Beyond the Side Hustle: Building a Thriving Full-Time Sleep Consulting Business with Danielle Greene

One year ago, Danielle Greene made the leap from teacher and social-emotional learning specialist to full-time pediatric sleep consultant.

When she first joined me on the Becoming a Sleep Consultant podcast, we talked about her transition into this work. Now Danielle is back to share what life and business look like after a full year of running her practice full time, and how she’s re-discovered her “why” along the way.

Links:

Website: DG Sleep Consulting
Instagram: @dgsleepconsulting

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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.

Today I’m excited to be joined once again by Danielle Greene, a former teacher and social-emotional learning specialist turned full-time pediatric sleep consultant. When Danielle was last on the podcast, she shared her story into sleep consulting. Today, she returns to reflect on how her business has evolved after a full year of running it full time. What makes Danielle’s story so powerful is how she’s rediscovered her “why,” the deeper purpose behind helping families through the challenges of sleep. Over the past year, she’s not only grown her practice, but also reconnected with the impact she’s making, both for parents and for herself as a business owner.

In this conversation, we’ll dive into her first year as a full-time sleep consultant, the lessons she’s learned along the way, and what it really looks like to sustain a business with heart and purpose.

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

Danielle Greene: Thank you for having me again. I’m very excited to be here.

Jayne Havens: So for those of you who didn’t catch our last episode, share a little bit about yourself. Tell us about your professional background, maybe a little bit about your family, and why you decided to become a sleep consultant.

Danielle Greene: Sure. So, first and foremost, I am a mom to two young kids. My son is turning five in October, and my daughter turned two in June. So I have my hands full with motherhood.

Before I became a mom, I was a full-time teacher. I worked in New York City. I worked in elementary school. And not long into my career, I became very, very passionate about social-emotional learning because I realized that there was a huge gap in children’s competencies around social and emotional development. And I also realized that it was something that I would have really, really valued and benefited from as a child going through the school system. And so I received multiple certifications in SEL, which is social emotional learning, and I did several trainings. I realized that that was really where I wanted to put my energy.

But when I became a mom, I realized that I didn’t have enough energy to do both momming and the schoolwork. I needed and wanted to figure out a way to continue to work in the field of education and continue to work with families and children, but in a way that was more flexible and that would allow me to be more present for my kids. And so—Jayne, obviously, you know this—back in 2021, we hired you to be our sleep consultant for my son who, like I said, is turning five now.

By the time my daughter was born, I didn’t even have to think about hiring anyone because the work that we had done together was so — it was so clear to me that the way that you functioned and ran your business was going to allow me to find success with my daughter on my own. And that’s exactly what happened.

Not only was I able to find success in my own home with my second child, but I was helping friends with their babies and families with their babies. It got to a point where my husband was like, “If you’re going to spend this much time doing this, please get paid for it.” Because it was taking me away from other things. And that’s exactly what happened. I booked a call with you the next day and here we are.

Jayne Havens: Yeah. And so I think you completed the course—I just looked back—in December of 2023. You were doing this work part time for a while. And at some point, along the way, you decided to go full time into sleep consulting, which is just so exciting. And it’s been, what? About a year—

Danielle Greene: A little over a year.

Jayne Havens: —since you’ve been doing this work. Yeah. So tell me about the last year. What does that look like for you? I remember when you were doing this part time in addition to teaching, you were always sort of saying, “If I could just do this full time, I know how successful I’d be.” Because you’d be able to give more space and attention to it. Now that you’re actually in that space and you’re able to dedicate more time and energy to it, what’s happened to your business in the past year?

Danielle Greene: So, of course I’m able to take on more families at a time, right? When I was teaching, I was really only able to take on about four families at a time without putting my other job at the wayside. I obviously needed to give that 100% more than I was giving any other job 100%.

Not only that. But I wasn’t really able to take on families with really young babies, because I couldn’t be on my phone handling naps and troubleshooting in real time if I had to be writing on the smart board. And so now, not only am I able to take on toddlers and big kids, but I obviously don’t have to say I’m sorry to families that have really little babies. Like I said, I was really only able to take on about four families at a time when I was doing this part time. Now I take on somewhere between like 8 and 15, and sometimes 20 families a month, which obviously is a significant difference.

