Slow and Organic Growth with Alanna Wolf

 

Alanna is a Boston-based mom of two, an occupational therapist, potty training consultant, and certified pediatric sleep consultant through the Center for Pediatric Sleep Management. For over three years, she has been helping families navigate their sleep journeys through her business, Big Picture Sleep Solutions. What began as a side hustle alongside her career as an occupational therapist has now become her primary focus.

Alanna’s passion for baby and toddler sleep was sparked when her older daughter was an infant. Determined to support her own baby, she immersed herself in the world of sleep consulting and discovered a deep love for it. She is dedicated to creating a supportive space where families can learn about sleep in a flexible, non-judgmental, and personalized way. Alanna takes pride in her work and has helped hundreds of families achieve the rest they need to thrive. Alanna Wolf

 

 

Links:

Website: Big Picture Sleep Solutions
Instagram: @bigpicturesleep

 

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.

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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.

Alanna is a Boston-based mom of two, an occupational therapist, potty training consultant, and certified pediatric sleep consultant through the Center for Pediatric Sleep Management. For over three years, she has been helping families navigate their sleep journeys through her business, Big Picture Sleep Solutions. What began as a side hustle alongside her career as an occupational therapist has now become her primary focus.

Alanna’s passion for baby and toddler sleep was sparked when her older daughter was an infant. Determined to support her own baby, she immersed herself in the world of sleep consulting and discovered a deep love for it. She is dedicated to creating a supportive space where families can learn about sleep in a flexible, non-judgmental, and personalized way. Alanna takes pride in her work and has helped hundreds of families achieve the rest they need to thrive.

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

Alanna Wolf: I’m so excited to be here and that we could make it work.

Jayne Havens: Before we get started, tell us about you. What were you doing prior to becoming a sleep consultant, and why did you decide to jump into this line of work?

Alanna Wolf: So I’m an OT, an occupational therapist, and I had been working as an OT for like eight years. And I had a baby. Well, first it was COVID and then I had a baby in early 2021. I, one, learned about sleep and felt like, “Oh, I really like this.” And I feel like there’s kind of a missing spot in sleep that I could help fill.

And also, the idea of going back to in-person OT which is, most of the OT world, is in person during the pandemic. Which we’re still in the height of the pandemic, you know, like mask, goggles, the whole shebang. I was, you know, I had a new baby and was breastfeeding her and wanted to be with her. And so, with all of that said, I kind of was like really seeking something different.

Jayne Havens: Yeah, got it. So I wanted to have you on the podcast to discuss slow and organic growth. You’ve been in this business for about three years now. I think you launched your business in the fall of 2021. So let’s talk about what that looked like. I’m wondering what were your initial goals when you first were getting started.

Alanna Wolf: Yeah, so my ideal vision was that this could be a full-time gig. But I also was aware that I had an infant. I wanted to also have more kids. I was about to move. Also, it takes work to start a business. I didn’t expect that it was just I was going to start, and it was all going to boom, and it was going to be perfect. So I really from the get go had the mindset of, like, I want to plant seeds for this growth that I’m in control of. Like I know what’s happening with my business.

I mean, my first initial goals were to gain confidence around sleep and really know what I’m talking about, feel confidence in talking to people about what I do, and selling myself. So really just like getting my feet wet and playing the groundwork in the foundation for my business. At first, it was really just a side hustle. Any income was good. And also, if I didn’t get income, that’s okay. I mean, I wanted to keep building, but it wasn’t the primary goal.

Jayne Havens: So what I’m hearing from you is that you weren’t putting too much pressure on yourself, at least in the beginning.

Alanna Wolf: Yeah.

Jayne Havens: And maybe not now, either. I don’t know. But it sounds like you had really realistic expectations for what it takes to start a business from scratch. You were willing to like take your time and put in the work and see what happened over time.

Alanna Wolf: Yeah. I mean, I always had this vision and this dream of like, “This could be the thing.” But I really tried. I mean, it’s not always easy, but I really tried to keep the pressure off that it had to be so quick.

Now my goals are a little more formal. I have revenue goals and whatever. But that’s because I really think it’s because I didn’t put pressure on myself to grow super fast. I think some people are like, “If I don’t grow fast, it’s nothing,” and then they don’t do it anymore. To me, it was like, “I’m going to gain confidence. I’m going to build up all the people that I’ve been connecting with and working with.” The goal is that, over time, this can gradually become more and more of what I do. And now it is, which is great.

