have a receptionist that does it. We all set our own schedules and then we have a receptionist that does it we all set our own schedules and then we have a receptionist that takes all our intake calls. And I also have a front office manager that she really truly puts out all the fires when I'm in session. She does all the insurance verifying and emailing with families as far as what they can expect from their benefits. I've got those two admin individuals who are really helpful in making things go seamlessly as people call in and submitting online inquiries. They take care of all of that.

Mary: 19:33

I miss admin so much.

Annie: 19:36

Not having them.

Mary: 19:37

Oh, my goodness, they are so, so helpful. At what point did you decide okay, now that's it, I've got to hire someone to help me with these things.

Annie: 19:47

It was when I was missing a lot of calls during the day. So I used to do it all. I used to answer all the emails and respond to all the inquiries and find time to connect with all the families individually. But then when my phone would ring and I was in session, I had a smart line so I could tell if it was like a business call coming in or if it was like a smart line.

Annie: 20:08

A smart line is it's the one I use is called smart line.

Annie: 20:11

It's powered through GoDaddy and it's like a totally separate phone number that you can text, you can call, and it just shows up on your phone and it would appear like a lime green color on the background.

Annie: 20:22

So I knew it was a work call and it was wonderful, but I would get a lot of those throughout the day and it would take me a couple of days to get back to people and I really hated that wait time and so I just felt like, if I'm going to keep up with this, I need help, cause, like me as a mom, if I have a minute to make an appointment, I have that minute to make that appointment.

Annie: 20:46

If you're in the car and you're ready, you got your planner, you're ready to go and if you miss that window of time, there were so many times I would call families back and be unable to reach them, because when you get a call from a phone number, you're like is this spam? What is this? So you leave a message and then people have good intentions, but life is crazy when you've got littles at home and good intentions get dropped, and I just felt like those were unnecessary leads that were lost because of my inability to answer the phone or to get back to people in a timely manner. What website?

Kim : 21:17

platform do you use?

Annie: 21:20

So I actually have a website builder who is in grapevine, and that's just what they do is just build websites. I did initially do my own website and my leads went way up when I switched to having somebody do that for me.

Kim : 21:34

I know there's so much. Every little thing that you want to do has a whole portion to learn that's tied to that. So, like you said, if you're still treating patients, there's only so many things that you can take on because you have to learn about it.

Annie: 21:52

And that was ultimately a decision I had to make with a lot of the different key advisors that I have with me. If you will like taxes. I tried to do my taxes the first year and totally botched them and messed them up in a big way and had to honestly pay her to fix them where it probably would have cost me less if I had her do it from the get-go. I'm one of those types that's like I can mow my own lawn, I can clean my own house, I can do all of it. But sometimes it's a better use of your resources and your time if you outsource If you know what you don't know, basically your time, if you outsource the things, that if you know what you don't know basically, and if you have the ability to outsource it, I've learned that's the best way to go, because I've paid to put out some fires, that I've started a couple of times.

Kim : 22:40

So you would say taxes for sure, outsource. What about your insurance billing? Does ClinicSource create that? Submit claims, or are you doing that through Avality?

Annie: 22:49

Yeah, so we have a clearinghouse, trizetto that links up with ClinicSource and that's really helpful, but still I pay my front office manager. She's constantly scanning that for errors and looking through all of that. I guess I'd say she's my full stop there. But we also have the clearinghouse that will prevent anything from going through that's not going to be paid or submitted correctly.

Kim : 23:11

Even checking benefits at the very beginning. That can be time consuming and it's not all the same, even if it's Blue Cross, blue Shield.

Annie: 23:18

you have a ton of different plans and they're all different, and then probably I'd say September, October, a lot of people start needing their deductible and then that's a whole nother transition with insurance. She's checking all of that constantly, just keeping up with that.

Mary: 23:36

Annie, would you recommend that people go and network with insurance if they don't have any kind of admin or office support, if they don't have any kind of admin or office support?

Annie: 23:46

No, there'd be no way that I could manage that on my own. It's really a full-time job, especially if you have a full caseload. If I was just seeing clients maybe two days a week and was able to dedicate like two other days for admin stuff, I think maybe I could do it maybe. But I'm in patient care Monday through Thursday and so I just wouldn't have the time to dedicate to it because my caseload is so pretty full. So no, I think those people are key. Being prompt and getting back to people is also really important, because when people are ready to do it, they're ready to do it and want to know what to expect and start financially planning for these types of services.

Mary: 24:25

Do you feel like adding an office manager, even though obviously you have to pay her an income? Do you feel like the additional time saving and also the more patients that you're able to bring in has offset that and more?

Annie: 24:41

Yeah, it's been so worth it. She just helps keep me organized and lets me know all the things that are happening that I'm not aware of, like in the clinic when I am in session, or calls that came through. Yeah, she responds to all the mail that we get. All of that stuff that I am not able to do, she informs me of and we're in constant communication about everything happening with clinicians upstairs, and so I was going on vacation next week and there's just a lot of administrative side of things that she and I are constantly communicating about. And also it's just nice to have somebody that knows your practice really well, that you can bounce ideas off of, and even tricky email correspondences to be like does this read okay? Anything like that. You're not just completely by yourself, so that's really nice having her there.

