Heather Newman: Hello again, everyone. Here we are with another episode of the Mavens Do It Better podcast where we interview extraordinary experts who bring a light to our world where we talk a little bit of tech, we talk brand, origin stories of what makes our mavens tick. So today I'm very excited to have on Nicole Butler. Hi Nicole.
Nicole Butler: Hi.
Heather Newman: How are you?
Nicole Butler: I'm amazing. Thanks for having me on.
Heather Newman: Wonderful. Well, Nicole is the founder and executive director for Speech Within Reach here in Los Angeles, California. And she is amazing and she's, she's not she, she does that but you're board certified. You're an actor, you're a mountain climber. There's so many things I could list after this. You're pretty amazing.
Nicole Butler: Thanks girl! You are too.
Heather Newman: Awesome. Yeah, Nicole and I caught up at a Dodgers game a while back. It Was my first, but I think it was the first time that we, any of us had stepped on the field actually. So that was kind of cool.
Nicole Butler: Yeah. That was the first time I've been on any baseball field, well, major league that is.
Heather Newman: Yeah. Right, right. So that was super fun and it was so fun to meet you and get to know you a little bit more after that. And everyone, so Nicole has this great, wonderful organization that she founded. And I'd love for everybody to know a little bit more about Speech Within Reach and where that came about. So would you tell everybody about your beautiful business?
Nicole Butler: Yes. Absolutely. Thanks for asking. Yeah, so Speech Within Reach is a, we do home-based speech therapy services for children, so we drive to them, which is a big thing, especially in Los Angeles. The last thing people want to do is get in their car and drive somewhere. And because we go in the family's home we're able to set up a, specialize the program to cater to whatever the children's specific needs are. So if you're going to a clinic and your child is needing speech therapy services, it's just one time a week or three times a week. They're only exposed to whatever items or objects are in that room. So they're playing with, you know, a puzzle with farm animals or whatever. But when we go in the home, we get to learn, Oh the dog's name is Oreo and the brother and sister's names. And we get to know what objects and toys that they love when they're at home. So we can focus the words and vocabulary building around things that they're around more often. And we can it helps with carry over as well because at the end of our sessions, we like to communicate with the guardian and relay anything so that they can use what's in the home to carry over the therapy.
Heather Newman: Wow. That's super cool. And so when, what ages are you dealing with?
Nicole Butler: Well, I mean we're birth to 18, but the majority of the children that we work with are, I would say between two and eight.
Heather Newman: Gotcha. Wow, that's amazing. And so and you board certified and you know, speech language pathologist,
Nicole Butler: I know, it's funny. It sounds like, yeah, it sounds so intense. Like pathologists it's, it's a speech therapist and a speech language pathologist, are exactly the same thing. Um it's just terms that they decided to use. And, but there is if you're board certified, that means you have your national certification and you did a fellowship and you were supervised as well as having your master's degree and yeah. And you're usually state licensed as well.
Heather Newman: Yeah. And you've been, I mean, you went to Purdue, which, you know, I, I'm from the Midwest as well and a lot of my family went there, so I'll go Boilermakers.
Nicole Butler: Oh wow! Boiler-Up!
Heather Newman: Yup. Boiler up. Yes. And then NYU. So you've been pursuing this a long time. What's the origin story? How did this spark happen with you?
Nicole Butler: Sure. So my mother is a therapist. And growing up I always was fascinated, you know, why people do things that they do. So I was always pretty intuitive and an empath as well. And so I think that started, you know, started it. But then I also love babysitting kids. I was like the neighborhood's favorite babysitter. And then I remember meeting I became best friends with a girl who was deaf. She was hearing impaired, but so she had hearing aids, but they didn't, it still was difficult for her. She struggled. So she was fluent in sign language. And I remember her and I we were at a gas station getting candy and she was trying to communicate to the, the man behind the counter. And he was, he kind of was ignoring her and just asking me questions and not making an attempt to communicate with her. And I saw her get so frustrated. And that was sort of a moment for me that I realized how important communication is. And I learned sign language because of her. And this was, gosh, in like seventh grade or so. And so that kinda started all of it. And then I just became fascinated with the whole field once I learned more about it.
