Is There Really Room for One More Sleep Consultant with Jayne Havens

Links: 

If you would 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.

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Transcript:

 

Intro: Welcome to Becoming a Sleep Consultant! I’m your host Jayne Havens, a certified sleep consultant and founder of both Snooze Fest by Jayne Havens and Center for Pediatric Sleep Management.

On this podcast, I’ll be discussing the business side of sleep consulting. You’ll have an insider’s view on launching, growing, and even scaling a sleep consulting business. This is not a podcast about sleep training. This is a podcast about business building and entrepreneurship.

Jayne Havens: Hi, everyone. Welcome back to the Becoming a Sleep Consultant podcast.

Today, I want to talk about a topic that I get asked about all the time. It usually comes from someone who’s interested in becoming a sleep consultant and maybe even interested in Center for Pediatric Sleep Management. They’ve done a little research, they’re passionate about this work, and they’re very excited to help families, but they just can’t shake one thought: What if the market is already too saturated?

I love this question, truly. It’s one of my favorites. I hope that my thoughts on this topic will shift your mindset and help you to realize that, of all the things to be worried about, this just is not it.

Let me start here. When someone asks me if the market for sleep consultants is saturated, I don’t think they’re actually asking about the market. I think what they’re really asking about is themselves. What they’re really saying is, “Do I have a chance? Can I actually do this? Will I be successful if I enroll in your program and get started?”

And listen, these are completely normal thoughts to have. Starting something new is scary. Putting yourself out there as a business owner is overwhelming. Everyone feels some version of this on some level, including me. I still get nervous every single time I try something new in my work. Imposter syndrome doesn’t disappear once you’re successful. You just get a little better at recognizing it and moving forward anyway. So if you’re wanting to break into this field but you have these doubtful thoughts swirling around in your mind, please do not write yourself off. Being nervous and scared doesn’t mean that you’re not cut out for entrepreneurship. It just means that you’re human.

So my answer to the question of whether or not the market is oversaturated comes in two parts. Part one: Who cares if it is? And part two: No, this is not an oversaturated market.

So let’s start with part one: Who cares if the market was actually oversaturated?

Think about any other profession that you can think of: dentists, occupational therapists, personal trainers, realtors, photographers. Is anyone telling an aspiring dentist not to bother because there are already too many dentists?

No. Absolutely not. Because we all understand that in every field, some people do really well and some people don’t. The difference almost never comes down to how many other people are doing the same job. It comes down to your skill set, how committed you are to your work, and, in some cases, whether you know how to build a business around your skill.

When I started as a sleep consultant, was the market already saturated? Honestly, I have no idea. I didn’t even stop to look into it. I was just excited to support families. I was intrigued about starting my own business, and I was committed to my own success. And if I were starting from scratch tomorrow, I’d have the same exact mindset, and I would make it work again with the exact same formula. When I decided to create my own sleep consultant certification program, a lot of people had some pretty strong opinions about that.

People said to me, “But there are already so many other certification programs. Why would anybody choose yours?”

“You’re new. Why would someone trust you to train them when they could enroll in an already established program that’s already doing this?”

Those were fair questions, and my answer was simple: Because I was going to do it better. I had taken a certification course myself. It was fine. I learned how to be a sleep consultant, but I clearly saw what was missing, and I set out to build a program that I wish had existed when I was getting started in this field.

CPSM launched in 2019. So we’ve been in business about seven years, and we’ve enrolled almost 12 students into our program. CPSM is the fastest-growing sleep consultant certification course on the market, and people are choosing CPSM because they see something different in our program when they compare us to others.

It doesn’t matter how many other programs exist. CPSM will remain a top choice because I am committed to excellence. I am always going to give my students the most comprehensive and evidence-based education. I’m going to offer them the most supportive and collaborative community, and I’m going to make sure that they have both the education and the support that they need to find success in their own businesses.

No amount of competition will ever get in my way.

That same choice is available to you. No matter how many other people are out there doing this work, you have the ability to make a name for yourself. If you can support a few families successfully lead them to their goals, you will be changing their lives. Those families will tell their friends. They might tell their pediatrician. They may even tell their therapist about you. This is how you grow a business. Other people in your field really have very little impact on your ability to be successful.

So what does that take? I think it takes three things.

First, mindset.

You have to genuinely believe that you belong in this field, and building that belief is real ongoing work. At first, self-doubt is absolutely to be expected. You cannot let those thoughts lead to inaction. You will need to shift your mindset to one that drives purposeful action in your business because that’s what’s going to move the needle for you.

Second, education.

