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
S2E17: Designing Life and Business with SLP Mary Brezik
Tune in for our very last episode of this season's "How I Made My Speech Path Business" with hosts Mary Brezik and Kim Dillon. This episode shines a spotlight on Mary's personal journey in starting her own private practice. With a background rich in healthcare and creative arts, Mary recognized the need for a more balanced approach between her professional ambitions and family life after a decade in a clinical setting. Her business philosophy is a more personalized, concierge-style practice that focuses on practical, everyday therapy integrated into the children's routines, specifically in the areas of feeding and swallowing.
Mary's main focus in the beginning was placing a significant emphasis on balancing her mental health and personal time to ensure she was prepared for the demands of a growing business. Recognizing the importance of self-care, she sought therapy and regularly engaged in tennis, a personal passion. This commitment to her well-being allowed her to maintain a clear focus and energy for her entrepreneurial pursuits. This approach not only sustained her mental health but also highlighted the essential role that personal fulfillment plays in professional success.
Mary's approach to business is deeply intertwined with community and networking. She was a main part of establishing the Pediatric Resource Network, which promotes collaboration among pediatric healthcare professionals in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Her innovative therapy methods emphasize real-world application, moving from clinic-based to in-home therapy to directly address children’s needs in their living environments. Mary’s focuses on favoring quality over quantity and leveraging word-of-mouth and professional referrals over traditional marketing.
Throughout the episode, we are able to see how Mary has prioritized personal values with professional expertise, ultimately leading to a fulfilling career in speech therapy.
For information on resources designed by Mary specifically in the areas of feeding, swallowing and OMT, make sure you sign up for our email list so you don't miss them as soon as they come out!
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I want to be able to design the life I want for myself. That's the whole reason I would ever start my own business is to give me that life that I want, and I want to do what I love, which is working with kids, feeding and speech therapy, but I also want to have a really heavy emphasis on relationships and collaboration, and so that's really what I set out to do. Welcome to the Speech Source Podcast. My name is Mary Brzeek.
Speaker 2:And I'm Kim Dillon. We are two pediatric speech-language pathologists with a combined 25 years of experience.
Speaker 1: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.
Speaker 3:Today on our Speech Source podcast, mary is in the hot seat. So we get to talk to Mary. I get to interview her and ask her all of the questions about her last year and starting her own private practice. We'll introduce her. But, fun fact, mary and I have worked together I think I was calculating close to nine years.
Speaker 3:Mary and we worked together for a long time and we didn't know each other really well. We were conversations in passing. I knew she was just brilliant and so smart. She was our go-to feeding person at the clinic. But just aside from conversations here and there, we didn't know each other super well and then we started a business together. So I don't know if that's great advice or not, but I don't think I could have lucked out any better because somehow, even without knowing each other really well before, our personalities really fit as far as being able to work together. So I am just really just excited that it worked out that way and since then I've gotten to know Mary so well. So I'm so excited to interview her today so all of our listeners can get to know her well also. So, mary, just tell us a little bit about how you got into the field of speech pathology.
Speaker 1:Sure, and I totally agree, kim. I think we could not have picked a better pair. This is perfect. It worked out well, it did, it did Okay.
Speaker 1:So I got into the field of speech pathology because I was in high school and I took piano and voice all growing up and was studying classical voice. And I was talking at one point to my voice teacher and she was asking me what I wanted to do in college and I said I really have no idea. My dad's a physician and I love medical. I feel like that's what I know and what I'm comfortable with is healthcare. But I also knew that he is the most brilliant person I've ever met and so smart. And I thought, oh my gosh, I just I don't know. I don't know if that's really going to be well-suited to me and my personality, because I also really like art, music, all the liberal arts. I feel really passionate about all of those creative things, and then I also love design and architecture.
