15. Meet Erin, My Sleep Bestie Who Changed Our Life Through Sleep Coaching!

Today's guest is none other than my fabulous sleep coach, Erin Meinel. I hired Erin to help our family with sleep support when my son was 6 months old. Honestly, I was beyond exhausted and felt mentally drained when I reached out to Erin. I knew I was tapped out and needed outside support. When I connected with Erin, it felt like she was right there with us, holding our hand through the whole process, giving my family and me the support (and much-needed sleep) we so desperately needed. She is truly my sleep bestie!

Erin Meinel is a mother of two boys and the founder and head sleep consultant at Lake Country Sleep. Lake Country Sleep has helped hundreds of families find rest and connection utilizing their signature CHEER method. 

Erin also knows that navigating the internet and social media can feel like the wild west for new moms and parents. While the abundance of information can be helpful, it can also feel daunting when you're trying to find the best sleep options for your family. Erin and her team at Lake Country Sleep always provide personalized options for the families they work with. It's never a one-size-fits-all method, and it's vital to have a coach is deeply compassionate about your specific situation.

Erin and I delve into the intimate, life-changing experience that sleep training can provide for families, the magic in finding your village with sleep and beyond, and what it can look like to stay in your lane while trying to navigate all of the online noise coming at us today. We also chat more about Erin's journey from early childhood educator to the pivotal moment that led her to stepping into entrepreneurship, and how that's led to not only one but two impactful businesses for her and her family.

I refer to Erin as my sleep bestie because working with her was honestly a dream, and my family and I will be forever grateful to her. If your family is not getting the quality sleep you desire (and you know you need), I encourage you to reach out to Erin and her team to get that high-touch support! 

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Connect with Erin on Instagram @lakecountrysleep and @marketstcreative

Learn more about working with Erin by visiting https://www.lakecountrysleep.com/ and https://www.marketstcreative.com/

Connect with me on  Instagram

Learn more about booking a Biz Therapy session and working together
by visiting my website


Hey, I'm Mariah. I'm a Boy Mama, the very PROUD founder of Made for Mothers, obviously a Podcast Host, and a Marketing and Business Mentor for Moms. I offer Biz Therapy Sessions. Unlike traditional business coaching, this is a space where the whole person is honored, motherhood is celebrated, limiting beliefs are uncovered, messaging is prioritized, niches are defined, roadblocks are clearly identified, systems are taught, marketing is simplified, and the support is a month long.

1 x 90-minute session + 30 days of voxer support

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Hi, I'm Erin Minall, the mama of two little boys, lover of coffee, shopping and all things sleep and parenting. I'm the founder and head sleep consultant at Lake Country Sleep and co-host of the Coffee and Catnips podcast. Lake Country Sleep has helped over 200 families find rest and connection, utilizing our signature cheer method.

Speaker 2: 0:26

Hello and welcome to the Made for Mothers podcast. You're one stop shop for candid and relatable conversations about motherhood and entrepreneurship. Think of the show as your new mom friend, where we dive into all things marketing, branding, mindset, money, child care and growing your business while we all navigate our roles as both CEO and mom. I'm your host, mariah Stockman, and I wear a bunch of hats. I'm a boy mama, I'm serving as a marketing mentor for mothers, I'm running a six figure marketing agency and on top of that, I'm the proud founder of the Made for Mothers community. This show is about sharing the real stories and the practical strategies from fellow mother run businesses. So dive in, grab your headphones, reheat that coffee and let's go.

Speaker 2: 1:18

Hello, hello, hello and welcome to another episode of the Made for Mothers podcast. I am your host, mariah Stockman, boy mom, business owner, marketing mentor for mothers and founder of the Made for Mothers. I'm just going to call it a universe at this point, because that's what it feels like for me. But community and drum roll. If you've listened to any episode ever, you have heard me talk about sleep, consulting, sleep coaches, sleep training. With my own personal experience with sleeping and my now almost two year old and I have the one and only Aaron with Lake Country Sleep, who was my sleep coach. Hello, Aaron, aaron, aaron, hello.

Speaker 1: 2:00

Hello Mariah. Oh, my gosh, thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 2: 2:05

Yes, I will never forget, I'll never forget like halfway through our sleep training, like coaching, time together was like a two week period. I will never forget the one moment where everything shifted with me and you, where I wrote you like a boxer, I was like I love you, and then you were like I love you too, and then we just started saying like we were like best friends. We literally called each other sleep besties You're my sleep bestie, hi sleep bestie and I was like I actually love you, like you're in. You were like my inner circle of life. I will never forget you. You are going to go down in like the history books of everything that our family experienced in that period of time and I feel like maybe only families who have gone through sleep training and have had to really make that decision to hire a sleep coach understand how you support families and what that feels like, particularly, I think, for moms, because it's a space you know.

Speaker 1: 3:09

It is. It's a very, very intimate experience that me and my team give families. We are in it deep for a few weeks and we're coaching you through. Something that you have struggled with I have experienced it, I know you did was sleep deprivation due to having a baby.

Speaker 1: 3:33

Right, I've always been the kind of person who thrived when I slept well and all of a sudden, for a few months at a time, I wasn't sleeping well because I had this little baby to tend to, this little baby who you love more than life itself, right, yeah, it's worth it. But it's also like I'm slowly losing my mind over here and you begin to question, like am I going to be able to be the parent that I want to be tomorrow, because I am up every hour at night tonight, you know, and you just start spiraling and I feel like when we are working with families and they're in that state as we get started, it's just this. It's deep, it's intimate and it's really life changing. And just being able to help families when they are so deep into sleep deprivation or not knowing how to navigate their child's sleep in a way that feels good to them is well, for me, it's like my life's passion now, and I didn't know that until I had my son.

