July 17, 2024 • 27 mins
Ever wondered how to make a massive impact without starting your own OT business? Discover the secret to intrapreneurship!
Entrepreneurs often struggle with the daunting leap of starting a business from scratch, especially when financial stability and experience are crucial. What if we told you there's a way to innovate, create, and impact the OT field all while maintaining your steady paycheck and growing within an established system?
In today's emotional and empowering episode, Sarah dives into intrapreneurship—an often-overlooked path where you can be an internal entrepreneur, driving change and refining your skills within your current role. Tune in as we honor the legacy of Emelia Dewi, an OT giant who exemplified how to lead and innovate from within.
Ready to redefine your career path and spark change in the OT world? Click play to listen to this life-changing episode of OTPreneur now!
Would you like more support on your OTPreneur Journey?
⭐️ Join the free OTPreneur Community
📗 Get your free OT Business Guide
📱 Leave us a voice message & you could be featured on the OTP Podcast
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Thanks for tuning in! We'll see you next time
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sarah Putt (00:00):
I'm pretty sure you've heard the term
entrepreneur before, but haveyou heard the term intrapreneur
yet?
Today I'm gonna be discussing alittle bit more about
intrapreneur andintrapreneurship and what place
it has in OT business.
And just so you know, today'sepisode is an extra special
episode for me that is dedicatedto one of my good friends,
(00:22):
fellow OT and passionate intraand entrepreneur.
Are you thinking about startingan occupational therapy
business but don't even knowwhere to begin?
Whether you're startingsomething on the side or going
full-time in your business, theOTpreneur podcast is what you
need.
This show will help you get inthe right mindset and give you
actionable tips to go from justan idea to OTpreneur mindset and
(00:48):
give you actionable tips to gofrom just an idea to OTpreneur.
I'm your host, sarah Putt, and,spoiler alert, there is no
Jason today.
Jason is out on vacationgallivanting somewhere, and so I
figured I'm not on vacation,I'm still here, I'm still
working.
I figured I would come on andtake this time to talk a little
bit about intrapreneurship, andI really want to emphasize the
(01:09):
intra not entrepreneurship, butintrapreneurship.
Like I mentioned in the intro,today's episode is dedicated to
a very special person to me, andthis might be a little bit of a
difficult episode for me to getout, but bear with me.
I am going to try to getthrough the material and the
(01:29):
content that I want to sharewith you, but just know that
there might be some emotionsthat come up as I start talking
about this.
But this episode is dedicated tomy friend, colleague and fellow
OTpreneur, amelia Dewey, akathe Limp Therapist.
Amelia passed away a few monthsago after a long battle with
(01:49):
breast cancer and, quitehonestly, it has taken me a long
time to kind of gather my wordsand my thoughts and be able to
put this episode together.
I knew that I wanted to do anepisode and dedicate it to her
and her passion and her life andthe impact that she had on my
life, but I just never couldfind the right words and I still
(02:13):
don't know if I have the rightwords or if I'm going to
remember everything that I wantto say or talk about everything
that I want to bring up.
But I'm here, I am going to trymy best and I'm going to show
up today and just share a littlebit about what's been on my
mind following the news of herpassing.
Just in case you don't know, Ifirst met Amelia back in 2007,
(02:37):
which, at the time of thisrecording, we're now in 2024.
So I've known her for quite along time.
At this point we happen to bein the same master's OT master's
program at USC and I have tosay that she truly was one of
the most amazing, passionate andcaring people that I have ever
(02:57):
met in my entire life.
And I truly, truly mean that.
Amelia and I first connectedbecause of our love of OT, and
if you've listened to me on thispodcast or on the OT for Life
podcast or any podcast that I'vebeen on, or if you've met me in
real life, you know that I justbleed OT.
(03:17):
I love talking about OT, andAmelia and I just really
connected because we were bothso passionate about occupational
therapy.
But it went kind of so muchfurther than that and deeper, I
should say, because we both hada desire to really kind of do
things differently.
We had a desire to support ourclients in the best way that we
(03:40):
possibly could and we also knewthat we wanted to have a lasting
impact on the profession as awhole.
I can't tell you how many hoursher and I spent either
messaging on Instagram, talkingon the phone Zoom calls,
whatever it is.
We spent so many hours talkingabout OT the good, the bad, the
(04:03):
things that needed to be fixed,how we wanted to change it, and
then really kind of realizingthe things that we couldn't
change and just trying toembrace all of that.
We talked about all the things,all the things OT, and while I
feel like Amelia is reallymostly known for her work kind
of within the lymphedema worldOf course she's the lymph
(04:24):
therapist that was her pride andjoy and really specifically
working with people who hadcancer-related lymphedema, and
also fun fact and also her loveof plungers as a treatment
modality.
If you know, you know, and ifyou don't know and you want to
know what I mean by that, gocheck out episode 76 of the OT
(04:46):
for Life podcast.
It's titled Navigating Lifewith Cancer-Related Lymphedema
and that is where I actually gotthe opportunity to interview
Amelia and she shares so so manygood things, so many gems in
the episode.
But she does talk about why sheloves plungers as a treatment
modality within occupationaltherapy.
(05:07):
So go check that out to learn alittle bit more about the fun
side of the plungers and Amelia.
So Amelia is an entrepreneur atheart and I swear she always
had the most amazing ideas thatshe wanted to do to help people,
and I want to share with youthat even in the last few days
of her life, she was building acommunity and an online course
(05:32):
for other cancer thrivers.
