AP 1253: Where Are They Now? Rose Griffin

AP 1253: Where Are They Now? Rose Griffin

Pat Flynn: What's up everybody? Pat Flynn here, and welcome to episode 1253 of AskPat 2.0. You're about to listen to a conversation between myself and an entrepreneur just like you. And today we are catching up with Rose Griffin, who was once on the show over a year and a half ago. I gave her some advice as far as increasing your price point and building a community and stuff, and we're gonna find out how she did.

Did it go well? Did it go not so well? And it depends because sometimes we've had people on the show who just go gangbusters with the information and take action, and we have other people who don't take action and we have other people who take action and it didn't go the way we thought. So today we're talking with Rose Griffin again, you can find her at ABA Speech.

She also has a podcast called The Autism Outreach, and I think my puppies, if you can hear them, are very excited about this and I hope you are too. Here she is, Rose Griffin.

Rose, welcome back once again to AskPat. Thanks for coming on today.

Rose Griffin: Well, thanks so much for having me. I'm excited to catch up.

Pat Flynn: And I'm excited. And first of all, everybody who's listening you can't see this, but I see the signature harp in the background, which is nice. Still, still going strong with with the instrument.

Rose Griffin: It's still there. Oh yeah. Lots of music.

Pat Flynn: Love it. Very cool. I actually saw a fun video on, I think it was on TikTok or YouTube the other day, where a person who was playing the harp connected it to a guitar pedal that made it have a really cool sort of Jimmy Hendrix kind of sound to it.

And it was just like to see a harp play, that kind of music, it was just really cool. Anyway, I was just thinking on that.

Rose Griffin: Oh yeah. There's harpists that play, Metallica, all kinds of things. That's not my, I do have, I do play Staiway to Heaven, so, you know, someday maybe.

Pat Flynn: Staiway to Heaven. Yeah. Zeppelin. Good stuff.

Cool. So give us an update. It's been a little bit since we've chatted, but you actually for people maybe who don't remember who you are, maybe a little background and, and sort of we can pick it up from there.

Rose Griffin: Sure. So I have a company called ABA Speech and I am a speech therapist and board certified behavior analyst.

And I have a company that is dedicated to helping speech therapists and other professionals make meaningful progress with their autistic learners. So what we really do is help people who are not yet speaking start on their communication journey. And the way that we do that is by providing therapy services, courses.

And I have a podcast too called Autism Outreach that comes out every Tuesday and we actually just taped episode 100, Pat. So very excited about that.

Pat Flynn: Congratulations. Actually, let's talk about the podcast. How has that been going now, a hundred episodes in, has it been worth the time and, and like, how's it been going?

Rose Griffin: It has exceeded every expectation. So I did take Power-Up Podcasting and I was guessing. A lot of podcasts and knew I wanted to start my own. And so the connections I've made with the podcast has been absolutely amazing and I've actually been able to monetize my podcast from the, the first time that I started it.

I have a company that's purchased 10 episodes every single year. Amazing. And that has just been so amazing. It is probably my favorite thing about my business and I just, I like talking to people. When I was in school, I was always getting in trouble for sitting sideways and talking. So now I'm getting paid to do it, which is, you know, living the dream.

Pat Flynn: Yeah, that, that's amazing. And then as far as like the business, it sounds like the podcast is bringing in some ad revenue. You also have courses as well. I know, and that's something we've talked about in a previous episode. How have the courses evolved since the last time we've chatted?

Rose Griffin: Oh man. Yeah. I launched another course called Start Communicating Today. For preschool aged students who are not yet speaking. And what's nice about that course is for parents and professionals and what I had talked to you last, we had just raised the price from 99 to 297, and so that felt really scary at first, but I realized that there's a lot of value in that because people are getting my time and my attention, and there's a community piece to it as well.

So that actually when we launched that, it was our largest launch that we've had. So that felt really good. And you know, over the years I've just been updating all my software and technology that I'm using, so. So this course is looking really, really good.

Pat Flynn: That's excellent. Was there any pushback from any audience members about the price point?

