She wanted to expand her scope and create more parent coaching, parent training, and parent education opportunities in her community
Over the last few weeks, I’ve been sharing a lot with you about the value and benefits of leading caregiver / baby “parent & me” style family enrichment classes or workshops. As educators or therapists who serve infant and toddler families or who have an educational or professional background in a field related to early child development, we know that our job is much more than simply helping babies and toddlers develop new skills. We know the exponential impact we can make when we serve families holistically in our own communities.
If you haven’t yet downloaded my free Caregiver/Baby Classes roadmap, I invite you to do so today at learnwithless.com/roadmap.
Today, I want to share the story of a licensed Learn With Less® facilitator who I’ve had the pleasure of working with in the last year. I’d like to introduce you to Allie, who is a pediatric speech-language pathologist. She’s been working with infant and toddler families in early intervention for several years, and fell in love with the population – she loves the home coaching, the flexibility, the parent empowerment, and, as she stated, “learning from my clients as much as they were learning from me.”
When she first learned about the Learn With Less® Facilitator Training & Certification program [a parent educator training and certification program], Allie felt that it could be a great way to expand her scope, and to have a different kind of interaction with families than the 1:1 therapeutic sense.
She’d been approached multiple times (and mind you, this was pre-pandemic) by families wanting overall support for early learning, community, and language development, even – or especially – if they didn’t have significant developmental delays. She knew there were plenty of kids slipping through the cracks for therapeutic services, and that families with children of all developmental levels were looking for support from a knowledgable professional.
Before she signed up, Allie did have some reservations and skepticisms. She wondered whether this was a program that could actually help her pivot in her career, and refresh her professional perspective.
Upon completion of the training program, Allie wrote, “the program went above and beyond in content, evidence based support and scope of support and content. I’m so excited to review, tie the pieces together, and try it out.”
It’s one thing for me to read her words… but I’d rather you hear directly from Allie. Allie and I work together in the group each month, where certified facilitators get continued support and coaching. She was kind enough to sit down with me to chat about what she’s doing now, how it’s going for her, and share with you the kind of impact the Learn With Less® Facilitator Training & Certification Program is having on her life.
I do want to say that when she refers to modules, she’s referring to the 6 modules within our training program, which provide training around foundational areas licensed facilitators need to utilize the program effectively.
Connect With Us
Ayelet: Facebook / Instagram / Pinterest
Allie: Website / Facebook / Instagram
Related Resources in This Episode
Learn With Less® Stories: Podcast episodes and other interviews from educators who’ve provided the Learn With Less® infant/toddler family enrichment curriculum and families who’ve experienced our programming.
Learn With Less® Facilitator Training & Certification Program: Use your existing skills as an educator or therapist to serve families holistically with a high quality program that will provide lasting impact! Apply now to become a licensed facilitator Learn With Less®.
Caregiver/Baby Classes Roadmap (free download for educators and therapists curious about leading “parent & me” style classes and finding a parent educator training or certification program)
Text Transcript of This Episode
Ayelet: So you have been you’re out there. You’re doing it. It’s so great. I like love seeing it so fun. I’m proud of you. That’s really…
Allie: You were a big inspiration for that! The whole, the whole, uh, modules [training program] like kickstarted my fire. And I think for me, COVID was like, I wouldn’t have done this if COVID weren’t happening, I would just be doing my normal day to day.
Ayelet: That’s so fun, so, okay. That’s fascinating. Tell me more, what makes you say that? That’s so interesting.
Allie: Uh, not driving all the time. Every 15 to like 30 minutes between sessions certainly frees up a lot of time.
Ayelet: Doesn’t it? And mind space, too!
Allie: Yeah. So I think having more, more time to like be, and even if I’m like, I’m not super productive about it, it’s not like, okay, I’ve got 15 minutes. I’m going to like, here’s my one thing on the to-do list, I’m just gonna crank out. I think it’s, it is the mind space and it is having the, um, being in one space more often allows me to explore, explore my goals in different ways.
