Using Tech and Automations In Your Doula Business
-
Transcript
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. Today we are diving into what tech and automations I use in my business to make life easier. I'm Kaylee Harrod. I want to just take a second to introduce myself because I know many of you listeners are new here and I haven't given you a real introduction in a long time.
So I am a birth and postpartum doula. I'm a childbirth educator. I'm a La Leche League leader and I have three kiddos who are 14, 12, and 10. Now don't be confused about their ages. They sound like so perfectly spread out but part of my journey is that my 13 year old and my 12 year old are actually only 15 months apart.
So my 14 year old was only seven months old when I got pregnant with my second kiddo. So he has a birthday in September and he'll turn 13 which means they actually will sound more like their accurate ages when they're 14 and 13.
The 10 year old was a little bit later on but was skipped one year. So I had a 2010 baby, a 2011 baby, a 2013 baby. 2012 was a slightly less chaotic year in my life but it was all all around crazy in those early years.
I am a doula coach at this point and I coach doulas into more successful and sustainable businesses. I love doulaing my clients to birth and postpartum success and I love doulaing my doulas to business and doula success.
And so that is that's me in a nutshell right. The tech and automations that I use in my business are a few different things. So I have this beautiful podcast which is hosted on a podcast host called Buzzsprout and then from there it is put out to like Apple Podcasts and Spotify and things like that.
That for the podcast I use Buzzsprout and I also use something called Nada Transcription. So I put my episodes through the transcription service so that it can be transcribed and then that transcription gets put in the podcast host and then also put on my website.
And so those are the two main things I use for the episodes. Well I also use my MacBook. So I use my MacBook to edit the episodes and to add the intro and outro music and things like that. For contracts and intake forms and things like that I use something called JotForms.
That is a payment is a contract and form site so I can do like registration forms on there, I can do contracts, I can do I can take payments on those forms as well and I can connect it to my email system which is mailer light.
So the email system allows me to email people and kind of section them out. So I have like clients, I have doulas like you, I have people in my newsletter, you know and so I can have different sections of people based on who has signed up for what.
For my social media I primarily use Meta Business Suite and Squarespace. Now I do use a little bit of chat GPT for like captions or what I mean to brainstorm something. That I find is very helpful just to get me started if I'm kind of stuck in what to say next or what to talk about about this thing or how to make a good caption around this topic and so that's something I utilize for that purpose.
All of my classes, so my childbirth classes and also my doula classes, are on a platform called Thrivecart. That platform allows me to make sales pages and like checkout pages essentially for things along with hosting the actual class.
So I can have the modules, so if you are in my doula biz blueprint self -paced class, you've seen like the modules that are laid out there. I can also give discounts there, I can have coupons, codes, etc.
etc. But also I can decide how long someone has access. So like for the classes that I have, the doula biz blueprint, my birth class, my postpartum class, those are things that a person gets instant access to and gets lifetime access to.
So I can put that all into the system there and not have to worry about it. So when I think about tech and automations, what I think about is making my life easier in terms of business stuff for two reasons.
One, because I am a solo entrepreneur, right? And being every single department in your business is exhausting. So it's out of necessity that I want my life to be easier. But also I don't want to miss things, right?
I don't want the experience that my clients and customers have to feel wanting, right? So how I use some of these things together, I'm going to just give you kind of an example. So my website is on Squarespace.
So let's say someone is interested in my childbirth education class. They're going to go to Squarespace, they're going to read the page about the childbirth education class. Then if they're interested in it, they're going to click on the buy now button, right?
And then that will take them to the checkout page that lives on Thrivecart, which is where the class lives. So then they are going to pay for that class. It's going to automatically enroll them in the class and it's going to automatically enroll them in a mailer light group, an email group that is students in the childbirth class.
That students in the childbirth class group is going to automatically put them in an automation that's going to send them emails that are things like, thank you so much for signing up for the class. This is what you can expect.
This is how to utilize it. This is what you should be thinking about. If you have any issues, please let me know. Here's my email. And then throughout the coming weeks, that person is going to get emails about how to utilize the class, whether or not they're getting as much out of it as they could be.
I have not done anything in that scenario. So from the moment someone goes to my website, decides to buy my class, and then gets all those emails, I do nothing. I touch nothing at this point. I get emails that say, hey, someone bought your class.
And I'm like, amazing. Wonderful. Great. And that's all I do. I just look at that email and get happy, right? Now that is because of how I set it up, right? I set it up to work that way so that that system runs efficiently on its own.
And I don't have to be the one messing with it. That matters because then I can worry about how to tell people about the class, how to advertise the class, how to market the class. And I don't have to worry about putting them into the class and sending them an email and all of those steps that my system actually does for me.
So I hope that's helpful. If you're thinking about adding in some tech or automations, hit me up on Instagram at Haradula so we can connect and I can help you kind of sort through what automations might be helpful for you.
If you're not yet on our newsletter, please join that today. That link is at the top of the show notes. And it is every other Friday newsletter that comes into your inbox with information about doula work and doula business and tips and tips and tricks and encouragement and then also all my latest podcast episodes.
So it's juicy nuggets that will be incredibly helpful to you and your business, 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 her rod doula so we can celebrate alongside you.
If you've 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.
Never want to miss what we’re doing for doulas? Subscribe to our newsletter! We won’t spam you, but we do promise amazing content and classes! https://www.harroddoulaservices.com/newsletter
Automations make a doula business SO MUCH EASIER! This episode is about the tech and automations I use in my business to make things smoother and easier. Tech is a very important part of a business running smoothly.
Quote from the show:
“The tech and automations that I use in my business are a few different things. So I have this beautiful podcast which is hosted on a podcast host called Buzzsprout and then from there it is put out to like Apple Podcasts and Spotify and things like that. For contracts and intake forms and things like that I use something called JotForms. That is a payment is a contract and form site so I can do registration forms on there, I can do contracts, I can take payments on those forms as well and I can connect it to my email system which is mailerlite. ”
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
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
