Not Just an Assistant – Leadership, Visibility & The SLPA Network

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Transcript of “Not Just an Assistant – Leadership, Visibility & The SLPA Network” – Bright Conversations Podcast

Hi and welcome to another episode of Bright Conversations. I am your host for today, Shontay Glover-Jones. And I'm Sarah, one of the co-creators of SLP Toolkit and Bright Ideas. And we are excited to be together. We haven't been together at hosts for a while, but we're super excited to be together for this episode with our lovely and full of personality and success.

I guess Alice Williams. Hello everybody. This episode we're calling not just an assistant leadership visibility and the SLPA network. And I think that encapsulates everything that Alice represents. I can say, I can do it better myself.

I love that. When it came across my email, I was like, oh, she knows me. She gets me. God. So for any of our viewers or listeners who aren't familiar with Alice, Alice Williams is a nationally recognized SLPA that Speech Language Pathology Assistant and entrepreneur.

And she is the creator of the SLPA network. She has seven years of experience in the field. And she empowers support personnel through mentorship, confidence coaching and career development rooted in equity and collaboration. I would say too, having had the opportunity to work with you virtually and in person, that Alice is the ultimate cheerleader. She is the person that will support you and root for you and cheer you on.

She doesn't want to win alone. She wants to see everyone around her win. So it's a pleasure to have you with us today, Alice. Thank you so much, Chante and Sarah. I get two co-hosts.

Listen. Listen. We were chatting right before we hit the record button. I'm glad you just said that, Chante, because I literally was like, I needed this today. We're not in the same room.

The energy coming. The absolute, like, just joy and confidence radiates. I'm so excited for that. Me too. It's an instant mood boost just to be on with all of you and Chante.

I hope you guys can feel it too through the screen. Okay. Because however you're hearing us. So Alice, let's kick this off though by telling us a little bit about your journey and what led you to becoming an SLPA. It is a very, very unique journey.

I found actually speech pathology found me later in life. I will be 50 this year. I was in Texas with two young boys working two jobs. I've been in healthcare for about 17 years. I worked at a hospital and I worked at a boutique because I love to shop.

So I'm shopping. I meet this woman who says she just graduated from Baylor with her communication disorders degree. She's going to go teach kids. I'm like, I don't want to do that. But what else could I do with that?

So we're shopping and gabbing and having a great time. It sits on me. It sits on me. I'm like, I think I could do this speech thing. So I go home and for the next two years I research and I figure out, I got to go back to school.

So I have a bachelor's degree in communications/journalism. And so I'm like, how do I do this? And so I made it happen for myself. 2014 I moved from Texas to Arizona with a plan to go to Arizona State and get my master's degree because that's what you do, right? And so I'm here and I'm talking to my advisor and she goes, you know, you have enough credits to be at SOPA, right?

And I go with that. Tell me more about that because I'm broke and I'm hungry and I got these kids and I need some money. And so it really was an out to figure out if it was really for me. Like, can I really do this? Because I thought I could.

I didn't know. And I am still here. I love it. And so that's how I got here. Do you want me to keep going?

What kept you here? Oh, yeah. Okay. The good part. So what kept me here was I was enjoying myself.

I didn't see the need to up and go into any more debt. Let's just be real. And I needed to get out of the hole I dug myself in and get stable. And I really enjoyed it. I have had great experiences with my supervisors, great experiences all the way around.

But over the years, I started hearing my counterparts not having such great experiences. And I'm like, what do you mean? What do you mean? Like, how was this even real? How was this happening?

It began to spur that empowerment part of me, that big sis, that, oh, this is not going down. That part of me stood up. And I was like, okay, God, maybe that's why I'm here. Like it's not just about a career or money. It's about advocacy.

And so that's why I'm still here. I have a job to do here before I move on to get my masters and my PhD. I come to that too. Okay. Sarah, did you start your career at one point in your career?

Were you an SLPA too? It was. It was an SLPA. And then they had something, I don't know if they still do it called a speech tech, which was like, because I had a bachelor's in speech and hearing science. I had a little bit more I could do as a speech tech than an SLPA, but not much.

But yeah, I did that for three or four. And then I did it through grad school. I think it's what allowed me to get into grad school. Yeah, well, like I went in with more practical knowledge than probably most of the students in my class who were coming straight out of grad school. So yeah, I and I loved it.

Mm hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's all the best parts.

It's all the best parts. And if you are forthright and if you are assertive, you can get your supervisors to teach you stuff. You can really level up right here in the pocket, honey. Mm hmm. In the pocket.

