We were lucky to catch up with Marisa Whitman recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Marisa, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
First, I am so honored and grateful to be a part of BoldJourney! Being the first child, and the only daughter, I had a natural tendency toward caregiving. I come from a family of “helpers” with different professions like school psychologist, nurse, teacher. My biggest influence was (and continues to be) my mom, and she was a Special Education teacher in the public schools here in California. I knew I loved children and pondered different career choices similar to what my mom was doing. To help me on my purpose path she set up a time for me to observe the speech pathologist at her school. I shadowed her all day (and fun fact~ she became my supervisor for my school internship years later). I thought to myself, this lady gets paid to PLAY with kids? That’s a job?! That was the beginning of this amazing journey to fulfill my purpose to support children and families to improve connection and communication skills in the early years. I never wanted to be “The Boss” while I was on my path to being a speech pathologist. I would tell folks all the time, “I don’t have a ‘business brain’~ I am a clinician”. I have such a passion for all things speech and language and I knew I could reach more families thus impact more lives if I struck out on my own. Funshine was born, and like any new mom I was terrified and thought I was failing left and right. I got myself a mentor in a similar field and would meet her and other practitioners just starting out for lunches. Friends~ it takes a village! We would support each other in our growing businesses (think~ “Hey girl! Do you have a good contract template I can use?” or “Does anyone know how in the world I take a credit card payment?” etc). Yikes was there a learning curve but I loved what I was doing so much and truly believed in my skills that I persisted. Now I am living my purpose everyday!
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
You will never meet another human who is as enthusiastic about supporting early connection and communication skills as I am. I have been seeing clients for over 20 years from the school setting, to the clinic setting and now with the home-health and family support piece. It is the most joyful and exciting feeling and my heart is full. I absolutely love when I work with a family who is struggling to connect with their little one and there are meltdowns and tears on the regular (and that’s just the mom! ). I give them HOPE and support with their parent-child communication, help the child regulate and connect with the parents and create this amazing environment for speech and language to flourish. What caregivers say and how they say it makes a huge impact on a child’s emotional development, resilience, self-esteem, cognitive/reading ability (and MORE)….but no one explicitly teaches you this stuff when you start on your parenthood journey. That brings me to what I do today. I love seeing families 1:1 for speech therapy and continue to practice as a speech therapist. Currently I am shifting by adding a piece that I believe is vital (and missing) from current 1:1 speech and language therapy~ The caregiver support piece. I empower the caregivers and families to feel more confident as a parent, improve connection with their child, helping the child talk more and decrease frustration and maladaptive behaviors. In other words~ it’s not JUST speech that we are covering and “the real magic is YOU”! I created a space to more easily and effectively support families when I started RealMomSLP.com. There I host free on-line workshops, post free tips and activities, resources and host live small group courses where I show parents how to “Think Like A Speech Pathologist”!
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
I am so blessed that I grew up in a loving house where compassion and acceptance were at the forefront of all actions. Growing up I knew the importance of being a “helper” no matter what my job title was. I learned to be flexible and pivot when things don’t go as expected (which they won’t most of the time). We speech therapist joke that flexibility is THE #1 SKILL you need in our profession. I had to discover and learn my worth, then set healthy boundaries that helped me succeed. I also talk…to everyone and I always have! The clerk at the market, the UPS guy, another mom waiting to pick up her kid from school and this is directly related to my success. Connection! When you have a connection with someone else (could be your child, your dog, your hairdresser, the meeter maid…whoever) you will feel that you can do/be anything. I used this 3 pronged criteria to find and follow my passion: What am I good at? What do I love to do? How can I have a positive impact on the world? Then make a “purpose smoothie” with all three, get a mentor and find some time to meditate. Be confident in yourself, feel connections to others and keep going even when it’s difficult. You got this!
Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?
I believe in what I am doing so passionately and I want this support to reach far and wide. I would love to collaborate with likeminded small business folks, moms or caregivers, other specialists~pediatric OTs, SLPs, PTs, Early Intervention therapists, early care providers~pediatrician, pediatric dentist, daycare staff etc. Anyone who has a similar mission or vision and feels that early connection and communication is critical in developing healthy tiny humans. I would love to connect with anyone who is looking to educate their audience (on any platform) about the importance of caregivers having access to these research-backed, “best practice’ strategies and skills.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.realmomslp.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/realmomspeech/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Realmomspeech