I was fortunate enough to beable to jump on a call with her
literally within the last weekor two of her life and hear
about all the amazing stuff thatshe had been working on to
support other people.
I mean, that just goes to showjust what type of person that
(05:55):
she was is that, even when shewas going through so much, she
was still trying to.
She was still finding herselfhelping others and giving back
to others and sharing all of herinsight, all of her expertise
and everything that she had beengoing through and really just
wanting to help everybody thatwas around her.
She spent most of her careeractually working in a major
(06:20):
hospital system in Texas, andone of the things I mean there's
a lot of things that I lovedabout Amelia, but one of the
things that I truly loved abouther is that, even though she was
working in this big healthsystem I think it is one of, or
the biggest hospital system inTexas and she really was kind of
(06:40):
quote unquote, that more liketraditional employee role.
Even though she was in thisrole she was in a big health
system.
She was still fueled by thispassion that she had for
entrepreneurship and really thisquest that she wanted to bring
OT to the table and she wantedto be able to help her clients
in the best way possible.
And really kind of what thatlooked like for her was that she
(07:05):
took on additional roles withinher department.
She developed programs andresources.
She trained and mentoredstudents, volunteers and staff.
She somehow perfectly blendedworking within a system while
not getting stuck in the system.
At one point she had realizedthat the PT department at her
(07:26):
hospital had had a fellowshipprogram for a decade or more and
the OT department did not haveone.
And so, rather than just belike, well, that's too bad, ot
doesn't have one, okay, andcontinue about her daily life,
she showed up and said let'sstart one.
And did, created it, developedit and got it off the ground.
(07:49):
She was also a fieldworksupervisor.
She was a fellowship creatorand educator, a program
developer, as well as hertraditional role as the treating
OT and evaluating OT within thelymphedema clinic within the
hospital.
So while she was all throughoutthe time that I knew her, while
(08:13):
she was always working onsomething entrepreneurial on the
side, she also never shied awayfrom being an intra an
entrepreneur within her role atthe hospital.
So you might be wondering whatactually is intrapreneurship.
When we're talking aboutentrepreneurship, we're mainly
talking about somebody that isstarting their own business.
(08:36):
Right, they're going out ontheir own, they're paving their
own way and they are startingtheir own business, whether that
is a client care practice likewhat I have, an online business
like what Jason has, or this issomething that is full-time or
part-time, but it's somethingthat you are doing on your own.
But with intrapreneurship, thisis where it is actually working
(08:58):
within an already existingcompany.
So an entrepreneur is aninternal entrepreneur who works
within the structures of anestablished company already.
So entrepreneurs kind of findways to innovate, to improve
their role or the roles ofothers, to increase the quality
(09:20):
of the work and sometimes likethe entire business entity as a
whole.
So really it is working withina business that is already
existing in helping to eithercreate, promote, strategize,
organize, working within theseroles within a company that's
already been started.
So I'm guessing now you might bewondering why am I actually
(09:44):
talking about entrepreneurshipon an OT entrepreneur podcast?
And, to be honest with you, Ifeel like there are a lot of OT
practitioners that are out thereand maybe this is even you
that's listening that arecurrently working within a
system or an established companyat this very moment and maybe
(10:05):
you might not be able to startyour own thing right now.
Maybe you don't want to yet,maybe you're not ready to leave
where you're working right nowto go start your own gig.
Maybe some of those reasons arethat you want to get more
experience within a specificarea, or you really need that
(10:26):
steady income to pay off studentloans, or maybe you just
generally like where you work,you like who, the people that
you work with, and you're justnot quite ready to leave.
Whatever the reason is, itdoesn't really matter.
Whatever the reason is, thereare many people that have dreams
to become an entrepreneur oneday, but that one day isn't
(10:47):
right at this moment, and that'swhy I really wanted to kind of
take some time OT school or OTAschool and again, you're just
not quite there, you're notquite ready, or think that
you're ready, right, I'm sure alot of us are ready, but we
(11:09):
don't think that we're ready tokind of take that step into
entrepreneurship at this moment.
So this is really where kind ofintrapreneurship comes into
play.
You can still make an impact,you can still learn new skills
and you can still contribute toyour current role without paving
your own way and striking outon your own.
(11:30):
Plus, you get to keep yoursteady paycheck, you get to keep
your benefits, your coolcoworkers, et cetera.
You know, whatever the reasonis that we were just talking
about, which you know, if youlike, where you work, this is a
huge benefit to be able to keepall of that.
So when I was a traditionalemployee, my first glimmer of
(11:51):
becoming an entrepreneuractually really started through
intrapreneurship.
I started kind of noticing someinefficiencies and some I guess
you could call them like majordisruptions to the company that
I was working for.
Time and time and time again, Iwould see some of the office,
(12:12):
some of the office staff, theoffice manager, and they would
always be working.
You know, I could always tellthat they were really busy and
they were working and I'd belike, oh, hey, guys, like what
are you doing today?
And they're like, oh, we'reworking on billing.
And then be like, oh, hey, guys, what are you doing today?
And they're like, oh, we'reworking on billing.
And then a few hours later Icome back, hey, what are you up
to?
Oh, we're still working onbilling.
And then the next day and thenext day and the next day and
they were constantly around thebeginning, end of the month,
(12:33):
beginning of the month, theywere always working on billing
and I was like, man, this istaking them a very, very long
time.
And it just seemed to be takingtoo long.
