Do I Need to be a One Stop Shop in my Doula Business?

• Transcript

  00:04

  Welcome to doula Tips and Tits. This podcast is a place where we answer one question about doula work, both to support you and to help you support your clients. I'm Kaylee Harrod. I've been supporting families in this perinatal space since my oldest was born, 12, nearly 13 years ago.

  00:23

  I am a birth and postpartum doula childbirth educator, La Leche League leader and a doula coach. I love guiding and supporting doulas as they work out their doula business. It is a tremendous joy to be trusted in this way.

  00:36

  Thank you for joining us on this journey. Welcome back to doula Tips and Tits. Today, I want to talk to you about what happens when you break your ankle as a doula. Now, welcome to my actual life right now.

  00:52

  So my birthday was February 13th, the day before Valentine's Day. I started out that day by walking down our basement stairs and slipping and falling down two whole steps and managing to sprain my right ankle and break my left ankle.

  01:11

  Because why not? If you're going to hurt your ankles, you should do like one at a time. It is kind of a pain in the tush to have both ankles incapacitated at the same exact time. So fast forward to today.

  01:27

  It's been 12 days. I've had to send one doula to a birth, which thankfully it was one of the backup doulas that I adore. My clients adored her, but it was heartbreaking because those clients were some amazing people and I was very, very sad as I always am when I have to send a backup.

  01:45

  It's part of this work, but I did not love it. So I also am currently working on coordinating 40 to 50 hours worth of postpartum care for clients. And part of that volume is that that I am not gonna be available and on my foot again until the middle of March.

  02:05

  And so the problem is that many of my clients can't or don't want to wait that long to have their postpartum care, which totally makes sense. So these are like a variety of families who would otherwise have had like three shifts with me or two shifts with me or something like that.

  02:23

  And instead they're getting a single shift or two shifts or three shifts with another doula because really they do kind of need some care in the interim, right? Now, why are we talking about this on the podcast?

  02:36

  I mean, for one, I want you to feel sorry for me because it sucks so bad. And I know you do, I feel your empathy coming through even as I record this, I know that you are empathizing. And this is like almost a full week before you're gonna actually hear this episode.

  02:56

  So, Part of what I want to talk about today is how we set ourselves up in doula work to handle these kind of things Now this is a unique scenario. I don't wish a broken bone on you by any stretch But what I mean is it's one thing to like have two babies come on the same day It's an entirely different thing to have Three and a half or four weeks that you can't walk, right?

  03:28

  So there's a level of like I can't do anything like I can't go to a prenatal visit I can't go to a postpartum visit. I can't go to a birth. I can't go teach my childbirth classes I can't even really get out of my basement very well And so I'm just kind of living down here on an air mattress because here we are, right?

  03:47

  So My life came to a screeching halt However, I have my doula coaching program. I have a private doula coach coaching client Who is doing awesome things in her business? By the way, I just want to take a second to be like she's the most amazing She's just killing it.

  04:08

  So I have my childbirth class that self -paced I have my postpartum class That's self -paced and I already have my business set up where my doula consultations and my first prenatal visit are all virtual So this coming week, I do have a prenatal visit last week I had a prenatal visit and that's totally fine because all of those things are done on zoom And so I'm able to do them even though I'm sitting here in a boot Okay, so what I want you to think about and not in a way that like stresses you out.

  04:42

  Hopefully But if it does take a second take some breaths close your eyes Put your hand on your chest take a minute to be like, okay I can handle thinking this through if it's stressing you out. It probably means that you're not equipped for it.

  05:00

  And I'm going to be super transparent with you. This time last year I was also not equipped for this. Like hundreds, no really thousands of dollars, a few thousand dollars is going to go to other doulas right now.

  05:16

  For work that I would have otherwise done, right? Just to be clear, like I have doulas on my team now. I love paying them. It's amazing. I love that they're getting clients. I love that clients love them.

