Building a Personal Brand as a BCBA® with Christina Torres

In this episode of In the Field: The ABA Podcast, I sit down with Christina Torres, founder of ABA Made Ez and co-host of Reinforcing Conversations, to talk about personal branding, community building, and what it really takes to show up online as a BCBA®. Christina shares how she went from Googling "independent BCBA consultant" and finding nothing, to building a thriving online community across TikTok, Instagram, and LinkedIn. 

We talk about why personal branding matters even if you never plan to start a business, how to overcome perfectionism and just start posting, and practical strategies for building an authentic, sustainable presence online without burning out. 

Key Topics: 

Why Personal Branding Matters in ABA:
How building a personal brand goes beyond marketing, and why it matters for BCBAs®, RBTs®, and clinical leaders alike, whether or not you want to run a business. 

Overcoming the Fear of Being Seen:
Practical advice for pushing past perfectionism, imposter syndrome, and the fear of judgment that keeps so many professionals from ever hitting post. 

Choosing the Right Platform:
A breakdown of TikTok, Instagram, and LinkedIn, including the strengths, limits, and best use cases for each platform depending on your goals.  

Finding Your Niche Without Fear of Saturation:
Why there is no such thing as an oversaturated niche, and how authenticity and personal experience set you apart from every other provider in your space. 

Consistency Without Burnout:
Low effort, high reinforcement strategies for repurposing content, engaging your audience, and staying consistent without spending hours on every post. 

Personal Branding for Business Growth:
 How social media has become a recruiting and networking tool for ABA organizations, and why leveraging it can expand reach.

Building Genuine Community Online:
The difference between passive followers and true engagement, and how going live, asking questions, and being vulnerable builds real connection. 

Key Takeaways: 

• Personal branding is not about looking perfect. It is about creating a space where your community can find you, trust you, and grow with you.  
• You do not need a perfect plan to start. Just post your first piece of content, then keep going.
• Nobody else has your personality, your experience, or your perspective. That alone means your niche is never too saturated. 
• Consistency matters more than virality. Low effort, high reinforcement content keeps you showing up without burning out. 
• Personal branding benefits organizations too, especially with recruiting in a high demand market.
• Authenticity, not perfection, is what builds real community and long term engagement. 

Keywords: 

Personal Branding, ABA Marketing, Social Media for BCBAs®, Christina Torres, ABA Made Ez, Reinforcing Conversations, Community Building, Content Strategy, TikTok for BCBAs®, Instagram for ABA, LinkedIn for Behavior Analysts, BCBA® Entrepreneurship, ABA Business Growth, Networking in ABA 

Connect with Christina Torres:

Website: https://abamadeez.com/
Podcast: Reinforcing Conversations
Instagram: ABA Made Ez
TikTok: @abamadeez
LinkedIn: Christina Torres

Disclaimer:

BCBA®, BACB® [or any other BACB® trademark used] is/are registered to the Behavior Analytic Certification Board® BACB®. This website and products are not in any way sponsored by the BACB®.

All information and products are for educational purposes only. 

Transcript

[00:00:00] Christina Torres: And one of the things too when it comes to your personal brand is, you are one of one, right? You can have a personality outside of your credentials. And especially when you create a space online, you will form your own community, and that's the most beautiful thing.

Allyson Wharam: Hello and welcome everyone. I am excited to be joined here today by Christina Torres. She is the founder of ABA Made Ez, podcast host, a co-host of Reinforcing Conversations, and you've probably seen her on social media, which is what we're going to be talking about today. Christina, thank you for being here.

Christina Torres: So excited to be a part of your community.

Allyson Wharam: Yes. Yes. So why don't we get started with learning a little bit about your story and how you came to do some of the work that you're doing today in terms of community building and the work you're doing with ABA Made Ez.

Christina Torres: Yeah, so with the community piece, I actually started sharing my story on social media. Going independent. A little backstory, I had my daughter at 25 [00:01:00] weeks, so we spent four months in the hospital. And when we got home, I was like, oh no, I can't go back to work.

