From Teaching to Sleep Consulting with Lauren Kalb

 

Lauren is a Certified Pediatric Sleep Consultant and trained through Center for Pediatric Sleep Management. She’s also a 3rd and 4th grade learning specialist and the mom of two little girls. After the birth of her second daughter, her oldest really struggled with sleep. She fought bedtime and would be up throughout the night. Lauren and her husband reached out to a sleep consultant and the experience changed their lives. After getting sleep back on track in her own home, she felt compelled and excited to help others!

 

Links:

Website: Sleep Tight Brooklyn
Instagram: @sleeptightbrooklyn

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.

Lauren is a Certified Pediatric Sleep Consultant and trained through Center for Pediatric Sleep Management. She’s also a 3rd and 4th grade learning specialist and the mom of two little girls. After the birth of her second daughter, her oldest really struggled with sleep. She fought bedtime and would be up throughout the night. Lauren and her husband reached out to a sleep consultant, and the experience changed their lives. After getting sleep back on track in their home, she felt compelled and excited to help others.

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

Lauren Kalb: Thanks so much for having me. I’m so excited as well.

Jayne Havens: So before we get started, tell me a little bit about you. Share a little bit about your personal life, if you’re willing, your professional background, and why you ultimately decided to become a certified sleep consultant.

Lauren Kalb: Yes, so I am a mom of two girls. I have a three year old and a one year old. And they bring me so much joy every single day and are just the best and have taught me so many lessons. I’m also an elementary school teacher. I was a first-grade teacher for eight years and then I became a learning specialist and started working with third and fourth graders.

And after becoming a mom, I realized how important sleep was, not just for myself but also for my children. And that is why I became a sleep consultant. Because my two year old gave us a run for our money when our second one was born. And we didn’t know what to do. We worked with a sleep consultant who totally changed our lives and inspired me to become a sleep consultant.

Jayne Havens: I love that. I love that so much. So I think you launched your business in December of 2023. So you’ve been in business, I think if I’m doing the math right, I don’t know, seven or eight months. Whatever that is. What does it look like now? How many families are you supporting at a time? What is your day to day like? Give us a rundown.

Lauren Kalb: I think at the beginning, I was supporting around three to four families a month. Then once I started supporting more families, it was kind of the ripple effect of my main getting around Park Slope where I live. And just in general, I started popping up on parenting, feeds and just around town. And so now I am working with five to eight families a month. Some months seem a lot busier than other months. But now I feel like I can control how many families I work with. So I’ve been kind of managing, putting people on a waitlist and making sure that I can give the most support to all the families I work with at the time.

Jayne Havens: Love that. So we actually have a lot of people both inside of our community who are sleep consultants and also teachers but I think also people who are interested in getting into sleep consulting that are in the field of education. They’re working in the classroom. One of the things that comes up in my conversations with them is, they’re really unsure about how it would all work. Like if you’re in a classroom and you’re supporting children all day long, you’re not sitting there on your cell phone. You’re not on your computer growing your business all day.

Lauren Kalb: Yeah.

Jayne Havens: So what does it look like for you? I’m wondering. It’s sort of a two part question. I’m wondering. What is the framework where you’re like working with clients — how are you managing communication while also working in a school — but then also how are you focusing on business building if you have a full-time job?

Lauren Kalb: I think that’s a loaded question. But in a sense, I am an early riser and I do all my check ins before my two girls wake up and I go to school in the morning. So I typically start families on either Friday, Friday night so then we can work on naps on Saturday and Sunday where I’m not working my full-time job. So I’ll really work with them on Friday night, get them in a really good place, and then get them in a really good place over the weekend.

And how I work with my families is I — the implementation call is around 60 minutes. I do a lot of real-time coaching and video watching with them, those first three days, so that we can get them in a good place before I go back to work on Monday. And it’s been working really, really well.

Then I started to offer a one-week program and then a three-week program so that we could have — the one-week program, sometimes we go into the next weekend so that they can have two weekends with me if I’m not 100% supporting them for naps during the week.

I find that when you front load a lot of information to them and tell them exactly what to expect, and you’re crystal clear with the method and they follow it to holding them accountable to it, they are in a really good place by Monday and they actually don’t even need you. They may throw out questions here or there. But like my job, I realized, is to give them the confidence to execute it by themselves on Monday and then just answer asking questions. So that’s kind of how I handle my workload while I’m teaching.

