Celebrating One Year in Business with Valerie Holm
On today’s episode of the Becoming a Sleep Consultant podcast, I’m joined by Valerie—a respiratory therapist, mom of two, and now a thriving pediatric sleep consultant. Valerie opens up about what it was really like during her first year in business: the fears, the milestones, and the mindset shifts that helped her go from just starting out to confidently supporting families each month.
We talk about what gave her the push to get certified, how she balances her consulting work with motherhood and her hospital shifts, and the exact moment she realized that this side hustle could actually become something bigger.
Valerie shares so many honest reflections, plus her goals for year two and a couple of sweet client stories that you won’t want to miss. Whether you’re thinking about becoming a sleep consultant or you’re already on this path, my interview with Valerie will inspire you to keep moving forward!
Cohen
Links:
Website: Restful Solutions
Instagram: @valerie.sleep.consultant
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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.
On today’s episode of the Becoming a Sleep Consultant Podcast, I’m joined by Valerie—a respiratory therapist, mom of two, and now a thriving pediatric sleep consultant. Valerie opens up about what it was really like during her first year in business: the fears, the milestones, and the mindset shifts that helped her go from just starting out to confidently supporting families each month.
We talk about what gave her the push to get certified, how she balances her consulting work with motherhood and her hospital shifts, and the exact moment she realized that this side hustle could actually become something bigger. Valerie shares so many honest reflections, plus her goals for year two and a couple of sweet client stories that you won’t want to miss. Whether you’re thinking about becoming a sleep consultant or you’ve already started on this path, my interview with Valerie will inspire you to keep moving forward.
Jayne Havens: Valerie, welcome to the Becoming a Sleep Consultant Podcast. I’m so excited to have you here with me today.
Valerie Holm: Thank you, Jayne. I’m so excited to be here. Good morning.
Jayne Havens: Before we get started, tell us a bit about yourself and why you decided to get certified to work as a sleep consultant.
Valerie Holm: My name is Valerie Holm. I am a mommy of two. So, right now, I have a 2-year-old, a 4-year-old, and a bonus son who is 16. I am married to my husband. We live in California together. We have been married nearly 10 years. Before I ventured into the world of sleep consulting, I have been a respiratory therapist for 12 years. So, at the time of thinking about becoming a sleep consultant, I had been an RTE for like 9 to 10 years. And so my journey into sleep consulting—this might be a little bit long-winded, so I will try to keep it a little bit short—this started with my firstborn.
My beautiful firstborn, again, who is four, her name is Emma. I was the type of mom who was like, I didn’t research sleep that much. I went to all of the birthing classes, lactation classes. And I just, for whatever reason, thought like, “Oh, she’ll just sleep when she sleeps.” It wasn’t something that I was super concerned about. I was like, “Oh, babies are super sleepy. It’ll be fine.” It was not fine. Actually, she would only sleep if someone was like physically holding her.
So my husband and I, to survive this and kind of battle this, we took turns for months holding her while she slept day and night. So in the night when we were holding her, we would stay awake. Because I was terrified to go sleep. I was like, that wasn’t something that I could do. I had tried it once or twice, and my body would just not fall asleep next to her. And so that just wasn’t an option for us. And so, for months and months, like two or three months, we took turns all night long. I was trying to find stuff on Netflix to keep myself awake at 2 AM, 3 AM, 4 AM.
And so my husband actually had to go back to work after his paternity leave at the two-and-a-half, three-month mark. I realized that I could not hold her physically 24/7 even though I loved her so much. And so I started to try to push her into the crib. Sometimes this worked okay. Sometimes she would wake up every hour, every two hours. Basically, I was losing it. I was like, my mental health was suffering. Our marriage was suffering, like all the things.
I remember calling my dear lactation consultant at the time who was helping me with all the lactation part of it. I called her. She was kind of like a support person for me. I was like, I was crying. I was like, “I know this is not your thing. Sleep is not your thing. But do you have any idea how to get this baby to sleep, without me holding her, in her crib? I have no idea what I’m doing.” She really gently and really lovingly was like, “Have you looked into sleep training?”
At this point, Emma is like four and a half months old. And I was like, “Sleep training?” Okay. So then that set me down this massive rabbit hole. I took a pretty popular course. I read a couple of books. I asked my pediatrician about it. I got the okay. She was like, it’s totally safe. And I was like, okay.
