From Hospital SLP to Corporate Communication Coach: Sonia Sethi-Coley on Building a Two-Division Practice
Most speech-language pathologists pick a lane. Pediatrics or adults. Clinical or corporate. Sonia Sethi-Coley picked all of them.
Sonia runs two divisions under one business. Global Speech and Swallow is her clinical practice, serving patients from infancy through age 103 with speech, language, cognitive-communicative, feeding, swallowing, voice, and airway services. Global Speech Suite is her corporate division, where she works as a professional communication coach helping individuals and organizations with accent modification, presentation skills, cross-cultural communication, and executive presence.
She's also the president of CORSPAN, the Corporate Speech Pathology Network, an international nonprofit connecting SLPs who do corporate speech work.
Her path to all of this started with a family crisis. And the way she balances both divisions offers a roadmap for any SLP thinking beyond the traditional clinical model.
A Grandmother's Stroke Changed Everything
The summer before her senior year of high school, Sonia's paternal grandmother had a stroke. Her grandmother spoke English, but it wasn't her primary language. After the stroke, she was aphasic and couldn't communicate with any of the speech-language pathologists available to the family.
They searched everywhere. Nobody spoke her grandmother's native language. Sonia's family ended up serving as translators.
That experience pushed Sonia toward the field. She minored in Spanish during undergrad, studied in Spain, and built her career around multilingual service delivery. Working in the Chicago metro area, she found no shortage of patients from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds who needed exactly what she could offer.
"I felt like I could help a wider variety of people."
After years in hospital and healthcare settings, working with everything from NICU babies to adults with complex neurodiagnoses, she stepped out on her own and formalized the consulting she'd already been doing on the side.
Two Divisions, One Expertise
The clinical side, Global Speech and Swallow, handles bilingual speech and language evaluations for school districts along with direct patient care across the full age spectrum. Assessment, therapy, group programs, community enrichment. Having her own private practice gives her the autonomy to mix it all together.
The corporate side, Global Speech Suite, is where things get interesting for SLPs who've never considered working outside a clinical setting. Sonia works with individuals and organizations on accent modification, presentation skills, leadership communication, and cross-cultural communication.
She's the first to say that speech-language pathologists are uniquely qualified for this work. "We are trained to assess something, plan out a training program, make modifications as necessary, and really make some functional outcomes and measure those." Corporate clients, especially those from IT and science backgrounds, love objective data. SLPs can give them pre-and-post recordings, percentage-based progress tracking, and measurable goals. That's something other communication coaches often can't match.
Getting into organizations takes time. But once you're in, the payoff is real. You develop a program once and use it across multiple clients. Some clients come for accent modification, return later for presentation skills, and eventually bring you in for team-wide organizational communication training.
CORSPAN and the Case for Corporate SLP Work
Sonia took over as president of the Corporate Speech Pathology Network in 2019. CORSPAN is a paid-membership nonprofit for SLPs interested in corporate speech work. Members range from clinicians just exploring the idea to those who've been doing it full time for years.
The organization runs professional development webinars on topics like accent modification techniques and social media marketing. They also host small-group networking sessions where members share what's working and what isn't.
"We're a small group as it is, as speech-language pathologists. And then take that and make it into an even smaller group of corporate speech pathologists. We need to educate the public."
Her pitch to SLPs on the fence: communication is at the root of every relationship and every industry. SLPs know disordered communication, but they also know normal development and delivery. That knowledge transfers directly into corporate settings. The barrier isn't skill. It's confidence.
"A lot of times that business aspect of it is really lacking in speech-language pathologists. It does take a lot of executive presence on your own, saying, hey, I can also be very effective for your individual career or your organization's business."
Less Paperwork, More Contracts
On the clinical side, Sonia deals with progress notes, insurance documentation, and all the standard therapy documentation requirements. The corporate side is a different world.
There's no insurance. No secondary payer unless an organization is footing the bill. Corporate clients who receive employer-funded services get progress updates, but nowhere near the detail required on the clinical side. "They want to see the end result."
The time investment upfront goes into two things: programming (building out your service offerings and curricula) and contracts. The contract is critical. It covers pricing, payment timelines, what software or app access is included, and practice expectations. Sonia actually uses a "practice agreement" for accent modification clients. If they aren't putting in the work between sessions, continuing isn't worth anyone's time or money.
She was doing virtual sessions with corporate clients before COVID made it the norm. Many of her accent modification clients in the same city preferred online sessions for scheduling convenience. Now that virtual presentations and meetings are standard, practicing communication skills in a virtual format is more relevant than ever.