Mary: 25:29

One of the marketing things that I saw that you offer is 10 to 15 minute screenings. So how does that work? I feel as a speech therapist once 10 minutes goes by, then it's going to be 15, then it's going to be half an hour. Then, before you know it, you've done a full blown eval and you're just wanting to help. But how do you keep yourself accountable to do kind of 10, 15 minutes worth of work? What are you doing and providing? And then how does that transition to the full evaluation?

Annie: 26:02

What we do is we have a lot of parent handouts for those screenings and what we'll do is I usually spend a couple minutes with the child, if they're able. If I can build rapport and get on the floor with them quick, then I can pretty much detect errors as I'm listening and we're talking and playing and I'm asking what's this one do, and just interacting with them I can tell pretty quickly and start circling some things on the forms that have like ages and stages associated with each task. Sometimes we can, if it's appropriate can, give like a flip screener Okay, tell me what these are, tell me what that is, labeling and following instructions and some reciprocal conversation. But I usually keep it very surfacy of just what's your name, what grade are you in, what do you do for fun. And then I'll say, okay, this is what I'm seeing and I really think that they are developmentally on track. But if you're still concerned in six months, come back and see us. Or if you're still seeing this or that, come back and see us.

Annie: 27:04

Or I'll say you know what this, if you're still seeing this or that, come back and see us. Or I'll say you know what? This is a pattern of speech that I really think they could benefit from some additional support and I think that if you brought them in for the full eval it'd be worth your while and we could set some really solid goals for moving forward. And then that $20 comes off the price of the evaluation. So it's included, yeah, so it's still benefiting them and I still know their child. And if I'm not the one that does the evaluation, I'll give all that information to the clinician that is doing it and saying here's what I saw on the screener, here's why I recommended it, so that the therapist is able to shave off that 15 or 20 minutes in their eval and knowing a little bit of what they're walking into.

Mary: 27:45

Do you feel like that's pretty popular, that parents are really more okay with getting that little snapshot view and then turning into evals?

Annie: 27:54

Yeah, it is for littles. I have a lot of families with littles that are interested in that, just saying, especially first-time mamas that are like is my baby on track? I don't know what I'm doing. Are they developmentally on par? I don't know what I'm doing. Are they developmentally on par? I'm so worried about this or that, and it's really great for those types of situations.

Mary: 28:12

This is like changing topics a little bit, but I was looking at your hours on your website and one of the things that you do is that you close for lunch, daily, from 12 to 1. And you know what speech therapist practice but also just anyone, takes a page from another disciplines book, I feel like. I think about offices closing with doctor's offices and dentists they're always closed at lunchtime but what made you adapt that kind of model for speech therapy?

Annie: 28:47

I just find that building rapport with my team is so helpful, and being able to go to lunch as a team or to bring lunch in or say we're going to have a team meeting over these hours, just to give everybody a break from worrying about somebody calling in or walking in, just to have a second to reset, has been really helpful, mostly because a speech therapist I think it's different from other professions in the sense that we go back to back every 30 minutes. There's really not a lot of downtime, and so I think that minute of reset is really helpful to just turn it off and not have to worry about still being accountable to the phone or whatever. It might be that you can just shut down and regroup because, like afternoons for us are crazy around here. Those after school spots are always full and we have to be on all the time. As speech therapists, just oh, my goodness, you're here for everybody that comes in the door, and sometimes that's a lot.

Kim : 29:51

I think that hour of time is a gift to us all to just reset and then come back being the best versions of ourselves after lunch, even being told you have to stop during 12 to 1, because it's really easy to say, oh, I could get one more in, or two more in, and then you just keep going. So even teaching them to set those boundaries, yeah, it's huge, it's hard to do you have full-time employees and you have part-time?

Mary: 30:16

Are all of the people that work for you contract, or are they employees in the sense that you are offering some kind of benefits? And how did you figure out that process, the 1099 to employee process?

Annie: 30:30

Yeah, that's another learning curve that I went on. Everybody's all W-2 employees that are here. I don't have any 1099s that work for me, mostly because I really pride myself and our therapist on continuing education fund or requirements for that like that. You have to just basically accept them as a provider and say I trust that you know what you're doing and I cannot advise you on any sort of clinical care at all really, because that's what they are as a 1099. Is there an outside contract employee? So if it's a W-2, you can advise them on talking with families and how you present yourself and just having continuity of care with like a cohesive feel within the office that we're all trained in X, y and Z and this is how we all approach it and we did a team education course on oral motor skills or whatever it might be. But if they're 1099, you don't have that same opportunity and I didn't want that to be lost.

Kim : 31:37

So with them being able to set their schedules? You have Fridays off, right? Do you have other employees working in the office on Fridays even if you're not in? Are they using that day to see patients?