  05:27

  It's the best thing ever. And also I'm talking about paying doulas to do the work that I was supposed to be doing myself because I also still work with clients, right? And so it's not that they're not amazing.

  05:40

  I'm still very happy to pay them, but it's not payment that I was expecting to make. That's the problem. So my business at the moment can handle that. I have some cushion, which is just a giant gift.

  05:55

  And also I was even one year ago, definitely not in a place where I could have handled this kind of setback. It would have been devastating. I honestly can't even imagine. I don't want to imagine, you know?

  06:09

  But I am very, very, very grateful that it happened now when I do have some capacity, both in how my business is set up and the diversity that I have in the income streams, but also in the fact that I have the money to pay backup doulas without worrying about it, right?

  06:31

  Without being super stressed that things aren't gonna get paid and bills aren't gonna get taken care of, et cetera, et cetera, right? So I want to share with you the diversity of income streams in my own business.

  06:45

  And then I would like for you to share with me on Instagram the diversity of income streams in your business. And I want to help you think about what that could look like for you and how it could be better.

  07:02

  So for me, I have a variety of income streams at the moment. Attending births is my biggest income in the business at the moment. Second biggest is postpartum care and childbirth ed. And those are probably like, nah, I would say they're tied.

  07:20

  I don't have the numbers parsed out for this current year, but in the past they've been tied. Now I have a few different streams of childbirth classes. So I have my childbirth classes that I teach at the breastfeeding center here in DC.

  07:38

  I have my self -paced childbirth class. And occasionally I'll do a private childbirth class, but I don't do those very often. So it's mostly the classes at the breastfeeding center and then my own class, which is self -paced.

  07:53

  The other classes that I have are a postpartum prep class. and I have a doula comfort measures class that I teach in person here in the DC area. So the postpartum prep class is entirely self paced, virtual class, I have recorded it and it can be consumed by anybody anytime, any moment, right?

  08:18

  My in person child or my in person doula support comfort measures class is for doulas and I supposed to have one today, the day that I'm recording this and it is cancelled. It got cancelled and those folks got moved to March because my foot, right?

  08:38

  So that's a class that was impacted by this. So like a couple hundred dollars of revenue, right? My podcast does not currently make money, but it is a source of people coming into my world who then come into my doula coaching program.

  08:55

  Now, I have three different ways. to do doula coaching. I have my self -paced doula coaching program which is just the modules of the educational piece. It's called the doula biz blueprint. It is amazing walking you through essentially everything I use to run my business and helping you imagine what your business can look like.

  09:17

  I have the version of that with live coaching for eight weeks and I have the version of that without live coaching for eight weeks and then I do private doula coaching where I work one -on -one with someone and just dig into their business for three months we meet and then for three more months they have access to me via voxer and that is another stream of income.

  09:39

  That's entirely virtual. The client that I'm working with in that right now is in LA so she's not local to me and that is an awesome stream of the business as well. Now a smaller thing that I offer is on Etsy I have doula's Instagram posts for their for their businesses.

  10:01

  That is like a $37 kind of offer right so a small offer that makes some money but isn't super crazy huge but I want you to understand that like all of those different things add up and come together even though they're not huge things right.

  10:21

  So I want you to think about what this can look like in your business. Now maybe you're kind of a traditional birth and postpartum doula and that's really all you do right now like birth postpartum nothing else.

  10:33

  I would encourage you to start teaching something. The reason I say that is that you can impact so many more families teaching classes and it's not something you have to be on call for and I know you've heard parts of my story before so you know I got to a place of like all right I'm making $80 ,000.

  10:57

  dollars a year. I love this place. But also like it's a busy place. My body is being used for all of this work. I'm on call constantly. I have people calling me at 2am to wake me up and go to births.

  11:10

  And then I have postpartum shifts in the daytime. It was not a sustainable workload. And $80 ,000 was not what my goal was. It was I had not yet met my goal because I wanted I want to be able to live a good life here in DC, right?

