How to Scale Your Business by Solving Overlooked Problems

[0:00]  so when I first started out I had this kind of like 5year plan of what I wanted to do right um we started I started by just offering services in the home and the community and then my fiveyear vision was to have a sector um so that I could create a actual program for adolescents and adults um about a year and a half and two starting adapt we I opened my first sector so that was way faster than I expected and then at about 2 and 1/2 years we grew out of that Center and moved into the center four times size so there's definitely been a lot of growth faster than I originally anticipated and just looking back on those Milestones

[0:50]  makes me realize like how much I have achieved which is really nice to be able to look back on that and like find myself that like oh yeah I am moving forward in this all right guys welcome back to a brand new episode of the heart and hustle podcast today is going to be an amazing episode because I have an amazing leader I have um somebody who's sitting across the digital table with me who is changing the landscape of not only how we serve our community but how she makes a difference in every person's

[1:38]  Lives who her team is impacting every single day Jessica Workman welcome to the show hi thank you so much for having me I'm excited to be here this is going to be a fun conversation you know I think it's really important for us to talk about how sometimes early in life we are exposed to things that we are passionate about and we can turn those things into a career in our previous discussion you had mentioned that in high school you were developing programs for your school district and mentoring those with disabilities how did you start doing that at such a young age yeah that's right so I always growing up I was heavily involved in volunteering I always wanted to give back to the community um volunteered in very various settings and then realized found calling in the field of special education um so

[2:27]  when I was in high school I started volunte caring and I did a practicum with my high school special education department um throughout that I really just noticed that these individuals were seeking connection and they weren't getting that with their neurotypical peers um so throughout my high school journey I worked on developing some peer-to-peer connection programming I was involved in the Special Olympics um started Unified sports at my high school just to get get these individuals involved with other peers to socialize and really um give them that confidence they needed in life to become their best selves so that's how I all got started in the field of special education

[3:15]  Jessica how does a high school student take on such a huge initiative like what was the experience like when you're sitting around in high school and recognizing that there are people who are going to our school who aren't having the social connection that they need maybe other people are looking them at them in a way than others what were some of those early conversations maybe that you had with yourself with your parents with leaders of the school what was that process like yeah you know what I think it's because I was always the type of person who just wanted to help other people um growing up a lot of my models were those that were in the field of helping others um I would say in Middle School my middle school principal was an big advocate for volunteering and I think that's why I found my passion in volunteering and then discovered this

[4:05]  population um I was always wanting to be a good student so obviously hearing my principal saying he advocates for volunteers I wanted to do that myself so that's kind of how I found that calling I suppose um then which led me to special education so yeah after high school I went on to college studying special education got my undergrad in special education and then throughout my studies I kind of discovered the world of Applied Behavior Analysis so I ended up going back to school got my Master's in applied Behavior Analysis so now I'm a board certified behavior analyst um and then throughout my practicum studies that I needed to complete to obtain my bcba I

[4:55]  found that there was a real lack of services for adults specifically in the field of ABA special education so that's how I really landed where I am right now just discovering that there's a lack of those specific Services um for adults and that's how I am where I am today um which as we spoke before so I'm the founder of adap transition services in Massachusetts we work with adolescents and adults on the autism spectrum um we do Center Community Based homebased Services um we really just work on those functional skills that these individuals are seeking out to become independent and lead the life that they want to live

[5:43]  going into adulthood you said something that was really powerful in our last conversation together you said it is so important to not be afraid to start something that isn't out there already what does that mean to you yeah absolutely so in the field of EA um it's mostly insurance-based services that EA provides and um with my focus on adolescence and adults there's really not much out there there's some state funded programs however those programs are lacking a lot of supports so I really saw that Gap in Services um and I was like so how can I fix this Gap so when I was in college I did a thesis on the gap of services um

