A Business That Still Grows (Even When You Step Back)
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Speaker 1 00:04
Welcome to Dula Tips and Tits, the podcast where we cut through the noise and get real about what it takes to build a sustainable doula business. I'm Kaylee Harrod. I've been a doula informally for 14 years and full time for seven. Around here, we don't sugarcoat stuff. We talk autonomy, owning your worth, creating a business that works for you. No fluff, no burnout, just the honest truth on how to be your own best boss.
Let's get into today's episode. Hello and welcome back to Dula Tips and Tits. I want to start where we left off in the last episode. So the last episode I mentioned that I had my highest revenue quarter ever in Q1 of 2026, even though I was barely showing up online. I had no consistent podcast episodes as you lovely listeners know and were asking me about regularly. I was barely posting at all. I had no launches. I had no master classes. I had none of my free webinars that I usually do. I know that it goes against a lot of what you hear online and a lot of what I've heard online. So I really want to break down what did work because it matters to know what's actually working so that you don't feel like you're spinning your wheels because some of the other stuff is in fact wheel spinning.
Right. If you're new here, welcome. We are like into 300 and something 351, I think episodes, which is so incredibly exciting. Dula Tips and Tits has been around for a hot freaking second and helping doulas make their businesses more badass than ever, which should be my new slogan. Like that just came to me off the top of my head. So here we are. And I feel like, you know, the day is starting strong. I also have construction outside my window and I'm really hoping you don't hear that. But if you do, you know what, it just is what it is. I live in the city. So there is a belief that if you're not constantly visible online, your business is going to dry up. People here, you have to post daily. People here stay top of mind, never disappear. Make sure that you are keeping yourself in all the circles. Right. And visibility matters. Like I'm not, I'm not saying you don't need to show up, but it's not usually the thing that we think is doing the work in our business like we think it is. Right. Now I'm going to add some caveats here. So let's say you have an online course and you have a huge following on social media, for instance, and that's the only way that people get to your online course. Then yes, social media is a different kind of revenue source, a different kind of marketing, a different kind of visibility and a different level of importance in your business.
If that's what you're doing, the majority of the folks I coach are showing up direct to clients, right? So they are doing actual doula services like postpartum services, birth services, and their social media presence is very rarely with their clients. I'm going to say that one more time, just so you can take it in. If you are actively working as a doula, so you are a birth doula, you are a postpartum doula, very rarely the people who are following you on Facebook or Instagram or TikTok or any of those platforms are the people who are hiring you.
Speaker 1 03:45
More often than not, there are other doulas who are trying to hype you up because they're excited about you, which I love. There may be past clients who do love you dearly because you worked with them. And honestly, it's family and friends.
And then there's a solid sprinkling of like marketing people who want you to work with them or want you to start like buying their things, occasional business loans, right? Like that kind of stuff. But if you really go through and look at where do your inquiries come from, I would be willing to pay a decent amount of money that very few of them are from online things. Now, this is something I do with folks when I coach them, right? So I'm coaching a fabulous doula in the northern Midwest right now. And what we just started working on is like, where are her inquiries coming from? And How do they convert? Because if you have inquiries coming from someplace that aren't actually hiring you, that's not, again, that's not a good source of clients. It's not actually a source of clients at all.
It's just a source of eyeballs, but it's not leading to anyone wanting to work with you, which is, again, not helpful. And so for me as a doula, part of what I realized probably like four years ago now, I'm trying to think when exactly it was, but most likely, I think it was close to four years ago now that I had this moment of revelation that was like, I actually don't have an online presence with pregnant folks in the DC area. Like that's, those are the people I'm working with. That's not who follows me online.
Who follows me online are other doulas because they're learning about being online or having a podcast or whatever from me. That's somewhat how I started coaching because I was like, oh, there are already doulas here wanting coaching. So like, why am I not doing it, right? And so when I think about what's actually working and what's actually bringing me clients for me, right? Now, my business is like nine years old, right? So it's not a baby business, but when I have a quarter like I had this year, which is literally the biggest revenue quarter I've ever had and the quarter that I did the least amount of visibility and marketing that I've ever done, right? How did I get people? The majority of my clients come from past clients, word of mouth and provider relationships.
People are coming to my business and hiring me because they trust me because someone else trusts me, right? Now, if you've done any of my free workshops, one of the ones I do is client streams. And I talk about slow streams and medium streams and fast streams. The reason I talk about the slow stream of building up referral networks is that you do in fact get to a place where that is the thing that is driving your entire business. You're entire, like I'm not kidding. Every single person that comes to you comes from there. This is something that I kind of joke about that like is one of the things that I'm like, do what I say and not what I do.
Speaker 1 07:19
I barely ever update my doula match. Now, if you are on doula match, you know that if you update it, your availability shows as current and accurate. And so at your top of the list when someone's looking for someone, but when you don't update it, you're not top of the list. I have not signed into my doula match in probably five months. And so I tell the doulas that I coach, like keep that updated because people find you because if they are finding you on there, I love that for you. And I want you to update it because people are finding you on there, right? But people aren't finding me on there and I don't need more people. And so I'm not updating it.
