A CPSM Graduate Spotlight with Jamie Toliver

 

Jamie is a mom of two toddler girls, a pediatric sleep consultant from the Center for Pediatric Sleep Management, and founder of Jamie’zzz Sleep Consulting. She’s always been passionate about making an impact and spent the greater part of her career in the nonprofit space.

While navigating a challenging postpartum chapter after the birth of her first daughter, Jamie became obsessed with baby sleep, and began to self-educate. She left her “full time job” while pregnant with baby #2 to pursue this new journey of sleep consulting and entrepreneurship – with the mission of making an impact on new parents and their little ones. Jamie has been supporting families since April 2023 and looks forward to growing her business and helping more households thrive! Jamie Toliver

 

Links: 

Website: Jamie’zzz Sleep

 

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

Book a free discovery call to learn how you can become a Certified Sleep Consultant here.

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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.

Jamie is a mom of two toddler girls, a pediatric sleep consultant through the Center for Pediatric Sleep Management, and founder of Jamie’zzz Sleep Consulting. She’s always been passionate about making an impact and spent the greater part of her career in the nonprofit space.

While navigating a challenging postpartum chapter after the birth of her first daughter, Jamie became obsessed with baby sleep, and began to self-educate. She left her full-time job while pregnant with baby number two to pursue this new journey of sleep consulting and entrepreneurship — with the mission of making an impact on new parents and their little ones. Jamie has been supporting families since April of 2023 and looks forward to growing her business and helping more households thrive.

Jayne Havens: Jamie, welcome to the Becoming a Sleep Consultant Podcast. I’m so excited to have this conversation with you today.

Jamie Toliver: Hi, Jayne. Thanks for having me.

Jayne Havens: Before we get started, maybe share a bit of your story. Why did you decide to become a certified sleep consultant?

Jamie Toliver: Yes, so I was working in a nonprofit space for the greater part of my career. I did marketing for a small nonprofit. I’ve always been passionate about doing something that makes an impact in the world or on the lives of people. I spent about six or so years doing that, which I loved.

In the midst of that, I had my first daughter in 2021, so also kind of in the height of COVID. I gave birth to her in May of 2021. It was amazing and beautiful. And also, I struggled. I struggled with postpartum anxiety and postpartum depression. It was a very isolating time in the world as well, so that didn’t help. I didn’t know anything about baby sleep prior to having a baby. I didn’t even know sleep consulting was an industry. But ultimately, after a few tough weeks, ten to be exact, I enlisted that help on a sleep consultant.

A friend had recommended someone. Again, I had never heard of a sleep consultant before. So I ended up working with one, and it was life changing. I mean, my daughter was sleeping amazing. But more so, I was so empowered with knowledge. And so I became obsessed with baby sleep. I basically took what I learned from the sleep consultant. I went down my own rabbit hole of learning more, and then helping friends who had babies after me, and really helping them sleep train their babies for fun, while, of course, I still have this other full-time job and I was a mom.

Then I continued on with my job. I got pregnant again. I guess I was pregnant in 2022. I decided that it was time for me to basically invest in myself and do something that I’m really passionate about and not answer to other people anymore. I never set out to be an entrepreneur by any means, and I’m pretty sure that my friends and family now probably love that I do have my own business. So I ended up leaving that full-time position when I was pregnant with my second daughter, and went through the certification process.

My goal was really just to become a certified consultant by the time I gave birth in May of 2023. I have no intention of utilizing the certification necessarily. I just really wanted to have it under my belt and then see where the next few months took me. I really wanted to step into my role as a mom of two, really give myself space through the postpartum chapter, and then try to start my own business. So that’s, I guess, the long story short of how I became one.

Jayne Havens: Yeah, I think I remember when I first spoke to you, you were very pregnant. Right? I think I remember you saying, like, you really just wanted to further your own knowledge so that when you have this other baby, then you have an easier time second time around. And if you could help friends, even at a higher level, that would be amazing. I do remember you sort of having very — I don’t want to say low expectations but low pressure.

You put very little pressure on yourself to get out there and start a business. You just wanted to learn, and you wanted to help people. I think that energy probably is what ultimately positioned you to thrive. Would you agree?

Jamie Toliver: Yeah, I think I didn’t put too much pressure on myself. And I really assumed that becoming a certified sleep consultant would help me best prepare for my next newborn phase and help my second daughter get into a really great groove of sleeping early on. And it did.

