Managing Your Mindset with Marli Klaus

Links: Managing Your Mindset 

Website: Your World in Color
Instagram: @the.sleep.cure

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Transcript:Managing Your Mindset

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.

Marli is a certified pediatric sleep consultant through the Center for Pediatric Sleep Management. After a successful 13-year career in retail management and human resources, she discovered the world of sleep consulting and immediately knew this was what she was meant to do with her life. As the owner of Your World in Color and The Sleep Cure program, she helps moms navigate the world of sleep training in a way that feels aligned with their parenting style while setting their child up for both short and long-term sleep success.

Less than 8 months into her sleep consulting journey, Marli was able to grow her business to a point of being able to leave her day job and go full-time in her business. Marli is now supporting other sleep consultants with growing their businesses using the same strategies she used to grow so quickly.

Jayne Havens: Marli, welcome back to the Becoming a Sleep Consultant Podcast. I’m very excited for this conversation today.

Marli Klaus: Thank you. Me, too. I’m excited to be here again.

Jayne Havens: When I first had you on the podcast — I don’t know if you remember this, but you didn’t want to do the interview. Your sleep consulting business was going through a little bit of a lull, and you weren’t feeling great about it. I was open to still coming onto the podcast and talking honestly and transparently about it, but you weren’t sure that that was the energy that you wanted to put out on the show. And I totally understood. So instead, we focused on talking about your venture into teaching Facebook ads to sleep consultants. That was actually a really fabulous conversation.

Now that you are in a bit of a better spot with sleep consulting, I wanted to have you back on to discuss both the highs and the lows, if you’re willing. And maybe we can offer some advice to other sleep consultants that are going through it. I’m wondering if you have a clear memory of that time in your business when things were feeling a little harder. And how did you get yourself over the hump and to the other side of it?

Marli Klaus: Yes, I definitely have a very clear memory of that. Whenever you mentioned that to me yesterday, it came back to me all at once. So I really clearly remember sending you that message. I actually remember being on the verge of tears when I sent you that message, because I was just in such a tough spot and I was about to leave my job. I was questioning everything. I think really what it came down to is that, in that moment, I felt like I was doing everything. I felt like I was doing everything right, but still nothing was working. I think at that point, I had gone almost two months without a single paying client. That just felt like the end of the world for me. So I think the problem was, I was doing everything. I was feeling the pressure to make every single thing in my business important in every single way to market important, instead of focusing in on one or two particular priorities.

And so I think we all can understand that when you’re doing everything versus focusing in on a couple of key priorities, there’s no way that you’re actually doing anything well. It’s naturally not going to lead to the results that you’re wanting to have. And so I think that was one of the biggest shifts that I had to make. It was to focus in on what I knew worked, and then give that the time and the attention that it deserved.

An example is like I needed to stop spending time on rebuilding my website for the 100th time, or launching new programs or products that I didn’t know were going to work or not and instead focus then on my core offer, which was my two-week one-on-one package, and then also get back to focusing in on running ads to bring leads in without efforts, and then building relationships with those leads and turning them into clients.

Whereas, again, before it was like I wasn’t even running ads anymore. I was cold DM-ing, which was something I never liked to doing. I was friend requesting people on Facebook, which made me super uncomfortable. I was doing all kinds of things that just didn’t align with who I was as a business owner. Naturally, that didn’t lead to the results that I wanted. And so I really do feel like it was just a shift. One day I had this realization that when I’m focusing on everything, I was making nothing important. So I decided right then and there that starting from that moment on, I was going to focus in on what was important.

Then things really started moving really quickly. I started noticing a big shift in my business, I was getting sales calls booked again. I was getting clients to sign up again. I was feeling better about everything, which I think is the biggest thing, right? If we don’t feel good about what we’re doing, we’re not going to do it, or we’re not going to do it well. And so I think that was one of the biggest things as well.

One of the, I think, overall messages here is just that you can’t do nothing, and you can’t do everything. I think a lot of business owners think that people will just come to them and want to hire them whenever they’re ready to hire a sleep consultant. That’s not true. But it’s also not true that we can dig in and try to do everything all at once and expect that to lead to the results that we want. We have to be able to find that balance. Once we find that balance, it’s easy to get into your flow and find the magic sauce that makes your business work.

