IAM475- Sleep Consultant Helps Develop Appropriate Sleep Patterns in Children

Lauren Wolf is a Certified Pediatric Sleep Consultant, Founder of Lolo Lullaby, and mom of 2 living in New York City. She specializes in helping develop healthy, developmentally appropriate sleep patterns in children ages 4 months to 6 years. Her goal is always to help parents achieve the skills, knowledge, and support to empower long-term positive outcomes. Though based in NYC, she is able to provide her services to families across the country through Skype, phone calls, and email.

• CEO Hack: Acuity
• CEO Nugget: Don't be afraid to put yourself out there
• CEO Defined: Paving my own way

Website: http://www.lololullaby.com/

Instagram: @lololullaby
FB: @lololullaby

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:29

Hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Lauren Wolf of Lolo Lullaby. Lauren, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Lauren Wolf 0:37

Hi, thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here.

Gresham Harkless 0:39

Super excited to have you on it. What I want to do is just read a little bit more about Lauren so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. Lauren Wolf is a certified pediatric sleep consultant. She's the founder of Lolo Lullaby and a mom of two living in New York City. She specializes in helping develop healthy developmental, appropriate sleep patterns and children ages four months to six years. Her goal is always to help parents achieve the skills knowledge and support to empower long-term positive outcomes. Though based in New York City, she is able to provide her services to families across the country through Skype, phone calls, and of course, email. Lauren, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO Community?

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Lauren Wolf 1:14

Yes, I'm ready.

Gresham Harkless 1:14

Awesome. Let's do it. So to kick everything off, I want to hear a little bit more about what I call your CEO story. Where did you get to start your business?

Lauren Wolf 1:20

Sure. When I had my first daughter in 2016, I was working in the corporate retail world, and I went on a short maternity leave. While I was out, experiencing all the fields of having your first baby, I started to really rethink my career. if I was loving what I did, if it was important enough for me to, in 12 weeks, go back and leave my daughter and, trust her to be with a stranger every day. I knew I wanted to work and I'm educated, I've been in the workforce, for 10 to 15 years.

I really wanted to have something I was passionate about, but I wasn't sure if it was my former job. So while I just started to, make use of my time, and I started, meeting other moms in the neighborhood, I joined a new moms group, and just really became very involved in the new mom community. And, I quickly learned that everyone around me was talking about their baby's sleep. This is something that I was thinking about every single moment of every day, too, as when you have a new baby and are constantly worried, are they getting enough sleep? Or are they sleeping too much? Are they sleeping in the right place at the right time? Always, doubt yourself as well.

I became more involved and more interested in my daughter's sleep, I started reading books, to learn more about it. I struggled with some of her daytime sleep when she was around three, or four months and it triggered me to actually hire a sleep consultant for help because I couldn't figure out how to get my daughter to sleep more during the day, even though she's sleeping great at night. After working with a sleep consultant, I just realized like, wow, like all this information is out there and it was so helpful to speak to an expert, and I learned so much from a 30-minute phone call with a stranger. I became really interested and I started helping all my friends who were struggling with their kid's sleep, and I sort of had this aha moment, like, maybe this could be something.

I went back to work and stayed in my career, but I researched into different certification programs and I found one that I thought was the best and started the certification when my daughter was about six months old. The program itself was about six months, it was very intensive, and I thought the most well-rounded course out there, so I started doing it on the side. And then about maybe a year after that, I decided I was gonna leave my corporate job, I started doing more of a part-time gig on the side, and then I couldn't really, jumpstart my sleep consulting. That's when I formed my company, and I started working with clients and the rest is history, I do not miss the corporate world, I do miss, a 401k and having co-workers and things like that, but other than that, I feel I have a rewarding career now, which is something I always wanted, and I wanted to feel like if I was leaving my kids every day that it was at least something I felt good about, and I was excited and passionate about.

Gresham Harkless 4:21

Yeah, that's what I was actually gonna ask you again, and definitely sounds like for lack of a better term mission-driven where the work and the time that you're putting in and not to say that you weren't having that in the corporate world, it seems like because you were talking with the parents, because obviously, you have experienced yourself, you feel like you're definitely helping so many people and those kids, especially as they're growing older so that it makes them make sure they get off on the right foot as well.

Lauren Wolf 4:41

Exactly. Yeah. I mean, You're working with parents in a very, very difficult stage of their life and it's very high stress, and, a lot of moms are very vulnerable fighting postpartum depression. I have to be very sensitive to all of that and it's a very difficult job at times, but it's very rewarding and I love it and I love being able to kind of help these parents come to the other side. Looking back I think, wow, why did we do that sooner? Why didn't we hire someone sooner?

Gresham Harkless 5:11

Exactly why I definitely appreciate you for, in true entrepreneurial form, not just seeing that there's an opportunity, but actually saying, hey, I want to go get my certifications and make sure that I can help out people as well, too, because I think so many people are sometimes just sitting on the sidelines and saying, oh, somebody should do that but for you to actually do that. Definitely Kudos to you.