[6:34]  between that TR between adolescence and adulthood found that there was lack of adequate supports available so throughout my studies I said you know what I'm going to fill this Gap and create a program that is targeted towards these individuals and um that that was a big risk because there was nothing out there already but I knew that if I want to provide services to these individuals they deserve quality services that I'm going to need to go out there and create something um so in massachusett specifically the reason why I am able to provide ABAB Based Services to adults is because a lot of insurance companies have lifted the age cap on ABA a lot of insurance companies say um when you turn

[7:25]  the age of 21 you're no longer eligible for ABA services um so that's why I would say a lot of these individuals don't have adequate support however that age cap was lifted in Massachusetts which is why I'm able to provide um those intrusive supports for these adults and increase their independence into adult life how do you for how do you Foster the mindset to be able to go against the grain so heavily I'm always interested when I sit across the table with amazing leaders like you who are doing things that other people aren't willing to do how did you get The Bravery in order to say okay I see what the landscape of the current marketpl looks like there are some gaps here I'm going to fill those gaps was that a scary process like how did you build up the confidence to be able to go on to

[8:12]  the market and do that stuff so it was scary um I will say my family was very hesitant about what I was going out to do just cuz it wasn't already out there but um really writing that pieces I talked to a lot of families who were advocating for their children saying these Services aren't available what is available is not adequate we really want something that will increase Independence going into adulthood so I knew there was a need out there so I feel like having that mission to set out and create something for these individuals that was what helped me start adapt so there was a little bit of fear cuz it wasn't already out there but I knew that this was for the greater go of the population so that's what really

[9:01]  pushed me forward in creating adapt did you have any other entrepreneurs or creators in your life like were your parents business owners or anybody who's done this stuff before no not at all um I would say I'm definitely in a different career path than the people I grew up with my family um Human Services field no one was really as interested in that as I was and helping other people um so it was a lot of just self-discovery as I went learning how to do things but yeah I wouldn't say there were any real big influences in that entrepreneur side of things who did you look to for the confidence when you were just starting out because if we don't see it around us we often have to look

[9:48]  outward so what type of people were you looking to like what was your mindset like and trying to figure out how you're going to be able to build this thing yeah I would say just looking at like some of those founders of ABA I would say um when they started out this was something new as well so just having them in mind really pushed me forward I mean that's it's incredible it's uh it's so interesting when I get the opportunity to talk to Founders on this podcast because we're born with a different knack to explore things you know when I uh started my first company in 2014 we started as a telea health company I uh had the fortune of coming home one day after a really terrible summer job and I was looking at how I could start a business and I came across this new bill that had been passed in

[10:34]  the state of Nevada that said that you were going to be able to have a virtual interaction with your healthcare provider and they could be paid as if it happened in person and my brain started going crazy I was like this is going to be the future but when I started going out into the marketplace and talking to hospitals and CEOs and chief medical officers everybody shot me down and so it really kind of had me reinforce the idea if you truly believe in something there's going to be a lot of people along the way who aren't going to believe in you and if you just stick with it long enough you can truly be successful and I'm guessing that you went through some of that Journey with yourself as well yeah absolutely there was definitely a lot of skepticism I mean creating something that's not already in existence but yeah don't be afraid to take that risk because you never know how many people it's going to

[11:21]  benefit and even right now we have a huge weight list for services which we're trying to meet the need of the community but that just speaks volum as to how much the service is needed let's talk a little bit about the current landscape of kind of what things are looking like so Massachusetts huge weight list what does that mean what are some of the gaps that you guys are trying to fill yeah so it's really just being able to adequately sta these individuals so a lot of adults adolescents they find out about our services um that they were unaware about that were in existence so they get on the site us to obtain our services and it's really just making sure we have adequate levels of clinicians available to provide um that quality treatment

[12:09]  that we want so um there's definitely a lot of individuals I mean the statistics of autism just went way up so a lot of individuals are turning into adults now and looking for services so um the need is huge I mean when I first started working in this space in 2017 2018 it was 1 in 56 children were being diagnosed with autism as of this year it was 1 in 36 children and so if you think about the growing number of people in our communities who need to be served this is a a total addressable Market that continues to grow every single year has that given you confidence and being able to say like we are in the right spot in the right type of business at the right type of time to be able to serve the people who are going to need us in the future yeah absolutely I mean

