From CF Year to Boom Card Business: Jenn Gethers on Building a Side Income as an SLP
Jenn Gethers graduated in May 2020 and walked straight into a pandemic. Her CF year started with two weeks of remote therapy, then shifted to a hybrid model that made scheduling feel like solving a puzzle with missing pieces. Instead of just surviving, she turned that chaos into a business.
Jenn is a school-based speech therapist in San Diego, split between an elementary school and a high school, with a caseload of about 46 students ranging from kindergartners to transition students in grade 13. When she couldn't find the exact Boom Card materials she needed for her students, she started making her own. That decision turned into consistent four-figure monthly income before her first year in the field was even over.
COVID Forced Creativity, and Creativity Became Income
Virtual therapy wasn't something Jenn learned in grad school. Nobody did. So when the pandemic hit, she started hunting for digital materials that could actually work for her students. Boom Cards kept coming up in every conversation.
She looked them up, liked what she saw, and started searching for decks that fit her specific caseload. The problem was that while there were plenty of options, none matched exactly what she needed. So she built her own.
"I originally started making Boom Cards just for myself. I had no plan to sell them. I was just making things to be personalized to my kids."
The platform kept nudging her to become a seller. It costs $35 a year. She hesitated. Then she went for it. Her very first deck, an articulation practice set for the letter R, sold within a day of publishing.
$35 Investment, Four-Figure Monthly Returns
That first sale could've been a fluke. Jenn thought so too. But it kept going. She now has 40 to 50 decks available, and every month since she started selling has landed easily in four figures. Her best month at the time of recording was pushing into mid four figures.
The EMR software side of running a practice gets plenty of attention, but the materials side is often overlooked. Jenn's story shows there's real money in creating the resources other SLPs actually need.
All payments run through PayPal. Boom Cards deposits your monthly sales into your account once a month. Simple. The tax situation is a little murkier. Boom Cards only sends a W-2 if you clear $20,000 in a year, so anyone earning below that threshold needs to track and report their income independently.
"Sales go down a lot during breaks," Jenn notes. But even with seasonal dips, the consistency has been a genuine surprise.
Why Every SLP Should Consider Making Boom Cards
Jenn doesn't see other creators as competition. She sees gaps. That was her whole reason for starting: the niche decks she wanted didn't exist yet. More creators means more materials for more specific needs, and that helps everyone.
"Our field has so many different areas. It's not like you would be flooding the pool with too many people. I just think everyone should be doing it."
The learning curve is real but short. Jenn says her early decks took significant time to build, but now they're quick. The Boom Card studio gets more intuitive with practice, and once you've built a few, the process speeds up considerably.
She's already thinking bigger. She's built an email list to promote her decks directly, and she's developing a class to teach other SLPs how to create and sell their own materials. She recently hopped on a Zoom call to walk a colleague through building her first deck and had a blast doing it.
Hybrid Scheduling Is the Worst of All Worlds
Before the Boom Card success story, there's the daily reality of being a CF in a pandemic. Jenn's district runs a hybrid model where half the students come in one day and the other half come in the next, split into cohorts.
For a speech pathologist, this creates a scheduling nightmare. Students are only on campus two days a week. They can't cross-contaminate between cohorts. Every other service provider is also trying to see them during those same two days. And Jenn can't pull them from general education classrooms because they're there so little already.
"I'm just finding times that I can grab them. It's been a challenge. But we're getting through it."
It's the kind of problem that doesn't have a clean solution, just persistence and flexibility. For a first-year SLP, that's a trial by fire.
Start Where You Are, Build What You Need
Jenn's story strips away the myth that you need years of experience or a big platform to create something valuable. She was a CF, making materials for her own caseload, and stumbled into a business that now generates meaningful income.
The barrier to entry is $35 and some time. The expertise? You already have it. Every SLP knows what materials work and what's missing from the market. Jenn just acted on that knowledge.
If you want to connect with Jenn or grab her free book and Boom Card set, visit go.jenngethers.com and join her email list.
Juggling a caseload, hybrid schedules, and side projects is a lot. ClinicNote is a HIPAA-compliant EMR built specifically for private practices and university clinics, handling documentation, scheduling, and billing in one place so you can spend more time on the work that matters. See how ClinicNote works.
Transcript
Kadie: You are listening to Clinic Chats, the speech therapist's private practice podcast, a podcast full of personal journeys where we not only talk about success stories, but also real life struggles of small business startups. Clinic Chats is sponsored by ClinicNote, a HIPAA-compliant, cloud-based EMR platform used specifically by private practice owners and university clinics. I'm your host, Kadie Jackstadt, and thank you for joining me today.
