I Didn’t Disappear: My Business Was Thriving Even In A Busy Life Season
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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.
Speaker 2 00:18
time for 7. 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 owner.
Speaker 1 00:31
best boss. Let's get into today's episode.
Speaker 2 00:36
Hello and welcome back to Dula Tips and Tits. So clearly I owe you a little bit of a where the actual F have I been. And the short visit version is I have been super busy. Not in a all the things are falling apart kind of way, but in a my business is thriving. I'm fully booked. The babies do not give a shit about my schedule. My team is maxed out. My life is needing a lot from me that kind of way. So this season has been a lot. You haven't heard from me since January and my family needed me in a really, really, really intense way.
And I chose to do that. I chose to fully show up for them in a way that they needed me. And I, my dear business coach and business colleagues said to me at the time, like, do you think you can trust your business that what you have grown won't break with this season of needing to show up for your family, right? And that was true. My business didn't break. It didn't stall. It didn't fall apart. We're actually making more money than we've ever made in 2026 so far. Quarter one was our biggest quarter we've ever had. We had our biggest month we've ever had in the midst of my life family stuff that, yeah. I mean, the growth has been insane, right? And so here are a couple of my wins just because I wanna start off with like, listen, even though I haven't been posting a podcast every week, even though I haven't been on Instagram really at all in 2026, my business grew despite that, right? And it's not for nothing. Like, it's not accidental that it grew. It grew because I already have the systems in place and the foundation of networking that keeps it going. And it's not that I did nothing, of course. I showed up for my clients, right? Like I did prenatal visits, postpartum visits. I went to birth, it's like that I have been doing. But my business kept going. I kept getting customers. I kept having coaching. I kept doing that because it already is working in the back as I've set it up to do, right? Like as I have intentionally designed it to be. So it's not just like, hey guys, my business randomly thrived in quarter one of 2026. No, like I've worked my butt off to get to this place in business and it's working. This place in business is working, right? So these are the things I've had happen since you've heard from me last. One, I had my highest revenue quarter that I've ever had. I'm fully booked, like bursting at the seams with doula clients. My postpartum team, the team that I had fully booked. And then I've added some doulas because the ones that I have are booked out. And so we are bursting at the seams in postpartum care as well. One of my biggest personal wins is I helped my middle kiddo get into the high school that he wants to go to and have been a stable presence for all of my children in the midst of all of the things that have happened in our personal life. Those are things that I am so proud of. I also turned 40 this quarter, guys. And can I just say that the like, I don't give a fuck that older women have, I feel that loading. Like it is definitely coming on board fully where I'm like, I'm 40.
Speaker 2 04:18
I don't have time for this bullshit, right? Or like, I'm 40, I don't care if you like this. This is what I like and this is what I'm gonna do. And so all of that has been what has been going on in my life since you last heard from me.
I wanna just reiterate this to you because it is something that I feel like I preach like a broken record, but is so true. How you build up your business continues to serve you for years and decades. The intentionality that you use to build trust, to build relationships, to build networking, those and the systems, right? Like the logistical side on the back end, someone being able to send you an email and get an email back that says like, Hey, I got a lot of family stuff going on. You're just going to hear from me a little bit slower than usual. Keeps that person coming as a client, right? Even just the ability to have someone schedule in a scheduling app that you can block off the time that your family needs and say like, Hey, my availability is a little bit limited. I'd still really love to talk to you. It's just going to maybe take a little bit more time for us to be in touch. Right? Those systems, that work of building those networks, those relationships, that trust is what literally keeps your business running in seasons where you have less capacity to show up in your business. And the reality is that I want all of you to have a business that is thriving. Like I want you to have a business where you say like, I don't worry about people coming in in terms of, in terms of inquiries, right? I don't worry about people hiring me because yeah, some people don't hire me, but I have plenty of people who are hiring me and I have constant inquiries. Why? Because of the work that I've done in referrals and building trust and building a network of people who want to send clients to me. I recently had a doula reach out and say like, Hey, how, how do you find inquiries right now? I'm hearing from a lot of businesses that things are super slow. I don't have as many clients as I'd like to have. I'm just wondering if you're also experiencing that. And I was like, Nope. I was like, uh, I'm actually incredibly full and have like consultations. Like I have people waiting to interview me as late as like at the time when I talked to her, I was like, I have people wanting to interview me for the next two weeks, like I have the same flow of inquiries I've ever had. And it is because almost everyone who comes in is a direct referral from an, uh, an actual person, which then means that person has already told them, Hey, I want you to hire my doula because my doula was great. Or it's a doctor who's saying like, I want to work with your doula too. And I want you to hire your doula for the whole team to have so that we can all have, we can all kind of know the experience that you're going to have and also the support that you're going to have in the process.
Speaker 2 07:39
And so, yeah, I haven't, I haven't updated my doula match. I haven't been posting any kind of updates on Google. I haven't been doing Instagram stuff. I haven't even been podcasting, but my word of mouth referrals that I have built with relationships have sustained me for years and they are continuing to sustain me and it's not that people don't find me randomly. Some people do, right? But 99% of the inquiries I get, I ask on the form who sent you to me. Like I'd love to thank them. Let me know who it was that referred you. They, it's almost always an actual person because that relationship has been built with enough people, the rapport has been built with enough people that those people are still sending me folks, even when I'm not, quote unquote, showing up online in the same kind of way. And I think that it's easy for you to believe that if you're not constantly posting something or constantly making content, constantly advertising yourself that everything's going to fall apart.
