An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
“If kids can do well, they will.” I treated a child who was having a hard time in school — teachers thought they were a “behavior problem,” It turns out they had visual problems, making it hard to focus on their work. Once we resolved the deficit, the child was much happier in school and no longer considered a “behavior problem.”
As a part of our series about women who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Lily Baiser.
Lily Baiser is a licensed pediatric occupational therapist and the co-founder of Kinspire, a pediatric support platform that provides occupational therapy through telehealth to best support the developmental needs of children and their families. She is a highly experienced occupational therapist with more than 15 years of experience and is licensed to practice in Florida. She received a B.S. in Psychology from the University of Florida and a M.S. in Occupational Therapy from New York University.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
For as long as I can remember I have always had a passion for helping people. I graduated from the University of Florida with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and went on to receive my Master of Science in Occupational Therapy from New York University. From my first day as a student intern I saw the difference that OT can make for children and families — I instantly knew that this field was where I wanted to build a career and I have not looked back since.
As a pediatric occupational therapist for the past 15 years, I have worked with hundreds of clients in a variety of different settings and states and have continuously witnessed the incredible impact that OT can have on children with developmental delays or disabilities and their families. However, I have also witnessed the major pain points of the industry and have felt frustrated and saddened that the benefits of occupational therapy are often limited due to an archaic system — leading many children to go without essential support. Too many times, I have seen children backslide in their development between sessions due to the restrictions of the traditional session based OT modeI. I knew something had to be done — we needed to build a new approach to OT that helps children and their parents work together every day to overcome development barriers.Two years ago, I decided to build this approach myself and co-founded Kinspire, a pediatric support services platform that provides occupational therapy through telehealth to best support the developmental needs of children and their families.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
Roughly 1 in 6 children in America are diagnosed with developmental delays or disabilities. OT has proven to dramatically improve the physical, cognitive, and behavioral development of a child, ultimately enhancing their future. However, the traditional OT model is antiquated in that the primary mode of support is during infrequent therapist-child sessions that often don’t include the primary caregivers. Kinspire’s disruptive care delivery model supports all caregivers in an on-demand fashion through multiple modalities such as self-serve content, asynchronous messaging, and synchronous sessions.
Kinspire offers children and their families occupational therapy in the most affordable, flexible, and convenient way with our family-centered, tech-based approach. Kinspire therapists work with families to develop a collaborative and personalized Family Action Plan. Our therapists then train parents to be at the center of the therapeutic process by equipping them with the necessary skills, activities, and support that allow for OT to be implemented into already existing schedules — as opposed to traditional session-based OT that limits families to sessions at specific times that require them to commute and disrupt their daily lives. Families pay a $149 monthly membership fee for unlimited on-demand guidance from their provider, which is significantly more affordable than the legacy model of parents paying a hefty fee per session. Kinspire families are always encouraged to reach out to their provider regarding progress or questions, which empowers parents with a critical support system that can be extremely difficult to find. Kinspire’s multi-model approach places families at the center of care, which is in the best interest of a child’s development and future.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
When I first started working on Kinspire there was a big learning curve regarding technology terminology, but now it’s part of my everyday language. I sent a message to a family in our app and told them to click on “the hamburger” to change their settings. I received a frantic message from the family because they couldn’t figure out what I was talking about — technology terminology can create some funny scenarios at times!
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
Early in my career, my husband got a postdoc at Harvard Forest (unfortunately not in Boston — a Harvard research station in western Mass), I was dreading this move because it was in the middle of nowhere, but I ended up finding one of the most supportive clinicians in a tiny New England town, Lisa Hamilton-Goscombe.
Lisa was not only an incredible mentor but also one of the most compassionate leaders, working alongside her never felt like work and I was always excited when Monday came around. She shaped how I observe children, my clinical reasoning skills, taught me how to see the “whole child” and the critical importance of the family’s role in therapy.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
Our world is constantly changing and disruption is necessary for our society to successfully evolve especially in industries that can be apprehensive to innovation. However, I do think there is a misconception that disruption means that everything has to change. I believe the most disruptive businesses are the ones that can acknowledge aspects within an industry that are working successfully and keep those aspects in place, as the saying goes, “If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.” At Kinspire, we believe strongly that OT therapy can be transformational — I know that these activities work, the challenge is in how and when they are implemented and that is where the Kinspire approach really upends the traditional OT model.
Can you share 3 of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
- “If kids can do well, they will.” I treated a child who was having a hard time in school — teachers thought they were a “behavior problem,” It turns out they had visual problems, making it hard to focus on their work. Once we resolved the deficit, the child was much happier in school and no longer considered a “behavior problem.”
- “Every child is different, there is no one size fits all solution.” In my industry, people can often get discouraged when a plan or activity is not working and it has worked for another child. However, I always remind my colleagues, clients and myself that just because something works for one child does not mean it will work for another and that is okay because every child is unique with different needs.
- “Be flexible and open minded.” Working with kids keeps me on my toes! I can plan all I want, but if the child has a different plan, I need to be ready to adjust and quickly problem solve. In addition, starting a business brings many challenges and surprises — being flexible is critical and the ability to problem solve on the fly has truly set me up to handle anything that comes my way.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
Kinspire is just getting started — we currently have providers operating in Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, California, Colorado and Connecticut. However, we are working towards having providers available in all 50 states. We are determined to make Kinspire accessible to all families regardless of their financial situation and are in the process of trying to get Kinspire approved for Medicaid. Additionally, we are partnering with education organizations such as Step Up for Students, a Florida based non-profit that provides students and their families with scholarships for education related needs. Kinspire is now an approved provider for students who qualify for Step Up for Students Family Empowerment Scholarship for Students with Unique Abilities for the 2022–2023 school year.
In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by ‘women disruptors’ that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?
I feel there is a double standard for women disruptors in business compared to their male counterparts when it comes to being ambitious and persistent. When women have high ambition and persistence they are often perceived negatively. On the other hand, ambitious and persistent men are viewed as driven and motivated. I, like many women, have experienced this unfortunate reality — it needs to change.
Do you have a book/podcast/talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us?
The Explosive Child, by Ross W Greene is a great book and is where the philosophy “If kids can do well, they will” comes from. I also really like the book, The Whole-Brain Child by Daniel Siegel and Tina Bryson. It explains the science of childhood emotional and cognitive development and provides supportive parent strategies. Family is such a huge part of therapy, so understanding the psychology of children’s behavior and parenting dynamics is critical to my success with families — this family-centered approach is the paradigm shift that Kinspire is leading.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I would like to inspire people to celebrate and acknowledge the small victories that occur every day!
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“A little progress each day adds up to big results.” This philosophy is at the core of what we believe at Kinspire — we know in therapy and business, massive progress does not happen overnight. We focus on small but consistent progress because we know it adds up over time — patience is not always easy but it is essential to long term success.
How can our readers follow you online?
You can find me on LinkedIn at Lily Baiser and please visit information kinsprehealth.com for all information regarding Kinspire.
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Female Disruptors: Lily Baiser of Kinspire On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.