#140 - Interview with OT Entrepreneur Reema Naim from OT Studios LA

by Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, AC & Jessica Hill, COTA/L February 17, 2021

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Interview with OT Entrepreneur Reema Naim from OT Studios LA

A career in occupational therapy can take on many different characteristics and trajectories. Our guest today, Reema Naim, is a great example of this and she shares her unique path and how she built a business and lifestyle around her passions and strengths. 

We hear from Reema about her early forays into the world of health and the different exploratory steps she took before settling into the role of an OT. Reema was able to open her own clinic, and since then has increasingly pursued work as a writer on the subject, while still managing the OTs who work at the clinic she opened! 

This inspiring progress that she has made, chasing her interests and using her gifts, has resulted in the amazing Sensokids books, which we definitely recommend checking out! Reema explains to us that her ultimate goal for these is to turn them into a TV series one day! 

Our conversation also covers some of Reema's heroes, her attitudes toward parenting and balancing responsibilities, as well as the helpful role her dad has played in her career. Reema weighs in on the importance of trust and togetherness at a practice, explaining the time and energy it has taken to build a strong team that she can rely on. We finish off this wonderful conversation getting some advice from Reema about business, motherhood, and your life's goals. Tune in get it all! 

Key Points From This Episode:

  • Reema's morning routine currently and managing her motherly responsibilities.
  • Why Reema would love to sit down and chat with Beyonce!
  • Giraffes, pistachio ice-cream, and sensory quirks from Reema.
  • Reema's focus on pediatrics and sensory integration and her motivation for following a path in occupational therapy.
  • The winding journey of academia and career that has led Reema to her current position. 
  • Information on Sensokids, Reema's exciting book series!
  • Reema's love of magic and creativity and how she works that into her work in OT.  
  • The hopes that Reema has for her books and eventually turning them into a television series!
  • How Reema uses her Sensokids framework at her very own clinic!
  • The great advice that Reema's father gave her when she opened the doors to her clinic. 
  • Life and work in California as an occupational therapist; comparing Reema's experiences. 
  • Balancing numerous commitments and pursuits; how Reema's gets it all done.  
  • How becoming a mom has influenced Reema's therapy practice and philosophy. 
  • The process of building a strong and trustworthy team of employees at the clinic.
  • How Reema approached turning her passion and talent into something special and unique. 
  • Reema's advice about thinking outside of the box, self-love, and fearlessness! 

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Full Transcript of Today's Episode

[0:01:31.6] JH: Hi Reema, how are you today?

 

[0:01:34.4] RN: Hey, I’m good, thank you guys for having me.

 

[0:01:37.2] RH: We’re really excited to have you and we’re excited to hear all the things you're going to tell us but first, we have to ask you five secret questions.

 

[0:01:45.6] RN: Okay.

 

[0:01:47.1] JH: All right. First one, what does your morning routine look like?

 

[0:01:51.9] RN: My morning routine looks like waking up at 6:30 in the morning to go feed my baby and make its bottle, get him up and ready for the day. Once he’s fed and he’s good, then I either eat myself or I get myself ready, get showered and get ready for the day but first thing is wake up, make a bottle, go to the baby.

 

[0:02:17.3] RH: I like that you sometimes take a morning nap.

 

[0:02:20.5] RN: I have to. Sometimes I’m just so exhausted, it’s weird because when he goes to sleep, I’m usually off the clock and I’m like, “Okay, I can rest now.” but I’ll still feel tired in the morning, it’s like weird mom, I don’t know, it’s got to be some motherly thing.

 

[0:02:36.3] RH: I feel it.

 

[0:02:37.8] RN: Because I wasn’t like this before.

 

[0:02:39.7] JH: It is, yeah. I definitely feel that.

 

[0:02:44.4] RH: All right, if you could choose any famous person, alive or dead, to sit down and have a conversation with, who would it be?

 

[0:02:51.3] RN: I’m going to say Beyonce.

 

[0:02:55.3] RH: I love that.

 

[0:02:55.8] RN: I just think, based on what I’ve known about her, I’ve danced, my upbringing and when I was younger and I always admired her, her worth ethic. There’s a lot about her story and how she’s got to where she got to and built this huge, insane empire and I’ve always admired a lot of things about her from her classiness of hair, from the way she conducts herself into her being able to do so many different things in the field that she loves.

