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
Podcasting with Purpose
In this episode Kim and Mary welcome special guest Daj Mitchell (@yourSLPDaj) to join in a conversation on podcasting with purpose. Together, they explore how podcasting can serve as a tool for business growth, collaboration, and audience engagement. Daj shares insights on her journey as a speech-language pathologist and entrepreneur, explaining how her podcast Co-Treat Corner was born from a desire to improve collaboration within therapy fields. The conversation touches on different podcasting styles, from solo hosting to co-hosting, and the skills required for effective interviewing.
The episode also delves into podcasting as a marketing strategy, emphasizing its ability to build trust and establish expertise over time. Unlike social media, podcast content remains evergreen, continuing to provide value long after its initial release. Daj, Mary, and Kim discuss the importance of setting podcasting boundaries to prevent burnout, recommending dedicated workdays for various tasks and strategic planning to maintain consistency.
Podcasting is a long-term strategy that builds credibility and consistency over time. Tune in to this insightful episode to learn more about podcasting with purpose!
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/
I've been learning about the different buyer types a lot in marketing and I'm like that's so true. Some people are going to quickly buy off of your mini chat automation on Instagram and others are going to be like no, like I need to read every single word on your landing page or I need to listen to every single one of your podcasts to trust you. And that's so true, like it really just nurtures that audience that really wants to be nurtured in that way.
Mary:Welcome to the Speech Source Podcast. My name is Mary Brazik and I'm Kim Dillon.
Kim :We are two pediatric speech language pathologists with a combined 25 years of experience.
Kim :We are your source for speech, language feeding, play and much more in between. Today, we're going to be talking with Dej Mitchell and we're going to be talking about podcasting with purpose, and so I know Dej has what is it called that you have coming up Therapist Podcast Accelerator. This accelerator is going to be about starting a podcast, growing a podcast. Mary and I both have experience with the Speech Source Podcast and we wanted to talk about all of those concepts and also setting boundaries when you have a podcast. So, dej, if you want to go ahead and let us know a little bit about you, Absolutely so.
Daj:I'm Dej. You can find me on Instagram at your SLP Dej, and you'll see there that I do a lot of different things. Primarily, I'm a school SLP full-time, and then I have my private practice on the side, which brought me to the Speech Source podcast. I love listening to your season all about private practice. It was really great. And then I also do website design for private practice SLPs. But then it started becoming SLPs who were getting into like content creation and podcasting and I'm like I also have a podcast and I have a podcast all about collaborating across the field, like with PT, SLP, OT and it's called Co-Treat Corner and then I think that's the main thing. So I have a couple other things that I do, but those are the main things.
Kim :That's awesome. I love that idea of collaboration. That's a big concept in both mine and Mary's practice also. So, mary, do you want to tell about the speech source?
Mary:Sure, I will lead us off with the speech source. So Kim and I established the Speech Source LLC in order to do exactly that to be able to collaborate better with our families, to be able to give a community business to Fort Worth that is really community driven, and some of our tenants are. Not only that, we do see patients privately, but then we also are providing teacher and services to better help preschools. We're going into private schools, preschools, being able to not only help kiddos but also help train teachers and staff. And then we also have launched some of our digital products.
Mary:So some of the things that are tried and true, that we use all the time that make our jobs easier. I feel like, as SLPs, we see a lot of the same things. We'll see another late talker or we'll see another kid that struggles with S, and so we decided to really pause and stop reinventing the wheel and finally put all those things that we're always telling our parents onto paper to be able to really give better resources for people who really benefit from seeing visual things. And then we have the auditory for people who really benefit from listening and understanding concepts. So we're really trying to have a multi-modality business that really promotes that parent involvement and understanding that we can do it together.
Daj:You guys are speaking my language. I love that. I think collaboration is just such a gift. I have a meeting on Friday tomorrow at a homeschool co-op and I'm like, oh, I wish I had a Mary, or I wish I had a Kim to tag along with me. I just love that. Maybe that's something we should talk about first is the whole idea of hosting a podcast.