I have to be flexible. I wanna be in control of my work. So I decided to go independent and start my own consulting practice. There wasn't a roadmap of how do you start? So I'm like, you know what, I'm gonna start sharing my story online. So I started on TikTok and I kind of built a community that has been following me and other BCBAs that were inspired.

And it just started from there disseminating the science, building our online community, and just expanding into the networking and conference space and all that.

Allyson Wharam: Yeah, that's really interesting to hear. I do have three kids and that was a big motivation for me in terms of my business. It changes your life, as you know. And so needing that flexibility is really important. And I wonder how many female entrepreneurs, how much of the motivation that is for them. The irony now though is that I work 24/7, so I don't know if you feel that way. It's like I have a lot of [00:02:00] flexibility, but you know, there's a little bit of a trade off, right?

Christina Torres: Yeah, but it's different when you're working for yourself, right? Because it's like, yeah, you're definitely working more than like a typical 40 hours, but it's different when you're investing that time into your business and what you wanna represent. So it doesn't like work, but it is work.

Allyson Wharam: Yes, exactly. Yeah, it's so much more personal. So speaking of personal, we're gonna talk about personal branding. So when you think about personal branding in our field, what does that actually mean to you?

Christina Torres: I love that question, right? It's so important, especially with how our science has evolved, but also social media, as a whole. Like I was mentioning before, when I started my practice, it'll be four years in October, I literally Googled like independent BCBAs, BCBA consultants and nobody picked up. There's no such thing.

And I'm here in Connecticut and I'm like, what the heck? Right? So I started sharing my story online and on social media. And one of the things too, when it comes to like your personal brand, it's like you are one of one, right. You can have a personality outside of your credentials [00:03:00] and especially when you kind of create a space online, you will form your own community.

And that's like the most beautiful thing. It's like, Hey, yes, I'm a BCBA, I'm in Connecticut. This is what my niche is. This is what I love to offer. And it's cool because you don't really compare yourself to no one because you're just staying true to yourself. And I honestly feel like it's so much easier now to build a brand online because you're just so passionate and there's so many people in this space that also feel the same. So I'm not sure if I answered your question, but

Allyson Wharam: No, you did, and I think to your point about it evolving and changing, there are so many BCBAs online now and people to connect with. I remember hearing a marketing podcast like, I don't even know if it was a marketing podcast, but it was talking about in a professional field, posting on Instagram and things like that.

This is like pre TikTok, all of that. I remember thinking to myself like, what BCBAs are gonna post on Instagram? It just was not a thing. There was no BCBA community, at least to my knowledge that long ago. Maybe there was, but it was just niche enough that I never saw it. But [00:04:00] now if you go on social media, you see how many people are there connecting with each other and really forming those relationships in that network.

And you know, sometimes when we think about network, I picture like everyone's wearing suits and you know, that sort of thing. But it's not, it's a very much a community building aspect and meeting people as people. And so for someone who is a BCBA, or maybe they're even in clinical leadership or something like that, why should they care about building a personal brand?

Christina Torres: Well, you should really only care about it if you know you wanna be a face in the field, 'cause social media scares a lot of people. Being mindful of that, I guess, you have to have tough skin 'cause there's opinions, right? People are gonna be fans of us and there's a lot of people that are not, and that's completely fine. So, it's like, well, what is your why? You don't necessarily have to be a business owner, right?

You could just be passionate about a specific area that you wanna help others thrive in. And [00:05:00] that's like a great avenue to start kind of feeling confident with public speaking and you know, sharing your thoughts on specific topics. I guess you gotta figure out, okay, do I wanna go down that route? And if so, what is my why? And for me, it's definitely pouring into the future leaders and those that are newcomers in the field because our field is growing so fast, and that's something that we lack in this field is guidance and mentorship.

So I'm excited to be able to have a huge network of other providers, but just to share a behavioral perspective and educate people on our science. You know what I mean?

Allyson Wharam: Yeah, it can be very isolating, especially when you're thinking about some of those earlier stages, like field work in particular is the stage that I always think about as being so isolating, even if you're at a big company. There's just so much that goes into that experience and it can feel like you're on an island.

