A CPSM Graduate Spotlight: Spenser Lipton

 

Spenser is a certified pediatric sleep consultant and mom of two little boys. For the past 10 years, she has worked in the luxury events and fashion space. When her first son was born, she became obsessed with sleep training! Excited to share what she learned, she began casually consulting friends and family. CPSM Graduate

After successfully sleep training her second son, she decided to go all-in and get certified through Center for Pediatric Sleep Management so she could help as many families as possible. Spenser launched her business, My Sleep Friend, in September of 2023 and hasn’t looked back! CPSM Graduate

 

 

Links: CPSM Graduate

Website: My Sleep Friend

Instagram: @mysleepfriend

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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.

Spenser is a certified pediatric sleep consultant and a mom of two little boys. For the past 10 years, she has worked in the luxury events and fashion space. When her first son was born, she became obsessed with sleep training. Excited to share what she learned, she began casually consulting friends and family. After successfully sleep training her second son, she decided to go all-in and get certified through Center for Pediatric Sleep Management so she could help as many families as possible. Spenser launched her business, My Sleep Friend, in September of 2023 and hasn’t looked back.

Jayne Havens: Spenser, welcome to the Becoming a Sleep Consultant Podcast. I’m so excited to have you here today.

Spenser Lipton: Thanks, Jayne. I’m so excited to be here, too.

Jayne Havens: So before we get started, why don’t you share a little bit about yourself? What do you do professionally, and why did you decide to get certified to work as a sleep consultant?

Spenser Lipton: I am a mom of two. I have two boys, two and a half and one. I always have to remember how old they are, Luke and Ryan. Full time, I work in luxury events, accounts, florals. Kind of hard to pinpoint exactly what it is. But I’ve been in the luxury B2B world for about 10 years.

When I was on maternity leave most recently with my second son, Ryan, I was just kind of bored and didn’t really have much to do — I was lucky to have six months of maternity leave — other than being a mom, which is wonderful. But I kind of missed working. I was just talking to my mother-in-law. We were talking about how I was sleep training Ryan. She was like, “You should do this for real.” Something just clicked. I was like, I should do this for real. This is something that I love. I’ve always wanted to do something for myself, so I’m just going to do it. And here we are.

Jayne Havens: Yeah, here you are. How did you manage juggling — I know you’re on maternity leave when you enrolled in CPSM. Is that right?

Spenser Lipton: Yes.

Jayne Havens: And so how are you juggling being home as a new mom of two, and getting through the course, and then also launching your business and taking clients? Because I think you did all of it while you were a brand-new mom of two trying to navigate that life transition.

Spenser Lipton: Yeah, it definitely was a lot in the beginning. I found my times when the boys were napping. I was lucky to get them on a similar nap schedule for parts of the day. But I would put them to bed at night and then log back onto the course. I just loved the material so much that I was so excited to do it. I actually think I told you I got COVID in the very beginning, and I had to take a break for a week. I was so sad and just couldn’t wait to get back to it.

The beginning was challenging — getting everything, getting completed with the course, getting up and running with my business. But then, I went back to work and I was able to find a little bit more “me time.” My job is flexible enough that I can support clients during the day and also do a little bit of this passion project on the side. Then when I put the boys to bed at night, I log right back on and start having calls with clients and putting together sleep plans. And so I’m kind of working from the time I wake up in the morning till the time I close my eyes, between being a mom and my full-time job and now being a sleep consultant. But I love it.

Jayne Havens: Yeah, this is going to be an audio recording. But I can see it in your face that you’re just smiling from ear to ear when you’re talking about it. I really connect with that, and I identify with that. People ask me all the time, like, how much do you work? I’m like, I don’t know. I work a million hours a day, but I love what I do. I think really when you love what you do, it doesn’t feel like work, right? You want to be working.

Spenser Lipton: Totally. I never thought that I would love working so much. Actually, when I was on maternity leave, I did miss working. It’s not that I was like I need to go back and do X, Y and Z that I do at my full-time job. But I do like having something for myself. But I never imagined I would find something that I actually love doing so much. I love doing this. It doesn’t feel like work. I know that’s so cliche, but it’s true.

Jayne Havens: No, I agree. So your business is called My Sleep Friend. Tell me about that. What does that name mean or represent?

Spenser Lipton: Before I was officially certified, I would just help my friends casually because they knew I was just obsessed with the sleep training. I just knew a lot because I love reading about it and implementing all the tools I learned with my kids. So my friends would refer to me as like, “Oh, my sleep friend would give me this advice.” And so when I was coming up with a business term, I was like, what do I want, obviously, my name to be? What do I want people to get out of working with me?

