Off to a Strong Start with Alyssa Angelucci
Today’s episode is all about what it means to get a strong start.
So often, I see people finish their training and feel like they need to pause. They wait to feel more confident, more experienced, or more “ready” before putting themselves out there. But momentum doesn’t come from waiting. It comes from taking action.
My guest today is Alyssa, a recent graduate of the Center for Pediatric Sleep Management who took that idea seriously from the very beginning. She moved forward with intention, focused on progress over perfection, and built early momentum in her business.
In this conversation, we’re talking about the mindset required to start strong, the moves she made to create traction early on, and why believing in what you’re building matters just as much as the strategy behind it.
If you’re at the beginning of your journey or wondering how to kick your business into high gear, this episode will give you a lot to think about.
Links:
Website: AA Sleep Consulting
Instagram: @aasleepconsulting
If you’d like to learn more about becoming a Sleep Consultant, please join our Facebook Group: Becoming A Sleep Consultant
CPSM Website: Center for Pediatric Sleep Management
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.
Today’s episode is all about what it means to get a strong start. So often, I see people finish their training and feel they need to pause. They wait to feel more confident, more experienced, or more ready before putting themselves out there. But momentum doesn’t come from waiting. It comes from taking action.
My guest today is Alyssa, a recent graduate of the Center for Pediatric Sleep Management, who took that idea seriously from the very beginning. She moved forward with intention, focused on progress over perfection, and built early momentum in her business.
In this conversation, we’re talking about the mindset required to start strong, the moves she made to create traction early on, and why believing in what you’re building matters just as much as the strategy behind it. If you’re at the beginning of your journey or wondering how to kick your business into high gear, this episode will give you a lot to think about.
Jayne Havens: Alyssa, welcome to the Becoming a Sleep Consultant Podcast. I’m so excited to have you here.
Alyssa Angelucci: Me too. Thank you so much for having me.
Jayne Havens: For anyone listening who doesn’t yet know you, can you share a little bit about yourself and what led you to want to become a certified sleep consultant?
Alyssa Angelucci: Yes, so I actually work in a corporate job. I am an executive marketing director, but I’m also a mom to a 15-month-old. And when I had my daughter—I think most moms can relate—sleep felt very overwhelming to me. It was all consuming. I knew early on I really wanted to establish healthy sleep habits for my daughter, but I felt so overwhelmed.
Every time I’d go on social media, I’d see different perspectives, or different approaches, or different methods. It really, it just felt so overwhelming. So I really chose to pick, like, what is one approach that I want to focus on. I had the Moms on Call book. What I liked about the Moms on Call book was how simple it was, and that there were schedules. It gave me the tips in a really simple way, but I had no idea how to actually implement it. Like reading the schedule, I’m like, “How will I make my daughter sleep? How will I not nurse her to sleep?”
So, very early on, I actually hired a sleep consultant. And shockingly, I did this at four weeks old. I think that is like a jump scare a little bit. But I wasn’t doing it to sleep train my daughter. I was doing it because I wanted to start to shape sleep. I knew that there were things. I just needed tweaks. I wanted to understand how can I set the best foundation for her.
Honestly, the experience was super life changing for me. Literally, the next morning, when I started, she slept for two hours in her crib in a nap. It was earth shattering for me. I hung out with my husband. We had time together. My daughter started sleeping through the night as seven weeks old, and I fully attribute that to the shaping we did.
The consultant, her guidance, her support, 100%, it was a life-changing experience for me. I remember saying to my husband so often, what a rewarding job this must be for her to be able to support moms in this place in life, to show up for them when they’re — listen, I was four weeks postpartum. I was super anxious to be there as a sounding board for me, and then to see these results, I just felt like this is something that’s so interesting to me. I was so inspired by her. I love building connections with people, and so I just started networking with people in the industry, and it led me to Jayne.
Jayne Havens: I love your story. It really just goes to show that when you lead with excitement and passion, good things happen, right, and when you truly pour your all into something.
One of the reasons I wanted to have you on the show today is because I would say that you had, I don’t know, what I would call a very strong start very early on. You completed the course. I just look back. You completed the course in early December. And by January 7, you were posting on our Winning Wednesday thread, that you were off to a very strong start in the new year, and you had already had four paying clients. I think this is more than just luck. I think this is your intentional work that you put into your business from the beginning. I’m wondering if you can tell us a bit about what you did to kick off your business so successfully.
