Uniting SLP Entrepreneurs with Ebony Green

James Berges 00:01 
Are you a clinician who wants to chart your own path? Today, we're talking to Ebony Green, an SLP and entrepreneur. We explore all the ways SLPs can grow beyond clinical practice, so stay tuned. 

Ebony Green 00:16 
It only takes, you know, one person to make that step of saying I'm going to start this meeting or I'm going to start this community, right? And then from there, you know, it starts to blossom. And that's what I've seen with the mommy group that I created. 

Ebony Green 00:30 
And that's what I've seen with my own private practice. You know, I now have 75 people on my team. And at one point, it was just me. 

Mai Ling Chan 00:38 
Welcome to the Exceptional Leaders Podcast. I'm Mai Ling Chan, and together with James Berges, we're getting you top tips and resources for building and scaling your disability -focused offerings straight from the forefront of disability advocacy and leadership. 

Mai Ling Chan 00:55 
Yes, James, I am. I just wanted to answer that question. And I'm also in Arizona, where Ebony also is. I think the most amazing people are coming out of Arizona. It's incredible. But she saw a need to bring SLPs together to share and grow beyond clinical practice. 

Mai Ling Chan 01:10 
And, you know, that private practice has its own resources and cultures and all, but there really isn't much for SLPs who want to go out there and strike it out on their own, for example, like school contracting, creating digital content, teachers pay teachers, or even just becoming presenters or other creative paths. 

James Berges 01:27 
Yeah, exactly. That's sort of why I started slptransitions .com myself, which is I saw a need for people who don't want to do private practice or necessarily do course content like Ebony is doing with her niche, but people who want to go beyond their degree to go into fields like health and ed tech. 

James Berges 01:45 
So I started curating resources there. So you can go to slptransitions .com shameless plug to learn from the hard earned wisdom of SLPs who have made the leap to tech and other fields. 

Mai Ling Chan 01:56 
Yes. For our SLP listeners, I have another resource for you. James and I are just like the hostess with the mostess today. Becoming an Exceptional SLP Leader is a book that I put together. I united 14 other speech -language pathologists, and we all shared our journeys about doing something beyond clinical. 

Mai Ling Chan 02:14 
That's creating apps, writing documentaries, creating nonprofit foundations. It's an excellent resource. They also give you tips on what to do and ways to contact them. We all have imposter syndrome, and I know I have it. 

Mai Ling Chan 02:30 
James, do you ever have it? I know you're pretty confident. 

James Berges 02:32 
I have it and I swallow it and I try to just keep going. I think that's, you know, you're not really pushing yourself if you don't have imposter syndrome. It means you're not a sociopath. 

Mai Ling Chan 02:43 
I love it. Well, you know, a lot of us, we take on these roles and suddenly we have like the CEO head on and that's happened to me a number of times. And all of a sudden you're like, oh boy, I don't have an MBA, you know, or I don't have actual skills. 

Mai Ling Chan 02:55 
And so what Ebony is doing and I love it is that, you know, she's a connector and she's bringing people together specifically in the area of speech language pathology and she's equipping them, you know, with the skills and things that they need to really be able to grow their offerings. 

Mai Ling Chan 03:11 
And so I'm really excited about this episode. And James, did I tell you about the Exceptional Leaders Network that I've been putting together? 

James Berges 03:18 
Tell me more, Mai Ling. What is this? 

Mai Ling Chan 03:21 
Well, I'm very excited. I have been looking at putting together a membership with all of the amazing VIPs like yourself that I've been working with over the years, and I finally made the jump. And I'm sure for the listener, for our listeners, I don't know if you've done this, but if you've ever listened to all of these, you can do it two programs, how to create your own course and how to do these things. 

Mai Ling Chan 03:40 
You buy the package and then life goes on and you're not able to do it. So I am actually doing it. It's the membership experience with Stu, and it is really incredible, James. It's step by step. And I took the leap and I did the founding member's launch two weeks ago, right before I left for Nashville. 

Mai Ling Chan 04:01 
And it was incredible within, I'm going to say 24 hours, I had 15 people who said yes. 