 

[0:03:29.3] RH: I love it, so good.

 

[0:03:32.2] JH: All right, would you rather ride a zebra or a giraffe?

 

[0:03:38.2] RN: I would have to say a giraffe. I think this is just because my son has a huge giraffe in his nursery and he’s obsessed with this giraffe. Every morning, he kisses the giraffe, it’s a big thing with the giraffe. The giraffe is a part of this family, it’s a huge thing.  I’m really into giraffes now so I think the giraffe’s now, so I picked the giraffe.

 

[0:04:01.3] JH: That’s so cute.

 

[0:04:02.8] RH: I love it. All right, what is your favorite ice-cream flavor?

 

[0:04:09.8] RN: Pistachio.

 

[0:04:12.1] JH: Like the Spaghetti Factory Pistachio ice cream?

 

[0:04:16.2] RN: I don’t know about Spaghetti Factory but I love pistachio ice cream so whether it’s like ice cream, gelato or just the flavor of pistachio is really yummy to me.

 

[0:04:26.5] JH: That’s a new one, I like it.

 

[0:04:28.6] RN: Really?

 

[0:04:29.2] JH: Yeah.

 

[0:04:29.2] RN: Pistachios are great.

 

[0:04:30.9] JH: This is our last one and this is our favorite one. What is your sensory quirk?

 

[0:04:37.4] RN: I rock myself sometimes when I want to sleep. If I’m in bed all kind of be rocking and it will kind of put me to sleep.

 

[0:04:49.6] JH: So good.

 

[0:04:49.4] RN: If I have a hard time trying my sleep, I will notice myself rocking.

 

[0:04:56.5] JH: Look at that. I bet your son loves it.

 

[0:05:01.6] RN: Yeah, I know. He’s like, “What is she doing?”

 

[0:05:05.9] RH: Give yourself late at night.

 

[0:05:10.5] JH: Well, now that we all know your deepest, darkest secrets, tell us who you are and what you do, why you do it and how you’re doing all the things.

 

[0:05:19.3] RN: I’m a doctor of OT, I specialize in pediatrics and sensory integration. Why I do it, I initially went into psychology and wanted to be a child psychologist, that was my kind of go to. I wanted to help children who were from abused homes and things like that.

 

I noticed that I was taking my work home with me and I was very emotional and it’s draining me emotionally and then I got introduced at OT and what I liked about OT was, these kids that I was working with, these kids that we were dealing with, they had odd to say what they had, it’s reprocessing it.

 

It wasn’t like – it was something that I could steal them away from their homes and taking them away from bad parents or you know what I mean? It’s something in another way that I could help them, that wasn’t something that I had to remove them from the situation or I did feel that guilt that I couldn’t remove them from the situation. I felt like okay, this is an area where I’m not taking my work home with me and actually been empowered and happy and excited that I’m making a positive impact on these children’s lives, it was a situation that they were dealt with.

 

Seeing the families, you know, seeing the impact that we make on families was huge too. I went in, I did my bachelor’s and my masters in OT. Once I’d finished, I went into physical disabilities and I started working in adult occupational rehab I thought, that’s what I wanted to do, I wanted to be in the hospital, I wanted to be hands on, with various cases and in that experience, I realized, “No, I do not want to do this.” My passion was always working with kids and I was like, “I need to go back to that.” I went back to my to do the SIPT certification. I don’t know if you guys have a SIPT where you are. Do you do the SIPT over there?

 

[0:07:10.6] JH: No, not consistently.

 

[0:07:13.5] RN: It’s the sensory integration practice test certification, it’s an in-depth course on sensory integration and I went in and did that and I was in doing that that I realized, “Okay, nobody is doing sensory integration.”

 

[0:07:27.3] RH: No one.

 

[0:07:27.7] RN: Nobody is – all these kids have this issue and we have no way of really – I would educate parents and they’d be like, “What – what are you talking about?” Do you have anything I could read," and I would give them this long-winded articles and it was just like – “Okay, I’m tired of this, like what is this?”

 

It was at that point that I said, “You know what? I want to create something animated and fun that both kids and parents can easily understand information, complex information of this as much as possible” and that’s where Sensokids came into play and I went to do my doctorate and that was my doctor, it was on animation and education using the Sensokids.

 

[0:08:14.8] JH: Very cool.

 

[0:08:16.6] RH: Okay, so then let’s talk about Sensokids a little bit more so that we can know what it is.