After about a few weeks of coming to the decision to do it and researching as much as possible—I was so really nervous to do it because the internet is very loud about sleep training—it ended up just being the best thing in the entire world. It was an adjustment the first couple of nights. Then after that, it was like, whoa, this is amazing. She started just putting herself to sleep. She would sleep 11 hours and wake up super happy. It just changed the trajectory of everything to come. It was really amazing. I’m so sorry that was so long-winded.
Jayne Havens: No, I love that. I love that. My story is similar, although I wasn’t holding my son all night long. But I had that same transformation when we decided to implement sleep training for my son. Twelve and a half years ago, we were, every hour, putting a pacifier in his mouth to get him to go back to sleep. And, literally, two, three nights of sleep training and he was an 11-hour sleeper. Chef’s kiss, right?
Valerie Holm: Yes.
Jayne Havens: It’s transformative. It changes the dynamic of your household. It improved my marriage. It improved my relationship with my baby. All of a sudden, I was enjoying him again. Everybody who’s listening to us is not seeing our faces but our facial expressions. They’re like, “Uh, yes.” Right? And so then I’m wondering, like, from that experience of sleep training your own child, how long between that and then deciding, “I actually want to help other moms. I want to support people through this process”? What sort of led you to wanting to do this professionally.
Valerie Holm: It took me a little bit to come to that decision. I realized how amazing it was. Just naturally, I just started talking about it to other moms. I started helping friends, friends of friends, and Facebook groups. I’m a part of a lot of mommy type, hobby type Facebook groups. Just naturally, if someone had a question, I’m like, you know, I’m on my keyboard. Just like, “Oh my god. Try this. Try this. Try this.” It was just something very fun for me to just do that.
After a while, I went back to work at the hospital full-time. I was like, this is horrible. Now I do have a passion for working in the hospital as an RT. Sure. But I wanted something else because I didn’t like to be away from my baby. I was like, “Well, what if we became a sleep consultant?” Because I didn’t realize that sleep consultants, like personal sleep consultants, existed. Because I took a course. So I didn’t know that there was a whole another side to that. And so I looked more into it and looked more into it. I was looking for courses. I probably Googled something like, “how to become a sleep consultant” or “becoming a sleep consultant,” and found you. I just was researching for a while.
I’m someone who takes her time to make decisions a little bit, especially a big one like that. I think the time, probably like six or some months, and then I landed on a couple of them. I decided on yours, and I’m so happy I did. Yeah, so it was six or some months to make the decision and then a couple of months to do a little bit of research. Then I finally, I think, decided. I was like, okay, we’re going to do it.
Jayne Havens: Take us back to your first month in business. I know that you’re such a go-getter, and you’re a pretty confident person. But I’m wondering what was going through your mind as you were first getting started. Did you have those sort of worries and fears that come along with starting something new, or were you just so stinking excited to get going that you didn’t let all that stuff cloud your brain?
Valerie Holm: Right. I think a little bit of both. Yes, I’m very ambitious. I’m driven. I’m like, okay, I put my mind to something and I’m like, we’re doing it. Then also, I was like, okay, this is new. I also want to be really good at it. I want to get that experience and this and this. And so I think my first month of business, I’m not sure when that was. So I’m air quoting for people who can’t see this. I launched my business at the end of 2023. And by launch my business, I mean I posted on my personal Facebook page, “Hey, I’m a sleep consultant now. I’m ready to take on clients. Do you know anyone?” That was me launching it.
Okay. At that point, I was like, okay, what happens now? Because it was kind of crickets. I just thought that people would just flock to me, and I would just get clients. It didn’t quite do that. So that was the very end of 2023. I got my first paying client in February 2024. So a few months later. I think posting on Facebook was my soft launch. Then finally, like a couple of months later, it took me some time, conversations and building. I do most of my business on Instagram, which I love. It’s like my thing that I hustle that I am good at. So I just built that a little bit. I started conversations. It took me a little bit of time to get that client.
And so, my first month of business, I think I’m going to start by my first paying client. I did a couple of pro bonos before this. Yeah, it was amazing. I went through all the things with her. I actually have her testimonial printed right above my desk right here, so I can read that every time. It’s like this long. It was like, wow. This is amazing. I’m meant for this. It just brought me so much happiness to help her and be with her. We have become great friends since. So it’s been amazing. So a bit of getting to know what works for me and then being confident and just driven to just figure it out.
