239: Understanding School Contracts
Show Notes:
In this episode of SLP Coffee Talk, we chat with Elise Mitchell, the founder of the Therapy Support Network, who shares her journey from burnout to thriving as an independent contractor. Elise, who graduated from Missouri State University in 2013 with an M.S. CCC-SLP, initially spent six years working for virtual staffing companies. She took on various roles, including an SLP, school salesperson, and manager.
However, after years of managing virtual services and dealing with provider management, Elise experienced burnout and low job satisfaction, prompting her to stay away from the school staffing industry. It was then that an unexpected opportunity to directly contract with a school presented itself. Elise found a renewed passion for working with schools, but this time as an independent contractor rather than an employee, allowing her to fully enjoy her work and maximize her career potential.
In 2019, Elise established The Therapist Support Network with the mission of equipping school-based SLP, OT, and PT contractors with essential resources, a supportive community, and ongoing assistance. She developed key tools such as “The School Contractor Packet,” “School Contractor Training,” and “The School Staffing Packet and Training.”
Here's what we learned:
- Transitioning from staffing agencies to independent contracting.
- Benefits of earning 100% of contract profits.
- Importance of entrepreneurial mindset.
- Pricing services competitively and sustainably.
- Unique challenges faced by SLPs compared to OTs and PTs.
- Building local relationships and exploring hybrid private practice models.
- Growing trend of therapists hiring other therapists, especially in underserved rural areas.
- Establishing fair rates that reflect experience and ensure sustainability.
- Practical aspects of calculating service minutes and billing for direct and indirect time.
RESOURCES
Learn more about Elise Mitchell:
Elise’s Website: The Therapist Support Network
Instagram: @thetherapistsupportnetwork
Free Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/schoolcontractorsFree School Contractor Checklist: www.thetherapistsupportnetwork.com
Learn more about Hallie Sherman and SLP Elevate:
🎧 Check out the Secondary Secret Podcast here!
Where We Can Connect:
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TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00 Hallie: Welcome to SLP Coffee Talk, the podcast designed exclusively for speech language pathologists who work with older students, grades 4 through 12. I am your host, Hallie Sherman, your SLP behind Speech Time Fun, the Speech Retreat Conference, and the SLP Elevate membership. And I'm thrilled to bring you conversations, strategies, and insights that will give you the jolt of inspiration that you need. Whether you're tuning in during your morning commute, on a break in between sessions, or even during a well deserved relaxation time, I am here for you each and every week. Let's do this SLPs.
00:00:46 Hallie: If you are anything like me, then you are starting to hear more and more about SLPs getting school contracts rather than working directly for a school district or for, working for a bigger agency and being contracted to work with that district. And I'm so excited to bring on my guest to talk all about working with 16 years in the schools itself. And I'm only familiar with working with bigger agencies to get contracting to schools for, like overflow cases. So, Elise, welcome, hi.
00:01:22 Elise: Oh my goodness, it's so fun joining.
00:01:25 Hallie: Yeah, it's so fun.
00:01:25 Elise: I normally–
00:01:26 Hallie: Elise, I, tell me a little bit more about you and your experience with school contracts.
00:01:32 Elise: Yeah, yeah, so hi everyone. It's so cool being on someone else's platform. I normally do lives on my page. And I'm like, this is, you made that transition beautiful and I need notes from you, because you are a pro. I'm always like, hold on guys, hold on. But yes, to everyone joining, my name is Elise. I am an SLP, I'm the founder of the Therapist Support Network, and I'm a direct contractor.
00:01:57 Elise: My journey's really weird, I'll paraphrase it. I used to work at the executive level with a large staffing, well, with several large staffing agencies. I oversaw management and sales and all of those things. I ended up really burnt out. And I was like, wait, well, this is unfortunate because I can't afford to be a school SLP in Missouri. We are known for being the lowest paying state of educators. SLPs in our state are on the teacher pays scale. So I was like, I can't afford that. Schools are out of the question.