You said something that stuck out to me, which was that it can lead to realizing other opportunities that are out there. So how has building a personal brand impacted your business or opportunities?

Christina Torres: Oh my gosh, yes. [00:06:00] You guys gotta understand when you leverage social media, you have access to the world, right? And like I said, I actually started on TikTok because a couple years ago nobody was on TikTok, right? It's like COVID, like younger generations on TikTok. And then I nurtured that community and there's a strong ABA community on TikTok.

Allyson Wharam: It really is. It's kind of surprising.

Christina Torres: It's huge over there. And then I started on Instagram and then this year I'm starting to trickle in on my LinkedIn 'cause you know, on LinkedIn it's more professional. Nobody's doing content like that. So it's like, okay, there's like different demographics and all those different environments. Right.

There's so many opportunities online. Especially outside of just ABA right? There's other multidisciplinary teams. There's a lot of tech and AI softwares coming into our space. There's so much potential even getting invited to speak at different events, getting invited to be a brand ambassador because oh my gosh, I love what you're doing. Hey, we wanna leverage you, especially for marketing. When you build your own brand, you are one of one. [00:07:00] And then now you could also expand outside of just this ABA space. I want people to understand like, wow, you know, we get so stuck like, oh, I'm a BCBA, I have to work in a clinic. It's so unprofessional. Or like, oh, it's gonna be so cringey to talk online, or, I don't like the way my voice sounds, or, oh my gosh, my hair has to look great. Are you kidding me?

Like, I gotta wash my hair. I show up to my community. With a sweatshirt, I had, my eye was broken out in hives like. I just know what I stand for and I'm gonna show up for my community and I know the value that I bring. And that's another thing too, you have to stop worrying about what people are gonna say because people are always gonna have something to say. As long as you stay true to yourself, like you cannot go wrong.

Allyson Wharam: You know, there's a lot of benefits for you as a person, but someone also who is a leader maybe at their organization. Have you seen personal branding translate to things like hiring in their organization or partnerships between organizations? There's a lot of value, obviously for you as an individual [00:08:00] potentially in putting yourself out there, but do you see that from the company lens as well?

Christina Torres: Well, you know what I'm noticing more companies are doing? They're leveraging social media. And especially to leverage social media for hiring, hiring, especially if you're like a bigger company. We have what, over a 103,000 positions available for BCBAs, and we only have 88,000 BCBAs, so we are in high demand and there's a lot of companies that are actually reaching out for job recruiting. Especially if you're in the recruiting space, usually it's like 10 to 30% of the salary. So it's a lot cheaper to try to leverage online or do it in-house to find those qualified leads. And also too, like I said, depending on your state, there's limited access to qualified professionals, right?

So then it's like, oh, there's telehealth options, or they have incentives for you to move states, and they help with that support. So, you know, leveraging online, there's so many benefits that comes with it. And obviously there's also some cons too.

Allyson Wharam: And there can be a lot of noise on social media. I'm [00:09:00] curious if you have any tips for, how to stand out in a way that is like authentic to you or your organization.

Christina Torres: You just said it. Being authentic is the key, right? There's no right or wrong way to start your own page or account. It's like, what? What is your why? What do you wanna do? You know, you're so passionate about precision teaching. Teach about precision teaching. Oh, you're a specialist in toileting.

You're a specialist in early intervention. Oh, there's a BCBA that just started her account and she's works with dementia. I'm like, oh my goodness, you just expanded. Like we need more people to expand, and how are we gonna do that? We gotta educate and empower people to know like, this is an avenue. Check me out, follow my page. I talk about this. You know

there's no wrong way to start. It's just start. You're gonna have 20 drafts, just post. Post your first one and just breathe.

Allyson Wharam: That is my pain point, perfectionism where it's like I have to figure out exactly the right thing to say or, you know, what if someone interprets this the wrong way [00:10:00] and doesn't understand my intent or any of that. And so, I hear what you're saying in terms of just post, don't worry about it, just be yourself but, it is hard too. How do you keep up with it when you get in your head, or do you get in your head ever?