James Berges 04:07 
Amazing. Yeah, it's such a good resource just to have these virtual memberships where people from all over the world have a common interest. I think that's when the internet really shines is to say, instead of just doom scrolling social media, you could be like, you know, I feel kind of lonely on my own entrepreneurial path, but I want to do it. 

James Berges 04:25 
Where can I find accountability? Where can I find resources? And conferences like Ebony's are amazing as well. I mean, I just got back from the American Psychiatric Association working with Ozmind, but you know, it's such a joy to see so many minds and connect and I feel my synapses firing off and just feel less lonely when you're connecting with people who are on the same path as you or a little bit ahead of you who can hand you some resources or insight that you didn't have before. 

Mai Ling Chan 04:54 
Excellent. And adding to this, I have always been saying that we have got to get out of our fishbowl. And that's another reason why I'm so excited about the network is because it is bringing together all of the leaders that I know across the board, across the country, across the nation, across the world, with a focus on disability support. 

Mai Ling Chan 05:11 
And that's what I think is just fantastic. And I love that, you know, with everything being virtual now, James, you can connect and you can meet and you can share. And, you know, this is just incredible. 

Mai Ling Chan 05:22 
And I love the work that Ebony is doing. I'm really excited for everyone to hear about this upcoming conference. 

James Berges 05:28 
Absolutely. And speaking of resources that are free and can help you immediately. If you're an SOP who wants to just streamline your workload so you can focus on the things you actually love doing, whether it's building a side business or spending more time with your clients, students, patients, we have a free resource on exceptionalleaders .com. 

James Berges 05:49 
If you just go there, enter your email. It's an awesome AI resource that has about 18 pages of everything you know about AI in an easy to read format and including full prompts you can use to write notes. 

James Berges 06:03 
So it's a very exciting time to streamline your workflow and focus on things that you actually went to school for or doing entrepreneurship. So again, that's on exceptionalleaders .com. And with that, let's hear from Ebony Green. 

James Berges 06:20 
Excellent. 

Mai Ling Chan 06:25 
Alright, so staying with National Speech Language Hearing Month, I'm so excited to have Ebony Green in here with me today. She is a fellow speech-language pathologist, and she is doing something that is very near and dear to my heart, which is bringing people together in a community and people who are, what I say, are leaders. 

Mai Ling Chan 06:42 
So welcome, Ebony. 

Ebony Green 06:44 
Thank you so much for having me, Mai Ling. It's a pleasure to be here. I am excited to be one of the guests on your podcast because I didn't even know you had a podcast until I recently found out that you've been doing this for six years. 

Ebony Green 06:57 
So I can't wait to share my story and thanks so much for doing this, for having this platform for exceptional leaders. 

Mai Ling Chan 07:04 
Absolutely. And thank you for mentioning that. I will say that not everybody listens to podcasts. You know, some people like audio, some people like video, and it's always changing. But six years ago when I started this, I realized that not everyone listens to podcasts. 

Mai Ling Chan 07:16 
So that's why I started creating the Becoming Exceptional Leader book series. And then I could spotlight people like yourself and your stories in a different form. So yes, podcasts are great. And as our listener, we are so grateful that you've been listening to us for six years. 

Mai Ling Chan 07:30 
So we've been growing. We're in 140 countries. And it's just an amazing, just this is our service. This is our give James Berges, and I love doing this. And I know you love what you're doing too. So let's catch up with you. 

Mai Ling Chan 07:43 
I know you're working on a number of big things, but let's just start with what is your Bec? 

Ebony Green 07:47 
So my background is actually in education. I was a K through 12 teacher, started my career in a national teacher corps called Teach for America and served in underserved communities in Texas for a couple years and then transitioned to a charter school where I taught high school for another two years and then during that time was really trying to decide if I was gonna stay in the classroom or look into something else. 