[12:57]  this is a grow field so there's always going to be opportunity there um and these individuals deserve quality care so I think that if we can just keep spread raising awareness um spreading our resources then we'll be able to help more people as they age and grow into adults there was a part of what you guys do at adapt which is you know you guys have a philosophy of family centered approach what does that mean yeah so at adapt we really value Compassionate Care so we want to involve the whole family in the care um it's not just the clients that we are serving but it's also their whole fames um their family Dynamic extended how they interact with other

[13:45]  individuals so we really try to involve everyone in that care we want to get everyone's Buy in as well I think forming that like trust with the family is the most important thing um cuz if a family doesn't trust what you're doing with their child they're not going to support it when they're not receiving um that one-on-one care so buying is huge and then not only for the parents but siblings as well um if siblings don't know why you're doing something they might not support um their skill development in the outside world as well um and then I mean families are the primary caregivers these individuals are with their families more them there with us so I think it's really important to involve families in that treatment so

[14:34]  that they can work on those skills when we're not there ourselves you know I've been on the podcast I've been talking a lot about the topic of agency right one's own perceived perspective and being able to control and impact their world now one of the things that I came across in another podcast that I was listening to was a way to determine if people have agency and the highest people with agency and often the most successful people have an interesting Common Thread about their upbringing so Jessica did you have any weird type of hobbies when you were growing up as a kid that maybe you didn't share with your friends that you like to do on the weekend that you might have been a little bit embarrassed of I don't know if I would say it was any strange Hobbies but I volunteered a lot growing up as I said earlier and I think that's not something that peers my age were

[15:23]  doing um growing up I feel like a lot of people were more concerned with popularity and things like that but I was more concerned with how can I help other people so I would say that's one of the I guess Weir things that I would do growing up um just that mentality of wanting to give back to other individuals rather than focusing on myself and exactly what you just demonstrated is the exact character trait of people with high agency now there's an organization out there multi- multi-billion and their Organization leader their CEO often asks people coming into the organization did you have any weird Hobbies when you were growing up and when they say I did things that normally people wouldn't do that were against the population or that weren't popular that is the biggest

[16:10]  indicator very ear early on in life that we're willing to go against the grain and so it's really cool to kind of connect all these dots and think about how you didn't have somebody in your family who was an entrepreneur or a business owner you saw the gaps in the marketplace and you were willing to go against the grain to create something new isn't that so cool yeah that is cool and that's not a term I had heard before so that's really enlightening to hear you say that it really is I I want to talk a little bit about you know the process of you starting to build out your team you know one thing I really appreciate is leadership often is not a skill set that we learn about in a class in college or in high school so how did you start thinking about your persona and your personality as a leader and how do you kind of communicate that with your team yeah that's a great question so when I started adapt it was just me

[16:59]  and a few other colleagues who I had worked with at previous positions um specifically for the adults I mean at the other jobs that I had there weren't many adults that we were serving um because they weren't seeking Insurance fending for adults like I had um so when I started it out it was really just me um finding some ad adults who are in need of services and then going through that process with them and what what is that what is what is that like Jessica I need to know like what is that process like cuz I'm trying to put myself in the audience in like the position of you sitting like in your room as an example and being like okay if I'm going to start this business I need to identify a market and people who I'm going to serve so how did you start like tackling that problem um I just went on a bunch of um

[17:51]  like autism platforms um Autism Speaks resources really reached out to people so if anyone was was interested in these Services um there were some groups on Facebook that I joined of um just different town groups and I would write a post saying anyone interested in these services that I'm willing to provide um so that's really how I got my start and also talking to like um DDS Department of De developmental Services they were able to connect me with some few a few families um so it was a lot of just reaching out to different people to make those connections to see who is interested in those Services um was that scary it was in a sense that I was speaking out about something that I