Alyssa Angelucci: So at the end of the course, there’s the section about building your business. So I was simultaneously working to build my business. To me, I kind of had the milestone of building a website. So I have no experience in building a website, but I wanted to have something that perspective clients would go to and they could almost feel my personality. I really wanted them to have a sense of, “This is who she is. This is her approach. This is the vibe she gives off.”
So the day I “launch” was pretty simultaneous to finishing the course. I was on Instagram, and I was going through my feed. A girl I went to college with posted that her daughter was rolling in the Merlin, and she was looking for some support. She was looking for moms to help. I had a little bit of an imposter syndrome. Like, I know I can help her, but am I ready to help her? I just “launched.”
And so I skipped her story. Five minutes went by, I went back to it. I’m like, “No, I’m DM-ing her.” I DM her. We hadn’t spoken in over 10 years. We were not necessarily close in college. But I DM her, and I’m giving her some tips. But in talking to her and asking questions, I very quickly realized this was so much more than the Merlin. This was paci pong all night long. This was a baby not able to get themselves to sleep independently or connect their sleep cycles.
In that moment, I’m like, “Okay, this is my first client.” And so I asked her if she would be willing. I told her about my story—that I was just certified, I was launching my business, and I asked if she’d be my client. She said yes, and we just started really quickly.
We got on the phone that evening. I wrote her plan so quickly. I was up the next morning at like 5 AM. I was committed. I wanted to show up for her. I got her her plan before the work day in my corporate job. We had our call that same day, so she could start. She started, and her daughter slept through the night on night two. The naps, we saw amazing improvements over those two weeks together. I share this story because so much happened with her. She helped build my confidence because I was able to pour so much into her. She was consistent, and I think it was just a great learning experience. She helped my business, girl, because she instilled confidence in me.
Then without me asking, she was posting on her story like, “The best Christmas gift is sleep,” tagging my Instagram. She very generously made a reel at the end for me that outlines the process. She posted it and then gave it to me as an asset. She does not have a ton of followers, but just even having that testimonial to that degree was so valuable for me. It really started to allow for interaction. I got some referrals from it. I mean, she was just the best first client. I was very fortunate.
Jayne Havens: So where did you go from there? You had your first client. You got this baby sleeping through the night in two nights. Where did the next one come from?
Alyssa Angelucci: So the next one came from referrals from her, but then also one of my good friends also shared a post that I put up on Instagram. I want to talk about my Instagram strategy a bit. But that also led to some leads.
With Instagram, so I kind of mentioned before that I launched with my website. I was very hesitant to go on social media. That felt really inauthentic to me. I’m not a huge personal poster. I didn’t know what my strategy would be. And in talking to one of my friends, she was kind of like, “I think you just got to do it. Rip the band aid. Think of it as a landing pad.” That became the refrain for me. I’m like, I’m going to create an Instagram account. I’m going to post every single day. I’m not going to worry about followers. I’m not going to worry about engagement. I’m not going to worry about these things.
But again, I just want to figure out a way to get my personality out there, get my approach out there. I really think having something for people to look back to helped build that traction. It was allowing me to share the testimonials, share the success stories. Something very early on, I was sharing text messages, with names blocked out, of my clients. Just, you know, “Good morning. I was able to put on makeup,” or, “My husband and I watch TV together.” I was really leaning into what sleep can unlock for you and trying to appeal to parents. I think that traction really helped.
It’s almost funny, because that content I’m putting out, I’m seeing reflected in the conversations I have. I almost feel like my clients — I even have clients following up with me after the fact of like, “I have to tell you this. I was able to do this.” Yeah, I feel like I almost became responsive to my clients and took an approach of, “Just do it, and you’ll figure it out as you go.”
Jayne Havens: One thing that I see in you, if I compare your attitude towards business development to others who are maybe having a slower start, is just a different mindset. I think the way your brain works is similar to mine, frankly. It’s just sort of this mindset of like, take action and figure out everything else later, right? Is that your personality in general? Are you just not really that scared to try new things?