  11:25

  I want to be able to take my kids traveling. I want to be able to be generous with people who are in need. Like these are things that I dream about. And so at that point, I was like, Okay, this is not the income that I need or want.

  11:39

  And also, I don't want to go to more births than this in a year. Right? So if that's you, if you're listening, and you're like, Kaylee, that is absolutely me. Like I do not want to go to this many births anymore.

  11:57

  Or, hello and welcome back to doula Tips and Tits. Today we are diving into the question, does my doula business need to be a one stop shop for everything? I already told you in the last episode, my answer to this is no.

  12:13

  And I'm sure you are not surprised to hear that because you know me. This is not something that I am a proponent of. Now, why is that? As always, we're gonna unpack that a bit. We're not just gonna stop with no, don't do it.

  12:28

  Okay, bye, see you in the next episode, right? Why do you not need to be a one stop shop? One reason is that you probably don't have a passion for every possible thing that people might need or want.

  12:44

  Call me crazy, but I think not all doulas are also educators. Like, educators in the sense that they wanna like, have their own childbirth class. And I think not all educators are doulas in the sense that they wanna like, wake up at two o 'clock in the morning and go and watch someone give birth.

  13:04

  So, if you are birth adjacent, or you are a birth doula who does not want to offer the other services like childbirth ed or like placenta encapsulation or whatever it is, you don't have to. Now, I do say, and I preach this all the time, you need diversity in your offering.

  13:28

  So please, for the love of all good things, do not just be a birth doula and nothing else ever. Because I promise you, I would bet all the money I have on this. Your body cannot handle that for more than a handful of years.

  13:48

  If you are a full -time doula attending anywhere from 20 to 60 births a year, your body is going to be a birth doula. to tell you that you have to stop working at that capacity at that level very soon, okay?

  14:05

  That is not an insult to you. That is just the reality of the toll that this work takes on our bodies. Now, that being said, you don't have to offer everything, right? You don't have to be a place where someone can get childbirth ed and placenta encapsulation and breast milk jewelry and newborn care classes and birth services and postpartum services and also fertility services.

  14:35

  That is not what you have to be. You don't have to be a one -stop shop. That does not mean that you should just be a one -trick pony either, right? I don't know what's up with me today with these phrases, but that is not the opposite, is not what I want you to focus on either where you're just like a birth doula and absolutely nothing else.

  14:56

  Now, I will say, let's say you're a childbirth educator and that's really all you do. You love it. It's working well for you. That is different because you can scale that. You can grow that on a different level than you can grow waking up at 2 a .m.

  15:12

  to go to a birth, okay? Now let's say I'm just going to use myself. I'm a birth doula. I'm a postpartum doula. I'm a childbirth educator. I'm a La Leche League leader, which is like lactation, peer -to -peer lactation support.

  15:31

  I do not ever plan to be a placenta encapsulator. I do not want to mess with people's placentas. I'm not sure why that is, but that is the reality for me. What I do have is my transport of bodily fluids certification and my HIPAA compliance training.

  15:53

  I can legally and carefully and without contaminating your placenta transport it from wherever you gave birth to whoever is encapsulating it. However, I will not be doing anything besides putting it on ice in a cooler and then taking it with me to drop it off with someone else.

  16:17

  I can't tell you exactly why. I can't handle the thought of chopping up a placenta and dehydrating it, but I just can't. I just can't do it. What I do is refer for those services. I have dear friends and colleagues in this work that I send my clients to and I'm thrilled to do that.

  16:38

  I love doing it. I absolutely adore being able to support their businesses. I also adore the fact that they like to cut up placentas and I hate it. I assume I would hate it. I've never done it. I don't want to do it.

  16:52

  So, all that being said, I say that to say. Let me just get myself together over here. I say that to say that no, you don't need to be a one -stop shop. You also should have more than one service, especially if that one service is overnights of some kind and also be connected with people who offer the services that you don't offer.

  17:18

  You are then a blessing to them, a gift to their business, right? One thing that I will suggest that I don't think we think about enough is consider being an affiliate or a referral for people, especially if you have a very small community of folks.