 

[0:08:24.4] RN: Yeah. The Sensokids are four animated characters and they represent the sensory systems that we work with. Each character, you know, we have touch, taste, all of that. But the two that most people don’t really know about is the vestibular and proprioception.

 

I took [inaudible] and I gave them the personas of the sensory super powers and basically, what they do is Sensokids educate parents and children, we have the dolls in the clinics, so a lot of the times we before playing with tactile play, we’re playing with Teresa, if we are on the swing, we got to grab Dizzy, if we are going to get on the swing If we are climbing, [inaudible]. Having an understanding of what your movement is, that your body is making but relating it to animated characters.

 

I found that it’s made things a little easier in terms of what I would usually do is in the beginning of a session, I would give the parents the opportunity, even their emails, welcome emails, the opportunity to go on our website and watch the intro video that we have on Sensokids. Basically, it would give them an idea of what their senses are and what’s sensory integration is. When they come into the clinic, they kind of have an idea now we can get into questions if they have questions.

 

It’s my kind of creative outlet in a way. Because that was huge to me as a kid growing up, I was extremely creative and I really was interested in fantasy and I grew up in London, so I was a huge Harry Potter and very magical, whimsical worlds. That was my passion and I wasn’t able to go into that world because my family was kind of very – you know, doctor, lawyer.

 

[0:10:16.9] JH: Yeah.

 

[0:10:17.4] RN: You know, this is what you need to be. It’s funny because I married a director, I married someone in that creative field. I get to exercise it through him, but it’s interesting to me that if you couldn’t pull that out of me. It came out even in OT. Whatever I would have done, that creative bug in me would have come out. I feel like when I look back now, I’m like wow, it was just something that was super in me to have something kind of magical and creative in the space of whatever it is I was doing.

 

[0:10:54.7] JH: Yeah. I feel like that’s kind of the beauty of occupational therapy is you get to tap into that creative outlet every day at treatment and how creative you can be really depends on your personality and your background and you know, if you’re a creative person. I feel like it was meant to be that you became an OT and went down that road and then, on top of it, wrote a book.

 

[0:11:18.3] RN: Absolutely, yeah. That’s another thing is my whole purpose of the books is we have – it’s a series with four books and we have three more that we’re coming out with, and my whole thing is, once all four books are out, my dream is to be able to take it into a little television series, you know?

 

[0:11:38.2] JH: That is insane.

 

[0:11:40.4] RN: A little educational TV series. That would be my dream and so you know, that’s my goal eventually at some point, hopefully.

 

[0:11:51.0] RH: That would be so fun. Just have like a series on Netflix, all about the sensory systems and that would be so cool.

 

[0:11:58.9] RN: I know, it would be so cool and it would maybe open the world’s eyes to OT, what OTs do.

 

[0:12:04.1] JH: Yeah. Well, it’s so needed, it really is.

 

[0:12:07.3] RN: Absolutely. I mean, in my opinion, I think of Captain Planet, right? There’s like earth, wind, fire, water and then the power forces combined, we bring out this magical being, Captain Planet so it educates you about the elements and our environments. Inside Out, Pixar, they had emotions, right?

 

[0:12:30.0] JH: Yes, I know that one.

 

[0:12:31.0] RN: Happiness, sadness, joy, disgust. Why are we not tapping into our senses, you know what I mean? Our senses, just as much as our emotions, regulate our ability to function on a daily basis. Educating kids on your emotions is great but why don’t we also educate them on their senses and their sensory superpowers. I feel like if those concepts were able to grow, why can’t this?

 

[0:12:56.6] JH: I think you should do that 100%.

 

[0:13:00.9] RN: That’s the next step up after we’re done with the book series.

 

[0:13:04.3] JH: When are the books going to be out?

 

[0:13:06.3] RN: I have an awesome illustrator who is in the Middle East and I work with him and he’s right now going through some procedures of some medical stuff that he needs to go through it. As soon as he’s done with that, we already have everything ready. He just has to come through with the illustrations. We’re hoping that it’s all done by – we can start working on it again early January. Hoping by the spring maybe we can get book two out.

 

[0:13:35.0] JH: Exciting.

 

[0:13:36.0] RN: Our social media, we keep everything up to date on there, we try to educate on our social media fanbase know, this is what we’re doing, this is what all updates will definitely be on there. We get word of how close we are.