Speaker 1:So I was trying to figure out what to do with all of that and she said what about speech pathology? I think you might really like it, because they are the people who work with professional singers and you both have to know the anatomy and all the medical side of what's going on. But then you have to be really creative with therapy and how you can rehabilitate the voice or how you can optimize it for singing. So anyways, I thought that was really intriguing the idea of healthcare in a really creative way. I went to Baylor and at the time I had gotten into the music program there for vocal performance and I thought I was going to do that with speech pathology and then very quickly found out that is very time consuming to be in the music school, so I dropped that and so I really wanted a well-rounded college experience, love, loved speech pathology. It was incredible. It was just a really good balance. I love learning, loved my experience.
Speaker 3:And then I also just had a really amazing friend group at Baylor and then I went to UT, dallas, for graduate school and then yeah, that's so interesting how you described that process of getting into this field, because that is something I did not know about you before we started working together is I knew I'm pretty sure I had said multiple times I didn't know why you weren't just a doctor, because you are just that smart and just the way your brain works is so much like a doctor. But then when you and I started working together, I saw this creative side to you. You're a huge part of a lot of our design in Canva is just your eye for design and putting colors together and the way you create things, and so that was a big surprise to me. So I think you did a great job of recognizing that early on to make sure you got into a field where you could utilize some of those creative abilities that you have.
Speaker 3:Let's move in. You were working in private practice. That was your main area that you were working in, and then what kind of prompted you to move into going out on your own?
Speaker 1:Right out of graduate school I was able to start at a private practice and at the time I was thinking, okay, I either want to be in the hospitals or I want to be in private practice. So I knew that. And then, actually, back in high school, I had first shadowed a person that the owner of this company, and I was just so incredibly impressed. And I remember I was observing a child with Down syndrome and I still remember that session that I watched and it was just she was working on something so functional. I remember mom was in the other room and then she was in the therapy room with this little boy with Down syndrome and she was saying OK, I want you to tell your mom a message. Here's the message Go tell your mom, blah, blah, blah, we need to go get milk, whatever it was. But there was some kind of message that she told him. Ok, I want you to remember this message. Go tell your mom and then come back. And she was doing that. She was using wind-up toys to learn present progressive tenses for verbs. I just thought it was so creative to say, wow, this kind of therapy is so child-driven and it's what they need to know, not just oh, you need pronouns, you need whatever, but it was what's going to make a difference in your life. What are the skills you need to just be a kid and be successful? So, anyways, that's what got me into private practice is I just loved that. It had so much creativity in it.
Speaker 1:And then I was there for 10 years at that same private practice, absolutely loved it Incredible place. I was given a lot of opportunities. There wasn't really a lot of red tape. At one point the owner and I had talked about feeding therapy and with what we were doing we started Fees, which is endoscopy. She was really just this leader and entrepreneur and innovator that I respect a lot and she really gave me a lot of opportunities. And so she sent a team, including myself, to the best children's hospital in the nation Boston Children's, cincinnati Children's and we were trained and brought back that kind of technology and that service to Fort Worth.
Speaker 1:And then, after 10 years, I had done so much for this company, I was the lead of all the feeding. There were five, six clinics at that point and, as much as I loved it, I felt that same draw that I felt when I was overextended at Baylor thinking I would do voice and speech pathology. At the same time, I felt that same kind of tug after 10 years thinking, okay, I have three kids now and I love, love, love what I do and the feeding and all the things I'm doing professionally are great. But I just need more balance.
Speaker 1:And at that point I just felt I can't do this schedule anymore. I cannot be working until 530 anymore with my kids. My priorities in scheduling had changed and then I also wanted to really create more that just had again no bounds. I was ready for even more lack of boundaries, if you will. So that's what prompted me to just say, yeah, I'm just ready. I was ready to grow again in some different ways professionally. So that's why I decided to take that leap last year Crazy, only one year ago.
