S2E9: Crafting Her Ideal Work Combination with SLP Venita Litvack

In this episode, hosts Mary Brezik and Kim Dillon discuss all things AAC, podcasting (The Speechie Side Up Podcast), presenting and more with guest Venita Litvack, a speech therapist and entrepreneur. Venita details her progression in specializing in Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) and her eventual roles including an AAC consultant (where she helped numerous SLPs get insurance approvals for devices) and an assistive technology specialist. She shares her experiences in private practice, exploring various areas of speech therapy before returning to her passion for AAC.  Venita also discussed co-authoring a book focused on social stories and the acceptance of differences in children, her deep engagement with podcasting which she finds fulfilling in providing value through courses, trainings, and events for SLPs, and the significant role a business coach has played in her professional life.

Venita highlights her journey in starting Tassel and the lengthy process to become a CEU provider for the American Speech and Hearing Association (ASHA), and emphasizing the necessity of perseverance in podcasting to eventually profit from it. Venita's development of interviewing skills and her strategic approach to increasing diversity on her podcast by opening guest submissions reflect her commitment to representing diverse client populations. She also discusses the growth of a podcast network, her thoughts on improving podcast organization, and the vital importance of creating efficient systems and processes. Venita reflects on the challenges she faced when starting as an entrepreneur, the distinctions between service-based and product-based businesses, and her reliance on essential subscriptions like Asana, Zapier, and Calendly.

Venita has really taken her experience in the world of speech pathology and crafted a unique and ideal work life that is perfect for her season in life.  She demonstrates the ability to change the dynamic of work as these life seasons and interests change, something that the field of speech pathology is well known for. 

Kim and Mary learned so much in this interview with Venita and know listeners will walk away with both encouragement and knowledge.

Check out Venita's website and her IG Account!
The Speechie Side Up Podcast
The Speechie Side Up YouTube Channel
Tassel Courses and Information

Ohter subscriptions Venita loves:
Calendly
Asana
Zapier

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

Venita : 0:00

I like the term counterbalance because I feel like, depending on what season of life you're in, something is going to take priority more than others, and I firmly believe that you can only focus on three major things at a time. So imagine you're juggling, you can have three balls, but as soon as you add, like another major one in the mix, like all the balls are going to fall to the ground.

Mary: 0:27

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

Kim : 0:33

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

Mary: 0:39

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 hear their journey and how they built their SLP business.

Kim : 1:29

Welcome to today's episode. We have a guest today. It is Vanita Litvak, and she is a speech therapist who owns her own business. She is also a podcaster and we are excited to hear everything that she has to share with us today. So welcome, vanita.

Venita : 1:43

Thank you, mary, thank you, kim. I'm super excited to be here today.

Kim : 1:47

Would you start off by telling us how you got into the field of speech therapy?

Venita : 1:52

I was just counting the other day that it's been like 10 years since I've been in the field. I think that's so wild. It feels like yesterday. But I'll take you all the way back to 2012.

Venita : 2:06

I was actually an undergraduate in psychology and I had done an internship for a local psychologist and hated it like absolutely hated it. And I was like, oh no, what have I done? I spent the last four years getting my degree in psychology. What am I going to do now? And it was just a terrible feeling.

Venita : 2:27

I remember talking with my sister-in-law, who's a physical therapist, and explaining how I felt and how horrible the mentorship was. And she was like, have you ever considered speech-language pathology? You'll always have a job. There's such a need for speech-language pathologists, especially in the schools. And I was like, no, so we didn't have a undergraduate program for that at my university, so that's probably why it never came up on my radar. I've always been interested in early education, the pediatric population. At the time when I was in my undergraduate program, I was actually working for a local behavior company under a BCBA. And at the time when I was in my undergraduate program, I was actually working for a local behavior company under a BCBA and at the time it was called an ABA line therapist. I think they have a different title now. But I really just like working with autistic individuals and I was already starting to work with AAC back then, and so there's no undergraduate program, but let me take a linguistics class and see what it's like, and I loved it. I fell in love and so I applied to both psychology because I already had spent so much money and time on that degree and I applied to speech language pathology programs and thankfully I got into UCF, which is here in Florida. My mom still lives in Orlando, so I got to spend a lot more time with her and my grandma before she passed. I feel like it was totally meant to be the fact that I got into UCF and got to spend so much time with my family while I was there, because grad school is stressful I'm sure you guys can relate to that.

Venita : 3:57

So I left grad school, moved back down to South Florida with my husband and started working at a school for autism, and there I already started niching down into AAC. We didn't have anybody from our district who was supporting the school in providing AAC devices. I'll remind you, the school was primarily for autistic children, and there was no AAC use at all in the school. When I was there, like some low tech, they were doing picture exchange but they had closets of mid-tech devices and some iPads with apps but no one was using AAC because there was nobody to come and support them. The assistive technology specialist for our school district came and met with me and she was like hey, we're technically not supposed to support your school, but if you would like to take on AAC lead for your school, you can totally do that and I'll talk with you and answer any questions that you have about the evaluation process. So I got to do that for a little bit.