Mary:I know that, Dej, you host as a solo hoster or whatever you're going to say and Kim and I have a partnership as we both host. So what is it like for you? I actually find it really difficult to be the only one hosting. I really rely on Kim. I think that's harder.
Daj:It definitely is, and when I started out I had none of like knowledge of anything podcasting, and so it was much tougher in the beginning trying to get like my workflow together, really build my interview skills. No one talks about that. Interviewing is not easy and sometimes you feel like you have to fill all the space and then there's other people who will say, no, leave some space. So it's just such an art with interviewing. So I think being a solo host is a little bit more challenging in that regard. But I also do like segments with Vanessa from TheraVolve Wellness where we do some co-hosting, so it's nice to mix it up a little bit. So I've been definitely diving into having a co-host a little bit because it can get challenging.
Kim :You're so right Styles are very different. When we went through all of the different interviews when we were doing our how you made your speech therapy business, it was very interesting to talk to everybody that has a different style, and even some other podcast hosts that have different styles than we did, and your style is probably a little bit different than how ours is, but I think interviewing, like you said, is definitely an art and it's something that you have to get used to and we're still learning and growing, but that's also been a fun part of the whole process.
Daj:Yes, and I think I've also had to learn how to make my guests comfortable. Some people are not comfortable even though there's no audience right, it's just me and you, but some people are still like sweating right on the other side. Oh, my gosh, my voice is going to be heard by. However many people download this, and, especially with podcasts, people can listen to this for years to come, and so it can be a little pressure inducing for a lot of guests, and so I've also had to learn how to calm people down. Like it's just me and you, I also, like you all, give an outline in the beginning, just so they feel a little bit more comfortable. So just learning all of those things on the front end have definitely made a more seamless process.
Mary:What is your process that you found helps you interview? Do you have certain things that you do to research a person or a topic, or something that you do before your interviews to make you and your guests successful?
Daj:Yes, I think it all goes back to being intentional about who you have on your podcast and when you are following someone on Instagram or you're familiar with someone's work, that makes it 10 times easier to come up with questions and you can already know their bio.
Daj:You know what they're really like passionate about. So if I have one of you come on and talk about feeding, like I know we're gonna go hard into feeding and just how to make parents more educated on that and mealtime and all that kind of stuff. So I'm already going in when I invite a guest on of being like this is what I really think we should talk about. What do you think? Of course, giving them some lead way with the questions as well. But then from there I love tech and AI and things like that From there, I'll usually take like their bio or like a rough outline of what I think we're going to talk about and put it into chat, gpt and say create some questions based off of this and I'll tweak and things if I need to and then I'll create my outline from there. So I have a little bit of a workflow with that.
Kim :I know that you're going to probably get into a lot of the nuts and bolts when you do your accelerator as far as probably podcasting equipment and platforms that you use, but I just wanted for us to talk a little bit today about your why in doing a podcast. I know Mary and I had our reasonings. Actually, our podcast was the very first thing that came first for the speech source, before we even had therapy running through the speech source and our teacher in services and all that stuff as we created the podcast and then everything just flowed from there as a resource. But what was your why in the very beginning for starting your podcast?
Daj:Absolutely so. Co-tree Corner was all about collaboration, and starting the podcast really came from a deep frustration with the lack of collaboration, and I think a lot of podcasts start that way. They started out with a deep frustration for a topic. A lot of health podcasts start out this way.
Daj:I really want people to get my message in this category, and for me that was collaboration. I just felt like people weren't really interested in the topic. It wasn't like quote unquote, sexy. They didn't really see it as tangible. And so I'm like okay, maybe people just aren't really getting the message and so maybe I can create my own platform. I think people think that they don't have anything to say, and so I had to really give myself a boost of confidence that I do have something to say. I'm very frustrated about this, and I know there's other people out there who want to talk about it with me, and so I found a couple people in my first couple episodes. I was like okay, like I'm not the only one, and I think that started to gain traction and people started to feel nurtured by these different conversations each week, and it just grew from there.