00:02:29 Elise: So I do what I called, professionally meandered. I meandered around. I did a little university, did a little SNF. And an opportunity fell into my lap to directly contract. And I was like, oh, well, you mentioned it. I don't really need that staffing company to be in between me and the school. I can earn 100% of the profit that I get from this contract as opposed to a staffing agency pulling it out. I have the skills needed. So I started directly contracting with schools shortly after doing that.
00:03:01 Elise: I realized that I wanted other providers to know how, I don't know if the word simple, there's nuances to being a business owner, but how seamlessly you can directly contract with schools, that there doesn't always have to be that middleman staffing agency if you are someone who doesn't want there to be, if you are a business owner, if you have the entrepreneur mindset, if you are someone that has 10 years experience. So I formed the TSN with the goal of making materials and tools specific, direct to direct contracting available to SLPs, OTs and PAs.
00:03:35 Hallie: This is so amazing. As I said, as my intro, something that's so new to me. I know about private practice and working more with, like EI and CPSE, but I would, I'm not familiar with this. I don't want to say small, private practice owners, going after these contracts. And for districts where SLPs as a direct hire would be paid a lot less. And then if you work for an agency, any place you're being paid the same amount without the benefit, like it seems like a no brainer.
00:04:06 Elise: Yeah, yeah, it is. It's interesting. And somewhere in our field, I think we got it in our mind that we needed an agency. But when you look at a lot of these agencies, they're formed by non-providers. So they're formed by investors or medical entities, people who don't understand school service provision, which as you and I know is nuanced, like it's its own beast. And so when you look at a lot of these really large, successful staffing agencies that are paying providers peanuts, you know, you realize, you're like, huh, wait, pause. This doesn't require a large staffing agency. If anything, I think we're seeing some pain points with large staffing agencies because I think they were one of the biggest hit by struggling to work through providers in this day and age. So.
00:04:59 Hallie: Especially like I'm seeing posts of big agencies and like the rates were basically what I was being paid 15, 16 years ago when I was doing that. My only experience with big agencies and private practice work is I was doing it after school, picking up the clients. I didn't want to have the headache of having to market myself and having to do the paperwork and well, that's the other side of paperwork. And so I was just like, okay, with the agency stuff, cause that wasn't my full time salary.
00:05:27 Hallie: But yeah, so I'm listening, watching, it's wondering, like we have a similar here saying benefiting from the, like, yes, yes, there is benefits for working school based, our school based 16 years benefits pension in New York salaries, you know, the teacher salaries on par. But then it comes with the sacrifices of large caseloads, paperwork. There are the pros and cons of everything and knowing what kind of flexibility you want and what kind of lifestyle you want. But still listening, watching, what would you say to them? This says, is this for me?
00:06:00 Elise: Yeah. And I think that's a great question because that's one thing that I want to always use, my platform. Like for me personally, I use my husband's healthcare insurance. I think this would be a bigger conversation for me if I had to have benefits. ‘Cause small business benefits are difficult. It's a difficult, it's not impossible, but they're expensive. And so one, I always ask people first, look at benefits and retirement. For me, I make more in a year to justify, when compared to what I would as a school to justify that. But definitely look at that. Look at benefits, school-based retirement, those sort of things.
00:06:40 Elise: Also analyze your needs. I always tell people, do you need consistency? Like every single paycheck, I need to know exactly what it is. It needs to be the same number because that caters towards a salary employee. Or do you want your paycheck to reflect the ebbs and flows, like knowing progress? No time, paycheck’s gonna be a lovely, but you know, or holiday time or a break time.
00:07:07 Elise: So if you're someone who doesn't mind the ebbs and flows and getting in your check, reflecting more of your work versus that consistent check, then if you like the idea of being paid for every hour, contracting is really good for you. If you don't mind catching your own fish, if you like the idea of making your own schedule, if you really want a caseload cap, that is more catered towards contracting. If you are like, I need consistency at least with where my life is at right now, I need benefits. Like I need the stability that comes from being a school salary employee. The employee route is your route.