Jayne Havens: How did you know when you are sort of in that downward slump? I always talk about the rollercoaster of emotions during entrepreneurship. I think it’s a really good analogy. We all have these super high highs and these really low lows. We’re constantly on this ride that sometimes it feels like we’re not entirely controlling.

When you were on that sort of downward dip in your business, how did you know what to do to get out of it? Rather than continuing to spiral and try to do all of the things, you said that you started focusing on Facebook ads — which is ultimately what worked for you and seems to light you up. We know that because now you teach that to other sleep consultants, which I think is awesome. But how did you know at the time Because you weren’t a Facebook ads expert at the time? How did you know that that was going to be your one thing that worked for you?

Marli Klaus: I think that was what I had done previously before I got into these two-month slump. I had been running Facebook ads, and then I stopped for whatever reason. I really don’t know why I stopped. I think it was a money thing. I think I had recognized that I was close to quitting my job. I was like, we need to hoard all the money. And so I stopped doing that and started focusing in on other things that, again, didn’t feel good to me.

But it wasn’t something that obviously I figured out quickly. It was a two-month slump. That’s not a short period of time. I guess in the grand scheme of things, it is. But whenever you’re in it, it doesn’t feel short. So I think for a while I did dig deeper. I did start doing more and more and more until I realized at some point that I was just doing too much. That’s whenever I took a step back and started taking a look at, okay, well, things haven’t always been this way.

I did use to get regular clients. I did use to have a steadier flow of clients. So what was working then? That’s whenever I went back to recognizing that, okay, well, I was running ads then. My outreach to potential clients was completely different. I wasn’t doing these cold DMs. I wasn’t doing these friend requests. So I went back to what had previously worked and decided, “Let me give that a shot again.” And if it works, then we know that that’s my thing. It did take a little bit more of a downward spiral before I was able to pull myself out of it and recognize what needed to change and what I needed to do differently to be able to move forward in a better direction.

Jayne Havens: When I was looking back at our DMs in preparation for this interview, I scrolled all the way up. In March, you had sent me a message saying that you made more in nine days than you had ever made in a month in your sleep consulting business. Then in April, you sent me another message saying that you had landed your first client at your new much higher price point.

I’m wondering if you can walk me through the mindset shift that happened for you over the past couple of months. How did you shift your own morale to raise your prices by 40% and show up with this new level of confidence?

Marli Klaus: Yeah, I remember that also. And it was super exciting. I remember I had to message you. I was like, “I need to tell somebody. This is the coolest thing ever.” That message that I sent you in March was, I think, a day or two before I actually left my job before my last day. And so it was this great little boost of confidence that I needed before that last day came. And so it felt really good to have that. But I think, really, if I think back to pre-pricing increase, I think I was really stuck in this mindset of thinking that I had to compete with others in the field.

We know that so many sleep consultants are way under charging. And so I kept thinking, why would somebody hire me for this price whenever they know that they could go get somebody else for half the price or even less? That record, I guess, kept playing in my head. It kept me questioning why I could do a price increase. Then I also had several examples of sales calls that didn’t go great, where the potential clients seemed put off by my already lower pricing. And so I just couldn’t wrap my head around how I could make that jump and feel good about it.

But I think the biggest mindset shift that came for me was recognizing that we shouldn’t be pricing based on what others in the industry are doing. We should be pricing based on the outcome or transformation that we provide. I knew throughout this entire timeframe — even in that two-month slump even in the times that I felt really low — I knew I was really good at what I did. I knew that I brought a ton of value to the clients that I worked with. I knew that families loved working with me, that they had great results. And so I had to focus more on that and really dig into what is the value that I’m providing them versus what is everybody else is charging. Because it doesn’t matter what anyone else is charging.

At the end of the day, people will pay for things that they believe they need, or they will pay for things that they know are going to get them a result, or get them where they want to go even faster than they could on their own. And so I think all of that was a piece of it. That helped me make that decision to make that shift in my pricing and be able to sell it with confidence.

I think we also have to remember, of course, even at a higher price range, even if our messaging is amazing, even if our confidence is there, there’s always going to be moms who aren’t going to pay that price. That’s okay. That’s just not our person. They don’t value that transformation. They don’t value the work and the value that we provide as much as we do. And so we will find somebody else who is willing to pay that.