Jayne Havens: When would you say that you really started to get your stride and get into a rhythm? I know that you’re currently supporting anywhere from — I think it’s like three to eight families, seven-ish families, a month, which is amazing by the way for being one year into business. If you’re supporting about seven families a month, that’s amazing. So proud of you. Like, I’m glowing. So proud of you. When would you say that you got your stride and started to feel like you were in a rhythm and in a groove, with sort of a steady stream of families, even if it wasn’t seven a month, even if it was like three or four a month? When would you say you started to feel that way?
Valerie Holm: I think that came a few months after my first one. So I had worked with my first one, and then I didn’t get a client for a whole month after that. It was like, oh, okay. I had this amazing thing. I want to do it again. It just takes some time to just find the way that works for you to get those clients. I think it was like last summer. So the first client was in February. Then last summer, I just sow all of the seeds that I had planted. Like a few months before that, kind of blossoming. I was like, “Wow, this is so easy.”
Last summer, I started to see all that happening. I got into a better groove, and I found certain things that worked. I started to get at least two to three clients -ish a month. Now, a year later, or a little bit over a year later, I’m supporting seven clients currently right this very second, with another one starting literally tomorrow. So it just takes time. Yeah, it was just a few months after that. I’m just trying to figure out what works for me. That’s all.
Jayne Havens: You said that you are using Instagram to grow your business. Can you speak into that a little bit? Are you creating a lot of content? Are you using the platform as a mechanism to just connect with people and start conversations and then take those conversations offline? What does that look like for you, if you don’t mind sharing?
Valerie Holm: Yeah, so I post content. I’ve gotten into a group of posting content like Monday through Friday-ish. So that just looks like a reel. That could be a carousel. I share a lot about my story, because people resonate with that, and how amazing sleep training was for me. People can resonate with that. I try to kind of combat the negativity and misconceptions of what sleep training is in my content, so people can read that and be like okay. Because the internet is so loud, and it was like something that made me a little bit nervous to do it. So I tried to make my Instagram just kind of like a safe, non-judgmental, really educational, really value-packed space that moms can go to.
Of course, you have to start conversations to get clients. Most of the time, they don’t just flock to you. Eventually, maybe that’ll happen. But my clients come from conversations typically. I’m at a point now where I’m getting some referrals, which is amazing. They just hop on a call. I’ve never seen their name on my calendar ever and I’m like, “Okay. That’s amazing.” But yeah, it’s a lot of content. I’m posting on my stories.
Then my stories, I’m just really posting what’s going on with my clients. Because people want to see that. I will post my morning check-ins and they’re like, “Oh my God. My baby slept 11 hours again.” So I’m just posting that. I’m just posting what’s possible, what’s going on with my clients. It’s all very natural for me to do that because it’s all just things that are happening. You have to start in conversations and just asking people if they do want help with that.
Jayne Havens: Tell me a little bit about how you’re juggling your life. You know, you have two young kids. You have your job, like your respiratory therapist job. Did you call it a real job because I almost called it—?
Valerie Holm: I said a job-job.
Jayne Havens: Oh, a job-job. Right. We’ll call it your job-job, and then sleep consulting. How are you juggling all of that, and what does that look like day to day?
Valerie Holm: Right. So I was working full time up until probably September of last year. For me, that looks like 3 to 4, depending on what was going on, 12-hour shifts a week at the hospital doing that.
And so, for a long time, I would do this. I would wake up early in the morning. I’m talking like 5 AM. Like before the kids wake up, I’m working on stuff. I’m making sleep plans. I’m doing my content at 5 AM because that’s the time I had, or when my youngest who is two, during her nap time, I’ve been doing that, and then in the evenings. But it doesn’t feel like work-work to me. It just feels fun. I really enjoy doing it. It’s like I don’t mind using “free time” to do that.
My second, she’s two now, she is just now starting to go to preschool in the last month. Today is her first-ever full day. So we’ve been gradually transitioning her into this. Today is her very first day going for seven whole hours. My time has been very, very limited. I’ve just been balancing that with doing this when I can, when they’re sleeping, or maybe dad takes them to the park for 45 minutes and I’m like trying to get stuff done.
Thankfully, this has made it to where I am per diem now. So that just means like as needed. I am working like one, maybe two shifts, a week now. Those are 10 to 12-hour shifts. So I have gone from 32 plus hours a week to like 10, and it’s been amazing. Honestly, this sleep business, my side hustle, has turned into my main gig. My respiratory therapy job is now my little side hustle, where I’m like, “I’ll pick up if like I feel like it.” But I don’t feel the need to work full time, and I don’t think that I’ll ever go back full time.
