A Look Inside the Nurture Nap Network Retreat with Kerri Nachlas
We just got back from the very first Nurture Nap Network retreat in Denver—and it was everything we hoped for and more.
This episode of the Becoming a Sleep Consultant podcast is a full recap of an unforgettable weekend spent with an incredible group of sleep consultants and parenting professionals.
We gathered at the beautiful Halcyon Hotel in Cherry Creek for three days of learning, connection, and genuine community. From the moment everyone arrived, there was this unmistakable energy—like old friends meeting for the first time in person.
Inside this episode, my co-host, Kerri, and I share all the details:
the gorgeous setting, the relaxed-yet-professional vibe, the details of the Friday night welcome reception, Saturday’s inspiring trainings and workshops, and the countless meaningful conversations that happened in between.
We also talk about why creating an in-person space for our community mattered so much to us, and why we’re already planning for next year.
If you were there with us, we hope this episode brings back all the best memories. And if you’re thinking about joining us next time—consider this your sneak peek at what makes the Nurture Nap Network retreat so special.
Links:
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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.
Jayne Havens: Hi, everyone, and welcome back to the Becoming a Sleep Consultant podcast.
Today I am so excited to be joined by my business BFF, Kerri, as we recap our very first Nurture Nap Network Retreat. We just got back from the most incredible weekend in Denver, where we brought together an amazing group of sleep consultants and parent coaches for a few days of learning, connecting and, honestly, just soaking up the power of being in the same room. We wanted to record this podcast to share what the weekend was really like. We’re going to talk about the gorgeous setting, the vibe of the event, the trainings and the conversations that happened, and why we’re really excited to plan the next one.
Whether you were there with us and want to relive it a little, or you’re wondering what it might be like to join us next time, we hope this gives you a sense of just how special the weekend was. So let’s dive in.
Kerri, thank you so much for being here. I’m so excited to chat with you today.
Kerri Nachlas: Hello. It was so amazing.
Jayne Havens: Okay. So let’s talk about why. First of all, we were at the beautiful Halcyon Hotel in Cherry Creek, which is in Denver. Let’s talk about the hotel. What were your favorite parts about it?
Kerri Nachlas: Oh, man. It was everything. It was quirky. It was upscale. It was very trendy. They had a gear garage if you wanted to go out on an adventure. I thought that was the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. And the vibe—you just walked in, and you wanted to be a part of something amazing because it was amazing. They have taken care of every detail. It was fantastic.
Jayne Havens: Yeah, I loved it. What I loved about the Halcyon Hotel was that you just felt at home there, right?
Kerri Nachlas: Right.
Jayne Havens: Every single morning, they had muffins and coffee in the lobby. There was wine and beer served from three to six in the afternoon. They just wanted to make you feel at home. There were yoga mats in the rooms—not that I do yoga. But hypothetically, if I did yoga, that would have been really nice. I just felt like it was so welcoming.
Kerri Nachlas: The turntables, they had turntables in each room with—
Jayne Havens: I think they’re called records, Kerri. They’re called records.
Kerri Nachlas: No, the turntable, the turntable that you play the records on.
Jayne Havens: Oh, I call that a record player. But fair. Okay.
Kerri Nachlas: Yeah. So it’s like, it was amazing. I was like, they literally have some fantastic albums here and then they had the record player there. They had two great restaurants attached to it that, literally, I had no idea that Italian restaurant was there. It was phenomenal. Then LJ’s was, I had room service from there. Of course, we had lunch there two days in a row, and it was absolutely delicious.
Jayne Havens: I really felt that way too. I feel like, normally, when I go stay in a hotel, I don’t want to eat in the hotel restaurant. But the food was so good there that I could have eaten every single meal in those two restaurants.
Kerri Nachlas: Totally agree. It was delicious.
Jayne Havens: Let’s talk about Friday night. The event kicked off with a cocktail reception on the rooftop. This was one of the reasons for why I chose the Halcyon Hotel. I just felt like the rooftop was spectacular—the pool, the views, the bar setting. The whole thing was just fantastic. But more than the actual hotel and the setting, I just loved getting to hug and squeeze every single person that arrived that night.
Kerri Nachlas: Amazing. And, you know, everybody showed up ready to network. The environment upstairs, when you walk out of those doors, it’s just beautiful. The skyline, the sunset, everything was just perfect. We had four weather patterns come through in the span of two hours. That in itself made it a little bit of an adventure, but nobody cared.