Kadie: I'm super excited about today's podcast interview. I've got Jennifer Gethers, and she's a speech pathologist from San Diego, California.
Jenn: Hi, Kadie. Thank you for having me today.
Kadie: Thanks so much for joining me. So unlike many episodes, Jennifer is actually not the owner of a private practice. Jennifer has found recent success in her Boom Card creations. And if you're new to Boom Cards, it's an online platform where you can create materials and purchase from other like-minded professionals. But first I wanted to ask Jennifer a little bit about her experience in speech pathology and where she got started. So Jennifer, could you let us know exactly what setting are you in now?
Jenn: So I work in a school district in San Diego and I am split between two schools. So I work at an elementary school and a high school. So I have a really diverse caseload. I have mostly a lot of kindergartners at the elementary school, all the way up to some transition students that are grade 13. So I have a lot of different students that I work with.
Kadie: I'm sure. And I know every state is different. And with schools, I know numbers can get a little crazy. So I'm just curious how many students on your caseload are there?
Jenn: So it's actually pretty good. I have about 46 right now in my caseload. So I feel pretty lucky about that actually because I have a lot of friends who are in upwards towards the 70s. So I'm actually pretty lucky in that regard.
Kadie: Yeah, that's good. Yes, that is pretty good then. I mean, it's still a full caseload, but at least you're not drowning quite so much.
Jenn: Yeah, yeah.
Kadie: Have you always worked in the school setting since you've gotten started or any other experience?
Jenn: So I am pretty new in the field. Actually, I'm a CF this year. So I just graduated in May. And so I haven't been anywhere else for my full time job at all. So just school for me.
Kadie: Wow. So first school year and of all years to get started, you've had coronavirus on top of being a first year SLP. So did your district go remote fairly quickly? Or what has that approach been like?
Jenn: We were remote to begin with for only about two weeks and then we went into the hybrid model. So what we're doing right now is hybrid. About half of the students come in one day and then half the students come in the next day, split into cohorts.
Kadie: Yes, I have found I recently switched back to teletherapy in a school district and I found that scheduling while in hybrid model is almost the worst possible scenario.
Jenn: Absolutely. Yeah, because they're only in school for two days. They can't cross contaminate with different pods or cohorts. And then every other professional is trying to also see them in that two days. So they're busy, busy kiddos.
Kadie: Definitely.
Jenn: It's been so hard. Yeah, you can't because I can't take them out of their general education classrooms at all because they're on campus so little. So I'm just finding times that I can grab them. It's been a challenge. But we're getting through it.
Kadie: Yes. So they were in person and then they went hybrid. And did you say now, what's the situation?
Jenn: We're still hybrid for the foreseeable future.
Kadie: Oh, okay. So in the meantime, when did you become familiar with Boom Cards and how did you decide to try it out for yourself?
Jenn: Yeah. So before the school year started, as you said, it's a weird time to be doing my CF with all this COVID stuff. So I was really trying to figure out how I was going to do virtual therapy. It's not something I ever did in grad school. So I was really just looking into all the different materials that are available. And everyone was talking about Boom Cards. And I had no idea what they were.
Jenn: So I looked them up just to see if I could use them for myself. And I was like, this is awesome. This will be perfect. I started looking for Boom Cards that would fit my specific caseload. And I noticed that there were a lot for me to use, but not specifically exactly what I wanted. So I originally started making Boom Cards just for myself. Like I had no plan to sell them. I was just making them because I wanted things to be personalized to my kids.
Jenn: And after I had made a few decks, I saw that it kept prompting you to say you can sell these if you become a seller. It costs $35 a year to be a seller. And so it was kind of in the back of my mind where I was like, I could, like, what's the downside of trying to sell them? But I was like, I don't know if I want to pay the $35 for it.
Kadie: Right, yeah.
Jenn: Yeah, I was like, it might not be worth it. But I ended up just going for it and it was definitely worth it. I was amazed at how well these speech and language decks sold.
Kadie: Wow. And then when did you sell your first deck?
Jenn: My first deck that I published was just an articulation practice deck for the letter R because I had an R kiddo. And I think it sold one the day after I made it. And I was surprised. I was like, wow, that's probably a fluke, right? Like someone wanted this. So it took about a day to sell one. And then that kind of motivated me to make some more.
Kadie: Wow. So how many decks have you created thus far?
Jenn: I probably have around 40 to 50. Not a ton. I know a lot of people have more, but wow.