Ebony Green 08:19 
The Teach for America program requires you to teach for two years and so you kind of have to, you know, make that pivotal decision as to what you're going to do next and so I found out about speech -language pathology being in education and working, you know, alongside some of the special education teachers and the speech -language pathologists and all of the other members of the special education team that my students would often have, you know, come pull them out of class and who I would have to meet with when they had their IEP meetings and so I just thought speech -language pathology was the coolest thing ever because fun fact is that I'm a bilingual SLP and so languages have always been something I've been very intrigued by and passionate about and so I was like wow I could have a career where I could learn about languages and how everything comes together in a language and I can work with kids and I can work in the school setting. 

Ebony Green 09:16 
This was the career that I, you know, ultimately needed to be my next step and so I went back for leveling courses. I don't know if you're familiar with... 

Mai Ling Chan 09:28 
Yeah, I had to do the same thing after 10 years. Yeah. 

Ebony Green 09:31 
You went for 10 years? 

Mai Ling Chan 09:32 
Well, it was 10 years after I had graduated that I went back and I had a five -year -old and a two -year -old and had to do all that. 

Ebony Green 09:38 
So, the leveling courses journey began shortly after I left the classroom that I was going to go into speech and it took me a total of eight years to do all of my leveling coursework, get into grad school, do the whole clinical fellowship. 

Ebony Green 09:52 
It was a long journey, but I will say that it was the perfect journey for me because I was in a phase of my life where I was having kids and I was wanting to stay home and not work full -time. And so, I had the flexibility to go to school part -time and be a stay -at -home mom part -time and then, you know, you start to get back into the workforce as I finished my school link. 

Ebony Green 10:16 
So, it was a perfect journey. So, yeah, background was in education and then figured out that there was an option for me to still work with kids, but also, you know, have a more of a scientific and more, I guess, language -focused education, you know, around what I was doing, working with these children. 

Ebony Green 10:37 
And so, that's what piqued my interest about speech -language pathology. And after I started in the field, working in the schools and working in the clinic setting and then working in home health, I ultimately decided to start my own private practice. 

Mai Ling Chan 10:50 
Love it. Well, yay for team speech. I would just want to say that we're so happy that you were a part of our community now. And for those of us who have chosen another career later in life, man, that is so much more, you're so much more passionate about it and connected to it. 

Mai Ling Chan 11:05 
And it's great. I didn't know that you and I had kind of that same like return student story. So that's beautiful. 

Ebony Green 11:11 
Yeah, I like what you said about, you know, being more passionate about it because I often find that I compare, you know, some of the things that I love about this career to some of the things that I didn't necessarily love about my former career. 

Ebony Green 11:25 
And I feel very, very fortunate and very blessed that, you know, we have things like an association. I know there's differing views on having an association, but for me, this is something that I wish I had when I was teaching. 

Ebony Green 11:37 
I enjoy having the freedom to work in different settings. And so you are, you know, more, I feel passionate about it when you have been in another career and then you switch to something else. And like you said, just more connected overall. 

Mai Ling Chan 11:51 
Absolutely. So if anybody in our listenership is thinking of speech, we're here for you. We would love for you to join us. And yeah, there's a whole other world over here on the other side of providing special education services. 

Mai Ling Chan 12:04 
So one of the things that we like to touch on on this show is about people like yourself who fill a gap, they see a need. And so tell us a little bit about how you got into doing what you're doing right now. 

Mai Ling Chan 12:15 
And I don't want to spill the beans, so I'm really used to share all that. But really, it's like, how did you see this? 

Speaker 4 12:20 
this need. 

Ebony Green 12:21 
I feel like my entire life has been filling some sort of gap, identifying a problem and figuring out how I can fix it or seeing that there's a need for something and trying to fill that need. One of my superpowers as an entrepreneur is building communities and creating teams and motivating people on those teams to work towards a goal together. 

Ebony Green 12:44 
So, you know, one of the things that I did even before I became a speech language pathologist, way back when I was in college, was I started my own student organization because I felt like all the student organizations that were out there were great, but they weren't really the right fit for me or for my roommate. 

Ebony Green 13:02 
And we were like, we wish there was an organization where it was, you know, a social organization, but you could also volunteer and you can also do this and that. And so I started my own student organization because there wasn't one that fit the needs that we had and, you know, had the things that we wanted. 

