About
Hi, my name is Asia Carey, I am a BCBA residing in Virginia who started out her BCBA journey with a hell of a lot of anxiety!
Those who know me, know I've come a long way after changing from several different career paths, one being nursing. I left the field of nursing in 2019 with very little optimism about what was in store for me. I became a homeschool teacher to 4 children, and during this time I met a wonderful family who's children had autism. The family told me that I would make a great behavior analyst.
I looked into the field of behavior analysis and fell in love. I found the study of behavior so fascinating, that the next week I sent in a college application at Mary Baldwin University. I managed to work two jobs as I attended MBU to pay for tuition. I trusted the process and finished graduate school in May 2021.
It was then time to prepare for the BCBA exam. I had severe anxiety about this, so bad that I refused to study due to fear and overwhelm of all the information I was expected to know as a BCBA. Having ADHD, it also made it difficult for me to focus.
Well..I reached a point where I didn't have the choice to put off studying, so instead of procrastinating more, I created Reels and other digital study content in my free time to share with others like me. In the process, this led to enjoyable, organized learning for both myself and other aspiring behavior analysts who wanted to see what I had to offer. Facebook was the perfect starting place.
In the very beginning of starting the Facebook page, I just wanted a place to go socialize and study at the same time with people who could relate to the BCBA exam prep stress. I also wanted a space that had no spammers or scammers posting constantly, and had a sense of community behind it. I searched all over Facebook for a community with those elements, but to no avail.
I also did not find any Facebook groups where BCBA exam content was freely available for studying, features on the page to talk to others through chats, or even pages where there wasn't always something attempting to being sold to members at high prices. After this is when I decided to create my own group. Today this page has close to 1000 members, with hundreds of connections that have been built.
The page is called "Keep Calm and Pass The BCBA Exam - Support and Study Group" and was immediately popular upon creation, with over 50-70 people requesting to join per week, and sometimes over 100. I began wondering if I could create a small business, and thought about how much I'd already helped those like me free of charge with my posts and hosted/led group study sessions. The feedback from members was so positive, I felt that it was a lucrative way to create extra income, while also enjoying every minute of helping others learn in a fun and organized way.
I successfully passed the BCBA exam in February of 2023.
That's when I decided to start a small business, which I decided to name "The Good Leopard". The elementary school I worked at as an instructional assistant and cherished deeply, had a leopard mascot that I loved. I wanted to incorporate such a positive and example-setting figure into the business model and philosophy of doing the right thing, so that name worked perfectly.
Even though I created a small business to sell digital study and organizational products, I plan to keep weekly study groups free with the option to contribute for rising BCBAs, as I beleive many student analysts don't receive the quality support they should get during supervised fieldwork, or even in some ABA programs.
I decided to create a way to study for the BCBA exam that created a sense of organization, and using digital technology made that much easier. Having had experience with productivity issues, using a daily tracker where I could check off tasks helped me avoid slipping into procrastination.
I was tired of shuffling papers, sorting them over and over, and I was over all of the handwriting. I sold several trackers and decided to continue expanding my business to offer courses, tutoring, group review sessions, consults, cliff notes, and more. To think that my business began out of shear anxiety, I would say I'm grateful today for how much fear I've dealt with in my lifetime; as it ultimately pushed me out of my comfort zone, catapulting me to put myself out there. Now I want to help others do the same through offering the educational materials they need as well as mentorship.
Any inquires can be sent to: Acarey.aba@gmail.com or through the Contact page!
- Asia Carey, M.S., BCBA, LBA
Founder of The Good Leopard, LLC
Updated: December 2023