Jayne Havens: I love that. I think so many brand-new sleep consultants right out of the gate, they’re like, “How do I get to the finish line three weeks from now?” Right? And not only do I think that that’s not realistic, but I also think it’s detrimental to their long-term success. Because when you set unrealistic goals and then you don’t meet them, then you feel like garbage. Whereas if you set your goals small and you’re really realistic about what it looks like to grow a legitimate and sustainable, successful business, then you can take each little victory as it comes and feel good about that.

Alanna Wolf: Totally. Yeah, I once heard, I think, on a podcast or something — this was particularly about Instagram growth. It was like, let’s compare Instagram or your business to a party, like a house party. And if, little by little, people trickle in, you feel like, “Okay. I know who’s here. I know what we’re doing.” But if like 100 people come at once, you’re like, “I don’t know what’s happening in my house. I don’t know who’s here.”

So that’s really resonated with me for Instagram and for my business. It’s like, if you kind of know what’s going on in your business, and you feel like in control of the situation even if that’s slow, that is better than just feeling like totally bombarded and being like, “What the hell am I doing?”

Jayne Havens: Yeah, I think that’s right. Then also, in the beginning, you don’t have the experience to handle if a flood of business is coming your way. I think that that’s potentially detrimental to your success. Because if you don’t know how to juggle all of that, then you don’t have success stories. You don’t have referrals, and you can’t really leverage that influx of business that’s coming your way.

Alanna Wolf: Right. And I feel like, in the beginning of my business, especially when I really just had one or two clients at a time, I felt like I was really able to, you know. Then the information was still new in my brain, so it wasn’t as immediate I knew how to answer things. So I felt like I was able to really give the support, good quality support, to those people while I was still gaining confidence. I think giving good quality support and really spending time with people is something that I still really enjoy doing. I think that’s really what has kind of built my brand to what it is and why people trust me. So I just took it as I was able to do it.

In the beginning, it was like I could only handle this amount of giving good quality support. Gradually, over time, that built up. And also, you know, I’m sure a lot of people feel this way too. For me, I don’t naturally want to sell myself, like, sell my business. It’s really hard for me to do that. So to feel really confident doing that, I needed to kind of like gradually increase my prices. I increased my prices when I started feeling like, “Yeah, I’m good enough for that. I can do that.” Then each time I felt that way, I’ll increase my prices. I felt like little by little that happened. So for me, confidence and giving good quality support, it had to be gradual.

Jayne Havens: Yeah, and I think that good quality support is ultimately what leads to success and referrals, right?

Alanna Wolf: Yeah.

Jayne Havens: So, you know, if you’re only supporting families at 65%, 70%, the likelihood of them sharing your name with their friends is much lower than if you’re giving them 100%.

Alanna Wolf: Right. Totally, yeah. So for me, the slow build has been extremely helpful for me. My babies are toddlers, and they’re in school more time. I have more time to dedicate to it. And I also just have so much more experience and so much more confidence in giving good quality support to a much larger number of people.

Jayne Havens: When you were first getting started, where did you find those first initial clients? Who were they? Where did they come from?

Alanna Wolf: So the first few people that I worked with were pro bono. For me, that was great because I needed to see what people were doing, what people wanted, how I was giving support. I didn’t want people I knew because I just didn’t want it to — I don’t know. I didn’t want to feel like pressure. I think it was from a Facebook group or something and just kind of wanted volunteers for this. Then after that, once I was charging a little bit, I announced it on my Facebook. I started an Instagram. I think the first few people were either kind of distant friends, like people I didn’t really know but are Facebook friends or those people knew. So yeah, somehow connected to my orbit.

Jayne Havens: Was there a moment or time where you really felt like your business started to gain traction and momentum, where families were actually coming to you more than you seeking out those families?

Alanna Wolf: I’m not sure that I can pinpoint it to a specific time. But I feel like even in the last academic year, so maybe like my second year of the business, I was like, oh, more days than not, I’m getting an email or getting someone reaching out to me about sleep or just signing up randomly. Like more and more people are just signing up without even talking to me. So I feel like probably in my second year of business, that’s when it started happening more organically and more frequently.

Jayne Havens: As I was outlining this episode and I was thinking about that question, I was like, “Huh, I don’t even know if I know when that happened for me either, to pinpoint it.” But I do remember I still have this core memory of the very first family that hired me without ever speaking to me.

Alanna Wolf: I also remember mine.

