What Tennis Taught Me About Business with Jayne Havens
I play tennis weekly with my oldest and best friend Melanie. She’s a much stronger player than I am, and for a long time, I’d walk off the court feeling a bit defeated. But over time, I realized something really powerful: playing with someone better than me was actually helping me grow.
And that got me thinking about what it feels like to be a new sleep consultant… or even someone just thinking about getting started.
In this episode of the Becoming a Sleep Consultant podcast,
I’m sharing the lessons I’ve learned from the tennis court and how they apply to entrepreneurship, confidence, and surrounding yourself with people who push you to level up—even when it feels uncomfortable.
If you’ve ever felt like you’re not ready, not good enough, or not “expert” enough to start… this one’s for you.
Links:
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.
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.
Jayne Havens: Hi, everyone, and welcome back to the Becoming a Sleep Consultant Podcast. I want to tell you about something a little different today, but stick with me because I promise it relates.
Every single week, I play tennis with my oldest friend Melanie. We’ve been doing it for years, and it’s one of my favorite parts of the week. Every single Tuesday, we play with a coach right smack dab in the middle of the day. I take a few morning calls and then race to meet Mel on the courts by noon, and then I rush home to shower and finish my workday before grabbing the kids from school.
Our tennis game is not competitive at all. We’re not keeping score or anything like that. It’s just for fun. But here’s the thing: Melanie is a much stronger tennis player than I am. Like no contest, she’s way better. And honestly, it used to get to me. I’m a bit competitive, if you can’t tell. And I don’t like to get my butt kicked week after week. But somewhere along the way, I realized that playing with someone better than me every single week was actually making me better at the game. And that’s exactly what I want to talk to you about today, because this is so similar to how it feels when you’re a new sleep consultant entering the field.
At first, you feel like you’re playing up—if we’re sticking with the metaphor. You’re watching other consultants with years of experience under their belts. They share beautiful testimonials, they have polished Instagram pages, and their client referrals are just coming in left and right. You start to wonder if there’s something wrong with your business. Why does your business not look like theirs?
But I want to offer a bit of a reframe. Being surrounded by people who are ahead of you is not a sign that you don’t belong. It’s not proof that you’re falling short. It’s exactly where you’re supposed to be. In fact, it’s a gift. Because just like I’m becoming a better tennis player by consistently showing up and playing with Mel, you are becoming a stronger sleep consultant every time you engage in spaces where people are doing what you want to be doing.
It’s easy to feel like you should already be the expert. But the truth is, nobody starts that way. Every consultant who now looks like they have it all figured out, guess what? They had their first discovery call at some point. They struggled with a client. They posted content that didn’t land. They got ghosted. They felt imposter syndrome.
They probably also felt like they were playing tennis with someone who had decades of experience on them. But the longer you stick with it, the more you show up, learn, tweak, grow, the better you get. And just like I no longer flinch when I see Melanie’s backhand coming straight at me most of the time, you’ll get to a point in your business where you’re more confident in your process, more at ease in your conversations, and clearer in your messaging. That doesn’t come from only reading or watching from the sidelines. That comes from playing.
So if you’re feeling like you’re not the strongest player on the court right now, I want to encourage you to stay in the game. Let yourself learn from those around you. Be humble, yes, but also be hungry. Take what you can from every single interaction. Ask questions. Watch how others handle tricky situations. Notice how they talk about their offers, how they hold boundaries and how they lead, and know that you will become one of those people to someone else someday. That’s the beauty of this work. And honestly, that’s one of the most rewarding parts of being a mentor inside of the CPSM community. Watching people go from unsure and tentative to seasoned and thriving, that literally never gets old.
So the next time you feel like you’re out of your league, remember, you’re not behind. You’re just in the learning phase. And that means you’re right where you need to be. And if you’re not yet a sleep consultant, if you’re currently still sitting on the sidelines, please let this be your sign. You don’t get better by watching. You get better by playing, by starting, by getting into the game. You don’t have to have all the answers. You just have to be willing to get out there and try.
Thanks for listening. Keep showing up. You’re doing great.
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.