Speaker 3:Seems like a lot has happened, but you were able to go into that then with this idea of okay, I want to be more creative, I don't want to just fill up a schedule with 10 kids back to back direct therapy. You knew that going in, so you were able to design your business how you wanted it and it was different. It looks different than your traditional direct therapy business. So will you tell us a little bit about what you wanted in your approach for your practice?
Speaker 1:what you wanted in your approach for your practice. That's very true. Yes, I've always taken that design approach, and so when I left the private practice, I decided first okay, I need to and I didn't mean this in a selfish way, but I need to pour into myself so I was like I'm going to be priority here. First I got a therapist. I had never seen a psychologist before and I thought that would be a great thing for me. I started playing tennis regularly, so played a few times a week. And then I joined USTA, which is the actual league tennis. So I did that as well and I just asked myself okay, what do I want to do? What do I want my life to look like? I also started outsourcing more at home, making sure that the things that I felt were nagging at me at home making sure house was cleaned, groceries, all those kinds of things. So I definitely had more outsourcing in those departments, so I wasn't spending time doing those as much. And then the other thing I really did was I started reading. I started reading and I started connecting with people and, gosh, I have a hard time saying no. Other people have a hard time saying no too, I think, and I think that works in your favor. When you're like, hey, I'm really impressed with what you're doing, you want to go to lunch, get coffee sometime? Honestly, people have a hard time saying no and it's just people like talking about themselves when they're doing and helping out, people like to help other people. So I really started connecting a lot with my community and these are really the things that I did, kind of when I left the company and just thought, okay, so I'm going to do the things that I want to do, I'm going to live the way I want to live. I want to be connected.
Speaker 1:I stayed at the private practice a lot longer because I didn't like the idea of being this solo practitioner out there in space, and so I thought having an employer always gave me that safety net in the sense of having that community, not just socially, but to learn from other people. I'm so aware of how much I continue to learn and want to learn from other people. I'm so aware of how much I continue to learn and want to learn. I didn't want to be a no man's land, not learning from other people. So I really made a big point to do that starting out. So I started a group. The other people in the group decided to name it.
Speaker 1:I just kind of got the people together initially, but the Pediatric Resource Network is just a group of pediatric healthcare professionals and we all help each other, talk, go to happy hour and talk about hey, what EMR system are you using? Hey, what are you doing with this kind of patient these days? Or what are you doing on your social media? Gosh, that's how I got my tax accountant, got a referral there for how do you do small business things? So I really took that first year and my whole goal was okay, I want to be able to design the life I want for myself. That's the whole reason I would ever start. My own business is to give me that life that I want, and I want to do what I love, which is working with kids feeding and speech therapy, but I also want to have a really heavy emphasis on relationships and collaboration, and so that's really what I set out to do.
Speaker 3:So one thing that I've watched you do that I think is really impressive is you went from kids coming into your office and a lot of feeding I know you were doing primarily feeding when you're at the private practice, so seeing them in that setting for feeding and then whenever you went out on your own, you started going into their homes and you saw something completely different. You started going into their homes and you saw something completely different, which I think is what has changed your method a little bit. And what I've seen you do is come up with just resources and plans for families to implement things and then, instead of just more of that direct therapy approach, you're giving them something to do and work on and complete, and then it's more of a consult basis check in. Now I'm going to come in and have another session. See where we are. You're really trying to move them in a certain direction in a little bit of a different way than them just coming in and working with you one-on-one.
Speaker 3:So I wanted to just ask you that obviously happened because you saw the need going into their homes. But how has that kind of turned out? As far as what you've seen? Families following through progress in a different way. What have you seen by changing that model?
