The Value of Community with Andrea Glienke

 

Links: Sleep 

Website: Rested Home
Instagram: @restedhomesleep

If you would like to learn more about Becoming a Sleep Consultant, please join our free Facebook Group or check out our CPSM Website.

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Transcript:

Intro: Welcome to Becoming a Sleep Consultant! I’m your host Jayne Havens, a certified sleep consultant and founder of both Snooze Fest by Jayne Havens and Center for Pediatric Sleep Management.

On this podcast, I’ll be discussing the business side of sleep consulting. You’ll have an insider’s view on launching, growing, and even scaling a sleep consulting business. This is not a podcast about sleep training. This is a podcast about business building and entrepreneurship.

Andrea is a certified pediatric sleep consultant and founder of Rested Home. Andrea was in the administrative education field for over 10 years until her sleep consulting business allowed her to move to a different job and be home more with her two young boys.

Although this is her business, sleep consulting is also her passion. She has been helping friends with her baby sleep knowledge long before enrolling in Center for Pediatric Sleep Management.

She enrolled in CPSM to “fill the gap.” Originally, this gap was a financial one. Little did she know, it would also fill a community gap she didn’t even know she had. From the CPSM Facebook group, the mentoring of new sleep consultants, conversations with moms, and new life-long friends, the community aspect of this journey has been more than she ever could have imagined.

Jayne Havens: Andrea, welcome to the Becoming a Sleep Consultant Podcast. I’m so excited to be chatting with you today.

Andrea Glienke: Hi, Jayne. Thank you for having me on. I’m so excited to be here, too.

Jayne Havens: When I asked you to be on the podcast, I did so because I just think your story is so relatable. So, before we get started, maybe you can share a bit about your story, why you decided to get certified in the first place.

Andrea Glienke: Sure, of course. When I was pregnant with my first son, who is now five years old, I read every preparation book I could get my hands on — pregnancy, birthing, nursing, feeding and, of course, sleep books. I am a nine hour a night leader of sleep, I will say. So, having a baby was really scary for me in regards to when it came to sleep.

As you know, from being a mom yourself, no book prepares you for motherhood. Most of my reading and preparation felt like a waste of time. Unless you count the fact that in the moment, it made me less anxious. So, maybe we won’t call it a total waste. The studying I did on baby sleep was not a waste of time. My son was an amazing sleeper, basically, his whole life. He’s been sleeping well from a newborn until now. He’s almost five.

Move along to pregnancy number two, I did nothing. No preparation, no reading. Second child. Not surprising, right? Well, I was 10 months pregnant. I started getting really nervous that the good sleep that we got from our first child was a total fluke. You and I connected, I don’t even really remember, in some random Facebook group post. Although it wasn’t an easy decision to make financially to invest in your program, I sat down with my husband and we laid out three goals as to why I would do something like this.

It kind of came out of nowhere. I’ve never talked about being a sleep consultant. My husband was like, “Well, I don’t even know what you’re talking about. Why did you bring this to me?” So, we sort of came with three goals. The first goal was to use the knowledge that I gained from the coursework on baby number two. And that’s it. We both decided. The only thing that comes from this is we get a second good sleeper. It’s totally worth the price. So, I did it. I already knew a lot about baby sleep just from the preparation I did for baby number one. But I learned so much more from the coursework at the program.

Fast forward a bit, that second baby is now one. Both of them are 100% independent sleepers from birth. Every sleep regression passes right over us. It’s not even a thing in our house. Illnesses don’t spiral us out of control. So, I feel like I can put a little green checkmark right next to goal number one for enrolling in your course. So, thank you for that. You helped me with my children’s sleep without being my actual sleep consultant. So, I really appreciate what you’ve done for us as a family.

Jayne Havens: I love that. What are the other two?

Andrea Glienke: Okay. Goal number two was to pay back the cost of the course you. So, I wanted to get a certain number of clients to, at least, put that money back into our savings account. Goal number three was to just make a little extra fun money each month. I was never going to quit my job or anything like that. It was never going to be full time.

