Becoming an Education Therapist and Venturing into Business:
Stephanie started out as a teacher before she found her true passion as an Educational Therapist where she is able to help those with learning differences and disabilities to reach their full potential!
In a classroom setting, there is only so much time you can devote to one student before being pulled away to the next. Being able to work one-on-one with a student for a longer period of time is much more beneficial and fulfilling for both the student and educational therapist.
Stephanie got her first clients through word of mouth and personal relationships. Once she decided to move to LA, she transitioned to receiving new clients through professional relationships and networking.
Stephanie’s learning curve came on the business side of things; She had a business buddy who helped with problem solving. She then got a business coach where she learned a great amount about how to run her own business and tips about what to specifically focus on.
Resources and Tips from Stephanie:
Listen to podcasts and read books about how to help learners, as well as your business coach if you have one.
Expand your team of educators. Originally, Stephanie had several people reach out to her and asked if she was hiring. After that, she put ads up and used her network to see if anyone knew other educators that would want to join her team.
Make use of social media! It not necessarily guarantee new clients, but it does help put yourself out there as an expert in educational therapy. Looking for gaps has also been beneficial for Stephanie. For example, there was not a podcast for education therapy and that was a gap that Stephanie was able to fill. Although there is not a direct financial return by using social media, there is still huge value in utilizing Instagram or other social media in terms of focusing on your long-term goals and the bigger picture.
Build a reliable team! Once Stephanie started having a lot of work on her hands, having a team, a business manager, and podcast partner has been extremely helpful and supportive for her.
Other areas that educators could find profitable value include talking to schools and parents, focusing on one project at a time and making that project sustainable before moving on to the next.
Have a lawyer, a CPA, and a bookkeeper. It is a huge undertaking, but if you have this type of support, you will come out the other side so accomplished and proud.
Raising rates: It's hard to separate emotions, especially as an educational therapist. Taking out the emotion and offering what you believe you deserve while also being reasonable is the best way to approach raising your rates.
Owning a business is not easy, but if you stick with it through all of the successes and failures with a great team, you will be successful. If you are a new educator, do not second guess yourself! Trust yourself!
You can find Stephanie Pitts at www.myedtherapist.com, on social media @myedtherapist, catch her on Learn Smarter podcasts on all podcast discoveries, and on her podcast website: learnsmarterpodcast.com.
Sean McCormick 0:00 Hey, welcome to the Earn More Tutoring podcast. My name is Sean McCormick and I'll be your host. This podcast is all about how to earn more money today. Whether you are a teacher, academic coach or educational therapist, you are going to learn ways to optimize your approach so you can earn more. Today's guest is Stephanie Pitts. Stephanie Pitts is the owner of myedtherapist, an educational therapy group practice in Redondo Beach. Palos Verdes is in virtually nationwide. She works with students one on one tell parents get a full picture of what is going on with their children, reading reports, conducting assessments, and creating an attending individualized learning plans and meetings, known as the game whisperer are the collection of over 200 games she uses with their clients. Stephanie expertly weaves fun, and play into her work with clients to help them have more fun learning, make better connections between kids, parents and educators. Stephanie is also the co host of the Lauren smarter podcast, and also does professional coaching through the Learn smarter pro course. Welcome to the show, Stephanie. Just to start, like, you know, one of the one of my ideas was, you know, I was struggling with like, how to figure out ways to, you know, earn more tutoring, basically, but not just tutoring like i My background is in special ed. And, you know, most of the time I was a special ed teacher, I was like, Well, I guess this is, you know, where my life is going. And I'll do this for 40 years and retire and everything, but never really knowing or never seen any resources about like, how do you, you know, do something different? You know, and and then Cara came and spoke to a group that I joined them rent educators and private practice. Yeah, talking about educational therapy. That's how I learned about you. But you know, and obviously, you created this awesome, you know, program and serving so many students and clients everything's, but I wanted to know more like, how did you you know, get started, like, were you going to be a teacher? Did you always know you want to be a therapist? And how did the journey to kind of what you're doing, I guess, to begin. Stephanie Pitts 2:05 You know, it's interesting, because I started out, I always knew I wanted to teach. And I went and got my master's in education. And then I was teaching. And I didn't love it. Not the teaching aspect, I love to actually teach. But I didn't love the bureaucracy, I didn't love all the things that came along with it. And I back in the day, I put my resume into a nanny agency looking to travel with a family as a nanny in the summers, because I was like, I want to travel and do something and get paid while I do it. So actually, what ended up happening is a family saw my resume, and they traveled the world and wanted someone with a teaching background to help homeschool the kids while we traveled. So I left teaching to do that. And I ended up working for that family for nine years. And the reason that I knew about therapy is because one of the kids had an a therapist, suggested by a neuropsychologist. And when I saw what the therapist was doing, it was basically what I was doing with the kids after school with their homework and helping them just learn how to learn. And I was like, that's exactly what I'm doing. But they aren't listening to me as much because I'm like apparent to them. So. So I actually researched and found the program at Cal State Northridge for educational therapy. And at the time, I couldn't really do it because of my job and hours. And then a few years later, it worked out that I could all of a sudden, and so my hours changed. And so I did that program. And I honestly wasn't somebody that thought like I would ever start a private practice. I thought I would just be you know, working in somebody else's practice. And then as time went on, and I started to like, sit there and think, oh, maybe I can do this or, you know, getting clients and whatnot. On the side. I was like, oh, okay, yeah, I'm doing this. And it just sort of blossomed from there. So it wasn't, I figured out as a kid I had a someone who helped me she wasn't really a tutor. She was more of an ED therapist, actually. And but of course she wasn't called that and so when that all made sense to me, I it was I was more passionate about it. Sean McCormick 4:51 Wow, okay, so that's an amazing yeah, like What a lucky not lucky but just like fortuitous experience. Yeah, just Stephanie Pitts 4:57 very like yeah, it's just one of those things, you know, sometimes you get led to things and and you just gotta listen. So that's just how that happened. Sean McCormick 5:07 Not so with the nanny experience where you are traveling with them and teaching their kids, I must have been amazing. Where did you Where did you go on your journeys? Stephanie Pitts 5:16 Ah, well, I've been to not all of them with them. But I know that I've been to 31 count...
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