How Hallie Sherman Turned Her SLP Expertise into a Thriving Online Business

Oct 3

There’s a moment that a lot of school-based SLPs remember clearly.

You walk into a new building, you inherit goals you didn’t write, and you’re expected to just… make it work. The kids are older than you pictured. The materials closet is empty. The worksheet you grabbed feels like it should help, but two minutes in you can tell it’s not landing.

That’s where Hallie Sherman’s story begins.

When Hallie and I sat down for this episode, what stood out wasn’t just what she’s built. It was why she built it. It started as survival. Real problem-solving. The kind you do when you care deeply about your students and you’re determined to figure out what actually helps them.

And that’s the part I want you to hold onto if you’ve been wondering whether you have anything worth sharing online.

The problem wasn’t Hallie’s students. It was the resources.

Hallie landed her job in a fifth and sixth-grade building and immediately felt the gap. She was handed goals she didn’t fully understand yet, and the “materials” available didn’t match what her students truly needed.

She described trying what seemed logical at the time: main idea paragraphs, sequencing activities, and grade-level worksheets. And it flopped.

Not because she was doing something wrong, but because she noticed something important many clinicians bump into: her students couldn’t access the material. They weren’t reading anywhere near grade level, so the worksheets were basically a wall.

That’s when she started building her own resources, not for a business, but for real sessions with real kids. She slowed down, broke skills into teachable steps, and figured out how to make the work doable and motivating. Once she saw results, she kept going.

This is one of the most underrated foundations for building a digital product or membership: you’re already solving problems every day. The question is whether you’re willing to document the solutions and share them.

“Accidental entrepreneur” is more common than you think

Hallie called herself an accidental entrepreneur, and honestly, that label fits a lot of therapists.

Most of us weren’t trained to be business owners. We didn’t take a class on marketing in grad school. We learned how to treat, how to write goals, how to advocate, how to problem-solve. Then we got into real-life settings and realized we were constantly filling in the gaps.

Hallie started blogging about what she was creating. She wasn’t trying to start a company. She wasn’t even sure anyone would read it. But people did. Pinterest was picking up steam, people found her work, and then she discovered Teachers Pay Teachers.

She uploaded a resource and someone bought it within hours.

That little moment matters. Not because it’s the whole strategy, but because it proves something: when you solve a real problem, people pay attention.

The market feels saturated when you’re trying to sound like everyone else

I asked Hallie about saturation because it’s one of the biggest fears I hear from clinicians who want to create something online. TPT isn’t what it used to be. Social media feels crowded. Pinterest has changed. It’s easy to conclude, “It’s too late.”

Hallie’s take was clear: there’s room for more because there are different people.

Different therapy styles. Different personalities. Different life experiences. Different values. Different ways of teaching. Different types of clinicians and students being served.

Not everyone is for her, and she doesn’t need them to be. If someone wants a very specific approach that isn’t aligned with how she works, they’ll find the person who teaches that way. The goal isn’t to appeal to everyone. The goal is to be unmistakably you, so the people who resonate with you can find you.

She said something that’s worth repeating: if you’re attracting everyone, you’re attracting no one. If you’re repelling people, you’re doing something right.

That mindset shift applies to private practice too. If your message is watered down, it’s harder for the right clients to see themselves in it.

Mistakes are part of the job, in therapy and in business

One of my favorite parts of this conversation was how normal Hallie made the messy middle feel.

She shared mistakes like not starting an email list early enough and staying anonymous for too long because she was afraid to put her face and name behind the brand. She talked about learning the hard way that “know, like, and trust” isn’t just a catchy phrase. It’s real. People connect to people.

We also talked about expensive lessons. The programs you join under pressure. The investments that don’t give you a return. The decisions you make too fast because someone says, “You have to decide right now.”

Those experiences can shake your confidence if you let them. Or they can sharpen your instincts.

What I want you to hear is this: making mistakes doesn’t mean you’re bad at business. It means you’re in it.

As Hallie said, if you’re not making mistakes, you’re not growing.

And the therapist in me loves the parallel she pointed out. We give our clients so much grace to learn through trial and error, but we expect ourselves to be perfect the second we step into a new role.

You don’t need perfection. You need momentum.

Your offer is not the thing. It’s the outcome.

This is where the conversation got really grounded.

Hallie mentioned a lesson she learned from James Wedmore that stuck with her: your offer is not “a membership” or “downloads” or “a course.” That’s the container.

What people are buying is the transformation.

They’re buying relief. Time saved. Confidence. A faster path. Less second-guessing. Better outcomes with their students. A sense that they’re not doing it alone.

That matters for clinicians who struggle with selling because you don’t want to feel pushy. If you’re thinking, “Who am I to charge for this?” it helps to reframe it as, “Who can I help today?”

Because when your work solves a problem that hurts enough, people want the solution. They’re not buying therapy. They’re buying what therapy gives them. They’re not buying a course. They’re buying what the course changes.

The mindset work is not extra. It’s the whole game.

Hallie’s entry into the “mindset” side of business was through James Wedmore’s world, and she was honest about how uncomfortable it felt at first. Meditation, woo, slowing down enough to hear yourself think. For someone who’s used to constant motion, that can feel impossible.

But she also recognized that strategy wasn’t the problem anymore. She knew what to do. The real work was getting out of her own way.

Fear of spending more on ads. Fear of the unknown. Waiting for a revenue number before making a move. Looking up the mountain instead of looking down and seeing how far she’d come.

Her story about being invited to an exclusive Kajabi dinner in New York and thinking, “Why me?” was such a perfect example of how quickly we can discount our own growth.

If you’re always focused on the next milestone, you’ll miss the fact that you’re already doing the thing you once thought was out of reach.

What freedom actually looks like after you leave the therapy room

One of the most practical parts of Hallie’s story was what happened when she finally had more time.

She didn’t instantly feel productive. She sat in an office and thought, “What am I supposed to do all day?”

That’s real. When you’ve been in survival mode for years, freedom can feel disorienting at first.

Over time, she started to define what the business was for. Not just revenue, but lifestyle. She set boundaries with her team. No calls before 10:30. Gym time in the morning. No responses after 3 when her kids are home. Fridays open for whatever she wants them to be.

That’s the picture so many clinicians are craving. Not because you want to “escape” your profession, but because you want your work to support your life.

And this part matters: she didn’t do it alone. She hired help. She built a team. She learned through rounds of hiring and letting people go.

Freedom is possible, but it usually requires support.

If you’re waiting, someone like you is waiting too

Hallie said something I keep thinking about: when you hesitate to put yourself out there, there’s a person just like you waiting for you.

Not waiting for the biggest account. Not waiting for the most polished brand. Waiting for the person who feels relatable. The one who teaches the way they learn. The one who gets their exact situation.

If you’ve been holding back because you think the market is saturated, I hope this episode challenges that story. The market is full, sure. But it’s also full of people who still need help.

And if you’ve ever solved a problem in your therapy room, your practice, your classroom, or your business, you already have proof that you can create something valuable.

Start small. Let it be messy. Let it be real.

That’s how Hallie built Speech Time Fun. And it’s how a lot of therapists quietly become entrepreneurs without ever planning to.