Latest / Work It Like A Mum / Sweet Dreams, Big Success: Rosey Davidson’s Journey From Sleepless Nights to Sleep Guru to the Stars

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Sweet Dreams, Big Success: Rosey Davidson’s Journey From Sleepless Nights to Sleep Guru to the Stars · Work It Like A Mum

• 0:01
  Elizabeth Willetts: Hey, I'm Elizabeth Willetts and I'm obsessed with helping as many women as possible achieve their boldest dreams after kids and helping you to navigate this messy and magical season of life.
• 0:14
  Elizabeth Willetts: I'm a working mum with over 17 years of recruitment experience and I'm the founder of the Investing in Women Job Board and Community.
• 0:22
  Elizabeth Willetts: In this show, I'm honoured to be chatting with remarkable women redefining our working world across all areas of business.
• 0:29
  Elizabeth Willetts: They'll share their secrets on how they've achieved extraordinary success after children, their boundaries and balance, the challenges they've faced and how they've overcome them to define their own versions of success.
• 0:43
  Elizabeth Willetts: Shy away from the real talk?
• 0:44
  Elizabeth Willetts: No way.
• 0:45
  Elizabeth Willetts: Money struggles, growth loss, boundaries and balance we cover it all.
• 0:50
  Elizabeth Willetts: Think of this as coffee with your mates, mixed with an inspiring TED talk sprinkled with the career advice you wish you'd really had at school.
• 0:57
  Elizabeth Willetts: So grab a cup of coffee or a glass of wine and make sure you cozy and get ready to get inspired and chase your boldest dreams, or just survive Mondays.
• 1:07
  Elizabeth Willetts: This is the Work it Like a Mum podcast.
• 1:10
  Elizabeth Willetts: This episode is brought to you by Investing in Women.
• 1:17
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• 1:29
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• 1:34
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• 1:41
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• 1:52
  Elizabeth Willetts: Now back to the show.
• 1:54
  Elizabeth Willetts: Welcome to the Work it Like a Mum podcast, where we delve into the stories of inspiring individuals transforming their passions into extraordinary achievements.
• 2:03
  Elizabeth Willetts: Today we're thrilled to have Rosey Davidson, a mother of three, renowned author and the visionary founder of Just Chill Baby Sleep.
• 2:10
  Elizabeth Willetts: Rosie isn't just any sleep consultant.
• 2:13
  Elizabeth Willetts: She's the go-to expert for numerous celebrity parents seeking peaceful nights for their families.
• 2:19
  Elizabeth Willetts: Her commitment to the NSPCC as a campaigner for childhood and her drive to make sleep advice accessible to all has made her an amazing figure in the parenting world.
• 2:29
  Elizabeth Willetts: With an impressive Instagram following and her insightful Just Chill Parenting podcast, rosie is a true footh in the realm of infant sleep consultancy.
• 2:38
  Elizabeth Willetts: Join us today as we explore the world of baby sleep with the expert herself in covering practical tips and heartfelt advice for parents everywhere.
• 2:47
  Elizabeth Willetts: Thank you so much, rosie, for joining me today.
• 2:50
  Elizabeth Willetts: It's such a pleasure to chat with you and learn more about you, your business and obviously, baby sleep as well.
• 2:55
  Elizabeth Willetts: For anyone that is currently sleep deprived with a baby or a child, I'm sure we'll get into that as well.
• 3:02
  Rosey Davidson: Oh, thank you so much for having me.
• 3:04
  Rosey Davidson: What an intro.
• 3:05
  Elizabeth Willetts: No, thank you.
• 3:06
  Elizabeth Willetts: Yeah, I'm just so impressed with your business.
• 3:09
  Elizabeth Willetts: You built it from scratch, you do it, you know most all of it yourself and it's incredible.
• 3:15
  Elizabeth Willetts: What you've done Like an aspiring entrepreneur like me is just brilliant to speak to somebody like you that's really made such a success for their business.
• 3:23
  Elizabeth Willetts: So talk with me through Rewind.
• 3:25
  Elizabeth Willetts: We know we spoke just before we hit record that you've started the business about 10 years ago unofficially and then moved into officially seven years ago.
• 3:34
  Rosey Davidson: Yes, so I have three amazing children.
• 3:37
  Rosey Davidson: My eldest is coming up to 11.
• 3:39
  Rosey Davidson: So she'll be 11 in April.
• 3:41
  Rosey Davidson: I mean, when she was first born, yeah, it was a massive shock.
• 3:44
  Rosey Davidson: To be honest, I thought I was really prepared.
• 3:46
  Rosey Davidson: I'd read all the books, I'd done my NCT classes, I was like this isn't going to be as bad as everyone says it is.
• 3:54
  Rosey Davidson: And then, yeah, it was a shock to the system when she was a newborn.
• 3:58
  Rosey Davidson: But weirdly, her sleep kind of got worse and by the time she was about four months old she just really wasn't sleeping much at all and I stuck it out and I thought I was doing all the things I could do to kind of help.
• 4:10
  Rosey Davidson: And then I just hit a wall and I remember she was almost six months old and I just said I can't do it anymore.
• 4:16
  Rosey Davidson: I just I can't do the sleep deprivation.
• 4:19
  Rosey Davidson: She was waking up like every hour in the night.
• 4:21
  Elizabeth Willetts: Yeah, it's awful, it's a killer.
