The Link Between Intentionality and Sustainability in Your Doula Business
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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.
Hello and welcome back to Dula Tips and Tits. I want to talk to you a little bit today about sustainable strategies for growth. Now, the reason I want to dig into this a bit is that the doors are still open for the coaching cohort that starts on October 21st.
So those close on October 20th, so very soon in the next couple of days, that kind of opportunity to join that group ends. When I think about long -term growth, businesses that survive and grow in the doula landscape, the first thing that comes to mind is intentionality.
Like sometimes when we think about birth and we think about postpartum and we think about businesses, one of the things that those can kind of have in common is a lack of planning and therefore a bit of chaos.
And I think as doulas, we have all witnessed the unraveling that is a lack of preparation. And that is kind of an inevitable part of this world that we live in in perinatal birth work and in lactation and all of those like you know in this this time of life of people.
And so I'm not saying this to say someone could possibly be so prepared that they never unravel. I'm actually not sure that's possible. As a parent now for 14 years, I don't know that we can do this thing without occasionally coming on the brink of losing our mind.
Because it's hard. It is something that kind of strips you to your core and makes you reevaluate who you are and how you live your life and makes you kind of fine tune what you want this to look like and requires a level of intention that if we don't set that side of time, set that time aside, why can I not speak in whole sentences, then that time will be demanded of us.
I think about when I rest well and I manage stress well and I move my body and I eat good food and I drink lots of water, then my likelihood of getting sick is much lower. When I am running on fumes, I feel like I'm about to get sick all the time.
And my husband and I used to joke when our kids were little, we'd be like, am I getting the flu? Or am I just so bone tired that it feels like I'm getting the flu? That is kind of funny, but also like we were living in a survival place at that point.
And we had lots of reasons for that. I'm not gonna dig into that piece of my personal story today on the podcast, but we have been through some harrowing times as a family, as a couple, and some like pure survival, like how are we gonna get through this kind of stuff that requires a level of survival in how you show up every day that sort of breaks your brain down to like the most basic functioning kind of stuff,
right? So I don't wish that on you. Like, I don't want you to get to the place that you're like, am I burnt out or am I getting the flu, right? Like, no, I do not want that to be what you experience.
However, I do think in a time when we lack intentionality, then the piece that directly impacts how sustainable we are eventually kind of rears its head. And there's a couple of ways I see this. One is doulas accepting clients in desperation and doulas accepting clients, again, kind of out of desperation, but for services that are easy to fill, but that they actually don't like doing.
And so both of those things lead to you eventually doing services that you either hate doing or services that you are too tired to do well. And what that looks like in your business is burnout, but also it looks like a stagnation of sorts where you're kind of like, like stuck in this place of doing something that you are exhausted of or doing something that you actually don't like and feeling like you can't really get out of it because you've already let so many people book this service right especially when we're talking about birth work and postpartum care people book sometimes like six or eight months in advance right like i don't know about you but i have a couple clients that are like i peed on a stick this morning and i'd like to right now those are mostly repeat clients but still um when i think about that the first thing that comes to mind is that the lack of intentionality and how that business was built up is very apparent part of what i talk about on this podcast is strategies for when you're in a place that you just desperately need revenue and strategies for when there's space for a little bit more expansion and what i mean when i say that is If you have a dream of only serving clients in birth but postpartum is where you have the most client traction right now and your business is providing for the logistical needs of your family then you need to have a strategic game plan for dialing down postpartum and dialing up birth work so that you don't just go without meeting the needs of your family,
right? So there's a time and place to choose to do a service that you no longer love for a time so that you can get through a particular season. That is not what I'm talking about here actually that is exactly what I'm talking about because that's intentionality.
If I say to you you know if you do this postpartum work for the next four months at this volume then you can save up enough money to have some space to pivot to birth right or if I say to you hey if you have people hire you for birth like you start marketing your birth services for people do five months from now and in the five months until then you do a ton of postpartum care that's one way to switch from mostly postpartum care to mostly births is to start having people hire you that are farther away and that also gives you time to market to those people to find those people to really like seek out those folks if you start talking about the fact that you have openings in march right then then you can get to people in march because you're talking about it and sharing it and letting people know that you have those openings etc etc okay when we think about that like that also is intentionality it's not intentionality in the way that you're like okay today I'm opening a business and the first thing I'm going to do is not let people hire me for postpartum because I already know I don't want to do that at a great volume it's not that but that's okay.
It is still intentionality to look and say I can do this for this time because it meets this need or it gets me to the end of this goal and then I'm gonna pivot in this very intentional way and this is how I want it to look long -term.
That kind of intentionality in your strategy is how you grow this business and continue to work in it instead of burning out and moving on to something else within the three to five years that most doulas do.