Jayne Havens: Like, I know her name. I am still friendly with her. We’re Instagram and Facebook friends. I’ve seen her kids grow up. And I will never forget her as that person who just went onto my website and paid me. I don’t remember what my pricing was at that point. I think it was like $650, and she just paid me. She had never spoken to me. I didn’t know who she was. And I’m like, “Who is this person?” I think that that moment is something that most sleep consultants, I think, remember. Because it’s a really big deal to have somebody have enough trust in you, to sign on to work with you without ever having a conversation. How cool is that?

Alanna Wolf: Totally. Mine was like one of those 3 AM sign ups. I woke up in the morning and saw that someone had signed up, and I’ve never spoken to this person. And also, that client happened to be one of the only babies that we started and not even any crying. It was like 10 minutes later, he fell asleep. I’m like, “You could have easily done this?”

Jayne Havens: So three years in, what does it look like now? What’s your client load? How many families are you supporting? How are you juggling at all? What does that look like?

Alanna Wolf: I mean, now, and this has always been my goal, my two year old started school this year. She’s in school like four days a week. My almost four year old is in school five days a week. So my goal has always been like, I want to work. I don’t work 40 hours. Well, maybe I do because I work because I just enjoy it. But I don’t dedicate 40 hours of full-time work to the business. I work probably half time or maybe a little bit more than that. I support around 15 to 20 clients per month. Probably, half of them are like just one-time calls and half of them are like two-week clients. Maybe sometimes a little bit more, sometimes a little bit less.

I build connections. I sometimes will speak at a mom’s group, or I’ll go to networking events with perinatal professionals. I have relationships at this point with other people in the baby space. Other than that, I don’t have to do a lot to get emails and signups from people, which is really nice. And I have a stream coming from those referrals, from those perinatal professionals and the person that they trust in the world of sleep. I just see any connection I’m able to build as a good connection. So that’s kind of where I’m at now. I really feel confident that I’m able to kind of make it work as this is like, this is my work.

Jayne Havens: This is it.

Alanna Wolf: Yeah.

Jayne Havens: I think it’s important to say out loud that you’re three years in. This did not happen overnight. And maybe you got to the point where you were able to make it your work somewhere in year two. I don’t know. I don’t know where that moment, where you cross the threshold to feeling really confident that this could be your largely sole income. Right? Like, you’re not really relying. I know you’re dabbling in a tiny bit of OT still, but this is your primary source of income.

I think it’s really important to say that that did not happen overnight. It takes time. It was a slow build. It was organic. Three years in, most of that business is coming to you by way of people sharing your name in their communities, which is what it should be.

Alanna Wolf: Yeah, right. I also kind of recognized the stage of my life that I was in and like my personal goals too. The first year of business, my infant was mostly home. I didn’t really have any support, so this was just like on the side when she was napping, or at night, or whatever. My second year, she also was home. So I didn’t really want to send to daycare that young. I just wasn’t ready for it. So I wasn’t looking to do a full-time thing. But I would do, you know. My parents helped, whatever. I did some hours of work, so that’s like where I was at that year.

The next year, she was ready for school, but I had another baby. So it’s like, for where I was at personally, I wasn’t looking for overnight growth because I also wanted to balance having a family, which was a priority. Then the next year, my other baby was home, whatever. Then this year, I have more time, and I’ve laid that initial groundwork. I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to sustain it without doing as much OT. I was a little stressed about that. But it’s been great, and I feel like really confident that’s going to continue.

Jayne Havens: Have your goals evolved now that, you know, when you first started, you were a stay-at-home mom who is interested in a side hustle. And now this is your— I hesitate to call it a full-time gig. I don’t even call it a full-time gig for myself, even though it is. But I also, same as you, we have our lives. I play tennis two to three times a week. I meet friends for lunch. I drop off my kids at school, and I pick them up. I have a really flexible life. So to say that it’s full-time feels weird. But I don’t know. It probably is. Have your goals evolved? And do you feel like you have room for more growth?

Alanna Wolf: I mean, there’s always room for more growth. I definitely feel like I have room for more growth. My goals have definitely evolved. And I feel like at the beginning of each year, I’m like, “What’s my goal for this year?”

Actually, at the beginning of this year, I had like, I don’t know, five main goals. One of them was a revenue goal, which I was like, “I’m just going to set one that’s higher than I think I can reach.” I think that’s better than staying safe. It’s like, all right, if I don’t meet the goal, it’s okay. But I’d rather try to push for it than not. I met it at the beginning of December. I didn’t even think I could reach that in the beginning of the year. So that was really cool and just kind of a note to myself of like, okay, really push yourself and set higher goals. Maybe even if you might not accomplish them, you might accomplish them. So that’s good.

