Starter Girlz Podcast

Resilience and Miracles: Jeaneen Tang on Parenting, Language Development, and Overcoming Challenges

• Jennifer Loehding • Season 6 • Episode 60

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In this episode of the Starter Girls Podcast, host Jennifer Loehding sits down with Janine Tang, a speech-language pathologist with over 20 years of experience. Janine shares her inspiring journey from a young girl passionate about helping others to a seasoned professional, deeply influenced by her experiences as a mother to a special needs child.

The conversation dives into themes of resilience, the interplay of personal challenges and professional practice, and the critical role parents play in early language development. Jeaneen also discusses her recent book, the writing process, and the importance of flexibility and creativity in therapy and writing.

Together, Jennifer and Jeaneen explore the influence of AI on writing, the challenges of entrepreneurship, and strategies for effective communication in parenting. They emphasize empowering children through choices, seeking expertise when needed, and Jeaneen's aspirations for future outreach to parents and educators through her work.

Takeaways

  • Janine's journey began with a desire to help others.
  • Her personal experience as a mother has shaped her professional approach.
  • Empathy and understanding are crucial in therapy for special needs children.
  • Parent training is essential for effective early intervention.
  • Finding silver linings in adversity can lead to personal growth.
  • Empowering children through choices fosters independence.
  • Providing options can save time and reduce frustration.
  • Writing a book requires discipline, and AI can simplify the process but may lack personal style.
  • Perfectionism can hinder progress; setting deadlines helps.
  • Building a network of support is vital for entrepreneurs.
  • Webinars and outreach can expand the reach of valuable resources.

To learn more about Jeaneen and her work, visit https://www.playdumbandsabotage.com/

Jennifer Loehding:

Welcome to the Starter Girlz podcast, your ultimate source of inspiration and empowerment. We're here to help women succeed in every area of their lives career, money, relationships, and health and well-being while celebrating the remarkable journeys of individuals from all walks of life who've achieved amazing things. Whether you're looking to supercharge your career, build financial independence, nurture meaningful relationships or enhance your overall well-being, the Starter Girlz Podcast is here to guide you. Join us as we explore the journeys of those who dare to dream big and achieve greatness. I'm your host, jennifer Loehding, and welcome to this episode.

Jennifer Loehding:

Welcome to another episode of the Starter Girlz podcast, wherever you are tuning in today. We are so glad to have you. I'm your host, jennifer Loehding, and I am so excited about my guest today, so I want to real quick paint a picture of what this episode is about, if I can get situated in my chair here. Sure what this episode is about if I can get situated in my chair here? So my guest today has a story that beautifully blends personal resilience with professional expertise. As a speech-language pathologist, she's spent over two decades helping individuals, from infants to the elderly, develop their communication skills, but it's her journey as a mother to a special needs son that has profoundly shaped her perspective. Her son experienced a traumatic brain injury and stroke as a baby, but his incredible progress defied the doctor's predictions, thanks in no small part to her deep knowledge and unwavering dedication. So I am just excited to chat with her, hear her story, what she's doing. I think you guys are too. But before we bring her on, I do need to do a quick shout out to our sponsor.

Jennifer Loehding:

This episode is brought to you by Walt Mills Productions. Need to add excitement to your YouTube videos or some expert hands for editing? Look no further. Walt Mills is the solution you've been searching for. Walt is not only your go-to guy for spicing up content. He's the force behind a thriving film production company with numerous titles in the pipeline. Always on the lookout for raw talent, walt is eager to collaborate on film and internet productions. With a background deeply rooted in entertainment and promotion, walt Mills leverages years of skills to give you the spotlight you deserve. Want to learn more about Walt and his work? Head on over to waltmillsproductionsnet and let your content shine. All right, with that, we are ready to bring our guest on. But before I do that, I just want to make a quick announcement to say to head on over to startergirlscom that is, startergirls with a Z, if you don't know that by nowcom and there you can sign up to get on our newsletter, keep up with what we're doing the Empowerment Digest and get involved in the community, and so we would welcome you over there. All right.

Jennifer Loehding:

So my guest today Jeaneen Tang. A speech language pathologist with over 20 years of expertise specializing in early language development, janine is passionate about transforming how we approach language learning, particularly for young children. She works tirelessly to empower parents, caregivers and educators with strategies to support early communication skills and reduce the need for speech therapy interventions. So, janine, welcome to the show. I'm so glad to have you here today. Thank you for having me, jennifer. It's going to be fun and I love your red. By the way, I'm looking at the picture For the guests that don't know this.

Jennifer Loehding:

We get to see this little side screen where all the little buttons are and, like your red top is just like poof poofing out there. I really like it, thank you. I like red. I wear I don't have it on today, but I wear a lot. I like red and black and blue, all the you know the main colors, so it's a good color. So all right. So let's talk about you. I want to kind of dive into what you do, because I you've been doing this for a while now, so and you have firsthand experience. You, you kind of I want to say this, for I think what's great is that you're not just a speech pathologist. You've had this journey right. That's really kind of led you into this. So I want to talk about that.