Setting Limits When You Love the Work
With two divisions, CORSPAN responsibilities, and two young children at home, Sonia's schedule is "quite fluid." Before COVID, she'd see clinical patients in her office a few days a week, do teletherapy sessions on other days, meet corporate clients on weekends or evenings, and travel to organizations for group trainings.
She doesn't consider herself at full volume. But she feels like she's working overtime.
"You really have to find those limits of when you shut yourself down, and you aren't in front of your computer, or you're not thinking of the next social media post."
It's the same tension every private practice owner faces, amplified by the fact that she's running what amounts to two businesses under one roof. She creates all her own marketing materials, primarily using Canva, and handles her own website and social media.
Her advice is simple and familiar to anyone who's been in the trenches: you can't do everything at once. Set limits. Keep yourself sane. And don't be afraid to collaborate with other SLPs to share the workload and grow your network.
Running a clinical practice alongside corporate services means double the documentation, double the scheduling, and double the client management. ClinicNote is a HIPAA-compliant EMR built specifically for private practices and university clinics, handling documentation, scheduling, and billing in one place so you can focus on growing both sides of your business. See how ClinicNote works.
Transcript
Kadie: You are listening to Clinic Chats, the speech therapist's private practice podcast, a podcast full of personal journeys where we not only talk about success stories, but also real life struggles of small business startups. Clinic Chats is sponsored by ClinicNote, a HIPAA compliant, cloud-based EMR platform used specifically by private practice owners and university clinics. I'm your host, Kadie Jackstadt, and thank you for joining me today.
Kadie: Today I have Sonia Sethi-Coley, and she is a podcast guest who has multiple divisions of her business. So, Sonia, I'd like to allow you to take it from here. Thank you for joining me today.
Sonia: Thank you for having me, Kadie. I'm really excited to be here and to be talking to your listeners. So, as you mentioned, I have two divisions of my practice, my speech-language pathology practice. My background is primarily within the hospital healthcare setting, but I have always had the opportunity and pleasure of working with babies in the NICU all the way to the 103-year-olds that have neurodiagnoses and all sorts of things.
Sonia: But I have also had experience in all types of settings. So, even if I was within the acute inpatient hospital setting, I would always have an outpatient caseload as well. And during that time, too, I always did pediatric speech and language evaluations as part of my outpatient caseload as well. So, from that, I also would consult on my own as a multilingual or bilingual service provider for some of the school districts.
Sonia: So, after working in various healthcare settings, I've done pretty much any setting you could imagine, I decided to step out on my own and I started my own business. I more formalized some of the consulting I was already doing on the side. And so, from that grew Global Speech and Swallow, which is my clinical practice. I will do consultations for school districts in various languages for their bilingual speech and language evaluations.
Sonia: But in my actual practice, I see, again, babies to 103-year-olds. With any speech language, cognitive communicative feeding or swallowing or voice or airway issues. And so, we do assessment and therapeutic things. And then I also try and do some group and community enrichment types of activities, too, which is nice about having your own practice because it kind of gives you the autonomy to do all of those different types of things.
Kadie: And is that what you love, having your experience across the ages and across the different populations? It sounds like you really enjoy that.
Sonia: Yes. And so, that is one thing I love and I have loved throughout my career. I got started in the field of speech language pathology because the summer before my senior year in high school, my paternal grandmother had a stroke. And that was my first real introduction into more of the medical or healthcare-based speech language pathology side.
Sonia: And at the time, she did speak English, but that wasn't her primary language. So, after her stroke, she was aphasic, which I now know, but she was not able to communicate with any of the speech language pathologists that were available to us. And we researched in multitude of areas, and there was nobody that spoke her language, her native language, that would be able to work with her. So, my family and I ended up serving as translators.
Sonia: And I had always been on the cusp of, do I want to go into medicine? Do I want to go into education? And so, just with observations and getting to shadow and taking some courses earlier on, it really spoke to me, the field, just because there is such a variety. And so, I've been lucky enough throughout my career to be able to work with that variety of diagnoses and patient populations.
Sonia: And then also, with the multilingual piece of it, I felt like I could help a wider variety of people. And so, I ended up minoring in Spanish in my undergrad. And so, I studied in Spain for a while to gain some more fluency. And so, a large part of my practice prior to even being in private practice was working with people from different cultural backgrounds, obviously, but linguistic backgrounds, especially being in the Chicago metro area.
Kadie: Oh, awesome. And so, that's your clinical side of things. And then, did you also want to expand on your role as president of Corespan?
Sonia: Yeah. So, before I get to that, I'll talk a little bit about my corporate side of things. In working with different people, some of that early consulting that I did on the side also included some accent modification and dabbling in that. And so, from that, when I established my practice, my private practice, I knew from the beginning, I wanted to do two divisions.