Christina Torres: Yeah. One of the things I wanna highlight too is you mentioned like, okay, what if somebody perceived this differently? That the point, right? So one of the things that I really enjoy about social media is the fact that you can engage with your community. They can give

Allyson Wharam: Yeah.

Christina Torres: you questions. And guess what I could do? I could reply back with a video. And that's what makes content creation so low effort, especially leveraging like a platform with TikTok where that's kind of like how that platform works, right? People leave a question, you respond. Now you got permanent product and content to repurpose. So like I said, I started on TikTok about three years ago, so I technically have three years of Q and A questions that my community asked. And guess what? Everyday I get a flashback this time last year. So now that's less effort I have to do 'cause I just repurposed that. But to go back to that question is like, that's the whole point of [00:11:00] dissemination, right? Like, okay, I shared this perspective and then well, what about this? Great. I love that you asked that question. Now, let me break it down this way, because especially in our field, right, there's so many variables to be mindful of, and there's also a lack of context. So if something doesn't make sense to somebody, then it's like, ooh, exciting. I love this question. Right? Let me clear it up for you now, what's your next question?

Okay, then how about this? So it's just like a little web to kind of help people open these doors. So like the little mansion inside your brain to really understand your explanation and vice versa, right? If you see a video and you're like, oh, especially with like misinformation or something, you can decide

Allyson Wharam: Yeah.

Christina Torres: if you wanna engage in that back and forth conversation or not. So we have a lot of control of what we wanna reinforce or place on extinction.

Allyson Wharam: Obviously on social media, whether it's branding or not, just in general, you can have productive conversations and discourse and there are times where it's just not productive. So how do you decide if something is worth your time in terms of if there is [00:12:00] misinformation or something that you don't agree with or something like that.

How do you decide whether or not to respond?

Christina Torres: So one of the things to be mindful of, especially with social media is the more you engage with different, whether it's positive attention or negative attention is gonna kind of push it more in algorithm and feed, right? Like videos go viral because of engagement. People like it, people comment it, or they share it or they save it.

Like those are all components to be mindful of. So you know, to answer your question like, oh, do I see stuff online all the time? Oh my gosh. Yes, but also too, you gotta be mindful,

you have to kind of pick your battles. Okay, do I wanna go down this rabbit hole and be paired with this?

Or do I just wanna be focused on adding value to my community.

Allyson Wharam: Going back to the practical basics, if someone is just starting from zero, what are the first couple of things you would tell them to do?

Christina Torres: Well, there's two things, right? You have to decide is it for your business, right? Is it a personal brand? Are you gonna be just talking about ABA? Are you gonna mix your personal life too, right? So I think that's something to kind of be like, you could [00:13:00] blend both, but depending on the algorithm and your end goal, it's like, okay, do I want to create my own personal brand in this space, or do I wanna expand out? Those are some questions to be mindful of. I think it's also important to understand too, the different platforms that you're choosing,

Allyson Wharam: with the busy landscape, how would you recommend someone determine or think about what to talk about if they feel like maybe something's already been said, so maybe they're interested in potty training, but they see three other BCBAs that are also posting potty training content.

Christina Torres: You should only be in competition of who you were yesterday.

We have to collaborate in this space, especially in the mental health space. Like, oh my gosh, SLPs OTs let's collaborate. You know what I mean? Don't compare yourself to other providers because you are your own brand.

You are building something that is true to you, that you could show up authentically and not have to worry about, oh my gosh, I have to look a certain way. If that's your case, then go ahead. You know, it's more response, effort and stuff to be mindful of, but to get started, if you feel like your niche [00:14:00] is saturated, there's no such thing. Because you are your brand. Nobody else has your personality, nobody else has your experience, nobody else has your perspective. Right? And I think about generalization. If I was a mom or RBT, I would love to follow four different providers that are focusing on toileting right 'cause now I get to generalize and everyone has different content.