 

[0:13:49.3] JH: Good. We’ll make sure that we link your social media and website and everything so people can follow along.

 

[SPONSOR MESSAGE]

 

[0:13:56.4] JH: All right guys, let’s talk a little bit more about today’s sponsor, Harkla. Like we said earlier, they make high quality products. Things like sensory swings, weighted items, compression sheets and supplements that everyone can benefit from.

 

If Rachel can successfully install a swing in her house and if you didn’t see her Instagram stories a while back then you’re missing out, you guys need to just watch them because it was great. If Rachel can do it then you can too. Not saying anything bad about Rachel, I’m just saying that it’s so easy, it’s a simple process that takes less than a day and provides results that will basically last as long as your house does.

 

[0:14:34.6] RH: If you're in a clinic setting, this company is perfect for all of your sensory needs, their equipment will withstand even t he roughest of sensory seekers and with their lifetime guarantee, should something crazy happen, they will replace it.

 

[0:14:46.8] JH: Okay, stay tuned because at the end of this episode, we’re going to give you a discount for when you purchase an item from Harkla.

 

[INTERVIEW CONTINUED]

 

[0:14:54.3] RH: Okay. You mentioned that you use this in your clinic?

 

[0:14:59.6] RN: Yes.

 

[0:15:02.3] RH: You own your own clinic, is that right?

 

[0:15:03.3] RN: I do, yeah. I do.

 

[0:15:06.1] RH: All right, let’s talk about how that got started because I’m super interested in how you start your clinic late how is that even half it.

 

[0:15:14.2] RN: I always wanted to do like – and I did for a moment. I did a little class for Westcoast University on entrepreneurship and OT and starting your own business. It was really tough because when I opened the doors, I’m the type of person, I think perseverance is my strong suit. I go for things, I go full-fledged, I don’t sleep, I don’t eat, I don’t – it’s go time.

 

I have to have that vision to go when I have a vision, it’s go time. When I have a vision of I’m creating the clinic, it was within three months. I had become a contractor, an interior designer. I had learned all about the vendors I needed to meet, I had gone to every doctor’s office, pediatrician’s office. I had done everything within the span of around three months.

 

I was just hustling every day, it was insane because you know, when you first started that you think to yourself, “Oh my god, I put all this money into this, am I going to get any money back, is it ever going to grow? Is it ever going to be anything?” and I literally – it was probably the scariest thing I had to do, was get into – starting, opening the doors but when I applied for the business license, it was like, boom, boom, boom, boom after that. Because I felt like, “Okay, now I have a business license, I have to do something with it. Okay now, what is the next step?" The next thing you know, everything was coming along. Yeah, I opened the doors of the clinic and I was so nervous. I didn’t get any calls, I remember the first day and I was just waiting for a fax from Regional Center.

 

Someone to send me a client and I was super nervous with me and my assistant. My dad told me, he was like, “Go get a massage, go relax.” And I was like, “Are you crazy? How am I going to go get a massage right now? I’m losing my mind, I’m freaking out, I’m so nervous.” He was like “Nothing is going to come to you with this state of mind. If you're going to be in this mind state and if you’re going to be so nervous and stressed and freaked out, nothing positive is going to come out. My advice to you is go do whatever you have to do to relax and tomorrow, tackle this."

 

I did that and the next day, I got my first client and slowly slowly, the Regional Center started sending clients. I went from maybe only OT, having another OT, to having another OT, to now I’m not even treating anymore, by having three OT’s working at the clinics. It was a five-year journey but it really went fast. The cool thing about it was I thought all I needed to be was an OT, but I didn’t. I learnt that I needed to learn about law, I needed to learn about contracting. You know we have suspended swings, having the swings hanging from the ceilings, how are we keeping everything secure. The design of the space I kind of became a designer for a minute. I wore multiple different hats. I wasn’t just an OT anymore. I was so many other things and that was the most exciting part was realizing that it was all key.

 

Even when you write a book, I mean this whole process of writing, this big venture Sensokids like, I learned a new language. It’s a completely foreign world that you go into. It’s not just you write a book and you publish it. It’s a whole world of different facets that you have to learn to understand so —

 

[0:18:52.4] JH: I got goose bumps when you were telling me about when your dad told you to go relax. I just feel like that is so important to keep in mind like you cannot progress and move forward when you are in that almost like a fight or flight state, right? You cannot move forward and I feel like when you have those experiences as an adult, as a business owner, as a woman, it makes it so much better when you are treating your kids.