Speaker 2: 4:44

I also let's just back it up so I'll share a little bit about because I haven't really shared too much about that experience. I've talked in vague terms or just how much I love sleep coaches, and then you're my third or fourth on the podcast and I just keep setting the stage of like, oh my gosh, I had the best experience of sleep training. If I ever see a Facebook mom group post about someone who's like on the fence, I'm always like, just go and do it, it's so valuable. So Henry was six months old. He was a high I would say high medical needs baby In the beginning. He lost three pounds of weight in the first three weeks I would like to say pounds, not ounces, very scary. And so that put us on this trajectory of zero percentile and weight from zero to six months, and so we had a lot of extra pediatrician appointments. We had a lot of lactation issues.

Speaker 2: 5:44

I learned so much about advocacy the advocacy that really is like born within a mom and what was happening was he was requiring really more and more and more sleep crutches to sleep which I now know what a sleep crutches, thanks to Aaron and fast forward, by the time he was six months old and I had finally had this like aha moment to hire a sleep coach. He was only sleeping on me, which is not a problem, like I don't think there's anything wrong or bad about contact naps. Actually, now that I dream of contact naps, like I dream, it's so funny how that works. Right, you know, like you're constantly wanting those seasons back and then you're constantly looking for the seasons forward. But he was only contact napping on me and he wasn't really nursing for nutrition, he was nursing just to like fall asleep and what was happening was I could never transfer him. I could never transfer him off me.

Speaker 2: 6:45

So I was in his room for two two hour naps a day, right, four hours a day, sitting in the rocking chair, like losing my mind, thinking about. Remember I told you I was like my husband can just do whatever he wants. Do you remember that? I mean, I was like I was so mentally unwell by the time I reached out to you and I had this aha moment and this is what it sounded like, and this is like literally the basis of this freaking podcast which, hello, is moms in business. I said to myself, if I ever had a problem in my business for six months, I would have hired someone like four months ago, five months ago, if my website was broken, if my invoicing systems weren't working, if my operations manager quit I would have hired someone so fast. Why am I not hiring someone to help us through this? Do you remember that?

Speaker 1: 7:48

Yes, I do. I remember you booked your initial call with me and I had a same-day appointment available. We got on the phone and you were like how amazing is that? It must have been like the stars aligning, because it's rare that that happened. I remember just listening to everything you shared with me right there. Any time I hear a story like that and I've heard tons of stories from moms your story was very similar to mine with my first son my heart goes out to those moms, because all you want for your baby is to eat well and to sleep well, especially those first few months. A lot of times what we see is one of those things is happening, but not the other, or one has been a struggle, so that's been the focus, and then the other just goes to the waist side, just not to say that that's bad, but that's a really common issue for lots of new moms.

Speaker 2: 8:54

We were new parents and our son was shrinking and we were feeding him. It was just so scary, it is. But the thing about the initial call with you, which was so funny to me that I think back now and this is so, erin, and this is why she became my sleep bestie was I booked the call, I had this wonderful consult with you. I was like let's go, I want to do this, and then I stalled, installed, installed and so beautifully even held my hand before I even became quote unquote a client of yours. You even held my hand like emotionally, virtually emotionally, through just starting. I remember you were like, let's talk through these, let's talk through your fears or your worries or what's delaying you in starting, and I felt like I was like, wow, this is so exactly what I need, because, as much as I want to jump into this process, the internet is the wild wild West for parents, for new moms.

Speaker 2: 9:59

It's so wonderful that we have so much information right there that we can tap into baby led weaning and you know, montessori, at home toys and you know all of these things like lower stimulation, tv shows, like there's so many things I could just find on Instagram. Break fast. But when it comes to nursing and sleeping, it is so challenging to navigate those waters of information because if you're exclusively breastfeeding, or if you're exclusively pumping, or if you're formula feeding, or if you're co-sleeping or if you're, you know like there's so many different schools of thoughts around what's right and what's wrong, and I feel like those camps of people can feel very intimidating if you are not in their camp and you're like wrong, you know. And so sleep training, sleep coaching, can often be perceived as crying it out as a method, and I'm here to say crying it out is not a method right?

Speaker 1: 11:10

Well, it technically is a method.

Speaker 2: 11:12

Well you know what I mean. I feel like it's like parents.

Speaker 1: 11:16

But people equate, cry it out to sleep training. And yes, it is.

Speaker 2: 11:22

And it'll be all like. My kid has to cry a lot in order to be to sleep.

Speaker 1: 11:25

train yes, yeah, and as you know like we look, there are like five pillars of quality sleep that we include in every sleep plan that we write for families, and the method is just one piece of the puzzle. And unless you're fitting all of those pieces just right for that child, you're probably not going to like be able to optimize their sleep if something is missing or something is slightly out of place. And that's basically what we help families do during our time together.

Speaker 2: 11:55

The other thing that you taught me. You said you know, as soon as Henry, my son, starts to sleep, you're going to see these milestones. So, yes, the process itself is beautiful, wonderful. I don't know if we want to talk about that at all, but like the process for me, like I still think to this day that I cried more than Henry did during the whole process, like I kind of stand by that, because I was so nervous, I was so worried and I'm so glad my husband took like the lead on, like holding my hand there, and Henry was actually a very I feel like very easy baby to sleep, like he got it, like I think it was like by night three.