But I will say very quickly, the money that I made or that I continued to make doing this allowed me to downgrade jobs. I still have a full-time job, but I took a major pay cut, a major change in career. It’s like a little, mini midlife crisis. You probably remember talking to me about it. But I get to be home with my kids. I work from home now. It’s like a state job.

I’m there for every breakfast. I’m there for every pickup, every drop off, every doctor’s appointment. And so, that was goal number three. It was fun money, and it’s way more than that. It doesn’t replace my income because I don’t really want it to at this point. But I’ve definitely surpassed all three goals, for sure.

Jayne Havens: That makes me so happy. I didn’t know this about you. I didn’t know that you had these three goals. So, I really am just sort of like smiling ear to ear glowing, listening to you talk about this. I’ve loved watching you grow your business. I love your whole mindset around your business, which has always been that you’re doing it because you enjoy it, and you love it, and it makes you happy. And if that brings in extra money, then awesome.

That shift that you made more recently, where you were able to actually leave a job that was draining you, and not serving your family other than the fact that you had more income, the fact that you were able to leave that job for a more flexible, low-stress work opportunity and fill the gaps with sleep consulting, that just — it makes me so happy. I love it.

Andrea Glienke: I know, Jayne. Literally, I mean, it’s been — it was July, I think, that I made that shift. Literally, not yet a day has gone by where I just am not outwardly so happy that we made this shift. Like I said, I didn’t quit my job and become a sleep consultant, which I know a lot of people do. But it allowed me to — I mean, I cut my income 60%, which is big. I’m just literally happy every day that I was able to do something like that.

Jayne Havens: I love it. One of my favorite things about you and your role within our CPSM community is how you have started supporting other sleep consultants. Not specifically in business, which I think is interesting. Because when you think about mentorship, firstly, consultants, there are a lot of people out there that are willing to help sleep consultants and other parenting coaches grow their businesses. But what you’re really doing is supporting these new sleep consultants through the process of navigating those first few clients. It’s actually the sleep stuff. I love that. I would love for you to tell everyone what you’re up to more specifically, what that looks like. How did you get started in that, and why are you doing it?

Andrea Glienke: Right, yeah. So, I’m not helping them grow their business. Like you said, there’s a lot of business coaches out there that are great for that. But it’s not me, at least on the front end. I mean, you could make a case. If you do the actual sleep work well, then that will grow your business. You’ve made a lot of — you’ve even had podcasts about that. I helped them when they landed that first client or two.

I still remember it. You may, too. I don’t know. The most exciting feeling when you get that first paying client. Most CPSM people post about it in our group. It’s almost always followed up with like, “Help.” They’re so excited that they have their client. Then your next thought is like, “Oh, no. Now what?”

Your course prepares you for all of this. But there’s still that impostor syndrome feeling that people just have a really hard time getting over. The, “Can I actually do this? Can I actually help with this? What if it doesn’t work?” Maybe the sleep consultant has a baby and their first client is a toddler, or maybe they have older kids. Maybe they don’t have any kids. Maybe they haven’t held a baby in five years. And so, that’s where in general the CPSM community comes in, the Facebook group.

There’s a lot of posts about these things. From posts, I assume a lot of side DMs happen once you realize you connect with someone in a way on a post. I’ve DMed other grads. Other grads have DMed me. I assume this is somewhat normal. Some of these conversations turn—

Jayne Havens: I think so.

Andrea Glienke: Okay. Good. It was always kind of weird. I always say like, “Hi, this is Andrea. I’m in your CPSM group. I hope it’s okay that I DMed you.” Everybody’s totally nice. But some people just feel like they need more than posting in the community group. That’s where I can help. Some of these side DMs have turned into a little bit more official mentoring. We just connected through the DMs and through chatting.

I can help review their sleep plans. So, they would write the sleep plan. I can review it. Just another set of eyes on it is really helpful, pointing out what needs to be repeated and really focused on in that phone call with a parent. You may have this beautiful plan. But you need to say this five times, in some way, on the phone call because they are not going to get it.

Also, that one-on-one tech support, that most of us offer, can be really intimidating where a parent is texting you like, “What do I do? I have a doctor’s appointment at 9AM today. You said they’re supposed to be napping at 9:30. What do I do now?” That sleep consultant may be wondering like, “Well, I don’t know. What do you do?”