Ebony Green 13:18 
And then after college, I started my own mommy group because I had just moved to a new school. 

Speaker 4 13:25 
Yes, he did. Oh my gosh, I am like jumping out of my chair, Ebony. We have so many similarities. This is crazy. So go ahead, go ahead. Yeah, so I started my own... 

Ebony Green 13:33 
mommy group when I moved to this new city had a new baby had no family and just wanted to connect with other people and so I was like I'm gonna start this mommy group and hopefully people will join. I think I had like a hundred people in the group by the time my daughter turned four and so it was just really cool to see this need and feel it and people started to come and wanted to be a part of it and so similarly in my professional career you know I've seen needs for things and have tried to fill that need so the most recent thing is I decided with a colleague to start a professional conference for speech -language pathologists who are interested in entrepreneurship and business and again identifying the gap you know between the conferences that we have that are very clinical in nature and very focused on building and enhancing our clinical skills and the lack of conferences where we can learn how to become better business owners and entrepreneurs and receive education and resources to help us with business was what prompted me to to start this conference because I just felt like there wasn't a lot of opportunities for that we had to go outside of speech right to get this type of experience and so my colleague and I have both had the opportunity to go to conferences in different industries and wanted to bring that to the speech -language pathology community as well. 

Mai Ling Chan 15:05 
I am so excited. And this is how I reconnected with you. So Ebony and I have known each other out on social media for a long time, and I'm always out there looking for my next guest, of course, you know, my next amazing person. 

Mai Ling Chan 15:16 
And I was seeing Made For More, Made For More SLP, you know, what is this conference that's going on in Austin? And then I kind of dug into, you know, who's doing this? And I was like, I know Ebony, I need to get, you know, connected with her. 

Mai Ling Chan 15:27 
So I'm so, so excited. And I'm thinking the word connector, you know, you are a master connector. And I've been told this a lot also, and I can see our similarities. But don't you just love that? You know, bringing people together, connecting people that have similar interests, being a reference, you know, or like, oh, hey, you should talk to this person. 

Mai Ling Chan 15:44 
How do you feel? 

Speaker 4 15:45 
about that. 

Ebony Green 15:47 
It's like one of my greatest joys to be able to help someone find the person that they're looking for that they don't even know is out there or to be able to help someone find a community because they need a community. 

Ebony Green 16:02 
They need people to help them through a new project that they're working on or through this new phase of life that they're going through. And so it's just something that I really enjoy. And now that you've said that word connector, I'm gonna start using that too because that's exactly what it is. 

Ebony Green 16:16 
You love connecting people to resources and to other people and to communities. And so, yeah, I enjoy being able to be that person that created this new friendship that blossomed between these two moms who didn't know each other or created the opportunity for this SLP to meet another business owner, right? 

Ebony Green 16:38 
That they got to work on a project with together. Recently in my business, in my private practice, I took a team of therapists to volunteer in Central America and for a lot of them, they've never done anything like that in their lives. 

Ebony Green 16:51 
They've always wanted to have the opportunity to do that. But again, going back to that whole connector theme, right? It's like, I was able to connect them with this experience. And so that is what brings me the most joy. 

Ebony Green 17:04 
And I feel like that's my big picture vision for my life, for my business. And it's one of my, I would say, probably the main reason why I do what I do. 

Mai Ling Chan 17:16 
Oh, I love that. I also seem to always have this like Rolodex in my mind. And so when someone says, you know, Oh, I'm working on this and something like it's a niche area and I'm like, Oh, you know, you should talk to this person. 

Mai Ling Chan 17:27 
And it just comes to me and I always feel like, like, I'm just plugged into the universe, you know, and I have like that magneto hat, you know, and I put it on and I'm like, Oh, yeah, well, it's Ebony. 

Mai Ling Chan 17:36 
That's who you need to talk to. And I'm just thrilled when I can do one or two email introductions and be like, Look, I don't know how this is going to go. But, you know, they were telling me about this, and it just sounds so exciting. 

Mai Ling Chan 17:46 
And I really think that there may be some synergy or collaboration and, you know, take it from here. 