Jeaneen Tang:

Back us up and tell us a little bit about what led you to where you are today? Wow. So yeah, it has to go all the way back until I was eight years old, right? I didn't know what I wanted to be. People say what did you want to be when you grow up? I'm like I don't know. I wanted to be something right.

Jeaneen Tang:

And when I was eight years old, my grandfather had lung cancer and ended up passing away. And at the time I remember being eight years old and very helpless because I wanted to help this man I love dearly, but I didn't know how to do it because I was only eight years old. But that sparked something in me to want to help people and this need to like be like a positive person in other people's lives, either, whether it's a teacher or an educator or whatever. And I thought I wanted to be a teacher because I had really great teachers growing up. You know, I loved learning, I love class, and when I was in high school, I played sports and I learned about physical therapy and I thought, you know, that's something, that that's somebody that could have helped my grandfather Excuse me. So I thought, okay, I'm going to be a physical therapist and in order to do that, you need a graduate degree, right? So I got my bachelor's degree in something else I love, which is English literature and creative writing.

Jeaneen Tang:

And when it came time to apply to grad school, I was like, well, everybody was going to physical therapy. I felt it was like a very saturated, you know environment. And I was like, well, I don't know about physical therapy, but I really loved English and I thought maybe I could teach English and get an MFA. And then someone asked me have you thought about speech therapy? Because I did performance speech in high school and college and I hadn't really heard about it. But come to find out, my best friend from elementary school, her mom, was a speech therapist. And, kind of learning about what speech therapists do, I was like that's something I would really like to go and try, because it involved language and also helping people.

Jeaneen Tang:

And so the University of Hawaii at Manoa I'm from Hawaii, so I was going to undergraduate in Oregon and I was able to go back home to Hawaii and get my master's degree and because there is a shortage of speech therapists you know, it's been historically this this line of work, is in need, right, they need speech therapists.

Jeaneen Tang:

The department of education in Hawaii was offering a stipend, so basically grad school was paid for and it was a great opportunity because they're like we'll give you money for school as long as you work for us for three years. And so I went to the University of Hawaii Manoa, graduated and worked in the school district for four years there before I moved to Los Angeles and I loved working with children with special needs right, it was great birth control because you were so tired, you were exhausted from working with these kids and I was very happy being a therapist of these kids with special needs. But I also saw the parents and I never thought I I'm like you know, I'm so glad I'm not a parent of a child with special needs because I saw how much work it took. I saw how stretched stress they looked and I was like you know, when you're a parent, you don't get to take a break.

Jeaneen Tang:

You don't get to be like, well, I'm going to not be a parent anymore, you have to be a parent. And then I had my son. You know, I turned 35 and in 2012, I was like, well, I don't know if I want to have kids or not, I was happy being an auntie. I have two wonderful nieces and they're both in college and they're you know, but at the time they were little and I loved being their auntie and I didn't think I needed anything more than that. And then your biological clock ticks and you're like, well, maybe do I, do I not? And then my partner at the time, we're like, well, let's just try, and if it happens, it happens, If it doesn't, it doesn't. And of course it happens. Right, it happened.

Jeaneen Tang:

We had our son, Che, and he was born in 2012 and you know he was a lovely baby. He grew quickly and, unfortunately, when, at 13 months old, he had a fall from our bed and it was a very short fall, but he had a large brain bleed because it was a wood laminate, so it was a hard floor he had a big brain bleed, he had to have emergency craniotomy and the swelling in the brain was, you know, so bad that it caused him to have a stroke a few days later, which is, you know, blood loss to part of your brain. So it was blood loss to the traumatic brain injury side, which is the left side, which affected everything on the right side of his body. So he couldn't move his arm, his right arm or leg. You know, the doctors thought that he might never walk or talk and all of a sudden we have this child who is now disabled and you know he almost he could have died and thankfully he didn't.

Jeaneen Tang:

And I was very glad at that moment that I was a speech therapist because I knew what kind of therapies he would need and that's all you could, I could do at that moment. You know, you're in this shock of like I have this child who almost died and is going to need so much help. It's like what can you do to not be stuck in this state of you know, shock and and not knowing what's going to happen, by putting yourself in action and being like you know I'm going to get him all of these therapies Once we get home. We lived in the hospital for three months and then by the time we got home, everything was in place.

Jeaneen Tang:

And you know, now he just turned 12 and he's amazing and he still doesn't use his right arm or hand functionally. He can kind of move his shoulder. He can't open and close his hands like you know normally at all, but he has learned how to do things like play basketball with his left hand. You know he could do some taekwondo and things like that.

Jeaneen Tang:

But what that experience helped me be is a better therapist, because not only you know, before I had him I could see speech therapy in one realm, right, I could see it as a therapist and like this is what you should do with your kids and this is the way you should approach things and how to be a parent.

