From SLP to Designer: How Something New Started
I've always been the creative, techy one.
My mom didn't limit screens (thank you, Mom), so I spent my childhood making videos for my friends and writing stories on our desktop computer. Somewhere along the way, I started building websites for fun any time a family member or a friend needed one.
None of that felt like a career. It felt like the thing I did instead of doing something useful.
Then I became a speech-language pathologist.
Opening my own practice
Five years ago I opened Sweet Talk Speech Therapy, and I hit the part every private practice owner hits. I needed a brand. I needed a website.
For most therapists, that's the overwhelming part. For me it was the fun part. I built my logo, picked my colors, made my site, and genuinely enjoyed every minute of it.
Then a therapist friend asked if I'd help with hers. Then another one. Then someone I'd never met sent me a DM.
The thing they all said
Every single one of them said some version of the same sentence.
"It's so nice not to have to explain any of this to you."
They'd worked with designers before, or gotten quotes from designers, and every conversation started with a therapy lesson. What a caseload is. Why parents hesitate. What makes a phonological disorder different from articulation. What a referral source actually needs to see.
I already knew all of it. So we could skip straight to the work.
That turned out to be the whole business.
Four years later
Something New started as a side project and is now my full time job. I spend more time on it than I do on my own practice, which is still a little wild to me.
I'm not currently seeing clients, but I still own Sweet Talk and I oversee a team of therapists there. Most of my design clients are SLPs. I also work with OTs, PTs, lactation consultants, and mental health therapists.
Different specialties, same problem. An incredible clinician whose brand isn't keeping up with the care she gives.
The part I'm most grateful for
This business is the reason I get to be home with my son full time.
I love being a speech therapist and I do miss it sometimes. But I couldn't do that job and be home with Graham. If therapy were still my full time income, I'd be away from him a lot more than I am.
So I built something that gave me both. A stay-at-home mom with two businesses. I'm pretty proud of that one.
Want to work with a designer who already speaks therapist? Reach out and let's talk about your practice.
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About the Author
Carley Zuniga is a speech-language pathologist turned brand and website designer, and the founder of Something New Design Studio. After four years of running her own private practice, she now helps therapists build clear, cohesive brands and websites through her one-day Design Day Intensives. When she's not designing, she's at home in the Chicago suburbs with her husband, son, and French bulldog, Hugo.
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