Today we’d like to introduce you to Rebekah Gillock And Kendelle Phillips.
Hi Rebekah Gillock and Kendelle Phillips, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Kendelle and I met when she hired me as a nanny in 2019-which seems forever ago at this point! I remember pretty immediately loving her. From there I feel like our lives have been intertwined. Kendelle has literally an insane amount of experience, I always joke that I still find out stuff about her even seven years later. She is a birth and postpartum doula, has done High Profile ROTA nannying (alongside me and we simply do NOT recommend) and then opened the agency as a postpartum doula agency first. I have been a postpartum doula, career nanny and now a pediatric sleep consultant. I had a lot of siblings so I have always been sort of predestined for the work. I took a few years off to pursue an arts degree, and then immediately got back into the childcare world. After opening the agency, we started to really dig into the world of sleep training, and eventually sort of realized about a year ago that I should co own with her. I say all the time that I would never own a business with anyone but her! I think our combined experience, love for the field and depth of friendship made it kind of a no brainer! Now we run the business together and are super lucky to have work that feels fulfilling; like how many people get to do this with their best friend?
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Because we care so much about this business and our clients, creating a separation between work and life can be really challenging. We both have hit points in our careers where we felt absolutely burnt out, and still wanted to show up for our clients in every way possible. It’s not sustainable. We would be answering texts from clients and contractors at midnight and then up at 6am texting others. You can never really put an agency like this “down”, or clock out, but we’re learning to set “office hours” and be really present with ourselves and the people in our lives when we’re “off duty”. It’s so easy to fall into the trap of having your phone glued to your face all day, to the point where in every photo, you’re looking at or talking to your phone, but we decided early on that we deserve better than that, and so do our contractors and clients. When we’re taking care of ourselves we are able to take care of them at a really high level.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about The Baby Pros Collective?
I always love these questions! So our business is centered around sleep. The sleep deprivation epidemic is causing huge issues for parents, particularly mothers. There is such a lack of support, especially in the fourth trimester (the 12 weeks after birth) and most of the time parents are told that “that’s just how it’s always been!” and that it’s normal to feel unsupported and dangerously exhausted. Our company is built off of the philosophy that sleep is a human right. Every time you talk to a parent the first thing they talk about is sleep-so why aren’t more companies doing something about that, ya know?
We offer postpartum doula services, overnight infant care, customized sleep training, and more. Sleep training is such a trigger word in the current zeitgeist; and we realized that there just had to be a better way. So that’s what we do, a better way.
We completely changed the world of sleep training here in Nashville. We offer in-home and virtual support that is entirely customized for your family, the child’s temperament, diet, wants and needs, goals and comfort level, schedules and routines-basically everything! This ensures we keep our success rate where it is-100%.
Our services are all kind of like that though, everything we do, we strive for excellence. There are so many people who ask the same things-will there be a different person in our home every night? Nope. Will I know who they are? Yes! Can I meet them beforehand? Yes! And we strive for the text that follows care saying that our care was different, more, personal, patient, supportive, etc. We work with everyone, from standard families to UHNW and high profile households, thus our standard of care remains the same across the board.
We also commit ourselves to being really involved with a wide network of providers and pediatricians. From Pelvic Floor Therapists, Chiropractors and Occupational therapists, to being a visiting expert in New Mom School sleep classes, we are always looking to create a better, stronger, and more integrated system for our clients.
We really pride ourselves in raising the standards of Nashville doula and childcare, and of creating systems and plans that are long-lasting. Kendelle and I joke that we don’t want clients to need us more than once for each service! We want to leave you feeling empowered and with a baby that sleeps.
If you’ve ever wanted a Postpartum Doula or sleep training but you have doubts, that’s our specialty.
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
If you can believe it, these were written separately!
Rebekah: Haha oh have we! We tell people all the time, the reason we are here today because we kept saying yes. Doors open, but the risk is walking through the threshold. We are both people that live our lives willing to take leaps of faith with a strong back, open heart, soft front (a little theatre lingo for ya).
I think with risk taking, it’s important to remember that failure is going to happen. That’s literally just a fact of life. I have failed so many times, but not one single time did I regret my decision. Each failure is an opportunity to learn, which sounds like the most cliche nonsense of all time but it unfortunately happens to be true. When you are making decisions, you have to account for the chance that some are going to be the “wrong” one.
We really believe that if you walk confidently, facing the challenges head, being brave and trusting that the universe has your back, new possibilities open themselves up to you. We have this thing where always say we are “lucky girls” we even have matching tattoos, but the rule is that you have to believe it. Remind yourself every time you take a risk, and after a while, either you just notice things better or you attract good things.
It’s important to live bravely, and not shy away from things just because they’re scary. You have no idea what you’re missing!
Kendelle: I’ve really had to learn to trust my gut and the decisions I make and that everything always works out, or it doesn’t, and both are okay. You can always try again. And that business ownership is not for the lighthearted. It takes a lot of courage to be able to put yourself and what you’re offering out for the whole world to either love or hate. I think it’s important to get comfortable with honest feedback, and get to a place where you welcome it and know that your business, and people’s opinions of it, are separate from your own identity and worth. Years ago I was speaking to the COO of Adidas and he said “emotions have no place in business”. And while I originally thought that was a really callous and cold thing to say, because for myself being in an industry where there is a lot of connection and relationship building, I couldn’t imagine my business not being emotionally charged. But now, almost 5 years later, I get it. Clients and employees will come and go, money and success are never guaranteed, so try to look through an objective lens as much as possible. No decisions are bad or good. They’re all lessons and opportunities to grow as a business owner. Say “yes” as much as possible, and say “no” with confidence. And treat others the way you’d like to be treated.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.thebabyproscollective.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/thebabyproscollective
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-baby-pros-collective-nashville
- Other: https://share.google/zJ1oef3e32z6tcwDM