Speaker 2: 12:32

He was like fully sleep trained and to this day he's almost two. He sleeps 11, 12, 13. And he is a good sleeper. He's a solid 12 hour sleeper and a solid two and a half hour nap during the day. Still, and we still utilize the exact same routine and the exact same method and we still my husband still refers to you If he wakes up he still has these like times that he waits and he's like remember what Aaron said. You know, it's like it's just like a part of our, it's like a part of our family is just this, and we know that he's going to be too soon. So things are going to shift with him for sure soon. Oh my gosh, he's like crawling out of the crib, aaron, not fully, he knows not to fall. Anyways, the toddler.

Speaker 1: 13:18

I know we had that conversation, didn't we?

Speaker 2: 13:20

The toddler bed is on the horizon, but I will never forget you telling me hey, when Henry starts to sleep, he's going to start crushing these milestones.

Speaker 1: 13:32

Physical development of milestones. Yeah, so you remember when we worked together? Yes, he well, first you took him to a six month appointment while we were working together and you're like Aaron, he put on a pound. In the last week we worked together, he put on a pound, aaron, he put on a whole pound.

Speaker 2: 13:51

He went from the month we sleep trained. He went was the first month he was not in the zero percentile we I think he went to like the 16th percent or something like that. And I'm not one who like who dwells too much on the presentiles anymore. But let me tell you, if you are a, if you are a weight struggling baby mom, you are hyper focused on these presentiles. I mean, they're not the end all be all of a child's wellness, but I mean you are fixated on their nutrition. So then, what do you remember? What else happened?

Speaker 1: 14:25

Uh, yes, he started crawling, and didn't he say, yes, dada, on Josh's birthday, right? Oh my God, you have the best memory.

Speaker 2: 14:39

Okay, he gained a pound, he started crawling and he said Dada, on Josh's birthday, all in September, I remember like I was like I would be right, like month to month, and I was like, oh my gosh, september was like such a massive month and it's like never stopped since. I mean it was just like the next month. I mean by month nine, I think he was in like the 56th percentile, like I mean, it just got better and better in terms of like development and he was never like developmentally behind. I would say. It's just that all of a sudden, it was like every milestone at once. And is it a coincidence that he was sleeping while he was sitting? Those milestones? I don't know, I don't think so. I absolutely not. It's science.

Speaker 1: 15:18

Absolutely not. When we sleep is a sleep magical, like when our baby sleep. That's when growth hormones are released, like they literally go to sleep and wake up the next morning and you're like you look longer. Yeah yeah, that was the other thing too.

Speaker 2: 15:35

All of a sudden he was like jumping out of sizing up clothes and stuff. You know, the other cool thing about that experience for me was, of course I was celebrating these things with Josh, my husband, henry's dad, like, of course, he was in those moments of me like oh my gosh, he's crawling, he's talking. But I also had you to celebrate those things with too, which was like it was this very like village which I stand so much by, but it was very much like this community village. All of a sudden, I had someone who was so intimately involved in this process and I had someone you literally, on your website, say like sleep, bestie. And I feel like that's exactly who you are, that's exactly how you show up, like you're branding totally nails, that you're messaging totally nails, that I was texting you, like I was texting my best friend, like, oh my gosh, can you believe, henry? Like, and you're in it celebrating like, like the bigness and the fact that, hello, we worked together a year and a half ago, and how many families. You even said in your intro you've worked with 200 families.

Speaker 2: 16:33

How is it that, a year and a half ago, 200 families?

Speaker 2: 16:36

You still, in detail, remember my child's three big develop and it's not like you like sat here and prepped. It's not like I was like hey, remember, we're going to bring this up, and you literally are like living in these celebrations with these families, like you are an extension of a family and I feel like that's the messaging that needs to be put out there. When it comes to sleep training and everyone does better when we sleep at, the whole family is rested. We are so much healthier and more vibrant and more able and I really just feel like you've changed our family's life. And I still know people whose kids who are, you know, between six months and two years old, who like don't sleep and I have to get off like a very steep soapbox, like my soapbox is like a tower, it's a magtiles tower of self-righteousness, knowledge. I have to be very mindful of like getting really preachy and I don't. I suck it in, but I I notice myself being like you don't have to live like that, you know, but I'm human.

Speaker 1: 17:42

Yeah, Well, and when you've been through an experience like that that has been so life changing both for you and for Henry, I mean, you think about where he was when he started and where he was like after we finished working together and then even just the development that continued to occur for him because he was sleeping so well is just it's night and day, you know. And for you to have that experience and know that it's hard not to tell other people about that when you see them struggling, I feel that when you go out like a lip gloss.

Speaker 2: 18:13

If a lip gloss changes my life, I'm going to be like telling everyone about lip gloss, let alone actually matter.

Speaker 1: 18:21

Yeah, but it totally comes back to what you were talking about before. Like with all the noise that's out there in the online parenting world like social media. It's a blessing, but it's also a burden and one of the things that we value and find really important in our practice. That late country sleep is going back to. What does the science say? Where's the evidence?

Speaker 1: 18:44

And that's what we present to our families, and I'm a big believer, too, in like not doing things that a parent isn't comfortable with. So I'm never going to ask anyone to do anything I wouldn't do with my own kids and I'm always going to give options. Right, like when we presented our sleep plan to you, we outlined okay, here's the ideal schedule for Henry that we're working towards, here's the ideal routine for him at this age, which you guys are still using, and just a few other things. And then we give you the methods and we're like we could do it this way or we can do it this way, and we chat with you like how do you think he would respond to this method, how do you think you would respond to this method? And vice versa, and we get your input, like this isn't a. We're telling you what to do and you're going to do it. This is really that team, village effort, like we're going to talk you through your options. That's what.

Speaker 2: 19:36

I say I'm like it's so holistic, and holistic doesn't doesn't necessarily mean crunchy. It means full family. What is Josh comfortable with? What is Mariah comfortable with? What is Henry comfortable with? What's your goals? How long do you want to do this? Do you want me on your team for two weeks? Do you want me on my team just for the night?