I should be probably, right? Like why not update it, but I'm not. And my business is okay because actually my business doesn't run from that source, right? So what I'm saying when I say to you, like you need to know where your people are coming from so that you know what actually matters to give your time to. Part of why I don't update doula match is I know it doesn't matter at all in my business, right? It truly does not. I don't have anybody. I don't know that I've ever gotten anyone, maybe one or two, but like almost everyone I get is a referral, a direct referral from another human. And so my Google online, I barely ever get anyone from there. My doula match barely ever get anyone from there. Never ever have I gotten someone from social media ever, not a doula client. Now I do connect with coaching people, right? Like I do connect with doulas with you, right? With doulas that I coach, yes, online. And so that's the piece that yes, is needing some like growth and finessing and all of that, but my business as a whole has still thrived even without that, right? Now I have years of experience, but also a bigger part of that is my reputation.
And I think what I have noticed is that consistently showing up in every circle I'm in as who I am shows people that they can trust me, right? I have had so many professionals over the years who have met me and said, Oh my gosh, you're Kaylee. And I'm like, I feel famous, but I'm not famous. You know, like, I'm like, hi. And they're like, Oh my gosh, you're Kaylee. I've wanted to meet you for so long. I've seen your work online. You're doing amazing things. You're doing so many things. I love that you're like so involved in so many different things. And I'm like, awesome. But that is a perfect example of how literally a stranger trusts me before I even know that that stranger exists, right? There is an OB that refers to me from one of our local hospitals that I have literally never met. But because of how her, how she sees my clients like come with questions and how their birth plans are written and all of that, she refers to me. She refers to me a lot and I literally have not met her.
Speaker 1 10:42
I have not spoken to her. I have not had a birth with her, but my clients hear from her how great she thinks I am because of what she sees me doing with people, how she sees me showing up for my clients, the kind of things my clients are saying and asking for and communicating with her about they're well-informed, they're making informed decisions, et cetera. But that means my reputation and my consistency in who I am as a doula is what has actually built that system, right? I built that relationship, built that referral channel.
So the other side of this is that I had a really rough beginning to the year, right? Personally in my family, we had a lot of different things going on and it was incredibly challenging and it honestly took like every single moment of my focus. And there were times where I had like an auto response on my email that was like, I'm so sorry, we're dealing with some family stuff. You're not going to hear from me for a little bit, but it's not that I don't want to get in touch, right? But one of the things that I thought about probably, this was probably like early, early February or so, I remember talking to my own business coach and saying like, gosh, I feel like my whole business is going to fall apart. And she was like, maybe we trust your business to not fall apart because of all the things you've done to keep it going, right? And one of the biggest things I can say to you is that the fact that I have automated the inquiry steps, right? So someone comes to my website, they book a call with me, they get the information about it, I have to do absolutely nothing but show up for the call, like literally nothing, right? I have to update my availability and I have to show up for the call. And then they can hire me, like I have that streamlined to such an extent that I was able to still show up for those calls and get hired. So I was consistently able to be hired by clients in the midst of a family situation, because I wasn't doing hardly any of the legwork. All I was doing was being like, oh, Hey, look, something popped up on my calendar. I'm going to show up for that 3pm meeting. And then I would do it. And then I'd be like, I'm going to send you the contract and I'd love for you to work with me and then they do everything else, literally everything else was automated. And so my clients were able to hire me and feel very well cared for, even while my capacity was incredibly low. And I actually wasn't able to do some of the normal kind of online stuff that I would be doing, right? So my clarity in terms of my offer, my clarity in terms of the process of hiring me and my automation of those things allowed them to run very smoothly while I was in the midst of some crazy stuff that I actually had to focus on, right? So this quarter, this whole first part of the year, my life, my personal life, my family, my children needed a lot of me and my business did not break and fall apart. It's not because it just happened to keep going.
Speaker 1 14:08
It's because of the intentionality that I use to set up the systems. And what I think really we underplay is that those systems need to be set up and running smoothly before you need them, right? This wouldn't have worked in the same way. If in the midst of a hard season, I was then finally setting up these systems. And I hear so many doulas say that like doulas will say like, I'm not busy enough to need that yet, or I'm not, I don't have enough money coming in to get that thing. And I'm like, listen, these systems don't even usually cost you money. Like some of these things that I'm doing are free systems. You are making the assumption that you have to have a lot of revenue in order to set these up. That's not true. That is not true.
A lot of the systems I use are free, especially at a low volume. You have five free forums, you have five free events, you have five, like that stuff, when you don't have 70 different forums like I have because you're crazy like me, you don't have to pay for job form. Job form doesn't charge you, right? Mailer light, same thing, right? Up to a certain number of subscribers, up to a certain number of emails, you don't pay for it. And so you can have that automation set up. You absolutely can. And you can do it for no money or very little money, depending on what you're trying to do. Right? If your business only runs when you are showing up day in, day out, every single second is about you. And if you miss something, it falls apart. That is too fragile for actual reality of life. Your goal is not to be everywhere all the time. Your goal is not to be visible in every place online. The goal is to build with sustainability so that when you're not able to do the things that are beneficial to do, your business keeps going.