[18:40]  wanted to provide that wasn't out there um I was kind of hesitant about what people thoughts and feelings would be about that um but I would say that I quickly found that a lot of people were in need of these services so then it just helped me move forward and create this bigger agency that we are now I mean that's that's incredibly impressive you know I just think about that internal voice if you will that we have to overcome so often that speaks to us and says like should we be posting this stuff should I be announcing the services that I want to serve like am I qualified what are people going to think and the biggest Journey or the biggest process of getting started is often overcoming that internal dialogue and believing in ourselves enough to be able

[19:27]  to push through some of those insec ities or those false stories that that little voice in our head often tells us and that's why I thought it was really important to kind of dive into that because so many people have great ideas so many people want to make an impact but we never get started because we're afraid to take that first step into the unknown yeah absolutely and that's my like biggest piece of advice don't be afraid to start something that's not already there because that's the only way we move forward by creating new things and bettering the population the environment that we serve so when did you start adapt and excuse me for not having this in my notes but how long did you guys get started three years ago so we're still relatively new um yeah we're a team of about 50 clinicians right now and we serve a little over 30

[20:16]  clients but again we do have a large weight list so we are hoping that we can continue to grow our team so that we can serve these individuals do you ever get an opportunity to kind of PA and think about all the things that you've accomplished in these three years because often you know when you're a person who has a high achieving mindset it's very easy for us to get caught between where we are right now and where we're trying to get to and often when we get it wrong those goals that we have established for ourselves can sometimes feel like a horizon so we take one step towards them and they move one step further away but a way to kind of mitigate against that is to be able to look backwards and look at all the things that we've accomplished along the way so do you get an opportunity to ever pause with everything that you're trying to do to be able to kind of appreciate

[21:03]  everything that you've overcome to this point yeah definitely so when I first started out I had this kind of like fiveyear plan of what I wanted to do right um we started I started by just offering services in the home and the community and then my fiveyear vision was to have a sector um so that I can create a actual program for adolescents and adults um about a year and a half into starting adapt we I opened my first center so that was way faster than I expected and then at about two and a half years we grew out of that Center and moved into a center four times size so there's definitely been a lot of growth faster

[21:51]  than I originally anticipated and just looking back on those Milestones makes me realize like how much I have achieved which is really nice to be able to look back on that and like remind myself that like oh yeah I am moving forward in this I am setting out to do what I had planned what's one piece of advice you would give to yourself three years ago knowing what you know now if you could time travel back and have a conversation with yourself and give your piece or yourself a piece of advice what do you think that would be I would say even though this is is kind of contrary to what is happening with the growth but I would say don't grow too fast um you want to have proper a proper team in

[22:39]  place proper supports to scale that growth um I think in the beginning I was doing a lot I was working 20 hours a day because there was always something to do so I feel like if I had had a team to help me through that process it wouldn't have put as much stress on myself in the early stages I've been dealing with that personally um a big part of my maturation as a leader has been putting trust into my team to be able to do things that I think that I can do better and I only say that because you know one of the things that we see a lot of the times when we talk to Founders is we often think that we have to do everything we

[23:27]  have to spin all the plates and balance them all at the same time and nobody's going to be able to do you know onboarding or customer success or services and everything else that we think that we're the best at but I heard a a mentor a mentor I'm reading a book right now called um called buy your time back by a guy named Dan Martell and he talks about the 8020 principle now if you're ever familiar with that that's paro's principle or it says 20% of the work that you do produces 80% of the results right and there's another rule called the 955 rule for entrepreneurs and Founders that it's 5% of the work that we actually do produces 95% of the results that we get and when you become a better higher level leader we have to become very comfortable with offloading and delegating tasks to our team so they can do the work so we can high or so we