Heather Newman: Yeah. Well, and communication on all levels, you know, with your this beautiful business helping children and then also theater and improv and, and all of that. So, you know, grand communicator on so many levels as an artist? Will you talk about that side too? I know, I know you've been really active in that for a long time. And so where did that start?
Nicole Butler: Well, yeah, so I've always wanted to, I always like kind of being the goofy, like one with my friends and entertaining and I took acting classes when I was younger and when I really, when I when I really decided I was really passionate about it. It was when I was taking improv and sketch comedy classes and I just remember looking forward to the class and having such a blast and just, you know, getting to be creative too, because with improv you have to think, you know, on your feet. And I took classes when I was younger and then that just continued while I was in grad school in New York. And same thing when I was in Chicago, I did Second City and Improv Olympic. And then when I moved to LA, I did Groundlings and Upright Citizens Brigade. But I started booking work, you know, doing goofy, at first it was like commercials and, and then I booked Kelsey Grammer's show Boss, you know, doing some drama stuff and it just kind of snowballed from then. And then I played Melania Trump on Jimmy Kimmel and also played like a double agent on NCIS. So the drama, there's, you know, there's so many more drama shows and there are comedy. There's just so much more opportunities. But comedy is definitely like my passion.
Heather Newman: That's so cool. Yeah. I loved the second city growing up outside of Chicago, so yeah. Michigan, Indiana and Illinois for me were growing up. So I've sort of know a lot of those places that you've said. That's so cool. How do you find sort of Los Angeles, you know, for all of that, you know, people, you know, you, you, you've lived in and sort of worked in all the big cities and the third coast, you know, Chicago. How do they compare as far as getting work? And it sounds like you've kinda been doing it over time too, but did you find that there was any city that had sort of more appeal for you?
Nicole Butler: Yeah, I'd say New York and Chicago are more theater type communities and there's, there's not really a shortage here in Los Angeles for actors. That's for sure. We're sort of inundated. But I, you know, there's just a lot more work here. There's actually a lot of work here and as well in Atlanta, like in the Southeast and they actually have more shows, TV, and movies than New York now. But the New York still has great work. Yeah, the communities are just so different. I, you know, the thing that I miss about, about New York is you could walk everywhere and there's a little bit more of sense of community. Here because you're driving people a more isolated. But yeah, I feel like the market here is more, theater is not the push. It's definitely TV and film.
Heather Newman: Yeah, absolutely. And so much, I think like voiceover work, voice acting work, that seems to be so much of that, but you can kind of be anywhere for that, you know? But it's making those connections. I think maybe that are here.
Nicole Butler: I think, yeah, exactly. Voiceover work you can do in your closet. You know, I've seen people do it. Their setup is in the closet. They're like, it's padded, you know, perfect for sound. And then even with auditions for TV and film, you don't have to live in Los Angeles necessarily. I know for when I auditioned for shows on the East coast I tape them, I just record them on my iPhone and send them to them so I don't have to show, you know, you know, everything is becoming digital. So,
Heather Newman: Wow, I think at some point we're going to be, you know, sending in audition tapes via Tic-Toc, you know.
Nicole Butler: Oh yes. Oh my gosh. I love Tic-Toc. It's so entertaining. It's like the big thing right now. I don't have an account yet. Do you?
Heather Newman: You know, I downloaded it I think a while ago. But I was watching, I saw a tweet from Gary V, and I was like, Oh, you know, and I was like, Hmm. And so I actually played on it last night, got an account and yeah, it, it, it definitely will suck your time. But you know, there's an audience on there and I just couldn't believe like the millions of people that are viewing this stuff, you know.
Nicole Butler: I know that's what's and well and Gary, it's funny you say Gary V cause that's how I learned about it because he was saying that it's the next, you know, Instagram.