Right, it seemed like there hadto be an easier way to get this
done.
And what I come to find out isthat they were doing it all by
hand and they were adding, youknow, they were doing all the
(12:54):
math, all the numbers.
They were doing all by hand.
And I just realized that therewas a lot of room for mistakes
here, right, like not sayingthey were doing anything wrong,
but just human error, and somuch kind of data to process
that I was like man, they'reprobably making a lot of
mistakes and I'm not blamingthem.
(13:14):
This is just how it had alwaysbeen done at that company before
.
So I was talking to my husbandabout it and he's really kind of
the data analytical type personand he's like, oh, there's a
much better way, like I mean,this should really take minutes.
You know, like maybe 30 minutes, maybe an hour max, like to get
all of this done every month.
(13:34):
So with the help of my hubby webuilt out some spreadsheets and
some system processes to reallykind of help with this.
And let me tell you I not onlysaved the staff hours upon hours
of time that they spent on thisduring their day that they
could have been doing somethingelse.
I also helped the company makeless errors with their billing
(13:58):
and therefore that really kindof kept more money in the bank
account right.
They were able to bill fortheir correct amount and keep
that money or make more moneyright.
They weren't losing out on allthis money because of billing
errors.
So that was kind of my firstglimpse.
And then from there I actuallybuilt out an OT program at
(14:22):
another company when I starteddoing some independent
contracting work.
They did not have OT therepreviously but they wanted to
bring on an OT to really kind ofdevelop the program and I
happened to be that OT that gotto be able to do that.
So first it kind of startedwith the systems and the
processes and that, and then itwent into more of like program
development and and theprocesses and that, and then it
(14:42):
went into more of like programdevelopment and what it would
actually look like and what youneed and things that you need to
start embedding in order tohave occupational therapy within
a company and within a systemthat had not had OT previously.
And all of this, all of this Iwas doing before I even thought,
(15:05):
before I even had that firstthought, of becoming an
entrepreneur.
Like, again, if you've beenlistening to this podcast for a
while, you know like I neverthought that I was going to be
an entrepreneur, I never thoughtthat I could be an entrepreneur
, and so, like all of what Ijust shared with you, like all
of that happened long, longbefore I actually jumped into
(15:26):
the world of entrepreneurship.
So then, fast forward to justactually a few months ago, I was
talking to a previous volunteerof mine.
She volunteered with my companyand then got into OT school,
went completed OT school andit's actually within her first
year of practice as an OT.
Shout out to Tess.
(15:46):
So I was talking to Tess theother day, the other month, and
this whole realm ofintrapreneurship.
Intrapreneurship came up again.
You know, tess is a new grad.
She is wanting to gain as muchexperience working as an OT as
she possibly can, but she alsotold me that she has a desire to
(16:08):
start her own business one day.
And she told me this way back,way back in the beginning, like
when she was a volunteer with mycompany.
But she just knows that whereshe is right now she's like I'm
gaining great experience and Iwant to be able to continue to
gain this experience while shefigures out exactly how and when
and how she's going to starther entrepreneur journey later
(16:32):
on in the future.
And so we sat down and justkind of started talking about
some different ways that shecould assist her current company
.
We thought about different waysthat she could maybe take some
things off of maybe her manageror the owner's plates and as a
director and an owner myself, Iknow exactly just how beneficial
(16:56):
this can actually be.
We also kind of talked abouthow she can develop things for
the company, for the practicethat management maybe doesn't
have time to do or it'ssomething they've been wanting
to get around to and justhaven't gotten around to it.
All of this to say that she cancreate, she can develop and she
can learn, all while continuingto support the company that she
(17:17):
works for.
And the icing on the whole cakeis continuing to get paid to do
that and have that steadyincome that I was talking about
earlier on in the episode.
And one thing that I would liketo kind of point out here, too,
is that if you are maybe you'realready doing it, or maybe this
episode is inspiring you topursue some entrepreneurial type
(17:38):
things within your current roledon't be afraid to negotiate
with your boss for a raise or abonus or something for
contributing to the company inways outside of the role that
you were hired to do, rightOutside of that traditional OT
treatment, evaluation orwhatever it is that you.
(18:00):
You know, that is your jobtitle, that is your job role.
Like, don't be afraid to belike hey, I would love to do X,
y and Z, and if I am bringing inthis money, how can we make it?
Where I can see some of it, I'mgoing to be helping your
company out in developingprograms, in bringing in new
clients, in streamlining systems.
(18:21):
How can I make a little bitmore money out of this as well?
So don't forget that piece, too, because you are going to be
doing some other tasks, someother roles, some things that
are outside of it, and maybe itwill take time away from what
you're doing, or maybe it'sgoing to be additional time.
But think about, there are somekind of different ways that you
(18:43):
can go about setting up yourtasks and making sure that
you're accomplishing everythingthat you need to get done right,
but then some of these otherthings that you want to maybe
start learn, anything like that.
If anybody has done this before,please reach out to me at
otpreneur at gmailcom, and tellme a little bit more, because I
(19:04):
would love to hear about yourexperience, about what it is
that you did.
Were you able to negotiate fora raise or for a bonus or
something like that?
How did it help the company?
Really curious to hear yourexperience and really kind of
what you did as an entrepreneurfor the company that you're
working for.
(19:24):
The next thing that I reallywanted to bring up was that
there are kind of threedifferent types, or rather three
different ways that you cancontribute as an entrepreneur.