I think another huge thing that came with that, that led to those nine clients that I messaged to you about, is that I started drawing a very hard line when it came to charging for the value that I bring. And so what that means is, I went from answering all of these random DMs, sleep training questions for free to actually pointing them to book an AMA call or pointing them to book a sleep evaluation call if I thought they needed one-on-one support.

Surprise, surprise. 90% of the time they booked that call without question. Whereas before, I would have just answered the question and then gone on to feel resentful about giving that free advice and being left with, again, not having any additional income because I didn’t ask them to pay me for the advice that I was providing. I think that was a huge shift as well.

Then the last thing that I wanted to talk about on this is desperate energy. You and I chatted a little bit about this yesterday. But I don’t think at the end of the day, there’s a magic bullet for pulling yourself out of desperate energy. I think it takes a lot of time and practice. It’s something that we have to be able to recognize when we’re in that space and continually help ourselves get out of that space.

I found myself at, whenever things were not going well, getting a pit in my stomach when somebody would book a discovery call or sleep evaluation call. Because I knew that I was going to come at it with desperate energy, I knew at that point in time that I needed that sale in order to prove to myself that this business was going to work. And so I would find myself not speaking confidently. I would find myself not even asking them for the sale at the end of the call, because I knew that I bombed the whole call all the way through. Then I would totally suck at follow up. Because, again, I knew I didn’t do a great job on the call. So I’d be like, “Well, they probably don’t want to hire me anyway.” So I somehow was able to pull myself back into confident energy.

I think a lot of it, again, came back to the decision to go back to running these cheap Facebook ads where I knew that the next sales call that I had wasn’t going to be the last sales call. I knew that I had this influx of leads coming in, and that even if this next call didn’t go great, even if that wasn’t my ideal client and they didn’t decide to book with me, that I would have another call booked shortly. Whereas before, it was like I would have a sales call booked and then nothing for a week or two.

Going back into that space of having this influx of leads coming at a regular timeframe and having more sales calls booked helped a lot. That helps me go into those calls with confidence and being able to really explain to them how I could help them, how I could transform their lives and, again, feel confident that if it wasn’t them, it would be the next call.

The very last thing — I know I said last thing, but the very last thing I want to mention is that one thing that helped me a lot too that I want to recommend is the book, We Should All Be Millionaires by Rachel Rodgers. I mentioned this to you a couple of weeks ago. I actually just bought it for all of the members of my business coaching program because I feel that strongly about the value that it brings to women in business. And it’s definitely not like the only thing that led to the mindset shift. But it definitely helped a lot. I can’t recommend it enough.

Jayne Havens: What would you say is your main takeaway from that book? Is there like a one-liner? Not that you’re quoting the book, but is there there like one thing that you’re like, “This is mind blowing. This is this is why I love this book so much”?

Marli Klaus: There’s so much. But it’s really, really all about money mindset and how we can help ourselves recognize that in order to help others, in order to do the things that we want to do and be able to change the lives of others, we need to first change our own lives.

We need to be able to earn what we are capable of earning, what the value is that we bring to others in order to be in a place ourselves where we can then give back to others. I think about being in a position to be able to eventually offer my services for free to a family at need at some point in time — obviously not like on a daily basis, but on a regular cadence. I wouldn’t be able to do that if I was not earning what I need to earn to be able to make sure that my family is taken care of. That’s one big aspect of it.

But oh, my gosh, it’s just like — I can’t even explain. There are so many amazing nuggets of information in there that helps so much with a mindset shift. I’ve read it three times at this point over the last couple of months. So I highly, highly recommend it.

Jayne Havens: I’ll make sure to link it in the show notes so that everybody can go and buy the book. You told me the other day privately that your husband is terrified of entrepreneurship. I want to talk about this. I think it’s a little funny but also very relatable. Was his fear of your dreams a roadblock for you? And if so, how did you overcome it, whether it be individually or as a family?