Heather Newman: Yeah, absolutely. Well, and I think it's that sort of age range. I saw something the other day and I was thinking about you I posted it on Facebook and it was about generation alpha and I hadn't heard that term before. And it was talking about kids that are sort of in that eight to 10 year old that sort of space and generation and talking about how they're going to be the most, you know, computer literate, the most digital literate, probably the most wealthy actually. And that there are influencers now that are 10 years old. There's one kid who's got, you know, 2 million followers on YouTube and, and a toy company has picked him up and he's gonna create toys from, he was doing reviews of toys just as a kid.
Nicole Butler: Oh my gosh. Yeah. Well, it's amazing how many, just those basic, I know my friend with her little one who's like six months or he still watches it, from the time, you know, six months till now he's two. But it was just like, it's like someone showing a toy and it's just like an object and they're like, truck, here's the truck. And then they're like, car, here's a car. It's so basic, but it's has so many views. I do wonder what's that generation just as a speech therapist because I, because I work a lot with social skills. I work with autism and children that are trying to have appropriate social skills or learn how to make friends. And I wonder how it will be when they actually interact with a person. If you're, you know, I'm just curious how that will evolve because you're, you have a different, you know, skill set with interacting through a computer or through a phone.
Heather Newman: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think now these days, you know, we talk about, you know, ghosting and, you know, there's just all of the sort of the, the dopamine rushes and the serotonin, like all of that stuff that we get from people liking things and, and all of that. And I, it's, it's, people don't know how to talk to each other anymore. Like to pick up a phone and to call somebody. I have called somebody in the last few, few, and I, every time they'd been like, did you butt dial me? And I was like, no.
Nicole Butler: No, I called you. Oh, that's funny. One of my single friends was out with his guy friends and he was saying, and these guys are like in their twenties, like 25 to 30. And he was saying that he's like, and he's 10 years older than them, you know. And he was like, we're out. And I'm like, are we gonna meet girls? You know, are we going to go talk to girls? And they're like, no, no. That's what Tinder and you know, Bumble, like we don't, we can just meet someone, like if we want right now, they will show up. But it's, they don't have the interest even. I dunno if that's generalized everywhere, but I just thought that was interesting.
Heather Newman: No, I think that there is something to that for sure. I think going out people like want to hang with their friends and they're not going out like I think maybe I used to, you know when I was in my twenties to meet people. Yeah, I know. It's kinda weird. Cause you can just do it on an app. Right. yeah. Do you, do you use technology in what you do with the kids or is it more toys?
Nicole Butler: So, it depends. That's a good question. Yeah, it depends. So we do, it depends on the need. So if a child, like for example, like I work, I work sometimes with a school here and see some of the kids and they have a lot of deaf and hearing impaired children. And so, they, you know, with cochlear implants a lot of the children are cochlear implants, or they have hearing aids. And so cochlear implants is a pretty invasive procedure, but pretty incredible in that it goes, they are actually drilling through the skull. It sounds very kind intense, but they are putting a wire that goes through the Celia like this, like the little snails shell inside of your ear. And this wire stimulates your hair Celia. And so it's it stimulates it and then they put this like little magnet you like on top of the skull. It's like a little magnet. It's like a little, looks like a little button and it activates, it, stimulates it, and then they have hearing. And my understanding is that the hearing is similar to, they say the people that have once had hearing and then lost it and then had a cochlear implant or are saying that it sounds kind of tinny like a little bit different. But you know, it's pretty amazing that they can be profoundly deaf and be able to hear. And of course not everyone qualifies for it. It depends, just like with, you know, LASIK surgery. So we use technology that way. And then actually I have kind of a funny story. I have a girl that she, she's dealing, she's now 13. She has cochlear implants. And I've seen her for six years or so. And I'm, I'm just consulting and doing checkups on her every couple of years. And when she's mad at her parents, you know, cause now she's a teenager, she just closes her eyes and takes off her cochlear implants so she can't hear them. She has total control. She can't see or hear them.
Heather Newman: Uh yeah, I think my father at 75 does that with my mom. So, you know, and like lots of people, yeah. Lots of people's parents. I see do that sometimes. You'll see him pull up, pull the hearing aid out. But yeah, that's wild.