Alyssa Angelucci: Yeah, I mean, I definitely have that internal fear and imposter syndrome, like I said before. But I am action-oriented, so I totally recognize the only way I will build this business is if I work to build the business. Business building for me is super new, so I am also just trying to find like, what does action-oriented mean in the business world? What does networking look like? So yes, I think there’s that innate fire in me to want to do something that is passion-driven and that is fueling me. So, yeah, definitely.
Jayne Havens: I’m sure you’re still, to some degree, developing your voice, trying to figure out what language to use in these conversations. I’m wondering if you would be willing to share a little bit about some of the conversations that you’re having with people for the sake of networking. Are you connecting with, you know, whether it be OB-GYNs, or chiropractors, or pediatricians, or preschool directors? And if so, how are you navigating those conversations?
Alyssa Angelucci: Yeah, I mean, similar to my approach with the website and Instagram, it’s kind of been like, just do it. And if it clicks, it clicks. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. I can refine that as time comes. So the approach I’ve been taking is: I just want to get my name out there. I’m not necessarily looking for something in return. I’m not necessarily looking to convert to a client. Jayne, this was in the training, and I really took this to heart—it’s not about the person I’m talking to and them becoming a client. It’s who that person will tell.
Every single mom-driven class, I’m reaching out to them. I’m sending an email like, “I’d love to chat with you. How can I support your business? What are you looking for? What do your clients want?” I’m not like, “Hey, can you advertise for me?” I’m meeting with anyone—from business coaches to local businesses to people who run the local mom network.
One of the best pieces of advice I got recently was that, every week, you should be having one conversation that makes you a little uncomfortable, because you’ll get a tip, or you’ll get some momentum in some direction. I’ve really been like, “Okay, that’s actually the priority on my to-do list right now. That’s my goal.” And so through that, it’s led to some opportunities. Again, everything does make me uncomfortable, but I’ll figure it out as I go. I just signed on to have a table at an upcoming fair.
Do I have any materials or collateral for a table? No, but I’ll buy them, and then I’ll figure it out. And if it doesn’t go well, I’ll do another table, you know. That’s definitely been my approach.
Jayne Havens: I think that is absolutely the right attitude, and it’s how I lead in my business as well. I think the fact that you’ve honed in on the whole idea that it’s not necessarily about the person you’re speaking with, but it’s about their network. I have conversations with people every single day, both in my consulting business with Snooze Fest, but then also inside of CPSM. Sometimes I’ll speak with somebody who is interested in working with a sleep consultant. We have a great conversation. I think they’re going to hire me. They don’t, for whatever reason. Then, literally, six months later, they give my name to a friend. And that person works with me.
It happens inside of my Center for Pediatric Sleep Management business as well. I speak with doulas all the time who want to get this training. And for one reason or another, in the moment it’s not the right time, or logistically it just doesn’t make sense right now, but then they tell their doula friends about me. I think it’s so important to just get out there and have those conversations, and as you said, lead with, “How can I help you,” rather than, “What can you do for me?”
Alyssa Angelucci: Yeah, and I think that’s something that for me felt challenging at first. So with social media, for example, it’s really exciting for me when I get new followers, especially if I don’t know them, right? That’s like, “Oh my gosh. What are they interested in?” Right? Like, if you’re following me, unless you’re my friend, you probably have a specific need, or it’s a future need.
Another piece of advice I got through networking was to engage with your community one on one. So when I get a new follow, I am taking the time to message them and thank them for following me and asking what they need from me, like content wise.
Are there tips you’re looking for? That was a good reframe for me. I’m showing my personality. I’m showing how I support, and I’m showing versus telling and building relationships. Then they’ll be like, “Wow, this sleep consultant was so kind. She gave me tips. This is someone you should consider.” So I really think of it as like, what is the ripple effect of my actions now? I don’t look at this business as one where I’m able to just do it all in a month. I’m like, what does a year from now look like? What does two years from now look like?
Jayne Havens: Yeah, I think that’s a really important perspective, and it’s going to position you to be successful long term. Because I do think that business growth, business development, it’s all a long game. Even if you have early markers for success, everything is ups and downs. You could have a banger month, and then the next month, it’s really quiet. But as time goes on and your name travels outward to more and more families and more and more professionals in adjacent fields, that just builds up more space for referrals coming back to you. I think it’s absolutely the right mindset.
Getting back to client work, I want to talk about that a little bit. As a brand-new sleep consultant, where are you getting your confidence from when you’re supporting families?