Then I got very lucky because my friend at the time was in a New York City mom’s group. Her son was three months old. She had passed my name along to her friend in her mom group and said, you know, “My friend is becoming a sleep consultant. Here’s her contact.” So this friend of hers reached out to me — again, while I was nine months pregnant — and basically asked if I could help her.

I was not officially certified yet, but I knew what I was doing. I was confident in what I was doing and also very upfront with her about how she would be my first, basically, test client. I charged her very little, and I worked with her for more than my traditional two-week timeframe. That’s kind of how everything spiraled. I was able to grow really organically from there and from her word of mouth in this amazing community of moms of three months old that she was a part of.

But yes, to answer your question, I had very low expectations. I had no idea when I would actually start taking on clients. I just really wanted to set my own baby up for success as she was brought into the world.

Jayne Havens: Yeah, so I was looking back. You enrolled in, I think, January of 2023. You completed the course in April of that same year. It was sort of like late January when you enrolled. So about three months to complete the course. How did you juggle your studying and learning with being a mom and being very, very pregnant? Then what did it look like? It was great to hear sort of that first story. But what did it look like for it to snowball from there once you were certified?

Jamie Toliver: Yes, so, like you said, I enrolled in the program in January with the goal of being completed in May. Obviously, it was a lot. I had a toddler at home. But I did have part-time childcare, which was really helpful. I just dedicated most of my mornings to doing the course.

Honestly, I fell in love with the course material. I really was never a school person, but I loved learning about everything in the course. It was so, so helpful. The videos, just all the content, it was amazing and really empowering to feel like I was learning and then also being able to showcase what I was learning in the written assessment.

And so, again, I spent most of my mornings doing the course. I probably may have been able to complete it in less than three months had I not had a child at home. But I felt like I was on a good path. And I was able to get there by April, like you said. So I ended up taking on my first client exactly a year ago this week. It was the first week of April last year.

After I worked with this one girl, she passed my name along. Basically, these people continued to pass my name on. I was really focused on relationship building. I was not focused on the money at that point. Of course, it was nice to be able to make some money and have my own stream of income. But I was really focused on just making sure that my clients are getting a really great experience, so I do not cut them off out of their own point unnecessarily.

I think taking clients really helped me thrive through my own postpartum chapter, which birth of mine has been a struggle for me, but I know it’s temporary. So while I was helping my own baby, helping other babies felt so good and empowering and fulfilling. So I basically just took up anyone who came to me at that time. Then I started joining more mom’s Facebook groups in my area. And if someone posted about sleep, even I wasn’t super confident at that point, I just said I’m a newly certified sleep consultant. I ended up getting some clients that way as well. It’s really been all word of mouth up until the last three months. Three months ago, I officially launched my website.

Jayne Havens: You had business for nine months without having a website.

Jamie Toliver: Yes.

Jayne Havens: I think that that’s worth mentioning that you had sort of this steady stream of clients coming your way without any really formal infrastructure online. I think that that’s a major fear of a lot of people who are thinking about getting started in this field. It’s like, “I don’t know where to get started with the website,” or, “The tech side of things overwhelms me.”

But I love that you shared that. Because I really truly believe that when you show up and you provide a really high level of service and support for your clients and you get some results, that’s really all that matters. Right? I mean, they didn’t care that you didn’t have a website. They just heard you were the best and that you were going to take good care of them, and that was enough.

Jamie Toliver: Yeah, and it was really amazing for me to see that for myself, because I did not have the time or capacity to build a website at that point in time. I do not have social media for my business. At one point, I will want too.

However, listening to your podcast recently about sleep consultants that have been doing this much longer than me and have been thriving without social media is also really encouraging to me. I think we’re all in different stages of life. I have a toddler. Well, I guess almost two toddlers. My younger daughter is almost one. But I have two children at home. I am also a stay-at-home mom, if you will. I feel that I’m doing well enough at this point to proceed without social media right now.

It feels great to have a website. That was like my main focus. I just really like having a landing page to direct people to. And now when I do respond to Facebook messages or WhatsApp messages, it is nice to be able to link a website to legitimize myself. But like you mentioned, I feel like this is such a word-of-mouth business. If you know someone who has a well-sleeping baby and they tell you, “This is how I got my baby sleeping well,” it doesn’t take so much convincing for that next person to want to work with you.

