Marietta is a licensed marriage and family therapist and sleep consultant. After specializing in parenting with therapy, she began her transition into baby sleep consulting to help families sleep better by helping their babies sleep better.
She received her undergraduate degree in Family and Consumer Sciences and has always been passionate about teaching and learning. Her desire to dive deeper and focus in on a specialty led her to studying relationships and marriage which allowed her a more intimate and personal relationship while helping clients.
After having her twins, Marietta found herself getting about four hours of staggered sleep throughout the night. She had always been a do-it-yourself person and dove deep into her own research on how to help those babies get a full night of sleep...so that she could, too! However, she found that none of the resources available were specific enough to really help make the changes needed.
She finally typed up her own sleep plan and gave her own program one last try, and it worked! This experience opened up a door to an entire new world as she realized that sleep was a common factor in so many different behaviors in babies and children.
Her obsession with sleep grew into helping friends and family train their own children, which eventually became Little Dreamers.
“I can’t remember what got me really excited and thinking ‘let’s do this now!’ but I knew I would do it. I didn’t know when, I didn’t know how, I didn’t know any of the details but I knew that it would come about because I literally couldn’t sleep because I was so excited about starting Little Dreamers.”
What was the process of launching your business like? Did you start with the packages/offerings you have now? How did you build up hype, etc?
If you know what you want to do? Just do it, and be consistent with it.
She began forming her business by determining packages/offerings and pricing by what she knew she was worth and could offer as a marriage and family therapist. This allowed her more confidence in knowing that she was truly providing knowledge and expertise rather than worrying too much about what the competition was doing.
Once she had determined what she wanted to offer, she built her social media and launched a giveaway to build awareness and allow her audience to become more familiar with what her business truly was.
Marietta also did weekly video question-and-answer sessions to allow her audience online to get to know her better,and build trust. “When I started, I was begging (I felt like I was begging) people to submit questions for this Q and A. And I just showed up every single week. And I knew that if i was consistent and if I showed up, that people would come.”
Along with social media, Marietta has been able to grow her business and build hype around her offerings by networking with others in the birth/baby community both online and in person.
How have you found the most success in finding new clients for your services? What tips do you have for other service-based businesses looking for new clients?
Referrals! Make sure the clients you work with receive the best possible experience. “I help parents sleep train and that’s really hard! But I want my clients to walk away from that hard experience saying ‘wow that was worth it and I’m so glad that Marietta was on my team.’”
Referrals are the biggest thing, but you have to have a client before you can have a referral. Here are a few things Marietta did that she found successful to start gaining clients at the beginning:
Local Networking
Social Media - connecting with others, collaborating on a giveaway, providing helpful information
Sharing about her passion with anyone she can and bringing awareness to what she does, wherever she is!
What are some of the biggest roadblocks you’ve come across as you’ve created and grown your business, and how have you overcome them?
Marketing! Getting what you have out there is always the hardest. But consistently showing up, providing value, and connecting with the audience you have always makes a huge difference. Finding someone you trust and truly investing in your business in the areas you struggle with is worth it!
Find what works for you and your business, and don’t feel pressure to do what everyone else is doing. Remember your ultimate goal and make choices that align with it.
What are your top 3 book recommendations?
Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child: A Step-By-Step Program for a Good Night’s Sleep by Marc Weissbluth
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
Hallelujah by J. Scott Featherstone
If you could go back in time and give yourself advice when you were first getting started? what would it be?
“Looking back at my business, I would have told myself to trust my marketing friend sooner and more fully. It was so scary to let go of some of that control of my business because it was like my baby, but that is what helped it grow...just let go and get that help.”
Where can listeners connect with you? (IG handles, website, etc!)
Instagram: @littledreamers.us https://www.instagram.com/littledreamers.us/
Website: https://www.littledreamers.us