• 4:23
  Rosey Davidson: It is awful and I just thought and actually, to be honest, around that time there weren't really the sleep consultants that are around now and I feel like I was a bit of a trailblaze.
• 4:33
  Rosey Davidson: There weren't really Any options about that and that was one of the inspirations for the business, but I decided with there must be some help out, there must be a solution.
• 4:43
  Rosey Davidson: My husband's brother is a GP.
• 4:45
  Rosey Davidson: I had a little chat to him and he said look, you know you need to get some sleep, you need to allow her to settle herself, and this kind of planted the seed.
• 4:54
  Rosey Davidson: I also spoke to my health visitor, who's actually really helpful, and she said maybe you could try, like, settling her in different ways, maybe you can look at her routine.
• 5:01
  Rosey Davidson: And I also spoke to a nanny and she was really helpful because she spoke to me more about routine.
• 5:07
  Rosey Davidson: Yeah, she said you know, you need to allow her to have some good awake time and like don't try and force her to sleep, which is not ready, so all of these kind of things.
• 5:18
  Rosey Davidson: Penny started dropping and I thought I'm just gonna change it and we ended up sleep training, and by that I mean we change her routine.
• 5:27
  Rosey Davidson: Number one, which was actually one of the things that I think was standing in the way.
• 5:30
  Rosey Davidson: So I was trying to get to sleep all the time when she wasn't actually tired and I didn't know that because I read all this stuff about they must not this much, and if they're not having this much, they're over time.
• 5:40
  Rosey Davidson: I was obsessed with her being over time actually she wasn't, so I stepped back a bit from that.
• 5:45
  Rosey Davidson: Obviously she did need to know, but I wasn't obsessing over it as much.
• 5:49
  Rosey Davidson: And then at bedtime we worked on her settling herself, rather than me Literally jumping up and picking her up.
• 5:56
  Rosey Davidson: When she even, like, moved or made a whimper, I think I was on like high alert with it's difficult with your first.
• 6:03
  Elizabeth Willetts: is it my time?
• 6:03
  Elizabeth Willetts: I'm sure by time you get to your third you're like, yeah, with your first you just like, oh gosh, you know, I don't want to break this so little but, honestly, within three nights she was sleeping through the night, seven till seven.
• 6:16
  Rosey Davidson: I just want to caveat that and say that not all babies will sleep seven, seven.
• 6:20
  Rosey Davidson: But she was a seven, seven baby and it completely and utterly changed our lives.
• 6:25
  Rosey Davidson: So I decided it was actually not immediately, but down the line I decided that's what I want to help people with.
• 6:32
  Rosey Davidson: Initially I didn't know that's what I wanted to do, but I was kind of helping friends and family.
• 6:38
  Rosey Davidson: So this is where I say so to start it on officially, because we were the first of our friends to have babies, and Loads of asking our advice and I would be sharing that and just sharing some kind of tips.
• 6:51
  Rosey Davidson: And it was about a year later that I helped one of our best friends with their baby sleep and she said to me you need to do this your job, you're so good at it and it's changed my life and I can't believe it.
• 7:05
  Rosey Davidson: This is amazing.
• 7:06
  Rosey Davidson: So when you go from having no sleep to sleeping or not, it really, it really does transform things.
• 7:12
  Rosey Davidson: At the time I was working.
• 7:14
  Rosey Davidson: I went back to work part time in higher education, I was working in admissions.
• 7:19
  Rosey Davidson: I knew that I needed something more flexible and especially, we're planning to have another baby and I had her and I realized, if I look at this, how much money am I actually making when I pay for childcare for two and travel into central London and back every day probably eating out for my lunch?
• 7:38
  Rosey Davidson: Honestly, I'd make about ten pounds a day.
• 7:40
  Rosey Davidson: Yeah, child care for two children is no joke.
• 7:45
  Elizabeth Willetts: Yes, I mean, you know.
• 7:47
  Rosey Davidson: Decided I need to do something else, and before I did the sleep business, I trained to teach baby massage.
• 7:54
  Elizabeth Willetts: I did that with my little one when she was yes, quite is a nice cause, isn't it?
• 7:59
  Elizabeth Willetts: When they're really little to do, yeah and it was.
• 8:02
  Rosey Davidson: It was really lovely, but I quickly realized it wasn't a scalable business.
• 8:07
  Rosey Davidson: It's quite hard actually to get people to sign up to do it in the first place, they finding the people who want to do it locally.
• 8:16
  Rosey Davidson: And then obviously parents of newborns can be a little bit unreliable.
• 8:21
  Rosey Davidson: Lots of people wouldn't turn up or they'd cancel.
• 8:25
  Rosey Davidson: They change their minds and actually once they've done the course they disappear.
• 8:30
  Rosey Davidson: You gotta find new people.
• 8:31
  Rosey Davidson: Yeah, and it was only like a six week course.
• 8:33
  Rosey Davidson: I think that was exactly it's in person.
• 8:36
  Rosey Davidson: There isn't a way to scale it unless you were somebody who I don't know how to franchise or something, and that wasn't me.
• 8:42
  Rosey Davidson: And I realized actually every time we did these classes, at the chatty bit at the end people would be talking about sleep and I was giving sleep tips, yeah, and then I the penny dropped and I was like, why don't I do that?
• 8:58
  Elizabeth Willetts: Yeah, but there was no.