Jayne Havens: That just makes me so happy. I appreciate you sharing the journey and the process. Because I think so many people who are listening to this who work full time or close to full time, they ask me all the time. Like, how do I have time for this? How do I make time? Where do I find the time? Person after person after person who I interview who’s been through the process, they all tell me that they just love the work so much that they make the time. And when you are doing something that is meaningful, that you’re passionate about and that brings you joy and fills your cup, you find the time to make it happen. I really truly believe that.
It’s very clear when listening to you talk that, for you, this was not about of money. This was about changing lives, making moms happier, and making for better family life. I think, really, when you show up with that energy, this isn’t about making the sale, this isn’t about how many dollars I can bring in. This is about, how can I help this mom thrive in these early stages of motherhood? I think when you show up with that energy, the business comes.
Valerie Holm: Exactly. I would completely agree. So my business doesn’t feel like — it definitely doesn’t feel like work at the hospital, which feels like work-work. Right? So this is like my passion. I love it. Yeah, I love working with my clients and literally changing their whole lives when we get their baby sleeping. They have those, like, oh moments where they are like, “Oh my God. He has never slept more than one hour at a time. He just slept six hours for the first time ever.” It’s like, I love it. It honestly just makes me super, super happy. So yeah.
Jayne Havens: Do you have a case that you can share a little bit about that maybe felt overwhelming, or out of your comfort zone, or intimidating, or scary, and then maybe it turned out to be a great story?
Valerie Holm: Yes, I have a couple. I will maybe choose one, maybe second if we have time. My first, three-month-old. I was a little nervous to do this. So this mom was in the exact same shoes that I was in. She and her husband—it was like the same situation—were holding their baby all night long, staying awake. This baby had rarely touched a bassinet in his whole three months of living. That’s a little bit intimidating. But I was like, “Oh, my God. She’s in the same exact situation I was.” It was like a full circle moment. I’m like, I can’t not take this case. But I was still just a little nervous to do it.
I actually enlisted the help of someone in our CPSM, Kerri. She is amazing. I was like, “I would love some help on this.” She was like, “Oh, of course.” And so she helped me with that. We used a course, like a slower, more gradual method to help. It took some time. It took three weeks instead of two. It was super tough in the beginning. Because again, the baby had rarely ever touched the bassinet. And so we just did a really, really slow, really gradual.
Emotions were very high for parents. They were very nervous and very anxious to do this, but they knew it wasn’t sustainable, and they were just kind of losing it, in how I was. It ended up being amazing. Kerri is amazing. If she listens to this, thank you so much. I love you. Yeah, so that was a super tough case. It was my first ever three-month-old, and it ended up being amazing. Now, since then, three to four months old are kind of my fave and kind of my thing.
Now I feel very, very confident to do that, which I think is really special. Because a lot of parents are nervous to make changes to their baby’s sleep until the five, six-month mark. And so they could be just suffering until then when they don’t really need to do that. So I have kind of honed in a strategy specific for three to four months old. It’s amazing. Parents don’t have to suffer for another three months. So yeah, that was one of my tougher, tougher cases. But it ended up working amazing.
Now that mom is pregnant again and expecting her next baby. She was like, you know it’s amazing, that she now has that information to take on to her next baby. She felt like she could handle another baby because now she knows how to get them to sleep. And so that was super amazing.
I had another super type case. This was a little bit older. I think she was about six months when mom finally started. Mom was pretty anxious, pretty high emotion. Her sweet babe was waking up literally every 15 to 25 minutes and needing to be resettled. She signed on with me and completed the intake process two months before we started. She kept putting it off, putting it off, because she was so scared. She’s like, “My baby could never do this. It will never work. Nothing about this is going to work.” But she needed something, and so she finally came to me.
At the time, she had moved back in with her parents because she physically could not handle all of the wake ups. Her baby was drinking 12 to 13 ounces at night between three feeds, and so we really gradually weaned all that. This again took about three weeks instead of two. I extended both of these clients a week on my own just to get them where they wanted to be. And it was perfect.
