
The Speech Source
Mary Brezik and Kim Dillon are two pediatric speech-language pathologists with over 25 years of combined experience. As speech therapists, we are often the first professionals to assess young children once they are referred by their pediatrician. Either they are not talking well or they are not eating well. We get to know our patients, their families, and how they are developing. We have a front row seat during the first critical and formative years of development for those who receive our services. Because of this, we have developed relationships with other professionals, observed what parent questions and concerns often arise, and see a need to share the resources and information we have compiled over the years. Join us as we dig into topics that show all of the overlapping aspects of child development and intervention. We invite you to be a part of our collaborative platform as we discuss, learn and grow for the betterment of our kids!
The Speech Source
S2E12: Empowering SLPs with Creative Resources with SLP Erin Larsen
In this episode of the Speech Source Podcast, hosts Mary Brezik and Kim Dillon, interview SLP Erin Larson, the dynamic force behind Speech Tea. Erin shares her fascinating journey from aspiring pharmacist to passionate speech therapist.
Erin's career took shape in a private practice setting, where she faced the challenge of working at a new, under-resourced location. This experience spurred her creativity, leading her to start making her own materials and eventually putting her creations on her own Teachers Pay Teachers Page. Through hard work and dedication, Erin built a successful TPT store, emphasizing the importance of authenticity, originality, and customer experience. She discusses how branding and repeat buyers have played a crucial role in her success and highlights the transition from social media marketing to the critical role of an email list.
Balancing work and family life, Erin transitioned to early intervention settings, finding joy and flexibility in working with the birth-to-three age group.
Erin's resource creation process is driven by customer needs and her passion for delivering high-quality materials. She offers insights into pricing strategies, the benefits of bundling products, and occasional sales to attract buyers while maintaining the value of her resources. Additionally, she emphasizes continuous learning and collaboration with other SLPs as key components of her business strategy. With this thought process, she created The Speech Therapy Toolbox, a comprehensive membership library of pediatric speech therapy tools.
To share her extensive knowledge, Erin developed an early intervention course, Early Intervention Academy for SLPs. She invested in Amy Porterfield's Digital Course Academy to help walk her step by step through the process. She explains her decision not to seek ASHA CEUs, focusing on providing valuable content that meets professional development requirements without the additional costs.
We learned so much talking with Erin in this episode. Her dedication to creating valuable resources and fostering a collaborative community offers invaluable insights for SLPs and aspiring entrepreneurs alike.
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For more information on speech, language, feeding and play - visit The Speech Source Website - https://www.thespeechsource.com/
Welcome to the Speech Source Podcast. My name is Mary Brzeek and I'm Kim Dillon.
Kim :We are two pediatric speech-language pathologists with a combined 25 years of experience.
Mary:We are your source for speech, language feeding, play and much more in between. This season, on the Speed 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 :Today we are talking with Erin Larson. She is with Speech Tea. It's her Instagram handle name and she's going to tell us today just about how she has started some of her businesses. So welcome, erin. Thanks for being with us today.
Erin :Hey guys, thanks so much for having me on, would you?
Kim :just tell us a little bit about yourself, how you came into this career as a speech therapist.
Erin :Okay, so, like you said, my name is Erin Larson and I am right outside of New Orleans, louisiana. I have four little kids they're six and under and I guess I have an interesting way of how I ended up in the field. I actually went to college and went to school to be a pharmacist, and when I started doing that and started going into pharmacies, I was basically told you are too nice for this job. You need to be something where you're serving people. And the pharmacist was so sweet to tell me that. He was like you need to be where you're connected with people.
Erin :And so I really thought about that, because I honestly hated chemistry and all that stuff that I was doing anyway, and so I went on a search of what I could do and then once I took one class, I was hooked. I'm like, oh, this is definitely where I'm called to be. This is way more me than anything medical or anything like that that I could have done. So that's how I ended up in the field and, like I said, once I switched and started taking classes, and definitely when I started doing like clinicals and stuff, I knew that's exactly where I should be when you were going through school for speech therapy, were you drawn more to some of those medical settings and medical classes, or did you Not at all.
