Today’s Episode with Melissa Nolan:

• Melissa Nolan is the founder of Assessing Kids. She started out as a school psychologist, worked in school administrations, and branched off into her own private practice where she works as an advocate for students with special needs. She also does assessments including ADHD, dyslexia, and more.
• While a school psychologist, opportunities arose for her where people would recruit her and offer opportunities. Melissa supports taking risks and accepted opportunities that came to her. This allowed her to expand her network and build great relationships that she still is connected with to this day.
• Melissa finds that she respects and admires people who are willing to push the limits, do things differently, and go against the culture. Because of this, she was able to attract people/mentors into her life whose visions aligned with her own.
• It’s important to be aligned with your vision and values. Melissa has a vision in her mind of what she wants to practice and commits to it. If things don’t go her way, she makes sure to reflect and think about how she can do it differently to be aligned with her vision.
• Melissa is able to keep her energy aligned to her vision because she has developed great relationships and takes care of her health. She is able to go to the people who she trusts and get honest feedback. She also prioritizes her health and self-care, keeping up with exercise and nutrition to keep her mental and physical health in check.
• Melissa realizes that mistakes are guaranteed to happen, so being kind to herself and approaching mistakes as an opportunity is very important to her. She also knows that she does not know everything, and it is okay to not know everything. But the ongoing desire to learn is essential.
• In order to keep clients coming back, you have to do outstanding work. You have to have the experience in your younger years so that you can accelerate in your own private practice.
• When Melissa has a new client, she writes down what the goal from the client is and refers back to it frequently, reminding clients what their goal is. Another important part is responding to clients as quickly as possible to relieve the client’s anxieties.
• Melissa keeps organized by documenting all communication with clients. She writes down what was accomplished with the client and what the next steps are. Everything is written down, it doesn’t stay in her head.
• Melissa attributes her success to hard work. Learning never came naturally to her, she had to work really hard and be disciplined. Luck came into her life through her relationships and opportunities that came to her. But, she had to take risks and accept these opportunities.
• Find Melissa at her website www.assessingkids.com
• Hot seat answers!
  • Apple or Android: Apple
  • Who would play you in a movie?: Molly Ringwald
  • Do you believe in aliens?: Yes. There’s something going on...who knows.
  • Best album/artist: Pink
  • Book title written about Melissa’s life: She Had 9 Lives

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