Nicole Butler: Another, another technology that is, is used is children, like for example, they have cerebral palsy and they're not able to verbalize or talk at all. For the children that are nonverbal they'll have machines, you know, or now it's basically just a computer that they talk through, you know, if it's an iPad. Um or you know, like Stephen Hawking, you know, he had a, he has a communication device and the technology in that is pretty amazing now.
Heather Newman: Wow. Yeah. No, I, I, and I saw, you probably have experienced this many times, but I there was internet meme going around of baby, like young, young kids and here it was one of, you know, someone hearing their sister or their mother's voice for the first time.
Nicole Butler: First time. Isn't that beautiful? It's beautiful. Oh yeah. I've seen it happen. It is pretty amazing. You know, there used to be an old thought to that was I think it's called sound and fury, I think. And this is kind of the eighties nineties thought for people that were deaf and hearing impaired is that they did not want to hear because they were very proud that their child also was deaf. There's a strong genetic link that if you're profoundly deaf that your child will be depending of course on the cause of that impairment. But so they were very proud so that they were, that they were deaf, they wouldn't have their children implanted. And it was kind of a big divide when cochlear implants started becoming more common. And yeah, so a lot of kids didn't get implanted because of that and it's just sort of interesting, they see it as, well, we're hearing impaired, but our other senses are heightened. So their visual skills are off the charts. They can see. And I, I used to work at a deaf school in Chicago, and I remember I would come into, when I'd come into the classroom, there was a couple of kids and, if they weren't even facing me, they knew I was there. They would wave and say like miss Nicole, like not even looking at me. They knew I walked into the room. They could just sense me, which I don't know if everyone can but certain. So, there's certain, if you're not using a sense, you know, other senses, you know, other areas are more heightened, so.
Heather Newman: Wow. Yeah. Thanks for that. That I had not heard of that implant before. That's really, really interesting. I figured that, you know, you use many different methodologies for what you do, but I like to sort of dig into the tech too, cause I find that super interesting. Yeah. And you know, I know you are a busy lady and you know, how are, for you, how do you get clients? Is it mostly referral or is it word of mouth or?
Nicole Butler: Yeah, it's referral mostly, but I mean, I have like a Yelp account for Speech Within Reach. And so I get those calls. Sometimes though with Yelp, what I've found is that there's, they'll be so far away, you know, they'll be like, they're not even like in Los Angeles area. So, but I have speech therapists, other speech therapists, and so they are able to, you know, possibly see them. So it just kinda depends. But referral really seems to be the best. And the schools now, like different schools know me very well. And hospitals and pediatricians and developmental psychologists, so it's, I think referral seems to be the best for my business. Like if you get, if you get injured or you have something medically wrong, you usually want like a personal referral, you know? Especially when it comes to your children.
Heather Newman: Yeah, for sure. No, that makes sense. That word of mouth that your customers become part of, you know, your family of, and you, you know, just like you said, you, I, you probably work with people a very long time and kids a long time as well. So that's how many, how many kids do you think you've seen over the course of the business?
Nicole Butler: Oh my gosh, that's a good question. I, Oh my gosh, I have no idea. I would like to try to figure that out. Because it's like how many lives have you affected?
Heather Newman: Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah.
Nicole Butler: I mean I can probably actually name them all at some point. I would like to kind of just think about it. That's so funny. Yeah, I don't know a lot. A lot.
Heather Newman: Yeah. Well maybe I think you have a 10 year anniversary coming up soon. Maybe that's something that you could do for that, you know? Yeah.
Nicole Butler: Yes. Cause I've been doing it since undergrad. 13 kids then and then grad school you are working with patients.
Heather Newman: Oh gosh. So it's much longer than that, right? Wow.
Nicole Butler: Oh yeah. Much longer. Yeah. I mean, yeah, definitely.
Heather Newman: Yeah. Okay. The business has been present here in LA. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you've been doing this a long time. Yeah. And it's, you know, it's like, we don't always realize that or remember, I think that that one, the pebble, you know, the one thing, you know, it's like, it's not only the, the child, but it's the parents and it's the aunts and uncles and it's the friends and it's the, it's the, it's the, it's a, you know, so it's like time's 300 for you. You know, anybody when you think about it, it's just so cool. I just think what you do is so neat and yeah, I love it. Yeah. So thank you for doing that in the world. You know, it's important. Yeah, absolutely. Yay. And you know, you are busy, you've got clients and all of that and a life and everything. So what are, what are some of your passions outside of work? And I know that I had said, sort of talked about mountain climbing. I know there's a bit of a story there and will you share some of that with us as well?