Speaker 2: 19:54

Like I was blown away by how custom and personalized and how involved you were with understanding all of our sort of emotional capacities and goals and how much I felt like you really got to know Henry and it was all virtual too, which was just sort of like the most incredible part of it was how accessible you were and how much impact you can have on families, no matter where they live. It's just incredible to me. I mean the time zones thing you know up late at night, but we were all in bed by nine. I remember it was not a late night. I remember he did wake up in the middle of the night. That was like our one tough. That was like our one tough moment. But that was it and it passed and he's good.

Speaker 2: 20:38

Yeah, yeah, wait, the noise. The noise online. Like I'm so curious how you in your profession, navigate that because I have it in my own life with what I do with marketing and stuff, and it's very loud and aggressive and I don't stand by a lot of it, but it's how do you navigate as a professional in this field and you are science based and you have so much training and you, you know you come from being an elementary school teacher. Like you have such a background in development and there's all of this like misinformation online about this, like how do you manage that?

Speaker 1: 21:21

personally, I would think Honestly, I haven't run into too much of people like the best term for this, I don't know calling me out or having opposing viewpoints and trying to argue with me. I don't really get into any of that. I'm not going to call anyone out. I'm very much about staying in my own lane and focusing on my people, because I know that what I'm saying resonates with the type of people who want to work with me. If it doesn't resonate with you, hopefully you're not seeing it and, second of all, you can just move along. And if you're the type of person who's not just going to move along, well then I'm just going to move along. There's no need to entertain it. So that's kind of the philosophy I have around it. But also I try to educate on what is sleep training, what isn't it and who is it for, who is it not for? I breastfed my babies. So did you, and there are people who are like, oh, you can't sleep train a breastfed baby. Well, you totally can. You totally can, and it's life changing. Your baby learns that nighttime is for resting and recovering and daytime is for nourishing, and those are just things that we can gently work together to achieve.

Speaker 1: 22:43

And if someone were to come ask me questions about our process. I'm very, very open about it. And what do sleep plans look like? This is how we work with families and these are the methods we usually present to families. We have two main methods that I find work very well for most children. However, because what we provide is fully custom like right now, for example, I have a client whose baby is only getting caloric intake at night, so their sleep plan is going to look very different than someone else's, as well as what the parents are comfortable with.

Speaker 1: 23:21

I had a mom on the phone with me the other day and she said you know, I want this to be very gradual.

Speaker 1: 23:27

I'm sleeping with him on the mattress in his room right now, next to his crib, and I need this to be very gradual. So we wrote a very gradual option for her and then one that was slightly less gradual in case she changed her mind, because you get to that point where you're just so exhausted and you're like, if I'm doing this, why don't I just do it? So we'd like to give options for what we're seeing, because, when you are so deep in it, this is what you think you might want because of all that outside noise right, but then once you actually start doing it, you're like, oh, that's actually harder than I thought you know, and it doesn't have to be that way. And that's the beauty of having a coach and someone who is like laser, focused on your specific situation. So we talk about all of those things and it's really just like educating about what it is, what it isn't and how we do it, and I think that's the biggest piece in kind of navigating the noise that's out there.

Speaker 2: 24:26

I love what you said about like staying in your lane and just knowing that this goes for any mom in business and their marketing and their messaging and their offerings.

Speaker 2: 24:33

It's like I love what you just said about you're either for us or you're going to move along, you know, and I think that that's a really balanced approach in terms of having really good boundaries and not getting too like tied up in the noise and I think the noise is a lot louder for, like, the new parents for sure, because there's just so much messaging out there around what's right and wrong. But yeah, I could go on and on about just how much I love you and how great your services are and how much you've changed our life and this is a podcast about motherhood and entrepreneurship, and so I'm curious about, kind of like take us back in terms of you know, your mom of two, when you first had your baby, is like what did it look like for you at what point? What was that transformational point where you said you know, I think I'm going to start a business and I'm a mom, and what was that like? What were the challenges? What was beautiful about it? Take us back.

Speaker 1: 25:33

Yeah, so I had my first son in 2018. I was teaching full time. I was a kindergarten teacher for years, also taught 4K, directed at a local preschool, so I've kind of like done it all, seen it all as far as teaching and educating goes. I did that for about a decade. We had my son in 2018 and I remember going back to work after maternity leave and I had I think I had a 12 week leave. I went back, we had Christmas break, so I went back for like a week. Then I was off for two weeks and then it was like okay, we're really, we're really in it now in January, and you know, a month goes by. It's like the new normal.

Speaker 1: 26:20

I don't love it. Luckily, we had both my mom and my mother in law helping with childcare, which I don't believe. If I had to send him to like daycare, I don't believe I would have stayed in the classroom as long as I did. So I was still teaching full time and there was one night, one day, where I was at school by like seven o'clock in the morning, so I had probably left my house at like 640. He wasn't even awake yet because by that time he was a good little sleeper so I didn't see him that morning.

Speaker 1: 26:53

I had gone to work and we had meetings that afternoon and one of our school's founders came to our staff meeting and it just went a little longer than it was supposed to. So it's like five o'clock. I've been at school 10 hours. I'm like okay, like keeping an eye on the clock. I want to get home to my baby, like I haven't seen him all day. My breasts are like ready to go, like I need to get home so I can nurse him, and this meeting just keeps going, it just keeps going and it just keeps going and it's like the founders of the school. I couldn't just like up and leave. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, and then here's the kicker the meeting's finally over, like 20 minutes later than it was supposed to go. I'm like rushing in tears trying to get out to my car to get home. I start driving out the parking lot and I got a flat tire and I was just like you lose it.

