Timothy Zercher 0:00

Well, Marla, thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate you taking time.

Marla Schneider 0:04

Thank you for having me. It's so nice to meet you.

Timothy Zercher 0:06

Absolutely. I'm excited to talk today. You've spent more than 20 years supporting individuals with developmental disabilities and of course supporting their families as well. What first inspired you to pursue a career in behavioral support services?

Marla Schneider 0:20

To be honest, I kind of fell into it. I knew I wanted to work with developmental disabilities. I love the population. And I came, I came about this opportunity to work with all developmental disabilities with ages from three to elderly. And I thought, what an amazing opportunity. And so when I got into the behavior piece and started to learn, I just found it so amazing to be able to help people of such a large range and to be able to basically have a different day every day.

Timothy Zercher 0:52

Yeah, it's it's never the same. It's never the same day, Toy. Is it you launched Iridescent after a pretty significant life event? How did that experience shape your vision for the organization?

Marla Schneider 1:02

It's interesting. You go into this field and you want to help people. And, you know, I was, I felt like I was born to be a helper. And so I was thought, well, I must be good at it because I've been like helping people. This is where I'm drawn to. And then, you know, I get into this short period of time in my life where I was very sick. And, you know, I had a wheelchair, definitely different things like that. And so I was really struck by how people looked at me or didn't look at me. And they would talk to the person that was with me, but it was as if I didn't exist. And I hadn't seen that side before. I had heard about it, but I didn't truly understand because I was like, well, they have multiple disabilities. Maybe they're seeing different things and maybe people are just uncomfortable. But here I'm somebody that I don't have a disability mentally or cognitively. And so here people were still looking past me like I was nothing. And I had to ask for a lot of help, which was not my go-to. So I feel like it changed the trajectory of how I treat the individuals and their families. And I feel like I look at them and I see all these great things about them. And I make sure I incorporate it into every conversation and interaction so that they know how valued they are as people.

Timothy Zercher 2:23

Though that's a hard story, and I'm sorry you had to go through it, that's an incredible story at the same time. I think I love that you have that perspective. I don't think I hear that very often. People don't understand the not being seen, I think, aspect of disabilities.

Marla Schneider 2:40

Absolutely.

Timothy Zercher 2:41

Yeah. So a major focus of your work is training caregivers, families, and professionals. Where do you think the industry still has the biggest opportunities to improve education and support for those frontline staff members?

Marla Schneider 2:55

I think a lot of times our field focuses on going in there and focusing on the individual and building their skill. And it's almost like we go in and then go out. And we're not the people that are there day in and day out. And I think that where I would like to see more learning and growth is for clinicians to recognize the people that are there day in and day out have to be able to implement it. And they have to know how to implement it when real life happens, right? So you go into environments, no control, but yet we come in and we control the environment and everything looks a certain way. And so we're asking people day in and day out to implement things that sometimes aren't possible. So I focus a lot of my training on what happens when you're tired? How does this look different? How do you use the principles and the rules and all of those things and still maintain consistency so that you can actually get a longer-term progress? And really, the biggest question is what is progress? What is your actual goal? We go in there and we want to fix, but sometimes it's really just bringing the quality of life for everybody in the environment, including the individual. And I think sometimes everybody else and everything else in the environment is overlooked, including the clinician's role in a situation. So sometimes people have trouble actually even documenting how they impacted the behavior within the room.

Timothy Zercher 4:25

Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, and I love I love that aspect that you you called out. The goal is not always to fix the problem, right? Sometimes the goal is very small or very focused. And I think often clinicians miss that as well because they have kind of the standard set of we want to reduce these behaviors and increase these behaviors, or something along those lines is like, yeah, sometimes, and sometimes not, right? Sometimes that's not at all the problem. So I know that your space can be very hard to grow in, especially when it comes to staffing. What have you found is the hardest part about growing your team?

Marla Schneider 4:59

Honestly, it's funny. I feel like the hardest part is the fact that we work with adults. I think that sometimes scares people off because they don't have as much of experience with that, in addition to the fact that we aren't strictly working with autism. We're working with all developmental disabilities. To me, I love it. It gets you to know so many different people and so many facets to how behavior works, and it just makes the world look different. But a lot of times when I'm going to interview clinicians, that's the one thing that they're very intimidated by is adults. Or am I going to go in there and get hurt? Which is an understandable fear, but it's actually pretty amazing to, you know, you're working with people that often have had years of therapy, like behavior therapy, all sorts of speech language, all that. And you're almost coming together and fine-tuning the last touches, kind of making it better, making it work longer term. And so it's actually a pretty unique experience. And I find it to be very valuable. But I do find when I'm trying to hire, people don't even want to touch it.

Timothy Zercher 6:12

Yeah, I'm sure. I'm sure. It is a very different space working with adults than it is with working with children. It makes total sense why that would be intimidating sometimes. So, what works best for you right now, especially outside of word of mouth when it comes to client acquisition and growing your client base?

Marla Schneider 6:28

I think really staying true to what I believe in and making sure our company is moving in that direction. So all my team members are really staying true to what are what we value. And so I do believe that there is a time and place for every single clinician, right? So I really truly want the best outcome for each individual. And so to me, if I'm staying true to what our value is and how we do things and we get the right people that match up with that, then that's a win-win. And so I don't change to mold to who my audience is to get more clients or whatever. I actually keep consistent. And so the ones that stay with us are actually ones that want to grow in the same way that we can offer.

Timothy Zercher 7:18

I love that. I love that. What is one marketing tactic or strategy that you're either considering for your team or that you're just watching really carefully in the marketplace right now?

Marla Schneider 7:28

It's actually funny. I got these ideas from my kids. They're a lot smoother with the technology and probably a bit cooler and funnier than I am. But they really talked about how important that these short clips are. Much like you're saying is people are busy and people are on the go and having a short little video that kind of says a point, gets it across very quick. But even just a few seconds, like a 30-second to two-minute video that shows a sense of humor and gets people in and really gets them to think about the idea. Still try to figure out. I don't necessarily have the tech skills. Like I said, I'm not as cool as my kids, but I do believe that it is what the next stages are. People are busy, they're looking at quick clips that that's just really how the day and time is, and it's continuing to move more and more in that direction.

Timothy Zercher 8:23

Definitely. Definitely. Yeah, video content is the future of communication in a lot of ways. In a lot of ways. Perfect. Well, thank you so much, Marla. I appreciate you taking time. I appreciate the work that you're doing for the individuals that you serve that don't have a lot of options sometimes, and for your team.

Marla Schneider 8:36

Well, thank you so much for talking to me today. I appreciate it.

Timothy Zercher 8:39

Absolutely.