• 8:59
  Elizabeth Willetts: There was no sleep consultants were there when you sort of started or not.
• 9:03
  Elizabeth Willetts: Not as many, not really not.
• 9:05
  Elizabeth Willetts: I wonder there was a strict put you know, not she not a light on Instagram like a quite old school.
• 9:11
  Elizabeth Willetts: My friend had the book yeah, that was it, and my friend and we'd be like pushing the fras and she'd be telling me all about Gina Ford and all like the routine and and it sounded quite hard to call, but that was the only one and that was just the book.
• 9:25
  Rosey Davidson: Yeah, I think you know everyone's different and some things work for some people.
• 9:30
  Rosey Davidson: They don't work for others, and this is the whole problem with it, because Every baby's different, every parents different, and somebody you speak to might say, all he tried, this, it works for my baby, and then it doesn't work for you and you think, gosh, I failed and you're trying to fit your baby into a box that might not suit them.
• 9:48
  Rosey Davidson: So that's where, like Gina Ford, do you know what?
• 9:51
  Rosey Davidson: Some of it is all right, but and some people swear by it, but I think it's a little bit too strict.
• 9:56
  Elizabeth Willetts: I think I did get the book and I dipped in and out but yeah, she is quite a routine type person so it probably fitted in really well with her.
• 10:03
  Elizabeth Willetts: So you decided you wanted to pivot your business.
• 10:06
  Elizabeth Willetts: I guess Talk us through the early days, because I know what it's like launching a business and you know it's hard.
• 10:13
  Elizabeth Willetts: So talk me through how you sort of started the business and, you know, got momentum going.
• 11:10
  Rosey Davidson: I did my training and that I did quite quickly in terms of the courses that my industry isn't regulated, so there's a lot, there's actually loads of courses out there now.
• 11:22
  Rosey Davidson: Originally, when I started the course that I did, I actually think I really rate it with London School of Child Care Studies.
• 11:29
  Rosey Davidson: But now there's loads of other copycats who do courses and because it's not regulated, essentially anyone can do it.
• 11:35
  Rosey Davidson: But the course I did was fairly quick in terms of I think it was within about six months and my daughter so my second daughter was a new baby, so I did it around her and her naps.
• 11:48
  Rosey Davidson: Were you still doing the baby massage business as well?
• 11:51
  Rosey Davidson: I stopped that.
• 11:52
  Rosey Davidson: I stopped that.
• 11:52
  Rosey Davidson: It wasn't conducive doing that and doing training and working on my business plan essentially.
• 11:58
  Rosey Davidson: But I didn't have much of a plan.
• 12:01
  Rosey Davidson: I'm not really a planner and that's something.
• 12:03
  Rosey Davidson: I always just follow my gut and I just do things as I think the same way we can get onto this.
• 12:09
  Rosey Davidson: I don't schedule any content ever.
• 12:11
  Rosey Davidson: I just do the content I want to do on my socials.
• 12:14
  Rosey Davidson: So I'm a bit like that.
• 12:16
  Rosey Davidson: I just wing things, but it's not necessarily even winging it, it's just following your gut and your instinct.
• 12:22
  Rosey Davidson: So I knew that social media was the way to get known and for people to find me, so obviously I needed my first clients.
• 12:31
  Rosey Davidson: So at that point Facebook was, I think, more of a focus than most people.
• 12:38
  Rosey Davidson: Instagram wasn't around, or was it, maybe it just started?
• 12:41
  Rosey Davidson: It wasn't.
• 12:42
  Rosey Davidson: Instagram was still a platform where it was people just sharing photos, I think.
• 12:46
  Rosey Davidson: But Facebook was very active and Facebook I knew we had a local mums group and I realized that there were local mums groups all over the country, so I joined loads of them and then most of them have rules and they still have, and they did then where you can't advertise in them.
• 13:04
  Rosey Davidson: But what I did was every morning before my daughters woke up, I would search Facebook and search baby sleep or naps or anything like that, and posts would come up with people asking for advice and I would reply on those posts.
• 13:20
  Elizabeth Willetts: I love that.
• 13:21
  Elizabeth Willetts: It's like say, scrap it.
• 13:22
  Elizabeth Willetts: You know, when you start a business and you have no, I was saying like zero money for advertising.
• 13:27
  Elizabeth Willetts: You have to get really scrappy, don't you, and it's great.
• 13:31
  Rosey Davidson: Yeah, I did it every morning and then I realized that video content was doing really well so I thought what can I do?
• 13:40
  Rosey Davidson: So I started making videos on Facebook about particular sleep topics that kept coming up, like waking early, short naps, not settling, all these kind of things and then when somebody posted about something I would reply with my video.
• 13:56
  Rosey Davidson: All right, yeah, People would get engaged that way and the video started getting loads of views and I became more popular and I had quite a few one to one clients and it just kind of started then, because I know you've called now, but you started just doing one to one consultation.
• 14:12
  Rosey Davidson: Yeah, I didn't have online courses or anything else, it was literally just me.
• 14:15
  Rosey Davidson: And a friend of mine told me about Instagram and I poo, pooed it.
• 14:20
  Rosey Davidson: I was like no, this is weird.
• 14:22
  Rosey Davidson: Like it's just sharing photos.
• 14:23
  Rosey Davidson: I don't know what to share.
• 14:24
  Rosey Davidson: I don't really understand it.
