Thanks for coming. I was just like, we've been talking here and there over the last year, um, about various things that you're working on and how your business is going. And I was like, you know what? This is the perfect opportunity because you've shared wins here and there. Um, but it's a perfect opportunity for you to come and share with basically your, your business birth story. This is what I've kind of coined this, like this season, the series on the podcast is birth stories, but it's for businesses and how people birth their businesses. And so I'd love to hear, cause I don't know if I ever knew the origin of your story and how you got started and kind of the evolution over time. But before we go there, I guess I'd love to hear, um, more about, well, I know where you live, but for everybody else, like more about Christie and who you are and where you live and who you help and that kind of thing.
Great. Thank you. Yeah. So where this sounds weird to me. Does it sound okay to you? It sounds good. Yeah. Okay. So Christy Ramy married 31 years to my husband, Todd. Um, we were missionaries in Mexico. We went to Mexico and built an orphanage for street kids and lived there for years, homeschooling mom of three daughters that are now grown, um, grandma of six and one more on the way. So that's been a huge joy for us, um, and a birth and postpartum doula sense. My third child was born even before we knew that there was a field for this. Um, we were doing that work. I was doing that work. Um, but for business, what you want to know about is in 2018, we moved to Richmond and we started Richmond birth and baby, my husband had a head injury at work and so we had to switch direction and I had to start supporting the family.
And so I have a three year, three years of a four year teaching degree and nursing degree, which means nothing because I didn't graduate lots of good information, but I started having my family and then my husband could support us. So I've stayed home. You know, these years teaching my kids, I can teach you algebra. Um, but I can't work as a nurse. So we had the decision of, should I go back to school or should I try this business? And I said, let's try it and see what happens. Worst could happen is next year I go back to college. So we started it in 2017, but officially in 2018 as an actual business, taking money with systems in place, no more bartering, you know, no more sides of beef and sewing for doula care, which was wonderful, but we switched it up. So in 2018 I started and then I had one lady working with me. And then in 2020, which is when I kind of found you, you helped me sort of pivot things and we'll talk more about that. And now we have 17 people on our team and we're helping. I just counted up for you. We helped over 450 families last year. And this year we're already over 500 families,
Christie. That is incredible
Because of the virtual part that you added in and gave me the ability because I couldn't duplicate myself that many times. Right. And so you helped us scale up into a very, um, financially good place. And so we, I make more money than my husband did. I love
That. I love all of it. I'm just like, well, thanks, you're this, this is so, um, inspiration. It's really inspiring for me to hear, but also for people who are building businesses, you know, they're like, this is possible.
Yup. Yup. And I kind of really held off on the fact that, oh, without a college degree, can I do this? Um, I've done a lot of volunteer work. I've been a la leche league leader for years. So lactation just fell into my ball game. And I was never going to get my IBCLC, which is the highest level of lactation. And because you helped me scale up, it started making me think if I can do that, what else can I do? So this last year, while growing my business, I also went back to college and got all those courses that I needed again, because who wants to take an exam of biology from 25 years ago. Right. And so I sit for the boards, international board certified lactation exam in September, and it's a big deal for me. So how amazing I now believe I can do things
Unless you were doing that. Of course you could do things, you know, I'm, I'm of the opinion that you're already doing the things, you know, it's all those things are already there. They're already happening. It's getting out of our way. Right. Getting out of our own way, deciding and moving.
Right, right. Manifesting too. So if you to talk about that later, I've had a lot of fun with that. Yeah.
Let's so where should we start? So perhaps we start with, um, what does the gist of your company look like in terms of services offered? Like what are the different, so you've obviously birth, doula support, postpartum doula support. It sounds like lactation support,
Right? So we have a brick and mortar office. Um, and again, I can afford that now because of your coaching. So we have a training room and we do lactation clinic days, and I even have another IBCLC that's on the team with that as well because that's taken off. So we see in-person people for first postpartum, lactation, childbirth ed, and then just general classes, grandparenting classes, CPR classes. We have a yoga instructor and a massage therapist that all come into our space and we'll work out things for our actual families that are there. And so we're in Richmond, Virginia. So we see the Richmond area up through DC over to Williamsburg or Virginia Beach out to Charlottesville. If you know that area. And then even down into Raleigh Raleigh, say it wrong, Raleigh, North Carolina. So we have a pretty big service area and families will drive in to our, to get our services.