Alyssa Angelucci: I think my confidence is coming from a place that I deeply know I would do anything to guarantee that in our two weeks together, they get sleep. I really am showing up for my clients in a full-on way. I really pride myself on getting in those first few days, and even in the initial intake, getting to know their unique style—how they communicate, their parenting approach. I’m definitely putting extra effort into that initial phase. So that way, even when I write the sleep plan for them, it’s written in a tone that I think will resonate with them the way they talk. Maybe it’s a parent who needs a firmer approach. Maybe a mom is super anxious, and she needs support.
I’m really trying to put myself in their shoes, and I think the confidence just comes from knowing that — I’m confident that I know I will show up for them. I think support is really the root of this business. And as a client to a sleep consultant, I often reflect back and I’m like, okay, there were so many things she didn’t necessarily solve for, but she made me feel really supported along the way. And that if it didn’t happen tomorrow, it would happen with consistency. So my confidence comes from kind of reflecting on that and knowing that I’m just going to show up as much as I can.
Jayne Havens: Have you made any friends inside of the CPSM community that you are sort of chatting with on the side? Is anybody supporting you?
Alyssa Angelucci: Yeah, so I actually have a friend, and I love my story with her. Her name is Stella. She also recently graduated. Stella and I actually met through a Facebook community months ago.
Our daughters are born a day apart. We both struggled with bottle refusal, and we both struggled with it for a really long time. I mentioned Moms on Call before. We were both in a Moms on Call Facebook group. I saw that we were struggling with a lot of the same issues, so I had reached out to her on the side. That friendship really grew over time. Our daughters, again, a day apart, so we were just supporting each other. Whenever we had sleep challenges, we would honestly ask each other. It became really nice to have someone who had a very similar experience with sleep, a very similar mindset.
When I shared with her that I met you, Jayne, and that I signed up to be a sleep consultant, she was like, “Oh my goodness. It’s so funny you’re saying this. It’s something I have always thought of.” So we kind of did the course side by side. It ebbed and flowed with who was where and who finished first. We launched simultaneous to each other, and it’s been really nice having someone cheering me on. I can cheer her on.
We’re sharing our wins. We’re able to troubleshoot a little bit behind the scenes, and really kind of compare. I think that is the perfect example of why we all need support. Like even when my daughter is having a rough sleep day, I go to her, because I want that support. You know, I’m not always necessarily looking for the tip, but the value is definitely there in having someone.
Jayne Havens: I was looking back in our CPSM Facebook group. I was searching for your name to just see where engagement was coming up. I noticed that you shared a win almost every single week. I love that you do this. Because I think that having a positive mindset and always leading with the positive rather than the negative is ultimately what snowballs into more positive, right? When you’re always thinking positively, then more positive stuff comes your way. Is that your mindset? Is that where your head is at this point?
Alyssa Angelucci: Yeah, it is. And it’s so funny you brought that up. Because even this week’s Winning Wednesday, when you posted, I had a moment where I’m like, “Well, I didn’t get a new client this week. So am I winning?” I really had to think about it. And then yes, that reframe quickly came in.
I’m like, “No, I am winning because I had XYZ conversations.” And again, when I’m able to reframe what my actual goal is, it’s not necessarily just the clients. It’s the business building. So yes, I see at a larger scale the power of community. So I recognize that if I’m sharing my wins, maybe someone will see that and feel inspired, or maybe they’ll have advice for me. So yes, I definitely try and ride the wave of optimism for sure.
Jayne Havens: I think it’s really important. I think it’s important for you to just always reframe your thoughts to be positive whenever possible. I think that’s really beneficial for just overall good mindset and growth. But I also think it’s really important for the larger community to see people sharing wins—big and small. Because, you know, like one of your wins I wrote down was just that you launched your Instagram. You were uncomfortable about it, and you did it anyway.
To me, that is a fantastic win to share with a community of other sleep consultants. Because there are probably 200 other people in the community that are scared to post on social media, and they haven’t been because they don’t know what to say. Or they don’t know what picture to post or what to do. And to see that you said you were scared and you did it anyway, I think, is motivation and inspiration for others. And it also just reminds you that you’re always putting in the good work. You’re always putting in the effort, and that does have positive outcomes.
Alyssa Angelucci: Yeah, and I think it’s a good reminder for all of us that I don’t think anyone has this natural comfortability with doing something new. That’s just not the reality.