Marli Klaus: Yeah, I would say his fear was not necessarily a roadblock because, at the end of the day, I knew this is what I had to do. It was more of like how do I help him understand? So I’ll share a little bit about that, too. But really, I just — it was super stressful because I felt such a need to prove to him that I could do it that we could be successful. That really, I think, is what led me to that desperate energy for so long, where it was like not even so much that I needed to prove to myself. Because I knew that I could do it. But I needed to prove to him that I could have consistent income coming in, and that it would be okay for me to leave.

Then I think really the core of this for us was that he didn’t really grow up with examples of entrepreneurs or business owners, whereas that was pretty much all I grew up with. For me, it was really natural to think of living your life and paying your bills as being a business owner. And for him, it was,

“You need to get a good paying job. That’s everything, and that’s all that matters.” He tends to, in this perspective or in this situation, come from a perspective of, “What if it doesn’t work out,” whereas I come from the perspective of, “But what if it does?”

Jayne Havens: I love that. Oh, my gosh. I love that. That’s amazing.

Marli Klaus: I am like this visionary. I’m able to see this long-term success, and this is going to be incredible. It could never be like this if I worked for somebody else. Whereas for him, it’s like, “Well, you can keep getting promoted, or you can keep doing bigger things within your job.” But I just knew that that was never going to be what worked for me. I think trying to reconcile that different mindset in a relationship that’s the most important relationship in your life is really, really challenging. I think the hardest thing for him to wrap his head around was that there was nothing wrong with my job.

My job was the best job that you could ever ask for if you wanted to work for somebody else. But the problem was I didn’t want to work for anyone else anymore. Nothing could change that. That wasn’t going to change whether he felt more strongly about it than I did or not. So I knew that I couldn’t stay in this job. I knew that this isn’t what I was meant to do. And the longer that I stayed in that job, I felt like I was drowning. I felt like I wasn’t giving any aspect of my life the time and the energy that it deserved, including the relationship with my husband, including the relationship with my kids, my business, everything. This is funny. I literally made a PowerPoint presentation and shared it with him.

Jayne Havens: You had to speak his language.

Marli Klaus: Yes, so I broke down all of our existing finances and showed him how long we could cover all of our bills and expenses if I literally earned $0 in my business, to show him that we’re going to be okay. Then I also broke down how long we could pay our bills and everything. Like if I made X amount off my business, which is what I felt strongly I could do sustainably, that really was the turning point for us. He was able to now visualize the future and actually see what I was talking about and see why I was so confident in that move. Because I had showed him what was possible. Then I think it was just maybe a week or two after that conversation that we made the decision together about getting my resignation.

It was a long time coming. I think we’ve been having this conversation for a few months. He could see how important it was to me. But it was just really hard for him to be able to get away from the stable job of being, that sense of security and financial security that he felt so strongly about. And so seeing the literal PowerPoint presentation that I made for him helped him be able to understand where I was coming from. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust me before. But I think he just needed to see the numbers. It all made sense for him at that point.

Jayne Havens: I think that your circumstances are really relatable. I think that in a lot of circumstances, it’s either the spouse who’s really scared for the person who wants to start their own business, or it’s the person who wants to start their own business who’s just trying to wrap their head around the fact like, “How am I going to make this work? What if I don’t have that consistent income.”

Because it does look different to work for yourself. I have them too. I have ebbs and flows in my business. Sometimes I make more money in a month than the next month. Then it’s back up the following, or maybe there’s two months that are a little bit lower, and then I have one that’s gangbusters. That’s the life of an entrepreneur a little bit. But I don’t know. I have that bug too, where, in my mind, there’s no other option because of the flexibility that I’m afforded to run my business the way that I want.

Actually, just before recording this interview, I was speaking to a prospective CPSM student. I hope she’s listening. Or, maybe she will have been enrolled by now, now that this will air a few weeks later. But I was just telling her how June is going to be iffy for me because I’m traveling a ton. We’re going away. In the beginning of June, I’m going away after my kids leave for summer camp. I’m all over the place. My month is going to look different. And that’s okay because that’s my choice. I am taking time off. I’m going to enjoy time with my family and then with my husband. I’m going to get some vitamin D out in the sun. That’s my choice. And I’m looking forward to it. It’s okay. I can plan for that.