Venita : 5:03

That was my CF year and I was like I've done a lot with AAC, but what about all of these other areas of the field like stuttering and feeding and dyslexia and all of the other areas? So I left there and went to work for a private practice and it was a great experience because you really do get thrown into it and you get to experience all different varieties of communication disorders and I found out that I still really love AAC after trying everything else. So I left there and became an AAC consultant for PRC Saltillo and that was an amazing position because not only is it AAC but you're learning a lot about assistive technology and alternative access so eye gaze, switch scanning, head pointing and then how to get devices funded and not denied. I probably assisted hundreds of SLPs in writing AAC evaluation reports and getting them approved through insurance, so I felt like that whole experience was super valuable. But it involved a lot of driving. As a consultant I had to drive the entire South of Florida so I would go to the West coast, which could be like four hours away in my furthest location, and my husband and I were wanting to start a family, so I didn't see that as like a long term solution.

Venita : 6:28

I found out there was a position opening up in our local school district for an assistive technology specialist, and those don't come around very often. If anybody listened to this is in the AAC, they know that those positions don't come around very often, and so then I left that position to go work in the schools as an assistive technology specialist and I got to support over 52 middle school SLPs in using AAC doing AAC evaluations, and that was a great like position as well. But as everybody who has worked in the schools or works in the school knows there's so much red tape and I just don't do very well with boundaries and red tape. I like people who say yes right away. I like to find solutions to things right away, and I think that's what led me to be the entrepreneur that I am today.

Venita : 7:19

I know there's a lot of layers to unpack here, but while I was working at that school for autism, I co-authored a book series with my CM mentor actually at the time, and it got published by Boys Town Press. So while I was doing all of those positions, I was also trying to market the book series. And that's how Speechy Side Up came about and we started the podcast to basically share about the book and interview other authors and other speech language pathologists and kind of found that it wasn't parents that were listening to the podcast or hanging out on Instagram, but it was FLPs, and so that's how Speechy Side Up has evolved into what it is today and how I decided to branch out and become an entrepreneur.

Mary: 8:04

That was fast right? That's amazing Just a decade's worth of work in a few minutes, no problem, exactly Okay. So let's start with Lou Knows what To Do, which is your book series. I was really intrigued by the whole concept that this was the story of a young boy who doesn't have the coping skills to be able to go in a situation. Maybe they're anxious or nervous or neurodivergent. What led you to think there was a need for books like that on the market, more than just a social story, but actually a book, a published book about Lou?

Venita : 8:47

Yeah, so at that time, so like 10 years ago, social stories were used quite a bit and they were like evidence-based. But now we know better that, learning from autistic individuals, that social stories might not be the best way to go about things. It should be more about accepting their differences. So I don't promote the books as much nowadays just because they would have to be rewritten and republished, but at the time, because social stories were evidence-based and were used quite a bit, I was talking with my CF mentor and I was like hey, I would love to talk to my class about going to a birthday party and what to expect, or going to a grocery store and what to expect, but I don't see anything on the market that is written in a way that like social stories should be written, and there were some criteria for social stories at the time. So that's basically why we created who knows what to do back then.

Kim : 9:43

So with your CF it sounds like one you just had a really great mentor from the very beginning, and starting out you did allow yourself to go see what else was out there, and then you came back. Do you feel like you can say this is where you were meant to be and what you wanted to do, because you experienced some of those other areas?

Venita : 10:05

Yeah, 100%. So I work with a business coach too, so I will save you guys a lot of money on what I've learned with my business coach. But one of the biggest takeaways that I've learned from her is, when you're feeling stuck, just try anything. Try anything that has been on your heart or that you've been thinking about, and then that'll guide you in the right direction. So, for instance, last year I was feeling really stuck in a job and I had my continuing ed company tasks, like a podcast going. But I had also been thinking about running mommy and me classes or caregiver and me classes, and I had gotten a certification through learn with left, but I had done nothing with it for an entire year. So she was like, just go and start. But I don't know if you're like this or maybe somebody that's listening.

Venita : 10:50

Whenever I do something, I feel like I have to do a very big, I can't do small. So we've been working on that together to just try things, but in a small way. So what that looked like instead of me offering an eight series class for caregivers and their children, just doing one class and doing it for free with my friends and seeing what that felt like, what the energy was like what I can learn from it and I actually really enjoyed it at the time. My daughter was a lot younger. There was nothing like that in the area at the time because we were coming off of COVID, but it was something that families really needed and so I loved it.