Annie: 31:51

Yep, yep. We just recently had our last Friday clinician pivot out of Fridays. So we don't have anybody in office on Fridays at the moment. But we technically are still open Fridays. So families that call in or need to schedule or reschedule our office team is still here on Friday. But we don't have any therapists anymore working Friday as of recent. But that would be an option for sure. If I'm not in office there's still people going all the time when I'm not here.

Mary: 32:20

Now that you have such a big team, what do you find are the best ways to keep your team cohesive and really working well together? The team building things that you always do Are you all doing?

Annie: 32:32

trust falls or bringing in lunch or what kind of things work well. Actually, this is a really great thing that Amy, my front office manager, she, has headed up birthdays, like you wouldn't believe. So we make a big deal out of everybody's birthday. We always bring in nothing but cakes and have balloons and try to honor people well in that way and then in the fall, like a family, bring your family. I bought, I got a bounce house for everybody's kids and ordered in some food and just spent time outside of the office just building relationships and getting to know people outside of work. So we've done that.

Annie: 33:10

And then that hour lunchtime is honestly really helpful to connect with people on a personal level and see what people are dealing with and what they're going through and just individual things. It's so nice to just being all in the same space and if we have a cancellation at the same time and can bounce ideas off of each other, that's just like. One of the things I love the most about private practice with other SLPs is that you can collaborate and get ideas and even just hearing people in passing, like how they talk to patients or games that they're playing. It's so cool to get ideas from each other. But as far as relationships go, lunchtime's helpful and then outside team building as we can.

Kim : 33:56

I know that you have a client coming up that you need to see and we have really appreciated your time, but we just had a couple of fun questions, too, that we've been asking all of our guests, and one of them is just you're busy, you're a mom, you own a business. How are you taking time for yourself, or what's something that, if you had a moment, you would do for self-care?

Annie: 34:18

If I was by myself, without my kids, I would go for a walk. I love being outside. I love nature. That's really how I reset. It's just being outside. Also, I love baths, so that's like a me reset button, but with just being at the park with my kids is a great reset and I just love baths. So that's like a me reset button, but with just being at the park with my kids is a great reset and I just love being outside.

Kim : 34:38

What about dinner? Do you have any easy go-to dinners for really busy days?

Annie: 34:43

Like tacos and spaghetti. I feel like those are our quick. We don't have time. My oldest actually also loves tuna fish, and so we do a lot of that. It's so easy to just open and done that's great, If you were not a speech therapist.

Kim : 34:58

what would be your dream job? I?

Annie: 35:01

think I would be a professional organizer. Your office is so cute.

Mary: 35:08

Are you a home edit girl, annie? Am I a home? What A home edit girl edit girl? No, I don't know home edit oh it's like a color coding just scroll their pictures and it would probably bring you so much joy. Yes, everything order, oh you would love to just love the home edit. I'm gonna know that you've read it because when I visit your clinic, annie, you're gonna have rainbow organized bookshelves and I'll be like, yep, she's been following the home edit.

Annie: 35:38

How do I not know about this? You guys like I follow, I feel like everybody that does hello, happy home, all of the all the organizing gurus, I don't know. I have not heard of the home edit.

Mary: 35:50

I have one last individual question for you, Annie, and my question is you have hired so many people in your practice. What would you say are the top qualities that you're looking for when you bring someone onto your team?

Annie: 36:08

Really, truly. There's two things I would say personality and warmth is huge, that's everything. Connection with your families is everything. And then coachability Somebody who you are able to give feedback to and receives feedback well, and someone who's eager to learn. That just is coachable. Those two things combined is everything, because I feel like that's connection is huge, especially in pediatrics, even with adults too. Just the nature of what we do Cause I feel like that's connection is huge, especially in pediatrics, even with adults too just the nature of what we do, I feel like connection is everything, and so you've got to have that personality and heart and soul connection. So that's what I look for the most is someone who can have an easy back and forth conversation with me in an interview and it not feel awkward. That's just. The biggest thing is I just want someone that is warm and that you want to be around and that has that peaceful presence.

Mary: 37:04

I love it. We'll let you go and get ready for your next client, but thank you so much for coming on with us.

Annie: 37:10

This is so fun to see you guys and connect with you on with us.

Kim : 37:15

This is so fun to see you guys and connect with you, and I do want to come visit your space.

Annie: 37:17

I would love to see it. I would love to have you out. If y'all are ever up in the Argyle area, I would love to have you over that sounds good, it looks beautiful.

Mary: 37:25

Kim and I both say if we ever make the jump one day to getting a brick and mortar, it's going to be a cute old house.

Annie: 37:34

So we like love following your pictures. Oh, thank you, thank you. It's going to be a cute old house. We like love following your pictures, thank you, thank you. It's turned out to be more than I could have ever imagined and I'm just so proud of this space.

Kim : 37:41

Thank you and enjoy the rest of your day.

Annie: 37:43

Thank you guys, you too, so good to see you both. Thanks for listening.

Kim : 37:48

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