Lauren Wolf 5:27

Thank you.

Gresham Harkless 5:28

You're very, very welcome. So I wanted to drill a little bit deeper. Obviously, sleep is definitely important for us adults, but I know, it's something that's very important for kids as they grow and develop as well, too. So can you take me through, how important that is, but also, like, how you work with clients?

Lauren Wolf 5:40

Yeah, of course. You made a good point, I mean children six, and under sleeping for more than 50% of their lives. A lot of parents will take a childbirth class, they will take a lactation class, they will take CPR, and all of that, which are all great. But there's not a lot of classes out there about sleep and newborn sleep.

So it's really important that parents are planning, the right amount of sleep for their babies and knowing what sort of the normal ranges are. Obviously working very closely with our pediatricians to make sure that they're meeting all these sleep milestones, and working on the independent sleep skills, which is just so important for little ones. As they get older, the most important thing to think about is, whether can my babies start putting themselves to sleep without me having to rock them, nurse them, bottle, feed them, or whatever it is, there's a lot of different things out there.

I believe that sleep is, obviously, it's very important for our children but as parents, I mean, it's for us to function and be happy. I've seen it, save marriages and rescue women from postpartum depression. I mean, it is a real struggle especially if you're the sole provider of your child, you need to be on during the day you are taking care of this child plus yourself plus your household, whatever it is, and it's no joke and if you're doing it on no sleep, it's just a recipe for disaster.

So it's really important to develop a healthy sleep, a healthy sleep foundation for your child from the beginning. That's why I do a lot of newborn consults, I do a lot of consults with moms who are expecting, and obviously, I work with children up to the age of six because they're new struggles when they're toddlers and sleeping in their own beds and then the real fun begins. But yeah, always, always try and get the best foundation from day one, if you can, and prevent yourself from going down that path.

Gresham Harkless 7:38

Yeah, that makes so much sense. And I don't know, definitely, correct me if I'm wrong, but I kind of feel like sometimes we take those things for granted, as adults, we know kind of, even though we may not always get the most leave that we should, but we know kind of how to go to sleep and things like that. But I heard you mentioned skills and things like that a lot of times we take for granted, just being able to fall asleep and not thinking of it. It's kind of like a learned skill. I don't know if you find that exact same thing.

Lauren Wolf 7:59

Actually, you just nailed it on that I was gonna say that a lot of people don't know that sleep is a learned skill. So we have to teach the baby how to sleep, it's not something that they develop on their own. That's why involves us. That's where the word training comes in sleep training. It doesn't have to leave your child in the crib alone to cry all night, by any means but there are ways where we can slowly and, appropriately teach our babies how to develop these independent sleep skills, and with consistency, and dedication from their parents and the right schedule and the right sleeping environment it all does come together.

Gresham Harkless 8:35

Yeah, that makes so much sense. And I think like you've mentioned if you're working your career, you're juggling a bunch of different things, it's great to be able to have, experts to lean on like yourself that are able to kind of provide that perspective, provide that insight. Because I think a lot of times, just like you said, it can be a very stressful time, especially if you're not sleeping as well, where you want to be able to get that expert advice so that you can of course, get your children to sleep and grow and be strong and develop.

Lauren Wolf 8:58

Yeah, and it's always nice to have an outsider's perspective. I mean, if you think about any professional in their industry, so think of, let's say you're a therapist yourself and you're struggling in your own life, you're gonna reach out and hire your own therapist because you can't be your own therapist. When you're just I say to parents, when you're in it, and you're struggling every day, you're not really able to kind of pull yourself out and really say, What am I doing wrong here or what's not working, and I'm guilty of that too. I struggle with sleep with my second child a little bit and I thought about reaching out to somebody because I'm so involved every day in her life and I always thought maybe I need someone from the outside who's seeing things in a different way than I am right. It did not get to that but it almost didn't I thought about it and some of that was kind of just had to run its course of time.

But yeah, I mean, it's really important if you are struggling to seek help from someone on the outside because they have a very nonbiased, set of eyes, I'm going to see things that weigh, obviously, the parent knows what's best for the child, but I'm able to really look at it, from a professional point of view and say, here's the schedule, here's what I'm not seeing here are the red flags, and then often just from a 30-minute call with parents, and they say, oh, right, that makes so much sense, I can't believe I didn't think of that. That's why we hire professionals, right? Because we're so in it every day, and you just really need someone from the outside to come in and kind of give you those, that extra set of eyes and it's really helpful.

