Today’s Episode with Dr. Zoee Bartholomew:

• Dr. Zoee Bartholomew started out as a support staff at an autism unit. She then moved back to California where she became a special education teacher and was selected to be trained to become a behavior specialist at the Solano County Office of Education.
• While working at the office of education, a family asked to pay her to watch their child at home and this is where Zoe entered the private practice.
• Zoee began getting so many clients that she had to hire other staff and her business grew and grew. Now she does trainings, expert consultations, and works with families on how to navigate the IEP process as an educational consultant.
• Zoee is also a professor at Dominican University of California as well as the SPED program director.
• From a very young age, Zoee knew she wanted to work with kids. Starting in middle school, Zoee was a recreational leader for the city of Berkeley and did this job every summer until she graduated from college.
• People she worked with saw her natural talent for working with kids, especially those with special needs, and pushed her to pursue it further.
• One day Zoee wrote down a list of every single thing someone has asked her to do regarding her business and she looked at it with a friend and one of the things that stood out the most was a need for consultation training.
• Zoee realized she had built a massive network and started calling people and letting them know the business she was launching and one of her friends told her she needed this service.
• On the marketing level, the most business Zoee gets is still from word of mouth and she truly believes your reputation precedes you and it is important to be active and make yourself visible.
• Zoee is constantly evolving her business to best fit the current needs of her clients and she is even currently pivoting to build more online platforms.
• Sean and Zoee discuss the pay inequities teachers face and even the differences between educators in the public v.s. private sectors.
• Zoee says one of the biggest challenges she has faced for years is people don’t want to invest in this work because investors are looking for a rate of return and this work isn’t always for the profit.
• Zoee made around 50k a month but she was one of the few agencies that paid her employees what they were worth and so a large chunk of that went to paying staff rather than profits.
• You can find Zoee at drbehave.org !

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