Speaker 4 17:50 
And then people get back to me and they're like, hey, this was amazing, you know, we found out this and that. 

Mai Ling Chan 17:55 
I just love it. I love it. And I know we all have a purpose, you know, here on earth, and I feel like mine's connecting. 

Ebony Green 18:01 
Absolutely. 

Mai Ling Chan 18:03 
If you're like me, you can't get enough of books, podcasts, blogs, and other ways to find out how to create, grow, and scale. That's why I brought together 43 disability -focused leaders to give you more of what you're looking for. 

Mai Ling Chan 18:15 
You will hear their stories in three best -selling books, which focus on general offerings, augmentative and alternative communication, and speech -language pathology. I invite you to search for Becoming an Exceptional Leader on Amazon, so you can learn intimate start -up pearls of wisdom, and keep growing your brilliant idea. 

Mai Ling Chan 18:35 
Now, let's get back to our amazing interview. Okay, so let's talk about Lauren Hastings. A lot of our listeners are, they're solopreneurs, so they have a great idea, they've started it, and then we look at people who are doing things together with someone else, and I have to tell you, I have a little bit of jealousy, because that other person is waking up in the middle of the night, and they're thinking about your business. 

Mai Ling Chan 18:56 
You know, they have new ideas, or they're feeling that pain that you're feeling, so tell me about your journey with Laura. 

Ebony Green 19:03 
Yeah, absolutely. So Lauren and I have been working on this for, I don't know, a couple of years now. We've, we've been talking about this conference. We've been brainstorming, you know, how we're going to actually pull this off. 

Ebony Green 19:16 
What's, what's unique about both of us is that I'm more of the visionary and Lauren is definitely more of the planner. And so I think that together we're able to create this experience in the best way possible because you need someone who is a planner, and you need someone who is a visionary and often, you know, it's hard for one person to do both. 

Ebony Green 19:38 
So she has a lot of experience with planning different conferences. She's planned the in Basla conference for the last few years in Basla is the national black speech language hearing association. She's also planned a couple of state conventions for Georgia state hearing association. 

Ebony Green 19:56 
So I feel very fortunate, like you said, and you know, I would be jealous too, if I didn't have Lauren, you know, to work with me on this, because just having someone with that level of experience and the ability to know all of the details, you know, all, all the I's that need to be dotted and all the T's that need to be crossed in order for us to execute this. 

Ebony Green 20:17 
I've never done this type of event before I've always done online events. And so it was a little daunting at first, you know, to think of all of the moving parts and making sure that everyone has the best experience possible because we are charging and it's not a $20 experience. 

Ebony Green 20:35 
Like it costs money for people to come and be a part of this and to pay for the hotel and the travel and all those things. But I feel like I have the right person to work alongside me on this project. 

Ebony Green 20:47 
And we're both just thrilled that everything so far is going exactly how we planned. And we can't wait to see what everything looks like once we actually launch in just two months, which is crazy. We've literally been talking about this for like two years. 

Ebony Green 21:04 
So yeah. 

Mai Ling Chan 21:05 
So this is incredible. First, I want to apologize. Lauren, one of my best friends is Laura. And so I went to that name. So my apology. Yes, we have Lauren Hastings together working with together with you. 

Mai Ling Chan 21:15 
And this episode is dropping in May and the event is 

Ebony Green 21:20 
June 21st and 22nd. 

Mai Ling Chan 21:22 
Okay. And so at the time of this episode, is it still, is there still time to register? 

Ebony Green 21:27 
There will still be time to register. We are basically just going to keep it open until we sell out. Excellent. 

Speaker 4 21:34 
We're not sold out yet. Well, I'm going to look at my. 

Mai Ling Chan 21:36 
I know, I know I said to you that I couldn't do it, but you know what, I really am excited and I would love to be a part of this. And so let's take a step back. You have also done something that is very unique and that's bring together a community that was not a community before. 

Mai Ling Chan 21:50 
And so I'm just going to kind of like step that out for our listener is let's say you have a knitting club, you know, and you want to create a now it's a community of knitters. Well, you know, there are other groups out there or people that, you know, fish for salmon, you know, specific, specific things. 