Speaker 1: 27:51

Yeah, I did. I was like crying in the parking lot. Other teachers were like driving by on their way home.

Speaker 2: 27:56

So you had so much hormones too and you're like it was awful worged, yeah.

Speaker 1: 28:02

So I called my mom. I was like, can you stay a little longer? Like I have a flat tire, I'm going to get it taken care of and I'll be home, but it's going to be longer and if Bram needs to go to bed, put him to bed, because, like, not by the time I get home now it's going to be past bedtime and I won't even have seen him today. And I was just like, I was heartbroken, I was just like this is not okay.

Speaker 1: 28:25

So at that point I knew I needed to figure something else out and in my mind it was like can I just do this part time? How can I make this work part time, like teaching part time? And I didn't know what the answer was. I really didn't and I had been thinking about it, praying about it, and then I saw I'm pretty sure it was a Facebook ad that was like become a sleep consultant. And I ended up setting up a call with someone to learn more about this, because I was very much into navigating Bram's sleep and I had figured it out. I figured it out probably because I had too, because I knew I was going back to work.

Speaker 2: 29:07

Yeah, 100%.

Speaker 1: 29:09

So I figured it out, we sleep trained him. It went great. And then I learned that you could actually help people do that. So I was like that sounds perfect. With my background in early childhood development and education. It almost seemed like a no brainer. So I ended up getting certified and starting my own business, and that then allowed me to go part time in the classroom. As I worked to build my business and eventually what?

Speaker 2: 29:36

was it, which is hard, because now you're building a business, you're working part time and you still have a new baby. I mean, how old was he when you started your business? When you were doing this?

Speaker 1: 29:47

He was probably nine months old, yeah, and then we found out we were pregnant with my other son.

Speaker 2: 29:54

Oh my gosh, that's right, superhuman. I mean, that's no small feat. That's an amazing moment to acknowledge you about starting a business, working part time, pregnant, nine month old. Wow, no-transcript, isn't it wild. It was a lot. Do what we need to do, though. I mean we will just get it done.

Speaker 1: 30:17

Yeah, and it was motivating. You know, I was like I don't want to be stuck On someone else's schedule, like I don't. I have kids, I have priorities. Like I want to be a mom to them, I don't want someone else raising my babies and that was just really motivating for me also.

Speaker 2: 30:35

Now, looking back, I mean a mat and a healthier boys now.

Speaker 1: 30:39

They bow will be for in March. So my baby is almost four and then Brams five.

Speaker 2: 30:46

So think about how many like sick days they've had, how many like how much PTO you would have requested, how much Approval you would have needed to get from the school in order to just be like with your babies when they needed you most. I mean, we know one escapes six season, you know. I mean, just don't go unscathed. You know like some of us get out of better than others. But I just mean, if you look back now, imagine if you were just had stayed in that classroom. You know environment, that teaching environment, which, hello, we all the world needs teachers, or tons of teachers, who are moms, and they're doing it and they, they navigate it and they're passionate about it and that's what they want to do for sure. But for you personally, knowing what you wanted, the type of mom you wanted to be, and that you had this like kind of nudge, you know inkling to like start your own business, which is exciting. Not everyone feels that, not everyone has that like entrepreneurial. You know kind of pull and how much flexibility and presence you've been able to give your family, which I think. I think sometimes we have this narrative in the world which is like Start a business so you can go work at the beach with your laptop and, like you know, it's like so flexible and it's so freeing. And so the breeding is like hello, I've never worked more as an entrepreneur. Like there's that quote, you know that quote. It's like either work 40 hours for someone else or work 80 hours for yourself, or so all like that. In the beginning it's all like getting I don't care. Oh my gosh, now Can you avoid hustle culture? Yes. Can you avoid, like the grind of, like more and more and more and more as an entrepreneur? Yes. But is it just facts that in the beginning of a business, you put in so many hours because that's what's necessary? It's no difference than when you have a baby. How many hours are you putting in? How much hours you're not sleeping? It's, it's like full time all the time, everything you know. But I laugh because you know I'm like, yes, you're not gonna get away from the hours of work, you're just building something that is yours and is your legacy. I mean, your sons get to see you be purpose driven, be passionate, be bold, be courageous, be strategic, be successful. You know, and that's.

Speaker 2: 33:07

I think that that's the piece that's like so Underrepresented, is like the legacy I talk about that so much on this podcast. I want my son to see me Love what I do like. I want him to see me be so excited about whatever project I'm working on, whatever I'm launching, whatever I'm doing. So that way, when they're of whatever age, I don't care when your sons are out there in Boy Scouts or whatever selling what are they selling? Boy Scouts? I don't even know anything, I was a Girl Scout.

Speaker 2: 33:39

Corn popcorn they're like I'm gonna sell the most popcorn. I'm gonna do it. Let's do this. Let's make a flyer. Let's put it out here. Let's put it a thing. Let's create a Facebook group, let's you know, and it's like it, all of that is Learned, it's all learned. All of that is learned. So is the other parts of raising babies Compassion, self-awareness, self-reliance, like all of it is beautiful, but this entrepreneur piece, I feel like it is teaching confidence and self-esteem in such a different way of Wow, look at our moms. They really just went out and they carved their own path and they said no, it is like traditional paths, and I think that that is like hello.

Speaker 1: 34:26

That's it, you know. It's funny too is like I see that they see me doing all these things right. So I have two businesses actually and I yeah, oh my gosh, it's you do have two business. Yeah, I do, and my husband works out of the home like he works away from home, so he's pretty much gone Monday to Friday. Used to not always be that way. He used to be on more of a rotating shift schedule, which was super hard because when my boys were babies, that's when it was like everything fell on me and I was on like the straight road to burn out.