Kim :I think that a lot of people have an idea in mind. Like you said, there's a frustration or they want to get some ideas across. But then for what Mary and I have been discovering after starting the podcast is that it can do so much more for your business, your brand awareness, getting the name that your business is out there, and then if you are providing services or you're creating resources, it's a great way to promote those on just a different platform. And then you have your notes, your podcast notes that you can be typing information in that is also hopefully searchable. I agree with you that I think people go into having a passion for a certain reason and there's so many things that you can do once you start a podcast.
Daj:Yes, I'm so glad you brought that up, because what started for me as a deep frustration has shifted into more of a marketing situation, and so I actually have two different podcasts now. Because Co-Tree Corner I wanted to really stay at the root of really nurturing people in that area of how do we collaborate in the area of feeding or AAC or how do I actually communicate with ABA professionals, things like that. I really want that to stay at the heart of that podcast and so I didn't want to come in and bring a whole bunch of businessy things in there. And I'm launching a newer podcast called Side Biz CEO, which I feel very comfortable talking about business and selling offers and things over there. So I do think we're seeing a shift in podcasting, not only just being that part of your message and your why, but also being something where we're popping in our freebies, our paid offers. This is like your long-term, evergreen funnel for your business.
Mary:And I think especially podcasting has been on the up and up since all of the tumultuousness with social media, with what is going on with that algorithm or is this platform going to be around or not, who knows and so it was very appealing to Kim and I to create something evergreen, meaning that it is there for ever and ever, and the whole idea that we could spend so much time and your passion and energy creating something that disappears in 24 hours on a story or disappears just forever, was just a lot to think about to spend so much time, and so I think podcasting allows you this space or the opportunity to create something that's going to last for a long time.
Mary:And then the other reason that I think the platform is great is because it serves this really cool middle ground of not being social media. It's not quick facts, quick bite-size information, and it's not okay I need to go pick up a book on this or go to a lecture or some kind of big topic, or it's just TED Talk size, and I think that is such a good way to get an in-depth but overview way of kind of delivering or learning about a topic.
Daj:Yes, like I have so many different podcasts I listen to. Some are like that TED Talk style, some are like bite-sized, digestible, some are a little bit lengthier and I'm like, okay, I'm turning this off, this is not for my drive time commute, but yeah, there's so many different styles out there.
Kim :And to be able to get to know someone's personality. Like you said, mary, it is that middle ground, longer than a reel or a story. They're giving you information, you're getting to know who they are, and that's just a really great marketing opportunity to get to know somebody and be like you know what they really know what they're talking about. I want to check out these products or I want to check out their service, because they sound knowledgeable. It's just a great platform to be able to show what you know and serve people in a way that's going to build trust and bring them back as a customer in whatever way that that might be available on your platform.
Daj:Yeah, I've been learning about the different buyer types a lot in marketing and I'm like that's so true. Some people are going to quickly buy off of your mini chat automation on Instagram and others are going to be like, no, like I need to read every single word on your landing page or I need to listen to every single one of your podcasts to trust you. And that's so true, Like it really just nurtures that audience that really wants to be nurtured in that way.
Mary:Days, you mentioned that you have so many different businesses going on and so many different interests. I think Kim and I, and probably every entrepreneur, really identifies with that having so many irons in the fire, whatever it is and one thing that Kim and I've talked a lot about is boundaries is how to place boundaries. I want to talk about that, and then I also want to table one other idea that I want to talk about afterwards, which is how to know how to shift focus, like when you have so many things going on. When is it time to? Yep podcast needs attention right now or you know what I need to grow my private clients. I want to talk about both of those areas today. Let's talk about boundaries first. What are some of the ways that you have created boundaries to be able to be successful at what you do?
Daj:Yes, I love this conversation because I've got a style going now. So I have dedicated days, working full time in the schools, like I just had to do it this way. Working full time, my nine to five is the school, and then I have Tuesday, wednesday, thursday are the days that I see private clients after schools. I don't do much of any online business things. I might post a reel or something, but I really don't consider that my marketing and really diving.