The staff took care of everything. They made sure that we were so comfortable. They put towels down on chairs that got wet. They moved furniture immediately. The food was still delicious, and the people passing the apps didn’t miss a beat. It was a great vibe. I mean, everything was perfect, except for the weather. But that was even a little bit of just conversation for fodder. Because it was funny. I mean, I literally wore a plaid because of the wind. But it was like there was so much going on, you didn’t even notice it.
Jayne Havens: Yeah. My mom, who was a major, major part of this event—we’ll get into that later—my mom and Kerri’s daughter were crucial, crucial components to the weekend. It was my mother’s idea to do a bingo icebreaker as a part of the Friday night welcome reception. That really, really worked out beautifully.
Basically, we created a bingo card. Each box had something written in it. For example, like, “I took a nap today,” or, “I love TikTok,” or whatever it may be. It was really a great way for everybody to walk around and learn more about each other. It gave people, who were perhaps a little bit nervous or anxious about networking and meeting people that they didn’t know, it gave them a way to sort of just break the ice and get into the mix. Everybody really loved it. Of course, the prizes too. We had several prizes for winners.
Kerri Nachlas: And what I loved is, when I was walking around and networking and just kind of greeting everybody, people would walk up in the middle of a conversation. They’d be like, “Okay. Which bingo square can you help me with?” It’s like it was such a fantastic way for them to start connecting and just jump into a conversation right away. It was an easy way to approach someone and start a very fun conversation that had a lot of interaction and background to it. Then they went from there. It was a beautiful thing.
Jayne Havens: So it was hard to get people to wind down and leave the roof. I was exhausted. I’m one of those people that likes to be in bed by 9:00, 9:30 at the latest. So I was toast. I was ready to go to bed. We wrapped up. Everybody got a good night of sleep. Saturday morning kicked off with the option for either a yoga class down the street at a tiny little private yoga studio or, for those who aren’t into movement first thing in the day, they had the option to join Kerri and I at Starbucks for coffee and conversation. What were your major takeaways from Starbucks?
Kerri Nachlas: We walked across literally across the street. It was a beautiful morning. That neighborhood is so fantastic—the people walking their dogs and exercising and saying hi to each other. It was such a great little community. Then we were able to sit there and connect with our attendees.
Some of them would come up later. I mean, we were there for what—like an hour each morning? People would stroll in and out while we were sitting there. I think it gave everybody an opportunity to connect again in a different environment, on a different level, and be seen in a different way. It wasn’t for everybody. Some people were taking walks, and some people were working out in the gym. They had a fantastic gym in that hotel. Then because of the way that it was situated, you could literally walk to like three or four other things, that if you wanted to do a cycle class.
And the Starbucks mornings, I think, were such a great way to get started for the people that it worked for. Because they did get some one-on-one time with us or some small group interaction. I loved starting my day that way.
Jayne Havens: So one of my favorite parts of the whole weekend was, after our Starbucks meetup, we went to the conference room. The swag bags were out. There was candy on the table. I think it was your daughter Sarah’s idea—or maybe it was your idea, but Sarah executed it—to have music playing as everybody walked in. Sarah and my mom, Bobby, were literally dancing behind the welcome table, right?
Just the vibe to welcome everybody in just far exceeded my expectations. That’s, I think, kudos to our family members. Right? They just gave it a little bit of like a boost, right? It wasn’t just women walking in with hesitation, nervous to get their badge and sit down. It was literally a party. Everybody got their welcome bag and their badge, and they got to give us more hugs and sat down. Then we started our presentation. Do you want to speak into what you and I shared Saturday morning?
Kerri Nachlas: Yes, so we started out with growing your business offline. Because you and I are living proof that it can be done, it can be done well, and it can be done very effectively. So how to make those connections, how to really create strategic alliances in your business that want to refer to you, because you are speaking into their circle of care in a way that they can trust who they’re referring their patients to, or their clients to, or their friends to. Because you’re going to be able to meet their patients, clients, and friends just like you met them. And so what we talked about and hopefully what we were able to teach a little bit about is that those connections are priceless.
Once you get your reputation out there and once you show up for your clients in a certain way consistently, the referrals are there. It was fun to talk about it, and they really got a lot from it, I think.