• 14:25
  Rosey Davidson: But I thought, do you know what?
• 14:28
  Rosey Davidson: I'm just going to get on it.
• 14:29
  Rosey Davidson: And I started following, like my friends and my family Well, family weren't really on there, but some of my friends were on there and I've always been quite a fan of, like, reality TV and celebrity gossip and that kind of thing.
• 14:44
  Rosey Davidson: So I've always been really aware of who people are.
• 14:47
  Rosey Davidson: And I've had friends like take the mickey out of me over the years.
• 14:49
  Rosey Davidson: I can't believe you watch that.
• 14:51
  Rosey Davidson: Anyway, little did they know it would help me in my future career.
• 14:58
  Rosey Davidson: I started following lots of celebrities and influencers and one of them posted about her baby not sleeping and I replied and said I'd love to help you.
• 15:07
  Rosey Davidson: And then she mentioned me and that was like my first big growth on my accounts.
• 15:13
  Rosey Davidson: I went from I don't know about 500 followers to like maybe 1500.
• 15:19
  Rosey Davidson: Yeah, that was the springboard.
• 15:21
  Rosey Davidson: And then I suddenly realized there's loads of influences and celebrities who need help.
• 15:27
  Rosey Davidson: So I went off and I help and hopefully they will mention me and that was kind of how I grew my following initially and then I started creating content and teaching myself really about what people wanted to see how it all worked.
• 15:44
  Rosey Davidson: And I think back when I started Instagram, when it really got going, it was quite quick to grow.
• 15:51
  Rosey Davidson: If you were growing, the growth was potentially really quick.
• 15:53
  Rosey Davidson: I'm not sure if it's a bit slower now.
• 15:55
  Rosey Davidson: I don't know.
• 15:57
  Rosey Davidson: The algorithm is a bit of a mystery, but the growth happened really quickly and people obviously started liking what I was posting and I was so in demand that it got to a point where I think I reached burnout because I was doing I God knows how many phone calls every week.
• 16:15
  Elizabeth Willetts: And so, because I was going to say, because this all started before, like COVID, before online consultations were things, were you doing them online or phone call?
• 16:25
  Elizabeth Willetts: How are you doing it would be phone calls or in person.
• 16:27
  Rosey Davidson: So go to people's homes.
• 16:29
  Rosey Davidson: That was actually really lovely.
• 16:31
  Rosey Davidson: I don't do them anymore, but I really miss home visits.
• 16:33
  Rosey Davidson: Yeah, maybe I should do them again, but that was really great.
• 16:37
  Rosey Davidson: And then, weirdly, someone messaged me on Instagram and said I've qualified as a sleep consultant but I'm really struggling to work the kind of business and marketing side of things I'd love to work with you.
• 16:51
  Rosey Davidson: And I met up with her and instantly we clicked.
• 16:55
  Rosey Davidson: She's called Katie, she was my first, the first one to join my team, and the two of us then started working together.
• 17:02
  Rosey Davidson: So then she was able to take on some of the one to ones and that really helped.
• 17:07
  Rosey Davidson: And then I realized, oh God, this is amazing.
• 17:10
  Rosey Davidson: So she was with me really quite near the beginning.
• 17:14
  Rosey Davidson: Actually she's been with me for ages.
• 17:16
  Rosey Davidson: And then later down the line I don't know who came first, so Cleo is the other.
• 17:22
  Rosey Davidson: Another lady who did the same weirdly just approached me.
• 17:26
  Rosey Davidson: There's a couple of times I've advertised for people to work with me and this never worked.
• 17:31
  Rosey Davidson: The right people just don't reply.
• 17:33
  Rosey Davidson: So the people that replied just weren't appropriate or didn't have the right experience or we didn't click.
• 17:38
  Rosey Davidson: They didn't have the same ethos.
• 17:39
  Rosey Davidson: But Cleo is also a clinical psychologist and she works with me as well as sleep consultant but also does one-to-one potty training, so she's brilliant.
• 17:52
  Rosey Davidson: She actually works also in a Central London hospital with children with complex with holding issues my daughter's got that.
• 18:01
  Rosey Davidson: Oh yeah, well, we can probably book up onto one with Cleo.
• 18:03
  Rosey Davidson: Yeah, we can help you.
• 18:04
  Rosey Davidson: So Cleo is amazing.
• 18:06
  Rosey Davidson: So we do potty training as well.
• 18:07
  Rosey Davidson: So she joined me.
• 18:09
  Rosey Davidson: And then there was another person, nedda, who I would say I'd call her my business partner.
• 18:15
  Rosey Davidson: She approached me and said similar, so I've trained to do this course, but I'm struggling with the marketing side of things.
• 18:23
  Rosey Davidson: I'm really impressed with what you're doing.
• 18:24
  Rosey Davidson: And we started chatting and got to know each other and she said have you ever thought about doing webinars?
• 18:30
  Rosey Davidson: That's a really good idea, because there comes a point where, when you've got thousands of followers, you need a product to sell that's scalable and there's obviously only so many phone calls you can do.
• 18:41
  Rosey Davidson: Yeah, exhausting, because when you're any type of coaching, you give a lot of yourself and I have a really high standard and I want to help families to the best I can.
• 18:51
  Rosey Davidson: I just thought, you know there needs to be something else and also, not everyone can afford one-to-one coaching.
• 18:57
  Rosey Davidson: Yeah, so we came up with the idea of a webinar, but it turned into an online course and this is before they really became really popular.