Kim :Not at all.
Erin :Okay, I was thinking you might be just having had that initial desire with the pharmacy school, but that's so interesting how things can change yeah, absolutely, and I definitely came from a family of they were dead set on this was my path and then all of a sudden I'm changing things and it was something they weren't used to, so we had to navigate that. But now they can definitely see like my passion, my love, and it's opened their eyes to like this whole new kind of career field and career paths too, and how you find that.
Mary:What was your CF experience, and then what were your settings? Have you worked in?
Erin :Okay. So right out of grad school, I actually got my CF in one of my placements that I was in in grad school, so I started my CF at a private practice, and that's where I wanted to be. That's where I loved. I never wanted to step foot in a school. I loved connecting to families. I loved that one-on-one. I loved more.
Erin :In my experience with that private practice, you got to do things a little more freely, or even during evaluation it was my clinical opinion and not necessarily do they qualify type thing and I liked that aspect of it.
Erin :And not everything was about billing or all these rules that the school district set in place. I got to use my judgment and use all the resources I had available, and so that's why I was drawn to that private practice. I will say, though, that when I signed up with this private practice, they had just started a new satellite location, and I thought I was going to be at this big location with all this help and support that I had come to know in grad school. But then, oh, like you're wonderful, we're going to stick you at this new location, which was nice, it was right by my house, but then there was no other SLP. There I had no support. I had zero materials, zero resources. My supervisor was elsewhere doing her own thing and I think that's actually where all my business ideas came from, because it was just, it was me, it was lonely, I had no idea what the heck I was doing because I was fresh out of grad school. So my CF experience in that private practice is what made my business what it is today.
Kim :So did you start, then, creating materials that you needed and that you didn't have? Is that how you started? With Teachers, pay Teachers.
Erin :Yes, 100% it was. I didn't have any materials. I was fresh out of grad school. I got married in grad school, we had bought a house, so we were broke. So I didn't want to spend all this money like buying all these things and so I just became resourceful in anything that I needed. I was like, let me just create this. And that's how I found out about TPT and Teachers Pay Teachers, because that wasn't something I had known before. I just started creating things. I'm like, oh, this is cool, I can put it up on here and that kind of created that business. And I should say I come from a family of small business. So I think internally I just have that background. Knowledge is in me to have a business.
Kim :To create something for other people in that process? Yeah, did you let other people know that was there for them? Was it through social media and Instagram, or were people just searching you on that TPT platform?
Erin :I think it was both. I started as social media. It was a huge learning experience and it still is as you go on. But yeah, social media, there was a couple of things that I created out of necessity for me that got shared a couple of times online. I created out of necessity for me that got shared a couple of times online, and so that really helped. And once I started, I dove in. I was working like crazy hours because I really saw the potential and I learned all that marketing stuff too that goes along with it and built from there.
Kim :What do you feel like has been one of the best marketing strategies you've used?
Erin :I think back then it was definitely more social media because it was easier for people to find you that way. There was a lot of collab. There still is a lot of collaboration in the field, so connecting with other SLPs and growing that way. But if you were to ask me now, it is definitely email. Like Email is the way to go. Having a huge list, because Instagram or Facebook, all of that that can glitch or go away any second, but you have your email list, you own that, and so email is definitely the best marketing tool. I would say.
Mary:Now there's a lot of different business people who strongly recommend growing your email list and offer different sort of tools to help you do that. Have you ever taken one of those courses to figure out how to do it, or were you self-taught to figure out how to build an email list?
