[Scene: Rob on camera, warm lighting, speaking directly to camera]

Hey, I'm Rob Spain. And if you're watching this, chances are you know exactly what it feels like to be completely overwhelmed as a school BCBA.

You wake up already behind. Your phone is buzzing with crisis calls before you've finished your coffee. You spend your entire day putting out fires—running from classroom to classroom, managing meltdowns, calming frustrated teachers, sitting in meetings that go nowhere.

And at the end of the day? You haven't touched a single behavior plan. You haven't done any of the proactive work you know would actually make a difference.

[Pause, more reflective tone]

Here's the thing that nobody tells you in grad school: research shows that over 72% of behavior analysts report medium to high levels of burnout (Plantiveau, Dounavi, & Virués-Ortega, 2018). And BCBAs in schools? We face some of the highest turnover in the field.

It's not because we don't care. It's not because we're not smart enough or skilled enough. It's because the system is designed to burn us out.

You're expected to be everywhere at once. You're handed impossible caseloads. You're told to "fix" kids without anyone fixing the systems that keep failing them.

[Leaning in, more personal]

I spent years trapped in that cycle. Drowning. Exhausted. Questioning whether I'd made a huge mistake choosing this career.

But here's what I eventually discovered: The problem wasn't me. And the problem isn't you.

The problem is that we were never taught how to work on systems instead of just in them.

In the next video, I'm going to share my story—including the moment I almost quit for good—and what changed everything.

[Warm smile]

I'll see you there.