So you can be that creator, sothat person that is kind of
always thinking about new thingsor coming up with new ideas.
You could be the doer, whereyou go from idea to action plan.
(19:47):
You know that step-by-step planof what needs to get done, and
you could be the implementerthat kind of big picture,
execute the plan and reallyaccomplish the goal, and you can
do a kind of a combination ofall of this, right?
I think the key here is sittingdown, if you haven't done this
yet, but sitting down, takingsome time to think about the
(20:09):
type of person that you are,what your strengths are, so you
can really kind of align thatwith the tasks that you're
taking on.
I do want to say thatentrepreneurship is not only
important, but it is necessary,right?
I think some of the importantthings, the benefits of
entrepreneurial work within acompany, is that it A helps a
(20:34):
company remain relevant.
It B encourages new ideas andperspectives.
C it addresses efficiency rightand can make a company more
efficient.
And D it can implement usefuland strategic innovation, and
all of this is necessary for abusiness to be able to thrive
(20:56):
and grow.
I'm not sure if you've heardabout it before, but Google has
this 20, quote, unquote, 20%time initiative.
That is actually a greatexample of how entrepreneurship
can work within a company that'salready established, like
Google.
So what they do is that for 20%of the workday, the Google
(21:16):
engineers will focus some timeon their passion projects.
And I bring this up becausesome of the things that have
come out of this 20% timeinitiative are some of these
household names that you'veprobably heard of before AdSense
, gmail, google Maps, googleEarth.
(21:37):
All of this came out of havingsome time for the employees to
dive into some of these passionprojects that they had, and now
they are, you know, these kindof massive, these massive things
within the companies, justbecause they had time allotted
outside of their you know kindof traditional role that they
(21:59):
had to do.
So think about that so manythings have come from the
opportunity to pursue otherroles outside of your main job
responsibilities.
I mean, I have already usedGmail and Google Maps multiple
times just today, not talkingabout yesterday, not talking
(22:20):
about the last month, literallyjust today.
I've used both of those many,many times.
So while we are very passionatehere at OTpreneur, we're very
passionate about OTentrepreneurship right, and
starting OT businesses and goingout on your own.
We also value the role thatentrepreneurship has within the
(22:43):
OT world and we also know thatmany of us started with
entrepreneurship before webecame an entrepreneur and that
many of you might be able tostart with that entrepreneurship
role within the company thatyou're working for.
Or maybe you're a fieldworkstudent, maybe you're a
volunteer at a company.
It doesn't matter where you are, you can still take on this
(23:05):
entrepreneurial role and thatentrepreneurship might be the
way to go when you're firststarting out or not quite ready,
or whatever the reason is thatyou're not starting your own
business yet.
Keyword is yet right, we'll getthere.
I think entrepreneurship isjust a great way to start to dip
(23:26):
your toes in the world ofentrepreneurship while still
working for somebody else,getting paid and all that jazz.
So I don't want to deter youfrom starting your own OT
business, but I also just wantto offer other opportunities,
other things that you can thinkabout, depending on where you
are, what role you're in, whereyou are in life, where you are
(23:49):
within your OT career, and giveyou just something else to think
about.
Is there something that youcould be doing that relates to
entrepreneurship right now?
Or maybe you're already workingon it and didn't even realize
that entrepreneurship was athing.
So that's why I kind of wantedto come on today and just talk a
little bit more about being anentrepreneur, while maybe
(24:12):
potentially also on your way tobecoming an entrepreneur.
And to close out this episode, Ijust want to bring it back to
Amelia for a minute.
I was unable to attend herservice, but I did submit some
words to be read while theservice was happening, so I just
wanted to read the words that Ihad written about her.
(24:34):
There are some people in thisworld who are so special.
They change lives more thanthey will ever know.
They live life so fiercely andso passionately.
They show up as their true,authentic selves every day and
don't even realize the impactthey have on others.
They are your biggestcheerleader.
They are the first one to knowwhen something is wrong, before
(24:56):
you have even had the chance tosay something.
They are the first one tocongratulate you and they're the
first one to check in on you.
They are there no matter what.
Amelia was that person.
Amelia was a brilliantoccupational therapist, an
amazing person and the mostincredible friend.
I had the honor to meet Ameliaback in OT school and I knew
(25:18):
back then that she was going tochange the lives of her patients
, but little did I know how muchshe would change mine.
Amelia, I am honored to havehad the opportunity to know you
and be forever changed becauseof you.
Even though you are gone, yourwisdom, your words, your passion
and your light will forevershine in this world.
(25:41):
If you do want to hear Amelia'svoice and passion for yourself,
listen to episode 76 of the OTfor Life podcast.
I will link that in the shownotes for you, as always.
Thank you so much for listeningto today's episode.
Thank you for bearing with meas I got these words out today.
If you knew Amelia and wantedto share a few of your own words
(26:02):
, please don't hesitate to reachout to us.
You can leave us a voicemail,you can shoot us an email.
Everything can be found over atotpreneurcom.
And to end this episode, I wantto share a few of Amelia's
words from the podcast episode Idid with her back in 2020.
Emelia Dewi (26:18):
You know, I think as OTs, we need to stay our
course and OT entrepreneurshipis great and I would like to go
there someday, but if you're ina hospital system, then please
hold your place there and don'tlet your place and significance
be diminished by what otherpeople are doing because you're
not speaking for yourself.