Mai Ling Chan 22:07 
This community that Ebony brought together is a community that's been growing for years. I'm going to say since like 2010, 2011, I was a part of it all back on Twitter days when we started with the hashtag SL peeps. 

Mai Ling Chan 22:19 
And then that just started to grow into people becoming subject matter experts and then creating content. So digital content out on teachers pay teachers, the trajectory of this group of very special people has been really interesting in that they've been bubbling up in all different areas. 

Mai Ling Chan 22:38 
So I talked about like these digital and social media and kind of website type of thing. You know, I had to sass companies myself. And then there's also the clinical practice, which is, you know, you're brick and mortar, right? 

Mai Ling Chan 22:50 
This is what speech pathologists do. We sit down and we sit across from someone and we provide therapy. And so that's a whole nother area, which has also gone digital. And so we have all of these amazing leaders who are creating content online and you can be part of a subscription membership and plugging in. 

Mai Ling Chan 23:05 
But everyone has been in their own like silos, you know, doing their things. And Ebony has brought together everyone for the first time in a physical event. And I'm just, I'm just so excited about this. 

Mai Ling Chan 23:19 
So I don't know, maybe I'm fangirling a little bit, but I just wanted to tell you how excited I am. And, you know, this is definitely my jam. I mean, I've been living in this area for a long time, especially with the Become an Exceptional SLP Leader book, which focuses on people like you and that journey. 

Mai Ling Chan 23:33 
You know, it's just it's so great to hear it from your side of it. So let me ask you, how has it been, you know, to create this hashtag, you know, from nothing? 

Ebony Green 23:43 
Well, I feel like, like you said, this has been happening for over a decade now where people are starting to explore other avenues of practicing as a speech -language pathologist, but not necessarily in a traditional way, right? 

Ebony Green 23:57 
So for people who create content, we're using our expertise. We're using our knowledge that we've gained over the years as clinicians to create content to speak to parents and to speak to other clinicians and to speak to people even outside of our field who are professionals in other healthcare industries. 

Ebony Green 24:17 
So I feel like this is something that has been happening, but we haven't actually sat down and gotten together and like use all of our collective talent and resources to help each other go to the next level. 

Ebony Green 24:38 
A lot has changed over the past 10 years. We've gone very digital. You know, now we're starting to look at AI, right? So I feel like just having people in the room who've been doing this for a while, who are made for more, is just something magical. 

Ebony Green 24:55 
And I know that, you know, like I said, it happens a lot in other industries. When you think about like doctors, there's all these different conferences for doctors and specialties. And there's a woman that I follow on social media who caters to the entrepreneurial doctor audience as well. 

Ebony Green 25:12 
But with speech -language pathologists, again, it's very much like everyone operates in their own silos if they're doing something other than, you know, being a clinician or even private practice. Private practice has its own culture now, but people like you and I who are content creators who are, you know, creating podcasts and creating courses and doing other things, we don't necessarily have a community. 

Ebony Green 25:37 
So it feels amazing to be able to start something that I feel is going to propel all of us to the next level, whatever that is. I don't know what it is yet, but with the advance of technology, with the integration of AI into a lot of what we're doing as content creators, it's just good to see how other people are navigating all these changes and kind of what's on the horizon for speech -language pathologists who are content creators and who are pivoting out of what we've been known to do traditionally. 

Ebony Green 26:13 
So yeah, I'm just excited to see what comes of this. And it only takes, you know, one person to make that step of saying, I'm going to start this meeting, or I'm going to start this community, right? 

Ebony Green 26:26 
And then from there, you know, it starts to blossom. And that's what I've seen with the mommy group that I created. And that's what I've seen with my own private practice. You know, I now have 75 people on my team. 

Ebony Green 26:37 
And at one point, it was just me. So I feel like the possibilities are endless. You just have to be the one to step out and say, we're going to do this. 