Venita : 11:27

And then I learned something from that experience and then I think for nine months, I started offering caregiver and me classes in the area and what that led to was referrals for my private practice. So I no longer do the caregiver and me classes, but it led to referral. So I feel like, even if you try something and that's not what you end up doing, it'll lead to something else. That experience also led me to realize that hassle and my continuing ed company was my passion. Doing podcasting for a living and getting to just communicate with people and then providing value to other SLP that is my passion. I get so excited when I wake up on an event day, so we do conferences Whenever it's like a conference day, it's like the best day of the year. So I know that's what I'm meant to do, because I think if you wake up and you don't feel good about what you're doing, then that's a huge red flag that that's probably not your calling or your purpose.

Mary: 12:24

So how did you go about finding a business coach? Was this someone that you were connected to along the way as you were interviewing, or at what point in your career and your podcasting did you feel like you know what? This is someone that I could use.

Venita : 12:38

So I actually found her on Yelp. Believe it or not. She had a lot of good reviews Other places that I've looked for my virtual assistant. I found her on LinkedIn. I think sometimes in our field good recommendations can come at a very high cost because they've already maybe worked with someone who's more successful in the field. And I am very big on budgeting. So my coach is not cheap, but I feel like she's very reasonable versus someone that might be like 300 400 an hour. We've been working together for over a year now, maybe a year and a half. We've changed the cadence every time. In the beginning it was every week and then we went to every month. Now we're back to every two weeks. So I feel like it's reasonable that's really neat.

Mary: 13:22

That really reminds me a little bit of a therapy schedule from your psychology background makes sense, but someone who is going to invest in you, but then more so than what a therapist could do. This person can specifically develop you as your entrepreneur self and then help you execute. So one of the episodes that I've listened to of yours I've done a deep dive as well and absolutely love it was I just listened to your vision board episode and you shared this personality test that you took. I took the same. I think we have a few things in common. It's really hard to execute when you're a perfectionist and when you seek excellence and beauty in what you do, there's always something that can be designed better or thought through better or add on something more. How do you fight through perfectionism and execution?

Venita : 14:18

I feel like that took a long time. I am also a type three Enneagram. Do you know what your Enneagrams are? I'm a one, one, okay, and then you can. I'm two, all right. So we're one, two and three. But I'd be curious to take it now, because the person that I was when I took it before is very different. Now, especially after becoming a mom, I feel like I had to let a lot of that perfectionism go. You just don't have enough time in the day. I think that in the beginning I wanted everything to be perfect, but now I know this is cheesy, but done is better than perfect. I just get it out there and then I get feedback from people and then I revise it. So that's basically my motto Now.

Mary: 15:01

I would say get it done and then you can always change it as you have that dynamic feedback that you're getting Exactly.

Kim : 15:10

Yeah, I have a question back on. Once you started podcasting, when did Tassel come into effect or how did that line up? How long had you been podcasting? How did that vision come about and what was the process of creating that?

Venita : 15:25

How did that vision come about and what was the process of creating that? So I think it happened maybe a year and a half after I started the podcast and there were a lot of signs to pursue Tassel, like to become a CEU provider. My dad, I think, had mentioned it first, because my dad's a hearing specialist so he like knows all about ASHA, so I think he mentioned it first. I think we had several listeners who were like okay, it's so great to listen to the podcast and it's such valuable information, but I just wish we could earn ASHA CEUs for this as well. And then I think several people kept mentioning it and I was like okay, I hear you and this is what you want. So I'll definitely try to get it become an ASHA CE provider so that while you're listening, you can also earn credits.

Venita : 16:12

And it took a lot longer than I expected. I know it doesn't take this long for other people, but I had other things going on a full time job so it took us two years to become a CE provider. I think other people can do it in a much shorter time, but I think it happened that way for a reason too. So in order to become a CE provider, you have to have three courses that are in the same format that you would do as a CE provider and remember I had mentioned earlier I don't do things very small, so of course I didn't offer three courses by themselves.

Venita : 16:44

I decided to do a full conference with eight courses. For the first time you have to partner with someone who's already a provider who agrees to do it. So, like my company, we don't offer that, but UCF did, which was my alma mater. So I thought that that was really cool in full circle, that I got to collaborate with them in full circle, that I got to collaborate with them offer this conference. The conference was very successful and that kind of led to where we are now and that's what we continue to do is offer these conferences. But after that, maybe four months after we became a provider.

Kim : 17:19

I was curious on how you got the information out about your conference and how you marketed that.

Venita : 17:24

You're really racking my memory today, let me think back, because that was like probably three years ago, and then there were a lot of sleepless nights after that with my newborn, now toddler. But at the time I want to say we probably marketed primarily on Instagram because that's where we were hanging out a lot. I'm sure we marketed maybe on the podcast too. My newsletter list wasn't that big back then and I think we maybe offered it for free, if I recall correctly. So the conference was for free, but if they wanted to earn like ashes, there might've been an upcharge for that. We also had Michelle Garcia winner as our keynote speaker, so I think that helped a lot in getting the word out.