00:07:42 Elise: There's also the option of working for an agency. And I just use my platform to advocate that there were a lot of really great therapist founded companies out there. And I would work for a therapist instead of, kind of the larger staffing agencies that are paying really low or 1099. Like, I mean–
00:08:01 Hallie: They're just collecting contracts and they don't even care what they are.
00:08:04 Elise: Yeah, yeah. And a lot of times they don't even have the contract. They just bring you on and say, we're going to pay you, you know, $30, 10.99 an hour. You know, it's just that I would shine. There's some really, really awesome therapist-run contract companies now. So there's so many choices. If you like working with, school-based population.
00:08:25 Hallie: Especially people like you who are getting these school contracts eventually. You are only one person. You're going to eventually need to bring on people. So these are the people that you could also work for and you don't want to work directly in the school, but don't want to work with these bigger, bigger agencies. If you don't want to have to deal with the business owner, could you share a little bit more about that? The limiting beliefs of SLPs when it comes to being a business owner, right? I know we didn't learn it in graduate school. I know I didn't. So.
00:08:53 Elise: Yeah. So I think the big nuances with being a business owner as a contractor, the first I tell people is, you have to catch your own fish. So you have to find a district willing to contract. For a lot of the people that I work with or collaborate with or coach, it's actually pretty simple. It's like, oh, hey, my school that I was a CF at five years ago wants to contract with me. Like usually that first contract is, I mean, there's schools all around that have a need, so it's not as much as an obstacle as those who want to grow.
00:09:24 Elise: If you wanna grow to hire, if you're someone that has like the higher six figure in mind, that's when you have to be willing to engage in sales conversations with schools and pitch yourself and call schools that have vacancies and say, you know, I am accepting contracts. I saw you're having a hard time recruiting. We put our heads together. I do start schools that struggle with recruiting and you offer those services. So that's probably the biggest hurdle I found with people is feeling comfortable engaging in that like sales dialogue.
00:09:55 Elise: The other nuance is ensuring that you price yourself competitively. And for some reason, I'm sure people know the reason and I don't, but for some reason, I think pricing yourself competitively is difficult in our field. In particular, I see it a little bit more with my SLP coaching calls than I do with my PT coaching calls for whatever reason. So really pricing yourself competitively because the third thing you just want to make note of is that the IRS is going to treat you as a self-employed entity. So you will be paying a good amount in taxes. Like that's the third thing. So that's why it's really important to price yourself fairly and competitively.
00:10:39 Hallie: So, so important. And that's so interesting that you said that SLPs tend to price themselves weaker than OTs and PTs. I can probably guess because it's a lot of limiting beliefs. And we also want to be picked. They're like, Hey, pick us. I'm lower price. Like we all want to hurt people's feelings. I don't know. I feel like I'm an Enneagram 9, afraid of hurting people's feelings. So, like, I could see a lot of SLPs with probably being like that, like wanting to be a peacemaker, like just I'm here to help, but yeah, those listening and watching, like just like you go on an interview and you have to pitch yourself and you have to be confident.
00:11:19 Hallie: It's going into a sales call like that. I'm assuming it's the same exact way. Like, Hey, you need me. I need you to work together. And it's building those relationships. Like you said, someone to see at start with people, you know, the town you live in.
00:11:32 Elise: Yeah.
00:11:32 Hallie: Family, like anything. Young and resourceful. That's so, so interesting.
00:11:38 Elise: Yeah. There are so many schools struggling right now. And I, actually, I did a coaching call with someone who went to their child PTA meeting, mentioned she was an SLP. She was working for a virtual company at the time. And they were like, I mean, we want you. What do you need? We need you. And just, she landed her first contract just from going to a PTA meeting. It really is, I think what's happening in our schools is telling, and I think that every state needs to take notice that what's happening and take the appropriate steps to ensure that, you know, their school-based providers are taken care of and have a reasonable workload.
00:12:23 Elise: And until that happens, because I'm in a state where we still don't have caseload caps and we still pay really poorly. So I'm just not holding my breath until that happens. This is another way that SLPs and OTs and PTs can serve schools.