You can post in the group. That’s definitely an option. Or you can text me, and we can figure out in the moment. And so, it’s just a little extra added on mentorship that the group can also offer. But some people just want that one-on-one connection. We get on the phone and talk and chat. Most of these conversations lasts way longer than they’re scheduled for. But people just like to connect with someone else who’s also passionate about the same thing. That’s part of why I love doing it.

Jayne Havens: I love that. It’s so special, I think you’re the only one that I know of inside of our CPSM group that’s doing it. I mean, we have a lot of people inside of our community that are really helpful to others inside of the community, more in the public — it’s not a public forum, but like our public forum.

I think you’re the only one, at least, that I know of that’s doing this one-on-one support for sleep consultants with regard to the sleep stuff. I just think it’s so valuable. I love that we have this as a resource inside of our community. I always say to prospective students, when they’re coming into the program, that I truly believe that our program gets better with each and every person that enrolls. Because you never know what that person is going to add to our community vibe, right?

Andrea Glienke: Right.

Jayne Havens: This is what you contribute, among other things. But this is a big piece of what you contribute. I love getting on the phone with people or getting on to Zoom and trying to figure out, what are they going to bring to the table. For people who are listening to this podcast and they’re like, “I’m interested in becoming a sleep consultant,” what are you going to bring to our community? It’s not just like what are we going to do for you? What are you going to do for us? What do you bring to the table?

Andrea Glienke: Right, and it may take them — It takes some time—

Jayne Havens: It takes time to figure that out.

Andrea Glienke: —to figure out, like, what do I contribute? Like, I remember feeling like a major taker from that group for a while. Then it’s like, okay, it’s my turn to give back. I try to respond to people’s posts as much as I can, and things like that. I still ask questions. There are still definitely things that I take from the group a lot. But it can be something that comes with some experience and some exposure to the way the group runs.

Jayne Havens: Absolutely. When I get into calls with prospective CPSM students, one of the biggest objections that I hear is that they’re afraid of starting their own businesses, and they’re particularly afraid of doing it alone. What are your thoughts on this? I know I’m working really hard to make sure that CPSM students and grads never feel alone. But that’s a thought, right? We all have feelings in our head, even if it’s not entirely true.

Andrea Glienke: Oh, my gosh. My instant thought when you set this is, this is what I tell parents too, whether it’s parents I’m currently sleep training with or prospective clients. Our back and forth is, they do not have to do this alone. That’s where we come in as a sleep consultant to the client. We are there to help them through something tough, that they do not have to do alone. I think it’s the exact same for the business owner in the sleep consultant side of things. We are not meant to do this alone.

The amazing thing about owning your own business and being an entrepreneur is you do it how you want. You structure it how you want. You create a program that you want. You do whatever you want, right? That’s why we’re business owners. But that doesn’t mean you do it alone. Those things are not the same thing. I just love how you structured it. You add people to the group right when they sign up. It’s not like once you’re done with the coursework, once you graduate, then you get to be in this group. It’s, like, sometimes instant. They’re just immediately in the group.

You probably know this number, but I think there’s like 450 to 500 people in the group. We all have the same focus, the same passion. There are multiple posts a day. Every post gets responses. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a post that doesn’t get a response or multiple responses. Some of it is students asking you about coursework. Some of it is fellow sleep consultants just needing another set of eyes on a sleep situation that they’re dealing with — business talk, networking talk. We share a lot of wins, a lot of goals.

There’s been a virtual happy hour. There’s talk of people getting together. There’s talk of a group trip, that I hope you bring back up in the group soon. You just really feel like you get to know some of these women, even though you’ve never met them. I’ll name drop to my husband. He’s like, “I don’t even know who you’re talking about.” I’m like, “It’s one of my CPSM people. Don’t worry about it.” I just talk about some of these women like they’re my friends. I’ve never even met them in real life. It’s just a really great community.