This is totally new for me. It is totally new for me to build a website. It’s totally new for me to take on clients and figure all that out. It’s totally new for me to do Instagram. So there’s part of it that is, you know, I think we all often look at other people and we’re like, “Oh my goodness. They do that. It looks amazing. It’s beautiful. It’s perfect. That must be so natural to them.” I just don’t know that that’s the reality. So I try and remind that to myself and just give it a go, and know that it doesn’t need to be perfect—nobody’s expecting that of me, you know?
Jayne Havens: What would you say to somebody who’s sort of like sitting in the corner scared—either wanting to become a sleep consultant and thinking about whether or not they can make this a possibility for themselves, or somebody who is already technically enrolled in a program, maybe even finished the course, and then never did much from there?
Alyssa Angelucci: I remember when we first spoke, and I think I probably came across a little like wavering. You said to me, you’re like, “I think you should just do it.” I almost needed that. I needed the really direct kick of like, “You just need to do it.” I think it kind of goes back to a lot of what I’ve been saying, like, you just sometimes need to put all your worries aside and know that you just have to take that step. So I would almost say, like, try it again.
Do one little part of something. If you haven’t signed up for the course, sign up and figure out what those milestones are. If you’re in the middle of the course, say, “I’m going to do it for 15 minutes today.” And once you kind of get that little spark of like, “Okay, I’ve done the little step,” it’s easier for that flow to follow. I don’t know. I loved the advice you gave me, and I think it’s really resonated with me clearly till now. It’s very consistent when I’m networking. It’s kind of like you just got to press go.
Jayne Havens: I often think about the hesitations that women have around starting a sleep consulting business, and how that’s so similar to how our clients feel, the parents feel, around starting sleep training, right?
Alyssa Angelucci: Yes.
Jayne Havens: It’s sort of like, if you’re too scared to even start this, how are you going to support the person who’s scared to start their scary thing? We all have to put ourselves in an environment that’s slightly uncomfortable, I think, so that we can understand what it’s like for the families that we’re supporting to be uncomfortable. For some of us, that’s just that we’ve sleep trained our own kids, and that was uncomfortable, and now we’re ready to help others. I often think about how anytime I feel overwhelmed or challenged or stuck in my business, I always try to relate it back to like, this is how the families feel about their child’s sleep.
It’s such an important exercise for me to sit in that discomfort over and over and over again. Because you don’t want to desensitize yourself to that so that like you don’t have any empathy for your client.
Alyssa Angelucci: Totally, yeah.
Jayne Havens: It’s so important that we continue to feel uncomfortable ourselves somewhere in life. And for me, business is — people think everything comes so easily to Jayne. She just does it. No, I’m regularly sitting in my discomfort regularly and taking action on it. I think that regular feeling of discomfort is what really positions me to support families at a really high level and to really feel what they’re going through, even if it’s not sleep to sleep. It’s business to sleep. But I do think that feeling of discomfort is really important for all of us to feel—not just once, but over and over and over again.
Alyssa Angelucci: I think, especially, anytime you enter into something that feels polarizing. I’ve seen some people’s sleep training is polarizing, right? I think back to like what I was saying at the beginning when I had my daughter—I’m getting all this conflicting advice, and you’re reading everything online, and you’re hearing all these things—sometimes there’s that feeling that’s uncomfortable to stand behind something you really believe in. I think that even that at a minimum, it can often be uncomfortable. But that’s also part of it, right? That’s something you talk to your clients about. So everything we feel—I totally agree with you—they feel. It makes you more relatable to do things that are uncomfortable.
Jayne Havens: Well, you’re off to a very, very solid and strong start. It makes me proud to have students that just are committed to hit the ground running, get going, figure it out, be scared, do it anyway. You’re doing all of those things. So I’m just super, super proud and excited to see where things go. If anybody wants to follow you on Instagram, share whatever you’d like to share—website, social media, et cetera.
Alyssa Angelucci: Yeah, so my website is aasleepconsulting.com. It is the same on Instagram, so @aasleepconsulting.
Jayne Havens: Alyssa, it’s so great chatting with you. We definitely need to do an update in six months to a year and see where you are. I’m sure all great things.
Alyssa Angelucci: Yes, thank you, Jayne. It was so nice chatting with 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