So I don’t find that they’re really texting me all day long. Sometimes I’ll check in with them during my late lunch break. Or if I have access to their Nanit, I’ll hop on their Nanit and make sure that everything is going well and answer any questions.

In regards to business, I typically do business and like building my business when the girls go down at night time. I try to put in two hours a night if I can, and then I do a lot of business building on the weekend. So my girls, even my three year old, still sleep from one to three, one to four, and I’ll knock out a ton of work there.

But I also think being a teacher, I form relationships really easily, and they come really naturally to me. So I’m forming relationships while we’re at the playground, while we’re going to a doctor’s appointment. My new trick is to, like, every time we go to the pediatrician, I ask to be with a different pediatrician so that I can form a relationship with the different pediatricians in our practice.

Something I’ve added to my questionnaire is, who’s your pediatrician? Because I reach out to that person and I’m like, hey, I’ve loved working with your patient. I would love for you to refer people to me. And so I’ve gotten a lot of clients just by asking who their pediatrician is on their intake form.

Jayne Havens: That is absolute gold right there. I love that. I’ve never heard anybody say that before, asking your clients who their pediatrician is. I actually was just speaking to a CPSM grad who — she was trying to build her business on social media and was feeling a little bit burnt out by it and wanted to focus more on like human-to-human networking. And that’s really how I grow my business, so I was happy to help her.

She was having a really hard time getting pediatricians and OTs and IBCLCs to respond to her. She was reaching out to them cold. One of the suggestions that I made to her — because I really don’t do cold outreach, not completely cold — I always ask a friend.

Like if I have a friend who has a different pediatrician than who I work with, I might say to them — maybe a pediatrician is a bad example, because I don’t really do that. But like if I have a friend who has a child in occupational therapy or feeding therapy, I might say to them, “Would you mind introducing me to your OT? I’d love to connect with them.”

I find that when I ask somebody to make a connection on my behalf, the person on the other end is always willing to have a conversation with me. Because they were connected by somebody that they care about and somebody that they already have a relationship with. So I love that even if it’s just like a little bit of name dropping, if you reach out to a pediatrician and you’re like, “I helped Sheree sleep train Lilly, and we had such a positive experience working together. I’d love to connect with you and see how I can help more of your patients.” I love that. That’s amazing.

Lauren Kalb: Yeah, I actually got it through a client. She was like, can I refer you, or can I give your name to my pediatrician? And I was like, wow, this is amazing. I would love that. She actually kind of helped me come up with the idea. So you learned some from your clients as well.

Jayne Havens: Yeah, I think the more and more you’re just out there talking to people about your business, as you said, whether it’s at the playground, at the pediatrician’s office, at wherever you are, if you’re sitting in a waiting room at the dentist. Actually, I was just on a nine-day trip to Italy, and it came up twice with complete strangers that I’m a sleep consultant. Once with like a grandma in an airport bar, you know. I don’t know how we got talking. She asked me what I did, and I told her. All of a sudden, she’s talking about her daughter who has two kids in her bed. It’s like you never know where these conversations are going to lead.

The other story from my trip is, I was actually on a train from one city to another in Italy and sitting across from a family Americans who were there to see the Taylor Swift concert. We struck up a conversation. She was a pediatrician. She told me actually that she refers to a sleep consultant that I actually kind of got the impression that she doesn’t even know the sleep consultant personally.

It’s like somebody who has a really big Instagram following. And I think she just thought, oh, she’s pretty big. I’ll refer to her. But she doesn’t actually know this sleep consultant. And here I was on a train with her talking for an hour and a half and she’s like, “Give me your information. Let me see your website.” I feel like I might have a new referral source out of it. Who knows?

Lauren Kalb: Amazing.

Jayne Havens: And it’s like wherever you strike up conversations, if you have the opportunity to share what you do and express the joy that you have for your work and the passion that you have for your work, I think that always leads to awesome stuff.

Lauren Kalb: Yeah, I couldn’t agree more. And I think being a teacher, I tried to do the whole social media thing and I found myself feeling so stressed out and burnt out from doing it on social media. Because I was trying to manage clients and teach and do social media. And I wasn’t enjoying it. And so that’s kind of where I said I need more people-to-people interactions and to form these relationships. Ever since I committed — I remember you telling me like commit to one thing. And ever since I committed to like that’s where I’m going to focus my business, it’s taken off from there.