 

Because you can use those experiences to teach your kids like, “Hey, I was struggling with this and this is what I did and it helped” and it worked and so that is why I am here teaching you and helping you to be able to have the same skills that I have.

 

[0:19:33.6] RN: Absolutely. When it came to writing these books, I had such a huge dream from the day I opened the clinic. I knew I wanted to write children’s books and I want to get into a series and I want to do a bunch of things but I was always pressuring myself like, “When am I going to write the book? When am I going to write the book? When am I going to write these books? When do I get this done?” Again, my dad is always telling me like, “It will happen when it’s supposed to happen. Don’t force it.”

 

I’m like, “What do you mean don’t force it? I don’t have time.” He’s like, “Just wait.” And look, a pandemic happened. I had an OTD and an incredible OTD student doctor, Ashley Von Zell, who was looking for a place to do her residency but with COVID, you can’t go anywhere. I told USC that I had a project and I would love OTD’s assistance of it and she jumped on board and we had all of COVID quarantine to collaborate and go through the motions of how this could be structured and boom, it happened, you know? I didn’t push it, I didn’t force it, I let it happen as it was meant to organically happen.

 

[0:20:43.1] JH: I love it.

 

[0:20:45.1] RH: That’s perfect, I think I need your dad’s advice in my life.

 

[0:20:47.5] JH: Yeah.

 

[0:20:48.2] RH: You said that you have OTs working at your clinic for you. It gets a little bit different in California than Idaho because you guys have COTAs?

 

[0:20:57.5] RN: We do have COTAs. I don’t have any COTAs that we’ve employed. I have an OTD who’s on BDOT and she kind of runs everything and then we have two OTRs that are treating. We do have COTAs in LA. I just don’t have any COTAs on staff right now, yeah. I think a lot of it also is the evaluations. We do have a lot of evals and we’re in a network with charter schools so they also need to have that eval and COTAs can’t do it. Can COTAs do it?

 

[0:21:31.7] JH: No.

 

[0:21:32.1] RN: No, COTAs can't do it anymore, so I think for that reason, I have that I mean down the line if there is an opportunity for COTAs I definitely would.

 

[0:21:42.1] JH: I’m just curious, what’s it like working in California in OT? I have this idea in my head of what it’s like but I am just curious, it’s got to be different.

 

[0:21:53.4] RN: It’s really awesome. I think there is a lot of opportunity here. We have a lot of vendors. I don’t know how the vendors are where you guys are but we have like school vendors, we have contracts with insurance. We have regional centers, it is really great and we’re very heavily SI focus, which was super – well I know, from what I know. I mean I haven’t worked anywhere outside of California so I don’t know too much outside of California but from what I’ve heard, some states are not very SI focused. You know, we do put a lot of emphasis on sensory integration and we have a lot of referrals. A lot of opportunities.

 

[0:22:31.4] JH: Yeah, I feel like it’s growing in Idaho a lot. People are starting to recognize how big of a factor sensory plays and we’re getting more referrals as well for sensory kiddos and people are like, “My kid has some sensory needs,” like that’s the main referral but with insurance, it’s kind of frustrating.

 

[0:22:53.5] RN: Yeah, I think it’s really great. California. OT is really booming and growing and lots of opportunities. I spoke to the doctor at class of USC recently and there are a lot of budding, growing and great OTs coming out over there that have a lot to offer, so I think you know, I think we have a lot of positive stuff coming ahead over here.

 

[0:23:18.6] JH: Awesome, I love it.

 

[0:23:19.8] RH: Yeah, well especially with your book and your future TV series, like it’s hopefully going live.

 

[0:23:25.5] RN: Let’s put it out there.

 

[0:23:27.2] JH: Yes. I want to know how you balance it all. As a new mom, as an entrepreneur, as an OT like how do you do it all? Tell me your ways.

 

[0:23:37.4] RN: I have a nanny who I love and trust and I think she’s incredible. She has been with me for a while now and I think if it wasn’t for her, I would not be sane or human now. It’s really, really difficult. I have so much respect for single moms and moms who are doing this on their own because I mean after you have a baby with post-partum or with your hormones and all the things that have a lot of ups and downs and it was hard trying to have — juggle everything.

