Going All In on Sleep Consulting with Val Hudson

On today’s episode of the Becoming a Sleep Consultant podcast, I’m chatting with Val, a CPSM graduate who completed the program in January 2023.

Val started her sleep consulting journey as a side hustle, supporting families here and there while raising her three young children and working full time. Over time, her passion for this work grew, her confidence increased, and she took the leap into running her business full time.

Links:

Website: The Family Sleep Coach
Instagram: @the_familysleepcoach

If you would like to learn more about the Becoming a Sleep Consultant, please join our free Facebook Group or check out our CPSM Website.

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.

On today’s episode of the Becoming a Sleep Consultant podcast, I’m chatting with Val, a CPSM graduate who completed the program back in January of 2023.

Val started her sleep consulting journey as a side hustle, supporting families here and there while raising her three young children and working full time. Over time, her passion for this work grew, her confidence increased, and she took the leap into running her business full time.

In our conversation, Val shares: what it looked like to get started and land her first clients, how she knew it was time to transition from side hustle to full-time business, the challenges and rewards of balancing work while raising three little kids, and the strategies that have helped her grow her business and continue to support more families.

Val’s story is such a great reminder that it is possible to build a business that not only provides financial stability, but also flexibility to be present at home.

Jayne Havens: Val, welcome to the Becoming a Sleep Consultant podcast. I’m so glad you’re here with me today.

Val Hudson: Yeah, thank you so much for having me, Jayne.

Jayne Havens: So before we get started, why don’t you share a little bit about yourself—if you want to share about your family and what you were doing professionally before sleep consulting—and what drew you to wanting to get certified?

Val Hudson: Yeah, absolutely. I’m married. I live in Tennessee. I am a mom of three. I have twin boys that will be five this fall, and my daughter is three. So, for a period of time, I had three under two. So it’s a good thing that we were all sleeping. We wouldn’t have made it.

Before becoming a sleep consultant, I just started my career with Enterprise Rent-A-Car. I was in their sales and customer service department, leading a branch, a couple of branches here in Nashville. Then I left and I joined a trust and safety team. So I was leading a team of trust and safety agents as they navigated through supporting rideshare customers and drivers, which was an interesting spot to be in. But I was working in a startup, so I got to do a lot of different things. I worked in recruiting, customer service, learning and development. I got to teach other managers how to lead their teams. And all while doing that, I was growing my family, and I was pouring over everything I could about baby sleep.

I had twins during the COVID pandemic. So it’s like I don’t know if I’ll have any help. I don’t know if my mom can be here or my mother-in-law. We had no idea what that was going to look like. So I spent a lot of those eight and a half months learning about baby sleep. I put it all to work the minute we got home from the hospital, and I had those babies sleeping through the night at 10 weeks adjusted. And I was like, oh, they’re just the world’s best babies, right? Like, this isn’t a me thing. It’s a them thing. They’re just great. I did it again with my nephew about seven months later, my daughter a year later, and my other nephew.

And when my daughter was four months old, I told my husband: I said, I get texts and calls every single day from friends, sorority sisters, family members, asking me questions about sleep. It was just becoming this reputation that I had, that my kids sleep, so maybe Val can answer my questions about baby sleep. I told my husband, I said, wouldn’t it be amazing if I could support other families and other moms getting their kids to sleep, getting their time to themselves—to exercise, fill their cups, spend time with their friends—and continue to support our family?

He was like, “Why can’t you?” So I started searching for something. I didn’t know exactly what I was looking for. In that research and journey, I came across a few different programs for sleep consulting. I kept coming back to CPSM. I was like, “Man, this just seems like it has everything I was looking for.” I mean, of course, I needed to learn more about baby sleep.

At that point, I had two year olds and a four month old. I had not done teething. Or I had done teething. I hadn’t done dropping a paci. My kids didn’t use pacifiers. But I hadn’t done potty training and sleep. I hadn’t done toddler sleep, transitioning to a big kid bed. I hadn’t done so many things. I hadn’t worked with kiddos who had medical concerns or that were neurodivergent. So I was like, I really need to learn more about those things.

I’m a community person. I am someone who likes to talk things out. I talk about my feelings and my day. I’ll talk to a wall if it’s the only thing around to listen. And CPSM, having a built-in community, really spoke to me. And being that I never pictured myself being an entrepreneur, owning a business and doing all of those things, CPSM having that guidance too, it was the full package.

It was everything that I was looking for in one spot, and I wasn’t going to have a bunch of different courses and all those things. So I did your course when my daughter, yeah, she was four months old. I think I wrapped it when she was six months old and started my business the next week. I got my LLC. I got everything started. But I was still working full time, and I still had my kiddos.