Jayne Havens: Yeah, I think our participants really, really appreciated that training. Because social media is a very powerful tool. I always say, if you’re comfortable on socials, you should use it. The world is your oyster. When you can get out onto the internet and meet people from all over the world, it’s an incredibly useful tool.
But there are plenty of people who just don’t feel like that’s for them. You and I, as I said this past weekend, are proof in the pudding that you can grow a successful consulting business without having a really serious presence on social media channels. So I think that was like a real confidence booster for everybody in the room. We really gave them permission to do it another way and gave them tools to do it another way. That felt really great for me.
Kerri Nachlas: I agree. I don’t think we can talk about the Saturday morning training without mentioning that one of the highlights of that training was that people noticed how different we grow our businesses, and they’re still both successful in their own. Right? But they were amazed at how different we are. There were so many giggles and funny moments where you said, “I do this,” and I was like, “Mm-mm.” And so it’s like that was really fun for them to see. It actually inspired a few of them to think outside the box on the way that their business needs to look going forward.
Jayne Havens: Yeah. So we did that whole training, which I thought worked out really beautifully. You and I were nervous, I’ll admit. Right? Like, we were a little nervous, but we jived beautifully. Then we took a quick break and then we heard from our two sponsors, Present Sleep and Yogasleep. I’ll tell everybody who’s listening a little bit about both.
Present Sleep reached out to me months ago for an exciting project that they’re working on. I’m not going to share that here. It’s too much, not necessary. But they are partnering with Yogasleep. They decided that they wanted to be a part of our retreat because they want to be collaborating more with people in our field. They want to be connected with sleep consultants so that they can better understand the market. They want to be able to collaborate, and they want to work closely with our industry. And that just, I think, is fantastic.
So we heard from them a little bit about products that are already in play, products that they’re developing. They got a chance to hear from the sleep consultant and parent coaching community how they can improve their products, how they can improve their marketing efforts, and how they can really be more successful in getting their name brand and their products in front of the right people and into the right hand. So that was fantastic. We broke for lunch, and we decided to send everybody off into small groups to have lunch on their own. We gave everybody about a two-hour break.
One of the reasons we chose downtown Cherry Creek is because the neighborhood is wonderful. There’s a yoga studio. There’s a taco place. There’s a burger bar. So it was so easy for everybody to peel off into groups of two, three, four, five, and go have lunch and have their own conversations. So that was great. We turned back around, came back into the conference room and heard from none other than Allison Henderson, who is a social media business coach and strategist. She taught everybody some tools and strategies for effectively growing your business using social media online—sort of like the exact opposite way that Kerry and I do it. Kerry, did you have any takeaways?
Kerri Nachlas: I did. I learned a lot of tips and tricks and maybe some online etiquette and some online pacing and things that I don’t do right now. Because here’s the thing: I don’t grow my business online, but I have a presence, like a very small pitiful presence online. It’s really just enough that people can tell kind of who I am and what I do in my business and what they can expect from me. But it’s not like this full-blown profile, and so I need to keep that up on some level.
And so the things I was able to take takeaway from Allison Henderson’s training was, those are the things that are going to help me continue that in a way that it’s still going to be a positive experience, it’s still going to help maximize some of the algorithms and things like that. So, yeah, I got a lot of it. Because, again, I don’t think it’s one or the other. I think a nice blend is a really great way to make that work.
Jayne Havens: Yeah, my favorite takeaway from what Alison taught all of us in the conference room back on Saturday was to really be mindful of the language that you use when communicating online. The example that she gave that really resonated with me was, she was discouraging us from using industry jargon.
So, for example, instead of talking about sleep associations, which is something that all sleep consultants use that language. But a brand new mom who’s nursing her baby to sleep or popping a pacifier back in 10 times a night might not know what that term sleep association means. So instead of saying removing sleep associations, you might say, “Remove the nurse to sleep habit.” Right? I thought that was really great advice. I’m always encouraging my CPSM grads to use really clear language with their clients. And really applying that to your presence online, I thought, was fantastic advice.
Kerri Nachlas: I agree. Because I actually saw a paid ad a couple of months ago that used STTN in their ad. I was like, “Who knows what STTN is, if you’re not a sleep consultant?” Sleeping through the night—that’s a much better way to say that. When she said that, I was like, “Exactly. That’s exactly what it is.”