I'm really passionate about OTbecause I think OT is a
(26:39):
wonderful profession, but we doneed to justify ourselves a lot
in the workplace, right, becauseotherwise we're just becoming a
blend of PT OT and we'redefinitely bringing something
different than our colleagues do.
I love my PTs and my speechtherapists don't get me wrong
but I think we bring somethingelse to the table that they need
also.
Sarah Putt (26:59):
We appreciate you listening to today's episode.
Be the first to hear about anyOTpreneur news and grab our free
guide to OT business models atotpreneurcom.
Otpreneur it's whereoccupational therapy means
business.
I'm pretty sure you've heard the term
entrepreneur before, but haveyou heard the term intrapreneur
yet?
Today I'm gonna be discussing alittle bit more about
intrapreneur andintrapreneurship and what place
it has in OT business.
And just so you know, today'sepisode is an extra special
episode for me that is dedicatedto one of my good friends,
(00:22):
fellow OT and passionate intraand entrepreneur.
Are you thinking about startingan occupational therapy
business but don't even knowwhere to begin?
Whether you're startingsomething on the side or going
full-time in your business, theOTpreneur podcast is what you
need.
This show will help you get inthe right mindset and give you
actionable tips to go from justan idea to OTpreneur mindset and
(00:48):
give you actionable tips to gofrom just an idea to OTpreneur.
I'm your host, sarah Putt, and,spoiler alert, there is no
Jason today.
Jason is out on vacationgallivanting somewhere, and so I
figured I'm not on vacation,I'm still here, I'm still
working.
I figured I would come on andtake this time to talk a little
bit about intrapreneurship, andI really want to emphasize the
(01:09):
intra not entrepreneurship, butintrapreneurship.
Like I mentioned in the intro,today's episode is dedicated to
a very special person to me, andthis might be a little bit of a
difficult episode for me to getout, but bear with me.
I am going to try to getthrough the material and the
(01:29):
content that I want to sharewith you, but just know that
there might be some emotionsthat come up as I start talking
about this.
But this episode is dedicated tomy friend, colleague and fellow
OTpreneur, amelia Dewey, akathe Limp Therapist.
Amelia passed away a few monthsago after a long battle with
(01:49):
breast cancer and, quitehonestly, it has taken me a long
time to kind of gather my wordsand my thoughts and be able to
put this episode together.
I knew that I wanted to do anepisode and dedicate it to her
and her passion and her life andthe impact that she had on my
life, but I just never couldfind the right words and I still
(02:13):
don't know if I have the rightwords or if I'm going to
remember everything that I wantto say or talk about everything
that I want to bring up.
But I'm here, I am going to trymy best and I'm going to show
up today and just share a littlebit about what's been on my
mind following the news of herpassing.
Just in case you don't know, Ifirst met Amelia back in 2007,
(02:37):
which, at the time of thisrecording, we're now in 2024.
So I've known her for quite along time.
At this point we happen to bein the same master's OT master's
program at USC and I have tosay that she truly was one of
the most amazing, passionate andcaring people that I have ever
(02:57):
met in my entire life.
And I truly, truly mean that.
Amelia and I first connectedbecause of our love of OT, and
if you've listened to me on thispodcast or on the OT for Life
podcast or any podcast that I'vebeen on, or if you've met me in
real life, you know that I justbleed OT.
(03:17):
I love talking about OT, andAmelia and I just really
connected because we were bothso passionate about occupational
therapy.
But it went kind of so muchfurther than that and deeper, I
should say, because we both hada desire to really kind of do
things differently.
We had a desire to support ourclients in the best way that we
(03:40):
possibly could and we also knewthat we wanted to have a lasting
impact on the profession as awhole.
I can't tell you how many hoursher and I spent either
messaging on Instagram, talkingon the phone Zoom calls,
whatever it is.
We spent so many hours talkingabout OT the good, the bad, the
(04:03):
things that needed to be fixed,how we wanted to change it, and
then really kind of realizingthe things that we couldn't
change and just trying toembrace all of that.
We talked about all the things,all the things OT, and while I
feel like Amelia is reallymostly known for her work kind
of within the lymphedema worldOf course she's the lymph
(04:24):
therapist that was her pride andjoy and really specifically
working with people who hadcancer-related lymphedema, and
also fun fact and also her loveof plungers as a treatment
modality.
If you know, you know, and ifyou don't know and you want to
know what I mean by that, gocheck out episode 76 of the OT
(04:46):
for Life podcast.
It's titled Navigating Lifewith Cancer-Related Lymphedema
and that is where I actually gotthe opportunity to interview
Amelia and she shares so so manygood things, so many gems in
the episode.
But she does talk about why sheloves plungers as a treatment
modality within occupationaltherapy.
(05:07):
So go check that out to learn alittle bit more about the fun
side of the plungers and Amelia.
So Amelia is an entrepreneur atheart and I swear she always
had the most amazing ideas thatshe wanted to do to help people,
and I want to share with youthat even in the last few days
of her life, she was building acommunity and an online course
(05:32):
for other cancer thrivers.
I was fortunate enough to beable to jump on a call with her
literally within the last weekor two of her life and hear
about all the amazing stuff thatshe had been working on to
support other people.
I mean, that just goes to showjust what type of person that
(05:55):
she was is that, even when shewas going through so much, she
was still trying to.
She was still finding herselfhelping others and giving back
to others and sharing all of herinsight, all of her expertise
and everything that she had beengoing through and really just
wanting to help everybody thatwas around her.