Maybe you have a permanent static post, which is just a visual. Or maybe you have a talking post, right? And you could explain more in depth. Or maybe you have a slideshow with 10 different strategies. The more information that is out there, the more beautiful the field is gonna get. Because think about dissemination, being able to educate and empower the community as a whole.

So don't compare yourself to other providers. If anything, be inspired by their work. It's like, oh my gosh, I like how they did that. I wanna try and recreate it myself. You know what I mean? And if you are inspired by somebody, you can also do what other pages, but also give them credit.

Right so don't copy verbatim and try to act like it's your own.

You can be like, oh, inspired by ABA Made Ez, and then do your little remix to it. [00:15:00] So there's no such thing as like, oh, everyone's sharing the same thing. No, everyone's sharing the same thing, but in different context. So I think that that helps empowers people. Like, oh my gosh, you're right. I shouldn't be competing or comparing myself.

Like, no, you are your own version. You know?

Allyson Wharam: The other piece of that is it tells you that it's something that other people are interested in and are maybe searching for. So that is a way to know that like, yeah, people are hungry for this sort of information. The flip side of that sometimes is, and I've been guilty of this too, it's like, you wanna talk to everyone or help everyone, how do you recommend someone think about identifying their lane or their niche or focus area when they're worried about feeling boxed in?

Christina Torres: So, okay, I always love to ask BCBAs like, what's your niche? Right, what do you love to do? Because when I started in the field, I started with adults, right? And I was like, oh, okay, this is cool. And then I trickled down. I did residential and group homes and all that.

And then I ended up in early intervention. [00:16:00] And then of course I have my daughter and I love verbal behavior. Think about it, everyone has different experience. Like I have experience in all these different spaces, but like I wanna focus on this dissemination and verbal behavior, right?

And training. So you could have like a handful of different areas that you might favor, but if there's one that's like so passionate, then kind of go with that. And as you expand, you might like, oh, you know what, let me kind of share a little bit about this. But I think when you're starting online, it's just kind of like, you know, you could start with a hey.

I'm a BCBA in Connecticut and I just wanna start building my own community online. And this is what you can expect from my page, right? A little bit of this, a little bit of that. There's really no wrong way to do it. But the idea is when people go to your page, they could kind of know what to expect from your content. So focus on something that you're really passionate about, and then it'll just kind of flow and as you grow, you're gonna start seeing like, oh, there's a problem that needs to be solved. But don't solve so many problems at once 'cause then you're like, oh my God, I don't know what to talk about.

I wanna talk about everything. It's like, no, focus on one and then go through the next [00:17:00] one.

Allyson Wharam: Yeah. And then I think your point was a good one about like they know what to expect when they go to your page

Christina Torres: Yeah.

Allyson Wharam: if they're interested. If you post about potty training and they're curious about a resource for potty training, they're gonna know to go to your page versus if you post a little bit of anything and everything.

And some people do that and that's fine. If you're just posting just because that's what interests you, then that's fine. But if your goal is to be known for something or really build expertise in a certain area or build a community around a certain thing, the more clear that you can be around that so that people know what to expect, the better.

That's great advice.

Christina Torres: I think also you just have to start because like even like the concept of branding, right? Like I had no idea what the heck I started with.

I just rebranded then, that was three years into my business. So don't feel like everything has to be perfect. It's a shaping process.

I mean, I don't have everything, all my systems in place. I just show up and I'm enjoying the ride as it's occurring.

Allyson Wharam: Yeah, and I think of brand too, you know, it's easy to think about it just as like the logos and the [00:18:00] colors and that sort of thing, but what are your values and how do your values come through in your content too? Back to that authenticity piece, is it clear what you stand for based on what you're posting?

Christina Torres: Exactly. And then also too, when we were talking about the different pages, another strategy is okay, if you're focusing on toileting, then follow those pages that are also doing toileting.

Allyson Wharam: Yeah.

Christina Torres: Comment. Engage, reshare it on your story because now you're getting paired with their algorithm, and then their community can also see you.

So you're getting pushed out at the same time.