Okay. For me, this feels like my business is honestly thriving and you know, when you feel a little like maybe I should leave it alone all the time. I mean, I know that's not the case because I do love chatting with you all being in this podcast space. And I'm very excited about some classes and stuff that I have coming up for the spring and the summer. So it's not that I want to do none of that, but when something is working well, you don't need to mess with it, right? Like you do actually just have some space for gratitude, have some space that are like, Hey, you know what? I, yes, I do now have a little bit more time and capacity. I can come in to the parts that I haven't been doing. I can show up online. I can update some of my content. I can start recording podcasts again. I can do that stuff with a joy because there's not desperation because the business has not broken down in the meantime, right?
So I can step back into visibility with a level of lightness. And honestly, I mean, it's spring and I thrive in the warmth, like the sunshine gives me life. And so I think about like my irises are popping up, you know, my, my, um, what's the other flower that's popping up outside?
Speaker 1 17:45
My tulips are popping up and I've seen, well, we live in DC. So we just got done with cherry blossom season, which is honestly the most glorious thing ever. Um, when I see them, I'm like, those flowers are not like, Oh God, I gotta do it again, right? Like, here we go. It's the springtime, no pressure, but show up, right? No, they're just like, Hey, I'm here. Hi guys. I know you haven't seen me in a year, but I'm back. That's the kind of energy that I want to have in my business where I'm just like, Hey, sorry, I haven't been here, but I'm back now and you can enjoy me. Welcome.
You know, that's what I want for you as well. Where you're not saying like, Oh my gosh, please hire me. I'm so sorry. I've been gone. I really need you to come back. No, you're just saying like, Hey, Hey, I know I was gone for a little bit. Life is crazy. You know, it's just been a rough year and so, yeah, we're starting back. Like, here we are, you know, so over the next couple episodes, I am going to break down how you build a business like that. And I've done this before on the podcast, so it's a little bit of a like, let's revisit, but similar to burnout, similar to raising your rates, right? These are things that need to be repeated because honestly, I think you need to hear them a couple of times to actually do them. And because they are vital to this business life, right? And so we're going to be running through some of those. Also, I mentioned this last episode, but I'm going to be mentioning it a lot. If you have not subscribed to the newsletter, you are going to miss some of the fun stuff coming in the spring, including some giveaways. So don't miss those, please don't miss those. If you're a doula or you're a small business owner and you're wanting coaching, you're needing coaching, you're needing some support and some guidance and some ideas and some creativity and you're a little bit stuck, you need to be in that newsletter. It's good shit that's coming out and also that's the easiest way for you to find out about all the free and wonderful things that are coming up in the spring.
If you're wanting a business that supports your life instead of competing with your life, this is where you need to be. Welcome to this world, right? Welcome to doula tips and tips and sign up for the newsletter. Okay, I will see you next week on Wednesday, just like all the other weeks coming up and until then, I hope you have a wonderful week. Thanks for joining us for this episode of the doula tips and tips podcast. If you learned something today or had an aha moment, we'd love for you to share that on Instagram and tag us at hiradoula so we can celebrate alongside you. If you've found this podcast helpful, we would so appreciate you taking a second to leave a rating and a review on your favorite podcast app. That helps other doulas find us as we do this work together.
This podcast is intended as educational and entertainment. It is not medical advice or business advice. Please consult your own medical or legal team for your own needs around your health and your business. We'll see you again soon.
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Last episode, I shared that I had my highest revenue quarter ever… while barely showing up online.
So in this episode, we’re getting into what actually made that possible.
Because it wasn’t more content, more visibility, or more “consistency” in the way we usually think about it.
It was referrals, reputation, systems, and a business that’s built to keep working—even when I’m not constantly “on.”
If you’ve ever felt like your business would fall apart the second you stopped posting, this one is going to challenge that—in the best way.
Quote from the show:
“If your business only runs when you are showing up day in, day out, every single second is about you. And if you miss something, it falls apart. That is too fragile for actual reality of life. Your goal is not to be everywhere all the time. Your goal is not to be visible in every place online. The goal is to build with sustainability so that when you're not able to do the things that are beneficial to do, your business keeps going."
CONNECT with Kaely on TikTok or Instagram
https://www.tiktok.com/@doulacoach
https://www.instagram.com/Harroddoula/
If you like this episode, don't forget to share it to your Instagram stories and tag me @harroddoula
Doula Tips and Tits is produced by Kaely Harrod of Harrod Doula Services
It is sponsored by The Doula Biz Blueprint Self-Paced Class for Doulas Launching Successful and Sustainable Businesses!
Music by Madirfan: Hidden Place on Pixabay