In the end, I wanted to be someone’s support, someone’s friend. Obviously, the ultimate goal is to teach their baby or their kid how to sleep. But I also wanted to be there as their friend, just like I am with my friends. Whether it’s someone I knew before or don’t, I talk to people the same way. That’s how I am in my professional world. I’m not very good at having two kinds of personas, my professional self and my personal self. I’m just me. And so I was like, I’m just going to be me. My Sleep Friend was born from that.

Jayne Havens: I love that people called you ‘my sleep friend.’ I love that. I think that that’s so sweet, and it’s really actually a great way to describe what you do for them. Right?

Spenser Lipton: Yeah.

Jayne Havens: It’s really spot on. I love that. So you launched your business, I think, in July of last year. I know that you’ve supported a handful of families each month, which is really amazing. Do you have one that stands out in your mind as being a really special success story?

Spenser Lipton: Yeah, when I first started, I actually started helping my neighbor who is a mom of three. She was just desperate with her third baby, who actually is a similar age to my second. I think her baby was nine months old when we started. She just wasn’t sleeping on her own. And as a mom of three, she just could not handle the lack of sleep. She’s a stay-at-home mom. She doesn’t have any help. She has a lot to take on. So I was really excited to help her especially early on to flex my new skills.

It kind of went the way I hoped it would, which is what was so exciting about it. It was tough in the beginning. I was able to really coach her through those tough times. Baby had a hard time in the first day, second day. Then it just clicked, and she started sleeping and less crying. She couldn’t believe it. She was so proud of herself. She was so proud of her baby. She was like, “I have to do this with my middle child now.” It was just like, we were just happy and celebrating. Still, she comes to me with questions when I see her in the neighborhood.

She, in the beginning, didn’t even tell her husband that she was going to start doing this. And now it’s like, she just brags about it to her husband and her kids and our neighbors. It’s someone I see often, so it makes me feel great that she feels so great. I see her baby all the time. I’m like, oh, you’re my little client.

Jayne Havens: I love that. It’s so sweet. It’s so sweet. What about some of your other early clients? Where did you find them? I love that you helped a neighbor. But were you connecting with families in Facebook groups, on Instagram, in real life? What does that look like for you?

Spenser Lipton: I tried a few different ways. The first few clients I had were from personal connections, which is the whole reason I started exploring this one I did. Because I am a new mom of two. A lot of my friends are just having their first baby or expanding their family, so I feel like I’m in this age where it was a really good time. Because so many people I know are having babies. And so my network is kind of natural in terms of referrals. My first few clients were personal. I helped some friends but I was able to charge for it, which was really exciting.

Then I’ve been working with my pediatrician’s office to market myself there. Facebook, a little bit. I’ve been really hustling on Instagram, which is very new for me. But I’m trying to work that social angle as well and just try out a bunch of different things. I’ve gotten clients from all different ways, which has been interesting to see what’s working and also fun because I’m connecting with different people too.

Jayne Havens: I think it’s great that you’re sort of trying it all and figuring out what works for you. It’s funny that you mentioned your pediatrician. I was at my children’s pediatrician this morning because my daughter is a little under the weather, and I totally forgot to say something to her. I meant to because I wanted actually to share with her about my online course taking back bedtime. Because I think that would be a really easy thing for her to suggest to families that have three-, four- or five-year-olds who aren’t staying in bed, right?

I totally meant to just bring it up, and I totally had a brain fart and forgot. So I got to now put that on my list to reach back out to my child’s pediatrician. I love that you haven’t been scared to make that connection. I think sometimes people are intimidated to reach out to professionals like pediatricians. But really, they don’t have the resources and the time to support families to get results.

Spenser Lipton: It’s so true.

Jayne Havens: I think a lot of pediatricians are actually really pro-sleep consultant. They know that what families need is really guidance, support, accountability. The fact that they can outsource that to us, most of them are all for it. That’s been my understanding.

Spenser Lipton: Yeah, absolutely. My pediatrician was super excited. Unfortunately, because I have a kid in preschool, he’s sick every other week. So I’m there all the time. I see my face there. I’m like, look, that’s mommy. He gets so excited. Sometimes there’ll be someone in the lobby, and they’re like, “Oh, we were just talking about these sleep issues. You should call her.” It’s just nice to also be part of the community in that way and help local parents as well.