And I think the, the modules [of the training program] were extremely focused and since I could do them at my own pace, like it was a topic to think about until I did the next one and in addition to it, you know, for me, it was very focused and without the pressure of having to act on it right in that moment, because I think for, for me earlier on like this year has been crazy in a lot of different ways, but it also gave me a lot of space to think about my own professional development and what I wanted from it versus just maintaining a caseload and maybe taking CEU’s in an area that I like wanting to get better in.
And that would have been my goal for the year, had I not pivoted to teletherapy, had I not developed this whole new coaching reign and also had kind of a push in my caseload changing so much in that format to be able to entertain the idea of taking on groups and trying something outside of the speech therapy thing. Cause I was always curious about it beforehand, but like didn’t have the capacity and didn’t have the, the resources to really develop that.
Ayelet: Totally. That’s awesome.
Allie: Yeah. So like a silver lining of COVID is that now I’m doing these classes and got to take the module and like all that good stuff. Or maybe I would have, it just would’ve been a lot harder or it would have been a lot slower.
Ayelet: Right. Well, I mean you had, you had number one, you had already signed up for the training program before COVID so you already knew you were interested in doing this, but it sounds like, you know, it was kind of the, the idea of like, well, I’ll, I’ll start, I’ll start it. I’ll get my mind around it and then I’ll do it someday when I can do it versus like, Oh actually this is the perfect time to do it. How many classes have you led now?
Allie: I have done one, one paid one a month. Since October. I believe October was my first paid one.
Ayelet: That’s great. It’s so, it’s so good. I mean, I’ve been doing virtual classes since 2017, so it’s like, I know there’s a need, people all have always want, wanted to not have to get out of their homes to go when they have a new baby or whatever, a toddler, nap, schedules, all of that. So what, Oh, okay. Well just to gratify me, what’s been going well. And what have been the challenges for you so far?
Allie: Yeah, I think for me developing the confidence to explore different, different types of advertising and different wording and different, like, calls to action. I, I really appreciate like the streamlined, “this is what you need.” Once I had my central hub of like, this has all the stuff I need to send out, like that’s been awesome. And I feel like I’m prepped for it. The families are prepped for it. I haven’t… There was only one time for my, one of my first demo classes where the family was like, Oh, were we supposed to do something? And I was like, Nope, don’t worry. We’ll do it now. But everything else has been pretty smooth.
And in terms of getting the families who are interested and they sign up, they’re feeling the flow of the classes has been pretty good. Feedback has been pretty good. So I think the tools that you gave us about the pre the post-class surveys are awesome and things to think about through the reflective coaching and the group call that, where you gave me more feedback. So yeah, I think those, those have been the strengths. So just, like, people are getting so much out of it. And I, I was hoping that they would, but I also was like, okay, don’t like, don’t get too hopeful. It’s still a still pandemic. It’ll, it’ll be great. But maybe not that great, but like, it’s awesome.
Ayelet: So yeah. Well, I would love you to share just from, you know, what you remember, like, what are some of the things that, that have really stood out to you? As far as the feedback that you’ve gotten?
Allie: One of my, my toddler demo class, one of the moms was like, I, we just, we, we, we know the regular songs, but we don’t think to sing about other things. And, and this was just written feedback from her. And I’m like, and she, I think she said something was, that was like, we can just sing throughout the day. And my daughter loved it, or like somebody else was like, we haven’t ever built a fort with my two year old. And it’s just those, those things that I, you know, I, I was thinking of like, Oh, everybody’s already tried this already because you’re providing it… It gives them a safe space to practice instead of just thinking about it.
And there was another one that was feedback from my first infant class with like, I just never think to use mailers. I never think to use junk mail and like that again, it was one of those things of, Oh, you must have already tried this. Why are we talking about it? It’s because we’re provided with space to do it. Yeah. So that’s my reinforcement for it too, is every time I’m like, Oh, this seems like a really, but I, again, I like have to, I talk myself out and into it. Of like, it, it seems like a really simple suggestion and I don’t want to insult anybody by suggesting something I think they’ve made already tried, but most of the time…
They, they may have tried it and it’s either gone really well or they tried it and it went terribly. So they don’t want to try it again, or they haven’t even tried it at all. It’s like, those are usually the three options. It’s not usually like, you know, we, we try it once in a while and it goes really well. And then we never do it again.