Allyson Wharam: Yeah, we've talked a lot about what do you post, but let's talk about that for a second because how do you think about really engaging back and forth with different accounts in social media?

Christina Torres: Yeah, content creating takes a lot of time. So you don't need to post content every single day. You just need to engage and manipulate your timeline. Think about when you're scrolling on Instagram and like something, don't you notice other people's icons and logos that like the same post? And then if you reshare something, [00:19:00] people see that, oh, so and so reshared it. So you gotta think about exposure and visibility. You don't have to post every day, but you can comment or engage or reshare something on your timeline so that your page is like, it's like pattern recognition. Like, oh, there's that logo. Oh, what's this page? So people are unconsciously seeing you even though you're not posting all the time.

And then especially with different things like events or really great poster perspectives, it's like, oh my gosh, I love that. Or like I said, I am a community builder. If somebody has a discount or there's an event coming on that my community could value, I'm gonna reshare it. Especially if you are a business owner and you have an event and like you're in my network, like, oh my gosh, I know how hard it is. So if I could reshare and help support, bring exposure to your event or your CEU or whatever, I'm gonna do that. Right? It's like, why not?

Allyson Wharam: And like you said too, the value to your community. The genuine desire is not just for you to be seen, but for you to build that community with people. And part of that is sharing value, which that value might come from [00:20:00] amplifying other people. I really like that. We talked about TikTok maybe being a good place to start, but the environment on the different platforms it is different, right? So depending on your goals or maybe your personality or who you're trying to reach, do you have any rules of thumb of how you think about the different platforms?

Christina Torres: Yeah, I feel like TikTok is a lot easier for higher volume. The community is there, right? But unless you're going live, it's kind of hard to build a rapport with your audience. So that's something to be mindful of, especially like the messaging. Sometimes I get messages at the top and it's like from last year, I'm like, oh my God, I'm just seeing this.

So that backend is not the best, right? So Instagram, if you wanna start off on a platform, amazing platform to start with. A lot of BCBAs they're not on here gonna judge you 'cause they're doing the same thing. So TikTok, 100% community building. Instagram, little bit more response effort because that's more of a visual platform, like static.

So you better have a Canva account or buy bulk digital [00:21:00] products you know what I mean? Or I like to refurbish my videos too. But remember how MySpace came out and then it was like Facebook?

Christina Torres: So TikTok is like my MySpace. So

Allyson Wharam: Yeah.

Christina Torres: I show up raggedy sometimes and then I pair my Instagram with my business side of the office.

So you don't really see like me looking all crazy sometimes.

Allyson Wharam: I've heard someone say that like TikTok is sort of like the messy process. They wanna see the behind the scenes. Instagram is like, here's the product, here's what I did.

Christina Torres: And when you're going live, TikTok is the bomb.com for engagement. Also you have an opportunity to be pushed on the for you page, which is the general public. So I'm literally pushed on the for you page over 85% of the time. So it's not people in our space, which is cool 'cause now I get to educate people about ABA and autism behavior. So that's what TikTok brings. Instagram, like I said, is definitely more personal because the messaging is direct. You could also do voice memos, which is also a great way to be more personable.

I do those often. You could do so much more engagement within your [00:22:00] stories. So even repurposing someone else's content and putting a poll, you can easily generate leads that way and kind of streamline and funnel users and build your community that way as well.

And then on LinkedIn, I'm gonna be honest. I'm still learning my LinkedIn algorithm, I hear like, don't put a link or you know, don't reshare. You can't comment if you reshare something 'cause it messes up and they'll punish you. It's like, oh my gosh.

Allyson Wharam: Yeah, LinkedIn just operates a little bit differently than some of the other platforms in terms of what it's looking for.

Christina Torres: You know, LinkedIn is way more professional and I love LinkedIn because I don't follow the LinkedIn norms.

I just post like, hey guys. I talk true to myself and I get so many LinkedIn messages from professionals and CEOs like, oh, I really appreciate your content, making my timeline more engaging, basically. So I was like, oh, great. You know what I mean?

