Meet Chelsea Bell | Pediatric Speech Language Pathologist

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

Hi Chelsea, every day, we about how much execution matters, but we think ideas matter as well. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
I have worked for a number of different employers in the healthcare industry, including hospitals, schools, home health agencies, and private practices. There were pros and cons to each setting of course, but I always felt my strength in each setting was the actual therapy I was doing with kids. It didn’t really occur to me to ever branch out on my own and start my own practice. But as I continued to refine my practice and skillset, I realized more than anything in this field, I loved working with kids who had feeding and swallowing disorders. The longer I’m in Denver, the more direct referrals I receive just by name and word of mouth. After a few years of this, I thought, maybe I should just have my own practice that is my name! And that specializes in feeding and swallowing disorders in kids. So I started Chelsea Bell SLP, LLC which has given me so much freedom to really prioritize the kids and their needs. The only downside has been how many kiddos need this service!! I just started feeling bummed that I don’t have the time to work one-on-one with every family that calls. Which is when Mighty Tasters came about! Mighty Tasters is an online feeding program geared toward kids who are picky eaters. It’s a program that teaches parents strategies and techniques that I use in my own therapy sessions which can be implemented at home with their kids at mealtimes. The goal is to help teach tools that will get their kiddo interested in trying more foods and adding more foods to their normal routine. It’s a way to help so many more people than the few I see directly each week.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I’ve had such a unique road getting to where I am, with so many contrasting experiences. I actually started out as a music major in college which led to my diagnosis of vocal nodules. I turned to a speech language pathologist for vocal recovery and I ended up changing my major the next semester! I really liked the field of speech and language science! I knew I wanted to work with kids, but SLPs can work in so many different settings, so I spent some years trying out some different work settings. I worked in inpatient rehab in the hospital, an outpatient clinic, private practice, I worked as an Autism specialist in a school, worked in Early Intervention (birth to 3 yr old kiddos), and home health. I also had experience working as a supervisor while in Early Intervention and supervised a Clinical Fellow (CF) while doing home health. All this before realizing I had developed a specific niche skillset (an SLP that works on feeding and swallowing outside of the hospital) that people were coming to me for, not only professionals wanting to learn, but also with kids that needed this skillset for therapy. I had managed to build a reputation in Denver as an SLP that specialized in feeding and swallowing and would visit kiddos in their natural environment. It was really nice to be specializing in an area I loved and building such a specific caseload of kids. And in time, I wanted to ONLY do that. So starting my own private practice was really the best way I could see to focus my energy on helping as many kids with feeding and swallowing challenges as I could. And I soon learned there are so many parents out there struggling with kiddos who maybe don’t have a feeding or swallowing diagnosis, but enough of a feeding challenge that it makes mealtimes a battle. And I just want to help as many of these families as I can!

Mighty Tasters was created as a way to reach as many families as I can with tools and strategies and resources that I turn to in my therapy but hopefully communicated in a way that is easy for families to understand and implement.

I think starting anything new can be daunting. Some people really hate change, but I am someone who loves it! So I knew if I could just get started, it would be a really exciting challenge. For a long time, I didn’t really know where or how to start. I would talk to my therapist about it and she would say things like, “I don’t really tell people what to do and what not to do, but you should do this…” Ha ha! I knew I had all the pieces and people needed it, but I just didn’t know how to piece it all together into a solid program. Basically I started almost like ‘stream of conscious journaling’ where I just had to word vomit all my ideas onto paper or into Google Docs and then began to organize into sections. From there, Mighty Tasters was born.

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?
Wow, this literally just happened this past weekend! My best friend from Iowa came to town for a concert at Red Rocks!

Speaking of Red Rocks…I love going there for concerts but also for hiking! Because I love to hike and it’s so close!

My favorite neighborhood in Denver is LoHi. Hands down. I lived there for 2 years when I first moved to Denver and still get all the tingles when I drive over there for dinner or something. That being said, I love going to Wooden Spoon for coffee and a pastry or breakfast sandwich. I think Uncle in LoHi is the best ramen in the entire city! And I could eat an original arepa from Quiero Arepas (in Avanti) every single day.

When my friend came to town, we got dinner and drinks at Linger – I love their rooftop seating in the summer.

For a more casual time, I suggested drinks at Thin Man on 17th and then arcade games at 1Up. Because I’m basically a kid at heart, so arcades are my jam. I’m also a big fan of anything and everything music, so I try to see ballet, opera, and musicals at the Denver Center for Performing Arts as often as possible. I just saw Carmen at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House and it was fantastic!

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?
The families of the kiddos I have worked with deserve so much credit for my love of my job. Without amazing families to carryover the techniques and strategies I teach, the kiddos would not make nearly as much progress as they do. I also have to give a shoutout to my own kids, who inadvertently give me inspiration for many ideas and tips I share with families. “I know this works because I’ve tried it on my own picky eaters at home…” 😜

And lastly I have to give credit to my partner, Matt, because he has been supportive of all my wild entrepreneurial ideas from day 1, supporting me emotionally, financially, and technically and helping me get Mighty Tasters off the ground. Without him, Mighty Tasters would be an empty shell of what it is today.

Website: www.mightytasters.com

Instagram: @mightytasters

Facebook: @mightytasters

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmPoCzcQSvm5-xyo7BCk4mg