Mary: 18:04

When you start something like a podcast, so much of starting something new is this passion project, and then at some point your passion project you realize hold on. This is actually a business and we have listeners and people are wanting more, and to be able to put out a podcast consistently and every week takes a lot of time, a lot of planning, a lot of editing, so many hours. So can you tell us a little bit about the way that your podcast went from being a project to really being a profit for your business?

Venita : 18:44

Honestly, I feel like, from the beginning, the podcast did very well. It always had a lot of interest from the beginning. That's how I knew this is what I was meant to be doing, because when you start things and it's really difficult and you always feel like it's this uphill battle, all the stars aligned with the podcast, like it's this uphill battle, all the stars aligned with the podcast, and this was also something that, like multiple people had said to start, and I kept procrastinating, kept putting it off, kept putting it off, and when I finally started, it just went so well. So I think that this is what I'm actually meant to be doing and I'm also so passionate about it too, and that passion continues to stay there.

Venita : 19:23

As you guys have heard, I have switched job settings quite a bit because I can tell very quickly when something is not a good fit. And look, I've been doing the podcast now since 2018. That says a lot about me personally. I'm very good at checking in with my intuition and if it's not something that's aligning with that and I don't see myself doing it in five years I try to find an exit strategy very quickly with it. So thankfully, I have not had to do that with the podcast at all and, as you mentioned, podcasting is very time consuming. It's very expensive. I have been doing this since 2018 and did not make a profit until last year, so you have to be in it for the long game and this isn't something I would recommend.

Venita : 20:05

Like quitting your full-time job and then going to do and even being an ASHA CEU provider is not our focus. I'm not like hey, like you're listening to the podcast, to get ASHA CEUs. That's not our mission. Our mission is bigger than that. We want to make it a community-based learning experience. We want to make learning a community-based learning experience.

Venita : 20:25

We want to make learning a lifestyle and not something that you have to quickly catch up on before your interval is due at the end of the year. So it's hey, you're listening anyways, you're enjoying the content anyways. Why not get rewarded for that as well? Or, if you don't even care about ASHA's CEUs, come and join our community, our group masterminds or conferences, because that experience, that live experience, is so special. There's nothing like it, honestly, besides the Asha convention. If you go to any other type of convention, like, there's something really special about getting a group of people together and talking about something you really love. So if you take ASHA out of the equation like, we still have all of that as part of our business model and our mission.

Kim : 21:11

And when you can be around like-minded people like that, it's encouraging. It's a reminder of why you're doing what you're doing. You enjoy presenting and teaching. Is that something that you knew, or even before going into the field that you wanted to teach or present? Or is that something that just came as you started working?

Venita : 21:35

It must've come as I started working more, because I used to be like terrified of presenting, terrified Like I would get panic attacks. I would get so nervous before. So, as I mentioned before, I think that every job experience, everything that you try, you learn something from that. So when I was a PRC consultant, I had to do a lot of presentations. They were an ASHA CEU provider, so I was presenting ASHA accredited courses for SLPs in my area and, no kidding, I would practice the one or three hour presentations at least three times before I presented at home to my husband who would fall asleep as I was practicing it in bed. But thankfully that's not the case anymore. You have to practice it a lot to feel better at it. I think it's with anything you've probably heard the stats like with sports you have to do it for what? 20,000 hours or something that to get like really good at it. I obviously didn't do that many, but I definitely have practiced a lot of presentations. So I feel a lot more comfortable now.

Mary: 22:47

Another thing that you do really well is interview. You have so many guests on your show and there is definitely an art to interviewing. I know, kim and I feel like we're still learning it as you were developing your interviewing skills, was there anything that you turned to to research how to interview someone, or maybe someone that you thought was a very good interviewer that you were trying to model yourself after?

Venita : 23:17

If you go back and listen to our initial episodes, you will see where I started, where Kim started. It's very different than it is now. Again, I've had hundreds of episodes to practice on right In the beginning I would say so much and it drove me crazy. I had to edit out every single like. Had to do a lot of editing in the beginning. Now I don't think we do edit, but there's no need to edit. We really should stop.

Venita : 23:41

Thankfully, we were able to get over a lot of those interjections, but I don't think there's anybody that I turned to or learned from Maybe Jenna Kutcher. I listened to her episodes a lot. One thing that I noticed with Jenna Kutcher is when she talks, you can tell her hands are up. You can tell she has a lot of energy in it. You can tell she's smiling. That is the biggest thing for me. I don't know what it is, but I can tell when I'm listening to somebody if they're smiling, they're speaking or not. So I may have looked up, like online, some tips, but no, I never had any formal training or never really turned to anybody to say, oh, that's a really great interviewer. I'd like to learn from them One of the things I used to do to and maybe I'm doing it today, I don't know but I used to think that I had to fill the silence with small talk.