Speaker 1:Sure, so that's right. I really didn't answer that design question of how I designed my practice. I'll go back to that to say in the speech therapy world, for all of our listeners who are not in speech therapy, insurance is a big dictator of what happens, and I started off first off saying I'm not doing that. I am definitely not taking insurance. I am going to design a practice that is designed for me, designed for and I mean me, actually in a mom sense of as I want the kind of practice that I would want as a mom with my child who has feeding difficulties. So I really designed it based on that, and so I just started over the way I thought. And so I thought okay, right now, insurance tells you that here's the rate of reimbursement, here's what we're willing to pay for speech or feeding therapy, and so then all these companies are like okay, that's only going to cover a 30 minute session, so that's how you get a 30-minute session. But what I saw in feeding therapy is that might work well for speech. I do think that model works. But what I kept seeing is I saw these kids who come in with issues for feeding. Maybe they're picky eaters. I saw kids who are on G-tubes. We're getting them off of G-tubes. Seeing adolescents and teens with high anxiety trying to get them to open up their eating or who had fear about swallowing, chewing different events that would happen. So I do the range with feeding. Also, a ton of transitioning off a bottle, that kind of six month to year range when they have allergies, a lot of kids who have cardiac issues, maybe they have Down syndrome, all kinds of things. So I'll just say I was like, okay, those parents I kept seeing that like this whole 30 minutes once a week model just wasn't fitting what I think feeding needs to be, and so I really designed it from that perspective of, okay, feeding, you have to practice every day. Right, we have built-in meals every single day. First feeding you are going to be practicing three to five times a day. And the other thing is, I thought these kids don't need to be here every week. Other thing is, I thought these kids don't need to be here every week. There's just this time component where I want to teach kids a skill and the parents be there too, but then I want them to go home and I want them to practice it, and sometimes that might take a few days, but sometimes we just need time. We just need their body. We're talking about muscles here. A lot more PT related, in my opinion, of just saying, okay, we need the tongue to do something different. So you know what, come back in two weeks. I want you to really focus on that for the next two weeks. Or maybe they need a lot of work up front. And then I wanted to be able to taper off, see each other monthly, do a consult.
Speaker 1:A lot of dentists and ENTs will refer to me because I'm very conservative in my approach in terms of surgery. I very much stay in my own lane. I am not going to tell you you need a surgery ever. That is not my role. I'm a speech pathologist. Need a surgery ever? That is not my role.
Speaker 1:I'm a speech pathologist, but what I do is say, hey, my job is to make sure that your child can eat, and they can eat safely, and make sure that they can speak clearly and that their resting posture throughout the day isn't like wide open and they're able to be a nose breather, their tongue's in the right position, right. So that kind of comes into play with tongue ties a lot. I'm not going to get into the whole tongue tie thing. But basically I do a lot of work with kids who may have a tongue tie and so the dentist or the ENT will refer to me and then I will basically say, okay, is this a problem? What's going on with speech? What's going on with feeding? Let's help figure that out. And then if I can't get it with you, then your kid's body is going to tell us, hey, we need more help here.
Speaker 1:But I give that example just because in feeding there's a lot of scenarios like that, where kids need a tune up or they need an evaluation that was comprehensive and then the follow up afterwards just doesn't look like every week, always, and I just thought it needed to be a lot more concierge in that sense. It needed to be a lot more concierge in that sense. So I do not have a specific. You have to see me X number Once you get started. I have kids that I see twice a week. If we're weaning off a G-tube especially, that takes a lot of consistency. Or I have kids who are calling me on console basis and we did an eval. I saw where their feeding was. I have this one, real sweet little girl, very picky eater. I come in, we do work together. Tell the mom what to work on we're doing strategies and then I'll come in, maybe in two months or something, and, yes, she's doing all of this. Okay, we're not ready for the next thing. Help us tackle meats, and then we'll do that.
Speaker 3:I just designed my business based on what I saw that patients needed which you really couldn't have done, and I understand why when you are working in a private practice is because you're having to keep those times filled, and so you're doing once a month or every other week. That's then an open spot on your schedule, and so it's really great that you're able to have that flexibility when you are on your own. I wanted to ask you you talked about the referrals from the dentists and the ENTs, and I know people would love to just get some insight on how you made these connections, because I see our submissions come in through our email. We do have a shared email and it's just different dentists It'll be so-and-so recommended me so-and-so, referred me so-and-so throughout different dentists and ENTs. So how did you make all of those different connections?