I know that's a big worry for a lot of people who know they have a lot of value, but also don't want to overcharge their audience. Can you speak to that?

Rose Griffin: Yeah, absolutely. Scary for me at first, but I think that sometimes when I look at something online that isn't price high, I think to myself, well, what's wrong with that?

And so I didn't want people to think they weren't getting a lot of value because I have been doing this for 20 years, and both of my certifications, there's less than 500 people in the entire world that have them. So it really makes me stand out is somebody who can help serve my audience. And so by raising the price, yeah, I mean there's some people on my email list that just want my freebies, and that's okay too because it's all about the marathon, not the sprint.

Pat Flynn: Exactly. Well, well put, tell me about your email list. You know, you have people listening to your podcasts and how else are you growing that list and how has that been vital or not vital to, to the growth of your business?

Rose Griffin: So my email list, I have almost 30,000 people. I use Convert Kit and I, I love using Convert Kit.

Something that I did last year is I started, every week I send a broadcast. But I also started evergreen email sequences for the three pockets of people that are on my email list. So a general one, people working with younger students, people working with older students, and I love that story that you told about when you worked at the Macaroni Grill.

You kind of diversify what you were telling people, first time customer, your old timers, you know? So I think of it that way. And so that is a way that I've been leveling up my email and that has been really nice. Actually, right before now I was working on that because I write those all myself and I actually really like writing my emails.

It's hard to find the time to do that, but I'm extremely consistent with that. So that has really helped skyrocket the growth of my business too, and I'm always thinking of how can I build my list and, and things like that.

Pat Flynn: That's great. Did, did, did it always start out segmented like that, or was it just kind of one bucket, one list that you had and if the latter, then how did you find the time or like make that effort to transition into something that was a little bit more, you know, honed in on who, who was in the audience.

Rose Griffin: Absolutely. I actually worked with somebody, so I am an SPI Pro in the MBA group as well, and I met somebody named Brad Hussey, who I know you had on one of your podcasts.

Yes. He is so smart and I just love him. He is my go-to. He's just super reliable and super smart. So he helped me with, I knew that I wanted to segment my email list like that and send the correct message to the correct person. And so I worked with him and he set that all up for me and set up a template on my broadcast so that at the bottom it has my Instagram and it has my website.

I didn't even have my website on my, my weekly broadcast. And now I get so many clicks. And when he set that up, I thought to, What, what were you doing the past four years? But it's okay. It's a process, right? We learn, we grow, but working with him was really helpful. So if you're sending out a weekly broadcast and you don't have your website on there, do that immediately.

You'll, you will be happy about that choice.

Pat Flynn: Definitely. It's a great way to get people to come back to, you know, home base and see the other things that you have going on in and such. So thank you for that reminder. Now, you had mentioned the company's growing, the, the business is doing well, and oftentimes what happens when our companies grow is, is we unlock new challenges.

We unlock new struggles. Can you speak to any sort of new hurdles or new things that you're kind of facing now that weren't there before that you're maybe going through or trying to figure out?

Rose Griffin: Well, something that's my whole life is actually completely different from we spoke a year ago because I decided that I was gonna step away from my nine to five job at the end of last school year.

So I was a school-based therapist for 20 years. And I started ABA Speech five years ago, and it just, started to grow year after year, I was making more revenue and I was in a really nasty meeting last November that was super contentious. And I thought to myself in that meeting, Rose, you don't have to do this anymore.

You do not have to do this. And it got to the point where, When I was driving to work, I felt like it was taking me away from ABA Speech. And I felt like it was taking me away from what ABA Speech can be. And so, you know, I would drive into work and I would listen to your podcast and a couple other people's, and it really helped me get in a mindset of I can serve other people.

I actually have to take myself out of my own caseload of students I'm serving to be able to help and reach so many more people. So that has been absolutely different. So for the past three months. I have been working full-time on ABA Speech. And I'll tell you what I did though, Pat, I did step away from my career as a speech therapist in the schools of 20 years.