Jayne Havens: Yeah, absolutely. What are you loving most about the beginning stages of your journey? Are you loving the business side? Are you loving the results your clients are getting? What would you say brings the biggest smile to your face?

Spenser Lipton: Definitely the end result. When a parent is, they’re feeling defeated, it’s just like, I take that on. It breaks my heart because I’ve been there. When I first started sleep training my first and he just would not nap, I was like, I just couldn’t fathom what I was going to do. And so when I see another parent like that, I just relate to them so much. Then when we get to the other side and they just see the light, it just makes me so happy that I feel like I’m going through it all over again.

But I do also love the business building, which is why I was so attracted to your course. Because there’s such a focus on that. I really love building something from the ground up. I work for a startup, so that’s a lot of my own experience. I feel like I’ve always been entrepreneurial and thinking of different ways that I could do something on my own. But like I said, I never felt something I was passionate about like this. So doing something that mixes my desire to be entrepreneurial but also something I feel so excited about working on is like a dream come true.

Jayne Havens: Yeah, and I think it’s really easy to draw the parallels between us reaching our goals as entrepreneurs and then also helping our clients to reach their goals as parents who are trying to establish healthy sleep habits, right? In the beginning, it feels so hard. It feels totally impossible. Like, how am I going to do this? Then you make these baby steps, and you see your business start to grow. It’s beginning to flourish.

Same thing with our clients. They have that breakthrough, or something big happens. All of a sudden, their kids are napping, or they slept through the night for the first time. I just think there are so many parallels between the work that we’re doing for ourselves and our own businesses, and then also the work that we do for our clients and the results that we get for them. I don’t know. I think it’s so similar if you think about it.

Spenser Lipton: It is. It really is. I never thought about it that way, but it is really similar.

Jayne Havens: And if we take it even a step further, we’re sitting here coaching parents to believe that it’s possible that their baby can sleep through the night. Then I also know that it’s possible for people like you to have a successful business. In the beginning, I don’t think you had crazy doubts. I think you were a believer in yourself. I think you came to me, if I remember correctly, like — you’re like, “I’ve read a lot about this. I know this. I’ve done this.” But that’s not everybody’s experience. And really, truthfully, with proper coaching and support, you can have a successful business. And your clients can have a baby or a toddler that sleeps through the night. It’s like double win.

Spenser Lipton: So true.

Jayne Havens: What are your goals for the coming year, or even several years, as you work to grow your business?

Spenser Lipton: I really love what I do full time in terms of being in the corporate world and working B2B. When I started this, I was actually talking with my brother who was involved in partnerships. He was like, this is a great opportunity for you to stay in your world, where you already have all these skills and adapt it. So you have both. You have what you’re really great at and what you’re really passionate about, and work with companies to provide your services to their employees.

What I’m trying to do is connect with like-minded companies that focus on the well-being of their employees, especially working parents, and provide my services to them hopefully at the cost of the company as opposed to their employees. So that’s really my primary goal in terms of growing. Of course, working alongside families that I’m supporting which I love doing but trying to make a larger impact in that way, which I think it’ll be a challenge but something that I’m excited about.

Jayne Havens: I think that’s totally brilliant. I’m actually going to connect you with somebody inside of our CPSM community who is doing the exact same thing.

Spenser Lipton: Oh, great.

Jayne Havens: Because I think you could bounce ideas off of one another and really help each other out to navigate this world. I think that the idea is brilliant. And just the way that big companies are starting to offer allowances or credits for postpartum support, or they have health benefits, whether it’s to pay for you to go to the gym or whatever, other wellness services, I think that sleep support absolutely should be integrated into those packages.

Because if parents are showing up to work exhausted because their kids are up all night long, then obviously they’re not functioning at their highest level. So I think it’s absolutely brilliant. I can’t wait to connect you to one of my students.

Spenser Lipton: Yeah, I’m so excited, too. It’s definitely something that I think, like you said, is an asset for companies. I’m hoping that I can get them to agree to that too.

Jayne Havens: I think you will be. I think you will be able to 100%. Before we wrap up, why don’t you share anything you’d like? Your website? Your Instagram? Where can people find you if they want to follow along as you work to grow your business and support more families?

Spenser Lipton: My website is mysleepfriend.co and my Instagram handle is @mysleepfriend.

Jayne Havens: Well, thank you, Spenser. This was awesome. Congratulations on your early success. I can’t wait to hear all that you do as your business grows.

Spenser Lipton: Thank you so much. I had such a nice time chatting with you.

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.