Speaker 1:That's a really good question, because I have marketed or rather not marketed in a very different way than you might think. So I have yet to do any sort of actual marketing. I don't do flyers, paid things, none of that. The way that I've really developed my referral sources is by making connections with providers who really understand what I do. I've had the opportunity to train those people's staffs. They've asked me to come in and I've taught at the district dental society. I've taught at different physician offices.
Speaker 1:There was a physician who asked me one year. They were around the corner from the clinic and he was like hey, okay, what you're doing with feeding therapy? I'm seeing your notes, I saw your progress report come through and I'm really intrigued. Can I just walk across on my lunch break? Can we chat? And then, oh, another heavy referral source for me is word of mouth, of course, but I would say word of mouth by moms in specific communities, especially when you do good work with a mom who has a child with a medical diagnosis. They talk a lot and they're always looking for people who are going to provide that extra level of service that their kids need, and so I think what's really benefited me greatly is having high quality referral sources.
Speaker 1:But I'm not seeking out more at this point, Not because that wouldn't be great, but because I see growth as a problem right now more than an opportunity, because I'm at this point where I'm not ready to add more days to my schedule.
Speaker 1:I work two days a week, nine to three, because that's when my kids are in school and preschool, and I'm not really willing to add more time to that right now because I have a 20-month-old at home and that's good for me. I think that referral in the future, once he's in school, which he will be in so fast once he's in school, more. I definitely would love to see more kids and I will say the way that I plan on doing that would be through training, would be through saying hey, this is what I do. Can I come and talk to your staff at lunch? Can I come and explain to you what I do? Can I take you to lunch or coffee? Can we meet up? I also have a lot of PT, OT and psychologists and nutritionists referring to me as well, and then I've connected those people as part of our resource and our network Like.
Speaker 1:I refer to them too, because I need them.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's what was so great about that creation of the PRN group is it's not just speech therapists, it's OT dietitians, which is great to know those people because those questions will come up. And again, that's going to help show the quality of your practice as a speech therapist when you can say, hey, I know this really great occupational therapist that can help you if that's a need, or I know this dietician that let's work together and figure out how to solve some of these problems. Knowing people like that in your community can really help, I think, establish your own practice.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:In whatever you're doing.
Speaker 1:Exactly and that's why I just I was never interested in volume. I'm not interested in trying to just go find more people that would refer to me because I'm only working two days right now. I want the people who need me in my practice and I am happy to refer out to say, hey, you know what, if you want every week and if you're stuttering, that's not going to be my thing, here's some referrals for you. Or if you want that clinic model, that's awesome, let me refer you to a private practice. So I'm happy to send people where they need to go. But I think that the quality of referral sources is huge because they understand you, they know what you do and I'm constantly texting, calling, talking with them to collaborate on cases. That was one of the really cool things that I got to do this year is I was able to co-treat with OT, pt, nutritionists and psychologists and I'd never done that before and, my gosh, I'm just learning so much hearing the verbiage, hearing exactly the words that they use and hearing how they structure their session or their practice and I've just loved designing what they need and also my practice is designed a lot more like a psychologist or a dentist who would have. I have a lot more patients than can have slots. Like I can't see everybody every week or every two weeks Starting my own business, I was prepared to take a financial hit because I was thinking, okay, I want to do this right, I want to protect my boundaries, I want to protect my self.
Speaker 1:This is my childcare. These two days. I need to have haircuts happen. Then I want to protect my boundaries, I want to protect my self. This is my child care. These two days. I need to have haircuts happen. Then I need dental cleanings, then I want to play tennis and do drills with my team then. So I was doing all of those things in those two six-hour days, and so I was ready to say, hey, that's going to mean I'm not going to be able to recoup what I was making part time in a clinic. And that was the shocking thing.