Mai Ling Chan 26:48 
I love that. And if you could speak to this, I think we all have a little bit of this, and once in a while I'm like, oh, I still have a little bit of it, imposter syndrome. I started my own company on the speech -language pathologist, but now I'm CEO of this publishing company, or I'm CEO of, all of a sudden you have this new hat. 

Mai Ling Chan 27:04 
So can you speak to that a little bit? 

Ebony Green 27:07 
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we all have imposter syndrome, no matter how big our business is, no matter how many years we've been doing what we do, we still have imposter syndrome. And one way that I've learned to deal with it is just to remember that everyone started somewhere, like even the Bill Gates of the world and the billionaires, they all started somewhere. 

Ebony Green 27:35 
Nobody was born into this world as a successful CEO. So when it comes to mindset and imposter syndrome and things like that, I really try to stay positive. I don't let any negative energy change how I perceive my abilities to accomplish something. 

Ebony Green 27:57 
When people say things like, oh, how's your little business going? Because people used to say that a lot when I first started, how's your little business going? And I would always respond, business is booming, right? 

Ebony Green 28:11 
This is not a little business, this business is booming. And back then, my business was small compared to what it is now, but I always had the mindset that this business is an amazing business, it's growing, we're scaling. 

Ebony Green 28:27 
I never let those negative thoughts or if someone said, how's your little business going? Oh, well, maybe my business is little. Maybe this isn't like a real business. Maybe I'm not really a CEO. Don't let them do that. 

Ebony Green 28:41 
Yeah, it's all about mindset. 

Mai Ling Chan 28:42 
Yeah. Oh, I love that. Okay. Well, let's keep with the vision and the goals of May, which is National Speech Language Hearing Month. There are people who consider transitioning out of our field. And this is even for a listener who might be thinking of leaving your job. 

Mai Ling Chan 28:58 
Can you speak a little bit about staying in and doing something more, you know, connecting with your passion? This is something that I love to present on and just talking about like being showing up as the true you and bringing everything, you know, to what you do. 

Mai Ling Chan 29:11 
So, you know, what is your perspective on that? 

Ebony Green 29:14 
Well, I mean, you and I are both examples, right, of people who are non -traditional speech language pathologists. We don't just do speech therapy. We bring our other talents to the table. And it does require a bit of, you know, bravery and a bit of the ability to not care what other people think. 

Ebony Green 29:35 
I don't know how to put it more eloquently, but not really caring if someone sees you all of a sudden doing something that you're passionate about and not just being the clinician that has the nine to five at a hospital or at a school, right? 

Ebony Green 29:52 
I think that is the hardest part for a lot of people. And that's why they often feel like they have to just leave the field completely because they're afraid of how their peers are going to perceive them. 

Ebony Green 30:04 
And for me, it was never about how other people perceived me. I'm a queen of, I'm going to block you so that you can't even see what I'm doing if I feel like I'm going to be judged or if I feel like I'm not going to show up fully as myself, because that is what brings me the most happiness. 

Ebony Green 30:24 
That is what, you know, every single day I wake up and I'm excited to do is to show up fully as myself. And some days that's Ebony the clinician. I go out to schools, I test, I consult with districts and I love doing that. 

Ebony Green 30:38 
But some days it's Ebony the CEO and I show up as someone who has to go to these different networking events and who has to connect with people in my community. And while it may not look like work to some, it is work and it's work that I enjoy. 

Ebony Green 30:54 
And I don't feel a certain type of way if people see me going to a gala and I get to wear this feathery red dress. This actually happened last night. You know, I don't feel judged or like someone should, if someone does judge me, I don't feel like it's something that would make me be like, man, I really should stop doing this. 

Ebony Green 31:14 
I really should stop showing up in this way because this is just who I am. And so I encourage those who are like, I'm burnt out. I don't want to do this anymore. But you have some burning desire to maybe do something else and show up in a different way to just do it. 

Ebony Green 31:31 
But you also have to know that you can't please everyone. Some people may have something to say about it, but you've got to block that out. And if it means physically blocking that, I am a proponent of it because I've done it. 