Gresham Harkless 10:30

Yeah, absolutely and I think that's one of the most powerful to me, I always say that as far as leadership, and definitely, obviously, as a parent, which is definitely, being a leader in the household as well, too. But sometimes, we are so much in our superhero mode that we don't necessarily ask for help so it's always great to be able to do that. I think that that's something that leaders do that people that want to be successful do. As you said, sometimes you're so close to it, and you're so much in the kind of groove of doing things on a day-to-day basis. It helps to be able to have somebody who is not as in the day-to-day and has that expertise to be able to kind of give you that perspective and that solution.

Lauren Wolf 10:59

Exactly, yep.

Gresham Harkless 11:01

Awesome. So now I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce, and it could be for you personally or for your organization, but when you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique.

Lauren Wolf 11:09

Yeah, it's a good question. I really think it comes down to authenticity. So I am not somebody who preaches in my business, I am not somebody who sugarcoats things, I feel like being honest and direct with my clients is going to lead to the most successful outcome. I am very supportive, I am a mother of two I get it, I've had to sleep-train my kids. I'm not gonna set an act like it's easy. But I do believe that I'm very upfront with what the expectations are of sleep training.

Of course, there are more direct and more gentle ways to sleep train. I cover all of them with my clients, I feel very confident that my certification, is such a well-rounded certification. So I am taught all different training methods, how to tweak them, how to personalize them, there is no one size-fit method for every family and that's why I love what I do because it's there's not like a map that says, Okay, this age, this is the answer. No, it's not like that. It's really, being intuitive hearing what the parent's concerns are and understanding what the challenges are going to be.

And maybe they have two older kids who are in elementary school, and they have pickup and this one's in daycare, and they can't set the schedule, and this one's got allergies, this one's not gaining weight, it's I mean, there's so many things.

There are so many layers, it's like an onion. I'm always, I'm not a one-size-fits-all all-sleep coach. I'm very tailored. I, again, I'm very upfront with the process and I always, through my Instagram, which is away from what my business does, I share a lot of my personal life, and my struggles with my children, they're asleep. While they do sleep great 95% of the time, I of course, I'm a regular human being, and they have good days and bad days, and I share all of it because I don't want my clients to think that I'm perfect, because I am not.

I make mistakes too, things that are not perfect in my household. I think that's a big part of my business is I just felt like being on the other side, like I wanted to work with someone who I could really feel like I was offering level with. I never wanted to work with somebody who I felt was so superior, and they never messed up, because that's just, I didn't feel comfortable that way. So I always want my followers through social media and therefore my clients to feel like I'm in it with you, so we're in this together and we're gonna fix this as a team.

Gresham Harkless 13:34

Awesome. So I appreciate that and what I wanted to do was switch gears a little bit, and I want to ask you for what I call a CEO heck. So this could be an app, a book a habit that you have, or what makes you more effective and efficient.

Lauren Wolf 13:45

One thing I use to really help run my business is a program called Acuity. I'm not sure if you've heard of it, was acquired by Squarespace recently actually helps me, because my website is run by Squarespace and now it's all connected.

Gresham Harkless 14:00

I appreciate both of those hacks. And now I want to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. And this is a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. Or if you could happen to be a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Lauren Wolf 14:11

The first one I would say is, don't be afraid to put yourself out there. Yeah, I think that's really it just just hit the ground running. Don't be afraid to just catapult yourself.

Gresham Harkless 14:21

Yeah, absolutely. Well, I definitely appreciate that, and now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO and we're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show. So Lauren what has being a CEO meant to you?

Lauren Wolf 14:33

Being a CEO, to me means paving my own way. It was really important for me again, to have a career that I felt passionate about that was rewarding I couldn't leave my children every day and feel like this is a great way, this is a great, sorry, how do I say this? This is a great example to set for my children.

Gresham Harkless 14:53

I definitely appreciate that perspective. Appreciate that definition. I appreciate your time even more and what I wanted to do was pass you the mic so to speak, just to see If there's anything additional, you can let our readers and listeners know and then of course, how best they can get ahold of you, follow you on Instagram and find out about all the awesome things you're doing.

Lauren Wolf 15:06

Yeah, sure. So, yeah, I mean, in terms of how you work with me, go ahead and visit my website, it's lololullaby.com and there's a page with all the different packages I offer. I work remotely 98% of the time. So while a lot of my clients are in New York, I've only had face-to-face appointments with a couple of them because most people are all busy parents working. Most of it is done through Skype or phone call, and then follow up with email, text, phone, or whatever works. My Instagram is @lololullaby. I do free question answers every week. I do different sleep topics every week.

Right now I'm working on when's the best time to transfer your toddler from a crib to a bed. So that'll be coming this week and then I'm also doing a daylight savings post this week about how to prepare your child for the daylight savings for the time change. So check out my Instagram @lololullaby and yeah, feel free. All my information is on the website but my email is lauren@lololullaby, if you have any questions.

Gresham Harkless 16:11

Awesome. So thank you so much, Lauren. We will also have those links and information in the show notes so that everybody can follow up with you there as well. But again, appreciate you and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Extro 16:22

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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