Erin :Definitely more self-taught, but I also. I listened to all those podcasts. I take all those free trainings. I'm a sponge with all that information because there are so many and they share it on social media too. But all these people out there who really teach you how to grow your email list they provide a ton of free content and tools to do that. And just watching, too, watching what other people are doing, talking with other people, collaborating I'm definitely like a big collaboration over competition, because ultimately, we're all learning and growing together and we're serving SLPs or anybody in business. Like you want everyone to grow, so we can help each other do that. So I'm sharing tips with other people about ways I'm doing it and vice versa.
Mary:After that experience in private practice, did you continue to see patients in a certain setting, or at what point did you dive into your business?
Erin :So when I started it, we had no kids and I was able to spend so much time diving in doing all that because my husband, too, is very business minded and he saw the potential doing all that. Because my husband, too, is very business minded and he saw the potential. And so we had all these big plans and I really dove in, working like a crazy number of hours a week to grow it and grow it. And then, when I became pregnant with my first child and we had moved to be closer to family, I was now going to have to commute in at least an hour to work every day. Work my eight to five come home, and it really got me thinking I am not going to have enough time with my family.
Erin :This isn't what I want, and I think this is what happens to a lot of people in our field, where we just we have this internal desire for a shift, whether it's a change in job settings or a change in our work, or some people go to be like a stay at home mom, and I really wanted that balance of being a good present mom but also still utilizing this new job I was creating for myself in order to stay home as much as possible and I'm just naturally like I've got a work person that could never stay at home completely like props to those moms that could.
Erin :But I just I love working. But I really wanted to find that good balance. So I went to part-time and then I was working and I decided I wanted not only to work closer to home, but I really found that those early intervention clients were just where my heart was at. That's where I felt most confident, comfortable, most natural in, and so I wanted a change in setting and to be able to stay home and work. So that's where that transition happened, basically because of my son and that I wanted to stay home more. So that's how that all happened.
Kim :I was curious how you came up with your name. Speech Tea.
Erin :I have an unhealthy obsession with sweet tea and so when I was trying to come up with a cutesy name and everything that I was thinking of that had to do with Southern, because I'm in Louisiana or anything like that was taken. And then one day I think I was actually on a lunch break drinking sweet tea and, like Speech Tea, just I don't know came about and we just rolled with it.
Kim :I like it. I think it's very cute and I love that it rhymes too. So you're continuing to create resources, you're at home and are you starting to see kids also at the same time?
Erin :Yes, when I left the private practice I started seeing kids in our state's early intervention program. It's called Early Steps. I see kids birth to three. After that they go into the school system. So I go into homes, daycares in those settings. But what's great about it is I don't have to see kids on my caseload. I can see 20 like it's completely up to me, which is definitely helpful in this season of life of having babies and needing that more flexible time. And as my work changes, or what I want to focus on changes, I can pick up more kids or I can let them age out and get a smaller caseload. So that's been a really wonderful thing that I've been able to do. And again, so that's been a really wonderful thing that I've been able to do.
Mary:And, again, this is my favorite age to work with. So the TPT world is so interesting because not too long ago there weren't any speech pathologists at all on the site and then now, if anything like social media, it's a little oversaturated with speech and materials. You obviously started back in the kind of more original days. So my question is if you think about TPT from the standpoint of you're building your store online and you have over 16,000 followers, you obviously have a huge presence on that site. What would you say has been your strategy to grow your platform on TPT? Because it doesn't just happen overnight that you get. You have over 10,000 five-star reviews, so clearly people are coming purchasing your products, enjoying them, buying more. So you're so active, too, in your customer service. So tell us a little bit about how you grew and scaled that from just starting off as, hey, I need this for my CF experience and then now, where you have tons of products on there, yeah, I definitely wasn't like the original OG group we like to say, but I was definitely that next wave.
Erin :There are a ton now, like you said, but I think it all comes down to that whole experience. They know what to expect. So you have a ton of repeat buyers because they've purchased before, they've had the customer service, they've experienced all that, so they know what to expect. But also, when you see my resources, it's me, the branding is there, the color scheme is there. Recently I've been at a couple of conferences or I was at ASHA last year and I would have a booth for my membership and people would come up and be like, wait, I have all that and that they recognize it because of the way it looks.