Daj:I'm not making a landing page on a Tuesday, wednesday or Thursday, but on Mondays and Fridays I'm typically doing a podcast interview, like for my own podcast. Or I'm making a landing page or I'm designing a website, and with website design I do sometimes carry that over into the weekend a little bit, but it's that's my capacity because I can watch Netflix while I'm doing that. You know what I mean. Versus, I'm not taking a podcast interview on a Saturday. That's just my boundary with that, and so I have definitely had a lot of success with having dedicated days so that I can put on my podcast hat this day and do some editing or something like that, and then I'm like all about my families and my clients on the private practice days, and then I'm always at the school, so what about the weekend?
Mary:How do you spend time to rejuvenate after that's a really long week to not just have your 40 hour a week job but then also have all of these other jobs that take up the remainder of the evening?
Daj:Yeah. So my husband and I we love to Netflix and chill. We're very like homebodies, like we don't go out a lot or anything. We might go to a dinner here and there. We love date nights at least a couple of times a month, and then I also love to cook, so I like to meal prep on the weekends. That's my like calm down. I feel like that sounds like so bad for other people, but I love to clean my house and meal prep on the weekends. Can you come cook at?
Kim :my house please, Because this is like my nightmare.
Daj:It's a nightmare to some people, but I'm like this is really calm for me.
Kim :I wish it was for me. I think Mary and I have talked about that before. I wish I loved cooking.
Daj:This is pre-kids, so I don't know.
Kim :Mary and I had to find that routine too and I do think it works best when you are not trying to do different things within a day. So podcasting, seeing kids or seeing clients for speech therapy, even computer paperwork creating, I feel like those are big mind shifts and it's hard to switch within a day. So we have days during the week that we're seeing kids, and then we have meeting days where we're trying to do more of the creation part and then we try to have our podcasting days. Of course it's not always perfect. You have to make changes, especially if you want to interview someone specific who has a different schedule, and you have to be flexible. But I do think trying to have a pretty set schedule and keep those boundaries is important. Otherwise it's just going to be all over the place and really hard to control your schedule.
Daj:Hard to stay motivated because it feels like burnout is really just like you being unorganized, and so that's something that I think that I had to really realize. Okay, I don't hate my podcast, I just hate this setup that I have right now, and I need to figure that out and the fact that if something is working for you in a season, come next season you might have to readjust.
Mary:you probably do, and that's what Kim and I have realized too right now. I think we get better and better every season where we learn what works and learn what doesn't. But I'll just as an example, my schedule is I see kids from eight to two Monday, wednesday, friday and so that is my private practice, my patient time. Like you said, my mind is fully on them for those hours. Now, of course, I have to do some things outside of those hours, like scheduling and whatnot and doing some other things, but in general that's patient time. But where my family is right now having three young kids, my family is taking up the rest of the evening and the rest of the time right now.
Mary:And just knowing that and I have a two-year-old at home, that means Tuesday, thursdays I need to be creative about my business being not just working in the business but working on the business. So I've really set aside Thursdays now to be able to get childcare Thursdays, where that is my business day to get done. And one thing that I've realized this season as well is I had a lot of commitments that were wonderful and really fun. But they were fun stuff that I was doing PTA things, junior league things just really big time commitments. And when that seeped into assuming more time and not leaving enough time for me to just rest and be able to recoup, that's when I felt really stifled, just thinking, okay, to be the best person I need to be for my patients and our podcast and business. I also have to build in rest time during the week because after school at four o'clock on Wednesday is not my rest time, jack and I playing toy, like us playing animals this morning on a Tuesday.
Mary:That is okay, this is rejuvenating. I can still do things, but for me it's been very important to purposely build in okay, what time is for me, and only me during the week.
Daj:Absolutely. I resonate with that so much. Being in the early stages of my marriage, I had to really sacrifice maybe a little bit of profit to outsource some things to make sure that I had time to spend with my husband and spend time going getting a massage. You guys probably see in my Instagram stories I love going to Pilates. That's my me time time because it got to the point where I was editing a podcast during or watching a movie and he's like, can you put that down?