Speaker 1: 35:04

But anyway, that's another conversation for another day, just the fact that they see me now able to Kind of run the house. Is our house always clean? No, because I have a million and one other important things to handle. But they, they understand that. You know, oh, we're gonna make dinner now and oh, I'm gonna go help mom at the laundry, like they're a part of it all. And if I'm sitting on my computer and Brammo come up to me, he'll be like mom, what are you doing? And I'll just be like, oh, I'm just sending a quick email and we have these like old computers that my husband dug out when we were cleaning the basement the other day and gave them to the boys to play with. So whenever I get my computer out.

Speaker 1: 35:44

They go, get their computers and they start like to pretend they're typing and I'm like, oh, what's she doing over there? And Brams, like I'm just sending, sending an email, my gosh, that's like these clients and they want to, they want to be a part of it and I want that for them to. If they're interested in anything like you, better believe I'm gonna nurture it.

Speaker 2: 36:06

Yes, I feel that way too. That's how we're gonna have a soccer field in our front yard eventually here, because he's showed a little interest in soccer and now I'm like, will he go to the Olympics? And never thought I would. You that, mom, that I'm like Everything is soccer, everything is soccer right now. Okay, so you have two businesses. Do you want to share a little bit about your other business? Because that's kind of that's kind of fascinating. Because, okay, hold on. The reason why I find this fascinating is because, aaron, I'll tell you a little bit about our business. But your second business was born out of your first business and you found a Third Avenue to diversify your income and you said, hey, there's a gap, I'm gonna fill this need. And it's so niche, which, hello, is like my favorite word. Tell us about it.

Speaker 1: 36:47

Well, I knew you were gonna say that. So I also own, with a partner, a business called Market Street Creative and my partner, jenna, is a Graphic designer. She does graphic design, branding and website and as I was getting my business like country sleep going, I was like I need Jenna to do all of this for me. And why aren't there like people who do this for sleep consultants?

Speaker 1: 37:13

So I think it was 2020 we started talking about it and by 2021 we had launched Market Street Creative and our biggest Mission and goal there was to just always have like this family first culture and value. That kind of drives all the decisions we make there. So our goal is to obviously like help sleep consultants with getting their branding and website design up and going like as they're getting their Businesses, starting or growing them. We also do content marketing, crm setups, but kind of like all of those behind the scenes things, at least for sleep consultants. Like for most of us, we didn't start these businesses because we wanted to run a business right. We started these businesses because we wanted to help family sleep and all that other stuff.

Speaker 1: 38:06

We'll just figure out along the way right, yeah so that's basically what we do at Market Street is help with all those other things that you don't want to have to do and it's like so Specific and it's so specialized and it's like you have your target audience like nail, like you know exactly.

Speaker 2: 38:25

If a sleep coach Lands on your you know marketing, they will see themselves in you.

Speaker 2: 38:30

Like so fast I I give a signature talk on owning your niche.

Speaker 2: 38:35

I'm going to a retreat this weekend and speaking about it like this is, I'm speaking at the women's Working moms conference in August in Philadelphia on owning your niche and I'm like so excited about this because I have found in my own Like journey of the more niche I've gotten like a, the more aligned and Energized I am in my work, which just like radiates, but also it's been Such a value add to my revenue too, because it's it just helps your ideal client click so fast.

Speaker 2: 39:06

But People are really scared to own a niche and find their niche because they feel like they're leaving money on the table. Because if I don't, if you don't do marketing for everyone, then clearly you're leaving out Clients that you could be supporting. But no, you want to be doing the service that is like so specialized, that's so locked in that you're an expert in this industry, so you don't have to learn like a million different industries right and Works. You know, because if you were doing marketing for like e-com, you know, like product-based businesses, you'd be like, oh my gosh, I have to like get these clients like Viral on reels and have influencer.

Speaker 2: 39:45

It's like different, such, it's totally different. So I love, and then I the other part about this that I just love is when you become an entrepreneur. That's it, everything's a business. I feel like you're just like, like if any person talked to me about any idea, I'm like oh, you want to buy a camper?

Speaker 1: 40:05

I have my next idea now that I'm like that I already have it.

Speaker 2: 40:09

You should buy ten campers and rent them out and let's make the logo and and ball like Renovate campers and everyone can be, and you should make them themed and like you know. It's just so fun. Tell me your next idea. Do you want to tell me your next idea?

Speaker 1: 40:22

Of course I do. Okay, so Well, you and I kind of talked about like where I'm at in life right now, like I have an almost four and a five year old right, and for so long I was hustling in the season with young toddlers at home, right, mm-hmm, and I could not no idea what that's like.

Speaker 1: 40:43

Two hundred two was. It's not for the faint of heart. Oh my god, I love it, I would. I would never trade it for the world, but those first few years, man, whoops, right, it really made me I feel a strong person. Uh, that's one way to test your sanity is have two hundred two.

Speaker 1: 41:04

Anyway, I was just so waiting for the day that they would be in preschool so I could have just a few hours to focus on my work, right, and then that time came over the last year or two and I hate it. I hate having them away from me and I mean, my background is in education. So I'm like, why is someone else teaching my babies? I know all of this. Why am I not the one doing that? I know them better than anyone. Why am I sending them to a classroom with a room with 15, 20 other kids in it? Who is? There's a teacher or two, and their attention is divided. And when I can like laser focus, just like we do with our sleep plans, right, laser focus in on your child. Like, so I am gonna start homeschooling, probably next school year, at least one of my children, maybe both, and that's kind of like I'm in the preparation mode and, of course, being entrepreneurial minded.