Venita : 24:33

So that's something that I had to get over and just say, okay, I can stop. Now I don't need to keep talking or filling in this void or comment on every single thing that a guest says. It's not really about my story, it's about their story and getting more clarity on what they're trying to say and putting, like, the listener's perspective into play and thinking about okay, based on what that guest just said, what is the listener thinking and what kind of follow-up questions do they have? So that's something I think I've just learned over time. That's really great advice.

Mary: 25:03

Okay, All of the things that we're hearing. You have a private practice, you have a wonderful podcast, you're doing conferences, you've published in the past and you have a family. So let's talk a little bit about that phrase work-life balance and, more so, how you juggle, or how you manage and allot your time. I know you're really big on budgeting, so I think of budgeting as an allocation of your time, your finances, your energy. How do you budget or allocate to be able to accomplish all the things that you do?

Venita : 25:41

Yeah, I feel like that's a constant struggle for anybody, and I like the term counterbalance because I feel like, depending on what season of life you're in, something is going to take priority more than others. And I firmly believe that you can only focus on three major things at a time. So imagine you're juggling, you can have three balls, but as soon as you add like another major one in the mix, like all the balls are going to fall to the ground. So right now, in this stage of life, I feel like my big three things are my daughter, my my daughter and my husband I will say family, we'll lump them together my health so like playing sports, working with a trainer and then my businesses. But the business piece is helped because I have a virtual assistant who's been with me now for wow, four years. Oh my gosh, I love her so much. So she's been a tremendous help.

Venita : 26:44

And now we have Kim coming back on. So Kim started the podcast with me. She coauthored the book series with me. Kim has taken so many turns in her life. She actually left the field for a little bit, but now she's back in it and so just recently, in the last month, she's come on board to help us out. And then I have a podcast editor who I found through Upwork, because any of those monotonous tasks like the things that have to be done but aren't that exciting, I try to have somebody else take those as quickly as possible. So those are the things that I've given to other people to do so that I could focus on the other things and the bigger things and then growing the company as well.

Kim : 27:25

That was one of my questions for you is what you outsource, and you answered that. But my follow-up question to that is outsourcing. Sometimes for me it makes me think of loss of control in some of those areas, and so with something like editing, was that hard for you to give that over, just knowing that you were losing a little bit of that control, or did you go through that process and it happened and then you saw the benefit from it?

Venita : 27:54

Yeah, I think because I had a couple of employees prior to my virtual assistant I think I started to and then hiring nannies as a whole other thing. But I think you start to learn what you value in a person and who is going to make a really good employee. So my virtual assistant has done basically every role in the company. She's not only the continuing education administrator, so she does all the filing for ASHA, but she's done Pinterest and social media and newsletter writing. She's very flexible and she's willing to learn. So that, I think, is something that not a lot of people have. She's super dynamic and that's been amazing and she's very passionate about this too. She's very invested in the business and, in terms of the podcast editor, she is just consistent and inexpensive. Because I'm on a budget and, yeah, she's also a mom, so I think she gets it a little bit as well and she enjoys listening to the episodes.

Venita : 28:59

But Zapier, so if you're not ready to hire out, like maybe you're still in the beginning and you're still like trying to budget, zapier is is amazing. Do you guys use that at all? No, tell us about it. Oh my gosh, you're going to have to leave this interview and go look Zapier. So I book all of everybody who schedules an interview through Calendly. From that contact all the way to the podcast episode being posted is run on automations. So once somebody schedules an interview it goes into an Excel sheet and then it creates an outline and it creates a zoom link and it sends a email to that person to remind them of their interview and to ask them to send a headshot. It sends the information to the podcast editor. So everything is automated. It took me a good week to set it up on Zapier so it wasn't easy initially. Basically, this is systems and processes, right Like. Creating good systems and processes will help take your business so much further because you don't have to be in it all of the time.

Mary: 30:13

And then you can use that time for your actual interviews, which is where your skills are really best utilized.

Kim : 30:20

I did see that you put out a topic for the podcast and you have people submit, and so at what point did you start doing that and how did that come about? Because I thought that was really neat when I saw that you were talking about that on your Instagram page.

Venita : 30:35

Yeah. So that actually came out of a conversation that I had with Melanie from Pediatrics Speech Sister, because, as we know, our field is, like, predominantly white, and I was like I want more people of color on the podcast and we were trying to brainstorm like how can we make that happen? Originally, when I was inviting people to come on the podcast, I was going on Instagram seeing who kind of had the spotlight on them at the moment and had not been on the podcast before, and a lot of them tended to be white, and so I was like, hey, like I have a really big email list, I've already had so many people on the podcast. I need to find another way to get people on. So I actually tried this last August and the response was overwhelming.