Kim :But I'm just like I got to get this out by Thursday and so I'm like, no, that's got to go, that was my boundary and, yeah, I resonate with that so much. What's been good for us, too, is having a plan ahead of time. So if we're going into a season saying, okay, this is the day, we want this episode to come out, every single day, tuesday morning, this is going to come out, this is the day that we're recording, so having a plan in place holds us accountable to as soon as we record, try to get something done so that stays consistent. It's what we try to do. I feel like having a plan instead of just we did all these recordings, I don't know when they're going to come out, but having a clear plan ahead of time helps those boundaries in the end, because you know what you're working for.
Mary:And I think, too, knowing when a boundary is flexible. Because, kim, I was just thinking about our season and thinking about how we said hey, we want to put out an episode One of these guests every single Tuesday. We want to put one out every week. But we also, kim and I, are a little bit of perfectionists. We have really high expectations for exactly how we want every episode to be and how exactly we want it to reflect our guests and be a good tool for them too. And so there were several weeks where, like you know what, like we do take a lot of time editing it and it's just not ready and so we're gonna just put this out next week. It's not a big deal. And so there were a few times where we're like we're okay, pushing that boundary, totally fine.
Daj:And that's the nice thing, I think, also about podcasting. It's not like a profile where, like people are looking like they can't see. They can see that something skipped a week, but no one's looking that deep at a podcast, no one's looking that deep. Once it pops up, I'm like, oh, let's be sure. So let me listen. You know what I mean. No one's oh, my God, they skipped a week. Whereas, like on Instagram, you can tell when someone drops off.
Kim :Yeah, it's your podcast. You're in control with whatever you want to do, and that's also a fun part about it is you get to make it be whatever you want it to be. And that was one of my questions for you, too, is when you started. So for Mary and I, when we started our podcast, we had a different audience in mind and it was for parents, more parents, community but we ended up serving a lot of other speech therapists and even just people in the pediatric world in general not even necessarily speech and so we shifted some towards that a little bit, and so we learned early on just needing to be flexible in who our audience was, because we knew what we wanted to put out there, but we weren't in control over who was listening to us and so, understanding and starting to learn who your audience or who our audience was, did you have to make any of those shifts in the beginning whenever you first started?
Daj:Not in the beginning, but definitely now as my business grows, like when I was mentioning having now a different podcast, I've had to make that decision. Am I going to shift the message a little bit of like the heart of my podcast, or am I just going to make a completely different?
Mary:one.
Daj:And so I had to make that decision a little bit and it was tough. I was like I went back and forth from I've already got this audience, but I just ended up making a separate one so I could just feel more comfortable about serving those two completely different audiences. But you can certainly do both.
Mary:How do you feel like you best get to know your audience and who is listening? Because it is not like social media, where you can engage with your followers pretty immediately or do lives or something. So how are you really figuring out, other than the analytics of people continuing to listen and growing your viewership, who is listening and what they're looking for?
Daj:That is such a tough question because, like you said, you can't really see it as well as you can see it on like Instagram or something.
Daj:I have a lot of confidence in the returning guests, so that makes me confident right, like you said, with the analytics and all of that and the downloads. But I also rely heavily on people who will repost on Instagram, and these are not necessarily reoccurring people, it's different people. Maybe they don't even follow me, they just they just follow the Coat Tree Corner page and so that has been kind of something that reinforces like okay, people are catching on to this A lot of the times. When I add people as a collaborator on like a clip, that's how I get a lot of new traction and I'll see they'll repost it or I'll see an uptick on my analytics. So I'm like, okay, this is getting out to new people. On a good week I'm able to track it that way a little bit. But, like you said, I'm really just basing it off of those reoccurring downloads and sometimes seeing that rise when I'm like doing really good on social media and collaborating with people and getting it out to new people.
Mary:There are so many things fighting for your attention and your business, and so you have podcasts, you have multiple, you could always be doing another reel, you could always be creating a resource. How are you figuring out what is really worthy of your time, and should you take the approach of everything needs a little bit of attention or no? I need to put something down and really dive into this one area.