Jeaneen Tang:

And then, once I became a parent, and then a parent with a, of a child with special needs, now I can have this whole other perspective and I can see things in a 360,. You know, I can be empathetic and build rapport with these parents with kids with special needs, because I've gone through something very similar to them, yeah, you know, and I can provide strategies to them about their child, because those strategies have worked with my son as well. So I felt like it kind of is my little bit of a superpower. So I felt like it kind of is my little bit of a superpower. You know I don't want my child to be disabled, but if he is disabled it's helped me be a more whole person and a better therapist.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, your story gave me chills on so many levels because it's almost like like you were meant to be in that space. I'm not saying that you were meant to, that. You had to go through this tragic, you know situation, but you were equipped when you did. And it's almost like there's so much to this because if you look at like the silver lining of this like I love that you said that you can look at this in like 360, because now, before this, you were this speech pathologist but you maybe couldn't relate to those people yet. Right, it's like walking into anything you do in life. It's like going to a counselor for divorce and the person's never been through divorce, right. And you're like tell me how to go through divorce. Well, you've never been through it. Right, you now have firsthand gone through this and, tragedy that it may be, I mean it's wonderful to hear how he's progressed and he's doing. I mean I can't even imagine, as a mother, what you went through. You know having to go through that and then to come out on the other side, but I think it's allowed you to shine in an area that you were probably meant to shine in. You know what I mean, and that's when I see situations like this.

Jennifer Loehding:

I just had this conversation because I just got off of a podcast before I did, you know, did this one and we were talking about because not to change and make any, you know, not lighten anybody's load. But I got in 2012, I was diagnosed with a rare nerve condition that completely turned my world upside down. I thought in that particular moment that was bad because it lasted four years. I mean, it was in my face. They call it a suicide disease. It was extremely painful. I thought I had never felt pain until I felt that pain. And then, in 2021, I got diagnosed with another rare condition that landed me in the ER eight times and, if not, more painful than the first one.

Jennifer Loehding:

And I told the girl today. She asked me several questions about how I define wellness and I said that I gauge my wellness on how I'm feeling. If I'm excited about what I'm doing, then I know I'm thriving and feeling well, right, and we were talking about all this and I said, you know, sometimes I think that we get these hard things because there's a reason we need to go through them and for me, it's probably because I have a voice, I can say, I can talk about things and I can share messages with people. So when I hear stories like this, I think there's reasons that, as bad as they are, that we have to go through them, because there's something for us that's to come out of this. You know what I mean.

Jennifer Loehding:

Rhythm, because there's something for us that's to come out of this. You know what I mean. And in this particular case, it may be that you found your gift, but what you're, where you are supposed to be in this world, your placement, you know, and so, um, I think finding the silver lining is important, but I think when you find your gift too, I think that's a really cool thing. Yeah, absolutely.

Jeaneen Tang:

I totally agree, like I'm glad you know if this had to happen, had to happen to a child, that it was my child, that I could work with every day, Right Cause people ask me do you ever do speech therapy with Che? And I go every day.

Jeaneen Tang:

Oh, yeah, every action is speech therapy. You know every. He has great conversational skills. He still has special needs. He has, you know, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, adaptive PE. He has resource room for school and but he's in a regular ed classroom with adult support and he's able to achieve such high goals because, you know, his dad is amazing, you know he's physically. He's why Che is like, physically sound. He's made a really great progress with him there. But language wise, you know, both of us speak well with him. You know we don't baby him or anything like that and we make sure that he is, you know, able to have conversations and be polite and do all of these things and I feel that he that Che is able to, you know, be the best person he is because we have, he has, great parents that try to do the best.

Jennifer Loehding:

Absolutely. I agree with you. I think that's important and yeah, it's. You know, you hear people have these stories and they'll always say I don't wish that I had to go through this, but I sometimes, like I was, I say the same thing. I say, well, I don't like that I had to go through these hard things, but I'm grateful for the experiences because it's allowed me to do things on the other side that I may have never done prior to that situation.

Jennifer Loehding:

You know, that's why I do the podcast. It's why I do this. You know, I tell people all the time. The podcast is, really, if you back up and you go through my journey and you go back and you understand what I went through, why I do what I do, then it all makes sense to you. Because for me, it's about taking y'all stories people that are overcomers, people that are doing great things and showing the world that one.

Jennifer Loehding:

There are amazing people out there doing amazing things in the world, but also that there are people surviving every day that are turning their lives around and living the extraordinary or making the best of their situations. It's not all doom and gloom, you know, and so, um, I love your story and and I'm sorry that you had to go through that, but I love that you guys are surviving and thriving and you're you're in in the space that you need to be and and grateful that you knew what you needed to do when the time came. It's like doing karate right, like my kids did karate. It's like knowing doing the stuff so that you know, when you need it, how to use it. Absolutely so good stuff, I guess. So do you then? Do you have your own practice, or do you work with a group, or how does that work?

Jeaneen Tang:

Yeah, so I like to do a variety of different things right. So I still work with adults in hospitals two days a week, and then I work with a company that does early intervention therapy a few days a week, and then I have my own private clients as well. So I'm trying to build more of like a training program for parents and do some in-person or virtual trainings. They really feel that you know, working with kids with early intervention speech therapy needs that there are so many kids that might not have needed speech therapy if there was better parent training and education.

Jeaneen Tang:

You know, because we go through birth training right when we have a child how to give birth, how to diaper the child, how to make the bottles right.