Sonia: So, Global Speech and Swallow is my clinical division. And then, the Global Speech Suite is my corporate division. And so, corporate division, I serve as a speech-language pathologist, but more as a professional communication coach. And so, with individuals and organizations, I work on things like accent modification. And with some extra self-study and some expansion of my expertise, I work on presentation skills, cross-cultural communication, leadership communication, and executive presence, those types of things with individuals and organizations.
Sonia: So, it's a nice way to have the base, the root of our speech pathology background and expertise and expanding on using those types of skills or that knowledge base, but still staying kind of within our wheelhouse. And while there's other professionals that do what we do, I'm a little biased by saying that I think the speech-language pathologists are very, very well qualified to do this type of work and bring a new level, a new perspective into training this type of client.
Sonia: So, you started mentioning, I am president, I took over the presidency in 2019. So, my term ends at the end of this year, but I'm the president of the Corporate Speech Pathology Network, also known as CORSPAN. And so, it's a nonprofit organization that is a professional organization only for speech-language pathologists. That's a key point, but it's international.
Sonia: So, we have SLPs from all over the world that are interested in corporate speech work. We have members that are just transitioning from the clinical arena into corporate, or they're thinking about it, or we have people that have made a full-time switch and for years have just been doing corporate speech-type services. And then we also have some that are still, like myself, doing both clinical and corporate type of work.
Sonia: But it's really nice because we get to network and talk the same language with the same background, but we're able to kind of connect on a different level in terms of doing more of the corporate work, but being a speech-language pathology professional.
Kadie: Is this a group with meetings or is it a Facebook group where you are all constantly interacting? How does it work?
Sonia: Yeah. So, it is a group with meetings. We have a regular, we alternate between professional development webinars and small group networking. So, the webinars that we host are all related to either corporate speech types of things, so accent modification, how you train business presentation skills, those types of things, or related to business practices. So, social media marketing, the best way to share resources and things like that.
Sonia: And so, we also, in our small group networking, we usually host a few different sessions of the networking. And so, we are able to kind of connect and talk about different things that we think have worked, have not worked, because we're a small group as it is, as speech-language pathologists. And a lot of times I feel like we are often telling people what a speech-language pathologist does, but then take that and even make it into a smaller group of corporate speech pathologists, and it's even more so that we need to educate the public.
Kadie: So rare. Yes. You all are a rare, rare group.
Sonia: Right. So it is a paid membership, but then you get the networking, the webinars, you have access to resources. We have a business directory listing that you get, and then we have our own private Facebook group and listserv and all sorts of other things.
Sonia: So like you were saying, on the clinical side, it is, you have a built-in network of sorts because you can connect with school districts. You can connect with physician's offices. If you take insurance, there's a referral source right there. But on the corporate side, it definitely takes a lot more time and effort and energy into marketing and really letting people know that we are a valuable resource to individuals as well as organizations.
Sonia: And really letting them know why a corporate SLP might be a better fit or the types of things that we can do for them that maybe other professionals that are doing similar types of work may not be able to do in the same light. So we are trained to assess something, plan out a training program or a plan and then make modifications as necessary and really make some functional outcomes and measure those.
Sonia: So I think, using our clinical background but in a corporate setting, I think is a very, very neat thing and it's a great way to expand on your expertise.
Kadie: Yes, absolutely. And I am curious, I'm sure everyone's model of business would be different, but is yours primarily contracting with a large company who then assigns you participants or have people reached out to you individually or is it a mix? What do you think primarily is the business structure there?
Sonia: On the corporate side, definitely it is a mix of individuals that are just finding me through random ways or from word of mouth and then organizations as well. So it is a mix. It is harder to get into those organizations, but once you do, it's great because if you can set up your programs and even do a group training, it's nice to be able to put in the time and work and energy into developing that program, but then you are able to use it with a multitude of clients versus having to reinvent the wheel every time.
Sonia: But it is nice and I do offer customized programs. So sometimes it's a blend of accent modification and presentation skills training, or sometimes it's purely just accent modification, but then maybe they come back a little bit later and want some presentation skills training. Or maybe they're not in need of accent modification services, but really want to focus on some organizational communication things. So cross-cultural communication or business presentation skills or leadership communication types of things.
Kadie: Gosh, I just feel like that's so valuable in so many different businesses. I think we could all use a little up-to-date training and presentations, like you said, even not in regards to any accent modification.
Sonia: And I've talked to various people throughout this whole interesting time that we're living in and kind of working through is that at the root of any relationship, any industry, anything at all, the root of it is communication, right? And that is what we are all experts at as speech language pathologists.