Jayne Havens: Speaking of CPSM friends, you told me before we started recording this, we were talking off to the side that you have a CPSM BFF. I’m wondering who is it. I don’t even know who it is. Who is your BFF inside of the CPSM community? What are you getting from that person, and what does that person getting from you? What’s the vibe?

Andrea Glienke: I mentioned earlier how the side DMs happen. You said that you think that that’s normal, so that’s good. But that’s how this started. Maybe a year ago, I posted — I don’t even remember what I posted about. But Nicole responded to one of my posts. I can’t remember the thought process behind it, but I remember having some follow up questions to what she said. But I didn’t want to drag it out within the post, so I DMed her, exactly like I said earlier.

We went back and forth about it. She helped me. It’s hard to remember exactly how it happened because it was so long ago. I know she has helped me with my own baby. He’s a daycare baby, and he was taking two 20-minute naps a day as a four-month-old. He would come home with 40 minutes of daytime sleep, waking up at 4:35 o’clock in the morning.

She was helping me through that, even if it was like literal sleep help or just pouting and venting with me about how frustrating daycare was. I can’t really put my finger on how it turned into a friendship, more so than just like business sleep talk. But I assume it’s at some point when the conversations sort of shifted that weren’t always business-related.

It’s a mix. She’s definitely what I would call my business bestie, but it’s much more than that. Our conversations are probably 60% business-related and 40% about the husband and the kids and the personal things. Just yesterday, we do a lot of Voxer. We do a lot of audio messages back and forth. Just yesterday, she was sending me an audio message. She was distracted, and under her breath said like, “Oh, sorry. I’m driving to Costco.” The conversation totally shifted to our love-hate relationship for Costco. It’s like we had to find our way back on track to whatever her original audio message was even about.

The cool thing is, our businesses are different. We’re both sleep consultants, but she has a bigger program with a lengthy supportive time. I don’t like to spend that long with clients. It’s like once their baby is doing well at that time overnights and naps, I’m ready to move on. She wants to stay with them and keep that box or support or that email support.

She’s able to help me with me and the vision that I have for my business and my program. She knows what makes me tick and what frustrates me. Same for her. I know her goals. I know her — the time she has, energy she has. We just sort of chat and know how to help each other even though we’re competitors.

We actually talked about this today. Literally, this morning, we’re like, “You know, we’re kind of competitors. But we’re not in competition with each other. I don’t really know how that worked.” I don’t know. She’s truly amazing. I’m just so thankful for her. If either one of us were to stop doing this sleep consulting thing, for whatever reason, tomorrow, our friendship would not miss a beat. We would pick up the next day with our conversations about whatever. And I’m just so thankful for that.

I will say there’s a couple other connections I have from the group. There’s a local friend. We’ve gone to coffee. There are several other people that I talk to, on occasion, as well. It’s just a really great community.

Jayne Havens: I love to hear you share these stories because I worked so hard to try and articulate the value of the CPSM community, both in our sort of more public forum and what goes on behind the scenes. It’s so hard for me to explain to people the level of friendship. We have actual colleagues and friends. It’s like one step shy short of family inside of our community. Unless you’re in it, you don’t know, and you won’t get it until you’re there.

Actually, on CPSM discovery calls, I’ve started to actually giving them a tour of our CPSM Facebook group. I feel like people don’t understand how amazing it is, unless I literally scroll through for a few minutes and show them all the wonderful stuff that’s going on inside of our group. It really is, it’s not competitive. It is 100% collaborative and it’s a community. It’s support. It’s all the things that I think most brand-new entrepreneurs really, really crave when they are starting their businesses.

Without it, I think that it’s really hard to succeed. Because the loneliness, without support when you’re starting a business, I think, is enough to shut almost anybody down. You really do need to have either a business bestie or some sort of community that rallies behind you. Otherwise, I think it’s really, really challenging.

Andrea Glienke: Yes, I totally agree.

Jayne Havens: I’m wondering what your biggest objections were before jumping into this. You touched on it a little bit in the beginning of this interview. You weren’t even necessarily looking to become a sleep consultant, right? We just connected. But I’m wondering if there were any sort of major hang ups? And if so, how did you get over them? Did our community help you to navigate any limiting beliefs that you may have had?