And I think that's a really important message and mindset that you share that sometimes it's not feasible to go on right away to pursue your master's degree. And that's okay. You can really make this work for you and turn it into a career, not just a stepping stone, so to speak. This could be where you land and then build it and pursue all the things that you want it to be for yourself. All the things.

All the things. All the things, for sure. So what does a day look like for you? I know that you do a lot of different things, but what's an average day look like for you? Because I started speech with Miss Alice in 2022, my days are mine to curate.

And so over the last three years, it's evolved from full on in home, like 30 families, Monday through Friday, honey, East Valley, I live in Phoenix, East Valley, West Valley , I was making my rounds and I was getting burned out. And I said, I love this, but I'm not going to kill myself. I'm getting older. My body can't handle the wear and tear. It might be a cool neither.

Okay. Oh, I said, how can I do this my way on my terms? And I met an amazing young lady, Ebony Green, who has a clinic here and I met her on Instagram and I go on her DMS. I'm like, you're here. Can I work for you?

She's like, you sure can. And we had an interview over the phone. Literally, I kid you not. And I told her, I don't want to do what I've been doing. Like, how can I, how can I on board with you, but do it a little bit differently?

She said, have you thought about being an independent contractor? You have a little bit more autonomy over your schedule. And I'm like, show me, show me the way. Oh, wise one. And so that's really how speechless Alice was born having that autonomy because I also wanted to be a business owner.

I'm like, well, how do I do both? She's like, you just do it. I'm like, but I don't know what that looks like. I'll help you. And so now, honey, four days a week.

And Thursday is my work from home day. So I don't leave the house. I'm going to leave the house for you as we know. OK. Great.

And obviously, I've advocated for myself to make more money. So as the years go on, I can do less work and I can still make good money because I'm advocating for myself saying I deserve this now. I bring this to the table. And so, yeah, it's not that I'm not working. I'm working on my business, not in my business.

So are you in the clinic? Are you I was going to ask that? Are you now? Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Instead of going to the homes, I brushed out because I want to do everything. I want to experience everything. So I'm doing on tele therapy in schools and in home. I'm doing in clinic. And yeah, making it.

I'm making it happen. All fronts. That's fantastic. And all as an SLPA. I really just want to explore that.

Sometimes think that there are limitations to what your role can be. So I love that. Found a mentor who was listening to help you and show you how to become all the things you were interested in being. And you made your life and your career work for you. Make it fit for what you wanted for yourself.

I did. It was scary. Because I was like, you know, I was like, you know, , because even as going from W to the independent contract, there's a lot of responsibility. Taxes and no insurance and what my kids don't do and what am I going to do. So it's not for the faint at heart.

Love, it's not. Well, that's probably an episode. You can probably do our own episode. But Sarah could talk all about making that transition and how scary it is when you go from a W2 to having an idea and deciding, I'm going to go full force with this idea and getting the results. And create something from scratch.

It's not an overnight success, but you know, when you have faith in yourself. Yeah, we have support, like you said, mentorship. And even just it's the attitude of how do you do it? You just do it. Like I love that response because how I get through every day still to this point.

And I've been doing this and I'm still like, I don't know what I'm doing. But I just do it. I figured out. Yeah. So, okay, I've never even thought of this idea of the contracting.

So did you find the supervisors and they find the students free to work with or you actively finding students? Okay. Or it's because I was able to basically slowly integrate with Ebony. She's like , you bring the people that you want to bring because my families, I have over 90% retention rate. My families love me.

Bring your people here. So there, there's still your people. I'll provide the supervision. Okay. So that's how it's been with my contractors.

I have had a contract where they asked me, do you have relationship with the current supervisor that you want to bring with you? And I was like, I can ask a few people around, you know, and they got a separate contract simply to supervise me. So little chitching in their pocket, right? So yeah, sometimes we just can negotiate how we wanted to work. But most oftentimes, the contract will provide me with the supervision.

And I will bring my existing caseload and then they'll fill in the gaps as people dip and dip and ab because you know that happens. But you're and you're setting your rate. I am. I love this. I am.

I wish more people would do these things because yes, like you said, you are in control of, you know, when you work, where you work, how much you're going to make. I love it. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's, it's.

It's amazing. Very liberating. Any families when you were making this transition, did any of your families say , no, I prefer the home be setting. I'm not interested in the clinic. How did you make that transition?

Okay. So, because I was getting burnt out on the end home, I curated who I wanted to come with me to this new location. And those who were out of my range, because I said, I want to look 10 minute bubble. I don't want to go outside of this little range. So if you're way over here.

I'm not going to go outside of this little range.

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