Daj:Yeah, I think that's a great way to put it of what deserves your attention at the moment, because I'm really following the data these days. So, like you said, like the algorithm on Instagram is a mess and so I might put out a reel or something, but I'm not posting three a day or anything crazy like that. It just doesn't. I'm not getting the best bang for my buck. So I'm putting a lot more attention on my podcast, those evergreen things, and also tapping into YouTube and all these different evergreen things that I don't feel like they just they're there and then 50 people see them out of the thousands of followers that I have and then it's gone. I put all that effort and then I get nothing for it and maybe a couple people bought from it, versus a podcast, like we talked about earlier being evergreen, and that consistent funnel. Even like blogging and things I'm trying to get better at, I think you all blog a little bit and learning a little bit more about SEO. Like those things are really going to be the long game for your business, but actually the most effective, and so it might not be as shiny in the short term, but I think that's where I'm putting a lot more of my attention and then also thinking about the season.
Daj:So I got a lot more kids in the summer in my private practice. So right now I'm like doing all my marketing, all my meetings, all my local stuff, because I really want to make the summer seamless as far as referrals and so, yeah, just really following the data and just thinking about the season that you're in. So I also think about that with when I do my seasons. I know you all do seasons as well. A lot of my people are in the schools and so I am usually doing my seasons around the school year because in the summer they don't want to hear anything about speech or collaborating or anything. It would be different if I had a business podcast which could be like all year. So I'm just following those things.
Mary:That is good, because I feel like for us, at the end of the day, what deserves your attention is probably where you are going to be monetizing right, so that's a huge one. And then also, like you were just saying, you have to, it's this kind of play of like long game short game, that whole short game of the Instagram. Sure, that might get you more followers for right now, but how are you setting your business up in the future for trying to figure out how do I learn more about SEO, or do I hire someone who understands SEO to optimize my Google searchability or reviews? There's so many things that you could be working on for your business and it is hard to figure out what is going to bring your business the most growth when it's not necessarily immediate. How have you monetized different parts of your business, or where have you seen the most success? I would say in your business?
Daj:Right, I would say last year it was Instagram, but that's where I put a lot of my attention, whereas now I'm seeing that, once I'm divvying up my attention a little bit more, I'm seeing a lot of people actually gravitating to the podcast and I was not optimizing my podcast Coat Tree Corner enough. And now I'm like, oh man, because I'm pivoting. So it was hard and I didn't necessarily start out wanting to monetize Coat Tree Corner, but now I'm like, oh my gosh, I should have had a freebie or something for them to at least get on my email list. So I feel like now it's definitely the podcast and people are definitely starting to see the message I have merch and things like that. So making sure that I'm getting them on my email list, at least having that in the show notes I've definitely seen a lot of leads that way. Monetary has definitely been Instagram, but again, I was putting a lot of attention over there last year but now I'm shifting a little bit.
Kim :I love the podcast platform so much is because it really does help you establish who you are. If you are trying to sell to an audience just what you have to offer. Why is it so special and do you really believe in it? Even if it's you're talking about something else, for somebody else, giving more information than just throwing it up there with a link, but really letting people know that you care about it. It's important and if they trust you then they're more likely to try it. But again, it's just more of that a little bit of a longer term opportunity to talk about something. Yes, definitely.
Mary:I know you have done a lot of different affiliate partnerships and collaboration is what you're all about and I love that. Can you give us a little bit of an insight into kind of the negotiation of that of affiliates? How do you go about first initiating hey, I would love to promote your product because I love it or someone who reaches out to you. What kind of terms are you looking for? Or what is maybe something that is motivating as an affiliate partner to be trying to talk about it on your page or on your podcast?
Daj:Yeah, so this is funny. I was just talking about this with somebody else who does similar things, and we were talking about the difference between affiliates and like brand partnerships, and so I've done both. I'll have a little bit of experience with brand partnerships, but I definitely have done affiliate links and things, and so with affiliates, you can easily go in there and just become an affiliate. Versus their brand partnership. You have to apply for it and they typically have their own contract and you're just going off of that and seeing if you agree with it.