She spent most of her careeractually working in a major
(06:20):
hospital system in Texas, andone of the things I mean there's
a lot of things that I lovedabout Amelia, but one of the
things that I truly loved abouther is that, even though she was
working in this big healthsystem I think it is one of, or
the biggest hospital system inTexas and she really was kind of
(06:40):
quote unquote, that more liketraditional employee role.
Even though she was in thisrole she was in a big health
system.
She was still fueled by thispassion that she had for
entrepreneurship and really thisquest that she wanted to bring
OT to the table and she wantedto be able to help her clients
in the best way possible.
And really kind of what thatlooked like for her was that she
(07:05):
took on additional roles withinher department.
She developed programs andresources.
She trained and mentoredstudents, volunteers and staff.
She somehow perfectly blendedworking within a system while
not getting stuck in the system.
At one point she had realizedthat the PT department at her
(07:26):
hospital had had a fellowshipprogram for a decade or more and
the OT department did not haveone.
And so, rather than just belike, well, that's too bad, ot
doesn't have one, okay, andcontinue about her daily life,
she showed up and said let'sstart one.
And did, created it, developedit and got it off the ground.
(07:49):
She was also a fieldworksupervisor.
She was a fellowship creatorand educator, a program
developer, as well as hertraditional role as the treating
OT and evaluating OT within thelymphedema clinic within the
hospital.
So while she was all throughoutthe time that I knew her, while
(08:13):
she was always working onsomething entrepreneurial on the
side, she also never shied awayfrom being an intra an
entrepreneur within her role atthe hospital.
So you might be wondering whatactually is intrapreneurship.
When we're talking aboutentrepreneurship, we're mainly
talking about somebody that isstarting their own business.
(08:36):
Right, they're going out ontheir own, they're paving their
own way and they are startingtheir own business, whether that
is a client care practice likewhat I have, an online business
like what Jason has, or this issomething that is full-time or
part-time, but it's somethingthat you are doing on your own.
But with intrapreneurship, thisis where it is actually working
(08:58):
within an already existingcompany.
So an entrepreneur is aninternal entrepreneur who works
within the structures of anestablished company already.
So entrepreneurs kind of findways to innovate, to improve
their role or the roles ofothers, to increase the quality
(09:20):
of the work and sometimes likethe entire business entity as a
whole.
So really it is working withina business that is already
existing in helping to eithercreate, promote, strategize,
organize, working within theseroles within a company that's
already been started.
So I'm guessing now you might bewondering why am I actually
(09:44):
talking about entrepreneurshipon an OT entrepreneur podcast?
And, to be honest with you, Ifeel like there are a lot of OT
practitioners that are out thereand maybe this is even you
that's listening that arecurrently working within a
system or an established companyat this very moment and maybe
(10:05):
you might not be able to startyour own thing right now.
Maybe you don't want to yet,maybe you're not ready to leave
where you're working right nowto go start your own gig.
Maybe some of those reasons arethat you want to get more
experience within a specificarea, or you really need that
(10:26):
steady income to pay off studentloans, or maybe you just
generally like where you work,you like who, the people that
you work with, and you're justnot quite ready to leave.
Whatever the reason is, itdoesn't really matter.
Whatever the reason is, thereare many people that have dreams
to become an entrepreneur oneday, but that one day isn't
(10:47):
right at this moment, and that'swhy I really wanted to kind of
take some time OT school or OTAschool and again, you're just
not quite there, you're notquite ready, or think that
you're ready, right, I'm sure alot of us are ready, but we
(11:09):
don't think that we're ready tokind of take that step into
entrepreneurship at this moment.
So this is really where kind ofintrapreneurship comes into
play.
You can still make an impact,you can still learn new skills
and you can still contribute toyour current role without paving
your own way and striking outon your own.
(11:30):
Plus, you get to keep yoursteady paycheck, you get to keep
your benefits, your coolcoworkers, et cetera.
You know, whatever the reasonis that we were just talking
about, which you know, if youlike, where you work, this is a
huge benefit to be able to keepall of that.
So when I was a traditionalemployee, my first glimmer of
(11:51):
becoming an entrepreneuractually really started through
intrapreneurship.
I started kind of noticing someinefficiencies and some I guess
you could call them like majordisruptions to the company that
I was working for.
Time and time and time again, Iwould see some of the office,
(12:12):
some of the office staff, theoffice manager, and they would
always be working.
You know, I could always tellthat they were really busy and
they were working and I'd belike, oh, hey, guys, like what
are you doing today?
And they're like, oh, we'reworking on billing.
And then be like, oh, hey, guys, what are you doing today?
And they're like, oh, we'reworking on billing.
And then a few hours later Icome back, hey, what are you up
to?
Oh, we're still working onbilling.
And then the next day and thenext day and the next day and
they were constantly around thebeginning, end of the month,
(12:33):
beginning of the month, theywere always working on billing
and I was like, man, this istaking them a very, very long
time.
And it just seemed to be takingtoo long.
Right, it seemed like there hadto be an easier way to get this
done.
And what I come to find out isthat they were doing it all by
hand and they were adding, youknow, they were doing all the
(12:54):
math, all the numbers.
They were doing all by hand.
And I just realized that therewas a lot of room for mistakes
here, right, like not sayingthey were doing anything wrong,
but just human error, and somuch kind of data to process
that I was like man, they'reprobably making a lot of
mistakes and I'm not blamingthem.
(13:14):
This is just how it had alwaysbeen done at that company before
.