Speaker 2: 42:06

I'm like hmm, what are you cooking at?

Speaker 1: 42:12

Okay, so here's kind of what I'm thinking, but I don't know yet. Obviously, I kind of want to document our journey, right? Who doesn't want to see that, if you're interested in it anyway, so that, and then I'm honestly just thinking something nice and easy and tell me if I'm wrong. But what about merch?

Speaker 2: 42:29

Like homeschooling merch.

Speaker 1: 42:31

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 42:32

Oh, I love it, like what, like teach, like clothing, or like planner to like work guides or like, well, you're so good at that, well, you already are so good at like the branding and the merch and the same, like you know, sleep, play all day, sleep all night, kind of vibe you remember.

Speaker 1: 42:48

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 42:49

I mean, I'm not a homeschooling mom, but I will say homeschooling parents really identify with being a homeschooling parent and I've seen a lot of homeschooling cool like t-shirts and merch and out there, and I'm always, I'm always like thinking oh, it's so cute. You know, I thought you were going to say that's funny that you said that, because I thought you were going to say like oh, I'm going to design like a, like a process or a method, like you know, like a, like a system, like a training as you do it, because there's a lot of, there's a lot of how do you become a homeschooling?

Speaker 1: 43:25

family out there. I thought about that too, but I want something that's like fun Less work, yeah, sure, and fun, sure yeah. Not that. Maybe merch is more work. I don't know. I haven't done that yet, but I'll find out right.

Speaker 2: 43:40

And that's one of the things. You already have the designer. So why not leverage what you're already doing in your business to start another business? Because if I had a designer on my team, you better believe there'd be so much made for Mother's merch. I just don't have a designer on my team. So I mean, I love this. Would you have your-? There's one at Market Street creator? I know, I know I'm just gonna say yeah, right, so would you have your own channel for this? Would you have your own Instagram account? Would this be separate from everything? I think so, because you have. That would now be your third Instagram account, correct?

Speaker 1: 44:11

Okay, well, I also have like my old podcast one. My podcast is like a treasure trove of goodness, but I haven't kept up with it. It was one of those things where, as I started more businesses and was like making more revenue, something had to like be passed off so. I have that-.

Speaker 2: 44:29

It's there and you can pick it up when you want and it's in your-. Yeah, like the process of doing systems.

Speaker 1: 44:34

Send people there, right Like. If someone's like, oh, I need help with this, I send them the link to the podcast.

Speaker 2: 44:39

You're just within I just like having a blog. I mean, it's a wonderful, wonderful archive for you of your expertise. Yeah but Does that have that Separate? So this would be like what? Four or five Instagram accounts?

Speaker 1: 44:51

Yeah, which I don't love. So I'm kind of debating I saved the handle, I haven't started but also I'm like maybe I should just like use my personal one for that.

Speaker 2: 45:01

No, what's the handle? I wanna know the hand. What's the name?

Speaker 1: 45:05

Oh, it's staying gold homeschool. Oh, I love it.

Speaker 2: 45:11

Staying gold homeschool.

Speaker 1: 45:13

Do you know the poem by Robert Frost?

Speaker 2: 45:16

No, maybe Tell me.

Speaker 1: 45:18

Okay, nature's first green is gold.

Speaker 2: 45:21

Wait, you just know it, for heart is to hold. Oh my God, wait, wait, wait. I know it. Did you just throw me off by your like poetic moment right there?

Speaker 1: 45:29

Okay, start over. But don't you want that for your kids, right? Okay, listen to this. Nature's first green is gold. Her heart is to hold Her early leaves of flower, but only so an hour, and maybe I'm in a butcher here. Her leaves subside to leaf, so eat and sink to grief and don subsides. Today, nothing gold can stay.

Speaker 2: 45:55

Oh wow, I'm such a nature girl, outdoor girl, and I love that. Now I wanna get it printed up and put somewhere in the house, because that's how I always-.

Speaker 1: 46:03

I know I think I need to.

Speaker 2: 46:04

There's money too. In our house actually, when Henry was from like around nine months, we would go on hikes on our property in the mornings and the afternoons and he would always pick leaves and then we would bring the leaves inside and we'd put them in this little basket. And new moms particularly are very sentimental. I am very sentimental, which is based in some like generational trauma stuff, but very, very sentimental. I like to keep everything. I'm not a hoarder, for sure, but I find meaning in so many things that people would be like oh, that's just like, like they're like.

Speaker 2: 46:40

I have like a rock collection that may have been like it's not gonna be about, so to always take Henry's leaves and I would put them in this little basket and they were like these golden leaves. And I remember when fall ended because we live in a four seasons, very strict four seasons type area, and the snow was starting to come and I had these like this little basket of leaves, I went to throw them. This is actually like weirdly embarrassing, maybe kind of cute, maybe someone will resonate. I threw them away in the trash because we were pulling out Christmas stuff. I went back to the trash like an hour later and pulled all the leaves out of the trash, because I could not stop thinking about these leaves and that I threw Henry's leaves away and they were like Henry's leaves and so they sat there in a bag like they were in the trash. They sat there in a bag in the kitchen in the corner for so long and my husband was like what are we doing with these leaves? Like they're trash leaves.

Speaker 2: 47:30

At this point I was like no, they're not trash. I ended up pressing them and putting them in this like gold frame and it's like hanging. So I have like five of his little leaves that are all these different, like shades of gold and red and green, and they're pressed and they're like hanging in the living room. Anyways, that poem just totally brought me back to like the gold of these leaves and how, like everything changes in the seasons. I love that and that's where the neat that's. So, basically, your name is bored.

Speaker 1: 47:57

It's like an allegory for, like childhood. Yeah Nothing, gold is a thing.

