Marilyn Veincentotzs

I attribute my success to my experiential learning and just getting out there and doing things. I've learned so much just by doing. What's been most impactful has been my experience, the experiential part. I'm more of a doer than I am a joiner. I have a natural ability to spot good business opportunities, especially service-based startups. I can just spot it if it's something that's gonna work. Throughout my career, from patenting my toilet seat adapter in the 80s with just a typewriter and no internet, to building a janitorial business from the ground up, to developing AI tools for school psychologists, I've never waited for perfect conditions. I just identified problems and created solutions. When I saw that report writing was overwhelming school psychologists and causing burnout, I didn't just complain about it. I developed a tool with my son that actually solves the problem. I've always been willing to pivot when circumstances changed, whether that was transitioning from my janitorial business when competition undercut us, or moving into education and psychology. The key has been staying focused on what needs to be done and not letting obstacles stop me.

Don't ever let anybody get in the way of your dream. You have to know who you are and stay focused on what your dream is. The more challenges you have, the stronger you're going to become. If you have a dream, go for it, no matter what gets in your way. Whether it's a career or an idea to improve your field, stick with that dream. Take it one day at a time, but never falter, never go backwards, and just never stop. I tell people this because I've faced my own challenges and discouragement along the way. Today I met a paraeducator from China who had been discouraged from pursuing school psychology, and I shared my story with her. I told her about all the challenges I had, and she started crying and asked if she could hug me. That's what I want people to understand: persistence matters. No matter what your dream is, no matter what the challenges you see, you just keep going.

The biggest challenge in school psychology right now is that we're being inundated with paperwork and reports, which prevents us from doing what we actually want to do: help students emotionally and see the students who need us. We like doing what we do, but the administrative burden is overwhelming. This is causing serious burnout in our field, and many good school psychologists are leaving because they're fed up and disgruntled. We're very short of school psychologists, and if we continue to lose the ones that are good, we're going to be left with all brand new psychologists with no experience, which does not help our field. The opportunity I see is in using technology to solve this problem. That's exactly why I developed stead.AI SPED, to cut down the report writing from hours to minutes so we can get back to actually helping students. We need tools that let us focus on the human connection and emotional support that students need, rather than drowning in documentation.

The most important values to me are persistence, taking action, and never letting obstacles stop you from pursuing your dreams. I'm more of a doer than a joiner. I believe in experiential learning and just getting out there and doing things rather than overthinking them. I value the ability to spot opportunities and create practical solutions to real problems. When I see something that needs fixing, like the overwhelming paperwork burden on school psychologists, I don't just complain about it. I build something to solve it. I also deeply value helping others and making a meaningful difference in people's lives. I want to help school psychologists have better experiences in their field so they can focus on what really matters: supporting students who need us emotionally. I believe in staying focused on your goals, taking things one day at a time, and never going backwards. The more challenges you face, the stronger you become. I also value encouraging others and sharing my experiences to help people overcome discouragement, like I did today with Grace, the paraeducator who wants to become a school psychologist.