 

I don’t know, I think it must be a personality thing too. I think it is just the perseverance and the pushing and the feeling of like I have to accomplish and don’t get me wrong, I do also have a long struggle. I can’t do this anymore. I’m burnt out, I’m dying and then I think about it and I’m like, “How am I so tired? Have I done so much?” But after being a mom, I think it is also the mental, right? I’m constantly wondering, "Is he okay? Did he do this? Did he do that?" It’s just overflow of thoughts and worry.

 

[0:24:44.7] JH: Do you feel like, I don’t know, almost like your therapy practice, do you feel that has changed since becoming a mom?

 

[0:24:51.6] RN: Yeah, I think after I had married it changed. Obviously, my husband's in the director, producer. We go where his show is, we go where his opportunity is, so once I got married, I was working a lot while being with him on set. Wherever he was I would go take my computer, connect with my girls, make sure everything was going well at the clinic but I was no longer based in the clinic. After I got married, things changed and then now that I have a child, I’m even more removed.

 

I decided that I love treating and I enjoy it but my passion is the Sensokids, my passion is the brand. If I have an OT or a lead OT that I trust running the treatment aspect of the clinic, then I feel confident that that is being handled a lot. I can explore my creative side with the Sensokids and that I can literally do from any city.

 

[0:25:55.7] JH: Yes.

 

[0:25:56.2] RN: I just need my laptop.

 

[0:25:57.9] JH: Yes.

 

[0:25:58.4] RH: I like that you are able to like delegate. That’s so important, you have to, yeah.

 

[0:26:04.8] RN: I mean I got to be honest, it’s very difficult. I think employees is the hardest challenge, you know? Being able to have employees that you trust, respect or believe in, connect with, you know what I mean? I think that’s a huge part and I think if you have that part on lock, you are really set but that’s probably the hardest part.

 

[0:26:31.5] RH: How did you find employees that you could trust? What was that process like?

 

[0:26:36.5] RN: I had ups and downs and ups and downs with employees. Now, I’m at a good space, you know? Obviously with COVID, everything got messed up and you know it was really difficult to keep everybody fully staffed. I think a lot of it is trust and communication. I think as long as you guys are communicating and as long as you trust your staff, I think that’s the biggest thing. Also, I control all the admin side, so I don’t give them the responsibility of anything in admin.

 

Their responsibility, you see our client, you write your notes, you’re done. I make sure that everything. From billing to vendor communication to initial client consults, I handle all that. I still have my spun really heavy in the backend and I just accept and to treat.

 

[0:27:31.1] JH: You have been able to identify — yes, you’re OT, you love it, you’ve treated for years, you have that experience and to be able to say, “I’m still having my foot in the door but I really love pursuing this creative side.” I feel like that’s hard as a therapist. I struggle with it myself to be able to say, “I love treating but there is this other things that I’m really passionate about” and they can make a difference in so many people’s lives like your book series.

 

They can really impact people and so I just bow down to you because I feel like that’s really awesome that you’ve been able to do that.

 

[0:28:06.2] RN: Thanks, I think a big part of that though is talking what you love and finding how it would be different. That is all it was for me. I saw multiple clinics. I saw everyone was the same. How could I be different? Once I’ve created the Sensokids, I was now a completely different entity. I was an OT clinic but it was so much more than that because I had the Sensokids.

 

If you’re an OT and you have something that you love, whatever it is, finding what that is and developing it is how you kind of be able to still be in OT but have that other thing that you’re super passionate. I think it’s like you guys in the podcast, you know what I mean? I think this is a great idea. I remember when I saw you guys on social media, I was like, “What? There’s a sensory podcast? How cool is that?” You know what I mean? That’s such a great idea, you know? A place where students, parents, everybody can go into in my button sensory enrichment. I think you guys are also on to it as well, you know? Just setting yourself aside and being different and doing something different.

 

[0:29:18.7] JH: Yeah, that is definitely what we’ve followed as we’re ourselves, we’re goofy. We’re not the most like professional on the podcast but we make it relatable and people I feel like can kind of sit back and have a cup of coffee or a glass of wine or whatever and just like learn and hangout with us and it’s fun.

 

[0:29:37.4] RN: Absolutely, I think that’s go great.

 

[0:29:39.0] RH: Is there any one piece of advice that you could give our listeners, whether it’s to the parents or the other therapists?