Venita : 31:20

And I love it, because these are people that don't have Instagram pages, are not influencers, but they have so much to share, they have so much valuable information. So part of that interview process is having people identify if they want to share what their cultural background is and then how our field can do better at cultural sensitivity and cultural bias. So there's a lot of good that comes out of those submissions. It gets us thinking about how we can do better it gets and make sure that our podcast episodes are represented better. So we're still working on it. I would say we're not perfect and it is like still predominantly white, but at least we're getting people who represent the diverse populations of our clients.

Kim : 32:08

Really, how is that getting to everybody if they're not on Instagram or if they're not on social media or a big presence in that world, how is that getting to them? Just my email list.

Mary: 32:24

So you had over a hundred submissions this last round that you opened it up to interview everyone. When you are looking through that, I know you said that really some cultural diversity is extremely important as you're looking through to see a reflective speech pathologist that represents your values. What are some of the other things that you're looking for that you think your listeners particularly would really love to hear from?

Venita : 32:53

So this is not well known but I'll share it here. Like we're going to try to get all of those people on the podcast, every single one. I mentioned to these women at the beginning that not only are we going to have the Speechy Side Up podcast this year, but we have the Speechy Side Hustle podcast coming out this month and we have an AAC and literacy one coming out and possibly one or two more. So if the interview isn't going to be solely with me, I'm going to try to see if we can get them with somebody that's on the network, because I know a lot of people put a lot of time into these submissions. Some people have submitted twice, like last year was the first time that I tried this and I had to turn a lot of people away. We had 80 submissions last year and I think I only took 30. So this year I want to try to get everybody on. But some of the things that I consider are the topic. So because we do our conferences, I try to align the topics with the conferences that we're doing.

Venita : 33:49

Speaking experience is important to me because I think sometimes when I'm interviewing somebody who's very new to the process, like I had mentioned earlier.

Venita : 33:58

I'm not at the stage right now where we're trying to edit the episodes as much.

Venita : 34:01

So if someone doesn't have any speaking experience and we do the interview and a lot has to be edited or there's a lot of errors, that cost more with the editor. But even when I'm speaking to people that are newer to interviewing maybe they've never done it before I feel like I've developed this interview style that hopefully makes them feel very comfortable and we can pause and stop. That's a lot easier than if somebody gets tripped on their words and we have to go back and take that out. Someone just pauses and stops and we can pause and stop. That's a lot easier than if somebody gets tripped on their words and we have to go back and take that out. Someone just pauses and stops. Then that's much easier to edit, as you guys know.

Venita : 34:37

So, yeah, I think I've also changed a lot so that I can hopefully make the guests feel comfortable and excited about what they're talking about, and that's another thing too. Whenever somebody submits, I go with what they want to talk about, what topic they want to talk about, what questions they want me to ask them. I always ask clarifying questions, so it's not going to be exactly like what they submitted, but they're going to feel very well prepared for that interview.

Mary: 35:02

This is a new thing for you. You didn't start off that way but, like you said, the way you started off was fast and furious. You had Nancy Kaufman, melanie Potok really big people in the SLP world For our listeners who might be thinking of starting their own podcast. How do you go about and ask for someone like that who, frankly, is probably not the one answering their own emails? So how do you get through their VA to be able to create a good ask that looks attractive to them?

Venita : 35:36

Build a relationship first, honestly, I would say, not a fake relationship. Don't like their posts and comment on them and then ask them to be on your podcast two weeks later, follow their stuff and show a real interest in what they're doing. Most of the people that I've invited on the podcast, we've had conversations for a year or two years and I've just really admired them. Or if I didn't know them, but somebody referred them, I'll share that too. I'll say, hey, so-and-so referred you and I do really like your stuff. I'd like to get to know you more. We'd be interested in coming on the podcast. So sometimes people will refer other speakers and that's how I'll get some of our guests as well.

Kim : 36:19

I'm very interested in the network and how that came about, but how are you managing with? You talked earlier about batching the recordings. Are you trying to manage all of that across the different podcasts or how are you managing all of that with the different?

Venita : 36:41

podcasts. So I want to give people as much autonomy as possible. We're really just there to support them and I think as Tassel grows, people are going to want to hear from more than just myself interviewing guests. So that's why we decided to have other podcasts added to the network, because we want different voices, different perspectives. So they really have autonomy and if they decide to leave the network at some point, it's still their podcast. So that's the idea of it. We're still in the very early stages. We've had another podcast on the network maybe like a year and a half ago, but I was also very thick into motherhood and being a mom to a newborn, so I didn't get to promote that one as much as I would have liked, and the speaker of that podcast was also like going through some life changes. But it was a good experience and then learned from that. So now we can hopefully make it even better this time around.

Mary: 37:39

Looking at your podcast as well, you do have some big categories, so that makes sense that the need for a network would be there to separate. Because that's one of my frustrations about podcasts in general is, once an episode makes it to that second page, it really is hard to find. And those first episodes for you I was listening to the creative lab, claudia Doan one of your first episodes, one of the 20s. Yes, you have to really get back quite a ways, but there's still such great quality at the beginning of someone's podcast. What do you think about podcast organization and how that could maybe be done better?