Then about three or four months later, I got laid off. I was impacted by a huge organizational change of the company I was working for. I think they laid off, like, 60% or 70% of the workforce, and I was impacted by that. So I spent some time that summer working on the business but thinking in the back of my head, I have to keep a full-time job. This isn’t there yet.

So I did a little bit of, you know, I tried out Facebook ads. I tried out a few other things. I did a little bit on social media. But, still, my main focus was finding a nine to five. And I found one about two months later. Every single day, I was like, “I don’t want to do this. I just want to do sleep coaching. I don’t want to do this at all.” And so I was sucking out with that job for a little while.

My husband and I were talking constantly and planning and putting the things in the background into place so that I could have a little bit of a runway, leave that nine to five, and know that I could spend some time really building my business. I think it was just about the point we were ready to kind of pull the trigger on that. You announced CPSM was going to be doing a retreat. I was like, “I have to be there. These are the people I need to talk to. This is where I need to go.” And so, yeah. So in May of this year, I left my full-time job. I have been focused on my sleep coaching business and growing this to be my full-time gig.

Jayne Havens: I love that story. Nobody can see our faces because it’s an audio podcast, but you’re grinning from ear to ear—and so am I. It just makes me so happy that you wanted it so badly for yourself, and you just said, “You know what? I’m going to do this.” You believe in yourself, and you’re going to put all the pieces of the puzzle together, figure it out, and make it happen. That just makes me so happy. It makes me so proud.

Let’s go back a little bit though to when you were first getting started. What were your challenges at first? Was it just juggling a nine to five and the kids and trying to build your business? Was it the mindset piece of, like, how am I going to find clients? What was your obstacle at the time?

Val Hudson: I think my biggest obstacle was just feeling a bit of imposter syndrome. Like, I don’t know how to run a business. I’ve never done anything like this. I actually started talking to the leadership coach. This was available through my nine to five before I was laid off. I was talking to her and she was like, “Hold on. Look at your past.” It was like, “You’ve done sales. You’ve done customer service. You’ve led a team.”

She was walking through all of these things that I’ve done. And she was like, “All of those things are why you’re going to be a successful business owner.” She was like, “You have done all of that to make money for someone else. Do it to make money for you now.” And I just was thinking, like, oh my gosh. I have done all of these things. I can sell.

Selling rental car coverage was not my dream job, but it taught me so much about sales. I’ve learned so much about customer service. The customer service stuff is what I loved. I love talking to people, and I love finding out where the gaps are for them and filling that in. That’s been really fun for me in the in-person part of my business. So I offer in-home sleep training. I love just getting in there.

Maybe while the parents are asleep, washing some bottles or folding a load of laundry that you see sitting in the hallway, I’m like, just doing those little things that are like — they would not expect it. But it makes me feel good. It makes them feel so happy the next day. So, yeah, I’ve been able to pull from that. I think about that conversation all the time, about what have you done to make money for somebody else that makes you an excellent entrepreneur. And so I come back to that conversation a lot when I’m feeling down on myself. Like, oh, I don’t know how to do taxes. It’s like, you can figure that out.

Jayne Havens: Yeah, what an amazing leadership coach, and how lucky were you to have the opportunity to work with that person. I love when somebody gives you advice that just sticks in your head forever, and you can just apply it over and over and over again in different circumstances. It’s just gold. That person probably has no idea the impact that that had on you. Years later, you’re still carrying that with you in your day-to-day life and your work.

Val Hudson: Right. I was just thinking that. She probably has no idea that just that little thing that she said has sparked such a drive in me.

Jayne Havens: Where did you land your first client?

Val Hudson: Oh my goodness. My first client. My first client, I think, was a referral. Because I wasn’t super active on social media. This was something I heard. It could have possibly been from you. It’s definitely, someone in CPSM was like, that I wasn’t talking about my business enough. When someone would say, “What do you do,” I reverted to what my nine to five was and not my business. And so I started putting that at the forefront of my conversation. So I was talking less about my nine to five and more about what I do and what I want to do.

My first was a referral. That’s been the vast majority of what I’ve done. I did get a client through a podcast that I reported this summer. That was fun, like getting a little bit of traction there. But I’ve really been focused on building referral-based business.

Jayne Havens: Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head. The whole idea of talking about your business is so important. It’s like the number one thing, right? When people ask you, “What were you up to this summer,” you can tell them about how you were working on your business. They don’t need to know about your vacation. You might talk about your vacation, but you also might talk about whatever new program you’re creating in your business. Why not? If that’s what you’re really excited about, then that’s what you can share. I love that. I love that.