Jayne Havens: Yeah, I was waiting to hear how many families you’re supporting at once. Because I am currently supporting, I think, 13 families right now. I haven’t supported that many families at once in a while, and it’s not so — it’s too bad.

Danielle Greene: I mean, I have to tell you. I mean, I remember feeling that way. In January, I think it was my first time having 15 clients. I think it was because everyone had their New Year’s resolutions and everything. And I was like, “Never again can I do that many at a time.” Then it happened again in July and it’s just like, you can’t breathe. But, you know, as long as they’re successful, I’m happy.

Jayne Havens: Has there been anything that surprised you about stepping into this work full time, maybe something that you didn’t expect?

Danielle Greene: I always had dreams of working less but making more money. I just didn’t know if it was a realistic goal. And it absolutely is. I mean, I’ve listened to other podcast episodes where you describe a day in your life and you have tennis, or you go on a walk with a friend. And it’s just like, those things really can happen. I mean, I could tell you I made $1,500 while I was getting coffee with a friend yesterday. It’s just like, and I didn’t even know, right? I knew these people were going to sign on, but I didn’t know what was going to happen then.

It happened within an hour. It’s just like, it’s crazy. It’s really crazy. So that has been really, really life-changing, just being able to live a life that I want to live and not feel like I am rushing at the door at 7 AM to get to my classroom, and rushing to get to my kids’ school to pick them up and then somehow making dinner along the way. So that’s been amazing.

In terms of the business itself and what I’m learning about what I like and don’t like, at the beginning, I really, really liked focusing on toddlers or babies that were taking one nap at that point. It just gave me more time in the day. I didn’t have to be in contact with as many families during the day. More and more, I’ve been speaking at new mom groups—whether they’re here in New Jersey or in New York City. And all of those groups are filled with moms, mostly first-time moms, who have really little babies, obviously.

Recently, I spoke at one group on the Upper East Side, and the moderator of the group started off by asking: what is one thing that has surprised you most about motherhood? I had this crazy realization, where not one person ever asked me that when I became a mom. And not only is becoming a mother is just insane, but I became a mom during COVID. And so I don’t know if I was never asked a question because it’s just not a question that most people ask, or if it’s because I was alone basically because of the pandemic. But it made me so much more emotional than I anticipated to feel.

Listening to all of the moms answer the question of what has surprised you most, some are funny answers and some are more serious. But I just had this lump in my throat because, for the first time, I felt so much empathy and compassion for myself. I always feel that for my clients. But I was like, “Wow! Had I felt these feelings for myself as a new mom, my fourth trimester would have been totally different. I would have been so much nicer to myself.”

That was a huge takeaway. And it really has allowed me to — it made it so that when I sign on an 11 week old, I’m not just signing it on for money, but I’m signing it on for the mom. That has been a really, really big shift in mindset for me.

Jayne Havens: Yeah, I think that’s really beautiful. I’ve had that feeling myself recently, as somebody who also works mostly with toddlers and preschoolers. But I’m working with two first-time moms with three-and-a-half-month old little babies right now, and I have been feeling — just to myself, I actually haven’t shared this with anybody yet until now. But I’ve been feeling, like, “Wow! What a privilege to be able to support these moms through this stage of motherhood.”

This is such an important moment for them. At three and a half, four months, they’re both about to go back to work. They reached out to me because they wanted to get sleep to a better place before their baby is — one is starting with a nanny, and one is going to daycare. Those are really big transitions for their families. What a privilege to be a part of that moment of their motherhood journey. Like, how lucky are we?

Danielle Greene: Yeah, I just had a wrap-up call last night. She was profusely thanking me and all the things. I said, we were talking about how postpartum — we talk about it being like this fourth trimester. But really, it’s never going to end. We’re constantly trying to figure out what our identity is. I mean, there are definitely days where I really miss my old life and just the freedom. But of course, I wouldn’t change what I have now for the world.

For me, there are so many reasons why getting a full night of sleep is so important for these new moms. Having that time to yourself once you know your kid is in bed and asleep by 7:30, that is the time when you are going to feel most like your old self, at least at the beginning. For me, at least, that was my experience. And if you don’t have those few hours, I mean, there’s no break. And so while we’re never going to be who we used to be, I think that those evening hours are as close as we’re going to get.

