Flexing Your Doula Business Strategy Muscles
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Transcript
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.
Welcome back to Dula Tips and Tits. I want to talk for a minute about planning. When we think about business strategy, we often really suck at planning it out. I'm going to tell you a funny story because I like to share my own hiccups as motivation for you to not have those same hiccups.
I had a scenario, gosh, when was it? Probably two years ago now that I was doing some coaching, some business coaching, and was asked something like, what does your launch calendar look like? I'm not sure what you mean.
I just remember being like, should I have one of those? What is that thing? Having the coach say something along the lines of like, what are your seasons that are busy? What are your seasons that are low?
When are you intentionally taking time off? What does that look like? It wasn't just me. It was a group discussion. I wasn't put on the spot in the way that I'm maybe making it sound. But I remember just being like, what?
And I remember thinking, I think it had to have been three years ago now. because it was before my first July that I took off. I remember thinking, oh, in my business, I have to plan that out like a pregnancy.
Like I have to plan it out nine months in advance, right? And at the time I wasn't yet doing coaching. I wasn't yet doing like business strategy for doulas. And so I was sort of like, okay, well, how do I even take time off, you know?
And I remember my family being like, when can we see you? When can we take a trip? When can we? And I'm like, I don't know, whenever I don't have someone do, but I constantly have someone do. And so I guess we plan for next year, you know?
And so at some point I was like, we actually do need to plan like nine months out and be like, okay, nine months from now. And my sister actually got married two years, a year and a half ago now. And she was kind of like, okay, I'm giving you like a full year's warning.
don't you take any due dates by my wedding time? And I was like, OK, got it. But I think that cycle of business is unique to doulas, right? And we sometimes, it gets normalized in the sense that we have made due dates, we have June due dates, we have maybe July due dates, we have August.
So we're not thinking like someone got pregnant today who's due nine months from now. And what am I doing to decide and set boundaries about that nine month away situation, right? We don't always think like that.
Because we live in this sphere of just like babies are coming all the time, like literally every day someone's giving birth, someone's getting pregnant, babies are being born. And so we live in this 24-7 situation of that.
But what I think we then lack, it's kind of like a hamster wheel that we have to get off of in order to look at it and be like, this is what I want this to look like. And I know not all doulas are bad at this, right?
I don't like that language of just like we all suck at resting, which I mean, I think we kind of do. But also, I know lots of doulas that do this very intentionally. Either they have like a vacation in the summer and they're like, I'm gone for 10 days no matter what.
Like if someone hasn't given birth, that's fine. For me, it's very stressful for me to be like, OK, I'm leaving on October 7th. If your baby hasn't come by the 6th, you get your backup, right? That's just a situation for me that feels very stressful.
And so I prefer to be like, OK, if I'm going to be gone in July, I don't want any due dates in July. Obviously, that's not always possible, right? And how you set your clients up for it and things like that matters a lot.
So that's a part of it. But I do think when I think about like. you know, the cadence of strategy that we need in doula business, if we're not intentional about it, we just get swept away by people's duties, right?
Because, because also, I mean, to be fair, the part of our life and the part of our business that's hardest in many ways is the unpredictability of that, right? The reality, like I was making plans today with a girlfriend who was previously a client, who I was saying like, yeah, Tuesday, unless the baby comes, you know, and she was sort of like, I kind of hate that for you.
Like I love it because you know, you were my doula and you're amazing, but also like, I hate that your whole life is kind of like, unless, you know, I mean, but we'll see, I do have someone do, you know, like that, that cadence of life is just hard.
And it does mean that like, okay, you know, your client gave birth two weeks early, if they also have postpartum care, that needs to try to start two weeks early, right? And so then, It's like, well, hit the ground running, we got postpartum care to do, right?
And so even just that piece is really hard because then we're just like, oh, okay, okay, so we have to have this framework, we have to have that framework. And then we have to think about the unpredictable nature of how our businesses actually run and our clients actually do, like, you know, our client cycle, for lack of a better term.
So when I think about that, I think about the ability to plan, but also your ability to set boundaries. Like, your ability to be like Wednesday is not for babies, or Wednesday is not for clients and labor, but like, Wednesday is not for client meetings, for instance, or Wednesday is not for what, and Wednesday is a random day, right?
Like, it can be whatever day you'd like. But if you aren't doing that, like, if you're not saying, okay, on Tuesdays, I'm going to set aside time to rest, or I'm going to set aside time to relax and take care of myself and do, then it's not going to happen for most of us because you're going to be on this 24-hour clock that is people giving birth, babies coming whenever they feel like it with no warning,
you know, and then we're going to have this cadence of like, okay, well, the reality is that, that like you spent a whole week again, not taking care of yourself, right? Because you didn't block it in, or when you did block it in, you gave that time away.
I am guilty of this as well. Like, I'm not seeing this on my high horse, right? I literally this week was like, you know what, that client really needs me to come see them. I was going to go do this thing, but I think instead I'm going to do that and I'm going to reschedule the thing that I was going to do, which was like a spa thing for myself, right?
Like, so it was a thing, it was a really important thing and I rescheduled it. And part of me is like, should I have done that? I'm not sure, but also that baby was brand new and they, They really needed their first shift and so it made sense and I feel okay about doing it.
Right now, I have a lot of bandwidth because my clients have been having fast labors and my family life is going really well, so there's space for some flexibility there, but also I think the reality that if we don't build in that buffer for ourselves, absolutely no one else is doing it, like it's just us.