So I was talking to my husbandabout it and he's really kind of
the data analytical type personand he's like, oh, there's a
much better way, like I mean,this should really take minutes.
You know, like maybe 30 minutes, maybe an hour max, like to get
all of this done every month.
(13:34):
So with the help of my hubby webuilt out some spreadsheets and
some system processes to reallykind of help with this.
And let me tell you I not onlysaved the staff hours upon hours
of time that they spent on thisduring their day that they
could have been doing somethingelse.
I also helped the company makeless errors with their billing
(13:58):
and therefore that really kindof kept more money in the bank
account right.
They were able to bill fortheir correct amount and keep
that money or make more moneyright.
They weren't losing out on allthis money because of billing
errors.
So that was kind of my firstglimpse.
And then from there I actuallybuilt out an OT program at
(14:22):
another company when I starteddoing some independent
contracting work.
They did not have OT therepreviously but they wanted to
bring on an OT to really kind ofdevelop the program and I
happened to be that OT that gotto be able to do that.
So first it kind of startedwith the systems and the
processes and that, and then itwent into more of like program
development and and theprocesses and that, and then it
(14:42):
went into more of like programdevelopment and what it would
actually look like and what youneed and things that you need to
start embedding in order tohave occupational therapy within
a company and within a systemthat had not had OT previously.
And all of this, all of this Iwas doing before I even thought,
(15:05):
before I even had that firstthought, of becoming an
entrepreneur.
Like, again, if you've beenlistening to this podcast for a
while, you know like I neverthought that I was going to be
an entrepreneur, I never thoughtthat I could be an entrepreneur
, and so, like all of what Ijust shared with you, like all
of that happened long, longbefore I actually jumped into
(15:26):
the world of entrepreneurship.
So then, fast forward to justactually a few months ago, I was
talking to a previous volunteerof mine.
She volunteered with my companyand then got into OT school,
went completed OT school andit's actually within her first
year of practice as an OT.
Shout out to Tess.
(15:46):
So I was talking to Tess theother day, the other month, and
this whole realm ofintrapreneurship.
Intrapreneurship came up again.
You know, tess is a new grad.
She is wanting to gain as muchexperience working as an OT as
she possibly can, but she alsotold me that she has a desire to
(16:08):
start her own business one day.
And she told me this way back,way back in the beginning, like
when she was a volunteer with mycompany.
But she just knows that whereshe is right now she's like I'm
gaining great experience and Iwant to be able to continue to
gain this experience while shefigures out exactly how and when
and how she's going to starther entrepreneur journey later
(16:32):
on in the future.
And so we sat down and justkind of started talking about
some different ways that shecould assist her current company
.
We thought about different waysthat she could maybe take some
things off of maybe her manageror the owner's plates and as a
director and an owner myself, Iknow exactly just how beneficial
(16:56):
this can actually be.
We also kind of talked abouthow she can develop things for
the company, for the practicethat management maybe doesn't
have time to do or it'ssomething they've been wanting
to get around to and justhaven't gotten around to it.
All of this to say that she cancreate, she can develop and she
can learn, all while continuingto support the company that she
(17:17):
works for.
And the icing on the whole cakeis continuing to get paid to do
that and have that steadyincome that I was talking about
earlier on in the episode.
And one thing that I would liketo kind of point out here, too,
is that if you are maybe you'realready doing it, or maybe this
episode is inspiring you topursue some entrepreneurial type
(17:38):
things within your current roledon't be afraid to negotiate
with your boss for a raise or abonus or something for
contributing to the company inways outside of the role that
you were hired to do, rightOutside of that traditional OT
treatment, evaluation orwhatever it is that you.
(18:00):
You know, that is your jobtitle, that is your job role.
Like, don't be afraid to belike hey, I would love to do X,
y and Z, and if I am bringing inthis money, how can we make it?
Where I can see some of it, I'mgoing to be helping your
company out in developingprograms, in bringing in new
clients, in streamlining systems.
(18:21):
How can I make a little bitmore money out of this as well?
So don't forget that piece, too, because you are going to be
doing some other tasks, someother roles, some things that
are outside of it, and maybe itwill take time away from what
you're doing, or maybe it'sgoing to be additional time.
But think about, there are somekind of different ways that you
(18:43):
can go about setting up yourtasks and making sure that
you're accomplishing everythingthat you need to get done right,
but then some of these otherthings that you want to maybe
start learn, anything like that.
If anybody has done this before,please reach out to me at
otpreneur at gmailcom, and tellme a little bit more, because I
(19:04):
would love to hear about yourexperience, about what it is
that you did.
Were you able to negotiate fora raise or for a bonus or
something like that?
How did it help the company?
Really curious to hear yourexperience and really kind of
what you did as an entrepreneurfor the company that you're
working for.
(19:24):
The next thing that I reallywanted to bring up was that
there are kind of threedifferent types, or rather three
different ways that you cancontribute as an entrepreneur.
So you can be that creator, sothat person that is kind of
always thinking about new thingsor coming up with new ideas.
You could be the doer, whereyou go from idea to action plan.
(19:47):
You know that step-by-step planof what needs to get done, and
you could be the implementerthat kind of big picture,
execute the plan and reallyaccomplish the goal, and you can
do a kind of a combination ofall of this, right?
I think the key here is sittingdown, if you haven't done this
yet, but sitting down, takingsome time to think about the
(20:09):
type of person that you are,what your strengths are, so you
can really kind of align thatwith the tasks that you're
taking on.
