3: The One With Meredith from Peachie Speechie
Listen to the episode hereReleased July 24, 2018IntroductionThis episode features a very special guest, Meredith Avren of The Peachie Speechie. If you’re a speech-language pathologist (SLP) then you definitely know her work, but if you’re not, then you should know that Meredith is the ultimate girl boss and creator of the most amazing educational materials, apparel, and accessories geared toward speech language pathologists and teachers. For our first interview, we could not have imagined it going any better. We thought we knew Meredith and her work pretty well, but we learned so much from this interview and are even bigger fans now! She has a heart of gold and a great sense of humor. Honestly, we could have spoken to her all day! Below are some of the excerpts from our conversation. Note: Some of the transcript was altered to make it easier to read.Q&AWhere do you get your product inspiration?I would say my number one source of inspiration is my caseload at work. Whenever I have my students come in, and they tell me what they're interested in, I found that catering to my students' interests really increases their motivation. So we use whatever they want. And then, of course, my own children are pretty helpful if I'm working on a project that give me tips like, "Oh, Mom, you know, that sounds boring, or add this to it." And so its really the kids, that give me my inspiration.What is it like working on a team with your hubby? We are a team 100%. Well actually, I would say Josh is more like 70% of the company. He does so much behind the scenes work, he does all my artwork, and he really helps a whole lot. He does a lot of my photo editing and photography for social media. So it's really fun to work with him. And to do this together.Do you have any advice for SLPs starting a side hustle?[It's] so funny we just talked about time blocking, because that would be one of them, for sure, set aside time to work on it. Because in the beginning, it can become really time consuming. And you can find yourself just constantly focusing on and trying to get it together. And I think if you just start by setting aside maybe just a couple hours every weekend to plan things out that would be really helpful. Also doing something completely different and unique. I think that is my best advice to anybody starting a new business is to be original.How do you stand out in a niche market (i.e. speech-language pathology)?Well, I think just being in the field and knowing your audience is really important. So like I said, I know what my customers are going to want, because I'm in the same situation. I'm in the schools every day with these students. So I know it can be helpful. I think getting yourself out there on social media is helpful too. And at first, it was pretty challenging for me to figure out social media, and to put my ideas out there so that people could see them and, you know, use them. But that has come a long way in the past six years. Also, just to be unique and different. I'm not doing something that other people are doing. I'm doing something completely original with my shirts and with my products, and I think that people see that.This or That GameThe second half of the interview consisted of a game that helped us get to know Meredith better. It was called "This or That" and she had to choose between two options. Below are her answers, but you really have to listen to the episode to hear her reasoning behind these answers. Especially why she prefers oranges over peaches!
- Coffee or tea? Coffee
- Cake or donuts? Donuts
- Vanilla or chocolate? Chocolate
- Ice cream or sherbet? Ice Cream
- Oranges or peaches? Oranges
- Eat in or dine out? Dine Out
- Dog or cat? Cat
- PC or Mac? Mac
- Scary movie or Happy ending? Happy Ending
- Flats or heels? Flats
- Yoga or running? Yoga
- Tacos or Pizza? Tacos
- Book or Movie? Book
We hope you enjoyed this episode and getting to know Meredith from the Peachie Speechie more. Are there any other questions you would have like to ask her?