Andrea Glienke: I would say, my biggest umbrella objection, I guess, we’ll call it, is the money. That’s got to be for most people. If it were free, everybody would join and then do whatever they wanted to afterwards. You don’t want it to be a waste of money. I mentioned earlier, number one goal was, if it helps us get better sleep with both of our children, it’s worth the money. That’s just a personal decision. It’s relative.

My number two goal was to pay back the money, the cost of the course, which would just breakeven like it never happened. Let’s just move on with our life. Number three was the fun money, which we talked a little bit about as it’s beyond that. It still is, but it has done so much more for me. Do you remember? I’m going to put your memory on the spot really quick. I asked you a question. When you and I went back and forth — it seems like a lot to me. I don’t know how much you go back and forth with perspective CPSM people — do you remember the last question I asked you right before I signed up 16 months ago?

Jayne Havens: No. I have a really good memory, but no.

Andrea Glienke: I asked you how many people are in the Facebook group, and how active it was. That was my last question. I actually went back, like scrolled really far up. You answered that question. My next response to you is like, “I did it,” with that shocked face. “I just signed up.” It’s funny that that was my final question. I just needed to know what does this Facebook group look like that you talked about.

We’ve all joined Facebook groups that we’ve sort of forgotten about. Because it’s an interesting topic, sure, you join the group. There’s just barely any activity, or you didn’t think it was what you thought it would be. That’s just not this group. And so, the community aspect of jumping into this field was the last question that I asked you. The thing that, like, whatever your answer was, I think you gave me like real numbers. There’s these many members. There’s about these many posts per day. I was like, okay.

You don’t want to join a group that’s like a million people because you’re just going to get lost. You want to know, like, is it three posts a week? Or is it 100 posts a day? And so, whatever your answer was which is sort of what I needed to hear. Knowing more about the community was sort of my reason for just like, okay, let’s do it. I signed up, I sent you that shocked face of like, “I did it, I signed up. Here I am.” So, I would say that that’s the last thing that I needed to hear before diving into this.

Jayne Havens: That makes me feel good?

Andrea Glienke: Did I answer your question?

Jayne Havens: You did. It makes me feel so good that that was your objection. Because, for me, that’s such an easy thing to deliver on. I know with such confidence that I can provide a strong community for my CPSM students and grads. I have no doubt about that. It doesn’t worry me for one single bit. If that’s somebody’s biggest objection, it’s like, “Okay. I got this. No problem.”

I’d love to hear that. I love that, if that’s what you were worried about, you were able to jump right into our community. Everybody else was there right away. It was a smaller community back then because we’re growing. But it was still an engaged, active, robust community than just as it is now. I love that you were able to sort of trust me on that. Then you got into the community, and everybody was right there for you.

I do think that that has to be at least some sliver of, we have to give the community credit for your ability to be successful. Because that’s what you were looking for, that’s what you were craving. You got in there. You got it. And you were able to get the support that you needed. Just like our clients get support from us, you got the support from the CPSM community, and that positioned you to be successful in your own.

Andrea Glienke: Right. It’s definitely — I mean, it’s hard to tell where you would be if something didn’t happen the way it works. I can’t imagine. There’s really amazing days in this business, and there’s really tough moments. I know you’ve spoken to like even Jayne Havens has days that she just really struggles in the community.

This is a little off topic, but I remember posting on there about — I think the first sentence of my post was like, “Y’all, I think I’m going to quit my job. And I was just so scared.” I assumed everybody was going to respond and say, like, “Do it. Do it. You’re amazing. Do it.” I almost didn’t post because I’m like that’s not what I need to hear.

These people don’t know what my bank account looks like. They don’t know what my budget spreadsheet looks like. It wasn’t a bunch of, like, “Do it, you got this girl,” responses. It was some really heartfelt responses and some pros and cons.

Jayne Havens: I remember that. I was actually really proud of our community on that thread. People actually asked you really good questions. It wasn’t just like do it or don’t do it. It was like, “Have you thought about this?” Or, “This is what I experienced when I was crossing this road myself.” It was really nuanced advice and conversation that went back and forth. I was really actually very proud of everything. I remember that.