Venita : 38:26

I think that's an Apple thing. Honestly, it is pretty bad and it is a shame because there's so many good episodes Like you mentioned, nancy Kaufman like people probably don't even know who are just like coming on now. What I've done in the past and would recommend this to anybody is always highlighting your top episodes of all time. Maybe focus on specific topics of a roundup. Actually, as I'm talking about it, I should probably do that, so we're going to start adding roundups to the newsletters and then I brought things out of I'll call it like the vault. So if we bring back like an old episode maybe I didn't have time to record one we would bring back one from before. But yeah, those are just some thoughts like running through my head, but I think Apple needs to do a better job honestly.

Mary: 39:14

That leads me to my next question. We have so many of these, but what were the most challenging obstacles for you and your business, job that's?

Venita : 39:23

one of the more recent, I would say, challenges, so it's like fresh on my mind. I left Wow, actually, it isn't even that recent Now that I think about it. It was back in November of 2022. So last year was my full first full year of being an entrepreneur, having my private practice and having tassel running and doing the conferences throughout the year. So the coach really helped me with that and it wasn't like an overnight thing. It was something that took nine months. We started talking back in May 2022 and had this exit strategy for November of 2022 when I finally left.

Venita : 40:11

And then I would say the second obstacle is making a profit and keeping the cost down, especially with podcasting in such a niche area. Like there are people who podcast and make a lot of money from it, but they're speaking to the general population, whether it be parents or women or men or anybody but speech language pathology. So I had dabbled in podcast sponsorship in the beginning but also found that it doesn't convert well if it's not something that you're using or you're passionate about, and also the podcast sponsors are pulling stats from, like Jenna Kutcher's podcast, like these big podcasts, and it's not the same. So what I've moved into is affiliate marketing of things that I love, so I'm an affiliate for meaningful speech. I've taken the course and become an NLA trained clinician, so I love sharing about it. I also use simple practice for my practice, so I share about simple practice as well.

Venita : 41:16

But for anybody that's just starting out with a business, if I could go back I would say read the profit first book. I only read that book like a year ago and it changed everything for me, spending so much of my business because I had a full-time job that was funding it. So it was like fake money, right. Like it was nice because I had all of this influx of cash to invest in the business, like I wanted to hire people like I wanted. But when I took the leap of going full-time into my business without having that influx of cash, I had to be much more cautious about what I did with our profits. And I actually went on a little tangent about this recently on Instagram, because I feel like a lot of accounts, like business related accounts, will talk about oh, I made six figures or I made a million last year and it's okay. How much did you actually net? And we come to find out it's like closer to 15%. Well, 300,000 on a million seems very different than I made a million last year.

Venita : 42:19

There's a lot of misinformation out there, but the profit first book was super helpful just to give you a basic overview like how our grandmother or your grandmother might have saved money. They would put the money in envelopes and everything was already allocated to certain things, and so he's a big proponent on. When you get money in, you already allocate some of that to your profit, to your taxes and to your expenses, and then you also pay yourself too, and then if you're spending over 30% of your profits on your expenses, then you need to figure out how to get those expenses down. And as a business owner, especially an online business owner, getting into like subscriptions is like dangerous territory, because one subscription here and there and there adds up and before you know it, you're you have $500 to a thousand dollars in subscriptions every month that make your business easier, make your life easier, but you really don't have the budget for that, especially like in the beginning stages of owning a business.

Venita : 43:17

Having a service-based business, like private practice, I feel is very different than having a product-based business or like a startup type of company. So Tassel is like a startup with a product it's ed tech really Whereas if I were to acquire a client for therapy, I know I'm going to get paid directly for seeing that client, whereas an online business, like you, have to find your audience, market to your audience, nurture your audience. They're not going to buy right away. They have to get to know you, like you, trust you and then they'll buy from you. So they're just very different business models models.

Mary: 44:03

That's true, and I think in healthcare it's. We've just been trained to understand that. You clearly provide therapy and then they pay you directly. But when it is this indirect thing, or even a podcast where the service, what exactly are you getting for that? And how does a podcast become profitable? Or a book series for all of the hours that you put in? It is quite a different road. And you're right, man. Those subscriptions add up. They really do. They're wonderful, but you can't do them all.

Kim : 44:31

We had a couple of fine questions. I was going to ask what your favorite subscription is that you just cannot live without. It has made your life easier. Your go-to Okay? Pick three.

Venita : 44:44

Yes you can, okay, okay, asana, zapier and Calendly those three would be my favorite, for sure.

Kim : 44:54

Okay. Can't live without them. Do you feel like it was a big jump or did it just naturally happen for you going into business?