• 19:07
  Elizabeth Willetts: I'm going to say do you follow Amy Porterfield?
• 19:10
  Elizabeth Willetts: I don't.
• 19:11
  Elizabeth Willetts: No, I have to check around.
• 19:13
  Elizabeth Willetts: You've done your course because she's someone that I followed.
• 19:15
  Elizabeth Willetts: She's American and she's all about how to create an online course and online courses.
• 19:20
  Rosey Davidson: you know the secret to success and scalable businesses, and yeah, I think the market's quite saturated with online courses now, but when we did ours there weren't many around and we were kind of learning on the job and discovering.
• 19:34
  Rosey Davidson: So we did that and the courses have become so successful.
• 19:39
  Rosey Davidson: They've been amazing.
• 19:39
  Rosey Davidson: We have sleep courses for essentially newborn up to age four, so different sleep courses.
• 19:45
  Rosey Davidson: And then we've added other things like potty training, fussy eating, toddler behavior, adult sleep, having a second baby.
• 19:54
  Rosey Davidson: It's just, yeah, it's really grown legs and it's been amazing.
• 20:00
  Rosey Davidson: And then I brought on another member of staff, Sarah, who also is a sleep consultant doing one-to-ones, and she's a pediatric nurse as well.
• 20:07
  Rosey Davidson: So my team are honestly amazing and I know people would say that, but I trust them with my life.
• 20:15
  Rosey Davidson: They are the most amazing women and I trust them to essentially say what I would say but also bring their own expertise, because the three of them have other skills.
• 20:24
  Rosey Davidson: So Katie was deputy head at a primary school and she has a specialism in early years.
• 20:29
  Rosey Davidson: Cleo's got her psychology background and Sarah has her nursing background as well.
• 20:34
  Rosey Davidson: So they are all amazing.
• 20:36
  Rosey Davidson: And Nedda has just been key in creating the courses.
• 20:40
  Rosey Davidson: So although I do all the marketing myself, she's there in the background doing the techie stuff.
• 20:46
  Rosey Davidson: Yeah.
• 20:48
  Elizabeth Willetts: What a good team.
• 20:49
  Elizabeth Willetts: Did you always want to be an entrepreneur?
• 20:51
  Rosey Davidson: Do you know what I've always said?
• 20:53
  Rosey Davidson: I don't like my job.
• 20:54
  Rosey Davidson: Ever since coming out of uni and I first went into sales, you were a sales person really yes.
• 21:02
  Rosey Davidson: So sales and marketing.
• 21:03
  Rosey Davidson: I was a marketing manager.
• 21:05
  Rosey Davidson: I've done all different kind of jobs and I've always not enjoyed working for someone else.
• 21:09
  Rosey Davidson: Yeah, I think there's always been that frustration bubbling under the surface.
• 21:13
  Rosey Davidson: I don't think I knew, I don't think I ever knew that that's what I wanted to do, but once I started I've realized this is what I was supposed to do.
• 21:22
  Rosey Davidson: I remember doing I don't know if you've ever done any kind of what do they call it?
• 21:27
  Rosey Davidson: In sales training.
• 21:29
  Rosey Davidson: We did it where they kind of profile you and you're like an animal.
• 21:33
  Elizabeth Willetts: But I've done things where they do sales avatar.
• 21:36
  Rosey Davidson: You've got to get your client out of it and I was always a lion, which means you don't work well as a team, you're better as the boss and you're better at that kind of thing.
• 21:47
  Rosey Davidson: And it was really funny because at the time when we did it, I was very much working as a team and actually I do work as a team now, but I like being the boss.
• 21:56
  Rosey Davidson: It works really well.
• 21:57
  Rosey Davidson: So, yeah, it's just quite funny that those years back maybe I didn't know, but I am where I was supposed to be.
• 22:04
  Elizabeth Willetts: Yeah, and obviously all the stuff you learn in your jobs as a salesperson is marked here.
• 22:09
  Elizabeth Willetts: Working for the people You've now been able to bring it into your business, yeah, and the things I've always did.
• 22:15
  Elizabeth Willetts: Yeah, so talk me through the early years, because you obviously you were on your own.
• 22:20
  Elizabeth Willetts: It sounds like you happened to be a bit scrappy.
• 22:22
  Elizabeth Willetts: You had two small children.
• 22:23
  Rosey Davidson: How were you sort of doing that juggle, you know so obviously my children sleep quite well, so that time in the early years the girls were both in bed by seven.
• 22:34
  Rosey Davidson: I would work every evening.
• 22:36
  Rosey Davidson: Then my eldest would have been at nursery in the mornings.
• 22:41
  Rosey Davidson: My youngest I had her with me but I would work during her nap time.
• 22:46
  Rosey Davidson: I've got a good friend, hannah Johnson Therapy, so she also has a bit of a following on Instagram.
• 22:51
  Rosey Davidson: She does C-section scar massage very specific.
• 22:54
  Rosey Davidson: But we met when our daughters were at nursery and both she's got two kids.
• 23:00
  Rosey Davidson: They're the same age as mine and we used to go to this toddler group every Tuesday, yeah, and the two of us would be there and it was almost like a business meeting every Tuesday.
• 23:09
  Rosey Davidson: So we'd be talking about Instagram and the kids running playing around.