Those who are really good at this work have been properly trained. They are committed to their learning, and they truly want to be the best. They are always keeping their eyes and ears out for new verbiage to use with families, new ways to help parents overcome their own anxiety, and little hacks that truly lead to everything clicking so much faster. If you come into this field thinking you already know everything you need to know, I think very quickly you will realize that you have so much to learn. It’s those who are humble, willing to soak it all in, and continue their education, are the ones that are truly out there getting it done.

Third, you’ve got to have heart.

You have to be attentive and supportive. You have to be willing to go the extra mile. You have to be willing to give it your all and show up for families in a way that they deserve. Honestly, I think this is the part that I don’t really worry about so much. Most people who come into this work are craving the heart-centered work. They’re kind, they’re empathetic, and they’re truly patient. They love supporting families. They want kids and parents to thrive. You already have that, and the rest can be learned.

So let’s get to part two, the part where I break down that the market isn’t even close to being saturated.

About 3.6 million babies are born in the United States every single year. Yes, I Googled this. This is almost 10,000 new babies every single day. These figures don’t account for all of the toddlers and all of the preschoolers who are also struggling with sleep.

Most of these brand-new parents don’t even know that sleep consultants exist. Think about what happens when you have a baby. You find a pediatrician. If you’re breastfeeding, you almost certainly connect with a lactation consultant. No one bats an eye about hiring a lactation consultant. It’s just a normal part of the postpartum experience for most new moms. But when parents are struggling with sleep, many of them have no idea that there’s a trained professional who can help. They Google at 3 in the morning. They ask a friend. They try whatever their mother-in-law suggests. They just suffer through it.

To me, this is the clearest sign this industry has enormous room to grow.

A market is saturated when every potential customer already knows about the service and has plenty of options. We are nowhere near that point.

And I bet something else is going on too. If you’re considering this career, you probably follow a lot of sleep consultants on social media. Your feed is full of them, so of course it feels crowded. But the exhausted parents scrolling at 2 in the morning, their feed doesn’t look like yours. What feels like a crowded room from where you’re standing is a room most parents haven’t even walked into yet.

I want to push this one step further.

Would anyone say there are too many lactation consultants?

No. Absolutely not.

We’d say that every family deserves support establishing a healthy feeding relationship with their baby, and the more lactation consultants out there, the better.

I believe the same exact thing about sleep.

Right now, hiring a sleep consultant still feels like a bit of a luxury. The parents who hire us tend to be the ones comfortable outsourcing, investing in their own well-being, or spending money on support that not every parent is ready to prioritize yet. But every time a new sleep consultant enters this field, that changes the dynamic a little bit. More consultants means more conversations with parents. More pediatricians, doulas, and daycare directors are hearing about the work that we do. More parents that work with a sleep consultant becomes more parents telling their friends, “You have to call my sleep consultant. She changed our lives.”

When I meet someone and they ask what I do, when they hear that I’m a sleep consultant, they’ll often say, “Oh, what is that?” Or sometimes they’ll say, “Oh my gosh. I hired a sleep consultant, and it was literally the best money I ever spent.” Either way, it’s great for our field. There are so many families out there that have no clue about what we do, and that’s an opportunity for you. There are other moms out there raving about our work, and that’s great for you as well.

So when someone new enters this field, I don’t see it as competition.

You have to believe me when I say this, because I’ve enrolled almost 1,200 people into the Center for Pediatric Sleep Management. My consulting business is busier than ever. It’s the 24th of the month, and I’ve had 17 families sign on to work with me in the month of September. The more of us that are out there doing this work, the more parents will see sleep support as something they deserve and not as a splurge.

Now I’m going to be honest with you because this is just how I roll. Some sleep consultants do struggle to get their businesses off the ground. That’s a very real thing. But in my experience, their struggle has nothing to do with a saturated market.

The whole reason I created CPSM is because I saw sleep consultants struggling to grow their businesses. When I was new to the field, I had no issue developing business, but I saw those around me having a hard time. What came naturally to me does not come naturally to everyone. So I created a program that was designed to give people the tools to actually succeed in entrepreneurship.

The women I talk to who want to become sleep consultants have a genuine desire to help families. They want to be successful, but most of them have never launched a business before. They don’t know how to find clients. They don’t know how to market themselves or how to have a call with parents and speak to them in a way that makes them feel like they can’t sign up soon enough. I think on some level the entrepreneurial spirit is there. They just haven’t been shown how to use it.

Business building and entrepreneurship aren’t an afterthought inside of CPSM. Teaching sales, marketing, and business growth strategy is a top priority for me. I’m fully committed to teaching my students how to be an excellent sleep consultant, but equally as important, how to find clients, nurture relationships, and build a network that works for you.