Sonia: So we know disordered communication, but we also know normal, typical development and delivery. So I think I would encourage everybody to really expand on what you know and not be afraid to take some risks because there is a lot of this that is uncharted territory, but there are a lot of speech language pathologists that have been doing this type of work for a very long time and being very successful at it.
Sonia: So I think it's just something that you need to, if it's something that interests you, expand on your skill set and not be afraid to share your expertise because we know a lot. And I feel because we are from a helping and service associated industry, a lot of times that business aspect of it is really lacking in speech language pathologists.
Sonia: So it does take a lot of executive presence, if you will, on your own as a speech language pathologist saying that, hey, I can also be very effective for your individual career or your organization's business. And remembering and recognizing and helping people understand that communication is at the core of everything, and we can really help in those areas in a multitude of ways, we really can make a difference.
Sonia: And it's not that you're just out to make money because I'm telling you now, yes, while there is a market for this, it is a lot of work, a lot of time, a lot of energy. And it is not easy to just make quick money, fast cash. So there's a lot that has to go into it. But we are very, very capable of doing it. And there is definitely a market for our services.
Sonia: And I think that people really appreciate, especially if you think about those clients that seek out our services for accent modification and those types of things, if they're from the IT industry or the science industry, those types of things, they love objective testing and numbers and those types of things. So if you can give them, just like you would in a clinical assessment and clinical training program, you can give them objective plans and progression and how we modify things and setting goals that are objective. They love that. And that's something that we bring to the table that maybe other people that are doing this type of work do not.
Kadie: Yes. Completely agree. And I'm just wondering, is it just yourself in your business or do you have anyone beneath you?
Sonia: No. So right now it's primarily myself. I also have two young children at home, so it's kind of my husband and I both managing as best we can with both of them at home and both of us needing to work. But it is myself. I do contract out to people as need be, but I think that a lot of times my work is so specialized in certain cases that it needs to be me for right now.
Sonia: On the clinical side, some of the bilingual evaluations or therapeutic processes, and then the corporate side, for right now it's myself. But I collaborate with other speech pathologists too. And I have found that that's a great way for us to bring our resources and networks together and really promote our services. But then also really make a name for speech language pathologists, the clinical services that we deliver, as well as the corporate services that we deliver out into the public knowledge.
Kadie: Yes. And you're right. I love the collaboration that SLPs seem to have for each other. And that's why I enjoy the podcast so much. Everyone wants to be a resource. If they have a wealth of knowledge, they are eager to share it and it's so helpful to others.
Kadie: I've talked a lot on the podcast about paperwork that a private practice owner typically needs, say to provide to patients, whether it's just intake form, privacy policy, release of information, whatever it may be. So we've talked a lot about that from the clinical perspective. And it sounds like you have to deal with that as well. What paperwork have you had to come up with for the corporate side?
Sonia: There is, but nothing compared to the clinical side. The clinical side by far has much, much more paperwork. On the corporate side, it is more finding a good, if I take the accent side as well as the presentation skills side, I do my own version of an assessment and then making up a plan and things.
Sonia: It is a little bit different if you are talking to an individual versus doing it for an organization. So if I am working with somebody that services are being paid for by an organization, then yes, I will usually send updates and progress updates. But they're nowhere near as detailed because they don't want to read it. They want to see the end result.
Sonia: On the flip side, with accent modification, there's different programs that I use. And I'm able to give them real-time feedback. But then also, I'm able to give them a percentage. And we always will compare recordings. And on the presentation skills side, we'll compare pre and post video recordings. And I've made up my own assessment forms and questionnaires and those types of things for the business presentation skills and leadership communication side.
Sonia: But in terms of doing progress notes and all of that stuff, it is far, far less on the corporate side. But the one thing that I think is pretty time intensive at the beginning, but then once you have it, you have it, and then you just tweak it, is A, your programming, what you want to include in all of your different programs. But then B, or probably more importantly, your contract.
Sonia: That's a big part of this. So putting in pricing, when pricing is due, because there is no insurance involved. There is no secondary payer unless it's to the organization. But also what all it includes. So I give them access. My clients get access to a certain application or a certain software when I'm working with them. So all of that is included in my contract.
Sonia: But then I also have something called a practice agreement that, especially for the accent modification piece, if you don't practice, it's really not worth your time or my time or your money for us to continue until you can find some time to practice. Because we're not going to see results that we are wanting to see without that practice.
Sonia: So you have a lot more leeway with those types of things. And where a lot of my corporate clients I will see actually online, even if they're accent mod clients that are in the same city as me, some of them just prefer doing it online just because, and this was pre-COVID, it's just easier from a scheduling standpoint. And we've had good outcomes with it.