Jayne Havens: Yeah, that’s a great example. I can’t believe somebody would use that. Like, who knows that? Even a lot of brand new sleep consultants don’t know that abbreviation. Because it’s just something that it comes up in time. But yeah, new parents definitely don’t know that.
Kerri Nachlas: No, and I think what happened is exactly what Allison was kind of cautioning everyone not to have happen. It’s we get so accustomed to using those things in our jargon and in our daily conversations that we don’t realize that that’s not the norm for other people. So I think this person who had that paid ad out really had just forgotten that the average Joe does not understand what STTN is even though she uses it every single day. And you know, I love that she brought that up. Everybody understood that, and it was really a great tip for everybody to take away.
Jayne Havens: One of my favorite things about Saturday was all of the surprises that we had up our sleeves. The best part of the day was that, every what, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, my mom—
Kerri Nachlas: Whenever they wanted.
Jayne Havens: —whenever they wanted, my mom or Sarah would ring the bell. We brought these little bells. They’d ring the bell. Everybody would start cheering, and we’d do a raffle giveaway. It just brought a really fun energy and a level of excitement to the conference, that I think would not have existed have we not done that. Right?
Kerri Nachlas: Totally.
Jayne Havens: I have to give you credit. Because in my mind, I was fine if we just had like five or six raffle prizes. And you were like, “No, we need to have like 15 or 20.” And I was like, “I really feel like that’s a lot.” Kerri was gunning for more and more and more raffle prizes. She was totally right. Because it never got old. So many people got great prizes. We gave away a Dot card. We gave away cute little mugs. We gave away conversation cards. Oh, like a microphone to use with your phone on social media, right? We gave away a phone stand.
Some of the things that we gave away were business related. Others were related to sleep or parent coaching. It was just like a really fun way to keep the energy up in the room. Everybody was just so excited every single time. That was really fun.
Kerri Nachlas: Yes, it was very fun. And, you know, I think the bells were actually your idea.
Jayne Havens: They were.
Kerri Nachlas: It’s executed so well. It was just fun because it was an interruption. It reminded us to kind of take a break and not be so intentional on everything. And we had some birthdays. Some of the birthday girls were winners of the raffles, which made a great little birthday gift. So that was super fun too. There was just so much going on that it’s hard to pinpoint one favorite thing.
Jayne Havens: So after our time in the conference room wrapped up on Saturday, the plan was to go change into some swimsuits, go grab a hat, and meet up at the rooftop. I raced to do that so that I could be upstairs and ready for everybody when they arrived. I got up there, and it was like bachelor party city upstairs on the rooftop.
It was not the environment that was going to lend to continued conversation, which was a little bit of a disappointment. But we pivoted really quickly. We all decided to meet back in the lobby. It happened to be happy hour in the lobby. So everybody went to the front desk, got their complimentary glass of wine. We all sat around in the lobby, in the little sitting area, and continued on with our purposeful conversation. That was one of my—
Kerri Nachlas: For two hours.
Jayne Havens: Two hours. Yeah, two hours.
Kerri Nachlas: Then nobody was ready to leave. And I was like, “Isn’t anybody hungry for dinner?”
Jayne Havens: Yeah, right. Nobody was ready to leave. Kerri and I were like, “Guys, we got to go to dinner. It’s time to feed ourselves again. We need to nourish our brains and our bodies.” But nobody wanted to leave. It was really wonderful. I was sandwiched in between two Center for Pediatric Sleep Management grads—both very seasoned in their businesses. They were giving me great ideas for how to — they were sharing some things that they used to do in the beginning of their businesses that they don’t do anymore, things that really set them up with a level of confidence that they needed in those early months and early years of their businesses.
I really had so many takeaways. It wasn’t just about me giving to the crowd, but it was the other way around. I felt like I had so many aha moments, so many light bulb moments, that I was able to then file away in my brain or even jot them down. And I’m going to bring that back to the community and share with others. So I’m really excited about that.
Kerri Nachlas: I think that that just shows again that that’s valuable information, and those interactions are priceless. So I love that. I sat there and then just enjoyed everybody. I eavesdropped a little bit. I offered some advice on some level. Then I was just sitting next to that six-week-old baby that I just couldn’t get enough of. And so I was absolutely in heaven. It really blew my mind, again, that they weren’t ready for the day to end. It was so phenomenal that the energy was still up and the connections were still being made.