Andrea Glienke: Yes, actually, I’m tearing up right now, Jayne. I just remember what that felt like. Someone told me — I’m going to actually go back and figure out who it was, so that I can give them credit. They told me, they said, “You feel like you’re on a speedboat right now.” And I did. They’re like, “You’re on a cruise ship, like a massive ship.” They’re like, “Steer the cruise ship, not the speedboat. Slow down. Little moves. You don’t have to have your whole life planned out in front of you.”

Anyway, this is off topic. But yes, that group, that was not a sleep consulting post. I wasn’t saying like I’m going to go sleep consulting full time. It was just like a real life, “I’m going to quit my job. And I’m scared. What does this mean for me?” Anyways, it was amazing.

Jayne Havens: Now that you’ve settled into your business — I think you have a certain level of confidence as an entrepreneur that perhaps you didn’t have in the beginning — what sort of advice would you offer to those that are just getting started?

Andrea Glienke: The first thing that comes to mind is not anything I’ve made up. It’s not even groundbreaking. I’ve heard it so many times. But it took a while for it to click for me. This is your business. Do what you want. Run it how you want. Make it fit you and your values and your needs.

There’s been a few times I’ve wanted to change up my program and what I offer. I think you see this probably more than anybody. When someone starts out, they probably — I don’t know how many people’s new package looks just like your packages, Jayne. Because people just don’t really know where to start. That’s fine. Some people stick with that, and that works for them. That’s great.

I just remember the first time, I felt like these two weeks at this price with these phone calls just wasn’t really biting with me. I remember being so stressed out about getting it “right.” How many days do I offer? What do I charge? Do I add an email support? Do I do two phone calls? All the different options.

Whenever you realize that you could do what you want, it’s so freeing. You can make it what you want. Try it out for a few weeks, and then change it. Try it out for a few months, and then edit it. It’s an area that I’ve definitely grown confident in. I feel like that’s just what entrepreneurship is all about. When we hang up from this call, I can go lower my price by $50. I can raise it by $100. I can change it to three weeks.

You could do whatever you want, whatever day you want. You want to stay consistent and not be all over the place. But that’s sort of where I have seen myself grow more confident, in finding what works for me and what’s sustainable for me and what I like.

Jayne Havens: What are your goals for the next year, couple of years? Do you have a big picture plan, or are you sort of taking it day by day, week by week, month by month?

Andrea Glienke: I’m actually really bad at setting goals. As you can see, my three goals for this program are very small. So, I’m going to give you some small goals. I took a break from sleep consulting towards the end of the last year. Well, it wasn’t really a break. I took a break from social media. I still got several clients each month, which is awesome.

My main goal is to get back into it. I’m starting to feel that desire to be posting again. Social media is for some people. It’s not for some people. Actually, I really enjoy creating pretty posts with captions. I just need to get moving again. And so, that’s my goal. I have some new networking ideas. They’re not new. They’re not groundbreaking. But they’re new to me to try and start. Those are my goals to get moving again this year. I took some little breaks, some needed breaks, throughout the end of last year. It’s time to get going again.

Jayne Havens: Where can everybody find you if they want to connect with you? Speaking of social media, maybe you can share Instagram or wherever you like to show up most.

Andrea Glienke: Yes, I’d love that. My Instagram handle is @restedhomesleep. My website is restedhome.com.

Jayne Havens: Thank you so much for chatting with me today. This was truly awesome. I know you were maybe a little hesitant about coming on the podcast, but thank you for doing so. I think everybody is going to really love this chat. So, thanks.

Andrea Glienke: Thank you for having me, Jayne. I really enjoyed it.

Outro: Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Becoming a Sleep Consultant Podcast. If you enjoyed today’s episode, it would mean so much to me if you would rate, review, and subscribe. When you rate, review, and subscribe, this helps the podcast reach a greater audience. I am so grateful for your support.

If you would like to learn more about how you can become a certified sleep consultant, head over to my Facebook Group, Becoming a Sleep Consultant or to my website thecpsm.com. Thanks so much, and I hope you will tune in for the next episode.