But then I was nervous. I was nervous financially, and I was just nervous about, I don't know, not being busy enough, if that sounds, it sounds silly now. So now I have picked up too many clients. But I see what I'm gonna do is I, I'm gonna transition those clients to independent contractors that are speech therapists.

So I'm going to keep the business within ABA speech, so financially that will be good for my business and for the clients. And my goal is that in a couple of months, that I will no longer be offering one-on-one speech therapy services because my goal is really to. Scale my business, and I really need to step away from this one-on-one so that I can work on my business and not be in my business because that's that I'm back to the same thing.

So that has definitely been a struggle, but I've realized it after about two months. So I'm putting some things in action. So that I can grow my podcast and I can grow my speaking and courses because that's really what is true to my heart and how I think I can grow my business too.

Pat Flynn: Good for you, you're obviously an action taker and to have the sort of ability to just walk away from something that you feel inside, just, you know, this is something I don't need right now, it could be very difficult to do that.

What, like, what was going through your head when making that transition? Was it an easy, like, you know what, I'm done, and next day you're just gone? Or, or was there some push and pull. I know I experienced push and pull between the job that I was kicked out of and, and my new role as an entrepreneur for quite a while because of all the time that I had invested, you know, this, this sunk cost fallacy as they sometimes call it.

You've spent so many years doing this, like you feel like you have to keep doing that. Tell me about your mental, around that transition and was it actually easy or, or, and, and what made you feel better about it?

Rose Griffin: It was really difficult. I never in a million years thought that I would not retire as a public educator.

My dad is a retired teacher. My mom is a retired teacher, and that is really, and to make matters even more difficult, I actually really enjoyed my job. It wasn't that I didn't enjoy it, it was just there were certain parts of it. I thought I don't have to do this anymore. I have flexibility. I've grown this business, and I feel like at this point, if I didn't give this a go to see how I could scale this business that I would always regret not knowing what I could have done.

So yeah, so I remember after that meeting, coming home and telling my husband like, and I would joke, you know, in the years prior, like, oh, I, I can't do this anymore. You know, it's a lot because I have three kids, I'm running my own business, I'm also working. It just gets to be exhausting. And so after this really contentious meeting, I remember saying, I, I'm just not doing this anymore and I knew last year, it was probably after our episode aired last year in November, I knew that I was not going to come back, so I kind of told some of my friends quietly and really didn't care if anybody found out.

But I ended up telling my supervisor in May and they knew about ABA Speech. They weren't surprised that I was, was leaving to work on my own private business, but it definitely was something I never thought that I would do in a million years, but when my business started to grow, I just felt like I would be letting myself down if I didn't do this and give it a try.

So it was definitely a conflict, but I'll tell you what, it feels amazing. I just feel like I'm living my best life. I can get my kids ready for school in the morning. I do things like this. I'm talking to you today on this podcast. It just allows me to do the things that I'm most passionate about, and I can help so many more people by not working one-on-one with clients, which is a hard transition, but I've been mulling this over in my brain for a while, so, so yeah, that's kind of where I'm at.

Pat Flynn: Wonderful. Well, I'm so happy for you and very proud of you. You've been a part of SPI for quite a while. We've seen your journey, and of course, capturing it here on AskPat has been amazing.

It'll be fun to go back and listen to all the episodes sort of leading up, and I'm sure we're gonna come back in the future and the business will have evolved in some way, shape, or form based on your experience as an entrepreneur now without the nine to five behind it. You know, the one-on-one stuff beginning to go less and less and, and more of the one to many and automated stuff down the road.

And I'm curious, when you had come home and, and shared with your husband that you know you were done with the thing that you had been doing for so long, what was his reaction and, and that conversation like?

Rose Griffin: He was not surprised. He was not surprised because he saw how much of a struggle it was and just for me to be present with my kids and to be able to get them ready in the morning.

My husband's in medical device sales, so some days he's on the golf course, other days he's gone at 5:30. It's just very variable, so we always had to have a nanny and so he's actually been absolutely thrilled that I'm doing this. Oh, that's great. And it's been really great for my family. So I say that I'm, I'm a stay-at-home mom slash CEO, but you know, that's pretty much the truth.