Jayne Havens: So we wrapped up Saturday. Sunday morning, Kerri and I made ourselves available at Starbucks again early in the morning. We had a bigger crowd on day two, which was great. We got to chat with some new people who we hadn’t had any one-on-one time with yet. Then we headed into the conference room for just a two-hour stint. It was sort of like a third of a day. It was a short day. One of our takeaways is that everybody wanted more time. We definitely needed more time.
But from about 9 to 11, we were in the conference room again on Sunday. We started off with a hot seat Q&A. So Kerri and I were at the front of the room with our microphones, and we invited everybody in the community or in the conference room to just ask questions.
Kerri Nachlas: Right.
Jayne Havens: And so people asked clarifying questions from whatever they had learned the day prior. They asked questions about sleep or parent coaching. Anything was fair game. I loved that because I got to see really where people’s heads were, where they had had takeaways, and where they wanted to really get to the next level or have a deeper understanding. I don’t know. I think it really gave people an opportunity to get clarity or even closure on anything that was still swirling around in their head after a whole weekend together.
Kerri Nachlas: I agree. I think that those are things they came to the event with. Those were questions they already had. So having the opportunity to voice them and be heard and then get answers to them. And the great thing about what we did, I think, the entire time was we let them know we want interaction. This is not about us standing up here talking, talking, talking. This is about, what do you want to share with us? What do you need to know? Ask us the question so we know that we’re going in the right direction for the information that you want.
Sunday morning was a perfect example of that. The amount of support and the number of people that spoke into the questions—to offer their own experience, or their own aha moment, or their own what not to do—just again solidified exactly what that community looked like all weekend long. Because it was just constantly lifting one another up. One of my favorite sayings in my life and in my business is: we rise by lifting others. That was the entire weekend. Collaboration and connection over competition is exactly what it was. We saw it on Sunday morning because there was time and the microphone was passed around quite a bit. I loved it.
Jayne Havens: Yeah, and so we had to wrap up. We had to get rid of our raffles. We had to wrap up the conference. The overwhelming sentiment was, everybody just wished there was more time. More of everything. And so when Kerri and I put this event on, we really didn’t what it was going to be. You know, is this a one-time thing? Is it an every-year thing? We really just wanted to show up as our best selves, put our best foot forward, bring the best community together that we could possibly curate, and see what kind of magic we could make happen together.
I think the way that I’m feeling after this weekend is that I just can’t wait to do it again. I hope that everybody who’s listening who’s a part of either the Center for Pediatric Sleep Management Community or Kerri’s Parent Coach Certification Course Community, I just hope that maybe you have a tiny bit of FOMO—just a tiny bit—if you weren’t able to join us this year, because we are certainly going to be back next year.
Kerri Nachlas: Right. I have actually had a number of messages already. I would say more than 10 at least of people who were not able to attend for any number of reasons. They were like, “I just have—” Oh, one of them actually used the word, “I have such FOMO. I really feel like I missed out.” And they did, but that’s the thing. Because we’re doing it again. They can make plans.
You’re right. I can’t wait to do it even better next year. I think for our first event, it absolutely could not have gone any better. I don’t even know what we would have been doing without Bobby and Sarah. But I honestly feel like they gave us the space to show up authentically as the hosts and be available for the people that were there to learn from us. I think that next year is just going to be phenomenal. I really cannot wait, or I’m ready to go again.
Jayne Havens: I’m ready to go again, too. Now that we had like a couple days of rest, we got to regroup, now it’s time to focus on planning the next one. So if you’re listening, if you’re interested, reach out. Shoot us a message. Get in touch. As soon as we have dates finalized, we will be releasing that information. We can’t wait to welcome you all to the Nurture Nap Network Retreat for year two.
Thank you for taking the time to sort of talk this out with me. It was in my heart and in my brain, and I needed to get it out into the universe. So thanks for hopping on and chatting it out with me today.
Kerri Nachlas: Absolutely. Thank you for having me. Thank you. I just love our our connection. I love that we were able to come together for this event. The way we’re able to execute it, I think, it was exactly what we had envisioned.
Jayne Havens: Me, too. Besties for life. Mwah.
Kerri Nachlas: Mwah. Have a great day.
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.