Daj:Now, when you dive deep into contracts and this is not like Flowdesk or anything like that, but just contracts in general I'm looking at how long can you use my video? I don't really like anything. Over 90 days, it just I don't know, it just feels a little I don't want you to have my face for too long, and so that's just me though Some people don't care much about that but I'm just like how long do I have to promote you? And then the big one, I feel't want to be having to be the face of you, and so I think we have to think about that too, and so those are definitely things I'm looking at the fine print for, Because when you start dealing with bigger brands, they definitely have some things in bold and some things and that you need to consider in that regard, Also when working with brands like you're going into the professional development route.
Daj:Also, when working with brands like you're going into the professional development route, some people want to keep your content on their platform for a long time, and I don't know if you're necessarily talking about that, but that's another thing that I've had to say no to some things. No, I just I don't want my content out there because things change and I want to make sure that anything that people are learning from me is always the most evidence-based, up-to-date, all that kind of thing. And yeah, it gets sticky and I've definitely had to, going back to boundaries, have some boundaries. I've had to stick with things that are guaranteed pay, like some brand partnerships have a set rate every single month, and I've loved those because you know what you're getting and so you get a little bit more motivation to do it. It's complicated.
Kim :Yeah, I know I feel like that would be a whole nother podcast, because I have a lot of other questions about that. But I know we're getting ready to wrap up on time. I know that you have so much great stuff that you're going to get into when your accelerator comes out. But if you were going to give someone one piece of advice when your accelerator comes out, but if you were going to give someone one piece of advice, if they were going to start a podcast, what is the first thing you would tell them? Mary, I'm curious about your answer too. What would y'all say?
Daj:It would definitely be what you talked about a little bit earlier with having a plan. I did not have a plan to start out with, I had burnout, but it really wasn't burnout, it was just me not having a plan and not being organized. And you guys also talked about it not putting too much pressure on the frequency and this and that, like it's your podcast, your rules, your business, your rules, right, and also making sure that it doesn't have to be salesy, but at least having them go somewhere else after your podcast, like an email list or a freebie or something like that.
Mary:I guess mine was more mindset driven of. When you start a podcast, I think that if you do it because you're passionate about something like any passion, that really wanes it will go up or down depending on what's happening in your life. And so I think that realizing that podcasting is a long game is important and committing to it, even to say, hey, you know what, I'm going to do this for a year and I'm going to do it also in seasons I think just going would be hard. So saying a season and planning out here is my 12 week chunk, then this is what I'm going to do, and then have fun with it.
Mary:I think that naturally we gravitate and put our hearts and our souls into things that we enjoy, and I think that really comes across to listeners. And then the last thing I would say is for me is find a way to give back through your podcast. The way that Kim and I have really done that is through our community partnerships is through giving all of our business seasons different businesses around Fort Worth, different speech pathologists around the nation giving them a voice, giving them a platform. I think it really helps a podcast a lot to really think about others, even though you yourself are, of course, the host. So those would be the tips I would give.
Kim :I love that. Those are great. I think the only thing I would add on to all of that would be and I think this is hard for a lot of speech therapists specifically, because we are sometimes perfectionists is knowing that not everything is going to be perfect or that it's going to be changing. Even right now we're constantly looking at different recording platforms and what might work better or different equipment or different options, because that always is changing. And so just being able to get started and knowing that there's going to be change and that's okay and you'll figure it out along the way Having a good knowledge at the very beginning to get started is great, but you don't have to know everything and that was hard for me at the beginning. It's a lot and it can be overwhelming, and don't let that keep you from getting started, because you'll figure it out along the way, if you can get a master's, you can do a podcast.
Kim :Yes, that is true. This was so much fun. Thank you so much for coming on and talking with us. We're excited for what you have coming out and all the things you are doing so much right now. We're excited for you.
Daj:Thank you so much. You all are truly one of my favorite podcasts, so thank you. This was really a great invite. Thank, you.
Mary:It was so good to meet you in person too. That's one of my favorite things is following someone on their page or their podcast and actually getting to be live and in person it's. I know it's so cool, so thank you.
Kim :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.