Speaker 3:That was my next question for you, mary, is I wanted to see if you would share doing less but possibly making more. Not doing less but being able to structure it exactly how you wanted Right.
Speaker 1:And still see the financial reward.
Speaker 1:Yes, I was working 20 hours a week and I had really an amazing situation where I was in clinic, I think 18, 17 and a half hours, something like that. But then I also had three hours every week where I was working from home, which was amazing. Once you get up to where you're helping mentor I did the CEU trainings, I was training everybody, mentoring everybody so once you're doing those kind of management type leadership in a company, the work from home hours were really critical because then I could pour myself into everyone at the clinic and not worry, oh, I'm getting behind on my paperwork hours. So then I could just keep up with my patient stuff at home. So coming from that, I was like, okay, I set the boundary Again, I backtracked it of how am I going to do this? So then I was like, okay, nine to three, that's the time that I have two days a week only Because, again, I have a little one at home. So I thought, okay, I'm going to operate at 20 miles per hour right now and that's okay. I don't want to hustle right now. I don't want to see every child who needs speech and feeding therapy in Fort Worth, every child who needs speech and feeding therapy in Fort Worth. I don't want anything that makes me feel like I have to meet some kind of bottom line or have to hit any kind of financial goal. So essentially zero overhead.
Speaker 1:And then I just started plugging people in and I set my rates based on here's my hourly rate. I determined an hourly rate and then I essentially prorated everything around that, so even my evaluations, the way I priced it was. I thought I'm going to spend an hour and a half with the patient 30 minutes ish to write the report, because I got that down really efficient and did a much more expedited way to do a really concise, consolidated report. And then I might spend 30 minutes talking with all their care team, because that's what I want to do is I want to collaborate. And so I built that in. How many hours is that going to take? Well, my hourly rate here's what it's going to be. And so I did that with a lot of things, even things like I was talking with the dietician. We were talking about how some patients just need more communication. They need more help throughout the week. I want to be able to ride that, but this is a business as well. I'm happy to do phone calls to chat, but that hourly rate's going to come into play. I just backtracked into what did I want to be able to provide and then here's my set hourly rate. I'm just going to charge based on that and I was able to make exactly what I was making in the private practice and my direct patient care was like 25% of what it had been Because of other opportunities that came along.
Speaker 1:There was a girl who contacted me saying, hey, I want to start my own practice and I know you just did. Will you help me do that? Just like, yeah, let's do it. I've done consults with people around the nation saying, hey, I need parent coaching to figure out what I'm doing, or can we talk about this case or the situation? So now I can just say, yes, I will absolutely do that. So I've had, I've done a lot of different things, and then I just put that hourly rates where I'm not in some way having to figure out all these logistics. I just felt like I was doing favors for people.
Speaker 3:A lot If your door was open and you didn't have a kid in there for direct therapy. I know that people were in and out. Hey, quick question about this feeding kid. I know that people were in and out. Hey, quick question about this feeding kid. Hey, can you help me figure out this? So you were constantly coaching even at that point. But now you've seen how that can shift into your model of your own private practice by setting an hour.
Speaker 3:And I wanted to make a comment too before I talked about this. Part of your growth, I think, over this last year, is your reputation in the community, because you're really good at what you do. So I think we have to make sure that foundation is there. As a therapist, as you're doing weird stuff, you're knowledgeable. If you're saying I am really great at this, then actually really being great at that therapy service, and so you had already established that in the community and everybody knew that and I think that's been a really great way that you've grown. And then I've also watched people are asking you to come really far away because they want your service, and so it's not necessarily within our area where we live, and so you've had to figure out okay, I have this hourly rate, but now I'm being asked to travel to this location and so then having to figure out a price for that because, again, that is your time. So can you talk a little bit about how you added that in or put that in?
Speaker 3:Because I know that we talked about that a little bit.