00:12:36 Hallie: So amazing. That's the reason that there's so much more options that we even get to think about. That if you're feeling, you know, like this one school or one setting is not for you. Maybe it is for you, but maybe that method is not. And there's just other options out there where you don't have to feel like you are tied down so much. And those first starting out, I know we have a lot of new grads listening and we CFs that are like, wait, this is another option that if you're like wanting to work in the school, but not knowing how or what, it's so amazing.
00:13:10 Elise: Yeah.
00:13:10 Hallie: Can you share some more? Like what's another benefit? Like for somebody like, yes, pay, yes, look, but like, what has been like your favorite, like wins and successes that you've been hearing about and even for yourself?
00:13:23 Elise: So I personally am madly in love with the hybrid private practice. So I have people that come to me who are building a private practice, but it's slow. It is, slow building. It is a slower building model. And so they have these two days where they see private clients, but that's not income sustaining. And they can pair that with a school contract, with a caseload overflow, with [IEPs] to the service plan students. There's so many things you can do to fill that.
00:13:54 Elise: So they fill their private practice by doing their two days a week, you know, with their favorite populations and two days a week at a school. So the hybrid private practice is one of my favorite wins. I also am seeing more, and if you're in the Facebook group, SLP, OT, PT school contractors, you're seeing more and more providers who are hiring. People who this time last year are like, you know what? I'm gonna get my first contract, and now they're hiring for their first contract.
00:14:25 Elise: So they'll have that revenue that comes from their work, but then they'll also have a relic, I never call it completely passive, because nothing about schools are passive. I hate to break it to you. Even when you hire schools and you manage, it's not passive because they're still schools. But they get that passive revenue because they've hired out for other contractual needs, which is really, I think that's a win. I think therapists hiring therapists is such a win for our industry. I think it's the win we need.
00:14:55 Elise: So those are just some other ways to take school contracts. I also love, it's funny, because a lot of times when people think, serving schools. They get like Los Angeles and Houston and like these big New York City schools in their mind. And those are wonderful schools and I know that they are just as subject to being underserved by providers. But where I really love seeing the school contract thrive is our rural districts and our districts that just can't keep up with the pay scale that the large town 30 miles away offers.
00:15:32 Elise: I love my, you know, I'm a rural girl and my kids go to rural schools. And so it just, I have a really soft place in my heart for the way that we can serve districts that when they don't find in-house providers, they have previously turned to again, those really large staffing agencies and that struggle to recruit. So we're able to find them a solution that's provider run.
00:15:55 Hallie: And that's such a great point. Like if you'll say like, why would they take me when they can go to these bigger agencies? But they're probably, it probably wasn't working and that's why they're still looking. It might not have sound the provider that they want. It might not have been a good match because these bigger agencies might not have done a good, thorough matchmaking-nesss.
00:16:16 Elise: Yeah.
00:16:16 Hallie: So those listening, saying, who am I? Why would they pick me? You won't know unless you try.
00:16:23 Elise: Yeah.
00:16:25 Hallie: Now, when is the right time? Like, is it, it is going into summertime, is this the right time? Is it the fall? Is it after the summer when, like they triangle everything? When should people start thinking about this and getting their ducks in a row?
00:16:38 Elise: I like thinking about it now. I like planting seeds now and reaching out to schools. Some schools will tell you, like there was a school in Texas that was like, we'll talk to you in August. I'm like, really? You're gonna wait, so you know that you need help. But again, I always recommend calling now. I will say I did a poll with my colleagues recently, and the majority of us landed our first contract between July and October. Now there's a lot that comes in, in December of schools that just thought they had a need or thought they didn't have any, thought they had it all covered. Turns out their onsite SLP can't see 120 students.
00:17:24 Hallie: Shut up. It was the total.
00:17:27 Elise: So then bring in someone in October. So go ahead and reach out now, but know that sometimes schools right now are trying to still exhaust their in-house providers. But the more that you can get out there, because the big thing to know is our staffing agencies are reaching out now. They have sales team members calling and they're reaching out now. So we want to ensure that our names are out there as well. And if the school isn’t ready to hear it, you just check back in every now and then.