But I, I love what I'm doing and being able to give ABA Speech my full attention has been very, very exciting and knowing that I'm gonna be stepping out of one-to-one work, it's actually something I'm, I'm very excited about as well.

Pat Flynn: Yeah, that's a great goal and, and something to lead to because on the other end of that, I mean, there's more time, more freedom and the ability to help more people.

I mean, it's a, it's a win all around when it comes to your business now that it's grown. I'm curious cuz oftentimes at this point in a business there is a drive to wanna grow and scale, but then a decision that has to be made between, I'm gonna continue to put all of me into it and, and, and even more into it now that I have this time, or to find other people to help me.

And I'm curious about what your team looks like and how that has changed since, since a year ago, if at all.

Rose Griffin: Yeah, it's absolutely grown. I definitely have somebody who now is a dedicated social media manager who does all of my content. And the one thing that I am adding soon, and I'm very excited about is I am going to have somebody to actually come to my home to help me film short form video content.

Because marketing has been such a big part of how I've grown my entire business to be a six figure business. And the way that Instagram is favoring Reels, and actually I did a, a show for you on TikTok for small business owners. So it's nice because I can do TikToks and repurpose them as Reels, but I can only do so much.

So I have felt very burdened by having to do so much video content. I love being creative. I think of myself as a creator and a creative spirit, but creating that many videos every week has really helped me to feel very overwhelmed. So I have somebody that's physically gonna come to my house that has a locked in in TikTok.

I'm very excited. This person has about 500,000 TikTok followers, so they just understand short form video, and so now I just need to train them on my business and my brand guide and all of that. So that is probably the most important person that I've added recently, and I think that's really gonna help alleviate a lot of the stress I have around, oh my goodness, what are we gonna post on social these days?

Because you have to have that touchpoint for people.

Pat Flynn: So, That's a smart idea, by the way. Just when that person shows up, you're gonna have to be ready and you're gonna film. Right? So, so, so there's no sort of like procrastination is, is taken out of that process. What are you putting or what are you going to put for content in short form, is that repurpose content from your longer form or is that specifically like stuff made for that? Like tell me a little bit about your strategy there.

Rose Griffin: So we put all of our videos up on TikTok. So I post every single day, just once a day because that's all I can do on TikTok.

And then we repurpose that and put them onto Reels on Instagram. So there's a way to take off the watermark. And so I'm doing it that way. I would love to do more longer form content. I actually took your YouTube from Scratch video, and I have all these plans, but I don't want to start something that I can't give my all to, and I know until I get the Instagram and TikTok kind of squared away with this new person that I can't start on YouTube because now with YouTube I wanna have a YouTube editor.

I have all these ideas what I wanna do. It doesn't have to be perfect, but I know that when you see my YouTube videos, I want them to look like a YouTube video and I want them to be edited. So I have that framework all kind of together. And that video, that course you did with Caleb was super, super helpful.

So, so really it's just short form video content that we're making specifically. And right now what I'm doing is planning it all on my own. I batch it all on my own. I come up with all the ideas. And it's, it's exhausting. So, you know, I'm excited to have some help in that area.

Pat Flynn: For sure. It should help speed up the results and it should help sort of hone in on what works versus what doesn't.

And you know, one thing I've learned with the short form stuff, which I'm starting to experiment with as well, I mean, I have a YouTube presence, but there's just so much opportunity on the short form platforms is that quantity is definitely a part of the equation you have to continually post, and the more you post, I mean, there's, there's really no penalty for, for posting too much, unlike YouTube or a podcast or, or even other social media platforms.

So it is, it is a little overwhelming. So it's great that you're getting help for what you've already done so far, yourself on those platforms, are you noticing any patterns on, on the kinds of things that are hitting the mark versus not?

Rose Griffin: Yes, actually, this is something I did last week that absolutely, I think I gained a thousand new followers, so I hadn't done an Instagram live in quite some time because if I do it by myself, it's kind of boring. And so I have a friend who's actually been in your courses too. Her name's Dr. Mary Barbera. She has an autistic son. She's awesome. She's my mentor and friend. And so we did, we've been doing a live once a month, so two months ago we did TikTok for an hour and this past week we did Instagram for an hour.