Jeaneen Tang:

All this training and then you have. Then you take the baby home and then you're like, what do I do with the baby besides making sure they're dry, making sure that they're fed and making sure they have a blanket on or that they're cool or warm? It's like, how do you interact with them and how do you make sure that you are not doing too much? In a sense, because I feel like parents, as you know, we want to be good parents and I'm sure with your first child you know maybe you did too much, like you want to make over, anticipate what they need, like every little grunt or uh, we you know they need this, I got it.

Jennifer Loehding:

I got it.

Jeaneen Tang:

You know that you know exactly what they want, so we provide it before they even realize they might need it or want it or indicate. You know cause we? The title of my book is. I have a book for parent training. It's called play dumb and sabotage. Play dumb is like the idea of knowing what the child might need, but mindfully under anticipating, because a lot of parents who have kids that are late talkers they are really great parents because they're doing so much, but in actuality it's really a detriment for that child because that child is no longer interacting or doesn't have the ability or opportunity to interact with their environment, naturally because everything is being done for them.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, yeah, no, this all makes sense and this is good. And while you were talking in the beginning, I was thinking about, yeah, this conversation. You know, with the first child, how you do it, just even in teaching them skills, right, like the diaper, the bottle, all the things you go through. And then by the time you get to like the third child I made a joke the diapers, like hanging off the kid. You're like, oh, they'll get out of the diaper when they get out of the diaper. You know, I feel like, seriously, that was my house.

Jennifer Loehding:

You know it was like first one. Yes, like you're talking about baby cries, you go in there like bring the baby in the bed, like everything you're worried about. By the time you get to the third one, you're like, just put the pillow on the floor, the kid will fall over and go to sleep. My son did that. He was such a busy child, I'm not kidding you Like he would run through the house chasing his sisters and I'd walk in the room and he would be bent over on the couch asleep, like he would just be standing and fall over asleep on the couch. You know, I'd be like Sean, I think it's time for bed now you know. So it's great, it's great. So now I love this and when did your book come out?

Jeaneen Tang:

It came out in February of this year, or 2024. Okay, so it's fairly new. Yeah, it's pretty new. It's pretty new and it's available.

Jennifer Loehding:

I would love to ask you a little bit. I'm also an author too.

Jennifer Loehding:

So I kind of understand the process of going through that, and I would love, because there may be somebody, even listening to this too, that is thinking they want to write a book or they're kind of in that starting phase and you're, and I love. Let me let me say this too I love that you're. You're kind of doing your own thing, like got your own little practice, but you're also staying looped into some other things, which I think is good, because you're not, you know, putting all your eggs in one basket, which is good, and I like that, because I'm kind of that way too. I'm very much a like I've got my work that I do here, but then I do other things in other, you know, in other ways that I'm tied to, so that I don't know if it's that I like to be spread all over or I just like to have my hands in different things.

Jeaneen Tang:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I like I'm also. It's less commitment in a sense, because you can do certain things and have more flexibility in your schedule and it allows me, if I'm not working full-time someplace, then I can go pick my son up from school or drop him off or whatever he needs to do, so I like the variety and flexibility of it, I think.

Jennifer Loehding:

I'm with you on that too. I like variety because I get bored easily, so I like to be able. I think one of the great things and you might agree with this, and then we're going to come back and talk about your book but I think one of the neat things about being an entrepreneur and also being able to be with your kids because I fortunately have been able to be with mine is that they're all adults now, but as they were growing up, I was able to be home with them and navigate that. It's just that, to be able to like dictate your day and every day is a new day, right, like there's never. I mean, yeah, you pick your kids up at the same time or take them to school, but there's still that variety in the day that you could sort of mix it up you know and I want that I still do that you know, yeah.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah so so let's talk about your. You know the book process, cause I would love to know how that went for you. How, how long did it take you to do the book? Was it a long process and what did you? Did you find like there was some challenge, or did it just easily flow for you?

Jeaneen Tang:

Okay, so I had the idea. So I've been using this the term play, dumb and sabotage for many, many years and I thought I wanted to do like booklet or handouts or things like that. And um, then I thought, okay, maybe I want to. How am I going to create a greater outreach Right? How am I going to create a greater impact on the world? And I thought about going back to school and getting a PhD to teach, you know.

Jeaneen Tang:

And um and then I was like, well, then I'd be only teaching speech therapists and I'd be hoping that they would translate and work with other people, with parents and everything. But I'm like my real focus is parents. So I thought, well, why don't I take that money? I would use for grad school and put it into writing a book. But I didn't know where to start and I saw all these ads for selfpublishingcom, yeah. And so, um, I ended up signing up with them and they give you like a, a writer, an author, mentor, um, so they do kind of keep you, kind of, uh, keep you going on track, they check in with you and everything.