Nicole Butler: Yeah, yeah. I love hiking. I did, I summited Kilimanjaro for a nonprofit. I love nonprofits. So, I summited Mount Kilimanjaro and raised $50,000 for the nonprofit, No Limits for Deaf Children. And I let's see, I helped start a nonprofit, reinvigorated it, called Child Success Foundations for families that can't afford speech therapy, occupational therapy, and educational therapy and Jennifer Gardner's our spokesperson, which is very exciting. She's just great. And let's see. I love being outdoors and I also, I love animals. I volunteer at different shelters I love all animals.
Heather Newman: Yeah. You have a, there was a kitten running around there today, huh?
Nicole Butler: Yeah. Rescued kitten, a rescue kitten and her mom. Yeah, that, which is, there's been a big change but amazing. They're so loving and sweet. I love traveling. I went to I used to live, I've lived in London and Sweden and this year I went to Croatia and Italy and I've been to India. I went to India for a nonprofit called LIFT Leading India's Future Today. And been to Africa, to four countries in Africa and to Thailand and Korea. I love travelling. I get excited about that. There's just so much to see and do and eat.
Heather Newman: I hear ya. And eat for sure. I'm, I'm a traveler too, as you know. So yeah, it's, that's a cool thing to do. And so, will you tell everybody your story about your summit?
Nicole Butler: Oh yeah. Oh girl. Yeah, that's an interesting story. So I, so yeah, so I summited Mount Kilimanjaro and I got HACE, which is high altitude cerebral edema, which is what most people on Everest end up dying from. So once you get it, you die within or you go into coma within 24 to 48 hours and you die typically. And so it takes, for me, it took, we did five day, a five day route on Kilimanjaro and Kilimanjaro it starts out, you know, you're in a rainforest and then you go up on the top it's a glacier, so it's freezing when you get on top. But nobody knew that's what I had. I was just kinda toughing it out. And you know, the symptoms are, I was at the summit so the symptoms are similar to a stroke, you know, you have slurred speech, you can't walk straight and then I had all the altitude symptoms, like bloody nose and vomiting, all the gross stuff. But no one really realized it until I was at the summit and then it was sort of a panic to get me down. And I was blacked out. I don't remember most of it unfortunately. And so they, they had to get me down to base camp, so at Kilimanjaro is around 20,000 altitude and we had to get down to 17,500. And they got me there and they gave me dexamethasone, which is a strong steroid and that really helped that, that helped me at least not have brain damage. I'm pretty sure that would've happened. And then I had to be taken down in a gurney and to get down from Kilimanjaro on a gurney took like 20 hours. And that was four men, you know, it's a third world country, so there's not just a helicopter that's gonna come pick you up. So it was about five or about, yeah, about four guys, like, and just a gurney just taking me down the mountain. And I don't remember till we were probably like 5,000 feet. I started coming to and realizing what had happened and what the heck, you know. So, and then I got down to the hospital on a Kilimanjaro is the highest free standing mountain, so you'd go down to sea level. And my parents were at a hospital, they met me, they were on safari, so they met me and. Yeah, almost, I guess after that I just like had a bad concussion and just had the, the treatments are getting at an altitude and a dexamethasone so yeah.
Heather Newman: Wow. I mean to summit is one thing and that is, I mean, you got, did you get a chance to go yay? Or was this all happening? You know what I mean? Like, did you get a chance to be like, I'm on the top of the world or you know?
Nicole Butler: I mean, probably not a solid one. No. Probably not the solid one and I don't have, I have no intention of getting one.
Heather Newman: Yeah.
Nicole Butler: I'm okay with not going back.
Heather Newman: You did it, you did it and you did it. Yeah. I mean, that's so wild and thank goodness for those wonderful people who, you know, took care of you and got you down and quickly and all of that when, you know, it's like so many things can go wrong and maybe you don't have this or have that or whatever. And you know, that's just a, I'm glad you're here. So.