I want to share a quick story.

I just got off a discovery call with a mom and dad who got my name from a former client of mine. Their sons are in preschool class together. This mom who I just spoke to today started off our call by saying that they never formally sleep trained their now 3-year-old son. For most of his life, they just got lucky. He was rocked to sleep as a baby, and as a 3-year-old, he is put in his crib and a parent sits beside him and rubs his arm and sings to him while he falls asleep.

That was working until now. It isn’t working anymore. For the past week, he’s been waking up every 90 minutes overnight. And these parents were questioning their entire parenting philosophy, which up until now included a pretty hardcore stance against sleep training. This mom was adamant that she would not cry it out. This is what she said to me. She proceeded to tell me how against sleep training she was, and she would never let him cry.

If you know me at all, you know that this is not my ideal client. I tend to work with families who are totally bought into sleep training. They aren’t against it. They don’t think it’s mean or cruel or traumatizing. They hire me because they just want to make sure that they’re doing it properly and that it goes as well as possible.

This mom was not fitting my ideal profile. I spent the next 10 minutes explaining to her that even if we were to implement a really gradual and parent-present approach, like the chair method, for example, what happens when the chair is in the hall and out of sight? Her child is going to cry. Is that crying it out, or is he just protesting the next step of this process? I could tell that she was listening.

I then proceeded to ask her how her son handled getting dressed in the morning, getting his teeth brushed, transitioning away from the park, or putting away his toys when it was time for the bath. She quickly felt seen because all of these moments are very hard for them. I explained to her that I knew that because, really, this is never totally about sleep. It’s usually just a dynamic that’s impacting sleep. Not wanting to get teeth brushed is really not much different than not wanting to go to bed. But for whatever reason, parents are so uncomfortable with the big feelings associated with bedtime.

I asked her if her son was in daycare, and yes, he is. He started last year. Okay. Did he cry at drop-off? “Oh, yes.” Did you call your friend and say that he cried it out at preschool drop-off today? Of course not. We don’t use this “cried it out” language at any other time. Only around sleep. Why is that? She literally paid me before we got off the phone. This is a self-proclaimed anti-sleep-training mom, and she couldn’t wait to sign on to work with me.

I think she hired me for two very specific reasons. Number one, her friend spoke highly of me. And number two, she could tell that I was going to be able to lead her to success. She could hear my confidence and my expertise based on the way that I ran the call. No amount of competitors would have ever kept me from signing this family on. I had a recommendation from a trusted source, and I instilled confidence in her.

There is no reason why you cannot replicate this for yourself. It matters zero if the market is flooded with lots of other people who do this too.

When parents are exhausted and they’re in search of help, they aren’t choosing from a master list or database of interchangeable sleep consultants. They’re choosing a person. It’s your story, your personality, your approach, and the way you make them feel on a discovery call. Nobody else has what you have. You will always be uniquely you, and honestly, that positions you to separate yourself from literally every other person doing this work.

When I talk to someone about CPSM, I really don’t have to beg because I’m very clear on the experience that I’m offering inside of the program. I’m not just teaching sleep. I’m teaching how to be an entrepreneur, how to sell with confidence, how to market, and how to think strategically. My students are getting a community. They’re getting mentorship, and they’re getting a ton of support. When you know you’re offering real value, you stop worrying so much about who else is out there.

I think what I love most about training others to do this work is that most people come to sleep consulting wanting to help families and maybe earn some extra income. It’s a really beautiful place to start. But I’ve watched it happen again and again with my students. Once they start finding clients and building momentum, they realize that their original goal was really just the beginning.

That’s my story too.

I got into this work because I wanted to help families and make a little bit of extra money. My initial goal was to earn enough money to just give my kitchen a little facelift. I wanted to put up some wallpaper and paint the kitchen cabinets. Within a year, I was having $10,000 a month and, more importantly, truly changing people’s lives.

Fast forward a bit, and somewhere along the line, I made a name for myself as one of the best of the best when it comes to preschool-age children. I didn’t even intend to niche, but I was really good at my work, and my name continues to be passed around. Momentum is a really beautiful thing.

So, is the market saturated? Absolutely not. But even if it was, truly, it wouldn’t matter. What matters is whether you’re willing to believe in yourself, get a great education, learn the business, and keep showing up. If you commit to working on your business until you gain traction and momentum, you will thrive. There are so many families that desperately need our help.

If you’re feeling inspired, please let this be your moment. I would love for you to enroll in Center for Pediatric Sleep Management. If this is you, hop on to my calendar for a call. The link is in the show notes.

Thank you so much for listening, and I’ll see you next time.

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.