Jayne Havens: Yeah, I think that’s right. Let’s go back to the business building piece for a second. I want to understand a little bit more about what growth has looked like for you over the past year. Do you find that now that you have more time, dedicated space and energy to growing your business, that you’re doing so in any new, interesting and creative ways?

Danielle Greene: Not so creative. I will say going to these mom groups and having the time to speak at these groups has allowed me to obviously make more in-person and more just real connections. I think in terms of the one thing I miss from working a more traditional job is just having that face-to-face time with people. And so that was actually the first reason I started doing these groups.

Now I’m like, well, obviously I’m doing this also to make connections. I’ve gotten a lot of clients from there. And so previously, that wouldn’t have been possible for me. But at this point in my business, I’m getting a lot of clients through word of mouth, which is always the goal. And so I have clients that way, and then I still utilize social media. I definitely go through phases. Like, I haven’t posted anything probably in like a week or two, and then sometimes I do. And so I definitely get clients through Instagram or through Facebook when I feel like I want or need to be active in those spaces as well.

Jayne Havens: So you’re basically just showing up in ways that you want to be showing up, and then when you feel like you need to, showing up in other ways that you feel like you need to.

Danielle Greene: Exactly. Exactly. You know, this month with all the Jewish holidays coming up, I anticipate a pretty slow September and October. I feel grateful that I had a crazy July and August. But I also made that happen, right? I kind of worked to the point of burnout, just because I felt like in September and October, I’m probably going to have maybe five clients a month.

Jayne Havens: Is there anything that you would do differently if you could look back and say, “You know what? That was unnecessarily hard, or unnecessarily draining?” Or do you feel like it was all a purposeful part of the process for you?

Danielle Greene: I don’t think there’s anything that I have done that I feel like maybe was draining or just not worth it. But there are definitely things that I probably would have done sooner that I didn’t do soon enough—things that maybe feel scary, that felt like too much of a risk—which, by the way, in hindsight, I’m like, there’s nothing risky about starting your email list. Right? But it’s just another way of putting yourself out there that is just new. Anything new is going to be a little bit scary and uncomfortable. And so it’s more things like that. I was terrified of my email list and terrified of sending emails. But I got to do it.

Jayne Havens: So let’s use that as an example. What were you scared of? Were you scared of figuring out the tech piece? Were you scared of, like, “What do I say in these emails? Are people going to think I’m annoying them in emails?” What were you afraid of?

Danielle Greene: So it was more of the tech piece, just like figuring it out. You know, we get emails from a million and one companies and brands every single day. So it’s like, do I send an email a month like this company? Do I send three emails a week like this brand? And it’s just like, where do you fit in? I actually had a meeting recently with Allison Henderson just about the email stuff and just about some other ideas that I’ve been thinking through.

She was like, “There are no rules.” You literally do whatever it is that you want to do. And as soon as she said that, I’m like done. Right? That makes so much sense. Because I was the one who was scared, I obviously was not going to be the one who thought of that. And so just having someone else tell me just do what you want was all I needed to hear.

Jayne Havens: Yeah, I think that that’s great advice. I go back and forth with my email list. I don’t often utilize my email list for my Snooze Fest client base or prospective customer list. I just really don’t often email them. But what I will tell you is that, when I ever feel inspired to email either of those lists, I have it segmented. So I have people who were interested in working with a sleep consultant and then people who actually hired me.

Sometimes I email them both, and sometimes it’s one or the other. But what I will say is that anytime I do send emails to that list, the open rate is crazy good. They do want to hear from me. They’re reading my emails. It’s a great way to maintain connection without actually having the personal connection, without taking the time to send a text message to say, “How is Gemma doing,” or, “How is Lucy doing?” It is that touch point. It still counts. So I think it’s wildly valuable.

Danielle Greene: Yeah, I agree. I think that for anyone listening to this who is struggling to get their email list just started, first of all, you can write. Even if you have two people on your list, it doesn’t matter. They will inevitably forward the email to at least one person. Then the other thing that I did that I found was helpful, I made a list of just three brands that really resonate with me—whether it’s a store I shop at, a blog that I follow. I asked myself: what is it out their emails that keep me coming back to read more? And so I can think of one off the top of my head, which is the Solid Starts. Right? Do you follow them?

