Get More Pregnant Followers and New Doula Clients (Even Without Previous Experience)
Hey doula, have you been wondering how to get your social media account in front of pregnant moms, how to sell your doula services (even if you have no experience), or what you should include in your online birth course?
If you want to start your doula business out on the right foot, then get out a pen and paper, this blog post is for you.
The 3 questions we answer in today’s blog:
“How can I get my social media pages in front of pregnant people rather than just other birthworkers?”
“How can I convince people to hire me if I don't have any previous experience in birthwork or any doula certifications?”
“My big goal is to create an online course. Would it be icky for me to purchase a similar program to see what the competition is and how to make my program better?”
Every Friday, I answer your biggest questions right here on the Birthworker Blog AND the Birthworker Podcast.
To submit a question for next week’s podcast, click here.
"How should I get my social media pages in front of pregnant people rather than just other birthworkers?" -Kelly
I actually credit other birthworkers for my success on Instagram. I started from ground zero on August 1st, 2020, and by January 1st, I had 1,000 followers, and I attribute that growth to other birthworkers sharing my posts on their stories. So just because there are a lot of other birthworkers following you, doesn't mean that's a bad thing. If it's split 50/50, that's fantastic. Those other birthworkers are sharing your content with their audience, which also has moms in it, and then those moms end up following you.
Here is some more practical advice: to get your page in front of more pregnant people, go where pregnant people already are, and interact there. For instance, you could go to some of the more popular birth accounts like @painfreebirth or @badassmotherbirther. I would leave long, thoughtful and witty comments on their posts because there's always a chance that they're going to love your comment and pin it at the top of the post so more people will see it. So just commenting like, "Oh my gosh, I love this post" does absolutely nothing. You're just wasting your time. Don't even post stuff like that if your goal is to get more engagement with your account. Even if they don’t pin your comment, a lot of moms might see it and like and respond.
And honestly, you've got to make good quality content. Your content needs to be witty and thoughtful enough that other people are going to share it. So if your content is not being shared, go back to the drawing board and ask yourself, why? This is something I teach inside Birthworker Academy and the Birthworker Membership. I teach them my entire Instagram strategy from A to Z, and creating shareable content is such a huge part of it.
The last thing I'll say is just to stay the path. Show up, keep showing up, even when it's hard, even when you don't want to, and the ball will start rolling. Don’t expect things out of Instagram that you're not giving. If you want comments on your page, go comment on other people's pages. If you want people to follow you, go follow other people.
"How can I convince people to hire me if I don't have any previous experience in birthwork or any doula certifications?" -Rebecca
My answer to this question is going to shock a lot of you. And so first of all, I need you to get out of your mind that experience makes a good doula, or that experience gets you hired because that's not necessarily the case in the birth community. What actually matters much more when it comes to you getting hired by someone to attend their birth is your vibe and your energy.
I also want you to know that people are going to hire you based on your sales and copywriting skills, not necessarily based on experience, certifications, or even necessarily your vibe. You can fake your vibe. I'm not telling you to do that, but I just want to open your mind to realize that getting hired is not all about experience and certifications. OBs often lie to their patients to get them as a client. They say, "Oh, we don't induce everyone at 39 weeks. Oh, you can push in any position you want. Oh, you can eat in labor." And as they get closer to the due date, they flip the script and say, “You know what? I think we really should induce. Our policy is actually that you can't eat." Etc, etc.
I also want to mention that everybody starts at the beginning. If 4 years ago, I looked at Emily from Free Birth Society and Maryn from Indie Birth and I said, "Oh my gosh, they're so big and popular, and they have podcasts. They're doing exactly what I want to do, and they have the vibe that I want to have. There are already people doing it. I can't do it." If I said that 4 years ago, I wouldn't be here today. The funny thing is that now that there are many people out there that look up to me and say the same thing, but it’s just not true. I started 4 years ago and I've created something absolutely amazing that impacts literally tens of thousands of lives every year. If I let the fear of not having experience or certifications hold me back, I wouldn't be where I am today.