Are you getting referrals now? I would imagine it’s a combination of families who have already worked with you. They’re sharing your name with their friends, their colleagues, and maybe their college roommates and sister-in-law, whatever. But are you also getting referrals from professionals? Do you work to build those connection?

Val Hudson: Yes, that has been one of the biggest things that I’ve been doing this summer, especially following the retreat in July and kind of as I got my kids back into daycare this fall. It’s spending time with professionals. So I have two pediatric chiropractors that are sending referrals to me right now. I just met last week with — she’s a postpartum therapist. She works almost exclusively with moms who are either experiencing trauma through loss or just postpartum anxiety, depression, psychosis, all of those things.

We talked heavily about how sleep impacts that so much. She has never met a sleep consultant. So when I was seeing her, talking to her, I said: well, what do you do when you can identify that a mom is struggling and sleep is a huge factor in that? She said, “I just send her some articles in an email that might help.” She was like, “Now I can send them someone who can actually help.” So those have been really cool connections.

I’ve started joining a few networking groups locally, where I’ve had the opportunity to connect with daycare owners and just other business professionals in town who know other people. I’ve been doing a lot of that and just trying to get in with some pediatricians’ offices. I did also connect last week with an OBGYN office that has three locations in Tennessee, locations in Florida and Texas.

And so I’m in their referral database and working on some live workshops with them. I have a live workshop planned at the beginning of the year with a homeschool co-op that’s going to be hosting some workshops. In addition to that, they’ll offer childcare and allow parents to come in and actually just focus on the workshop. So, yeah, I’ve made a lot of great connections this summer to get some of the professional referrals coming through.

Jayne Havens: You’re doing really, really great stuff.

Val Hudson: Thank you.

Jayne Havens: You’re A+. You’re making me super proud. Let’s dig in a little bit into these connections that you’re building. Because sometimes people come to me. Look, you have a background in sales. You have a background in relationship building. This obviously comes naturally to you. You might not even be able to explain what you’re doing because it’s so intuitive. Because I have trouble with that too.

People are like, “How do you do that?” I’m like, I don’t even know. I just have conversations with people. But let’s maybe, together, see if we can figure out how we can help people who might be listening — who are either green sleep consultants, or who don’t know how to build these relationships. Or maybe it’s somebody who’s interested in becoming a sleep consultant, and they’re overwhelmed by the idea of networking and getting your name out there. To use the chiropractor as an example or the mental health professional that you were talking about, how are you reaching out? What are you saying? Then what’s the follow-up? After you have a great conversation, what are next steps?

Val Hudson: Yeah. So I really like having a mutual connection. You were the one who talked about this heavily at the retreat. And I was like, “That is where I feel most comfortable.” Because when I’m comfortable, I’m going to shine. That’s where my magic is going to happen. That’s where I felt most comfortable. So I have been just attending other local events or reaching out to more of like a peer base, right? Rather than reaching out to a pediatrician’s office or reaching out directly to this mental health professional, I’m like, where can I find a connection in there that is a little more comfortable for me to talk to first?

So I reached out to a young lady around my age, owns a small business. She does childcare and pet sitting. I was like, okay, this is someone I’m most comfortable sitting down for a coffee with and having a conversation. Then she connected me to the head of a foster care agency that she knows. She connected me with the mental health professional, and she connected me with our local news organization. Then I had this little bit of rapport.

She gave beautiful introductions about what I do, the conversation that she had with me. That’s how I felt most comfortable getting in front. Because then, when I go to sit down with these people, they’re like, “Oh my gosh. So and so said so many amazing things about you. I knew I had to meet you.” They had this already, like, their idea of me was already so positive.

And I knew because she did the introduction that they wanted to talk to me. I wasn’t going to someone and trying to get in front of them who had no desire to learn about sleep coaching, or who doesn’t like what we do, or had a bad experience, whatever. I was getting in front of people who were like, “Yes, I need that. I know so many people who need her too.” Then those conversations have just flowed so naturally because of that introduction and just kind of the way that we’ve set that up.

Jayne Havens: Yeah, that is exactly how I do it. When people say to me, “So do I just like call a pediatrician’s office,” I’m like, it’s not how I would do it. Right? The way I would do it is: I would find somebody who’s a mutual friend or a mutual colleague of the pediatrician that you want to get a meeting with, and figure out how you’re connected with that mutual person so that you can have an initial conversation and ask for the introduction—so that then the pediatrician actually wants to talk to you, which is exactly what you’re doing. I do that all day long.