Jayne Havens: Yeah, that makes me so happy. I’m so happy for you. I think we originally connected to record this podcast — how many months ago was that? It was several months ago. We had bad internet connection, and I never ended up releasing our conversation because it was too choppy. I couldn’t even hear what either one of us was saying. And I’m just so glad that we’re re-recording. Because I feel like even in the few months between our last conversation and now, you’ve gained your confidence. You’ve gotten your mojo. You’re into the swing of things, and it just makes me so happy. I’m so proud.

Lauren Kalb: That’s been incredible.

Jayne Havens: Tell me about like, do you have a family or a child in particular that you supported that really just stands out in your mind, is like an awesome success story, one case that just really makes you smile?

Lauren Kalb: There’s so many now. I feel like when we first talked back in April, it was like one or two. Now I have been working more with five month olds. And I started with this little five month old last week, and they followed my instructions to a tee. They were so coachable. I had mom and dad on board.

It’s actually funny, because mom is like — because I typically do dad does the first three nights and then mom takes over. And so I was like, okay, you can go for a walk if you want. You can go do something like self-care activity, whatever you want. And mom is like, actually, I’m going to go to the bar and just enjoy reading a book at the bar. And dad can just do sleep training for the first three nights. And she totally did it.

This little guy, night one, slept through the night, and we haven’t looked back. And naps have been in such a good place. And I feel like it’s because both parents were 100% committed to the process. But also, they took notes during our call. They were typing. You could hear the computer going. I was like sending up follow.

I typically send over a follow-up email after the implementation call to make sure that everything is crystal clear. I do bullet points so that during the first three nights, they don’t have to go back into the sleep plan. But they can literally just look at the bullet points of step-by-step instructions of exactly what to do. So I sent that over. Mom and dad were like, let’s go. Let’s rock and roll. And it’s just been so fun because they were so coachable and just follow the program. And when people follow the program, you see results. And it’s amazing.

Jayne Havens: Yeah, I love that. I find you’re so right. When you find a family that’s just so onboard, so coachable, so ready to make the changes, it’s night and day 10 out of 10 easier than when you have parents that just aren’t really committed and ready to make a change. I especially love when I see two parents just working together beautifully. Right?

Isn’t that such a beautiful thing when you have equal partnership from both parents, and they’re both 100% committed to the process? It’s not just mom reading the sleep plan. It’s both parents reading the sleep plan. It’s both parents getting on the call, dad asking lots and lots of questions. It just makes all the difference when you have 100% participation from all of the adults in the household.

Lauren Kalb: It’s so important. I think that that’s one of the biggest things I’ve learned of having both parents on board and making sure that not just mom is crystal clear on the plan but dad has to be crystal clear on the plan and be willing to work together as a team.

Jayne Havens: Yeah, I totally agree. Is there anything that you’re finding in your work that’s particularly challenging? Anything that’s sort of stopping you in your tracks? I think we talked about our businesses. Especially on this podcast, I love to highlight all the good stuff, right? But I’m also, I’m real. I think that it’s worthwhile to share the good and the hard. Is there something that you feel like is hard in your business, something that you’re still working on improving, in your own workflow or the way that you support families or even like your own mindset?

Lauren Kalb: I think there’s two things that come to mind like that. I think it also goes back to how to get both parents on board. So I’m struggling with some families when mom and dad had total different views, and it actually tends to be a lot of psychologists that I’m working with. That some dads are the psychologist and they’re like, what is this doing for their mental health and just have a lot of questions. And they’re really concerned about sleep training and the methods. I think they’re not realizing that we’re doing this for their child and not to their child.

So it’s a lot of hopping on the phone with them. It doesn’t work through text message, because they can’t hear my tone of voice. And so I’ve tried to include like Voxer or even voice memo. But with some families, it just means I have to hop on the phone with them almost like three times throughout the week, make sure that they’re totally committed and they understand the process. And when we commit, it works.

And so I think I have a hard time having some of those velvet hammer conversations with families. I have gotten so, so much better at them. But they still are difficult because I am like, I’m still pretty new to sleep consulting. And here I am being like, you need to listen to me. You hired me. And yes, I know this is really hard. But trust the process, and trust me that we will get you to the other side. So that’s like one of my biggest struggles.