Allyson Wharam: Oh, that's so interesting to hear because I've wondered about that a little bit. You know

Christina Torres: Yes,

Allyson Wharam: they talk about like tailoring to the platform, but how much of it is like you're breaking up the typical scroll. Breaking up some of that monotony I think is probably welcome [00:23:00] if I had to guess.

Christina Torres: And LinkedIn, everyone likes very long captions. It's like, oh my gosh. Like

Allyson Wharam: Yeah.

Christina Torres: I use a software to reclip my things. And so you could add all your different accounts and it'll use AI to generate captions. And so I just added LinkedIn for our Reinforcing Conversations reclips, and the caption was so much longer.

I'm like, oh, duh. 'cause it's LinkedIn.

Allyson Wharam: 'cause LinkedIn. Yeah, exactly. In terms of content types, do you notice any specific topics or formats, for example, if you post something that's much more personal or about your personal life, what kind of content tends to resonate most with your audience?

Christina Torres: Yeah, so if you're just starting a new journey, like, okay, I'm in grad school and I'm collecting hours, right? There's so many different versions of ourselves that people resonate with, and it's a like a breath of fresh air to be like, oh my gosh, like I love to share that I failed.

I'm such a proud failure of that BCBA exam, and it's so nice to have a safe place to admit like, oh [00:24:00] my gosh, I failed. And I love, because when people could resonate, it's like, oh my gosh, you're not perfect. Or, you know, you make mistakes too. Or like, oh my God, I failed too. Especially with that, I have people that have been silent followers and they literally will message me privately like, oh my gosh, I just wanna let you know I failed my exam today. Or, oh my gosh, girl, you really empowered me and I passed the exam today. Or those that even had no idea what a BCBA was, and they've been following my content for so long, and they messaged me like, oh my gosh, you know, I'm actually graduating my master's program and I'm gonna become a BCBA student because of your page.

And I'm like, oh my God. Especially moms. That have children that are autistic, it's just like, oh my gosh. Like how cool is that? Right?

Allyson Wharam: Yeah, that is cool because it can feel like a vacuum when you're like, I call it like screaming into the void or shouting into the void. It's like you post and you're like, is this gonna resonate with anyone? Do you know if anyone's gonna hear it, see it, whatever. And so yeah, I'm sure that's so reinforcing to see the tangible impact on people.

Christina Torres: Yeah. And another [00:25:00] thing is I never look at my analytics, I don't look at my numbers. I don't delete a video if I only got 20 views. If a video got one view, oh my gosh, that means so much because it touched one person, right? I don't care if my videos don't go viral. Do they go viral? Yeah, sometimes. Does every one go viral? No, I'm not expecting it. I'm just adding value to my community. So moving forward, if you are gonna go this space, don't be obsessed with oh my gosh, I didn't hit 10 likes. Appreciate the shaping process 'cause someone's gonna see it and it's gonna resonate to somebody and you never know who you're gonna touch, right?

Don't be discouraged you know, don't have high expectations. Let's just say that.

Allyson Wharam: Yeah.

In terms of your community, we've talked about it in sort of an abstract way, but how do you think about defining what your community is, what does that mean to you?

Christina Torres: So, especially in our space, there's like two different realms, right? So there's the ABA scholar realm, right? We're in a very niche new [00:26:00] science, and not many people understand it. So to kind of create a safe place for people that are just getting into it or they have been in the field and nobody talks behavior like us or understands that experience, right? So that's an important factor when it comes to my community is we all understand this field to a personal level. It's not an opinion because you have not been exposed to it or worked in it. So that's a component. And then also as an entrepreneur and business owner,

I have a whole Instagram group with like 60 business women that all have a business and it's like we've created a safe place to ask questions. You know, hey, does anyone have resources on ODD? Or have you guys ever experienced this issue? You know what I mean? So creating a safe place to be vulnerable and ask for help. Sometimes it's hard to ask for help and you don't know who the heck to go to. It's like, oh my gosh, come to me. What do you need help with? Oh, you need that? I got four people in that area. Please let me know.

Allyson Wharam: Yeah.