• 23:13
  Rosey Davidson: So we'd kind of be working on a Tuesday morning, it's really it's energising.
• 23:18
  Rosey Davidson: Yeah, but it was like scrappy is the word like it was scrappy and the weekends I would work often and my husband would take over.
• 23:25
  Rosey Davidson: But yeah, it was a lot of long days.
• 23:28
  Rosey Davidson: And then it got to a point where I realised, okay, there's a tipping point where you think actually we can afford some extra childcare.
• 23:36
  Rosey Davidson: So then I put my youngest into a child minder for two mornings a week, which was amazing.
• 23:42
  Rosey Davidson: And then it's funny when you go from having hardly any time to do a job and then you're like, right, I've got two mornings, you can be hyper-focused and actually I probably achieved more in that time than I do now in a whole day.
• 23:56
  Rosey Davidson: And do you know?
• 23:57
  Elizabeth Willetts: what you mean.
• 23:58
  Elizabeth Willetts: I remember when mine was just at nursery in the mornings and I just and I've got the dog and you see the dog in the background.
• 24:04
  Elizabeth Willetts: So I'd be like running back and running around the woods with the dog and then, just like I've never typed so fast in my life, I'm just like Superman on the keyboard and then picking them up at 12.
• 24:14
  Elizabeth Willetts: But what do you mean now?
• 24:16
  Elizabeth Willetts: Now I've got like them both.
• 24:17
  Elizabeth Willetts: At school.
• 24:18
  Elizabeth Willetts: The days are obviously longer, but actually I think I probably did achieve more then.
• 24:22
  Rosey Davidson: Yeah, and then as the business grew and she got a bit older, we got a part-time nanny, which was really helpful.
• 24:29
  Rosey Davidson: So just, I think she did three days, but not four days.
• 24:33
  Rosey Davidson: She would finish.
• 24:34
  Rosey Davidson: My eldest one had started school.
• 24:36
  Rosey Davidson: So even now I generally only work school hours.
• 24:40
  Rosey Davidson: I don't tend to work in the afternoon unless there's a particular project or something I'm doing.
• 24:44
  Rosey Davidson: I also have parents who live on the next road who are very helpful.
• 24:49
  Rosey Davidson: Oh yeah, that is yeah.
• 24:51
  Rosey Davidson: I'm very lucky in that sense that they will take the kids and I've got a third child now, oh, I know, and are they nursery or are they?
• 24:59
  Rosey Davidson: So he has a part-time nanny, the same nanny who we had before.
• 25:02
  Rosey Davidson: Yeah, that's nice.
• 25:03
  Elizabeth Willetts: Yeah.
• 25:03
  Rosey Davidson: He was born at the very end of lockdown, so kind of the tail end of it.
• 25:08
  Rosey Davidson: So, yeah, it's been amazing really and, to be honest, I didn't take any maternity leave with him, so I was even posting I think I was still in hospital was posting on Instagram.
• 25:20
  Elizabeth Willetts: Yeah, but you do love.
• 25:21
  Elizabeth Willetts: I mean, you sound like you love your job, you love your business and it's it drives you and it fuels you, and it's a passion as well as, obviously, making you money.
• 25:31
  Rosey Davidson: Yeah, it is, and it's not just so.
• 25:34
  Rosey Davidson: My business is primarily sleep, but it's moved into the parenting area kind of more generally, and my Instagram community is a really supportive, lovely community and I like to be connected with them.
• 25:47
  Rosey Davidson: There's something really lovely about it and they always say that the most fulfilling job you can do is to help people more like that feeling of helping people, and so it's lovely to have that and be connected.
• 25:57
  Rosey Davidson: And I've recently launched my podcast, the Just Chill Parenting Podcast, and that is, I named it Parenting Podcast specifically so that I could talk about other topics, not just sleep.
• 26:09
  Elizabeth Willetts: Yeah, because I guess your audience as well has grown with you.
• 26:12
  Elizabeth Willetts: I'm guessing you know the people that followed you from the beginning their children.
• 26:16
  Elizabeth Willetts: Babyhood is long gone for them and you might start moving into teenage.
• 26:20
  Elizabeth Willetts: You know you'll all be moving into the teenage years soon with your eldest, and then that brings up different challenges.
• 26:26
  Elizabeth Willetts: Yeah, definitely.
• 26:28
  Elizabeth Willetts: We might do some courses on phones and a bit how to teach our own youth.
• 26:32
  Rosey Davidson: I have a real interest in teen sleep.
• 26:34
  Rosey Davidson: It changes a lot.
• 26:35
  Rosey Davidson: A lot of teenagers have a lot of problems with their sleep.
• 26:38
  Rosey Davidson: Lots of reasons, social tech, there's lots of things going on and there's so much that you can do as well.
• 26:45
  Rosey Davidson: So I'm kind of looking forward to that chapter when that happens.
• 26:49
  Elizabeth Willetts: Yeah, Because Alfred isn't like teenagers shouldn't be getting up before a certain time and actually the schools start too early for teenagers.
• 26:56
  Rosey Davidson: Yeah, that's right.
• 26:57
  Rosey Davidson: So when we hit puberty, our circadian rhythm, our internal body clock, changes and it shifts and naturally we're more predisposed to going to bed later and getting up later.
• 27:06
  Rosey Davidson: So teenagers aren't lazy.