I do want to say thatentrepreneurship is not only
important, but it is necessary,right?
I think some of the importantthings, the benefits of
entrepreneurial work within acompany, is that it A helps a
(20:34):
company remain relevant.
It B encourages new ideas andperspectives.
C it addresses efficiency rightand can make a company more
efficient.
And D it can implement usefuland strategic innovation, and
all of this is necessary for abusiness to be able to thrive
(20:56):
and grow.
I'm not sure if you've heardabout it before, but Google has
this 20, quote, unquote, 20%time initiative.
That is actually a greatexample of how entrepreneurship
can work within a company that'salready established, like
Google.
So what they do is that for 20%of the workday, the Google
(21:16):
engineers will focus some timeon their passion projects.
And I bring this up becausesome of the things that have
come out of this 20% timeinitiative are some of these
household names that you'veprobably heard of before AdSense
, gmail, google Maps, googleEarth.
(21:37):
All of this came out of havingsome time for the employees to
dive into some of these passionprojects that they had, and now
they are, you know, these kindof massive, these massive things
within the companies, justbecause they had time allotted
outside of their you know kindof traditional role that they
(21:59):
had to do.
So think about that so manythings have come from the
opportunity to pursue otherroles outside of your main job
responsibilities.
I mean, I have already usedGmail and Google Maps multiple
times just today, not talkingabout yesterday, not talking
(22:20):
about the last month, literallyjust today.
I've used both of those many,many times.
So while we are very passionatehere at OTpreneur, we're very
passionate about OTentrepreneurship right, and
starting OT businesses and goingout on your own.
We also value the role thatentrepreneurship has within the
(22:43):
OT world and we also know thatmany of us started with
entrepreneurship before webecame an entrepreneur and that
many of you might be able tostart with that entrepreneurship
role within the company thatyou're working for.
Or maybe you're a fieldworkstudent, maybe you're a
volunteer at a company.
It doesn't matter where you are, you can still take on this
(23:05):
entrepreneurial role and thatentrepreneurship might be the
way to go when you're firststarting out or not quite ready,
or whatever the reason is thatyou're not starting your own
business yet.
Keyword is yet right, we'll getthere.
I think entrepreneurship isjust a great way to start to dip
(23:26):
your toes in the world ofentrepreneurship while still
working for somebody else,getting paid and all that jazz.
So I don't want to deter youfrom starting your own OT
business, but I also just wantto offer other opportunities,
other things that you can thinkabout, depending on where you
are, what role you're in, whereyou are in life, where you are
(23:49):
within your OT career, and giveyou just something else to think
about.
Is there something that youcould be doing that relates to
entrepreneurship right now?
Or maybe you're already workingon it and didn't even realize
that entrepreneurship was athing.
So that's why I kind of wantedto come on today and just talk a
little bit more about being anentrepreneur, while maybe
(24:12):
potentially also on your way tobecoming an entrepreneur.
And to close out this episode, Ijust want to bring it back to
Amelia for a minute.
I was unable to attend herservice, but I did submit some
words to be read while theservice was happening, so I just
wanted to read the words that Ihad written about her.
(24:34):
There are some people in thisworld who are so special.
They change lives more thanthey will ever know.
They live life so fiercely andso passionately.
They show up as their true,authentic selves every day and
don't even realize the impactthey have on others.
They are your biggestcheerleader.
They are the first one to knowwhen something is wrong, before
(24:56):
you have even had the chance tosay something.
They are the first one tocongratulate you and they're the
first one to check in on you.
They are there no matter what.
Amelia was that person.
Amelia was a brilliantoccupational therapist, an
amazing person and the mostincredible friend.
I had the honor to meet Ameliaback in OT school and I knew
(25:18):
back then that she was going tochange the lives of her patients
, but little did I know how muchshe would change mine.
Amelia, I am honored to havehad the opportunity to know you
and be forever changed becauseof you.
Even though you are gone, yourwisdom, your words, your passion
and your light will forevershine in this world.
(25:41):
If you do want to hear Amelia'svoice and passion for yourself,
listen to episode 76 of the OTfor Life podcast.
I will link that in the shownotes for you, as always.
Thank you so much for listeningto today's episode.
Thank you for bearing with meas I got these words out today.
If you knew Amelia and wantedto share a few of your own words
(26:02):
, please don't hesitate to reachout to us.
You can leave us a voicemail,you can shoot us an email.
Everything can be found over atotpreneurcom.
And to end this episode, I wantto share a few of Amelia's
words from the podcast episode Idid with her back in 2020.
Emelia Dewi (26:18):
You know, I think as OTs, we need to stay our
course and OT entrepreneurshipis great and I would like to go
there someday, but if you're ina hospital system, then please
hold your place there and don'tlet your place and significance
be diminished by what otherpeople are doing because you're
not speaking for yourself.
I'm really passionate about OTbecause I think OT is a
(26:39):
wonderful profession, but we doneed to justify ourselves a lot
in the workplace, right, becauseotherwise we're just becoming a
blend of PT OT and we'redefinitely bringing something
different than our colleagues do.
I love my PTs and my speechtherapists don't get me wrong
but I think we bring somethingelse to the table that they need
also.
Sarah Putt (26:59):
We appreciate you listening to today's episode.
Be the first to hear about anyOTpreneur news and grab our free
guide to OT business models atotpreneurcom.
Otpreneur it's whereoccupational therapy means
business.
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