Venita : 45:02

It definitely wasn't easy and there were learning curves like every step of the way, like I had to learn to become a podcaster, I had to learn to edit, I had to learn to do social media, how to do newsletter marketing, all of the things Pinterest but I think that helps me be a better business owner because I understand everything that's going on in the business. So when I hire somebody in, I know what they're talking about and if they happen to leave or it doesn't work out, then I can pick that up until we find the next person. But I think that the entrepreneurial spirit has always been there, so that was never a question. I love that freedom as being a business owner, that I can try new things without having to get permission from anybody, and my dad's an entrepreneur, my husband's an entrepreneur, his parents were entrepreneurs, so I feel like I had a lot of good models for that.

Kim : 45:53

Now that you've transitioned into motherhood, plus you're running a business, is there anything specific that you go to for self-care?

Venita : 46:02

Lately it's been tennis. I've been loving tennis. I actually just did a tennis lesson today. This is only like three weeks, you guys, so let's see when this episode airs if I'm still doing it.

Venita : 46:13

But I got a racket and shoes. I think I'm really enjoying it. I've always wanted to do tennis and be more serious about it rather than just going out and playing with friends, and I liked the long-term challenge of tennis. I had tried pickleball with my husband and it was fun, but it's something you can pick up very easily, whereas with tennis there's all these levels and you have to build your skill up. So I feel like it's a good challenge now. Do either of you play tennis Married? I do, you do, I do yeah.

Mary: 46:44

You guys have all the clay courts. I'm jealous. It's a great lifetime sport.

Venita : 46:50

Yeah, that was something that they had mentioned because I was trying to figure out like what I would have my daughter pick up. She does everything. Right now she's trying it all in ballet. I want to keep her very busy and I think tennis might be a good option, because with a lot of sports they don't do it in college or professionally. What's the point? But at least with tennis she'll be able to play it forever. So I like that you brought that up.

Mary: 47:14

We'll have to play together if you ever come down here by then maybe I'll be better. I know we should. Oh, that would be so fun and it's so much easier than lugging golf clubs around or something to play on vacation. So it's, it is a very easy sport to just pick up and enjoy.

Venita : 47:29

Yeah, and the outfits are cute, like I was made to play tennis.

Mary: 47:32

I'm here for it.

Venita : 47:33

Yes.

Kim : 47:36

What about dinner? Do you have an easy, when it's been a long day, a go-to, quick dinner?

Venita : 47:43

I'm not the person to ask about cooking, but I will say that I've been trying to cook more lately, and so something easy is just like rice beans, chicken guacamole.

Kim : 47:53

I love it. And if you were not a speech therapist, do you have a dream job?

Venita : 47:58

Yeah, probably an orthostatic. I still think about that all the time. I was the first person in my family to go to college and graduate and have an undergraduate degree, so it was a lot about what's the financial expense of going to college, staying close to home. So I always think about what life would have been like if I had gone that route instead. But it's funny because I do things with the mouth anyways and I probably don't want my fingers bitten, so probably better that I became a speech language pathologist.

Mary: 48:28

I see that for you. So much, though, because I have a sister who's a dentist and my best friend's a dentist. Anyways, I did not realize how creative and artistic dentists are. You've got healthcare and we work in the mouth, but then it's also this aesthetically pleasing kind of molding and creating. I see those go hand in hand.

Venita : 48:49

And most of them are entrepreneurs. Most of them are business owners, right, so it probably would have been a very good fit, and who knows, maybe my daughter goes to school more full-time, maybe I'll go back to school, we'll see. There you go.

Mary: 49:01

Long road, yeah, okay. So last fun question is being a podcaster yourself. You probably have some podcasts that you enjoy listening to in your downtime. What is your favorite podcast?

Venita : 49:17

So I'll admit that a lot of podcasters say this like once you start doing podcasting, it becomes your life, so it becomes very difficult to listen to other podcasts and I feel bad because I want to listen to so many other podcasts and support other podcasters. But if I do listen to podcasts nowadays, which is minimal I also don't drive as much as I used to when I was a PRC consultant. I was listening to everything under the moon because I was driving for four hours to that place and four hours back. But nowadays if I do listen to podcasts, it's Jenna Kutcher's the Gold Digger podcast, rachel Hollis's podcast, and that's it. Honestly, if there's an episode that's recommended to me by somebody, I'll try to listen to that as well. But audio books are another area that I try to do when I'm like driving around.

Mary: 50:08

Thank you so much for being with us today. We really appreciate you coming on. We know your time is valuable and thank you so much for sharing a little bit about how you built your business.

Venita : 50:21

Thank you so much for having me on. You both were awesome interviewers. I can't wait to see where this podcast goes. I know it's going to help a lot of SLPs who maybe are feeling stuck in what they're doing right now, and it'll just give them some inspiration and motivation. Thank you for the opportunity.

Kim : 50:40

Thanks for listening. Make sure you subscribe to our podcast and check out our website thespeechsourcecom.

Mary: 50:47

Also check us out on Instagram for more ideas on speech, language, feeding and play.