Ayelet: No. Right. I mean, or, or, and if they do, then they’re like, Oh right. I appreciate the reminder that I’ve… Because we did that a few months ago and like, Oh yeah, that’s right. That went really well. And I’m going to do it again. And now I know that it’s actually supporting this area of development. Like how, how important, how great. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like we hear that, we hear that all the time as facilitators that like, Oh, right! Like, it’s such a good reminder of, even if it’s something that you already do, like, feels like it’s a validation, right?
I mean, I think you had written about the feedback that you got… I think from one parent was like, this was exactly what I needed: the confidence and reassurance. Like, that’s it. And like for parents and caregivers, especially like during a pandemic, when you already feel guilty that you’re not doing enough, not going places, not having the social time, all of that, like giving families that sense of like, Oh, I am very capable and I am, I feel empowered with the knowledge that I can do these things. Like, that’s a gift! That’s awesome.
Allie: I don’t think we should discount… We shouldn’t discount that either, because that’s something I wasn’t, as… I wasn’t expecting to be as powerful as it is.
Ayelet: Huge. It’s huge. Yeah. Oh, good. What about some challenge? What’s… what’s been more difficult?
Allie: Yeah… I think my challenge is marketing to get enough people in a class. And I haven’t deep dived into trying a lot of different strategies all at once, because right now, my goal is to do one class a month through the end of the year. And I’ve already got one scheduled for December and I’m going to meet my goal and I’m really excited about that. But the, the two to three person group has felt pretty good. I also remember doing a five person group and that felt crazy, but awesome.
Ayelet: Was that with toddlers?
Allie: Yeah, that was with toddlers.
Ayelet: Yeah! It’s a whole different energy.
Allie: Yeah. So getting… accessing more people who are ready to sign up for a group. And I don’t know if that’s like, if they’re not connecting with my marketing posts, if I need to try, like snazzing them up in a certain way, if it’s just that, like, it’s, it’s a hard time right before the holidays to try anything new. So…
Ayelet: It’s also a numbers game. And again, like you said, you’ve been trying new things that you’ve never done before… and you’ll continue to go down the route of things that like we’ve talked about in the marketing module and that we continue to talk about in the coaching strategies that we do every month, and stuff like that.
And I’m just so happy that you have not let that hinder you. You haven’t stopped, you’re getting the experience, there’s not a whole lot of overhead costs for you, either, and that’s great! Because then you get this amazing feedback from the families that you are serving, and you get to go forward and get the experience. And that’s fantastic!
Allie: I also, I set, my goal was to set, set my fees so that one person doing one class would pay for my zoom membership. And that’s like, that’s all I need for the month to not only get the practice, but also be like, okay, I can, I’m covering some expenses with this.
Ayelet: And then a little more!
Allie: And then a little more, yeah, right on. There was also… yeah. And I’m gearing up to do a little more outreach to like pediatricians and agencies. I’ve, I’ve got some ideas brewing. I’m not ready to, to make gung ho on them yet, but I think just kind of developing the confidence to entertain those ideas and then make motions on them based on the stuff that you’ve given us in the modules is.. but that’ll open up.
Ayelet: All right, let’s be clear! You have been, you have been teaching classes with like a, quite a small audience and doing it and you haven’t even reached out to like your local resources. Like that’s huge. You’re… Number one, you’re fearless. And number two, like you you’ve just been doing it and that’s great. And you have so many more resources at your fingertips that you can move forward with.
Allie: Yeah!
Ayelet: Good. I would love to know also just like a perception change that you’ve had now that you’ve actually started doing the classes?
Allie: It gets easier with practice. Yep. That’s for sure. I think that the nerves are so powerful the first few classes that you do. It’s, it’s like inhibitory of just having that feeling of like, am I going to, and I think I posted about this in the group of like, am I going to feel like this every single time? Oh my God, I hope not. And it gets better. I feel like I’ve also been, and this is really in terms of the feedback that you’ve given me about like not making it the “Allie Show,” it’s gotten a lot easier to facilitate, interaction with other members just by like pivoting the questions back to them. And I, and I think that even before I was starting the module two, I was trying to figure out how to not only be the therapist in these, in these moments.
