In this podcourse episode, we are joined by Melanie Evans, a Spanish bilingual SLP (Pediatric Speech Sister) and certified master mindset coach, discusses how SLPs’ money mindset—shaped largely by subconscious beliefs and nervous system “safety” responses—affects income and career choices.

Melanie explains her “navigator” (conscious mind), “program” (subconscious), and “gatekeeper” (nervous system) model, and how scarcity beliefs, attachment styles, adverse experiences, and burnout can drive avoidance of negotiation, staying in misaligned roles, or overworking in entrepreneurship.

She emphasizes aligning goals with purpose/values, building financial literacy, tracking rhythms, delegating, and taking values-aligned action to reframe success to include abundance and equity.

Melanie shares resources, research references, and ways to connect, including The Abundant CEO and free mindset tools.

In this episode, we interview Kristin Winter, owner of SpeechRx in Stuart, Florida, about transitioning from a hospital leadership role to building an adult-only private practice specializing in dysphagia, voice, and head and neck cancer care.

Kristin explains how her side hustle began in 2020 with home visits, grew into an office-based clinic centered on in-office FEES, and expanded to a team of four clinicians with specialized roles.

She shares early marketing tactics (flyers, rack cards, physician outreach, networking, chamber of commerce), conducting market analysis by “searching like a patient,” and using support groups and community education to drive referrals and outcomes.

Kristin discusses credentialing and the realities of insurance participation, emphasizing Medicare’s importance, renegotiating rates, and going out-of-network when reimbursements are unsustainable.

In this episode we are joined by Tori Ross, Speech-Language Pathologist, owner of Talking with Tori Speech Therapy, and author of Once Upon a Doodle: An Alliance Adventure.

Tori explains how her school and private-practice experience shaped an interactive wipe-clean “choose your own adventure” book designed to increase engagement, support early language, narrative development, early literacy, and motor speech needs through short phrases, predictable story structure, story grammar elements, sequencing/retell supports, and problem-solving prompts.

She shares ways parents, educators, and clinicians can embed goals during shared reading—purposeful open-ended questions, modeling/expanding language, natural articulation and phonological awareness practice—and describes companion downloadable activities accessed via QR code.

Tori cites dialogic reading research showing greater language gains than passive reading and encourages clinicians to create needed resources grounded in evidence-based practice.