Nicole Butler: Thanks, me too!
Heather Newman: Yeah, no kidding.
Nicole Butler: We couldn't have gone on the Dodgers field, you know?
Heather Newman: We couldn't have, that is true. That's true. You mentioned your folks. Where did you grow up?
Nicole Butler: So, I'm from Illinois from a small town of like 5,000. And my cousins have a pumpkin patch near there. So this is pumpkin season right now. It's a really fun time to be there.
Heather Newman: Nice! Let's give them a shout out. What's the patch called?
Nicole Butler: It's called the great pumpkin patch. And their Instagram is the 200 acres.
Heather Newman: Wow. That's so cool. Oh, I haven't, I haven't been yet. Do you have a pumpkin?
Nicole Butler: I do have a pumpkin. Not from there because they're in Illinois, but they have like the bougie of pumpkin patches. Like Martha Stewart came there like a couple of years. Yeah. And they were invited on the show because they have these rare varieties. They've traveled all around the world. So they have like pumpkin and squash from like France and from Africa and from India, and from every, actually almost pretty much every country in the world. And, and they have, you know, like the bumpy weird ones or like the white one, you know, the, all the different funky ones. And they were on her show and then they got asked to decorate the white house when Obama was president and they've decorated like the Capitol and State. Yeah. It's a pretty cool place.
Heather Newman: Yeah, no kidding. Say the Instagram again.
Nicole Butler: The hundred acres. Let me make sure that's right.
Heather Newman: We'll stick it in the show notes for sure.
Nicole Butler: The 200 acres, that's what it is.
Heather Newman: The 200 acres. Okay, cool. What a perfect pre Halloween extravaganza that, that's so cool. That's your family, that's awesome. Oh, that's great. Wow, that's cool. You know I always ask everyone my, my, my ending is always if you would share with us something in your life that sparked you. A Person, place thing moment that really brought you here today. And I know that's a hard one to say one and lots of people say one or sometimes people say more than that or something that you kind of go, you know, yeah. This is the thing that sort of puts me and seats me, right where I am today. If you would share that with our listeners.
Nicole Butler: Yeah. I'd say, gosh, I, I think a lot of who I am is because of my parents, maybe that's so obvious. But they're like Midwest grounded, rooted, good people. But my mom is very, always been curious. She loves like traveling and like adventure and you know, and she's a super empath and loves helping people. So I think that's why I got into speech therapy and why I'm curious about the world and traveling and why I like love like laughing my parents, I guess they say their secret to marriage, they've been married 40 or so years, 42 years. And they say the secret is that they laugh and make each other laugh. So yeah, I'd say that's a good combination of how I became.
Heather Newman: Surrounded by laughter and curiosity that does not suck.
Nicole Butler: Yeah. Lots of love, a lot of love.
Heather Newman: Lots of love. So awesome. So, when folks are interested in hearing more about Speech Within Reach, we'll put all the ways to connect with Nicole and that organization and her nonprofit in the show notes. So, yeah, I, I love talking to you and it was so great to meet you at the Dodgers game and, and now know you well, that's been a while. So
Nicole Butler: You too. We got to catch up.
Heather Newman: I know. Absolutely. That sounds great. Well. and you know, for, for just in general one, one tip about just running a business, I mean, you've been running a business for a while is something that really says if you don't remember anything else or you don't do anything else, maybe this one thing about running a business.
Nicole Butler: Yeah. I think you have to be passionate and love what you do. Cause that drives you.
Heather Newman: Yeah, for sure. Come from the heart as it were.
Nicole Butler: Yes! From heart.
Heather Newman: Yes. Well, from one Midwestern gal to another. Thank you so much for being on the show. I really appreciate it.
Nicole Butler: You're welcome. My pleasure. Thanks for having me.
Heather Newman: You betcha. Absolutely. All right, everybody. Well, that has been another episode of the Mavens Do It Better podcast and here is to a big beautiful day on this blue spinning sphere. Thanks everyone.
