Family, Faith, and Flexibility with Jayne Havens
The past few weeks have been full in the very best ways. Between the Jewish holidays, school closures, and celebrating my son’s bar mitzvah, September and early October have been a complete whirlwind.
Work has taken a bit of a back seat, but it hasn’t stopped. I’ve still been supporting families, checking in with CPSM students, and keeping things moving, just in a way that fits this season of life.
This is exactly why I built my business the way I did. It gives me the freedom to lean into family when I need to and the flexibility to pick things back up when life settles down.
That’s what this week’s podcast episode is all about. If you’ve ever dreamed of building a business that bends with your life instead of competing with it, I think this one will really resonate.
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: Hey, everyone. It’s Jayne. Welcome back to the Becoming a Sleep Consultant podcast. Today, I want to talk about something that’s felt really relevant in my own life these past few weeks, and that’s the gift of flexibility. Let me explain.
When I first started my sleep consulting business, I thought I was doing it for the obvious reasons: because I loved supporting families, because I wanted to create something of my own, and because I truly believed there was a real need for this type of work. But over the years, I’ve realized that the biggest and most unexpected reward hasn’t just been financial success or professional fulfillment. It’s been the freedom and flexibility this business gives me to live my life on my own terms.
That realization hit home big time these past several weeks. If you’re a parent, you know that fall can feel like one long blur of logistics. There’s back-to-school events, the start of fall sports, holidays, and the general end of summer and back-to-school chaos. But for us, it’s been extra full this year.
My children go to Jewish day school, which means we’ve observed Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and now Sukkot. And if you know anything about the Jewish holiday calendar, you know that this means that there are lots of days off from school. On top of all of that, my son’s bar mitzvah was October 4th—a milestone that’s been years in the making. Between my family flying in, some last-minute prep, the big weekend itself, and all the emotional weight of it, our house has been buzzing for weeks.
The week before Sid’s bar mitzvah, we took a day off from school and work for family pictures. Then, the Friday before the big day, I let the kids stay home from school just to rest up. I was not glued to my computer. I was not posting on social media, and I was not sending follow-up emails. I was living my life in the present. And even though work wasn’t at the center of my world during this time, it didn’t fall apart either.
This is the gift of the kind of business I’ve built. It truly bends around my life. I was still supporting families through sleep training. I was checking in between hair and makeup appointments. I was sending voice notes from the car and celebrating wins with clients each morning before starting my day. I was still showing up for my students inside of Center for Pediatric Sleep Management—answering questions inside of our Facebook group, giving feedback, and offering encouragement. But I did it in a way that worked for me in this particular season.
And that made me realize how different this feels compared to my life before entrepreneurship—when time off required permission, when flexibility felt like a luxury instead of a right, when life had to be squeezed around work instead of the other way around. Owning this business means that I get to prioritize my own family when it matters most—without any guilt, without asking for anyone’s approval.
Here’s the truth: I wasn’t balanced during this season. My to-do list wasn’t perfectly checked off. My inbox was not at zero, and I definitely wasn’t ahead on content creation. But that’s okay, because balance isn’t the goal. The goal is flexibility. Balance implies that everything gets equal attention. Flexibility means that you get to shift your focus when you need to.
In September and now October, my focus was and is my family, my faith, my community, celebrating my son, and soaking in the meaning of this moment in our lives. And that’s exactly how it should be. When I started this business, I used to feel guilty when I wasn’t operating at 100% capacity. Now I see that the whole point of building something like this was so that I could have the option to dial things up or down when life calls for it.
I built a business that I could run even when I needed to take a step back. And I want to be really clear. Flexibility doesn’t mean that you’re lounging on the couch all day with endless free time. Having flexibility means you own your time. You decide when to work, how to work, and what that looks like in each season of your life. Some weeks I am deep in client work. Full schedule, heavy caseload, lots of calls, lots of communication.
Other weeks, like this past one, I’m catching my breath. I’m reconnecting with my family. I’m straightening up my house after the chaos of the bar mitzvah and trying to remember what normal feels like again. And yet, my business keeps going. I still got started with a handful of new families this month. I checked in with students who were mid-certification. I still had messages from grads sliding into my DMs, sharing their big wins. And I got to pause, celebrate them, and think, “This is why I do this work.” This is what flexibility gives you: the ability to keep your business alive even when your attention is pulled in other directions.
I think a lot of people talk about entrepreneurship as freedom. But for me, that word always felt a little abstract. Freedom is nice in theory, but what does it actually look like day to day? For me, it looks like being able to step away from my computer for a few days without panic. It looks like being able to play tennis in the middle of the day and not feeling bad about it. It looks like being the one who picks my kids up from school—not because I have to, but because I get to.
Freedom is being able to say yes to the moments that matter most, and knowing your business won’t collapse when you do. This season has been a good reminder that I don’t just teach this concept; I live it.
Inside of CPSM, I talk all the time about building a business that supports your life the way that you want to live—not the one that overwhelms you or boxes you in. But sometimes I forget that I’m living proof that this is entirely possible. I spent the last month living fully in my personal life.
My business didn’t just survive; it thrived because I’ve built systems, I formed relationships, and I have a rhythm that allows me to step back when I need to. This is something I want every single person listening to experience. But in order to get it, you have to go for it. It doesn’t just happen. It takes believing that you’re capable, trusting yourself, and putting in the work that ultimately pays off in dividends.
So if you’re in a season right now where life feels busy and unpredictable — maybe you’ve got little ones at home, maybe you’re managing multiple responsibilities, maybe you’re just tired — I want you to know that it’s possible to build a business that works with your life. It doesn’t need to be so hard. This is what sleep consulting has been for me: a way to do truly meaningful work while still living a rich, family-centered life. The flexibility to take off time when I need to, the freedom to be present for my family in those big moments, the peace of knowing that my business supports me, not the other way around. This is the real gift of flexibility.
Thank you so much for being here with me today and for continuing to tune into these conversations. If this episode resonated with you, please come share your thoughts inside of our Becoming a Sleep Consultant Facebook group. I’d love to hear what flexibility looks like for you right now. And if you don’t have flexibility in your life yet, let me help you get there. This is truly possible for you too.
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.