  17:37

  So let's say you're in a smaller space and you know one person who does placenta encapsulation and like one single prenatal massage therapist and maybe one single prenatal yoga studio, etc., right? then you could potentially be referrals for each other and give each other bonuses for that.

  18:00

  Now, that can look like a percentage. It can look like an affiliate sort of situation. It needs to be agreed on by all parties and very clearly laid out so that everybody knows what to expect and it is not something that then causes strife or business issues down the way.

  18:21

  Okay? So that is something that I would strongly recommend, especially if you regularly are referring to one person or a few people and those people are referring back to you, then that's a really great way to also kind of have another small stream of income coming into your business.

  18:42

  Okay? Now, just a little something to look forward to. In the next couple episodes, we're gonna be talking about utilizing technology because I know I have a lot of doulas listening who do in fact want to add some passive income to their business and I'm like preaching this all the time and so I'm gonna talk a bit about the tech side of that, what that looks like and it's not enough, I promise, to get you started.

  19:08

  It's the bare bones. I mean, you know how these episodes go. They are not crazy long. They're not going to give you everything you need but it is gonna give you a sense of the things that I have in my business and why you might need a little bit of assistance or coaching or something like that to get you through the process of setting that up, okay?

  19:30

  Then we're gonna talk about sustainability because you know, I love sustainability. Sustainability is such a fun word and something that we really suck at in doula business. So I'm gonna dive into that again and we're gonna have a couple episodes on it so that you can really get into that with me because you know, if you have not yet checked out the doula biz blueprint, please go do that.

  19:53

  go and do that. It is my self -paced doula coaching program that has all sorts of information for you from business to client care to self -care to adding services. Honestly, everything I do in my business is in this course.

  20:07

  So it can help you run your business in a way that is sustainable, that offers chances for success, for growth, for awesome, awesome, awesome work in this doula world. And truly, like I have people coming back to me who were in my program a year ago saying, oh my gosh, I just realized in that class that you have this offering, I can't believe that this spreadsheet's in here.

  20:31

  And it really, really, really will make your life easier. You also own it forever. So it is something that you can continue doing, continue using for the rest of your business. That is on sale at the moment for only $4 .95 and we have the ability for you to pay in payment plans, also with a firm and after pay.

  20:51

  So if you're not familiar with those systems, they're basically like a short -term loan, but without all the crazy interest and things like that. And it is really glorious, truly. It's an awesome system.

  21:04

  So that is set up on our end so that you can use that for your purchase of that class. If you have questions about that, connect with me on Instagram, at haraadoula, and I will see you in the next episode.

  21:21

  Thanks for joining us for this episode of the doula tips and tits 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 haraadoula so we can celebrate alongside you.

  21:35

  If you 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.

  21:48

  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.

  22:00

  We'll see you again soon.

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So should we be a one-stop shop? Life happens sometimes and if you are that “one-stop shop” where you have multiple incomes from your business coming in, that can be helpful. Let’s talk about some ways you can make that extra dough and also set yourself up to have that “easy life” later.

“So I want you to think about what this can look like in your business. Now maybe you're kind of a traditional birth and postpartum doula and that's really all you do right now like birth postpartum nothing else. I would encourage you to start teaching something. The reason I say that is that you can impact so many more families teaching classes and it's not something you have to be on call for and I know you've heard parts of my story before so you know I got to a place of like all right I'm making $80,000 a year. I love this place. But also like it's a busy place. My body is being used for all of this work. I'm on call constantly. I have people calling me at 2am to wake me up and go to births.”

CONNECT with Kaely on TikTok or Instagram

https://www.tiktok.com/@doulacoach

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If you like this episode, don't forget to share it to your Instagram stories and tag me @harroddoula

Kaely Daily is produced by Kaely Harrod of Harrod Doula Services

It is sponsored by The Birth Prep Blueprint Childbirth Class

Music by Madirfan: Hidden Place on Pixabay