Kadie: So is it something that you enjoy and is it getting easier and easier as you learn to manipulate and create? It's a learning process, I'm sure.
Jenn: Yeah, absolutely. So I definitely enjoy it. It kind of became addicting when I started making them. I was like, I need to make more Boom Card decks. And the more you learn about the studio where you create them, the easier it gets. And they're pretty quick now for me to make. So at the very beginning, I was spending a lot of time on it, but now it doesn't take that long at all.
Kadie: I think I saw posted that you're really doing a good job with your sales on Boom Cards. Then what does that look like from a business standpoint? Does the money come back into Boom and then you have to withdraw it? How do you set all that up?
Jenn: It's all through PayPal. I didn't have a PayPal account at all before this, but they will only pay you through PayPal. I think you can request a paper check if you want, but only if you're in the US. But it's easiest just to set up a PayPal account. And then once a month, they deposit your sales for that month into your PayPal account. So it's pretty simple.
Kadie: So I'm sure that's been quite a nice little surprise income this year.
Jenn: Definitely, it really has. I didn't expect it at all.
Kadie: Can't complain, yeah. Will you keep doing this on the side and just see where it takes you or what is your plan?
Jenn: Yeah, so I'm definitely going to keep doing it at least on the side. I'm actually currently trying to explore some ways that I can build it up. So I have a few different ways I'm doing that. Instead of just doing Boom Cards, I've also started building an email list so that I can advertise my Boom Cards to that email list. And I'm going to start working on some kind of a class so that I can teach other people to make Boom Cards as well. So there are a few other directions I want to go with it.
Kadie: So you're just in the brainstorming stage of that at this time.
Jenn: Yeah, I am. But I actually just got off of Zoom with someone that I was helping her figure out how to make her first deck. And I had a lot of fun with it. I'm biased, but I think that everyone kind of in our field should be making Boom Cards if they want some extra income. It's so easy and I think anyone can do it and we have the expertise. So I really want to try to get that message out there and let people know that they can do it too.
Kadie: Well, I think that's certainly generous and such a nice thing to say because I didn't know if people have the mindset of, oh, I want to be the main Boom Card gal, or if it's something, you know, there's so many SLPs and everyone's looking for new materials all the time. So I agree. There's probably no reason not to promote people to keep on creating.
Jenn: Yeah, definitely. And our field has so many different areas. It's not like you would be flooding the pool with too many people. I just think everyone should be doing it. And because that was my original problem, right? Like that I couldn't find the specific niche decks that I wanted. So the more people we get on there making it, the more we can help out people looking for materials.
Kadie: Yes. And so we always talk businessy stuff on the podcast. So how are you planning to approach this unplanned income for tax purposes? Do you know what you're doing for that quite yet?
Jenn: So I looked into it briefly. I obviously haven't gone through a tax season having to report this as income yet. But from what I can see, Boom Cards will send you a W-2, but only if you make over $20,000 in a year, which I won't hit. So I'll have to figure out how to do it. Honestly, I don't know if I request one from them because I know that I will have to report it as income for taxes. I'll just have to figure that out.
Kadie: The sales go down a lot during breaks.
Jenn: True. Yeah. But every month since I've started has been easily into the four figures. And this month has been the best, kind of getting up towards the mid four figures. So that's great.
Kadie: Yeah, you'll have to keep us updated on what's next for you, because I would love to promote how to contact you in case people do want to start reaching out for help.
Jenn: Absolutely. So I currently have a website, it's called go.jenngethers.com, and that's Jenn with two N's. So go.jenngethers.com. And if you put in your email address there, you'll both join my email list and you will get a free book that I've written and some free Boom Cards to go with it.
Kadie: Awesome. Oh, I see. I have totally downloaded this Boom Card set. I just looked up your book. Like, yeah, okay. I've gotten one of those before.
Jenn: Yeah, yeah. So they can join my email list there. And then I'll be probably making a separate email list for the class later. But for now, that's the best way to make sure you're in contact with me and I can be in contact with you.
Kadie: Perfect. Okay. Well, I appreciate that so much. We'll be sure to share your info here on the podcast very, very soon.
Jenn: Awesome. Thank you so much. I appreciate that.
Kadie: Thank you for joining me and listening to Clinic Chats, the speech therapist's private practice podcast. If you have a moment, please leave a five-star review for Clinic Chats to help other SLPs find our podcast. If you'd like to share your own personal journey through private practice, please email me at kadie at clinicnote.com. That's K-A-I-D-E at clinicnote.com. Thank you.