And if you have built your business with intentionality, that's not true. Right. And it's not true that that's what's required to get to the point that I'm at. Like I think the idea that where I am is only a, like you get there with years and nothing else. is a lie, first of all. Second of all, it's also something that needs to be built up immediately when you begin as a doula. So if you're thinking to yourself like, okay, yeah, Kaylee made her biggest quarter yet in terms of revenue, but she's been a doula for almost a decade. And so like, yeah, of course, she's making a lot of money because she has been a doula for a long time. And of course, she has a lot of referrals from individual people because she's been a doula for a long time. And of course, she has doulas and providers who are sending her folks because she's been a doula for a long time, right? You see where I'm going with this. But the reality is that it's because of the early relationships that I built as a doula that I am at the place that I'm at. It's not just because I've been a doula for a long time, right? That's not actually the piece that's most important here. It's not that like, yeah, 10 years from now, you're also going to have a thriving business like me. It's that without the intentional building, in 10 years, you might just not even have a business. You might just not even be a doula if you don't build with that kind of intentionality, because you will not have the support and sustainability that you need to continue to do this work. Part of this relationship building and the trust building is also backup doulas, like in the throes of all the things I had going on with my family. I sent people to birth three times, right? Because I needed to, like, I had to, there were things that I needed to be physically present for.
Speaker 2 10:48
And there were babies that decided to come on those days. And not only did my clients have understanding and grace and kindness about that, because I've chosen clients who align well with me and who are loving and wonderful people and knew that I wasn't just ghosting them, but was actually like sending them a person who was really good and supportive. They also had amazing support from great doulas because of the relationships that I built that allow that to be the case, right? That I can say, like, Hey, I have this thing happening in my personal life, and I really need you to be present for my client. Can you do that for me? And that doulas, like, absolutely, I got you, like, I'm show up 100% for you.
And that, that network is part of what I have built up over time as well. So to me, I am a person who thrives when the sun comes back out. So it's April, right? And I'm kind of like, guys, we made it through the winter, you know, like, it's starting to be warm. It's starting to be sunny. I hope that's true for you where you're listening. I know that it's not warm and sunny everywhere right now. But for me in the DC area, it's warm, it's sunny, there are flowers, like I am loving the spring, the fresh start, the newness, right?
And that also feels like where I am as a doula right now as a business owner as a woman, right? It's a fresh start, new me kind of way kind of thing. But it's not, it's not like, here's my evolution. Here's my, it's like, no, I have been stepping into this space for a very long time, right? Things have been growing steadily and quietly in the background. And I'm ready to be a little more visible with it, right? To be like, hey, guys, this is what this looks like, that you can step back for three months and come back with a vengeance, right? Come back and still be like, my last podcast episode has gotten more listens than any other episode I've ever made, right? Like that's, that's the way that you actually can have your business growing. And it's not just me, like it's not just an anomaly, right? I'm building this life on purpose. And you can also do that.
So what can you expect? So I'm back on the podcast. You can expect weekly episodes at this point. You will hear from me every week again. We will eventually start having podcast guests, but that's probably gonna be a summertime or maybe even early fall situation because for right now I have a lot of information that I wanna share with you and I have a lot of episodes that I'm planning to do on my own. I also have a super fun spring announcement coming in May. And so if you are not already registered, subscribed, I went to a birth yesterday, so pardon my brain. If you're not already subscribed to the newsletter, that is the first place you'll hear about the spring announcement. So go do that now. There's a link in the show notes to let you do that. Or you can connect with me on Instagram and there's a link there as well. But that is the best place to kind of hear what is the next thing that's coming.
Speaker 2 14:24
I want you to know that when you are a business owner, your life and your business are more enmeshed than we like to believe, right? They're mushed up together in many ways. And the reality is that sometimes one of them needs more of you than the other.
And your business can be built in a way that it lives through that and actually thrives through that. It can be built up in a way that you're able to really show up in your life and also have a business that's still going, still running, still intentionally doing what you want it to do because you have built it to do that, not on accident, right? Not just because you've been a doula for a decade. No, because you have intentionally set it up to do that. So next episode, we're gonna actually talk about why was it the highest revenue quarter that I've ever had in the quarter one of 2026. And then I will kind of give you a little bit more insight into the background, subscribe to the newsletter and I will see you in the next episode.
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 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.
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I’ve been a little quieter than usual—and not for the reason you might think.
In this episode, I’m sharing where I’ve been, what this past season has looked like behind the scenes, and why my business actually grew during a time when I wasn’t consistently showing up online.
This has been a season where my family needed more of me, and I made the decision to be fully present there.
And what surprised me most?
My business didn’t fall apart because of it.
It held. It grew. It supported me right back.
We’re talking about what that really means when it comes to sustainability, visibility, and building a business that doesn’t rely on you being “on” all the time.
Quote from the show:
“How you build up your business continues to serve you for years and decades. The intentionality that you use to build trust, to build relationships, to build networking, those and the systems - the logistical side on the back end - keeps your business running in seasons where you have less capacity to show up in your business. And the reality is that I want all of you to have a business that is thriving, where you don't worry about people coming in in terms of inquiries because of the work that you've done in referrals and building trust and building a network of people who want to send clients to you."
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