Jeaneen Tang:

As far as like the outline and everything, I already had it in my mind like what I wanted to have in the book. So it was more about, for my writing process was outlining the book and the chapters, and then I could not just start from the beginning to end. I kind of had to jump around for myself. So I would start at one part, made the introduction and go to chapter one. I would get stuck, I would go to another chapter and then we kind of bounce up and down in different chapters. Until, you know, I felt like everything was kind of done and complete. But if I tried to stick with one chapter and just keep going trudging through it, I think I would have been, like you know, stuck for a long time just over a year to finish the writing part of it. And it's not a very long book. But you know, it's just like going to the gym you have to be disciplined, right.

Jeaneen Tang:

So, to sit down every day or make sure you have a schedule to sit down. That was probably my biggest challenge, because you know it is a goal to finish a book, to write a book, and there's that self-sabotage part of me that was like, oh, I'll do it tomorrow or whatever. So I think that was the hardest part for me. So I think everybody needs to find their own writing style and for me, like jumping around and filling things in in different spots, it's almost like like in high school we would do journal writing every morning and we would have to write for 10 minutes straight and if you couldn't think of something, you just write. I can write, I can write, I can write. But it was about like not stopping. So I felt like once I got stuck, I would just go to another part that I could have an idea about and start writing in that section there and then jump around until I felt like it was complete.

Jennifer Loehding:

That's good, janine, and I'm funny because I could actually resonate with that, because that's kind of how I did mine too. I can't really do anything in like a direct order. Like if I take a course, I feel like I have to bounce around, like I try to do it in order and I get bored and I'm like I got to skip a spade and then I'm gonna come back again. So I feel like I get that, yeah, and I don't know what that is. I don't know if it's just that it's because it's straight forward, like I feel like life is nonlinear, right, so I have a hard time doing anything linear. So I get that.

Jeaneen Tang:

So when I wrote mine.

Jennifer Loehding:

I kind of did the same thing, but I struggled with the outline. Like that was really hard for me. Once I would sit down and I would start to write like if I would just write and then piece it, then I could do it but that freaking outline and every time I've had to put things together the outline is always the trickiest part. Like once I get that figured out, then I can just kind of start filling in the gaps.

Jeaneen Tang:

You know what I mean? Yeah, once.

Jennifer Loehding:

I get that figured out, then I can just kind of start filling in the gaps. You know what I mean. And it's funny because I don't know you were when you started writing that, you know, at ChatGPT. Now it's so nice because you can be like, hey, give me an outline on this content, right, and then you can sort of kind of get a little bit of a you know, a structure to it. We've had that you know before. Can you imagine if we had that in school?

Jeaneen Tang:

oh my god, like an outline you know, I know I keep thinking that these kids in college are just saying you know, giving the chat gpt a prompt and having them write the essays, yeah, the only thing is they all use the delve and the dive into look for the words.

Jennifer Loehding:

Because they use the same words and I, because I use them a lot for my, for my um, when I'm doing my show notes for my podcast. It drives me nuts because I'll go in there and I have to like reword it because I need it to kind of be my style. But they will use like the same Delves into this. I'm like I hate that word. Do not give me the word. Delves into something Like that is a chat GPT word, so you can kind of tell a little bit, but a lot of times I will go in, even when I use the chat GPT, I will. I will say I don't like this paragraph or um, I need you to write this Like Jennifer would write this because this is like too verbose for me or something you know, so it'll you can, but you can train it.

Jennifer Loehding:

You can kind of train it to sort of you know, yeah, but congratulations on your of you know, I know it's crazy, it's crazy, yeah, but congratulations on your book, because I know that's no easy feat and, like I said, I know I I did, I don't know I I wrote mine. It took me about five months. But I'm kind of neurotic like that. Once I start something, I just like go gung-ho, like we're just gonna get it done. I don't know it done, I don't know. You know, and I don't know if you're a perfectionist I am and so I have to set deadlines because I will get wrapped up in the continual perfectionism of it.

Jennifer Loehding:

Like I'm building a program right now and I'm trying to finish up the script right now and I'm actually I've written it, I'm running it through chat GP to clean it up, so that all I have to do is read it. But I've already done this, I've already done this one time and now I'm doing it again, and so this is what I do. And so I have to give myself timelines and just say this will be done by the end of December, because I will keep running edits, like I will keep going through it and going I don't like this, let me change this. And I don't know, I don't know if that's your, if you do that I don't think I do.

Jeaneen Tang:

I don't think I have that much of a perfectionist thing.

Jennifer Loehding:

Oh good. I think at some point, at some point I'm like okay, that's good enough. No, you need to be that way, because so my program is all about subconscious blocks. That's what I'm talking about. These six major blocks, right, Perfectionism is one of them, and I'm laughing at myself because here I'm talking about this and I recognize it and I'm like, man, this is like a big one for me that I'm having to really go through and tell myself why you know, it all comes back to like root things, belief systems and stuff like that.

Jennifer Loehding:

But it's one that as I'm building this, it really surfaced for me and I realized like this is a big one for me you know, so anyway, good stuff. Congratulations on your book.

Jennifer Loehding:

It's awesome that you got that done. So I would love to know these are kind of some of the things you've had, like you know, lots of challenges. But even as being an entrepreneur on your own, some of the things that you've you know like because you've been doing this a while, you've been in your craft and you kind of know what you're doing, you're rolling your thing, but somebody coming into the entrepreneur space, you know, maybe they're moving from the corporate space to entrepreneur, maybe they're just I don't know first time something that you maybe had to overcome or work through in the business side of things.