And it was amazing. I got a thousand new followers this past week, so in my brain now I'm like, okay, I do one with Mary every single month we kind of flip flop the platforms, TikTok, Instagram, and I'm gonna start utilizing that and probably going live every single week with somebody that, you know, I'm connected to over on Instagram because, and it, you know, I used to go live and I used to go live for like 15 minutes because maybe there were 10 people on there, but you really have to go live for a long time.

And we had a lot of different people coming in, people following me, people following her. And so if you have a commonality between your audiences, that is something I just did. It worked like gangbusters and we are going to definitely be planning more of that in the future.

Pat Flynn: I like that. pretty easy to set up in collaboration with somebody else, right?

That's part of the benefit of, of doing that. It's pretty simple.

Rose Griffin: Absolutely. Very easy.

Pat Flynn: This has been a fantastic update, Rose. I'm just, again, so proud of you and what you've accomplished. I think people are gonna be very curious about especially what you're doing on TikTok and and Instagram. Can you tell us where to follow you there so we can kind of follow along and and see what happens?

Rose Griffin: Yes, absolutely. Visit me at ABAspeech.org. I actually just got a brand new website facelift, so check that out. I'm @ABASpeechByRose on Instagram and @ABASpeech on TikTok. So come like, follow, share, show me some TikTok love.

Pat Flynn: Awesome. And one final question. Can you offer a tip for those who are listening who maybe are also in the same boat that you were having been in an industry for a while and just are not happy with it?

Perhaps starting to see a little bit of results on their end with their at-home stuff and just aren't quite sure if they should take the leap yet. Do you have any advice or strategies for them to help them understand what the next moves might be for them?

Rose Griffin: Yeah, I would say map it all out and just think about can you financially swing this?

And if you can, really give it a go because you deserve that time to see if you can make your your dreams come true, your dream business come true. It's been absolutely amazing for me, and I think sometimes we just don't give ourselves credit. We don't think that we can do it, but just know that you can do it.

Pat Flynn: And how old are your kids, Rose?

Rose Griffin: So they are 12, 9 and 7.

Pat Flynn: So imagine being a 12 or a 9 or 7 year old and now having your mom now home with you all the time. I mean, that's, that's in Incredible. I mean, that's, that's incredible. I mean, beyond the numbers and beyond the revenue, I mean, that's time spent with family.

And I have a near 13 year old now and a 10 year old, and it's like, I only have so many summers left with them, you know, so, so for that reason alone, it's worth potentially trying and, and, and doing something. So thank you for setting the example Rose, and for being here and, and, and the continual updates.

I'm sure we'll have another one maybe next year. This can be our annual thing, , and I'll see you an SPI Pro.

Rose Griffin: Sounds great. Thanks.

Pat Flynn: All right. I hope you enjoy that episode with Rose. You could find her again at ABA Speech and her podcast Autism Outreach. Congratulations rose on quitting and going full-time with this on increasing your price points and everything that you are going to do from this point forward.

I think you now have the confidence to make the right decisions as far as charging what you're worth and also helping more people and, you know, building this lifestyle that you love. And I just wanna say congratulations once again. And look forward to catching up with you again in the future. And thank you to everybody who's listened to the show today.

I appreciate you and make sure you hit subscribe if you haven't already. We got some amazing, Where Are They Now? episodes coming your way. A whole batch of them, in fact. And these are my favorite cuz they're very inspirational. We get to hear the good, the bad and the ugly of, of, of everybody's sort of post Pat coaching situation.

So if you wanna hear that, make sure you subscribe and don't miss out. Thank you so much. Peace out. And, as always, Team Flynn for the win.

Thanks for listening to AskPat at AskPat.com. I'm your host, Pat Flynn. Our senior producer is David Grabowski. Our series producer is Paul Grigoras, and our executive producer is Matt Gartland. Sound editing by Duncan Brown. AskPat is a production of SPI Media. We'll catch you in the next session.