Erin :And I think that's truly when you've got your branding down and I can say that about so many wonderful sellers I can see like a cover without their name on it and know who it is because of their branding and people like that. And again, listening to your audience, creating what there is need for. There's a ton of resources on there but there's still areas that haven't been done a certain way or explained a certain way, or even touched, and I try to hit those harder. I'm not just going to throw up like a cutesy worksheet or a color page and call it a day because those products they're not going to sell. So not taking that easy way out, really digging deep in the research and finding those pain point areas I guess you could say for SLPs.
Mary:That's a really good point is the pain point, like you said, those areas where you're thinking, ah, this is a goal and how in the world am I going to target it? I need something.
Kim :What does that creation process look like for you? Does it happen when you're working with a child and sometimes you see a need? And for you, does it happen when you're working with a child and sometimes you see a need and then you just start thinking about what you could create that maybe you haven't seen. Do you get to it right away? Do you plan it out? How does that process work for you?
Erin :I guess it really depends. I have a list of mile long stuff I would like to accomplish. That whole time factor is hard right now. A lot of times it comes from customers, people that have bought things, and oh, do you have something for this? So they give me ideas. Sometimes it honestly just has to be what I feel like I'm in the mood to create, especially those harder areas. So much research goes into it and then I'm getting feedback from maybe SLPs in the school. It's because I don't have that experience. I get feedback from all types of people and edits from all types of people and we've researched it in a million different ways before we're going to put it out there. But that creation process looks different depending on what it is, I guess.
Mary:And all the materials are priced so differently too. Like you said, some sellers are putting out a coloring sheet for a dollar, and then there's plenty of resources that are much more robust and have a lot more going on, that are 30, 50, $150. So how do you price your items? Is that a reflection of how much time you spent on it or a reflection of how much work went into it? Or how do you determine the $3 or $15?, because those are such different price points.
Erin :That's a great question and something that gets asked all the time. And there's, I guess, there's a few different things I like to do. Yes, it depends on the time. And there's, I guess, there's a few different things I like to do. Yes, it depends on the time. So say, I have which. They're great, but I have these homework color sheets where it's very basic but it's carry over for an entire week and there's just a few words and it's a lot of clip art. That is easy to create and I can be done with it quick. So that's priced lower.
Erin :Now, if it was something that I had to research for weeks about and it's a lot more handouts and teaching pages and like guides for the SLP, that's something that they can use forever. It's not like a little Valentine's Day craft where it's only used that one short time. But if they can use it for the rest of their career, that's something that holds more value, and it definitely took me months rather than a couple of days to create. So then I'm gonna price higher. And this is something too like we collaborate about.
Erin :If I'm creating something big, I might have this idea in my head. I'm gonna send it to some friends in the TPT world and be like what do you think about pricing? Friends in the TPT world and be like what do you think about pricing? And they'll give me some suggestions and I could be totally off or I could be right there. So definitely that collaboration piece and pricing helps too, because it's hard and sometimes too you have to play with that. Once it's out there for a while, you see, like, how it's doing and if you need to adjust it and maybe you need to raise it a little bit because your conversion is really high. There's so much data and statistics that go along with it.
Mary:Along those same lines is sales. So everyone loves a sale. Everyone loves oh I got a discount or oh it was 15, but I got it for nine, kind of thing. And I noticed that through your TPT that does look like a strategy that you're using is to say that this is the value of this product, but I'm going to offer it for X amount. Do you feel like that? Just mentality of getting something at a discount helps you get buyers who are a little more willing to buy that product, seeing that it's on sales.