Um, as far as online services, we can teach childbirth ed just like this. I can do an interactive course, or we have a pre-made class that families can look at in on their own time. Like I say, you can watch it in your pajamas. That's kind of, my phrasing is we can help you with breastfeeding in your pajamas. We're right there in your room. Um, we've really worked on those skills with that. And so that's been helpful. And I think a lot of companies had to pivot, you know, more online. Um, we let's see what do we do? I don't know, just a lot of, kind of even business coaching. I've started a little bit of business coaching over the last year. And so that's kind of helped. I don't know all the things that I'm not technical savvy, but I can help you take it from the beginning to the next couple levels and then tell them, okay, now you're ready. So the typical doula that is only going to have a few clients a year, I'm your girl, man. I can help you with all of that. If you're going to be in-person care, I can do that. If you want to start that virtual care, I can do that. But then I do need to, you know, to send them out to someone like you, that can take them up to that next business, but not everyone wants to go that far. Not everyone needs to.
That was exactly where I was going to go is asking like, okay, so what's next in terms of training other doulas, you know, because that's also, um, a huge need, you know, um, is that hands-on in the field support as well and mentorship. Um, and so now you have 17 people working for the company, um, already, so far in eight months of this year, you've helped more people than all of 2020. So you're off to like kind of incredible for the year. And you know, we're just over halfway through the year, um, the virtual stuff and in person. So I know this comes up a lot for many of the people who hang out in my communities and my clients is like, so where are people finding you? Where do people find out about your business?
Well, surprisingly, a lot of them find me on Google, which I only have a Wix website. I didn't know how to do WordPress. And I was a little overwhelmed by that. So I just did a Wix website. I've had so many coaches over the years, tell me, oh, you need more than that. Even doula agency or doula training companies tell me, you won't make it unless you have this or that. And I found that that's wrong. You know, I've been able to scale up on something that I can edit. I can go in and do myself. I don't have to pay for anyone to do code. I can add in blog posts as I need to. And I do very little. I actually wish I could do more, but I don't have time. Um, but most people are, I'd say 40% of my businesses direct Google, 40% is word of mouth.
And then 10% is now I'm starting to get it from the doctors in the area. The labor and delivery floor will send me the postpartum clients. And now other doulas are sending me their lactation clients because they find that the help in the area might be lacking. Or I have a specialty that's a little specific. I do a lot of tongue and lip tie, functional assessments. And so people are sending me that. So it's been interesting, even doulas that weren't very nice to me. Maybe a couple years ago are now sending people to me. So I love that and I love community. So I mean, to be honest, if it could just be a big party every night, I wouldn't be thrilled. That's my personality. So when someone doesn't like me, I'm really upset.
I mean, I think a lot of people were forced to kind of revisit their competition type of feelings in the last year and a half. You know, we hope that we are evolving out of that, which is, you know, kind of my hope. But you spoke to a really good point about your website and how you were told about WordPress and I too started out with WordPress because everybody said, that's what I needed. I couldn't, I just couldn't do WordPress. I, and I'm like a digital doula, right. And I'm helping people build virtual businesses online businesses. But, um, I too have a very simple, like I used Squarespace and I, my numbers in terms of, uh, organic people, finding my website organically have gone up on Google a lot in the last, I dunno, several months to a year and I'm not on WordPress either.
And so you're right. Like you don't have to be on WordPress. So anybody who's thinking that you have to have WordPress or you have to hire somebody to do all of this SEO work. I agree that that's not required. I have blogs that go out sometimes more consistently than others. And I go periods where there's hardly any blogs coming out, but your website is such powerful real estate. It really is. And it's something that you own. And if we have learned nothing again, we're at this place in the world where we're like, okay, Instagram is shady at best. Facebook is shady at best. And you didn't mention social media by the way. So I was curious, cause I'm not sure how much social media you do for the business.