You know, I am connected with — my best friend from college is an occupational therapist, and she lives in New York City. And so she’s in this whole network of OTs that are all supporting families in various capacities. I’m always — when I see an OT comment on a Facebook thread somewhere, and then I look to see who that person is and I see, oh, she’s mutually friends with my old roommate from college — I’ll reach out to my old roommate and I’ll say, “Hey, can you connect me with Sarah So-and-so? I see that she’s talking about X, Y, and Z.”

That’s how I make my connections. And so I’m glad to hear that’s working for you. I find it to be so much less intimidating. Then it actually just works better because it’s not cold outreach. It’s somebody actually recommending you before you’re even having the meeting.

Val Hudson: Exactly. I think, for the last probably two months, I’ve had on my to-do list a pediatric dentist in town that opened in the spring. I keep telling myself this is the week that I’m going to walk into their office and introduce myself. Then that just makes me uncomfortable, and I know that I won’t — I won’t come across as well as I want to. So I mention them to different people that I talk to. “I’m waiting to find that connection, someone who knows someone that works there or is a patient there and has had a good experience.”

So I’m setting that up in the way. I’m not rushing it. I don’t feel like I need to be right in front of them this very second. I want to do it the right way, and I want to do it in a way where I’m going to be comfortable, so that when I talk to them, my passion, my desire to help, and my expertise come across really well.

Jayne Havens: Okay. So once you land those conversations — you’re having a conversation with the chiropractor, or the pediatrician, or, down the line, that pediatric dentist, you have a great conversation with them — then what? What’s the next step?

Val Hudson: So I’ve been bringing some materials to those meetings. I come prepared with — I have like a little rack card. I have another little flyer. I have some business cards. I’ve been bringing some of those things. I’ve found that, most often, they ask me if I have something that they can share. So I usually give them something. Then I’ve been setting a reminder for myself where, a couple of weeks later, I’ll follow up with a text or an email — see if they need any more, if I can drop them off to their office, or just check in on something that they said, maybe something personal.

One of the people I met with works out at the same gym that I work out at. So I reached out to her and said, “Hey, would you like to catch a workout sometime,” something like that. Or, “Hey, did you try that new session they introduced?” So just different ways that I can follow up and put that reminder in their head that I’m still here.

Because we’re all busy. A lot of the people I’m meeting with are women running their own businesses, women with kids, families, houses to run, all of these things. And while they’re excited about me and they know that they can use me as a resource, I just also want to plant that little seed every once in a while and just remind them like, “Hey, I’m still here.” Just something to think about. So that’s what I’ve been doing. It’s following up with materials or just a personal check in just to see if they need anything at that time.

Jayne Havens: You also mentioned that you’re doing — I forget what you called them, but is it an in-person or a Zoom training session? Where are those coming into play?

Val Hudson: Yeah, so the OBGYN office that I connected with does a lot of — I mean, they do women in business networking events. Then they host, for their clients or for the patients, all these. They host lactation workshops, birth prep, all different things, feeding, everything. And so I’m going to be hosting some sleep workshops for them.

Kind of what I laid out was: let’s start out with moms in the third trimester and fourth trimester. Let’s just talk about healthy sleep habits. Low pressure. No judgment. Let’s just talk about some things that they can be implementing at home, either before baby comes or immediately after. I open those to few Q&A because I want people to be able to ask their specific question. I don’t want to talk at them for an hour and a half. So I want to give some really helpful information and then let them get their questions answered.

I also heard this at the retreat, and I have said it to multiple people. I’m not going to gatekeep information. You can find anything that I say on the internet if you dig far enough. But they don’t have to dig when they have me. So I’m going to give all the information. I also told them that I would come prepared with schedules, some cheat sheets, helpful things for the parents to take home with them—that they can utilize and not have to again dig around and research while they’re exhausted, or they’re prepping other things for this baby to come. I’m going to be hosting the same thing for the co-op—a very similar program that we’ve already talked about.

After that, I’ll divide it up and do something more for maybe the zero-to-six-month age range or for toddlers, letting parents come and hear more age-specific information and ask those questions as well.

Jayne Havens: I think that, first, you’re making the connection, then you’re providing value. You’re keeping in touch. You’re providing more value. I always say: you want to be the most helpful person in the room, right? If you can be the most helpful person in the room, people are going to keep coming back to you for more information and also support. And that’s what we provide, so I just love it. You’re doing all the things, exactly as I taught you. Nicely done. You’re a good student.

Val Hudson: Well, why wouldn’t I? I mean, you’ve done so much amazing work. Why wouldn’t I learn from that? I’m not going to reinvent the wheel. I already know some tried and true.