• 27:09
  Rosey Davidson: There's a horrible stereotype of teenagers being lazy, but actually their bodies don't want us to be awake early in the morning.
• 27:19
  Elizabeth Willetts: Yeah, I get that.
• 27:20
  Elizabeth Willetts: Yeah, I've definitely not grown out of that.
• 27:22
  Elizabeth Willetts: So talk me through the book.
• 27:23
  Elizabeth Willetts: How did the book come about and what was the process like for writing the book?
• 27:27
  Rosey Davidson: So for quite a few years I've been hounded by publishers.
• 27:31
  Rosey Davidson: So I always said I know I don't want to do a book, it's too much big project, I don't see the benefit for me in doing it.
• 27:42
  Rosey Davidson: And I thought that for like a couple of years.
• 27:44
  Rosey Davidson: And then I was approached by Penguin and obviously they're a massive, well-known publishers and I thought maybe now is the time.
• 27:55
  Rosey Davidson: I also had three other publishers buying for this book, so we had I had pictures it's amazing like being pitched to by like four different publishing houses, but I chose Penguin because they were.
• 28:10
  Rosey Davidson: I really liked my editor.
• 28:11
  Rosey Davidson: Actually she was the one that sold it to me really because when you work with an entity, you're working really closely, so you need to really feel like you mesh with them.
• 28:20
  Rosey Davidson: So they convinced me.
• 28:23
  Rosey Davidson: I decided okay, now's the time to do it, because I've got my one-to-ones established, we've got the online courses.
• 28:29
  Rosey Davidson: But actually I thought there is still a gap for number one people who can't even afford an online course, even though I think they're really affordable.
• 28:38
  Rosey Davidson: There's some people who haven't even smaller budget.
• 28:41
  Rosey Davidson: Plus those people, they might be able to get a book from a library.
• 28:45
  Rosey Davidson: There's lots of ways that it can help people.
• 28:47
  Rosey Davidson: Also.
• 28:49
  Rosey Davidson: I could delve a bit deeper into some of the topics that I'm really passionate around sleep.
• 28:54
  Rosey Davidson: Like in the book, I talk about sleep and relationships, sleep and going back to work, some of the misconceptions about baby sleep and crying and all these kind of things.
• 29:03
  Rosey Davidson: I delve a lot deeper into the book In my mind very quickly.
• 29:07
  Rosey Davidson: I had an idea of what the book might look like.
• 29:09
  Rosey Davidson: So I actually wrote it the first year of my son's life, so I think I started writing it when he was eight weeks old.
• 29:18
  Rosey Davidson: So I was literally in my office with him on my boob writing book.
• 29:22
  Rosey Davidson: Yeah and yeah, the process.
• 29:26
  Rosey Davidson: I really enjoyed it.
• 29:28
  Rosey Davidson: I thought.
• 29:28
  Rosey Davidson: When I first started and there was a blank page and I started writing, I thought, oh my God, what have I done?
• 29:34
  Rosey Davidson: How am I going to come up with this word count?
• 29:37
  Rosey Davidson: And in the end I wrote 82,000 words, yeah a lot.
• 29:42
  Elizabeth Willetts: I never thought you never thought you had that many words in you.
• 29:46
  Rosey Davidson: Yeah, at university the most I wrote was, I think, 20,000 for a dissertation, but, yeah, 82,000 words later I thought, oh my God, this is actually quite good and yeah, the editing process was fairly painless.
• 30:00
  Rosey Davidson: I'll be honest, recorded an audiobook of it.
• 30:03
  Rosey Davidson: Penguin were great.
• 30:04
  Rosey Davidson: We got on really well and, yeah, I just really enjoyed the process and the book came out in April.
• 30:09
  Rosey Davidson: It was a bestseller.
• 30:10
  Rosey Davidson: I just missed Sunday Times bestseller, though, which was really annoying.
• 30:14
  Rosey Davidson: I missed out to three air fryer books.
• 30:18
  Rosey Davidson: They have categories, and the category that I would be in was like I don't know what you'd call it, but there were these three air fryer books.
• 30:26
  Rosey Davidson: I was so annoyed.
• 30:28
  Elizabeth Willetts: I suppose it was the cost of living houses, wasn't it when everyone was going in airs?
• 30:32
  Rosey Davidson: Oh, it was so annoying, but I was still an Amazon bestseller and the book did way better than we expected it to, which was a really lovely surprise.
• 30:43
  Rosey Davidson: One of the reasons we didn't expect it to do as well is because I don't know if it's still the case now, but certainly back when it launched, book sales generally across the field were down a little bit and I think it's because they're kind of like a luxury item when you know, with cost of living.
• 30:59
  Rosey Davidson: But it did really really well.
• 31:02
  Elizabeth Willetts: And did you think it's benefited your business?
• 31:04
  Elizabeth Willetts: Added to it.
• 31:05
  Rosey Davidson: I think so.
• 31:06
  Rosey Davidson: I think it's really lovely to say I'm an author and it gave lots of PR opportunities and I think maybe it just gives people another medium to learn about sleep.
• 31:19
  Elizabeth Willetts: Yeah, do you know what I mean?
• 31:20
  Elizabeth Willetts: I read books every night, and a lot of self-help books and books about business and stuff, and actually I know that a lot of the people's books I read have courses, and it's not that I couldn't afford the courses, it's just I actually find it more accessible to get content on my Kindle.