Jayne Havens: Yeah, I agree. I think most people, at least, the people who I am in contact with, when they decide to get certified to become a sleep consultant, they do so because they’re passionate about healthy sleep habits for children. They want to help families. Most people who get into this line of work don’t see themselves as entrepreneurs, at least at first. And you already touched on that a little bit.

Did you struggle at all mentally with this? Were you able to accept this new journey as an entrepreneur? Were you able to admit, like, “Okay, I’m going to do something new, I’m going to get out there and start this business”? I want to know sort of where your head was in all of that. Because I think that that’s sometimes the biggest hump for people like you and I who just want to help families. But in order to help families, you have to be willing to put yourself out there, right? What did that feel like for you mentally, if you’re willing to share?

Jamie Toliver: Yeah, it’s a good question. Again, I didn’t set out to do this. I honestly probably didn’t even realize I had a legitimized business up until a few months in. But honestly, mentally, it made me really happy. I have always been someone who never really loved having bosses, or really doing a ton of work that I wasn’t super passionate about, or I love certain aspects of the job that didn’t help others and then just answering to other people. I think I always had this dream of mine to work for myself one day. I just had absolutely no idea what that looks like until this came along.

I feel like I finally found this amazing balance of — I love being a mom, and you’ve talked about this before. But I do not want to be a mom who just also doesn’t work at all or have a passion that they’re doing on the side. I think that’s really important just for me. So I feel like I found the perfect balance of being a mom, working, and also now I have this added bonus of owning my own thing. I know there’s a lot of admin stuff and behind-the-scenes stuff that I’m still working through and learning so much about. So I think, in that regard, it’s very new. But mentally, I think it’s just been great and positive for me.

Jayne Havens: That’s amazing. I love that. On a positive note, do you have a particular case or a family that you’ve worked with that stands out as really memorable? Would you be willing to share a success story?

Jamie Toliver: Yeah, the hard one. I mean, I think I’ll always remember my first client, because it really showed me that I could take everything I learned — everything I learned from your program but also just what I was doing in real life with my friends — and being able to apply it to a stranger, a stranger’s baby and a baby that I did not know before. I mean, I’ve never obviously physically met these babies. But I knew nothing about this child. I was able to see my work come to life and see how empowered the parents felt after we were working together, through us working together. So I feel like my first client is like my biggest success story.

I’ve had a few others that stand out. I’ve worked with a 17-month-old baby. The mom was nursing to sleep for every nap and bedtime for 17 months, which is a very long time for a parent not to be sleeping. She told me that she didn’t think her son would sleep until high school, and then he was sleeping amazingly within two days of us working together. I had someone tell me recently that they want to name their second child after me because I changed their life.

Jayne Havens: That’s amazing. That’s really amazing.

Jamie Toliver: Yeah, it was amazing. They were so funny. They were like, “My mom’s over right now. We’re just chatting about whether I have a girl or a boy next, we’re going to name them Jamie — after the person who changed our lives.” Then I had a woman last week who told me, after night one, she was like, “Jamie, you’re a genius.” It was just a one liner that I received via text. Just those things made me feel so good and just further encouraged me to keep pursuing this and keep building upon this.

Jayne Havens: I love that. I always say I’ve been doing this work for a while now, and it literally never gets old to get those text messages. When you get the text message that a two and a half year old slept through the night for the first night of their entire life ever, that is huge. Right? And these parents, they think that it’s going to be absolutely impossible.

I had somebody get on a call with me yesterday — I think we’re going to probably start Monday — who asked me if her three year old was too old for this. Is it too late? Is this impossible? I’m like, no, I cannot wait for that little three year old to sleep through the night. And it’s going to be life changing for the entire family. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been doing it. If you’ve been doing it for 1 year, 5 years, 10 years, it doesn’t matter. It never gets old.

Literally, we’re out there changing lives. I really do believe that. I think that parents don’t even realize how hard things are until they have the support to make the change. Parents tell me all the time — I don’t know if you hear this — like, “I didn’t even realize how tired we were. I didn’t even realize how bad bedtime was. I didn’t even realize how delirious I was,” until the fog clears and they can all function.

Then their children are happier. They don’t even realize that their children are as tired as they are. I just got off the phone. I had a wrap-up call with a family. I just helped their two and a half year old to sleep independently. Two and a half year olds are stinkers, right? This little two and a half year old was in the bed. Mom and dad were reporting that she was sleeping, on average, six to nine hours in a 24-hour period. So that’s really, really bad. And by the end of our two weeks, this little doll was sleeping 11 hours at night and taking a short nap at daycare.