Speaker 1:That's a good question, because I have changed that quite a bit. I just had to get creative. That is one of the things that has come up. Is that, especially having just the best providers as my referral sources? They know no bounds and Fort Worth is a major Metroplex I cannot be driving all around the Metroplex. I have decided, okay, I do need some sort of space to be able to see these people, but it's not going to be my house. I've never opened that up and then it is not going to be me driving, because there was a pediatrician that called me and I drove to Dallas for an eval and I did. I just said, listen, that's going to take this amount of my time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's an hour for you there.
Speaker 1:That's an hour there and an hour back and she was like I don't care, I'll pay it At that point. It's okay. I can just be like this is my hourly rate and I can charge you for that. I also can't do that because then I'm not serving the people here. I need a place here in Fort Worth, and so, a because of the relationships that I've made, people have literally opened their doors to me.
Speaker 1:I'm actually about to go to a session in a little bit of this really wonderful multidisciplinary clinic that has OT, pt, yoga, reading specialists, psych all of them in one house. They're like you know what? One of our rooms. We're going to make sure something is open and you just come do therapy there. So I've done that. I've had ENT and dentists open up their extra little offices for me saying, hey, you can see people here. I haven't taken them up on that because I found an even better solution. Oh, and then you, kim, you have a wonderful relationship with a preschool in town who offered us their space, and so I'm going to be using that just on a Wednesday in the summer and the summer.
Speaker 3:And then there's also a place called the Play Pocket, owned by Lindsay Jones, who is one of our guests on the season prior and it's essentially like a little preschool room and you can rent it by the hour, if you put yourself out there, if you ask, if you start to get to know people and also if you are generous yourself, if you are open to collaboration, like you said, all of those therapists that you've collaborated with, which you we usually talk on the phone after and you're just so excited and on a high because you're able to see when you can come together with other disciplines, what that does for a child and a family, and when you can have people on a team helping a child grow. There's nothing better than that.
Speaker 3:And it's incredible, does open the doors to hey, you need a favor, sure, do this, because then you can return that later. And so I think, if you're going to go out and start your own business, to have that mindset of being open to giving and also asking when you need something, because it is there if you find the right connections and community and people, which you've obviously found, and I'm excited for you.
Speaker 1:It's been such an amazing year, not without its stresses, for sure, or worry. I mean, I say all of these things and I really am a very type A planner firstborn all the things. But I'm definitely learning that there are certain things that I can plan and then at some point I just have to let others fall into place. So I'm going to control exactly the practice I want to build. I'm going to design exactly what you said, kim, is I want my patients to feel supported and part of a team. I want to be a part of the team.
Speaker 1:I want to communicate well with the parents, with the other people that they have in their life and that are managing their care. That's also just a very, very important thing. As a feeding therapist, I should not be working in isolation, and one of the things that I also did because this does tie into seeking things out is I felt like I was so ready to get out of my own world of speech pathology and learn from other disciplines. I want to learn more about GI. I've got to learn more about psychology. I've got to learn more about muscles and about PT and OT and how things work together.
Speaker 3:Okay, so, your kiddos are little. They are. How old is Katie Beth? Now she's seven.
Speaker 1:Okay, I didn't know if she was eight yet, so she's seven. Okay, I didn't know if she was eight yet, so she's still seven. Yeah, almost eight, but yeah, then, five and 20 months.
Speaker 3:So they're little and one of the things that's different about our schedules is mine are all in school for longer periods, five days a week, and you're still having those days at home with Jack and we're working around nap times. You don't have quite as much open and free time as far as the kids being away and in school to get the stuff done. We talked a little bit, really tried to focus this year on getting that self-care time in as far as tennis and psychologist appointments and also outsourcing. You've focused on that and how do you feel like that has helped just your overall mental health this last year?