00:17:56 Elise: Always remember, you know, you're talking to a human, you're a human, so I always keep it very relational. You know, hey, just checking in. Have you guys been able to recruit anything or recruit a provider? If they say yes, I celebrate with them. I love hearing that. I love hearing that their students are served. If they say no, I say, all right, you know, is now a good chance to talk about the services that I offer. Do you want me to wait a week? What are you thinking? How are you feeling?
00:18:23 Elise: So just keeping it really relational because it’s, It is stressful for the special education team or whatever, you know, your state refers to that team as. It's a stressful time for them. They're trying to get services. They have a budget. So reach out now and just keep empathy and compassion really close as you engage in these conversations.
00:18:46 Hallie: It sounds like persistence is key, but just like you said, they might not be selling, they might be trying and then come back to school. Like I know the person filled in for me. She saw my case, but they are like, we need someone else. Wait a minute, so I don't get it.. And also, I'm thinking, also like maternity leaves and new entrants when they come in, all these different things could be a reason why districts might realize any more support later. So it's not over until it's you can go find someone else's agent and if it's someone else's friend, because–
00:19:22 Elise: Yeah, yeah, I mean we have such a need and I do remind. It's funny because I made a post about a staffing agency recruiter calling me because they call me, still and I unsubscribe from the list but then they keep calling me and I'm like, how do I get off this list? So I made a post about it and someone commented and I thought it was such a beautiful way to look at it. They said, that's job security. That's a reminder that we always have a job out there. And I was like, oh yeah. That's… that is a good reminder. It was really low paying and I don't want that job. But yeah, yeah, you are right about that.
00:19:57 Hallie: And Elizabeth has a great question. She said that she finds that most districts that she's spoken to doesn't want to work with the smaller private contractors because they'd rather work with bigger agencies because they get paid less or they will pay them less. What would you say to someone go into it without worrying that that's what's going to happen?
00:20:19 Elise: So Elizabeth, actually 60% of my contracts that I got this last year were schools that had signed on with a staffing agency before me that, undercharged. It was a low charging staffing agency. And that was a little bit of a longer game on my end, a longer sales game, not that it's a game, but like a longer strategy, just staying in touch with them. If they have someone to fill their needs, awesome. I'm happy for them. But what had happened is those staffing agencies were charging so little that they could not pay. And so they left the school without providers. And that's what you do get.
00:20:58 Elise: So that's where the fall, unfortunately, is when, I say unfortunately, because these are often the schools that reach out to you and say, hey, nevermind, we need you. Can you start tomorrow? You get that question a lot. And I'm always like, no. I told you so. Tomorrow, I could have started tomorrow. We talked two months ago, you know, but I get it. So just know, yes, there are, the staffing companies do charge less. And I'll talk to schools about it. I will say, you know, I know my rate is higher, but this is what is sustainable. And what matters is that I stay all year, I do not want a lapse in those services.
00:21:43 Elise: And unfortunately, when we have undercharging in our field, whether it is, I coach my clients on this, whether it's us undercharging or big staffing agencies, we risk our sustainability. And we risk dropping 60 students mid-year because we can't sustain. So my recommendation, there are some schools that you can tell in conversation that they're not gonna go a penny over and I don't recommend spending a lot of time on those schools. I will send them like a, I hope you have a great new year at the end of the year, but that's about it. I don't pursue those schools heavily because we aren't aligned in what we want.
00:22:25 Elise: But I will have schools that kind of grumble about the budget, which I respect, but they still see my value. And we negotiate, we talk. Those are the schools that I would lean into. And I would just really advocate that your rate reflects your experience, but it also reflects what you need to stay with. Because retention is big, right? Recruitment and retention are issues that our larger staffing agencies are facing right now.
00:22:55 Hallie: So, so sure, so you are low pricing yourselves and then eventually you need to hire someone else. That's as much as you can be able to pay them and you're not gonna be able to find that staff to fill those roles. And then there's only so much scaling that you can do. Like there's so much benefit to being able to hire people to fill some of these contracts that you're getting.
