Meet Yamiris Diaz | Speech-Language Pathologist & Entrepreneur

We had the good fortune of connecting with Yamiris Diaz and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Yamiris, we’d love to start by asking you about lessons learned. Is there a lesson you can share with us?
Priorities. Before I started my business I was always a “yes girl!” I have had to learn to say “no” to prioritize important activities and events that directly impact my personal and business goals.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
As a pediatric speech and language pathologist working for private practices since 2012, I had always dreamed of having a practice of my own. However, I kept pushing that dream aside, thinking it was something completely out of reach and that surely “one day” it would happen for me. In the year 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, I found myself furloughed from my current job of 3 years and had gotten an opportunity to see a client via telehealth. That opportunity sparked something in me and I became suddenly excited and eager to finally see my very own patients and start a speech therapy practice! With the help of my twin sister, who is also a business owner and certified public accountant, I quickly had all the initial paperwork and legal requirements set up. Now I just needed clients. Marketing and finding clients has been the biggest challenge in my business. Little by little I started learning what worked and didn’t work, and began growing my caseload. Undoubtedly there have been many roadblocks along the way which have been challenging to overcome. Working on my mindset to focus on what I can control, keep a positive outlook, exercise gratitude, and seek support from family and friends has helped me tremendously in moving forward.
As a private practice owner, I highly value my autonomy. I have been able to design my daily work how I see fit, and nothing compares to that. My area of specialty is working with bilingual children in early intervention, ages 6 months to 5 years, with a variety of communication disorders and conditions such as speech and language delay, articulation disorder, phonological disorder, social language impairment, autism spectrum disorder, and childhood apraxia of speech.
One of my favorite things about the work I do now is that I can structure my sessions to include direct parent involvement to optimize my patients’ progress in their treatment. What an incredible feeling when I witness a mother getting teary-eyed after hearing her child’s first words in my therapy session! My passion and commitment to helping my patients make progress is the fuel I require to keep my private practice running successfully.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
A week with my best friend in Miami would consist of fun and relaxing activities. We would probably make a list of must-dos and choose each activity depending on our mood and energy for that day. Some of our must-dos would be grabbing a couple of cortaditos and croquetas at La Carreta, grocery shopping in Publix to make a delicious home-cooked meal, dressing up and going salsa dancing in Little Havana, catching a movie at the Miami Beach Rooftop cinema, and a day at Sunny Isles beach.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Jessica Peramo from Ms. Jessica is Back

Instagram: matterofspeech