Sonia: It's a little trickier on the presentation skill side, and it's not my favorite to do, but I have found good resources and I've been able to integrate the same type of programming that I would do in person, face to face, via a virtual session. And now given that many of us find ourselves having to do many virtual sessions, it's even more fitting for a lot of these clients that are having virtual presentations, having virtual meetings on a day-to-day basis.
Kadie: Exactly. Yeah. Now it's very relevant to practice that way.
Sonia: Absolutely.
Kadie: What does your typical week look like as far as specific days or times allotted to clinical clients versus your corporate clients?
Sonia: That's a loaded question, Kadie. So, maybe BC, before COVID. So even before COVID, just because I have the clinical side and the corporate side, and I have CORSPAN, which takes a good amount of time as well. I by no means was going in all five days in the week, but I did have my structured days.
Sonia: So I would be in my office, which is my clinic, and I would see corporate clients there as well. But I would go in say a few times in a week, but then I also would have clients that I would see or patients because I was doing teletherapy before COVID as well. So I would maybe have an evening teletherapy client, or my corporate clients, I would maybe see online Saturday at six in the morning, if that's what they prefer, or over the weekend, I would see a lot of them.
Sonia: And then other times, if I'm doing corporate work at someone's place of work, or a group training for somebody, then I'm going out to those organizations, and I'm not really needing my office space at that moment. But then I would typically try and do my clinical patients all within the same day.
Sonia: Things have switched, though, post-COVID. It's just kind of very variable. And I keep saying my schedule is quite fluid these days.
Kadie: Right. Yeah. And sometimes it's so nice to have that flexibility. Like you mentioned, you have young children, and you have to have flexibility. But also, I'm sure there's moments where you're like, can I just work nine to five and forget about it till tomorrow? That's really not the case in private practice.
Sonia: Yeah. And that's been a very, very hard thing. There's, I could work, I don't even consider myself at full volume, like full, full-time work right now. But I feel like I'm working overtime. And I feel like I'm working well, well beyond the hours of a typical job.
Sonia: And you really have to find those limits of when you shut yourself down, and you aren't in front of your computer, or you're not thinking of the next social media post that you're going to put, or developing a new program that you're going to introduce to your clients. So it's hard, but I love it. It's great. And it is challenging, but it's also got many rewards.
Kadie: Right, yes. And I think that is a great takeaway for our listeners, if they were to take anything away from today. It's know your own limits. Do you want to work in the evenings? That's fine. You can do that as your own business owner, or should you shut yourself off at a certain time? I think everyone has to know their limits.
Sonia: Absolutely. And you can't do everything all at once. And that is largely my issue is, oh, I want to do this, I want to do this, I see a picture, I take a picture of something, oh, I can use that for this post. And so you could constantly do that. But you have to put those limits on yourself, just to keep yourself sane and keep that balance within yourself and your family.
Kadie: Right. And have you hired out for any like website development, marketing materials, or do you create everything?
Sonia: Right now, I create everything, but I do consult with certain people. Or like I was saying, I'm working with a couple colleagues, and we're collaborating on an event together so that we're also kind of sharing the social media responsibilities and those types of things, if that makes sense.
Kadie: Absolutely. Yes. Are there any great resources that you found to find stock photos that you can use? Do you take your own? Any resources that you could share?
Sonia: Yeah, absolutely. So I do a lot of my, well, I have taken a lot of my own pictures, which I plan to use, but I like using Pixabay, and Pexels.com. And Unsplash.com.
Kadie: Oh, I haven't heard of that one. I was thinking of those first two, and Canva is a big one.
Sonia: Yeah, and I was just going to say that, too. I actually have been using Canva for a very long time, and I primarily do all of my social media posts and everything on Canva, and it takes a little bit of getting used to initially, but I think it's awesome. It's a great program.
Kadie: Yes, I agree. Well, I appreciate you sharing your specific business model and your private practice journey. Is there anything that you'd like to add before we sign off here today?
Sonia: No, this has been great, and if I can be of any help to anyone, please feel free to reach out. I'm always happy to help.
Kadie: That would be wonderful. So thank you so much for your time, Sonia. It's been great.
Sonia: Thank you so much, Kadie. Take care.
Kadie: Thank you for joining me and listening to Clinic Chats, the speech therapist's private practice podcast. If you have a moment, please leave a five-star review for Clinic Chats to help other SLPs find our podcast. If you'd like to share your own personal journey through private practice, please email me at kadie at clinicnote.com. That's K-A-I-D-E at clinicnote.com.