Back in April, I think, when we chatted through the business side of things, I feel like that’s been getting so much better. And it’s trusting myself and also putting more time into it and knowing that if I want the business to run smoothly, I need to put things in place now. That means asking for help sometimes.

So I actually just hired Kelly to help me redo my website and do the brand design and SEO. And I’m so excited. We’re starting to work together next week. I’m so excited because I think that was just the push I needed. I went back into the course, saw some of the things you posted about her and then reached out. And it’s just been an incredible experience with her so far.

So with the business side, I think asking for help and reaching out for help, I was so hesitant to do at first. Because I was like, why did everyone figure this out, and I’m still struggling with this five months into my business? And I was like, I don’t have to keep struggling with this. I’m asking for help. And so now I finally feel like I’m getting my ducks lined up and everything in a really good place.

Jayne Havens: Yeah, I think if I look back on you several months ago, I don’t even think you were struggling. I think you were just on maybe a little bit of a slower trajectory than you had anticipated for yourself, you know. You kind of were always doing great. You have a full-time job. You started this business. You had three to four clients a month. That was amazing. That wasn’t you struggling.

But I think, really, it boils down to mindset and expectations for reality in growing a small business, you know. You wanted to be where you are now four or five months ago, and you just weren’t there yet. But you were on the way and you were laying the foundation and you were doing everything right.

I think like the major difference that I see from like a few months ago when we first recorded with that internet to us recording now is that you just have so much more confidence. Even just the way that you spoke about yourself in the beginning of this interview, you were so much more organized in your own storytelling of your truth, right? Like the more and more you talk about your business, the more and more you share about what you do and how you help families, your verbiage becomes clearer, the way that you communicate becomes more effective. And I think that that in turn resonates with families, and you’re able to connect with them better.

And instead of stuttering and stumbling over your thoughts, you know exactly what you do and how you get families results. Right? And I think now you know that when you show up for a family and you’re fully committed, obviously, because you’re really good at what you do, and if they are fully committed and ready to get to work, you know with pretty much 100% certainty that you’re going to get them results. And not only is that going to lead to a success for them in their household, but it’s also most likely going to lead to further success for you in your business. Because I would imagine you’re getting referrals from those families that you’re helping.

Lauren Kalb: Yeah, and I feel like that’s the biggest way I’m building my business right now. It’s just through referrals. It’s that trickle effect of when you work with one family and then they give your name to the next family. Then it’s like just trickling. And it’s been amazing.

Jayne Havens: Yeah. So are you aiming to do this work full time one day, or do you think it will always be a little bit of a side hustle for you?

Lauren Kalb: I think my goal one day is to do this work full time. So right now, I realized I thought it was going to be this little side hustle, take on one client. I didn’t expect it to grow the way it has. I saw your success story. I have seen a lot of sleep consultant’s success stories. And I kind of like, okay, this is just something fun I like to do. I’ll get certified, take on one to two clients a month. And now my calendar is so packed. I can actually envision this being my full-time job one day, which is incredible.

I’m mentally not there yet just because I still have a passion for education and closing the achievement gap and making sure that I just don’t feel like my job is 100% done in schools yet. But that doesn’t mean to say it’s never going to turn into a full-time job. Our plan is to move out of the city one day, into the suburbs. And that’s kind of where I would love to switch and turn this into a full-time job, once we’re out of the city.

Jayne Havens: Perfect. Before we wrap up, do you want to share — do you use social media? I feel like you’re so just like — I know you’re making a website right now. But do you use social media at all, or are you just—

Lauren Kalb: I started off using social media, and I just wasn’t into it. So I do have a social media account. I don’t post much.

Jayne Havens: Okay.

Lauren Kalb: I don’t know the last time I posted. It’s @sleeptightbrooklyn. Then my website is www.sleeptightbrooklyn.com, which I’m redoing right now. And it should be up and running within the next — well, there is one currently, but my new one should be up and running within the next couple of weeks. So that’s where you can find me.

Jayne Havens: Lauren, I’m so proud of you. I’m so glad that we had the chance to record today. And maybe we’ll check in in another six months or a year, and you’ll be doing all sorts of crazy things that I think maybe you aren’t even yet imagining for yourself. Congratulations on all your success. It was great chatting with you today.

Lauren Kalb: Thank you so much.

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.