Christina Torres: Right. I want people to feel comfortable navigating this space in like any realm that you're in. And like I said, if I can [00:27:00] help, you know, connect you with one of my colleagues that offers a service that can solve your problem and also add value to them because they're a business owner, then I'm gonna do that right.

Allyson Wharam: Yeah. I love that. Social media can be very passive too in terms of you might have followers who are just kind of watching, how do you think about getting actual engagement and genuine engagement. Not just like likes, but like people who are really interacting with you and your content versus people who are just kind of following or watching.

Christina Torres: So, I guess it really depends. For example, I have a business mentorship, right? And I host it every quarter, once a quarter. There's so many practitioners that are eager to start their business and they don't know where to start, right? It's like, join my mentorship. I'm gonna give you the roadmap so that you feel comfortable navigating that whole transition. But to get them to engage, I always would recommend go live. Going live is such a great way to engage and know what your community wants, [00:28:00] what they need. Right. And also too, I have them join in on open discussions. It's like, oh my gosh, come on board.

Let's talk about it. Right. There's no better way to build a report than actually having that engagement, whether they're coming online and we're having a discussion or we're going back and forth with prompts and mands and answering, fill in the blanks. Intraverbals. Right. So that's one. And then also two. You know, having call to actions in your posts. So like, oh, share your thoughts, or what's your take? Or on Instagram having polls, right? Like, oh, have you ever worked in this experience and now I see 50 people said yes. Or like, oh, have you thought about going independent? And now I know 25 people said yes. So now it's like, oh, I could see who's in there and I could have a rapport with them because of their engagement with my platform and my post.

Allyson Wharam: Yeah. A couple quick questions as we're wrapping up. What is one mistake you'd avoid if you were starting over, if any?

Christina Torres: That's a good [00:29:00] question.

Allyson Wharam: Maybe not a mistake, but just maybe something you would do differently if you started from scratch all over again.

Christina Torres: Yeah. I think delegating, like when you get to the point to delegate.

Allyson Wharam: Yeah.

Christina Torres: that's something I struggle with as a business owner. Like it's just been me and on my Bingo card this year is hire my first staff. Right? Especially as a behavioral analyst, we want to know the TA to everything so that we could fix problems, right?

So if you know like, hey, is this something that needs to be delegated with someone that has that?

Allyson Wharam: Yeah.

Christina Torres: You know what I mean? Do it. But when it comes to creating content, you start off on your own. But once you could delegate a task, whether it's like scheduling, having a virtual assistant, like, oh, type up my podcast and post these and here's the caption and here's that so that you could free up your time.

That is something I would do a lot sooner than what I did, you know? 'cause then you get to free up time to focus on scaling or being present somewhere else.

Allyson Wharam: Yeah. What can only you do that no one else can do? [00:30:00] Yeah, I think that's a great piece of advice. Last question is did you have any other tips or anything that you didn't get to share that you wanted to share?

Christina Torres: I think it's so important, especially if you're gonna come this realm, like one of the things that I do is I welcome people to my community. Like on Instagram, I haven't done it 'cause the volume's kind of picking up. But in the very beginning, and even on my LinkedIn, I often do that now with LinkedIn. It's like, hi, thank you so much for joining my community and share what they can expect from your page. Oh, you're a BCBA, Hey, I'm a BCBA. If you ever need any support with toileting issues for free to reach out or recommend my services to anyone in need. Right? Don't be afraid to insert yourself. Right, and if you see someone doing something that inspires you, reach out to them. Introduce yourself, right? Networking is so important and you never know who you're gonna connect with that could actually help invite you somewhere else that's gonna actually lead to bigger doors opening. But you can't be embarrassed and like,

what if they say no? Well, [00:31:00] what if they say yes, so don't be afraid to ask for help and let people know what you're offering.

Allyson Wharam: I love it. And we will post your links in the show notes. And then as I mentioned, you are co-host of Reinforcing Conversations. I will be joining you and Nicole too, which I'm really excited about. Thank you so much for being here.

Christina Torres: Thank you so much for having me. We'll do this again.​ [00:32:00]