Jayne Havens: Yeah, no need.

Val Hudson: Another thing I’ve done for both of those workshops is I’ve told the people, “Hey, we’re doing this in person.” Because this is their event, their space. If you have the capability to record it, feel free. Record it. Send it out to anyone on the guest list who couldn’t make it. They both, when I said that, we’re like, “Really?” Yeah, these are no secrets. Let’s get this out to as many people who need it. They might not be able to make it for any number of reasons. But if they’ve shown interest, let’s get this recording out to them, too. So I have offered that. I found that the hosts really were very receptive to that and found it to be very helpful.

Jayne Havens: Yeah, the more that you can give, the faster your business will grow. I really, truly, firmly believe that. Where do you want your business to be a year from now? What are your goals? Do you have benchmarks that you’re trying to meet, whether they be financial or just, I don’t know, more broad than that?

Val Hudson: I do have some financial goals that I’d love to reach within the next year — just to see some of that financial growth.

One thing that’s not directly financial is, I would really like to have a waitlist. But really, I just want to continue to help the families, especially local families. I want to continue to grow this local base. I had a discovery call this morning with a mom who’s in the next town over. She was like, “I’ve been searching for someone who could come to my house and do this.” And I’m like, “Here I am. I can come to your house and do this for you.” I’ve been hearing that so much more recently. So I would like to continue to just grow my referral business and my local business as well.

Jayne Havens: I can tell, just from speaking with you, that this work is really bringing you a lot of joy and satisfaction. I can’t quite tell if it’s the sleep training bit or if it’s the entrepreneurial side. Maybe it’s both, right?

Two things can be true at the same time. But I can tell that you’re getting a lot of joy and satisfaction out of doing this work. I imagine it is some sort of healthy combination of helping families and then also building a successful business, right? I think that when you love what you do, it doesn’t feel like work. I know it’s cliche, but it’s really the truth. And I see that in you. I see that you just shine and you light up when you talk about this stuff, which I imagine is not how you were when you were working your job, right? You’re doing such meaningful work right now, and I can tell it’s helping you to just thrive and blossom in every single way.

Val Hudson: Oh, absolutely. And I do I think it’s the perfect combination of the actual work. Because I know what it’s like to have three kids that easily go down for bed at night. I don’t hear a peep from them until the morning and take great naps. I know what that’s like. I know what that has done for me being able to build my business, being able to leave the house one evening a week is my night off. I don’t have to be here for bedtime.

It’s nothing for one person to do it, even with three kids under the age of five. I get a chance to go to business events, go to personal events, or just take a little bit of time to recharge and reset for myself. And I know what that does for me. So being able to do that for other families is so incredible.

This feels amazing when you get those texts that are like, “You’re magical,” or, “How did you do this?” Like, you did all the work. I was just here offering my support. But owning a business, too, is just — I mean, it can be really scary as you’re getting started. But there’s no limits to what I can do with this, you know. There are so many limits. Now that I’ve worked in a company that has had layoffs and had no problem just letting people go, you’re like, “Man, you’re replaceable everywhere.” But you’re not replaceable as the owner of your business, or as the leader of your family. So this is exactly where I want to be.

Jayne Havens: Yeah, I love that. I have said to people before, I really do believe that actually working for somebody else is riskier. People are afraid to leave their nine to fives because of that, that idea of job security. But just like you said, that can be gone at any moment. They don’t owe you anything. There are no guarantees. And I do agree with you. I sort of feel like it’s a safer bet to work for yourself. Because then you’re in charge of your own destiny, and you’re controlling all of it, right? Yes, it’s scary, and it’s an undertaking, but also, the benefits are worth it. So I love that you feel that.

Val Hudson: Absolutely.

Jayne Havens: Where can people learn more about your business? Do you want to share a website, social media, whatever you want to share?

Val Hudson: Yeah, so my business is called The Family Sleep Coach. Because I wanted to make sure that when people heard about me, it wasn’t just geared towards moms. Families look different. There are foster families. There are grandparents who are raising kids. Dads are very heavily involved, as I’m finding, as I reach out to more and more families. So I have a website. It’s thefamilysleepcoach.com. My incredibly supportive husband built it for me, and I love it. I’m on Instagram @the_familysleepcoach. They can find me there and learn more about what I do.

Jayne Havens: Val, you’re amazing. I’m cheering you on every step of the way. And you know, keep doing the good stuff. Congrats on all of your success. I can’t wait to see all that you accomplish in the coming years.

Val Hudson: Thank you so much.

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.