She was doing amazingly well. Her parents didn’t even realize how cranky and miserable she was before we worked on this. They just thought this is what two year olds are like. And now they have a daughter who sleeps, and they just can’t believe it. So it’s life changing.

Jamie Toliver: It’s amazing. I think that’s the coolest part of this work. And, again, I didn’t know this when I first was in pursuit of the certification. But just being part of the community you’ve built internally, the CPSM network, and seeing how different everyone is and the different types of fields everyone works in. So many people are doulas and newborn care specialists, or nannies, or just people like me who had a completely different type of career and now is doing this. But also, that everyone is in a different age group and phase of life.

And so, like you’re saying, I feel like people are always having babies. You can always be doing this work. And as I get more time on my hands, I imagine like as my kids are older and are both in school full time, I just feel like this is a type of career that only gets better. It just really never gets stale or old.

Like you said, it’s so life changing when parents come to you. They don’t realize how sleep-deprived they are. I’m sure the parents still need this too. But everyone always says like, “I promise. I tried everything. I tried everything. You’re not going to tell me anything I don’t know.” Then within a few days, their child is doing something completely different. Because there’s so much nuance to sleep training and setting that healthy sleep foundation for a baby or a toddler.

Jayne Havens: For sure. And I also think, yes, there’s nuance. There’s also just value and accountability and support. Right? Sometimes the difference between what they’ve done without our help and what they’re doing with our help is, they actually follow through when they have our accountability and support. Right?

Jamie Toliver: Yes.

Jayne Havens: It’s invaluable. And yeah, if I had $1 for every time somebody said to me “I’ve tried everything. You’re not going to tell me something I don’t already know.” I always tell them I actually don’t think it’s about that. I think you’re right. I’m not going to tell you anything you don’t already know. We’re just actually going to do it and get it done. Your baby wants to be sleeping, and we’re going to work together to make that happen.

You sort of jumped ahead to my next thought. I was going to ask you sort of how you see your business growing in the next year or five years. I would imagine, as you said, as your kids get older and maybe spend more time in school, is your plan to seize that opportunity and work a little bit — I don’t want to say harder but spend more hours on your business, really invest more time and energy into the work that you’re already doing?

Jamie Toliver: Yeah, I have so many ideas for even just the near future. I just moved to South Florida from Los Angeles. And as I’m sure you know, there are so many young families with young children who have moved here in the last few years. So just in the last few months, I’ve joined a lot of mom’s unique classes and mom’s groups and just really learning more about my local area and how to tap into all of these new people that I’m around.

My focus starting now, and really since launching my website, is to work more on marketing myself and doing some more forward-facing stuff. A lot of these mom’s groups have, or a lot of these companies that host mom’s groups have expert workshops where they bring in experts on various topics like sleep and food and eating and all the things. I’d love to be part of that.

Doing things that are a little bit out of my comfort zone, putting myself out there to physically meet more people, and just really build my network more organically but also forward facing, and collaborations. I’ve actually started having some conversations with some other professionals who do other things and just trying to think of fun ways to collaborate with people who have similar types of communities of these young parents, and bring our communities together. I have a couple of things in the work. But really, it’s more about marketing myself now. And then, like you mentioned, as I get more time on my hands, just to continue capitalizing on the same thing.

Jayne Havens: Love that. Before we wrap up, since you have a website now, I think you should share your website. And if you’re not using social media, that’s amazing. So no need to share that. I fully support that. But share your website or any other resources that you’d like to share with our listeners. Yeah, let’s hear it.

Jamie Toliver: Yes, so my website is www.jamiezzzsleepco.com.

Jayne Havens: Awesome.

Jamie Toliver: If we circle back in a year, I’ll have an Instagram page.

Jayne Havens: Maybe. Maybe.

Jamie Toliver: Maybe.

Jayne Havens: Yeah, well, I checked out your website actually last night. I actually didn’t realize that you had one because I think you didn’t for so long.

Jamie Toliver: I did.

Jayne Havens: I checked it out. I checked it out last night, and it’s absolutely beautiful.

Jamie Toliver: Thank you.

Jayne Havens: So congratulations on pulling that together. And congrats on all of your early success in the first year of your business. I just cannot wait to see where you are another year or so down the line.

Jamie Toliver: Thank you so much. And thank you for being the one who encouraged me to pursue this route.

Jayne Havens: Of course. This is just the beginning for you. I know 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.