• 31:35
  Rosey Davidson: I can see that and also I listen to quite a few audiobooks when I'm walking or if some of these commuting or something like audiobooks great, and it's a different way of learning and I can understand some people prefer that yeah.
• 31:49
  Elizabeth Willetts: So we talked about some of the potential courses you might do in the future.
• 31:52
  Elizabeth Willetts: But what's next for just chill baby sleep?
• 31:56
  Rosey Davidson: Well, the podcast, obviously, is just launched, so it's very much.
• 31:59
  Rosey Davidson: I'm very excited about that, yeah, and working out a plan for promoting it and who I'm going to get on.
• 32:06
  Rosey Davidson: The first three episodes are just me talking, but I'm going to get guests on, so that's exciting and pushing that out into the world.
• 32:14
  Rosey Davidson: And I have another big project coming in the autumn.
• 32:18
  Rosey Davidson: I can't talk about it yet which is really in a week.
• 32:21
  Elizabeth Willetts: That's all right, and I know you do stuff with the NSPCC as well.
• 32:24
  Elizabeth Willetts: Talk us through what's really to them, yeah.
• 32:26
  Rosey Davidson: So I'm a campaigner for childhood for them, so I knew that with my platform, I wanted to do something really good as well, and obviously, working with children and caring about children my own children and other children I just thought they're the perfect charity to help out and help promote them, and I'll often go to events or be given something specific to promote for them, to help fundraise or whatever it is.
• 32:50
  Rosey Davidson: I'll just be happy to get involved.
• 32:52
  Rosey Davidson: So, yeah, they're an amazing charity and they're really really lovely to work with and they do some amazing stuff Brilliant.
• 32:58
  Elizabeth Willetts: So if anyone's listening to this, anyone's listening to this and they have an itch to maybe launch something, start their own business and maybe giving lots of advice to friends about certain things and haven't monetized it yet, what would be your advice to them?
• 33:13
  Rosey Davidson: I would say just do it.
• 33:15
  Rosey Davidson: So I have a bit of a bug there when people talk about things but they just don't do it and they talk and talk and procrastinate and they're like, oh, but this, but that, just do it and test it, and you can always change your mind.
• 33:27
  Rosey Davidson: You can always change it.
• 33:28
  Rosey Davidson: Just think, I've just got to put stuff out there, like, for example, my first videos cringe me out so much.
• 33:35
  Rosey Davidson: Have you kept them up though?
• 33:37
  Rosey Davidson: No, they're not there, but I've got some of them on YouTube and I find them really cringey.
• 33:43
  Rosey Davidson: But you find your feet and things get better and it's like honing your craft it gets better and better over time and you learn who you are and what you want to do.
• 33:51
  Rosey Davidson: But you have to start somewhere and that first step can feel like a real leap and it can be a bit scary, and that's all right.
• 34:00
  Rosey Davidson: But sometimes I think the things that scare you and excite you a little bit are the things that are really worth doing and that's what you.
• 34:08
  Rosey Davidson: Just just do it.
• 34:09
  Rosey Davidson: As Nike would say just do it, yeah absolutely.
• 34:13
  Elizabeth Willetts: I couldn't agree more.
• 34:14
  Elizabeth Willetts: So if people are wanting to find you, if they do not follow you on Instagram which they probably do, but if they don't, where can people find you?
• 34:21
  Elizabeth Willetts: Connect with you, maybe by one of your courses.
• 34:24
  Rosey Davidson: So, yeah, instagram is where I'm at most of the time, but I'm spread across a few platforms.
• 34:29
  Rosey Davidson: So, instagram I'm at just underscore, chill underscore mama.
• 34:32
  Rosey Davidson: Our website is just chillbabysleepcouk and that's where you can find our online courses.
• 34:38
  Rosey Davidson: One to one calls our blog.
• 34:40
  Rosey Davidson: You can find my podcast, the just chill parenting podcast.
• 34:43
  Rosey Davidson: I'm on YouTube, just chill baby sleep.
• 34:45
  Rosey Davidson: I'm if we're linked in, rosie Davidson.
• 34:48
  Rosey Davidson: Yeah, that's where I found you.
• 34:51
  Elizabeth Willetts: Yeah, you want to talk.
• 34:53
  Rosey Davidson: I am.
• 34:53
  Rosey Davidson: I'm on TikTok, but I'm not very active, and LinkedIn is somewhere that I'm focusing a bit more of my efforts as well.
• 34:59
  Elizabeth Willetts: So yeah, definitely common connect with Rosie and me on LinkedIn.
• 35:03
  Elizabeth Willetts: So that's how I connected with Rosie.
• 35:05
  Elizabeth Willetts: Thank you so much today for your time.
• 35:07
  Elizabeth Willetts: I'll put all those links in the show now.
• 35:09
  Rosey Davidson: Thanks for having me.
• 35:14
  Elizabeth Willetts: Thank you for listening to another episode of the Work it Like a Mon podcast.
• 35:18
  Elizabeth Willetts: If you enjoyed this episode, please rate, review and subscribe, and don't forget to share the link with a friend.
• 35:25
  Elizabeth Willetts: If you're on LinkedIn, please send me a connection request at Elizabeth Willett and let me know your thoughts on this week's episode.
• 35:32
  Elizabeth Willetts: You can also follow my recruitment site Investing in Women on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.
• 35:37
  Elizabeth Willetts: Until next time, keep on chasing your big dreams.