And so I think that took some work to, to take off that hat, but it, it has been really empowering to shift into more of the supportive, encouraging role in addition to informant and really remembering that like the goal is not for them to come on, only focus on me telling them things like this, isn’t a webinar, this isn’t, this isn’t a, you know, a class that they’re taking for credit. It is a chance for them to join and get some time to play with their kids and learn with their kids and interact with other parents too.
Like, there’s more to it than just the, the tidbits I give them, which, you know, they’re very important and they get them in the, in the handout too. But I think I wasn’t necessarily expecting to feel all the different formats and sections of the class come together to be the experience that they have become. Like, I think I was expecting like, okay, I’m here to share information. I’m here to teach you something. I’m here to tell you about this developmental thing, but it’s, it’s become a much more natural way when they’re the ones who are doing it.
Ayelet: Totally. I love how you said that. It’s true. It’s so true. What do you feel like will continue to be the impact that it’s having on, on your professional, personal life? In general?
Allie: I feel like my I’m also working really hard to do more parent coaching in my therapy sessions as well. And you know, incorporating a direct model, but also doing much more reflection in a variety of ways. Like I’m trying to do video modeling, I’m trying to do different types of routines.
And so I think the combination of, of starting to learn more about coaching from a speech therapist perspective and also this program being entirely based on things you already have, the whole guise is that you don’t have to go out and like prep hard for the thing you’re about to do. There’s… You can have the same outcome with the things that you would already be using just in a slightly different way. Right. And so I think that that for me has been really empowering of not feeling like I need to have all the answers all the time I do.
I’ve got a big binder next to me that I just keep norms in, and then I’m always like, “Hey, just here are the, here they are,” just in case. But sometimes giving, giving the families re reflection opportunities and chances to like, think through it is way more powerful than me saying, you know, at 12 months they should be doing this. Totally. So, yeah. Yeah. Just encouraging more of that reflection, encouraging reflection on positives and on the ways that they can do it themselves.
I think that’s something that I wasn’t doing. I would usually want to come in and give an answer. Like here’s a suggestion for your week, do this. But it being like, what do you, what’s a way that you think you can redo what we just did. I’m still getting, I’m still working on doing it in the classes. I’ve, I’ve been doing it more in my, my, my speech therapy sessions. So there’s practice happening there.
Ayelet: That’s amazing. I just think that’s so amazing. It’s true. It’s true for me too. Like my therapy, when I do speech therapy with, with families, like it’s way more parent coaching, which is extremely effective, obviously like, like we’re talking about, but it’s, and people love that. It’s very helpful to have things reflected back. I mean, that’s, that’s everything you’re giving them tools. That’s great.
Allie: Yeah! And we don’t always do that in our day to day. Like we, we’re either looking for quick fixes or we want answers, or we want somebody else to tell us how to do it. And there’s certainly a place for that. And it is very helpful to have somebody with a lot of expertise, give you some insight, but also to like force the, the reflection or like maybe gently support. I feel like a lot of things I do, I’m very forceful of like, I’m just gonna do this. Let’s see how it goes, but give the opportunity for somebody else to think through what they would do about it. Yeah.
Because I, I’m just thinking of like all the, the marketing stuff I see all the time is here are three, “three things you need to do to do, to be more successful,” like blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I’m like, okay. But that only works. If I came up with it myself, I’m like one of those learners that if it’s way more powerful, if I think about it, if I do it, if I develop it, I do want all of the resources and the information, to come to my own conclusions. Yeah.
Ayelet: The strategies. Yes. Well, and that’s really good because that’s totally how the, like our training marketing module was created. Like that’s what it was. It was like, here’s all of these great marketing conversations that you can have: go forth and do it!
Allie: And I think it’s helpful that they’re, that we, I did them once and that they’re there for me to reflect on. I think I really have done like most, most revisiting of the logistical one. And I want to revisit the diversity one again too. I have not revisited that one, but that one is on my shortlist to do next.
Ayelet: Yeah. So good. When is your website going live?