Yeah, so that was super tough because the emotions were really high. Parents were really, really nervous. We just did it casual, and we figured it out. The first time that baby slept more than literally 25 minutes, the mom hit the floor. The first five hour stretch she got, she was like, “This is amazing.” Then eventually, we got 7 hours, 9 hours, 11 hours. Now she’s just sleeping and not eating at night. We fixed it. She was a really difficult eater during the day, of course, because she’s taken 12 ounces at night. So we lift all that and got her eating well during the day, napping well during the day, and then sleeping through the night. It was amazing.
Jayne Havens: It really feels like magic even though sometimes it’s really hard work, right?
Valerie Holm: Yes, absolutely.
Jayne Havens: Yeah, and I love that you gave both of those families a little bit of extra time. I would have done the same. I always tell families there’s nothing magical about 14 days. That is not some magic number where everything is just ironed out and perfect all the time. My policy—and it sounds like maybe yours is similar—is that if I feel like parents are coachable, they’re doing the work, they’re really invested in the process, they’re listening to me and doing everything that we talked about, if it takes a little bit longer, I’m always happy to give them extra time. Now, if they’re not coachable and they’re not doing what we talked about, then that’s sort of on them.
But for parents who are sort of doing everything in a way that I feel like is aligned with making progress, in a way that feels safe and comfortable for them, I’m also always going to give them a few extra days of my time. So I love that you did that for those two families. You got them the wins, and now you get to remember them as success stories. Hopefully, they’ll become referral sources for you.
Again, I think this is stuff that fills our cup just as much as our clients are so happy and their lives are changed. But I can see from the expression on your face, and I feel the same way, that it just never gets old when you hear from these families. When the parents text us in the morning and they’re like, “Teddy slept through the night,” or, “Lucy didn’t get out of bed once,” or whatever it is, it just never gets old. It’s so incredibly rewarding.
Valerie Holm: I agree full-heartedly. One of my favorite things is to wake up and check in on my clients. They’re like, “Oh, this is amazing. My baby just did this or that,” or, “Even with naps times, we turn those little 30-minute naps into 60 or 2 hours sometimes.” They’re like, “Oh, my god. I took a shower. I read a book.” All these things that feel like really big deals that they haven’t had time to do in months because their baby is still sleeping. It makes me very happy.
Jayne Havens: It’s the best. It’s the best. I’m actually staring at my cell phone right now that’s sitting right next to my computer, so I can see all the text messages. I’ll get back to them after we’re done recording. A mom that I’m working with a little three-month-old texted me. “8:30 to 10 AM, napped beautifully.” It’s like, yay! The best.
Talk to me about goals for the next year. I bet you have some ideas in mind for what you want your business to look like moving forward. Can you share a little bit about that?
Valerie Holm: Sure. My goals, I have thought to start my own podcast. I haven’t put them in the works yet, but yeah.
Jayne Havens: I hope you will.
Valerie Holm: I think it would be really fun and give my clients a chance to just get to know me a little bit better, share whatever I feel like sharing. So I want to do that. I actually have made my own infant sleep training course, because I just thought that would be amazing. So that launches actually today in about 55 minutes. So I have done that. I have worked on that for the past, I don’t know, five or six months. So it took me some time. I just tried to make the best possible. So I’m launching that a little bit.
In terms of business, I want to get more referral sources. Maybe a pediatrician, like in-person sources like that. That’s not something that I have dived totally into yet, but that’s on my to-do list. And yeah, just support more clients. Now that I’m getting a little bit more time — again, we have a preschool in the works now. And so today is actually the first full day I have ever had to work on just business. I’m really excited, and just support more mommies with this more time that I have.
Jayne Havens: I really appreciate you sharing your first full day free with me.
Valerie Holm: Oh, Jayne. Of course.
Jayne Havens: I’m so honored and flattered. I think that this was fantastic. I’m so proud of you, and I really feel like this is just the beginning for you, you know. Really, now that I check in with my grads who are one year in, two years in, four years in, and to see the growth month over month, year over year, sometimes when you’re in it, it feels really slow or even sometimes stagnant at times. But then when you look back 12 months ago to now, when you look at a bigger time frame, you can really see the growth and transformation.
I think you’re a perfect illustration of that. I just cannot even wait to see what happens for you in the second half of 2025 and beyond. Congrats on all of your early success. I just can’t wait to see what you crank out. I’m excited about your course, and I wish you all the best of luck. So thank you so much for taking the time to share your story.
Valerie Holm: Thank you so much, Jayne. I really 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.