[24:15]  can really focus on that 5% work and one of his phrases in this book is if somebody can do the work 80% as good as you can that is 100% awesome because it's not the objective to get 10 on everything but to build a team around us who can do 80% as good as we can so we can focus on the highest leverage tasks what do you think about that 8020 80% is 100% awesome rule yeah no I love that analogy um and as I was building my team I really wanted find people who were experts in this specific thing that maybe I wasn't expert on so I could utilize um my knowledge out for and really how we can continue bridging this Gap um so for instance like the administrative side of things I'm a

[25:02]  clinician I'm not I wasn't I didn't go to school to be in the business side of things so really hiring that side offloaded those tasks so that I could focus on the mission of how to better serve these individuals um so I definitely agree with that in order to produce more work you need to delegate those other tasks and really trust that that your team H has a handle on those tasks so you can focus on the bigger important things isn't that a scary process though when you first get started especially talking about like this is my baby it's so scary yes losing that control giving it up is so scary but you just have to trust those people that you work with and Empower them to be able to do their best work leadership

[25:51]  101 and being a CEO is all about being able to cast a vision so large that other highly skilled people can find themselves being successful in our vision so when it came to attracting you know those first couple hires and those team members what was the vision that you were kind of casting for these people to get them to buy in to be a part of the adapt team yeah so my vision has always been working with adults and creating a sense of community so at adapt I really want to Foster that like warm atmosphere where we're all working together to serve these individuals it's not a competition or anything um that hierarchy like we don't want to be afraid of each other we really want to

[26:38]  form connections with each other because I do think that in order to help the individuals that we're serving we also need to be able to take care of ourselves and one of the main indicators of like mental health is having those good relationships as well so really forming relationships with our colleagues so we can all trust each other um we're all working together towards this common Vision work life balance is really tough um I've really been trying to balance that framework of work life integration because the work that we do now is very much especially in my space is virtual I can think about the business 24/7 and I recognize that sometimes I'm in different seasons of sacrifice the season that I'm in right now is all about me showing up and

[27:25]  working those long days but later in other Seasons I'm participating or I'm expecting that it's going to be me working and trying to delegate as much as I possibly can what do you think about the difference between that work life balance and that work life integration what does that mean to you I think if when you work you should be working in a field that you care about so it doesn't feel as much like work right and then it's really just forming boundaries so that your work doesn't interfere too much in your personal life but I also don't want anyone coming to work dreading going to work I want them to enjoy coming to work so I kind of want it to have that integration where it's not something um that you know you're not looking forward to I want it to kind of

[28:13]  integrate into your life so this is just another thing you do another thing you enjoy doing one of the the biggest lessons that I've been trying to do in establishing and reinforcing my mindset so I can be successful over a long time Horizon is exactly that looking at things on a longer time Horizon if we're trying to build a business to a million dollars it's very different from how we try and um you know build a business to 10 or $15 million you have to build a foundation underneath you so when it comes to the vision of what you guys are trying to accomplish are you doing any type of work to try and give yourself a longer Runway or a longer time Horizon to accomplish the things that you guys want to or are you feeling like you have to rush in order to be able to meet the meet the needs of the community yeah so I think in order to best meet the needs

[29:02]  of the community we have to have a strategic plan in place so that we can scale our growth scale all these ideas we have of how we can bridge that gap of transition to adulthood um so we do have a strategic plan in place so all of these Milestones that we do want to meet they're laid out over the course of three years currently um so I would say that helps us not f Focus all on doing these million little tasks but one task at a time and really making sure that the work we are doing is quality I feel like that strategic planning in place helps us ensure that okay this task that this goal that we want to meet we're putting all of our efforts into it right now it's going to be quality work instead of

[29:50]  spreading out our quality um throughout a bunch of different things just focusing on that one thing um has help helped us kind of keep that vision of how we're moving forward but also keep us accountable for that quality as we get there I want to say it was Jeff Bezos who said be strict on your vision but flexible on how you get there how are you kind of thinking about flexibility in kind of changing and adapting to meeting the needs of the community have you guys had to make any pivots along the way to like change up what you guys thought was going to be the plan yeah and I love that quote I do think um flexibility curiosity those are very powerful um Char characteristics we have to have as a leader um there's always