Erin :Definitely, as long as you do it the smart way. One kind of like analogy I tell people is when you buy from Hobby Lobby and you go in there say you need some picture frames and you're going in there, well, you don't see them on sale. They're going to be on sale next week, right. So you're going to wait a week, like we don't want to be that kind of salesman where they're never going to pay full price because they think that true value of something is maybe half off of that. So we definitely want to avoid that way.
Erin :As far as bundles go, I do giving discounts because A I'm in the same boat as other SLPs. I get it. You're not rich, you're not making a ton of money in this field and my whole purpose is to serve and to provide these resources to help them. So if you need, say, a collection of this material for all the areas and I have a bundle for that yeah I would love to give you a discount. So that's an incentive and it helps both me and you. And then there are some hashtag sales. Slps do one every month and that's just a way to give back. So I like doing that, but I'm not going to put my stuff on sale all the time, so you have to train your buyers in a way, and so they know what to expect.
Mary:That's a good point about Hobby Lobby, you're right. If those picture frames aren't on sale. I will wait or go to my class, I will come back. Yes, or go to my class, I will come back.
Kim :Yes, you've talked about collaboration quite a bit, and I would love to know how you found the therapist that you enjoy collaborating with, and is that what led to the speech therapy toolbox, or how did all of that come together? Because it seems that toolbox is a big idea of just collaboration and bringing resources all together in one place.
Erin :I would say it's two separate things. So when I took a leap of faith way back when I think it was in maybe 2016, 2017. And I went to my first TPT conference, I had talked to a couple of people online, but I just took this leap of faith. I'm like I'm going to put myself out there and meet other sellers, because it truly is one of those things where no one kind of gets what you do or gets what it is, or has the same questions, unless they're doing it too. So I went and from that point on, I met so many wonderful people even some I call my best friends these days from that and everyone truly they do want to help each other and they want to collaborate, they want to learn and I love that feeling of community. So we've collaborated on so many things. We support each other, we share each other's stuff and that's just such a beautiful thing in the TPT world is to have that community.
Erin :And then, aside from that, I get that perspective of SLPs not having to buy things all the time and spend all of their hard-earned money on all these resources when they feel maybe less confident in the area or lost or just want those extra materials.
Erin :From that point of view, but also from the point of view of we can't know everything in our field, and there are these areas that we feel less confident in, and so I wanted to create this quote unquote toolbox where, no matter what walks through your door, they have everything they need, whether it's a guide on what maybe approach to use, or they have those target lists, intervention materials, all the data collection stuff, carryover, anything like that, handouts for themselves or for parents anything that they would need is housed in this toolbox. So that idea came about from what I went through in my CF of a kid who walked through the door and I'm like what the heck do I do with you and having to research all the time? I want to take that out of the equation for SLPs and just make our hectic, crazy job sometimes just a little easier.
Kim :A lot of times we don't know what we might need in the future, but to be able to see stuff coming through and you might not need it in that moment, but to know that you have a place where you can go back and look for something that's going to be there, that might walk in your door that day for an evaluation. I like the idea that it's just a place that can house all of those different categories, because there is a lot. There's so much in our field. It's huge and we will never know it all.
Mary:Right, say, you have a speech pathologist who has the business mindset that you do and they want to start on TPT. They think, hey, I'm creating materials for my own patients, why don't I put this up on TPT? See what happens, learn the environment and hey, maybe I can either supplement my income or I can do this full-time instead of working. Would you say that's a realistic goal for someone or do you think that might need a little bit of a check of what TPT is like right now?
Erin :No, I definitely think anyone can do it if you have the right mindset. But also you have to put in the work. Like this didn't happen because I spent five hours a week on it for years. Like it happened because I spent I was working 80 hours a week and up till 3am every morning, even when I had kids. So much hard work went into it.
Erin :But not only that, you have to make sure you are going to be authentic and original too, because you might see, oh, she was wildly successful with this one thing. I could create something similar. We don't want to take that idea and use it ourself because you're not going to be successful. We do see that a lot and actually Abby, the type B SLP, if y'all are familiar with her, she's one of my best friends and we met a long time ago. But we wanted to help SLPs do this and how we did it, and so we started doing that. But what we saw was like SLPs were copying and they weren't having their original ideas. And then they're wondering why they weren't taking off and it's so-and-so already created that.
