Behavior Analyst Creates Resources for Parents and Teachers

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

[Music]

In today's story, an expert uses her knowledge to create resources that help parents, teachers, and professionals improve behavior in children with autism. As I worked on this story, I was really impressed by all the things this expert, and also her twin sister, who helped out a bit, did to grow her business. So I'm gonna tell you about them, of course, but I also realized that a long list of actions can sound overwhelming. First of all, welcome to Side Hustle School. My name is Chris Guillebeau, I'm your host.

I have the privilege of making this show for you every single day, and thank you so much for being part of it. And the day before yesterday, I mentioned that what I'm trying to do here is get you thinking, get you thinking about ideas, as well as help you acquire a mindset. And the mindset really is critical, mindset and taking action. Those are probably the two most critical things. So when I mentioned this list of actions, I was thinking about that.

I was like, you know, variations of this topic or this question, they come up a lot. I hear these questions all the time. Do I have to do social media? Do I need to learn about SEO? I'm not good on video.

Should I just get over it and get on YouTube? What do I need to do about advertising? And so on and so forth. And a lot of those questions are why, each week I'm answering three or four of those questions and trying to give you some real specifics so that people actually know what to do. And at the same time, I know there's this lingering concern in the background about, well, I don't wanna be overwhelmed.

Like, do I have to do all this stuff? So as I said, I'm gonna tell you what this person did in the story because that's the best way we're gonna learn is through stories and examples. But I never want you to think that you have to go out there and try to do everything. In fact, you're gonna be much more successful by figuring out what the right things are and just doing those few things. Anyway, we'll talk about that some more, but the story is coming up.

Behavior analyst creates online resources for parents and teachers of children with autism. Stay tuned. [Music]

Amelia Delphonse found her calling 17 years ago while she was teaching with Head Start, a program that provides early childhood education to low-income children and families. She'd worked with all kinds of kids over the years, but one in particular stood out. He was a four-year-old boy with frequent tantrums and very little verbal communication.

Amelia and her fellow teacher wanted to help him, so they began researching his behavior and discovered that he might be autistic. Wanting to learn more, Amelia then began studying applied behavior analysis, a scientific approach that can be used to reduce challenging behavior and teach new skills in children with autism. Amelia liked ABA strategies because they're easy for non-professionals to learn and can have lasting benefits for the child if they're used consistently. Not too long after she started her research, she ended up switching jobs. She wanted to understand more, so she decided to pursue a master's degree and become a board-certified behavior analyst, again, specializing in working with children with autism.

And this is what brings us to the side hustle part of the story. Amelia started a blog called AccessibleABA.com, hoping to share insights to help parents understand more about the field and their child. Soon afterwards, around Christmas 2018, her twin sister Diana came for a visit. Diana enjoyed writing, so she offered to write some posts. The goal of the blog was simply to share information.

With both sisters working away, they started posting one or two times a week. As they built momentum, they increased to two to three times a week. After six months, they were posting almost every day. Looking back, Amelia says she would have started posting daily to the blog right from the beginning, but it's always better to pick up the pace as you go along than lose momentum by slowing down. They started out blogging just for parents, but eventually expanded to have a separate blog for each of their target audiences, parents, teachers, and professionals.

Altogether, these blogs get over 40,000 page views a month. They also started offering courses on Udemy, so now they self-host courses as well. The sisters celebrated their first sale over text. Even now, more than two years into their business, they still celebrate every sale with a text. Some days, it feels like they're texting all day long.

In addition to online courses, Accessible ABA also offers three levels of membership. For $9 a month or $95 a year, members get self-paced learning and downloadable content. They can pay a bit more and get all that plus monthly videos and a monthly free product. They can pay a bit more still and get everything plus a 30-minute monthly one-on-one call. Before the pandemic hit, the sisters had plans to attend a couple of live events, but when everything was canceled, they decided to double their efforts on the website.

They also put together some of the content they already had and self-published a book on Amazon called ABA Fundamentals for Parents. Finally, they're starting to post on YouTube as a way to extend their reach. Amelia admits that as difficult as the pandemic has been, it's also been a catalyst. It has pushed them to work even harder. They're now bringing in around $1,500 a month.

However, they've really just started to focus on monetization. For most of 2020, they were focused solely on growing the blog and developing those courses. The pandemic hasn't been the only challenge, plus opportunity. They've also had to deal with moving to a new state, changing jobs, illnesses, and kids. Despite the busyness, Amelia says they've gained a lot from the experience.

There's a feeling of control over the future that they don't get working for someone else. They know that if they want to make more money, they have to come up with a better product or offer, improve their marketing, reach a new audience, or take some other action. One of those things, or perhaps all of them, is exactly what they plan to do. [Music]

Awesome, congratulations to Amelia and Diana. Now, they are quite ambitious.

They're doing a lot of stuff. We've got that long task list, which, as I said in the beginning, can be kind of overwhelming sometimes. And I think this is partly a question of how much time do you have. It's also a question of what is your personality? Do you like to jump in and try to tackle a bunch of stuff?

Or is that going to be overwhelming? Is it better for you to say, "I've got three things that I'm gonna do right now?" And whatever balance you find there, I think the key point is you don't have to do everything. It is okay to experiment and try stuff, but then hopefully over time, you're gonna see what works, and then you're gonna do more of that. And then some final parting words here from Amelia. She says, "If you're looking to make money quickly, don't start a blog." We could have probably taken a faster track by creating an online course first, but for us, all of our goals are long-term.

So there you have it. If you wanna make money quickly, don't start a blog. Doesn't mean you shouldn't start a blog. Just be aware that you're not gonna make money tomorrow from it, most likely. If you do start a blog and start making money tomorrow, let me know because you'll probably be on the show.

All right, listeners, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. Today's show notes, including links to everything I mentioned in this episode, are at sidehustleschool.com/1480. That is episode 1,480. I know, I can't believe it either. 1,480.

Thank you so much for listening. Be sure you're subscribed. Much more is coming up. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]

from the Onward Project.