Then when the summer winds down and it’s time to get back to work, then I’ll get back to work. These are all choices that we get to make. I don’t know. I think it’s a luxury to be able to be in charge of your own success. Nobody is getting in our way except for ourselves, right? So when we stay out of our own way, we can make whatever happen that we want to make happen.

Now that sleep consulting is really your full-time job, I’m wondering how you’re managing your time. How many hours a week would you say that you’re dedicating to your work? Are you at the point yet where you feel like you could go on vacation and shut it down for a few days? Are you feeling like you still want to work through those trips and times that are maybe supposed to be a little bit more chill?

Marli Klaus: I would say, on average, I’m probably spending 25 or 30 hours a week on my business, because I am still growing a lot of aspects of my business. I’m focusing a lot more right now on my leads on my sleep program and trying to get that launched again, and also still focusing on supporting existing clients.

It definitely was an adjustment. Going from working full-time and just trying to fit in my business wherever I could, which mostly meant like nights and 5 AM to having free rein of my day was definitely a big change. But it was something that I wanted so badly. It was something I was so excited about that I knew I needed to do whatever I could to make it work. I think a big thing that’s been helpful for me is just writing out my ‘non-negotiable’ every day. I write out my must-to-do list. Then I write out my nice-to-do list. Then I just make sure every day that at least my must-to-do gets done.

Then I think the other thing is, I remind myself often, especially in days where I find myself literally glued to my seat at my office for an hour straight, I remind myself why I decided to do this. Then I ensure that the next day isn’t like that, and that I am giving myself an opportunity to go for a hike in the morning or pick up my kids from school early. I’ve been trying to do that most of the time. Their school is out after tomorrow, so I’m a little stressed out about that. But we’ll figure it out. So I think it’s all about just reminding yourself why you’re doing what you’re doing, making sure that you’re setting aside time for yourself and your family but also giving your business the time and attention that it deserves.

As far as a vacation goes, we just got back from the Bahamas a week or two ago. I worked very minimally. I had one client that I was supporting during that time. It’s a mom of a three-year-old who’s making a co-sleeping transition. They needed very little help, which was amazing, given the fact that they’re making a co-sleeping transition and that I was in the Bahamas. Then I continue to support my Leads While You Sleep group. It was just very — I would say I spent maybe 30 minutes a day on my business and was able to really fully enjoy the rest of the time. I think the next time I took a vacation or take a vacation, I would probably shut off completely because there’s no reason not to.

I think the big mindset shift there is just knowing that you can always get another client. It’s not like if you let go of one, there’s never going to be another one. That’s something that we have to remember. Make sure that we’re prioritizing ourselves and our families, and that we’re giving that the time and attention that it deserves. Again, that goes back to why did we want to do this to start with.

Jayne Havens: What do you have coming down the pipeline? Anything exciting to share with those listening?

Marli Klaus: Yeah, so I will be re-launching my Leads While You Sleep Program, which is my group program. Firstly, consultants who are wanting to grow their business through Facebook and Instagram ads. That will be opening again for enrollment in the next couple of weeks. So I’m super excited about that. The consultants that are currently in the program are doing amazing. It’s been so much fun to be able to teach them this new skill. Because it’s a lot of tech, and it’s a lot of things that take a little bit of time to get used to. So it’s been fun seeing them be excited about getting all of these leads joining their business. But outside of that, that’s really the main thing that I’m focused on right now.

Jayne Havens: You have a podcast. I would love for you to share your podcast. Because I just love that CPSM grads are starting their own podcast. So tell us about that? What it’s called? Where they can find it?

Marli Klaus: Yes, so my podcast is the Dreaming of Sleep Podcast: for moms of babies and toddlers. It is really just focused on sleep training and really parenthood in general. It’s not just sleep training, but that’s obviously the main focus. And so I really try to focus a lot on debunking myth and helping moms see that sleep training is not evil, and that it can make their lives better, and that they should be talking to the right people whenever they’re wanting to get advice about their child’s sleep or parenting in general. And not letting things get to them whenever they see bad information on the internet or from friends and family.

Jayne Havens: I love it. Thank you so much for being willing to come back onto the podcast. I cannot wait for everybody to hear this conversation.

Marli Klaus: Me either. Thank you, Jayne. I appreciate it.

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. Managing Your Mindset