Jeaneen Tang:

Yeah, I'm still kind of overcoming it as far as, like the tech technology part. I think technology for me is like a big like. It's like that big mountain. I need to climb them. And kind of learning, knowing that you can outsource help. You know, developing like my for my webpage, like asking somebody rather than trying to do it completely by myself, cause I would never be able to do it, um, in a timely manner or well you know. So I think it's always asking for help and kind of looking to people who are successful, either in your field or something similar, um, and then you can ask them for support as well. That's good.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, that's that's I. One of the things that I've really been working on is, you know, delegating, get finding people that can help me in certain areas because, like you, technology is is an area that I also. I mean I can build, I can do basic things, like on my website and stuff. But even like I'm trying to, I started, you know, my mailing list with Mailchimp. I have somebody kind of helping me with that create that. But I'm like I'm trying to put something in there and I'm having to look things up and be like so what do you? How do you do? If you're trying to do this and this and sometimes you're right it's just easier to ask for the help and find the person you need to. They can do that much quicker than you. Yeah, then you can focus on the things that you're good at.

Jeaneen Tang:

Right, yeah, yeah, Cause I'm. You know I'm really good at being a therapist, a speech therapist, but the whole the business part is where I really need to, you know, still learn a lot more about.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, I ran into somebody the other day and he was like I was telling him about, you know, cause I had I'd used to do an email campaign with our show and then I had put it when I was going through my health stuff. I put it on hold because the other gal that was working with me was no longer with me and I felt like it was one of those things I just didn't have the energy to dedicate. And it was funny because he said, no, it's a good thing, it's okay to monetize and do you know? And I laugh at that, because when we enjoy what we do as creators, or whatever that is speech pathology.

Jennifer Loehding:

Whatever we were, our gift is, we are really passionate about the work that we do. We're not always passionate about the other side of the things that we also need to do for the business. Right, they're necessary, but that's not the stuff that we're super excited about, right. And so even like doing a podcast, you know it's a labor of love project, you enjoy doing it, but I do do work. I mean, I do do work. You know I got other things I got to do, and so you have to sometimes really think that yeah, there are other things you need to have done. And that's where I think that help can come in to kind of navigate some of those pieces that can complement what you're doing. But maybe those aren't where your strengths are.

Jeaneen Tang:

Yeah, absolutely.

Jennifer Loehding:

So I love it. So, um, any other like projects in the works, anything you've got coming up that we need to know about or we kind of just we're relishing in the book right now.

Jeaneen Tang:

Yeah, well, I've been doing a lot of podcasts as guests, right, and then I'm going to just be developing um, hopefully like a webinar, uh, shortly.

Jeaneen Tang:

And you know, in my next I would like to, in the next year, to be on a Ted talk. I think that's like an overarching goal and all these little steps are going to help me get there. I think you know. So I think, um, definitely more outreach locally to different preschools and and early education centers. I have a YMCA that I work closely with and some of the preschools that I have early intervention kids at, but doing some parent and teacher trainings there. But it'd be great to have like a webinar to reach people you know nationally and also internationally, cause some of the podcasts I've been on have been you know nationally and also internationally, because some of the podcasts I've been on have been you know in London or in you know Spain or whatever it is, and and it's great to be able to reach people virtually because you know this is the era of the internet and being you can be anywhere, anytime.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, that's the beautiful thing about podcasting. I mean, yeah, you can talk to pretty much anybody anywhere and get your message out. If you're, if you're willing to go on and talk and and I think you would be great at a Ted talk I think that would be a really a great thing for you to do, because I think you speak well and I think it would be a definitely a fun learning experience. For sure. I've interviewed several people that have done those and, yeah, I think it'd be a fun thing.

Jeaneen Tang:

Absolutely. Thank you so much.

Jennifer Loehding:

I would love to.

Jeaneen Tang:

I really believe that we can decrease the number of children that need speech therapy if we have more parent and teacher and educator training because and even working with, whether it's like a child that has normal developing physical and cognition or it's a child with a disability, I think all parents, caregivers and educators could benefit from the simple strategies in my book because I wrote it as a conversation, not so much as a textbook.

Jeaneen Tang:

There's nothing that's not easily understood, and every chapter has examples and activities at the end to help you incorporate those strategies into their daily life and practice.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, I like it Well, and I think that, yeah, because you're talking about the sabotage and stuff, and I think, yeah, I mean there's parenting's hard, parenting's hard, yeah, and you learn, and there's so many things that I think communication, I mean, I feel like, even when we talk about like communication, right, like that's such a hard thing, and even now, with the way kids are growing up with like the computers, I mean the, it's so different from when we grew up. We didn didn't have phones, we had to talk face to face, we had to communicate. We didn't like you, we had to tell you we couldn't be, like you know, behind a computer and doing that. And so I think that, yeah, we've gotten away from that so much too, that learning to communicate well is such a gift.

