We were lucky to catch up with Jessica Bennett recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jessica, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Talk to us about building your team? What was it like? What were some of the key challenges and what was your process like?

In the beginning, it was just me in my basement classroom. At first, I had been really worried about making it out on my own, but I quickly realized, that I had the opposite problem: There wasn’t enough of me to go around. The first person I brought on as contractor to help me was a trusted colleague. From there she referred other teachers whom she knew to join the team. My interview process was unconventional in the sense that if someone was referred to me from my trusted source, they were a shoe in and I gave them a chance without much of an interview process. People have come and gone, naturally, but it has always worked out to only hire based on direct referral. To this day, we have over 20 contractors all found in the same way, just now the network of referral sources in much bigger. The only thing I would have done differently, is brining people on earlier to help me run things from the backend, business wise. That I did not do until Year4, and it has been the best thing for my business and my work-life balance. Most importantly, it has freed up A LOT of time for me to work on other creative projects instead of doing tasks I don’t like, or am not good at. I was very unconventional in my process for backend help in operations, finance, and scholarship, in that, I don’t pay salaries for the people in these positions. Instead, I offer each of them 25% revenue share in the company, so that we all have an equal stake in how well it does, and how it grows. It was a huge risk on my part, but working together, we have doubled our revenue in one year. Even though I share the revenue, I feel really good how I run things, especially because not only together have we created more jobs for more teachers and therefore been able to help more children, but also I know I am giving other people (my board) the opportunity to be entrepreneurs and therefore have the kind of balance in life that I have set up and enjoyed for myself.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I started teaching in 2005 and started Mindful Literacy Practice when I was tutoring in the summer of 2019. At the time, Mindful Literacy was just me, and I was still working as an intervention specialist in Bexley City Schools.

I have taught in a large urban district; a state run school for the Deaf; and a small high performing suburban district. I have conducted research in a large urban district and charter schools. I have experienced being a parent in a local Montessori school and in a renowned all girls independent school.

Through a role with Battelle for Kids, I had the opportunity to author and lead trainings for teachers and districts all over Ohio on behalf of The Ohio Department of Education, as well as coach teachers on formative instructional practices in a variety of rural districts.

I am a published researcher in half a dozen peer-reviewed journals and am an experienced presenter. I have been consulting with school districts, student advocates, and attorneys since I left public teaching in 2020.

In all of these professional and personal contexts, one thing has always been abundantly clear: We all want our children to reach their maximum potential. And it truly takes a village to ensure that our children not only reach their goals, but also, enjoy the journey.

I left the classroom in 2020 and went off to tutor on my own. Mindful Literacy Practice is now a thriving, diverse community of high performing teachers, who come to us by referral only. We are a group of certified dyslexia specialists, special education teachers, and general education teachers who are passionate about supporting your child to reach their maximum potential.

Our mission is simple: to help kids learn with ease and develop into confident, happy, and well adjusted adults.From 1:1 tutoring to small homeschool groups, we’re here to support learners K-12 in all academic areas, in executive functioning skills, and in mindfulness practices. We are also here to support caregivers with the ongoing ETR and IEP process.

Whether a child has identified or unidentified special education needs, or is in need of enrichment (or both!), we work with families and school-based teams to ensure every child grows and thrives.

We are Jon Peterson and Autism Scholarship providers in the state of Ohio. We happily see kids in person in Columbus, Dayton, and in Orlando, Florida. We are highly effective in supporting kids virtually all over the world.

I am most proud that we are able to serve so many children and support the work of teachers in a non-traditional education setting.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

The best source of referrals is from current or past clients. We really focus on high quality and it shows. Many of our clients stick with us for years and are the source of multiple referrals. We also get a lot of referrals from student advocates and attorneys. Having had built collaborative relationships with other service providers was essential to our success.

Does your business have multiple or supplementary revenue streams (like a ATM machine at a barbershop, etc)?

Our business does have multiple revenue streams: Private playing clients and state funded scholarships. Personally, these funding streams allow me as an individual to have supplementary revenue streams: I am an author of a picture book with more creative projects on the way and I also consult part-time for a non-profit called Final Third Foundation.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://mindfulliteracypractice.org/
• Instagram: @dr._bennett AND @mindful.literacy.tutoring
• Linkedin: Jessica (Gittings) Bennett
• Youtube: @mindful.literacy.practice