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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

The Great Communicators

Rik Middleton has many stories to tell about clients served at ExecutivExpression, the accent modification service he operates with his wife, Denise Vega-Middleton. One client, an engineer working on a medical degree, had an accent so thick that company staff members forced Middleton to take her calls. Another, a professional giving a speech in New Orleans, consulted with his speech therapist by phone about the talk he was giving. And another client, paying for the service herself and keeping it quiet from her employer, excitedly told Middleton about how she recorded her work voicemail message in two tries. “She was ecstatic,” said Middleton. “That was her Mount Olympus of the program. She had attained something that was incredibly difficult for her in the past.” Founded in 2000, ExecutivExpression is not English-as-a-Second Language training or dialect coaching. Instead, the Middletons have a staff of eight full-time speech pathologists working with clients from foreign countries to modify a thick accent. The Sherman Oaks-based firm works with professionals and para-professionals in the aerospace, biotech and health care fields; employees on the rise in their careers but who hit a verbal glass ceiling and are held back by poor communication skills. “It is very small investment for a corporation that has already invested time to groom this person to get them over that last little hump and have an excellent executive on their space,” Middleton said. Census inspired The couple started the company after Middleton left the technology industry after 18 years. Vega-Middleton, who graduated from California State University Northridge with a degree in speech pathology, also owns and operates her own practice serving developmentally delayed children. A look at the 2000 census figures sparked the idea for ExecutivExpression. When Middleton read in the census report that 870,000 people identifying themselves as professionals admitted their language skills were not up to par, he saw a need to be served. While clients come from many industries, it is health care showing the greatest need as it is the Philippines and India where the highest number of workers come from, Middleton said. Take a doctor with an accent working with a nurse who speaks in another language and add in a patient or their family with limited English and the opportunity for a communication breakdown is huge, Vega-Middleton said. Hangnga “Hana” Vu, a physician at the Jewish Home for the Aging in Reseda, finds the program to have been beneficial at her workplace. The average age of patients she works with is 94 years old and they tend to have hearing problems, said Vu, who completed the ExecutivExpression program this year. As an adult who came to Southern California from Vietnam, Vu said she did not have a chance to take formal English classes. After hired at the Jewish Home for the Aging, she was asked if she was interested in an accent modification program. The Home picked up the cost of the course. “I think the course will help with communication with my patients and my colleagues, Vu said. Speech therapists already working in Vega-Middleton’s practice received additional training to work with the accent modification clients who come in on their own or referred to the company by their employer. The 18-week program begins with a pre-test and an individualized report of what areas need improvement. The client is also video- and audio-taped at the start of the program so they can see the progress they made. In the initial analysis, a speech pathologist looks at the way a client produces vowels and consonants as well as their intonation and stresses the melody of language. Many cultures speak in a monotone, and English is not like that, Vega-Middleton said. “We work on stress versus non-stress of words and phrasing; the way you ask a question. We go up and some languages when asking a question either stay the same or drop down,” Vega-Middleton said. “Those are the areas that we work on.” Practice necessary Like any personal endeavor, the key to modifying an accent is practice. When working with the speech therapist in groups of four, the clients go through drills. Outside of that they are encouraged to practice speech exercises at least an hour a day, and especially encouraged to give it a go in their real life work situations. The staff stays in contact through e-mail and by phone, asking that a client call if they are having difficulties. “You don’t want them to practice it wrong until the next time they see you,” Vega-Middleton said. “They might have it really good in here and have it perfected and then they go out there and it starts getting washed out.” The future of ExecutivExpression as Middleton envisions it is to embrace technology so that face-to-face sessions aren’t always needed. Without giving away too much information, Middleton added that he wants to use technology to expand the client base globally and not wait until people are already in the U.S. The firm is working with strategic partners to make that happen, Middleton said. It still comes down to improving a person’s communications skills to increase their visibility at work and growth in their career. The added benefit is what happens outside the workplace. “They can be leaders in the community. They can take a more active role in their church, in their school, in their political arenas,” Middleton said. “Now they have the confidence and ability to communicate their needs for their community.” SPOTLIGHT – ExecutivExpression Year Founded: 2000 Employees in 2004: 8 full-time speech and language therapists Employees in 2006: 8 full-time speech and language therapists Revenues in 2004: $1.3 million Revenues in 2006: $1.44 million (projected) Driving Force: Working with professionals to improve their communications skills that increases visibility at work, employability, and growth in job and career.

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