Erin :So I would say, yes, absolutely you can do it. But have that idea like oh, this is what I'm good at, these are my ideas. Let me make sure it's not already out there. I do that with the products I create. Now I might have an idea, but if it's already out there, I'm not recreating it. So, just having that original idea, having your original spin on things or how you do it in your sessions, or whatever that might be, but if you pair that with a really good work ethic, then yeah, absolutely, I think you definitely can. Once you put yourself out there and you are creating really good quality stuff, it's naturally going to happen and other people are going to see it. I'm going to see it, I'm going to share it, Just things like that. Again, there's such a good community if you go about it the right way.
Mary:You're so right that authenticity and integrity are very, so important in the creation just industry. And it is true that it is a small world out there and I think that we live in such this age that glorifies dupes of Amazon products or oh gosh, this collab, but I got it for whatever. I think it is really important that these are moms, these are speech therapists. This is the person down the street or that's working at your neighborhood school who's creating these products. Have you had to deal with some of those kind of cease and desist or plagiarism things? And what do you do when you see someone create something that you just put out there and spent tons of time on?
Erin :Yeah, I've definitely had to deal with it. I think we all do and it's hard. It does take kind of a mental toll on me, especially when you do take the high road. You reach out to them and you're not met back with that same respect Because I guess, if you think about it, if they're doing that and they know that they're doing it, it might not be the best conversation. So, yeah, you do have to send the cease and desist or you have to deal with that. Sometimes, just to protect, like my mental bandwidth, I just have to tell myself this is something very successful of mine. They can try to do it, but it's not going to be successful like mine because they're not going about it the right way. They don't have the online presence or relationship that I have built with people or that. I guess integrity to that I have shown everyone has integrity too, that I have shown everyone. So I might just not. I don't like to say not worry about it, but sometimes just protect my peace and just let the world deal with it.
Kim :I guess you could say You've talked about all that goes into your products the research, the time and the energy and I think you can see that in the products that you make and I think when people are going to look at products that they want to buy, that's a great reason. Why that other person is not going to be successful is because if someone's going to just copy something, they're not going to take the time to research and put in the effort that you've put in and your product is going to be a better product.
Erin :And so that too is where you'll have those repeat buyers, where they might buy one thing from that person and see all the little things we're missing, and then they're just not going to go back. So I guess the universe in a way takes care of it.
Mary:We've talked a lot about TPT and we talked about the speech therapy toolbox, but you also do a Facebook group as well and manage that. How did all those projects start, and was that a product of wanting customer service or just what your customers were saying that they were interested in? Or how did those side projects work as well?
Erin :Yeah. So I definitely have a problem with trying to do it all. I'm always trying to get better about that but I think, as any business, it just evolves and you're seeing what people ask for. I would always have people in my DMs talking about early intervention, have questions, and so that's how the course came about and I love doing that because that's my area and I love teaching and I have so much knowledge to share in that area where I'm not going to create a course about AAC or maybe stuttering, but I can do that in my area.
Erin :So I think, just as your business evolves and you're seeing what your customers are asking for and wanting and not only that, but then listening to all these business podcasts that are like, oh, you should start a Facebook group to help promote this and do this and connect your buyers this way I think those things just naturally happen and they evolve as they go. Or maybe you take a step back when you need to or when things aren't working. I think, just with any business, it ebbs and flows and you're constantly learning and navigating those things.
Kim :I asked this question because Mary and I have talked a little bit before about certain resources that we've created and then the idea of if we could just teach on this or if we could explain this a little bit more. So for that early intervention academy did you use a lot of the resources that you've created to teach?