Speaker 1:Oh, it's been everything To really talk to someone who can give good advice. And one of the things my therapist always saying is Mary, you can do all the things, you just can't do them all at once, and so I'm always trying to reign my time.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, I want to do that.
Speaker 1:I want to do that. You know where I like keep signing up for more things. I'm going to be on PTA junior league, I want to also volunteer my time, and so there's so many things I want to do, but I just can't execute them all. Actually, carving out tennis drills it's an hour and a half long. Really, it takes two hours. So I mean, even within my 12 hours of work time that I give myself, I took out from 9 to 11 every Tuesday to do drills because I needed it, and that was the biggest help for me to feel like, no, this is my time and I'm going to do this for myself.
Speaker 1:And I've also really upped the fun. Actually, we do swaps for date night with my sister. I cannot afford a babysitter every single week to do date night on top of childcare. My sister lives around the corner and so she will come just sit at my house after the kids go to bed, and then my husband and I will go out and we'll do date nights that are not even eating, because I don't care that much about new restaurants. To be honest with you, we'll go out and play tennis together, or we'll go out and go on a walk, or on TCU We'll do something together, or we'll go out, you know, meet friends Again, getting creative about the things that are important to you. I do play Mahjong, so that is a very fun social thing.
Speaker 1:And then, one other thing actually that we didn't talk about I did want to mention, because it's important to me, is with my business being private, pay, being more concierge, I found that it was lending itself towards parents who could pay for that frankly, and that was something that I really wanted to figure out, because this is a business I have to make ends meet for my time, my time away from my kids.
Speaker 1:I'm going to charge for my services and my time, but at the same time, I didn't want it to be this boutique-y type feel, and so I have partnered.
Speaker 1:This nonprofit organization came to me and said hey, we love the feeding therapy that you're doing and we see kids who have really high medical acuity, so meaning that they're really involved cardiac, respiratory diagnoses, all the things. We know that your approach would be amazing with these kiddos. We want to pay for their therapy with you, and so that was a way again that I could get creative to be like, okay, I want to see those people who want to see me, the parents who are paying out of pocket for all the therapies, and they can't add one more thing. I feel like everything has just kind of come with relationships and I've just been so, so grateful for all that I've been able to do, and I really hope that other people listening to this can be inspired to kind of take that step back and think about what they can do as a part of their community and not just on their own.
Speaker 3:I think that's really great advice and again, just putting yourself out there making those connections, that's how these things are coming to you and finding you is that you're not scared to make those connections yourself. I did have one last question for you Do you ever think about music, or how have you continued to keep that in your world, since you're not specifically doing like voice therapy as much anymore? I?
Speaker 1:do sing a lot in the comfort of my own home, the privacy of my own home. I do appreciate little opportunities to sing again, but with my kids I sing a lot with them. I sing a lot in therapy but with my kids I always got these singing books or I would get the book of Do Re Mi from Sound of Music and Over the Rainbow, judy Garland. I would sing the books because that's what they were and I would really work with them just having fun of like singing and trying to match a pitch. I listen to a lot of music and I've really tried to make that a part of our lives.
Speaker 3:Well, you're going to have to sing for me someday, because that is not something I've heard. But we have jokes before because we talk about the importance of music and therapy and just imitation with songs. And I know you sing and I'm like let me find a YouTube video for that. You don't want me to sing, so another way that we're very different, but I do hope I get to hear your voice sometime. So this was so much fun, mary. I am so excited to just share with all of our listeners about what you've been doing this last year, yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm excited to put it out there, and then I am just so, so excited. We're not going to tease it yet, but our next season of this podcast is, if you liked this, you have so much more coming because we've got so many great guests coming next season that are not speech therapists, and I'm just going to leave it at that.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:We're going to have a lot of amazing, amazing stories and people to hear from.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Stay tuned.
Speaker 2:Thanks for listening. Make sure you subscribe to our podcast and check out our website, thespeechsourcecom Also check us out on Instagram for more ideas on speech, language, feeding and play.
