We recently connected with Mai Ling Chan and have shared our conversation below.
Mai Ling, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s kick things off with talking about how you serve the underserved, because in our view this is one of the most important things the small business community does for society – by serving those who the giant corporations ignore, small business helps create a more inclusive and just world for all of us.
The term “exceptional” replaces the term “special needs” as it is inclusive of individuals who are outside of the 50% “highest probability” representation on the graphical representation bell curve.
Exceptional Leaders are individuals who are highly focused and passionate about a central mission – supporting universal design and access to all experiences. But they do so at a cost. An Exceptional Leader, may often endure additional challenges to success and growth. This can include, having a disability themselves which impacts activities of daily living, caring for a family member with a disability, limiting financial costs and income opportunities, and related stigma and prejudice. Any of these additional factors may slow, pause, and sometimes, stop progress towards what began as an important innovation, initiative, or organization. And the loss of these initiatives ultimately negatively affects the overall progress of universal design and disability representation. This is why I am dedicated to identifying, nurturing, and supporting our Exceptional Leaders from ideation through sustainability.
Mai Ling, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Some day what I do will not be interesting – it will be commonplace. This is what I have been working towards for the past 12 years. What started as my own curiosity and reverence for the disability leadership space, has become the foundation of my work as well as a beacon for my future projects. As a speech-language pathologist, I have served people in a very intimate capacity. This includes nurturing and supporting the building blocks of language, facilitating connections to lost language, and the inclusion of an individual’s close ecosystem. All of the people I worked with met the requirements for having a “disability” and qualified for services. Throughout the years, I have also met people who have identified unmet needs relating to disability and have found innovative and creative ways to fulfill as well as exceed expectations. These people are who I refer to as, Exceptional Leaders.
I believe we are stronger together and we are all Exceptional in our own unique ways. This is why I have focused all of my talents and skills on spotlighting individual Exceptional Leaders through presentation events, live stream and podcast interviews, anthology opportunities, and more, in order to compound their reach, extend their platforms and message, share their products, and ultimately, provide additional support and progress. One day all experiences and products will be created with a universal lens instead of addressing a specific disability and advocates like myself will no longer be relevant because it is in the fabric of all that we do.
How did you build your audience on social media?
I have built several companies using the power of social networking and I highly recommend it. The first company was created after a few months of connecting on X (known as Twitter in 2011). Our speech-language pathology industry had already created and was actively using the hashtag #slpeeps and I was a newbie to this global online community. Although I was limited to 140 characters back then, I learned to use them judiciously while making new connections with key people all over the world.
What I found the most effective was interacting in the most genuine manner I felt comfortable with – keeping in mind that anyone in the world would be able to access my tweets. This was difficult to do in the beginning because of the natural tendency to cultivate and secure a professional persona. Eventually, I allowed myself to peel back protective layers and engage in valuable conversations, and ultimately, invested in creating relationships rather than simply posting my expertise and opinions. This helped to establish trust – which is essential for all relationships, even virtual ones.
I moved over to Facebook for many years and it was easier to connect directly with people and maintain a genuine reflection of my personal character and brand. I also embraced LinkedIN at a time when the majority of my profession was just beginning to understand the value of this social media platform for our profession and was able to connect with many industry leaders in healthcare, disability, innovative technology, as well as speech-language pathology.
Unfortunately, I can’t say I am as active as I could be on Instagram, and TikTok has not been on my content creation calendar – but I can definitely say that I have colleagues who have experienced monumental success on both platforms.
Building on my vast experience interviewing Exceptional Leaders for our podcast (now starting it’s 6th year), the majority of people who have found success with social media are the ones who are genuine in their representation of their company, products, or services. Like myself, they show up in their posts rather than allow their logo to speak for them. This is truly the best way to connect with your audience – be yourself and show them you care about them.
What’s been the best source of new clients for you?
Many people have asked how I have been able to achieve full-time consulting and I can only say that it was a gradual move. Once people have experience with my talents as a unique connector between clinical, technical, business, and customer, they are then very generous in referring me to other projects and companies where they felt I would be a valued team member. This ties well with the power of social media connections. I have also experienced success with cultivating business relationships that began on a social media platform, grew through virtual meetings, and successfully culminated with an exciting project together. I highly recommend educating your connections on your services and what your future goals are so they can help with connecting you when the opportunities arise – and also be sure to always be thinking of ways to support your relationship in their goals also!
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.mailingchan.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mailingchan/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MaiLingChanSLP/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mailingchan/
- Twitter: @mailingchan