Jayne Havens: Mm-hmm, yeah.

Danielle Greene: So I’ve become somewhat close with Jenny, the founder, over the years. I love her Sunday best email, right? It’s once a week. I don’t feel like it’s too much. But she shares a fun recipe, a success story, a tip. She breaks it down so easily. We have our bests also, right? So if I shared my Sunday best, I share a client success story, right? I could share an infant, a toddler, a big kid and be done. And when you are able to break it down and look to people who have done it well, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. Just make it your own, and make it apply to your space.

Jayne Havens: Yeah, I love that. I love that. I think that’s such a great way. One thing that I struggle with is, like, what am I going to write? What am I communicating to my audience? I love the idea. If we take the recipe example, the recipe could be a tip or a trick, like a sleep strategy, how to use an OK-to-Wake clock, or how to implement the kissing game or something like that, and then a success story. Here’s how to reach me if you want to get in touch and would like more support.

Danielle Greene: Yeah, right. And that’s the other thing. It’s like, if you’re using your email list to grow your client base, give a tip that feels obvious to you, but not to them. But don’t give it all. Have them ask for the rest of the tip. And you know, at the beginning of my business, going back to your question, I definitely would give too much information on Facebook. Right? I would try to reach the people that just asked for sleep help, even if I didn’t know if they could afford me, and I was just giving too much of myself.

That’s the thing. When I’m trying to reach a client, I don’t give all of myself to them on Facebook, on Instagram. I give them about 75% of what they want to hear. And I say, “If you want the other 25%, basically, here’s a link to book a call.” Obviously, I say it differently. But that’s typically the strategy I use.

Jayne Havens: And so the beautiful thing about this work is that everybody does it differently. So I have a different approach. I am more than happy to give 100% of the information. I actually don’t think that people can for the most part solve their own problems even with all the information.

Danielle Greene: Totally.

Jayne Havens: Right?

Danielle Greene: Yeah, for sure.

Jayne Havens: Even with all the information, they still can’t solve their own problems. Sometimes what they need is accountability and support.

Danielle Greene: Right.

Jayne Havens: And so I like to give it all and then say, you know, go for it. And if it’s not working for you, or if you’re still having trouble, or if you really feel like it’s not the information that you’re looking for but coaching and accountability and support through the process, then reach out. But the beautiful thing about this work is that everybody gets to do it in a way that works for them.

What I see in you is a level of confidence that I think maybe wasn’t there two years ago. Right? You’ve come into your own style. You’ve come into your own way of communicating, and you’re showing up with a level of, like, “I got this. And if you’d like some help, I’m here for you.”

Danielle Greene: Yeah. And to your point, I think it’s not so black and white, right? I think this job requires a lot of reading the room, especially if you’re responding to a post on social media. It’s obvious who’s looking for free advice. It’s obvious when there are people who are looking for more support. And so my responses to people will really depend on what I’m able to gauge just from reading between the lines a little bit.

Jayne Havens: So where do you see your business going from here? Are you still looking to grow? Are you feeling like you’re in a good spot and you just want to coast? Tell me more.

Danielle Greene: So in terms of number of clients, I physically don’t think I can handle more than I currently have at this point. That said, it doesn’t mean I don’t want to make more money. And so, like I mentioned a few minutes ago, I recently had a meeting with Allison Henderson. And I won’t share everything that we talked about because the ideas are not totally fleshed out yet. But there are definitely things that I am thinking about and working on that will allow me to make my business more scalable without me having to put that much more effort in.

Obviously, on the front end of it, I will. But the idea is that, for the long run, I won’t have to. But I’d say financially, I want to just continue to grow for sure.

Jayne Havens: Yeah. Well, I know that you will.

Danielle Greene: Thank you.

Jayne Havens: I know that you’ll figure out a way to do it for yourself. I see you as a go-getter and a hard worker and also just really good at your job. I think that, at the end of the day, the people who I see who are most successful in this field are just actually really good at supporting families, and really understand both the method and the mindset that goes into resolving these sleep struggles. And, you know, you have that.

Danielle Greene: Yeah, thank you. I think going back to my background a little bit, having an understanding of how a child’s brain works and having worked in schools for so long and seeing how parents respond and react to their children’s behaviors has really helped me in growing this business.