"My big goal is to create an online course. Would it be icky for me to purchase a similar program to see what the competition is and how to make my program better?" -Hannah
I wouldn't necessarily describe it as icky, but it's something that I just don't want you to do, for several reasons. One, I just don't want you to spend any time thinking about what other people are doing. I don't want you to get into somebody else's program and accidentally, or potentially on purpose, copy what they have in their program for yours.
When we're getting started, we have these thoughts of maybe we're not good enough, we don't know enough, or we need to do more. So if we buy somebody else's program to snoop and see what's inside, there is a huge chance that either on purpose or by accident, we copy some of the stuff that's in their program. And that is absolutely not okay, and I do not want you to do that even on accident.
So have I taken other birth courses? Yes, when I was pregnant. Did I ever buy another course to snoop so I could make a similar course? Absolutely not. And I'm actually at the point in my business where I have to be very conscious about what I look at. Let's take Indie Birth for example because Maryn and Margot have programs that are like mine. They have programs for moms, programs for doulas, and even programs for midwives. If I see one of their freebies pop up on my Instagram, I very consciously am not downloading that. Not because I would ever copy it, but if I ever create a freebie that is kind of similar to what their freebie is, I do not want a paper trail that I ever downloaded theirs.
I don’t even want to go there because I don't want to create any problems. And I love that because I don't need to go see what other people are doing to know that what I'm doing is good. I don't need any external validation that what I'm doing is way better than what other people are doing. I just need to put on the blinders and focus on making the best programs I can make.
What can you do instead to make your program better, and instead of snooping on the competition? Ask your audience directly. I love when I see my students actually put this into practice. If you're just beginning to brainstorm ideas to make a course, what I want you to do is go to your Instagram stories and do a poll. Say, "Has anybody taken a birth course before?” Or, “Has anybody taken a VBAC course before?" Whatever your niche is. Then give four choices:
Yes, I took a course and I loved it.
Yes, I took a course and I hated it.
No, I did not take a course, but I want to.
And no, I did not take a course and I don't want to.
Next, privately message every single person who responded. Go make a spreadsheet, put down these people's names so you don't forget, and literally DM all of them and ask questions about their situation.
If they've taken a course before, ask them, "Which course did you take? What did you love about it? What did you not love about it? What was the price? What drew you to it? Why did you choose that over the other options? Did you think it was worth the value? Why not? What would you have added? What would you have left out? Were there any topics that should have been covered or should not have been covered?"
If they have not taken a course before, ask them, "Why? Why not? Is it an internal thing? Do you think you don't need it? Or is it an external thing where you feel that the courses just aren't a good fit for you?"
Ask them all these questions and you are going to get much better information than snooping on a course. When you snoop on a course, you only are getting your opinion of the course. You're not getting other people's opinions, and to be honest, your opinion doesn't matter. You could love the course that you create and nobody could buy it. Or the people that buy it could absolutely hate it. So we only want the pregnant mom's opinions. Asking them directly about what course they took, what they loved, what they didn't, etc, is the best way to do it.
Thank you so much for being here today. If you love hearing my answers to questions like this, or if you were listening to this episode and you were just thinking, oh my gosh, I just want to find a way to package up my obsession for birth and find a way to impact the lives of birthing moms all over the world. Or maybe you've been thinking, I am ready to quit my job, go full-time as a birthworker, and build a freaking legacy. If you are thinking any of those things, then I want you to know that the Birthworker Membership is absolutely the place for you. Click here to learn all about the membership and the business course that's inside.
If you are ready to go from side gig doula to full-time birthworker, if you're ready to quit your day job, stay home with your kids, and impact lives across the entire world, this membership is for you. If you want a direct line to me to ask your questions inside an amazing community and to jump on Zoom and get coached by me, then this membership is for you. So thank you so much for reading. I hope this post was helpful to you, and I'll see you right back here next week.
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Meet your host, Kyleigh Banks, a side-gig doula turned CEO of a multi-six-figure birth-focused business. Her passion? Teaching birth nerds, like you, how to build an incredibly successful doula business that allows you to quit your day job, stay home with your kids, and most importantly, make a lasting impact on the world.