I also actually just this month started doing potty training consults also. So that’s something that I’m growing. And just generally, always kind of gradually growing my Instagram and just trying to take on more clients, thinking of like what other things I can do. I’ve thought about having people work with me, but I’m not ready to. I don’t think that that aligns with me honestly. I think it’s like pressure. Because I see other people doing it. So I’m like, “Oh, maybe I should do that.” I feel like my business brand is like, that is very personal. So at this point, I like that. But in other ways, I feel like offering different types of support. Potty training is kind of my focus growth area right now.

Jayne Havens: I love that you set a goal at the beginning of the year that you didn’t think you were going to meet. I end that you met it. How cool is that? I personally really struggle with that, because I like to be successful. So I hesitate. This is something I’m working on in my own brain. It’s okay to not meet your own goals. Just trying for them is the point of it, right? And so I really struggle with that.

Sometimes I set a goal in my head, and that’s my big goal. Then I set my realistic goal. I like that you were able to just like set a really big goal in your brain and be okay with the fact that maybe you don’t hit it. That’s okay.

Alanna Wolf: Right.

Jayne Havens: But you did, so that’s even better.

Alanna Wolf: Yeah, I had a sleep client who was also a business coach. So we just were kind of talking stuff about entrepreneurship. She kind of planted that seed in my mind of, it’s okay if you don’t meet all the goals. But it’s better to kind of stretch yourself and see like maybe you can meet that goal. And if you do, it’s great. If you don’t, that’s okay. You can just, you can keep trying. So I got really resonated.

Jayne Havens: Do you feel the pressure to grow quickly? Do you feel like the pressure to grow quickly, is there somewhere out there, whether it’s in your brain? Even though you know what works for you is to grow at your own pace, do you feel that outside pressure?

Alanna Wolf: Yeah, I mean, I’m a human person. On slow months, it’s very easy to get in my head of like, “Okay. Maybe I should just get an OT job.” I can always fall back on that. But then I have a really successful month, and I’m like, “Oh. No, I’m good.” And now I feel like, more consistently, I’m having those successful months and it’s evened out. But definitely, throughout the last three years, there have been times where I’m like, I don’t know if this is going to happen.

Even on Instagram, I feel like there’s a lot of pressure to go viral and have a large following. For me, I think engagement and having a community is probably better than being viral and having a lot of followers. But it’s really hard to think that way. I don’t know how social media works with your brain and the pressure around it. I keep falling back to, think of all the things that you have built in your foundation and the community of people that come to you as their guidance. I really believe in my brand. I really believe that I have a good community. So I just keep trying to remind myself those things even if things feel slow or maybe have more doubts in my mind.

Jayne Havens: And I think even, maybe you can relate to this. This is how I feel. It’s like three years into your business. When you have a slow month, that’s still way busier than you were in year one or year two, right? So we have, to some degree, manage our own expectations, right?

Alanna Wolf: Yeah, totally.

Jayne Havens: Because I often think about that in my own business. Sometimes I feel like I’m having a slow month, and then I think back to what it looked like a few years ago and what my goals were a few years ago. I need to get a grip, you know. Like, I think this is fine. Right? So I think it’s all perspective and keeping your brain in check and realizing that as long as you’re moving in the right direction. And you don’t always move in the right direction.

My business overall this year was the first year that was slower than the year before. That had never happened to me in my business before. I had been mentally preparing for that. Because, at some point, that’s going to happen. Right? That’s just the way the cookie crumbles. You can’t just grow every single year indefinitely. That’s what organic growth looks like. It’s two steps forward, one step back. Three steps forward, one or two steps back. And becoming comfortable with that, I think, is important for me from like a mental health perspective for sure.

Alanna Wolf: Yeah, I mean, it’s exactly what we tell our clients. Progress isn’t always linear. If you’re looking at a big chart, you’re generally looking for a trend in the right direction. But if you zoom in, you’re going to see little ups and downs. That’s just the name of the game.

Jayne Havens: I also think it’s important to not just focus on revenue, you know. Because even if revenue is down a little bit, I think about for me, to use this year as an example, I learned so much this year in how to grow a business. Even several years in, I’m still learning. Whether it’s how to use my email marketing more effectively, or SEO strategies, or whatever it may be.

Every single year, I’m learning new things. That even if it doesn’t help me to increase my revenue, it might help me to decrease my workload, right? This year—I actually think this happened for me—even if revenue dropped a little bit, I worked a lot less, which means I put systems in place. I automated. I got better at doing what I do, so it all takes less time. And that is worth— I don’t even know how much. It’s worth a lot to me.

