We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Olivia Crawford a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Olivia, appreciate you joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

I’ve never considered myself a “risk taker.” That title was always reserved for my older brother growing up. Even now, close friends and family members wouldn’t describe me as such, and for good reason. I was, and still am, calculated, cautious, and careful with my decisions. Constantly weighing my options, talking it over, and yes, making pros-and-cons lists (never underestimate the power of a good list!). Recently, however, I took a rather big leap of faith to resign from my stable, comfortable, and secure full-time job and begin my own private practice, Little Sprouts Speech Therapy. Don’t get me wrong, I still weighed all my options, but at the end of the day, I made a heart-led decision and took the risk. I gave up a secure and stable job that wasn’t fulfilling me to pursue a passion that feels less stable, but far more rewarding and purposeful. You know what they say, “no risk, no reward,” and I have found that to be completely true.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m Olivia, a pediatric speech-language pathologist and owner of Little Sprouts Speech Therapy, a private practice based in Columbus, Ohio. My private practice was created to support “late talkers” or “late talking toddlers” and their families. These are toddlers who demonstrate many strong preverbal language skills, but need a bit of extra support to foster their ability to use language to express themselves. At Little Sprouts Speech Therapy, I provide family-centered care, which focuses on coaching caregivers on ways to incorporate evidence-based strategies and language-rich principles into everyday routines, activities, and play with their child in order to support and promote their child’s language and communication development. I am passionate about helping parents find new and different ways to connect with their child in a way that truly creates change, progress, and growth. The most rewarding part of my job comes in the form of watching caregivers become more confident interacting with their child in a way that supports their child’s language and then, in turn, watching the child respond to their caregiver in a new and different way, a way that embodies connection, trust, rapport, and fun. Learning to communicate can be frustrating for both the parents and the child, therefore, in my office, we focus on going back to the basics of communication – fostering engagement, connection, trust, motivation, and most of all, learning to have fun with one another again! My work in supporting parents and their children has given my life an entirely new sense of purpose and I am grateful to those parents who allow me to come into their families in order to teach them a new and different way of connecting with and supporting their child.

If you could go back in time, do you think you would have chosen a different profession or specialty?

That’s an easy one, I would absolutely choose this field and this specialty if I had to do it all over again. There is no feeling like that of witnessing a child say their first word after practicing for sometimes months on end or that moment when a parent tells me, “He said “mama” for the first time!” These moments happen frequently in my day to day and I am constantly reminded of the importance of the work that I do – to give parents tools to support their child’s development and to give children a voice.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

The most effective strategy for growing my small business has been to focus on offering my current families high-quality care and support and to foster genuine connection and trust with the families that have chosen to work with me, as opposed to constantly searching for other families in order to maximize and grow quickly. In offering family-centered care that is supportive and empathetic, but also provides results and outcomes, my families inevitably share their experiences about me with those they meet and my business has grown steadily in this way. I am focused on establishing real, trusting relationships with my families and achieving steady and sustainable growth over time. At the end of the day, connection and relationships are key, and unfortunately, I think this is sometimes lacking in today’s fast-paced self-focused culture.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.littlesproutsspeech.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/littlesprouts.speechtherapy/

Image Credits
Emma Low