00:23:14 Elise: Yeah.
00:23:15 Hallie: Wild and crazy question. Like, how do you determine, like how many contracts to get? Like how many sessions to, like, gather? What, is there, like a magic number? Like, how do you determine, like, I need three districts and 60 slots. Like, I don't know. How do you like, determine this?
00:23:35 Elise: So I usually use service minutes and then I use my grouping size. So I'll take the service minute and look at how much I grew, how schools can pull service minutes really easily typically. I did have one school that was like, I don't know what service minutes are. And I was like, wait, what? What do you call them? Tell me what you call them. That's what I need.
00:23:56 Hallie: Oh, mandates.
00:23:58 Elise: No, I was like, a minutes a week of your case. I don't know, but that's the first time I had that. But I will get, you know, how many minutes of speech and language the case needs a week. I divide that by, usually it's two session, two sessions a week, twice a week is the pretty, pretty prescriptive approach in many states. I'll look at my group being about, I let service minutes guide. With that said, and this is getting complex, so sorry, everyone. Bye. We're mapping here.
00:24:30 Elise: When starting out, I recommend you bill for everything. You bill hourly. It's significantly easier for someone who is starting out working on their own and establishing their rate than doing, like a flat rate per session. As you grow, you could absolutely change it, but right now you don't know exactly what all indirect time takes, you know, how much time. Typically, my contracts are 30% indirect work on average. So that's another thing to consider is when you bill hourly, you will also be billing for that indirect time. So I look at having 70% of my time be that direct therapy time, and then I add on that, that 30%. And that lets me know how many hours I'll be working.
00:25:13 Hallie: I have to say that is another benefit when you're working for someone else. Like, you know, like getting told what you're doing. And when you're working in a school, like, pay for it, time was that.
00:25:24 Elise: I had one school that they, oh, the SLP, they had it on site. So that's another really cool thing is my schools often have in-house providers. They just couldn't find enough. And so, I still have teams I'm a part of. I'm just a little bit of a different part. But one of them ended up getting sick and the school called me and they were like, you wouldn't happen to be able to look through her data and write some progress notes, would you? And I was like, I mean, I'm going to bill for that.
00:26:00 Elise: And so, you know, we looked at everything because I had seen those students some and they were like, you know, whatever, whatever, just do what you need to do. And so I, you are, you build for the work that you provide, which I personally like. But again, for me, you know, there are other like the benefits and things like that I personally don't have to worry about right now.
00:26:24 Hallie: Love that. So it's not interesting. There's so many things that, like I wish I knew early on in my career or just knew more about and able to explore more, not like my career is over, but you know what I mean. But it's so fascinating. I loved hearing, first of all, just SLPs being business awesomeness and like bold and going after what they preserve. And it's so amazing. What are some last thoughts, tips, advice would you give to anyone watching, whether you guys are live? Thank you guys so much for joining us live and [great] viewers. What advice would you give someone who's thinking, oh, is this for me? I don't know if I can do it. I don't know if I have what it takes.
00:27:03 Elise: Yeah.
00:27:04 Hallie: What would you say?
00:27:05 Elise: I think the biggest thing is, just don't talk yourself out of something before you even pursue it. One thing I hear a lot is, well, I only have three years’ school experience. I'm like, do you know your state compliance? Do you know how to do pediatric school-based service provision? So I often hear people kind of give themselves their own objectives or like the staffing agency, like why would they want me when they had these big staffing agencies?
00:27:38 Elise: Every school is a very different journey. I had one school, the minute I called them, they said, I just want to confirm you aren't with, and they named the big staffing companies in my state. And I was like, nope, I'm Elise. And they're like, okay, we'll keep talking with you. So my biggest advice is don't present an objective that may or may not exist. Are there some schools that prefer larger staffing agencies? Yeah. Are those the schools that typically are my ideal client? No.