Alanna Wolf: Yeah, totally.

Jayne Havens: So I think it’s important for everybody listening that, you know, it’s not all just about money. I think it’s about lifestyle and making the business work for you. And, you know, we all have good days, bad days, good months, bad months. As you said, as long as you’re trending in the right direction, and your business is aligning with your life, and it feels good for you. I don’t know, that’s all I can ask for personally.

Alanna Wolf: Yeah, and I feel like some of those slower months are months that you’re able to kind of plant more seeds and spend more time, right? Like you were saying, I’m able to maybe go to more moms’ groups and get myself out there or focus more on my Instagram stories. I don’t know. So there are just things you maybe will have more time for to plant more seeds. Then oftentimes, when you have slow months, then you have a bigger month as long as you’re planting those seeds.

Jayne Havens: Where can people find you if they want to follow you on social media or maybe check out your website?

Alanna Wolf: So my Instagram is @bigpicturesleep. My website is bigpicturesleep.com. One last thing that I was thinking about in terms of slow growth and really building up a business gradually is, I feel like the mentality that I’ve had around just doing the thing has really helped me. Because if you spend a lot of time making sure it’s all 100% lined up, you’re 100% ready to go, to me, that’s kind of a waste of time for me and my style. I’m like, okay, I’m just going to get myself out there.

Like with potty training, I was nervous. I’m like, okay. But I have to start, and I have to plant seeds. Because if I waited, then in six months, I would be new and had no experience. But now I’m starting. Now I’m going to have experience. Then in six months, I’ll feel so much more confident about it. So I just feel like done is better than perfect, especially when you’re thinking of slow, gradual organic growth.

Jayne Havens: Yeah, I think that’s absolutely true. I talk to people all the time who haven’t even enrolled in a sleep consultant certification program yet. They tell me they’ve been thinking about it for a year and a half or three years. And when people say that to me, I’m like, “Oh my gosh. Can you imagine where this person would be in their business?” Let’s take you for example. For somebody who says they’ve been thinking about it for three years, they could be where you are right now. How ridiculous is that, you know?

Alanna Wolf: Yeah, totally.

Jayne Havens: And I think those same people who mull over getting started sometimes also mull over, how are they going to put themselves out there? What are they going to call their business? Should they make a website? Every decision takes so much thought. I’m just more of a gamble. Just get it done. If you don’t love it, you can do it again another way later. Just start working, and you will figure it out along the way. Each of my businesses has already had two websites. Snooze Fest, I’m on my second iteration of that website. Same with CPSM. You just move. Get it done. You learn so much along the way.

Alanna Wolf: My first website was so— I mean, I had it for, until this year, I redid it this year. But it worked. It was good, but it was very heinous. It was very just bare bones. I could easily spend so much time obsessing over it and making sure it was like super beautiful and perfect. But then I wouldn’t have had all the experience that I had for a couple of years. And I didn’t want to put a lot of money up front toward it. So I just did it myself and made it work. People don’t care. People don’t care about that stuff. People care about the support that you’re giving them.

Jayne Havens: I think most people who are listening to this podcast, whether they’re interested in becoming sleep consultants or whether they’re sort of in the beginning stages, this is something that a lot of people struggle with. I just said it to someone the other day. I think it’s a Michael Jordan quote, but I’m going to botch it. He said something along the lines of like, “I miss more shots than most people take.” Right?

Alanna Wolf: Yeah. “You miss 100% of the shots that you don’t take.”

Jayne Havens: No, that’s different. I think that’s Wayne Gretzky.

Alanna Wolf: Oh, okay.

Jayne Havens: I think that’s Wayne Gretzky, and that’s another really good one. But I think it was Michael Jordan who said, “I miss more shots than most people take.”

Alanna Wolf: Uh huh. Uh huh.

Jayne Havens: Right. And so you have to put yourself out there. You have to try things. You have to take shots. You can miss all day long and still be one of the best. And I think that that’s really important for growing a business. And if you’re not willing to put yourself out there, you’re not willing to talk to people, you’re not willing to try new things, then it’s going to be really hard. I’m sure you could probably list hundreds of missteps, or mistakes. or many failures in your business that are really just learning lessons. They’ve all led you to where you are today, which is running a successful full-time sleep consulting business, which is super cool.

Alanna Wolf: Yeah. Love it.

Jayne Havens: All right. Let’s wrap up there. Alana, it was great chatting with you.

Alanna Wolf: You, too.

Jayne Havens: We’re about to do it again soon.

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.