We were lucky to catch up with Cecilia Smith recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Cecilia, thanks for joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

My childhood best friend had her baby over the summer, and I was going to get to fly down and meet him over the holidays. As we neared closer to time, she was texting me that her baby had started to sleep regress and that she was struggling. Knowing her for over 3 decades, I don’t believe she had ever come to me announcing any kind of struggle, so I knew things were difficult. I decided I would hire her a night nurse for a couple nights and began my search on Google. Let Mommy Sleep was the first website that came up and I was in contact with the owner shortly. When I told the owner that I lived in Charlotte, she excitingly mentioned that they were wanting to open a location there and if I would be interested. I was in corporate sales and had no intention of leaving my job. 2 to 3 weeks after our discussion, I couldn’t get the conversation out of my head. My friends were all starting their families and I saw firsthand how lack of sleep was affecting their quality of life. They all stated that they wished there was a way they could get more sleep and that the hardest part about having a baby was the newborn stage. Charlotte, NC is a city comprised mostly of transplants, myself included. We do not have the luxury of having family close by to come and help. The more I thought about it, I started to realize what a need there was and how much of an impact a service like this would have to new mom’s and their families. A couple months later, I left the corporate world and opened up the first southeastern location of Let Mommy Sleep.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am originally from Kentucky and moved to Charlotte, NC 7 years ago for my career. I was in infrastructure and industrial lighting sales for over 10 years. I ended up a Let Mommy Sleep franchise owner trying to find my best friend a night nurse. Let Mommy Sleep Charlotte is a team of Registered Nurses and Certified Newborn Caregivers that provide overnight newborn care in family’s homes. We also provide Baby Basics Classes and Postpartum Check-Ups. You can easily give the gift of sleep by going to our website and following the gift certificate prompts. What sets us apart from other companies is that we are a team of care providers, so we have the ability to provide care within the same day of the request and we don’t require any minimums or contracts. We know every family’s needs are different and we try to cater to those needs as best we can. We have family’s that only request one night, need different nights from week to week, or want to reserve that same number of nights a week for 4-5 months’ time. I am most proud of our caregivers. They have a great deal of newborn experience, and we require them to take multiple courses before providing care. We want them to be the experts upon entering the home. Our caregivers never go to sleep and our constantly taking care of baby and charting activity through the night. At the end of care, they upload their overnight flowsheet notes, and those notes are emailed to the family. So, while the parents slept soundly, they are informed the next day of exactly what baby was doing the entire time of care. We also have a non-profit called Mission:Sleep. Mission:Sleep provides free overnight care to military and first responders whose partners have recently given birth. Making sure we serve those who serve us is very important.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Instagram has been the star of the show as far as building my audience. I have connected with so many people through the social media platform-from potential families to other owners in the perinatal and postpartum industry. I have heavily focused on creating the right audience on my Instagram–I value quality over quantity. I am wanting to make sure that my audience will directly benefit from my services and information and vice versa. Cultivating the right environment has led me to meet many great people in the industry that I have learned so much from already. Though I am no expert, I would advise keeping your content on brand and following others that you can learn from.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

I make sure I confirm the best way to communicate up front when a family starts the Let Mommy Sleep Charlotte relationship. Some families prefer email, some families prefer text message, and every now and then I will have a family that likes to pick up the phone and talk. I always make sure they know their emails, text messages, and phone calls will be responded to–and in a timely manner. I aim to be as transparent as I can, answer any question they may have, or let them know I will do my best to find out whatever information they may need. If they are requesting a service that I cannot provide, I always try to have a referral that I can give them so a solution can be found. Knowing that their needs are heard, and our first priority, helps foster the brand loyalty.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.letmommysleep.com/charlotte
• Instagram: @letmommysleep704
• Youtube: Let Mommy Sleep
• Yelp: Let Mommy Sleep- Charlotte

Image Credits

Thin Spaces Productions