 

[0:29:47.7] RN: It depends. If this advice as an entrepreneur, if this advice on mom, if it’s advised like I feel like –

 

[0:29:56.2] JH: There is so many avenues.

 

[0:29:57.8] RN: There is so many avenues but for me, it would probably be — as an entrepreneur I would say think outside of the box. Be different in whatever it is that you’re doing. Just find your avenue to standout. You have to be original. The same thing over and over again it’s been done. As a mother, I would say be easy on yourself. I think for moms, it’s really hard to compare parenting, compare ways of doing things and there’s the mom guilt and there is all these stuff that brings you down.

 

I think trying to be optimistic and believe that you are the best mom for your child and your child is here and it’s your child for a reason and you are doing your best and feeling not so hard on yourself. As an aspiring author, I would say don’t be scared if you haven’t written a book. Don’t be scared if you haven’t done something. Step into it, give it a shot, give it a chance. I was so fortunate to have Dr. [inaudible] on my team to flush out ideas with.

 

You know, if that’s what it takes to find someone who is just as passionate about something that you are passionate about and flush that ideas, don’t be afraid. Trust and believe in yourself, believe in your material and take the plunge and I think my whole life has been taking a plunge. Everything I did moving from Europe to the US, switching from business to [inaudible], you know, taking all the steps that I have done to start the business to create —

 

Everything was a leap of faith; everything was a trust like I’m going to not be scared. I am going to give it a chance. Obviously calculated, right? You know, I am not going to throw myself out without any plan B but create your boundaries, create your plan B, create your safety net and then take the leap and be bold.

 

[0:31:57.8] RH: All of that is great.

 

[0:32:02.3] JH: I feel like we could just chat with you and soak up all of your knowledge all day today but thank you so much for letting us just pick your brain and share your wisdom with all of our tribe members as we like to say so thank you.

 

[0:32:17.0] RN: Of course, thank you guys for having me. I think you guys are going to pass it, I absolutely love what you guys doing.

 

[0:32:24.2] JH: Thank you.

 

[0:32:24.6] RN: I really appreciate you guys even for the knowledge that you’re bringing about sensory integration and about OTs and what we do as a profession. I think that’s huge, all of us combined trying to get a word out and trying to get more awareness is so great so I am grateful to be in your company. Thank you guys for having me, this has been so awesome.

 

[0:32:44.3] JH: Yes, of course.

 

[0:32:45.1] RH: We look forward to your TV show in 2021.

 

[0:32:49.0] RN: Right, that’s great.

 

[0:32:51.6] JH: Yes. All right my dear, we’ll talk to you later okay?

 

[0:32:54.2] RN: All right, thank you guys.

 

[0:32:55.7] JH: You’re welcome. Bye.

 

[0:32:57.7] RN: Bye.

 

[END OF INTERVIEW]

 

[0:32:58.2] JH: All right you guys, one more quick reminder about today’s sponsor, Harkla Co., a family-owned business that provides therapy and sensory equipment as long. A family company that provides therapy and sensory equipment along with supplements. We love them, we love their mission, we love their equipment and we love that one percent of each month’s sales goes to the University of Washington Autism Center, which funds cutting edge research and sponsors scholarships for children with autism to attend a summer camp. How cool is that?

 

[0:33:29.9] FEMALE: For real, I love it. They’re great. They’re local to Boise, which is really cool for us but I mean it’s still cool for everyone else too. But if you’re ready to jump in and check these guys out, go to harkla.co and you can save 10% on any of their products by using the code “sensory.” Make sure you let us know what your thoughts are and definitely go check them out.

 

[0:33:58.9] RH: Okay, that was incredible and I hope you are all inspired by Reema and of course, make sure to go check-out her Instagram and get her book.

 

[0:34:11.5] JH: Yes, I love her book so much. I read it to Trip all the time, even though it’s a bigger kid book but it still has so many great takeaways and we are so grateful that Reema took time out of her busy schedule obviously to talk with us. You could find everything in the show notes and make sure that you leave a review on iTunes for us as well.

 

[0:34:36.7] RH: Oh yes, those reviews on iTunes just do so much. Thanks for being here.

 

[0:34:43.8] JH: Yes. All right, we will chat with you next week.

 

[0:34:49.6] RH: Okay, bye.

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, AC & Jessica Hill, COTA/L
Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, AC & Jessica Hill, COTA/L


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