“Education isn’t a business” is a thing people say when they’re upset about how the school systems are being run. But education actually IS a business. Saying otherwise isn’t going to change reality. If you’re frustrated about how the school systems work, you can continue to wish this wasn’t the case… Or you can accept…
Category: Entrepreneurship
EP 252: A Case for Well-Designed Virtual Field Trips (with Seth Fleischauer)
While virtual learning has become more prevalent since 2020, the founders of Banyan Global Learning have been offering digital learning experiences for over 20 years. Some people are excited about the possibilities technology offers. Others are backpedaling or worrying that tech does more harm than good. Like most things, the truth lies somewhere in the…
EP 251: Using a “Virtual Speech Helper” (with Maura Connor)
Have you met “Jessica” the virtual speech helper? I certainly remember hearing about it the first time. This concept raised a lot of questions in the clinical community. Are we trying to replace clinicians, and was that the intention behind this application? If you’ve had these questions too, you won’t want to miss this conversation. …
EP 250: Defining “EdTech” and the End User (with Maura Connor)
When I first started working in the schools in the early 2000s, there was a push for integrating technology into classrooms and therapy sessions It was even a box that got checked on my employee evaluation. Now there’s a defined space referred to as “EdTech”. It took me a while to realize that this was…
EP 231: Finding a Place for AI in Therapy and Product Development (with Natalie Yona)
In this episode of De Facto Leaders, I’m joined by speech-language therapist Natalie Yona from Cognishine to explore one of the most nuanced conversations happening in today: Where does AI actually belong in therapy? Cognishine is a multilingual, multidisciplinary digital intervention platform designed for therapists, educators, and care professionals—offering a rich library of evidence-based, culturally…
EP 216: The School Leader’s Guide to Executive Functioning Support
In this episode, I’m excited to announce the release of my new compression course, “The School Leader’s Guide to Executive Functioning Support.” You can learn more about the course here. In this session, I’ll be sharing why I created this program, what parents and professionals have shared with me when I talk about executive functioning,…
EP 126: Behind the scenes of a K-12 staffing company (with Ryan Cleaveland)
Many clinicians start their careers feeling unprepared to navigate the job market. In a lot of professional groups, I’ve noticed a skepticism towards contract companies, recruiters, and staffing agencies simply because many people working in school settings don’t know who they can trust. If you’ve ever had a recruiter awkwardly slide into your DMs or…
EP 98: How to become a children’s book author (with Valerie Doherty)
On episode 98 of the “De Facto Leaders” podcast, I had the opportunity to interview children’s book author and veteran SLP, Valerie Doherty. Valerie has over 30 years of experience as an SLP, and in 2011 her passion for language and literacy inspired her to start writing children’s books. Readers need physical books they can…
EP 95: Creating therapy materials to serve your caseload and build a business (with Hallie Sherman)
In episode 95 of the “De Facto Leaders” podcast I sat down with Hallie Sherman, a school speech-language pathologist, blogger, and business owner from SpeechTimeFun. When Hallie started working as a school SLP, she had a difficult time finding materials for middle school and high school students. After a lot of trial and error, she…
EP 94: Using YouTube to support clients and foster innovation (with Clay Hadden)
In episode 94 of the “De Facto Leaders” podcast I sat down with Clay Hadden (a.k.a. Mister Clay), a private practice SLP and YouTuber from South Carolina. We had a fantastic conversation about how to come up with creative ways to serve your caseload and play a part in advocacy issues relating to health care…