00:28:10 Elise: So I just recommend if you are considering this, lean into it because the beauty of school contracting and the first is that every school in every state is very different. Every district has a different process, they have different values, they are, you know, driving motives, I should say. So lean into it. And if one school says, well, we don't have the budget for that, they're not your school, but that doesn't mean the school down the street doesn't have the budget for it. So I just encourage anyone, I'm very verbal, with my experience in staffing agencies, I spent a lot of time in my professional career making a lot of other people very wealthy.
00:28:56 Elise: And I'm like, Oh, Elise, you had what it took five years before you pursued this. You know, and so just don't talk yourself out of it. Lean into it. Lean into why you're wanting to do this. If you're feeling that drive for flexibility, if you're starting to feel that burnout and engage in conversations, the worst thing that happens is you get told no. But honestly, what most often happens is they just don't answer if they're not looking. So you can–
00:29:26 Hallie: Even better than no, you don't have to have your–
00:29:30 Elise: I give you permission to go swing.
00:29:31 Hallie: Like it doesn't.
00:29:32 Elise: Yeah, okay. They like, secretly, I don't know if, like SPED directors have like a swipe left on their office phone. And like, I tried a few times, I'm like, you're not looking, are you?
00:29:47 Hallie: And can they see each other's swiping patterns like.
00:29:51 Elise: Yeah. Like I think they slights locked on me.
00:29:54 Hallie: I have a face broker for they're talking about this too. Like, it makes me wonder a little bit. Well anyone wanting to learn more about contracts and learning about the process and even just where to start. They want to, you know, potentially do this hybrid model or start being a business person. Where do you recommend? Where do they go?
00:30:17 Elise: Yeah, so I'm a big advocate for free resources, free knowledge sharing. If you are a Facebook person, the Facebook group that I admin is SLP, OT, PT School Contractors. I try to go live in there monthly. I've not gone live this month. I need to, where I just take questions. And then I do have a free checklist on my website. If you want to see www..thetherapistsupportnetwork.com. I will say for New Jersey, New York or California, send a message my way that checklist is those three states are beast states, I call them.
00:30:53 Hallie: Sorry, I don't.
00:30:55 Elise: I love meeting with people who are in New York. I'm like, let me tell you about Missouri. Let's just share. Let's share our stories. So if you're in California, New Jersey, New York, send a message my way, I'll add a few things to your list. But yeah, I would just look, it's the biggest thing though and where I tell people, sooner rather than later, you just start talking to schools. That's the big thing.
00:31:20 Hallie: Awesome. Thank you so much. And fun fact, my business is also licensed in New Jersey. But anyway, that's a fun. That's a joke.
00:31:27 Elise: Are you in New York?
00:31:28 Hallie: I'm in New York. I'm in New York. But we have a licensing, not for like crack, but yeah, just for professional development and things like that. I do have, but, so of course, I'm on two of your lists of two of the three. I, you know.
00:31:41 Elise: Just get California water.
00:31:44 Hallie: We'll add into the mix. I might as well.
00:31:48 Elise: We tackle three hardest states.
00:31:51 Hallie: Why not go bigger?
00:31:54 Elise: You're the worst
00:31:56 Hallie: Thank you so much, Elise. Everyone, go check out, if you have any questions, go check out the Facebook or check out our checklist. This replay is gonna be living on my Instagram and things like that. So feel free to tag any friends that you know that are interested in learning more about, doing this, why not? It's, we're heading into summer and new school year. Sky is the limit. Like anything can happen. So why not see just options now? So thank you so, so much, Elise. Everyone, have a great rest of your evening. Have fun. Stay out of trouble. Everyone. Bye.
00:32:38 Hallie: Thanks so much for tuning in to another episode of SLP Coffee Talk. It means the world to me that you're tuning in each and every week and getting the jolt of inspiration you need. You can find all of the links and information mentioned in this episode at my website, speechtimefun.com. Don't forget to follow the show so you don't miss any future episodes. And while you're there, it would mean the world to me if you would take a few seconds and leave me an honest review. See you next week with another episode full of fun and inspiration from one SLP to another. Have fun, guys!