You know what, this is something I often think about because I hang out with labor and delivery nurses so much, right? Like I am at hospitals a lot and oftentimes labor and delivery nurses will say something like, oh, my charge nurse forced me to take my lunch break and it's kind of funny because they're sort of like, you know, what they mean is I didn't want to leave because you're in the throes of labor,
you know, like all that kind of stuff. But I'm like, legally, your charge nurse. forces you to go and eat your food because she has to, because there are laws in place for you taking breaks, right? Those laws are in part for you and also in part for the safety of your patients, right?
So that you don't go a whole like 14 hours with no food, you know? And it's interesting because in a business that's service-based like ours is, like DulaWork is, if we are our own bosses, we obviously do not have that, right?
We don't have a boss saying like, hey, you haven't taken your lunch. You need to go take it. Like it has to be, you have to have your lunch in the next 20 minutes, you know? And we need you to take a full half hour because you have to, it's legally required, you know?
Instead, I can't tell you the number of Dulas I know who are just like, yeah, I don't eat until I'm done. And I'm like, no, that's a terrible idea. Like that is not good for your body. Long-term there are going to be impacts because of that on your body and you need to be aware of what those impacts are, right?
And like preemptively keep yourself healthy, my friend. Like this work should not be shortening your life, you know? I mean, at least to the point that we can control it, right? Like I think there maybe is a part of it that is a stress hazard, but it shouldn't be all the time.
Like that doesn't need to be what it is. So part of this pep talk is because I like pep talks, right? Part of this is that I intentionally do not take due dates in the month of July. Now does that mean no baby is ever born in July?
No, because sometimes like this year I do have a late June and early August. So surely there could be a July baby, right? But I don't have anyone actually due in the month of July, which is a big deal because I want to have that time with my kiddos, like really.
And for myself, just like knowing that the chance of getting called to a birth is very, very low, you know? Like once that last June baby comes, I have a solid couple of weeks minimum of not a single person do, which is glorious, you know?
And I still am teaching classes, I'm still working some, I'm still, so it's not that I'm doing nothing, but because I have nobody do, I'm doing a lot less work than I usually do, you know? I'm a lot more free and my life is a lot more predictable.
So that piece that's like, we could maybe see you on Thursday unless someone has a baby is removed for a little bit, right? And it's, I mean, again, our lives are not super predictable. So life is life, but also the biggest piece of unpredictability that I currently have in my life is removed for a short period of time.
And then also my kids know that that's removed. Like, especially my youngest, she's like, she's like, she's like, she's like, she's like, she's like, she's like, she's like, she's like, nobody is due for four and a half weeks.
Like it makes her so happy because she's like, you're not gonna get randomly called to a birth, right? And I will say July is also a time that I say no to backup births as well, unless it may be if it was like an absolute emergency and I was the only person available.
But really I try not to say yes to them because I have currently never said yes to a July backup because I want to be with my family. That's the whole point of it, right? The whole point of it is not having 2 a.m.
calls and answering those and being able to respond to them, you know, because I am setting that boundary for myself. And so it matters that I actually live that out. So anyway, I like to share today's kind of more of an episode of just like pep talk that you need to think about this in your business, but also share, I'm gonna be sharing over the summer some like how that looks for me and what it means,
right? Like how does it impact our family in a positive and hard way, right? Like good and bad of this. And also like why does it matter to me so much that I protect this time for my mental health, for my physical health, for my family cohesion, you know, and how I kind of use my time instead, you know, because I want to be both like instructional to you and also motivational to you and also real with you.
Like I want you to see, cause my life is certainly not all sunshine roses, right? Like there are challenges of having a whole month off and financially there are tricky things about it, right? But then also there are huge benefits.
So stay tuned over the summer for more episodes about taking breaks and what that looks like, but also of course that will be sprinkled in with other things. I'm excited to have some guests on again in the summertime.
And then also remember that we are. we have our Q and A time. We haven't had very many questions submitted yet. And so once we have more, we've had maybe four and so I'm working on kind of spacing them out a little bit.
But once we've had more questions submitted, you will hear Friday, like short Friday episodes that are really just like answering that question, like super, super quick episodes, just a couple of minutes long, that can be kind of like an FAQ sort of thing for you.
The link to ask a question to be one of those questions is in the show notes. So go and grab that. If you're not yet signed up for our newsletter list, that will also sign you up for the newsletter. It does give you a chance to give consent for that.
And then if you are already on the newsletter list, you won't get signed up again. It'll automatically update your contact information and you'll just still be on the newsletter list, but you'll also get to ask a question and then you'll get to hear your question live and I'll get to share an answer to it and kind of talk through the nuance of it on the episode.
So, all right, in the meantime, I wish you lots of lovely birth and doula scenarios and I will see you in the next episode. 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 hara doula, so we can celebrate alongside you.
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.
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.
ASK A QUESTION!!! My plan is to start Friday Q&A (we need a new name, I know!) but first I need your questions! Submit them using the form below:
https://www.harroddoulaservices.com/ask-me-a-question
Strategy doesn’t come overnight. Especially when you’re sometime at a birth or a postpartum shift! Strategy and strategic thinking takes some effort. It takes some work. It is a muscle that needs to be flexed in our businesses in order to grow!
Quote from the show:
“I remember my family being like, when can we see you? When can we take a trip? When can we? And I'm like, I don't know, whenever I don't have someone do, but I constantly have someone do. And so I guess we plan for next year, you know? And so at some point I was like, we actually do need to plan like nine months out and be like, okay, nine months from now. And my sister actually got married two years, a year and a half ago now. And she was kind of like, okay, I'm giving you like a full year's warning. don't you take any due dates by my wedding time? And I was like, OK, got it. But I think that cycle of business is unique to doulas, right? And we sometimes, it gets normalized in the sense that we have made due dates, we have June due dates, we have maybe July due dates, we have August.”
CONNECT with Kaely on TikTok or Instagram
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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
