Xceptional Leaders with Mai Ling Chan & Martyn Sibley

Our guest on the show today is Denise Resnik, founder and CEO of First Place Apartments, a housing solution for adults with autism. Denise is also a co-founder of the Southwest Autism Research & Resource Center (SARRC). She shares her experiences as the mother of a son with autism, her inspiration for First Place and SARRC, and encourages us to dream big.

Our host, Mai Ling Chan starts off this year of the show with interviews with two successful entrepreneurs who have some great information to share. We start with a chat with speaker, best-selling author, and leadership coach Chris Widener who shares valuable business principles and encouragement to help you launch or grow your business. Following that, Mai Ling is joined by entrepreneur Nathan Hirsch, co-founder and CEO of Freeeup, to share some tips and specific examples of how you can outsource tasks in your business to freelancers allowing you to make the best use of your time.

For this special holiday episode, Mai Ling Chan sits down for a fun, lighthearted roundtable conversation with the other hosts of the Xceptional Podcast Network. She is joined by Matt Hott of Speech Science as well as Chris Bugaj and Rachel Madel of Talking with Tech. The four discuss the challenges and benefits of creating a podcast in the special needs market. They also talk about how they first got into an SLP career, staying focused while interviewing guests, their favorite holiday films, and more.

Once again we bring you some great interviews from the 2018 ASHA conference in Boston. In this episode, we feature interviews with other podcasters in the SLP space. Mai Ling Chan talks with the SLP Happy Hour hosts, Erik X. Raj, Chris Bugaj, Lucas Steuber, Ayelet Marinovich, Venita Litvack, and Jenna Castro-Casbon.

Do you have a great idea but don't know the next steps to take to have the most impact on the world? Phyl Macomber shares her journey of moving beyond the borders to impact the world with her ideas and how you can too. She talks about mastermind groups, using your skills in diverse applications, the essentiality of being profitable as an SLP in order to continue helping people, the value of knowing when you need to learn more to improve your effectiveness, and much more. We also spotlight Jenn, our 2nd place winner live interview at ASHA 18.

Our host, Mai Ling Chan, attended the ASHA18 conference in Boston and had the opportunity to interview several SLP Bloggers on the show floor. These short conversations are full of insights from these talented professionals who are working hard to impact this field. Also included in this episode is a featured interview with Summer Loehr, live from the XceptionalED booth.

Marisha McGrorty is the founder of SLP Now®, an SLP resource website built on the membership model. Marisha talks about running a startup, drawing motivation from others in a co-working space, and why she chose a subscription model for her products. She also shares some of her mentors and how she zeroes in on the specific needs of her community and then solves their problems with her product offerings.

Speech language pathologist and podcast producer, Matt Hott, is one of the hosts of Speech Science. He joins the program to talk about what led him to launch the show and he also discusses not discounting the small beginnings, personal branding, and being genuine with your audience.

Legally blind photographer, Bruce Hall, is our guest today and he shares the story of creating the book, Immersed: Our Experience With Autism, which he created with his wife, Valerie. Bruce talks about raising twin boys with autism, the value of capturing memories, the importance of a mentor, and the challenges of running a Kickstarter campaign.

Founder and Executive Director of Born Dancing, Melissa van Wijk, joins Mai Ling Chan to discuss the ins and outs of launching and running a non-profit organization. Melissa shares how she mapped out the steps to launch her vision, some of the legalities of running a non-profit, and why a can-do mentality is important.

Speech Therapist Kathy Hoffman shares her decision to run for public office and how that has affected her life. She talks about obtaining campaign funding, work/life balance, how running for office changes one’s life, and some of the sacrifices she’s had to make.

Brett Heising, CEO of brettapproved.com, joins Mai Ling to chat about starting his company. Brettapproved is a website which reviews businesses based on accessibility and Brett talks about launching the startup, emotional and business challenges he’s faced, obtaining startup investment, and the importance of having a passion for your idea.

Speech-language pathologist, Dr. Erik X. Raj shares his experiences developing speech therapy apps for the iPhone and iPad. Erik talks about some of the challenges he faces in the app development process, making apps that are enjoyable to use, and how his rock band experience helped to develop his app brand.

Brandon Seigel shares valuable tips and information for the private practice owner. Brandon touches on employment tax issues, handling complicated insurance situations and shares the 3 biggest mistakes that private practice owners make in their business.

Avi Golden is a former paramedic and current stroke champion who shares his message with others. He shares his story, struggles, and triumphs with us and helps us to take those next steps in embracing life to the fullest.

John Gomez is a Speech-Language Pathologist who has seen the way that stuttering can profoundly impact one's life. John discusses the making of his documentary "When I Stutter...", which features the true impact that stuttering has on one’s life.

Welcome to the Xceptional Leaders podcast. Find out how we can help you help more people.