Jennifer Loehding:

Right To be an effective communicator, but do it in a way that we enable, or you enable, your child to be that way, so we're not doing it for them and put them in a position where they too can, how they can communicate well or effectively for themselves, you know. So I think there's a lot to this. I mean definitely, and I like that you're talking about. Hey, everybody could benefit from this on some level. Yeah, I've read your book, obviously, yes, I don't know everything about it, but it sounds like a practical resource.

Jeaneen Tang:

It is, and, like one of the big things I want parents to try to think about at least is don't ask a yes, no question unless you're ready to honor the no because we've been stuck. You know I learned this very early on as a speech therapist and it's been it's been game changing, because a lot of times we ask kids are you ready to work, are you ready to clean up, are you ready to eat, are you ready to go?

Jennifer Loehding:

to bed.

Jeaneen Tang:

And they go no, and they're like, okay, well, you're still going to do it, you know. Which is yeah, yeah.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, yeah. So you know so you ask them.

Jeaneen Tang:

It's almost like a rhetorical question. You ask them that and they can't. They're going to tell you they don't want to do it. And then you may, yeah, yeah, or even kids like you. Can you say caterpillar, like we're asking them can you, can you do something right? So to get away from that, you would offer choices. You know for my son, I'd be like okay, it's ready, it's time to go to bed. Do you want to brush your teeth first or change into pajamas first, or?

Jeaneen Tang:

I might ask the kid hey, we're going to do an activity. Do you want to do the puzzle or the book first? Yeah, which one do you want? Or we're going to have a snack. Do you want banana or an apple? And I like to hold things about shoulder width apart so they can see. So if I'm like, hey, what shirt do you want to wear? The red shirt or the green shirt? So I'm not going to hold them too close together because I can't see where they're looking. But if I hold them shoulder width apart, even if they can't speak, they can look to one of them and be like, oh yeah, the red shirt. I love red. Red is the color of apples, whatever it is.

Jeaneen Tang:

You know. So it's like you can provide that language and verbal example and modeling, even if the child's not able to speak right, so they can look or they can reach for it and you can start giving them those words that they should be saying and then slowly, by slowly having them imitate either the sign for more or please, or the vocabulary words you're trying to introduce. It's like little baby steps in order to get to verbal communication.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, this is so good. And while you were talking about this choices thing, this is so interesting because I used to do this in sales with my consultants and so, like this lesson you're teaching right now is like it not only works with your kids but it works in like when you're dealing with adults, Because I used to use the candy store example, like when you take your kids into the candy store. If you take them into the store and you say, pick a candy, they're going to go there's a hundred pieces of candy.

Jeaneen Tang:

I want this, I want that, but if you say what I would do, with mine is you can pick from there, there or there.

Jennifer Loehding:

That's your choices, pick one. And so they now had to pick an option, right. And so I would use that example when I was in mary k, when I would talk about giving, like, clients choices, instead of laying everything out and putting a book in front of them and just being like, okay, bye, pick, and they're like they have nowhere to start. I would put like kind of guide them into choices so that we could be like you're looking at this or looking at this, you know, like are you interested in the skincare, are you interested in color, or you know what I mean Like I would guide them into choices. So they had to pick. So this thing you're talking about is like it just made me think of that, how effective this really is and a lot of things that we do in life when we're dealing with people, because it it almost it reduces like that analysis, paralysis, right, like it helps guide people to make decisions.

Jeaneen Tang:

Yeah, and it makes them feel a little empowered too, you know especially the kids, because, yeah, they're like. Oh, I'm making this decision you know, like. You know, we might say like oh, we're going to do these two things. Which one do you do? Do you want to do first? That means we're going to do two things, but you get to choose which one we're going to do first.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, absolutely.

Jennifer Loehding:

I'm with you on this a hundred percent and I don't know that I knew that in the beginning when I was parenting. I don't even know where I picked that up. I don't know if, like, I learned that in like when I was doing sales, but I did and I still have done that with my kids A lot of times, like I will and I'm not saying I'm perfect, because I'm sure there are times I've asked a yes and a no question. They told me no and I'd be like, well, that wasn't the answer I was looking for. You know, like, make a joke about it. But I try to think in terms of like that how do we give them kind of the choice? Right, because when they you know, when you're dealing with people think about adults. Right, when we come up with ideas or we make a decision about something, we're more inclined to be proactive about it if it's our choice and somebody's not telling us what to do.

Jeaneen Tang:

So, yes, on all of that. I think it's yeah, you're giving them power and another example is when we articulation, if we say like, can you say, elephant, can you say this or that? And if they say no, then okay, that's done. But I might say like you know, elephant, you say it your turn. So I'm directing them to say it rather than asking can you?

Jeaneen Tang:

say it Right. Or if I have a child. I've caught parents doing this all the time. Oh, can you? I was like, can I say it's Sophia, sophia, can you pick that book up? Can you pick that book, whatever it up? Can you do this rather than Sophia pick the ball up? Or Sophia put this in the trash? You know, rather than directing them to do it? They're like giving them a yes, no question. And then the child has the option of saying no.

Jennifer Loehding:

So if you want something to, happen.