Because I’m not just looking at this from a sleep perspective. You can’t, especially once you’re working with toddlers and anything older than that. But you have to take a whole child, whole family, whole parent approach. There’s no other way. And if you don’t come at it with a place of empathy and compassion, I mean, you can’t really guarantee success that way. And so, in addition to any new information you post in the course, I am still seeking out other ways to develop professionally in ways that I probably was doing, in years past, learning more about social emotional development and learning child psychology and all of that.

Because at the end of the day, I think that is one of the things that makes me stand out among other sleep consultants, right? There are plenty of sleep consultants—you are a perfect example of it—who are wildly successful, but whose background isn’t necessarily in education. And for me, I spent so many years working on all of my degrees that, why would I not use them? And so I try to continue to build on all of my experiences.

Jayne Havens: I think that if you can figure out a way to separate yourself from everybody else, I think I’ve gotten really good at communicating my values, specifically when speaking to parents of toddlers and preschoolers. I’m able to communicate my approach, my communication style and my process in a way that I’m sure is pretty different from the way that most sleep consultants talk about their work. I think that you’re doing that too. You’re bringing in your life experience, your educational background, your knowledge and expertise from all different directions and showing families that you have something really special to offer. And it’s working.

Danielle Greene: Yeah, and I think at the end of the day also, this is very much about just like human-to-human connection, right? These parents are bone tired. They probably haven’t spent time with each other or friends in a really long time if they’re spending this amount of money on sleep help. And so, even just before we got on this call, I said to a mom, I was like, “I just want you to remember, one, that progress isn’t linear,” and that whatever she’s doing in the crib right now is normal.

She was like, “I didn’t even think of that.” And I was like, yeah. And she was like, “I haven’t spoken to adults in a really long time. Like, my brain doesn’t function this way. So hearing you say something so obvious—” that was all she needed to hear.  And so, to us, it’s nothing. But if you are a person that is able to hold a conversation and be kind and respectful to other parents and people, it shouldn’t be so hard to be successful if you have that peace.

Jayne Havens: What advice do you have for either brand new sleep consultants that are just getting started, or perhaps even people listening to this podcast who are thinking about getting into this field but haven’t enrolled in a program yet?

Danielle Greene: For me, I would say—I’m thinking specifically about my transition from part time to full time—it was something that I always knew I wanted to do. But it definitely required a level of risk taking that I was not used to. And so, for me, I would just say take the risk. Because, especially when it comes to this field, you get what you put into it. And so, enrolling in the course, for me, wasn’t the risk. Right? I knew that if I wanted to get something out of it, I’d have to do the work. Right?

You can’t wave a magic wand and suddenly have 15 clients. You have to do the work. For me, the risk was making the business work how I wanted it to work. And to me, you’ll never know if it’s going to work if you don’t try. There was no way I could have taken on more than four clients had I not taken the risk. And I said if I can’t get more than X amount of clients a month, I will work. I’ll teach part time, or I’ll go back full time. But I had to take the risk, and it was worth it. And so, for anyone listening, it is very worth it.

Jayne Havens: I’m so glad. I’m so proud of you. You’ve come such a long way—

Danielle Greene: Thank you.

Jayne Havens: —in such a short period of time. I mean, I know you’ve been at it now for a handful of years. But in the grand scheme of things, if you think about how many years it took you to go through school and get your education to work as a teacher and how many years you worked in the school system, in the grand scheme of things, this is really just the beginning for you. I can’t wait to see where you land.

Danielle Greene: Yeah, thank you. I’m so grateful. It’s funny. To your point, I think about that all the time. On one hand, I’m so grateful for my background and all the work that I put in to undergrad and grad school and all of that. On the other hand, it fills me with even more resentment and I’m like, what is it about teachers that people feel like we don’t deserve more? And it’s just crazy. Like you said, I’ve been doing this for a handful of months, and I’ve made more money than I ever have in my life. So, yeah. Well, thank you for that.

Jayne Havens: You should be really proud. We’ll keep checking in. We’ll have to do this again in another six months or a year down the road.

Danielle Greene: Yeah, for sure.

Jayne Havens: Thanks, Danielle.

Danielle Greene: For sure. You’re welcome.

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.