Erin :Yes and no. The resources I've created in, like earlier I mentioned, are mainly parent handouts and carryover and how we can get carryover in that home. But those are things that I'm so passionate about and that I work constantly with my own clients right now that I use those resources I talked about and used, but that's not really the knowledge or the information. A lot of times SLPs don't have a required early intervention class, so they don't talk about that age group. Or maybe SLPs want to switch from schools to EI, maybe because they're starting to have kids, like I did, and that's why I made the switch and so I wanted a course that kind of talked about, kind of everything you needed to know, like that A to Z of what to expect and what it should look like and just the best way to go about it and everything all in one, is how that came about.
Mary:You're obviously really passionate about early intervention birth to three window and you're saying, hey, I know a lot about this area, I have a lot to share about this area, I'm going to make a course. What were your steps from that idea until through actually putting it out there for your email list, which obviously would be a great way to get it out to your followers? But did you use anything like Zen Learn or any of those specific ways to create a course, or what was your platform?
Erin :I'm sure y'all are familiar with Amy Porterfield. I took her free training. It was a great free training. It was like this post-it party and once I was done with that I really saw wow, I do have this huge course idea and all these things that I could offer people for early intervention. And I took this leap of faith and I invested in her digital course academy and that honestly took me through every single step. I needed to create a course how to market. It was awesome. It was a great step-by-step guide of how to do that. She suggests Kajabi to host all of that.
Mary:So that's how I went through that whole process when you were thinking about professional development hours versus ASHA, ceu. What was your take on that when you created your course?
Erin :Yes, such a hot topic right now. You created your course. Yes, such a hot topic right now, especially yes. So if you look on ASHA and you look at what are the requirements for professional development, it's pretty straightforward and very easy to obtain. If you want something to be a CUU, just the gist of it is you have to pay ASHA a bunch of money and especially without me knowing if it was going to be successful or not, I didn't want to make that investment early on and I had talked to a lot of other people in the business world, course world and they weren't doing it either.
Erin :So people said, yeah, some people might not take it because they didn't have those CUs. A lot of those people are also misinformed. Not take it because they didn't have those CEUs. A lot of those people are also misinformed. So, just to say it frankly, most states almost all states you don't actually have to have a CEU. And I tell people if, for ever, a reason, like your state, they need that CEU, I am happy to like, send them everything they need in order to get this approved. Like, I will go that extra mile because it doesn't make sense for me to pay a bunch of money to ASHA, just for them to put that stamp on it when it doesn't change anything about my course, and that's honestly how I feel about that. I think, yes, some people probably don't take it because it doesn't have CEU on it, but I think that's a conversation that is especially right now is really being brought to light, so I think that's going to be changing.
Kim :Thank you for breaking all of that down, Because I think that's a question that a lot of therapists or people who might have a desire to do a course have. Yeah, I appreciate that Really quick. I just want to ask you we like to do these rapid fire questions at the very end of our interview just to learn a couple of fun things about you, but do you have anything specific you like to do for self-care? You are so busy with little ones and all of your work. Is there anything you go to to just relax Reading, Reading, yes, Do you have a favorite author?
Erin :No, not really Just like an easy book that I can just block everything else out and have five minutes of not crazy Wonderful.
Kim :A little bit of an escape. And then, if you weren't a speech therapist, what would your dream job be? We know it's not a pharmacist.
Erin :No, this is actually funny. I would be a meteorologist, I am obsessed with the weather and anyone can text me and I will know the answer to what's happening with our weather and what's going on. So that's definitely my I should have, could have, would have.
Kim :That's good. I can tell you're very like research minded. You like information. Yes, we really appreciate your time and just fitting us in. I know life is so busy right now and we've enjoyed watching you on social media, so we were excited to get to finally meet you. Yes, thanks so much for having me. Thanks for listening. Make sure you subscribe to our podcast and check out our website, thespeechsourcecom.
Mary:Also check us out on Instagram for more ideas on speech, language, feeding and play.