Jeaneen Tang:

You give a directive. I think.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, and it's also just going to have more of a positive outcome.

Jennifer Loehding:

Right, it's just a different, it's a different energy. You know it's. It's almost like I used to talk about, like I use the same example. You know, like if you have a kid in the store crying about candy and you take the candy from them and they're crying, it really doesn't help the situation. But if you can redirect them and get them on to something else, then there's a positive experience with it.

Jennifer Loehding:

And you know, you get kind of get the parents are why would you do that? You know, but I've always kind of been at that mindset of how do we create? It's not that you're enabling, but you're trying to create the outcome that you want, right, and if you're putting them in a situation where there's a negative outcome, then nobody's winning. You know you're not winning, the kid's not winning, nobody's winning. So I love this and I think that, yeah, what you're doing is important and, yeah, you need to get it out there. You definitely need to get it out there. More parents need to hear it.

Jennifer Loehding:

Thank you, I just when you were talking about that. I'm like that is so funny because I I would do that in sales and I remember using this example of with kids on how to, to give them choices, if and I would use the candy as the choice you know that you give them this, this or this. They're going to pick a choice. Yeah, you know they're going to pick. And then it's going to be empowering because now they got to pick the choice and you didn't tell them Right or you didn't leave them in there where they couldn't make a decision, and now it's a negative and they don't have it. You know and that.

Jeaneen Tang:

Yeah, and it really. It really does save time, because I'm sure every, every parent has gone through the oh, what do you want to have for breakfast? Do you want such and such no, do you want such and such no? And you go down this rabbit hole of you know yes, no question, I don't want that.

Jennifer Loehding:

Which do you want?

Jeaneen Tang:

But if you say, okay, we're going to have two things, we're going to have either waffles or eggs, which one do you want? Then it saves you time, it gives them an option, they feel empowered and then you can move on.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, we just if we teach them this in sales, janine, they can backpedal it to parenting right, absolutely Everything you need to know in sales. Learn from Janine about parenting. It'll transform sales, absolutely. Because I'm thinking about this and I'm like, think about it. You're like today we're going to pick this Janine and I used to do this. I would be like no, kidding, like when I wanted to get people to events, I wouldn't say like which event can you come to? Because they're never going to give me an answer, and I'd be like, hey, janine, we have two events coming up Saturday the 16th or Saturday the 23rd. Which one works for you?

Jeaneen Tang:

Yeah, absolutely Right, you got to pick right.

Jennifer Loehding:

See, it works. I'm saying they just need to learn your techniques, and then they too could become great sellers, you know.

Jennifer Loehding:

I love it. Janine, You've been awesome. I love what you're doing and congratulations on your success with the book and all that you're doing, and I hope you get the TED Talk under wraps and you get the webinar and all the good things happening. What I'd like to know from you is if our audience wants to get in touch with you. Maybe they want to pick this book up, or they want to cheer you on, follow you, whatever the things. Where do you want us to send them?

Jeaneen Tang:

Please go to my website. It's playdumbandsabotagecom, and then from there there's the link for my book. There is a way to contact me, there is my Instagram and Facebook links as well, and I'll be posting a lot of my podcasts that I've been on on there as well as soon as I can figure out the tech part.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, how many. How many shows did you calculate, like how many shows you've been on so far?

Jeaneen Tang:

Um, I want to say I've probably done at least 30 shows, good for you. So there's not not that many are posted on my website, but yeah, if you go to, you know like Apple podcast, whatever you guys use for podcasts and you can put my name in, a bunch of them will pop up, and then a bunch of them. You know, nobody produces exactly the same way, so some of them produce the same day, the same week, months later. So eventually, you know they'll roll out.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, here's the good news. I'm current right now, so yours will be going out this week. That is a rarity, because I was telling somebody today.

Jennifer Loehding:

I said normally I am like I'm booked like three months out. Normally I have like recordings in the bag for like months and I'm like stressing out cause I'm trying to get them out. But I took a little hiatus over the summer to get caught up because it was driving me crazy. So I took that break, got everybody caught up again. So right now you are at the beginning again, which means yours will go out pretty quickly.

Jeaneen Tang:

Amazing, that's a good thing.

Jennifer Loehding:

So thank you, well, and yeah, and good for you for getting all the practicing talking and all that good stuff, cause you get a lot of good practice doing all those podcasts.

Jeaneen Tang:

Yeah, it's like meeting new people and and just practicing conversation and getting to know people. It's amazing. I love it.

Jennifer Loehding:

Absolutely, absolutely. Well thank you so much for your time today, your wisdom, all the good things, and for your authenticity and sharing your story. Thank, you.

Jeaneen Tang:

I really appreciate that. Thank you so much.

Jennifer Loehding:

Do you want to say to our audience? Of course, if you enjoy the show, you know what to do. Head on over there to the YouTube, itunes, spotify, whatever you can like, share, comment, do all the things so we can keep sharing all this fabulous content. And, as I always say, in order to live the extraordinary, you must start, and every start begins with a decision. You guys, take care, be safe, be kind to one another and we will see you next time. Thank you.

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