Allie: I still have to decide that. I think it might be next week, but I don’t know… I have a friend who’s in marketing who’s helping me coordinate and create, and… she’s like, you can launch it anytime you want.. and I’m like, no, no, I want bubbles, I want fanfare, I want, like, I want to do the, “oh in 3 days there’s going to be something exciting happening, I want to send you bubbles, yes, like I want this to be a celebration!
Ayelet: Yay! Fun! So, that’s another thing… you’ve been doing all of this with no website, and a brand new Instagram and Facebook account for business. Like, sorry, let’s not forget that!
Allie: As of October, I think I went live with my Instagram account, or maybe September. I don’t remember. It’s been less than four months.
Ayelet: Yeah – just a couple of months! That’s amazing!
Allie: Yeah! So you don’t need it! You don’t need, like, I do think that the module about creating all of that and the, the reasons to were really powerful for me because I like, it was something that I was always very afraid of and much more of a lurker than an active participant in…
Ayelet: In creating, in having those assets for yourself?
Allie: Yeah, in social media… other than the “Buy Nothing” group, like I’m very pro proactive in that. But like for other things, in terms of speech therapy stuff, or just parent stuff, I would imbibe the information, but not necessarily feel like I was at a place where I could be the one who sharing that. And so I think having that resource to, to be the push of like, “if you wanted to do it, this is how you could potentially do it with these resources. Here are the things to think about.” I don’t think I would’ve made a website if I hadn’t taken the module. I don’t think I would’ve done Instagram had I not been within this Learn With Less program. Like, I feel like it’s, it’s, it’s something that sets me apart and it’s like, it’s a, it’s a niche development for sure.
Ayelet: You’re creating a… you’re an influencer, Allie.
Allie: Oh my gosh. Can I put that on my resume? I influence.
Ayelet: You’re, well, and you’re also, you’re facilitating with less! You’re not just learning with less…
Allie: No, right here, this is the program, this is the program at work! No, truly, it’s… And I think I, because I started my private practice for speech therapy in 2018 with like word of mouth, only continuing with me, you know, after kids age out of our program, I would see them privately. And I was also not quite ready to do any major marketing there of like, I love the idea of becoming a, you know, a successful practice that has the logo and has the maybe, maybe may or not have a brick and mortar office, but just like the, the idea of the presence, which I wasn’t ready to kind of fully practice that.
But with feeling empowered to make a website and feel like, yep, the things I’m sending out into the world via social media are things that people are hopefully learning from and benefiting from. And it’s also pretty cool to see the positive response to something that I’m doing.
Ayelet: Oh my gosh, your posts have been great. I love the one with your cat was so great. Oh my gosh. I mean, brilliant. Like for you. It’s so great too, because you came into this program feeling like, Hmm, I don’t have kids. Can I really like teach parents quote unquote. Right? Like, and, and you are using what the experience you have. You have, you’re using your kitties. Like, I love it. It’s so great. It’s so good.
Allie:
I have no kids, but I have two kitties. So we’ve gotta be creative with what we have, you know, we don’t, and we don’t necessarily have to have the, “the expected” for it to be successful. Like, I don’t think we need to check all the boxes in terms of like, Oh, this is what it means for me to be successful and an idea of that is great, but we don’t necessarily need all of those things for it to be successful in a different way.
Ayelet: So true. So true.
Allie feels confident, she has a roadmap to reach another level in her career. She knows exactly what she needs to do next, and she’s already started laying the foundation.
At the time of this recording, she’s leading her first “4 week group program,” completely virtually, and for me, to sit and watch her take the reigns, to put her own spin on it, to create rich, meaningful, supportive experiences for the families who participated – and will continue to participate in – her classes… it is just incredible. I got to hand that to her, and she gets to bring it to her community.
Now, if this kind of work calls to you, if you are an educator or therapist looking for new ways to serve families, to use your knowledge to support new parents and caregivers in your community, I invite you to download my free caregiver/baby classes roadmap, which is waiting for you at learnwithless.com/roadmap. Downloading that will get you onto the waitlist to learn more about the Learn With Less Facilitator Training and Certification Program, which I’ll be opening for enrollment again very soon.
Now, I’d love to know more about you: does this work call to you? Do you already serve families in your community in a similar way? Send me a direct message Instagram – I’m @learnwithless and I’d love to hear from you.