[30:39]  going to be different ways of doing things everyone has their own ideas um so if we have one common goal then just hearing everyone's ideas on how to get there if it's not originally how I thought maybe someone else has a better idea of how to get there um so really just approaching growth with a sense of curiosity um I feel like that's kind of how we've made some pivots in our growth as well just hearing everyone's perspective instead of just mine listening to the staff who are doing the work daytoday and hearing what they have to say about um where they think this vision is going as well I'm interested to know what the lens through the lens of curiosity how are you thinking about

[31:28]  like all the technology that we have access to as business Founders here today with AI and everything else that's kind of swirling out in the world how you thinking about these Technologies being able to support you know your mission and all the stuff that you guys do at adapt yeah so technology I think is a great tool if use correctly um I think technology increases your access to material however what's that material that's out there maybe it's not always accurate however if it is I think it's a great tool it makes you more efficient in your work um even technology for accessing diagnosis to autism let's say um that could just increase the availability access to care um so I think technology if you use

[32:17]  correctly is a great tool what's kind of your two sents about all the technology that's kind of swirling around us I mean stuff seems to be popping up every single day how are you kind of prioritizing the things that you and your team want to explore especially with you know the need in the community that you guys are serving yeah I think you always have to be open to what's out there um learn how to use these tools um I mean technology can be a great learning tool as well for the individuals that we work with um every individual has a different learning style so you never know which tool might help them more than others so just embracing what's out there and kind of adapting to the times and just learning what can help you become more

[33:05]  efficient yeah and I think that's kind of what the future generations of people who are going to do this work and work for you as an example are looking for as well that sense of curiosity that sense of what could this mean to me that sense of how can we be more efficient while trying to do more with less is a real opportunity that you know I think great leaders today have an opportunity to think about and also kind of prepare their organizations for in the future and so you know I'm really excited to kind of see how you guys continue to mold and shape and this early Journey that you're on three years in which is a huge accomplishment by the way and serving so many people having a team of 50 having 30 plus clients you guys are working with now it's amazing so what is kind of what does the future look like for you guys let's take an opportunity

[33:52]  to kind of like rub on our crystal ball if you will and think about what the future's going to look like yeah no I love that um future goals I mean I would love to be able to grow um expand our Footprints serve more of the community I would love to influence some legislation that's currently out there regarding services for adults I think there are a lot of restrictions on services that adults receive specifically lifting the age cap for ABA Services um I would love to get more involved with that um I think what I'm doing not a lot of other people do that because of those restrictions so if we can make some change in the world um we'd be able to better serve our community well I have no doubt that the

[34:42]  high school student who was looking to Mentor other people with disabilities and help her school district create programs and got into college and said there's a gap here I'm going to start my own business although you had no reference point to that is well suited to be able to kind of make the changes in our community that we really need thank you so Jessica one of the uh traditions we have here on the podcast as we end is our previous guest wanted to ask you a question now their question was simple and I'm really interested to kind of what you think about this okay their question was as a founder and as a leader of your organization what does courage mean to you I would say that courage means being brave moving forward even you have

[35:29]  setbacks as simple as you can put it I would say just moving forward um among the adversity that's what courage is well I really appreciate all the time that we've spent here together I want to give you an opportunity to let people know as the next like 30 seconds run a commercial for adapt how can people find more information about you guys where can they find Jessica if they want to follow along with your story and you're growing this amazing business sure yeah so you can find out more about adapt at our website so www.

[36:02]  adaptabel on LinkedIn Jess Workman we have social medias on Facebook Instagram adapt transition Services um we are located in Massachusetts but hope to expand so please support us in this Venture of Bridging the Gap for adults and Adolescence with autism well the order is very simple guys once again go check out Jessica the amazing work that she's doing at adapt ABA and let's support her and creating this amazing organization to Usher us into the future of a well supported Community with so many people who need it thanks again for tuning in guys that's a wrap