Okay now the piece of this that I love is really just digging into someone's business alongside them. I am a question -asker so like when someone comes to me and finds out that I'm a doula they'll often say oh can I tell you about my birth and often what they're sharing is either a little bit of trauma and they're trying to sort of figure out what happened or what went wrong in their minds or they're sharing some bit of success or they're like wanting someone else to who really understands it to acknowledge the work that they did and the you know the process that they went through.
So there's this need for either validation or some problem solving and some like outside perspective right. In those scenarios I'm always like oh I have questions right. I'm like well where did you deliver?
Who were your providers? How early was your baby? Does anyone else in your family have a history of fast labors? You know like I am right away thinking of questions. I just started with someone a few weeks ago that is a private doula coach so that means that person gets one -on -one time with me for six months and so that coaching if you listen to Wednesday's episode you heard Becky talk about it.
She did it earlier in the year in 2024 and then this newer doula named Fatima she just started it with me last month and so what that looks like is me being able to really dig into that person's business in a really intentional and super hyper focused way to help things pivot to help things grow to help things change but also things like Fatima shared with me a goal that she had like she was like this is my goal this is kind of a dream I have and I was like these things that we're talking about that means that dream can happen next year do you realize that and she was like oh I was like yeah like this is not a wild dream like this is a like next year dream you know I mean if we're talking wild let's talk like four times this you know in terms of volume in terms of growth in terms of revenue because really what you're seeing is like this super super limited idea of what your business can be and I say this with so much love like I would door hurts so I'm not saying this like be like Fatima who has a small growth that's not what that is what I'm saying is anyone who's in their own business looks at their own business and has a hard time imagining what is outside of the walls that they already see right and we look and we're like I don't even know what it looks like out there because I haven't been out there I've never been past this point and so I don't know how to get past this point and then as a coach I can look at that and be like hey look at this like there is a path right here that gets you there and then that person can be like oh my gosh I can get there this I can take this path and go right over and I'm like yeah let's do it right let's I'll walk that path with you like let's get on that path together and make some magic right that is something that I love and I'm sure you hear it in my voice that it gets me like really fired up because I think I love to see people realize that they have more potential,
they have more strength, they have more ability than they've realized that they had. And sometimes in life, sometimes in birth, sometimes in postpartum, you have to have someone on the outside to tell you that to even give you the viewpoint of what this could be instead of where you are right now.
So that is the end of my soapbox for today. And I promise not to preach this all the time, every single episode, but it is something I'm incredibly passionate about because I want doulas to be able to do this work if it's a work that lights them up.
It is something that we so desperately need in the birth and postpartum space. And more doulas doing it well and more doulas doing it in a way that works well for their lives is how we keep having this and how we grow this profession.
So I am very, very passionate about it. I want you to consider what does it look like to have intentionality in your business. Now I am going to invite you to join me in this eight week coaching program.
And if you're ready to have some actual outside eyes that have experience that have been further along than where you are, look at your business and say, listen, this is the thing. This is the thing to change.
This is the thing to shift. This is the thing to pivot. This is how you move this thing forward. Please join me. I would love to be that person. I would be honored to be that person. If you have questions about the cohort, please reach out to me on Instagram at Hara Dula.
I am more than happy to have a quick call with you or to do some texting and answer some questions. The doors close on Sunday the 20th. So October 20th, 2020. 24 is your last chance to get into that cohort.
And then the next cohort will not be until a couple months into 2025. I haven't fine -tuned the dates because I'm working on what our plans might be for the springtime. So, you know, I will have a cohort at some point in early 2025 is the plan, but that is not set in stone yet.
And so it is something that you'll have to wait a while to be in. So I am excited to hear about your intentionality, to hear the strategies that you're putting into place and to help you with that along the way.
If you're ready to sign up, all the information about the cohort group that's about to start is in the show notes. You can go there to learn more and grab your spot or come to Instagram at Haradula and ask me whatever questions you have.
All right, 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.
As a doula I want you to protect and plan for your business just like we teach our clients to protect and plan for their birth and postpartum time. Strategy and intention is how we prepare, it's how we buffer. It’s how we build strategy and resilience into our businesses. If we do not prioritize our own resilience our businesses will suffer for it.
Quote from the show:
“When I think about long -term growth, businesses that survive and grow in the doula landscape, the first thing that comes to mind is intentionality. Like sometimes when we think about birth and we think about postpartum and we think about businesses, one of the things that those can kind of have in common is a lack of planning and therefore a bit of chaos. And I think as doulas, we have all witnessed the unraveling that is a lack of preparation. And that is kind of an inevitable part of this world that we live in in perinatal birth work and in lactation and all of those like you know in this this time of life of people. And so I'm not saying this to say someone could possibly be so prepared that they never unravel. I'm actually not sure that's possible. As a parent now for 14 years, I don't know that we can do this thing without occasionally coming on the brink of losing our mind. ”
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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