Speaker 2: 48:01

That's everything I just said. Basically of nothing stays, and Henry's no longer like picking leaves, he's like picking logs.

Speaker 1: 48:09

Right. So do you see how I could totally take that and like turn it into some quality merch for?

Speaker 2: 48:15

homeschoolers A business? Yes, and I love that. Maybe on that page you could showcase your journey and track your journey and bring people alongside with you because, statistically speaking, there's more homeschooling families like every single day. In the United States, we have never had so many homeschooled families than we do right now, whether that be from the pandemic or what you know. I don't know what that. What that weird talking about homeschooling, to which you and I talked about where we pushed record, but for totally different reasons, and it is interesting to watch people's journey and homeschooling. I also love one of my guests on here, Sarah. She really openly shares about how she homeschooled and then stopped homeschooling because it wasn't for the. I just love, like the honesty around it where it may not be for everyone, but families who maybe never considered it are now considering it and I love that. Maybe you can bring people along in your journey about what's working, what's not working, you know, lessons learned, tips. I think that's cool.

Speaker 1: 49:15

Yeah, do it. Yeah. So that's kind of the wheels are turning, obviously like that's not going to be my priority at the start, like, yeah, I'll try and like document some things, but you know we're gonna get going on a strong start and I mean we'll have the summer to ease into things and kind of get into a rhythm, yeah. But I really just want to preserve their childhood and nurture who they were made to be. And for one of my children in particular, I don't see that his gifts are going to be nurtured in this whole system and I know that I can do that for him.

Speaker 2: 49:53

Oh, I love that. What a beautiful way to express that as well. Something I ask all my guests on here before we close is if a new mom who wants to start a business or is new in business, you know if they are struggling in some way or they're scared to start, or they're scared to like take that leap out of corporate or maybe like go part time to like build something at night, you know what you know kind of encouragement or advice or suggestions do you have that you can pour into them to basically have them believe in themselves?

Speaker 1: 50:29

Oh, I think I would just, as an encouragement, say that with the right reason, you can do anything. So, first of all, figure out your why. Why is that you're doing this? Why is that you want to do this? Why do you want to explore something different for yourself and your family and then go with that and let that be your driving force and don't be afraid to reach out for help along the way, because we can't be an expert in everything and kind of like you said, if I'm gonna struggle with something, I'm gonna reach out for help. Right, it's just, let's streamline the process if we can, and there are so many other women entrepreneurs who are out there who would love to offer advice or a helping hand or a service to get you to where you want to be.

Speaker 2: 51:19

Yeah, to get you there faster. I love that. Find your village. Yeah, find your village. I mean, that's the whole premise I've made for mothers is like we talk about this village, but talk about this village like it's just gonna like knock on the door.

Speaker 1: 51:31

I'm waiting, I'm waiting. Nope, you have to go find them.

Speaker 2: 51:37

No, and I always say everyone needs a mom friend and then, if you're in business, everyone needs a mom and business friend, because it's a different path, it's a different set of circumstances and decision making and fatigue and energy and passion and all of that. Well, erin, I just obviously love you so, so, so much, and Henry loves you so much and Josh loves you so much and I'm so grateful that you became our sleep bestie and I hope my goal would be, maybe, if anyone is listening to this and their child is just you know, if your family is not getting the rest that you require in order to feel, you know, happy, healthy, whole, vibrant, and you know, just a rested family is such a gift, you know, obviously, reach out to Erin, reach out to any of the sleep coaches on our podcast. I mean, they all work virtually and they all have such like a different sort of like flavor of tea in terms of you know, what do you each provide, like? You're all so uniquely different and I will say there was this like really cool moment where Lauren Kelsey and Erin correct, we're all at the same conference. You guys all live in different areas and you were all the same conference in Maine, rhode Island. We're in Maine, maine, and you guys had Instagram to me a picture of all three of you together and I just like that, was like I like love that so much because I was like, oh my gosh, you get all my sleep coaches. I just love it.

Speaker 2: 53:07

But definitely reach out to Erin. Check out Lake Country Sleep. If you're a sleep coach who's looking for support with their social media marketing graphic design. Also reach out to Erin. Erin, where can they find you? What's all the URLs and all of that?

Speaker 1: 53:20

Oh, all the places. So if you're looking for parenting help, sleep help definitely check out LakeCountrySleepcom. Follow us on Instagram at Lake Country Sleep for Market Street Creative. If you are a sleep consultant and you are looking for help with content marketing, business setups, branding your website, check out MarketStreetCreativecom. Street is just ST and it's the same handle on Instagram Market Street Creative.

Speaker 2: 53:50

I love it. Thank you so much, erin, for your time and heart and wisdom. I just adore you and appreciate you so much and if this was helpful for you, leave a review, rate, follow it matters so much to podcasters If you leave a review or rate or subscribe or whatever you call it. This a whole new world for me in terms of that whole podcasting piece of this. But thank you so much for listening to another episode of the Made for Mothers podcast and I hope you get some rest tonight. Everyone is listening. Bye.

Speaker 1: 54:23

Bye, thank you.

Speaker 2: 54:26

Yay, you just finished another episode of the Made for Mothers podcast. As always, you can find more details about today's show in the show notes and be sure to give us a review. Subscribe so you don't miss a chance to grow your biz from fellow moms. Are you wanting more one-on-one support, or are you looking to learn how to market your business in a way so you can spend more time with your family and less time stressing about what to do next? Than follow along on Instagram at Mariah Stockman, or book a one-on-one biz therapy session with yours truly, and let's find that work mom-ahood harmony we all deserve. Until next time, this is your host, mariah Stockman, and thank you so much for tuning in.