Ebony Green 31:46 
I've had to do it because otherwise I'm worried about, Oh, what did this person that I went to grad school with, what did they think about me doing this? Or what is this person that used to be my mentor or my supervisor? 

Ebony Green 31:56 
What do they think? And so I had to, you know, get that out of my mind and just focus on how I show up and doing the things that I felt like I needed to do. And you wouldn't believe that, you know, when you show up as yourself authentically, especially if you have an online platform, there's always someone who's going to resonate with how you show up. 

Ebony Green 32:19 
You may feel like there are haters out there and there are negative nancies out there who are judging you. And that may be true, but there's always someone who resonates with what you share. And they're thankful that someone else out there is showing up in a way that they can identify with. 

Ebony Green 32:38 
Sometimes some of the content that I post, I'm like, I don't know if anyone's going to care that I just signed another school contract, but then someone inboxes me and they say, thank you for sharing that. 

Ebony Green 32:49 
I was so afraid to submit this bid for this school contract because I didn't feel like I had the qualifications, but because you posted that I'm going to go ahead and submit. So you just never, yeah. 

Mai Ling Chan 32:58 
That's amazing. Well, thank you. I am thankful that you are very honest and open and sharing and I'm sure that there's people in our audience that really connected with you today. So thank you so much. 

Mai Ling Chan 33:07 
How can we continue to follow your work your progress and what's going on with the conference. 

Speaker 4 33:12 
See you next time. 

Ebony Green 33:13 
So you can find me on social media. I have a personal page. It's SLP Biz Queen is the handle on Instagram. It's at SLP Biz Queen. I share a lot of behind the scenes of my life as an entrepreneur. I share a lot of inspirational content. 

Ebony Green 33:33 
I share a lot of things to motivate SLPs to reach their highest potential, whether that's professionally, financially. I show what it's like to live a life of abundance on that page. So if you are someone who doesn't like to see people living abundantly, then that's not the page for you to follow because I do show up as Ebony, the CEO. 

Ebony Green 33:55 
I show up as Ebony, the girl boss a lot. And the reason behind that is just because, again, there aren't people showing what's possible when you decide to take a different route. We can see what's possible when you take the route that everyone tells you to take, but when you decide to take a different route, you don't always get to see what's possible. 

Ebony Green 34:16 
So that's one page you can find me. You can also find more about the conference on our conference page, and that's at Made For More SLP on Instagram. Again, that's at Made For More SLP. If you're interested in learning about the courses I create, all of my coaching programs, the platform that I built for SLPs interested in business, that's called the SLP Business Suite and the Instagram handle for that is at the SLP Business Underscore Suite. 

Mai Ling Chan 34:44 
I love it. I hope that our listeners writing all of this down, picking up your phone, following everything. This is somebody that you need to connect with. And even if you're not a speech language pathologist, you know, I always tell everyone, get out of your fishbowl, you know, connect with other people, follow other people, and then you will learn other things that could be valuable for your niche or your profession. 

Mai Ling Chan 35:02 
Thank you so much, Ebony. This has just been a joy. I love that I can spotlight my SLP peeps on our show and especially during May Speech Language Hearing Month. Thank you so much. And I hope to see everybody in Austin. 

Speaker 4 35:13 
Thank you. 

Ebony Green 35:13 
Yes, thank you so much, Mae. This was a pleasure. It was such a, I feel like it felt like a conversation and it didn't even feel like a podcast interview. So thank you for having me. Thank you for your openness and, you know, addressing some of the things that we need to talk more about in our field. 

Ebony Green 35:31 
We need to talk more about, you know, showing up as yourself. I love that. I love everything that we discussed today and I can't wait to see you at the conference. 

Mai Ling Chan 35:39 
Excellent. Thank you. We hope you enjoyed this episode and invite you to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and share the show with people you think will find value from it. This helps the show a lot or have a great guest referral. 

Mai Ling Chan 35:54 
Reach out to us at exleaders at gmail .com. 

James Berges 35:58 
And if you want exclusive tips on becoming an exceptional leader, deliver straight to your inbox, just go to ExceptionalLeaders .com and sign up for our mailing list. Thanks for listening.