What Did You Even Get Done This Year?
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Welcome to Doula Tips and Tips. 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.
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.
Thank you for joining us on this journey. Welcome back to Doula Tips and Tips. I want to pose a question to you. What did you even get done this year? Now, this is not intended to be a question that's insulting.
It's not intended to be a question that's like, what did you even do with your time this year? Right? I want you to take a minute and pause the podcast if this is the only time you have to do it and ask yourself that question and kind of take inventory.
The reason I want you to do this is I want you to see what have you gotten done that you wanted to get done? What is not finished? Excuse me, that you were hoping to have finished? What things did you not realize you got to that you want to celebrate?
Now, I'm going to share something with you that I'm not sharing this to brag to you. I'm sharing it because this is this is what I did when I was looking at this last year. So, this is my first year 2023 is my first year of having official business coaching.
And I have that with an awesome business coach based out of Canada. Her name is Lee M Kim. She's amazing. I really love her. And she's been really an awesome part of my business growth this year. And I joined her business coaching at the beginning of 2023.
Like I think we started off in January or February. So like really early in 2023. And one of the things that she had us do is look over the last 12 months of our like revenue in the business. When I was looking over those 12 months, I started to write down, like I had written down kind of like, okay, what did I make different months and how much came into the business and what was that ebb and flow and are there kind of like predictable patterns of when it's lower and higher and whatever.
And I realized that I had had a month that I brought in $10 ,000. And I was like, oh my gosh, I had a month of $10 ,000 of business revenue. Now that's not business profit, right? I didn't make $10 ,000 personally as a salary, but my business revenue was $10 ,000.
And I was like, oh my gosh, I've had a $10 ,000 month that I didn't even realize it. And so for me, that was really huge. Cause I was like, if I never had gone back through there, I would not have realized that that was the case.
Overall for the year in 2022, my business revenue was like around 79, 80, somewhere around there. So it wasn't like it was 100,000 where I knew I definitely probably made 10,000 a month, or something like that.
It was 80 ,000. So I was kind of like, maybe I had some $10 ,000 months, but also maybe not, I'm not sure. And then I never would have realized that, had she not had me do that exercise of going back through and looking at every single month and then being like, okay, what did I do that month?
What sold? What didn't sell? How did that money come in? Now, because of that, I've had a better sense this year of what I am bringing in a revenue every month. And I can kind of month by month celebrate that, right?
Like, and when I'm recording this, it's November of 2023 and in October of 2023, I had a revenue month of again, over $10 ,000. So I had a $12 ,000 revenue month, which was huge, like really huge. Now, some of that revenue immediately got paid out to the amazing doula that's on my team, right?
Like there are, of course, expenses. I am paying contractors now. Like there's lots of different layers for where that money needed to go. But I also could celebrate, like I am more consistently having five figure months rather than only like once a year or occasionally or like not even really, realizing that I had had it, right?
So I want you to take a second to really take a look at your year. What have you done that you're really proud of? What have you done that you're kind of like, ooh, I should have maybe done that different, right?
What are some things that you're hoping to do differently next year? And start to do that inventory. Because I really believe that if we're gonna look at 2024 and we're gonna really have a strategic solid plan, we need to also look back.
And when we look back, we need to think, how do I want this year to look different? It doesn't have to be about things you didn't like. It could be things that you want to be even better than they were, and they were also pretty good, you know?
But they also can be things where you're like, okay, I didn't do this as well as I wanted to and I wanna do it better. I'm gonna give you one personal example for myself. I think I shared this maybe a couple episodes ago, but I have a goal of doing cartwheels, which might sound really silly.
But I've had this goal for over a year. And so last year I was like, oh, by next November, I'm going to be able to cartwheel. And I can't cartwheel still. I still can't do it. Part of that is that I haven't done the weightlifting that I want to do.
And so I'm, of course, not going to be able to cartwheel if I don't get my arms strong enough to do it and my core strong enough to do it. And so I naturally have not met that goal because I have not done the necessary steps to get to that goal.
And so for me, that is a goal that I continue to want in 2024. And also I'm going to make an actual game plan for it to happen rather than being like, wouldn't it be nice if next year I can do a cartwheel?
Which was essentially my game plan last year. Like I was like, I'm going to work out more. And that doesn't really help an actual goal happen. And so I did work out more, but like not in the way that helps my body do a cartwheel, right?
And so that's a goal that I have. That's a goal that I have had, but this year, I want to be strategic about reaching that goal rather than just having that goal. And so that's one thing that I'm looking at for myself is personal things as well as professional things, as well as family things, and all of those different layers so that we can kind of have a holistic view of what we want 2024 to look like, okay?
All right, if you listened to the last episode, you heard that I have a special thing that I'm only gonna be offering to my newsletter. And so I want you to join that newsletter if you're not on it now so that you don't miss that special thing that I'm announcing.
It will be coming really soon. And so I want you to not miss that chance. The link to join the newsletter is in the show notes. And I don't ever spam you with stuff. I send twice a month newsletters talking about the podcast, talking about the business, nothing crazy.
I'm not sending you loads of stuff otherwise. And so I would love for you to join that list and then hear about the... the special secret thing that I'm doing for people in the beginning of December.
All right, I'll 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 heraDoula.
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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With just 6 weeks left in the year, yeah I know crazy, it’s time to take a look back at the last year and look at what all you did. In this podcast, we are diving into some great questions to ask yourself to celebrate your year and also help plan for the next one.
Quote from the show:
“So I want you to take a second to really take a look at your year. What have you done that you're really proud of? What have you done that you're kind of like, ooh, I should have maybe done that differently, right? What are some things that you're hoping to do differently next year? And start to do that inventory. Because I really believe that if we're gonna look at 2024 and we're gonna really have a strategic solid plan, we need to also look back. And when we look back, we need to think, how do I want this year to look different? It doesn't have to be about things you didn't like. It could be things that you want to be even better than they were, and they were also pretty good, you know?”
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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