So, you know, I'm 50. So it's hard for me to get on the whole reels, bandwagon and things. Um, although you do have some great resources when people join the membership. So I just want to get into that in a minute, but you know, I post occasional pictures. I have lots of grandchildren. So I post them as if they are my clients. My clients would say, yes, you can use me for social media. That's great. But to be honest, I don't think it's my place to post their pictures and I have enough grandkid pictures. Um, and I just kind of do some informational stuff. So I do a little bit of Instagram. I don't do anything with Pinterest anymore, but I did have it set up years ago. People still go there, which is kind of funny. Um, Facebook is probably what I put stuff on, you know, the most, if that, and um, yeah, again, I don't know how people find me when it says you had a thousand people searching, you know, for your name or 800 people clicked your website. I'm like what? It's
Cool. Right. It's so cool. And I think that like social media has not required. A lot of people get really intimidated by Instagram because they're like, I don't, like you said, you know, I don't do reels and it's not just because you're 50, but like young people, energy workers tend to not like doing reels. So a lot of my clients are energy workers and they're, they just don't like reels, which makes sense because energy workers like to create deep connecting. They like community, like you're describing, they like community, they like connection. And sometimes social media can be a little tricky with creating that kind of thing. You can do it, but it's, it's a little bit more you having to be much more intentional and real are not conducive to that deep community vibe of content reels are like short micro content pieces that just don't always connect with energy workers. But the good news is it's not required. Right. You know, and you're giving a perfect example of how you're building this very successful business. You're employing 17 people helping hundreds of people already this year. And social media is like a very, very afterthought part of the business is what it seems like. And that's inspiring because people can get really turned off by social media.
Yep. I think to the, um, past clients or current client referrals and their reviews. So Google has, you know, some reviews. So we ask every family to fill out a review, but you know, 2% them actually do. Right. But those reviews are powerful and some people will call and say, I heard you did a class in Spanish. You guys are Spanish speaking. And I'm like, we are, you know, see, and we get a class in Spanish because we have Spanish workers. And although I'm fluent, I'm not quite fluent enough to fully teach a full class. We lived in Mexico for years. Right. So, but my children are married. I have a child married to a young man from Mexico. And so she's, she teaches all my classes. All, all of our daughters are postpartum and birth doula trained, but they just keep having babies. So you're not in the business unless they have to be, look
At you guys and your whole family is out here changing the birth world. I Love it. Yeah. It just, it just surprising what people latch on to on Google and what they say, oh, that made sense, know like someone, a father said, once I'm great value for the money. I thought it would be a waste of our money. And he said, if I could buy sleep, this is what it costs. And she's worth so much more than that. And we had like 10, 10 clients after that posted. And I was like valuable.
It is. I mean, think about it, right? Like anything I buy when I'm on Amazon looking for a recently wanting to get this mosquito killer deal, it like collects the mosquitoes or whatever. And I read reviews, everything. I buy it. I'm looking at reviews even though sometimes we're like, are those real? Or are they fake reviews? But you know, this is obviously very different when you have a dad who's written or a parent who's written, something like that. Like, and I think new doulas struggle with, um, how to ask for testimonials, how to ask for reviews. But it's, it, it really, um, I find that most people are more than happy to write reviews. It's just a matter of asking because people, myself included, are busy and we forget, we just forget, you know, we took, we just got back from vacation. I shared a little bit about it on my social media that we took a little staycation last weekend, the companies that we use for different things, you know, they're like, please write us reviews and I love, and I'm glad they asked. Cause I do forget, but I'm so it's a good point. You know, this is how they stand out. This is how they build businesses, from hearing what other people have experienced there. And our businesses are no different. And the thing about new parents is, you know, they're tired. They're being, you know, they're going through the biggest transition of their lives. So finding the right time, I think is helpful, but like they're still humans and they're still happy to share their experience.
Right. And when you build them up, when you give them the skills, they need to succeed in parenting. They're going to figure it out anyway, but we just kind of come along and help them in that so that it's not such a struggle. Right. And give them specific links or things we recommend. And they are so grateful that, you know, they can get through the things a little easier maybe than their friend did or something like that. And I love that. You know, people always go, what clients do you take? I'm like people that want to be great parents. That's everyone. I hope, you know, we want them, we want to come alongside anyone.
It's true. They'll learn it on their own. But it's like we, and I approach it that similar way with, with my clients that are doulas, right? Like you could have figured out all of this online business stuff on your own, you could have figured all, you have it, all, all that knowledge in YouTube. It's just sometimes it's helpful. Of course you do. And you are very, um, what's the word I'm looking for? Resourceful. Like when it comes, like the things that you bring up in the membership community, the questions you have, like, it's very clear to me that you're not somebody who's showing up that hasn't been doing her work. Like you show up and you've been out there watching videos, learning. I have a visitor. Hold on. Hi honey. Sure. I'll be out in just a minute. Okay. I'm going to finish talking to Ms. Chrissy, beautiful camera here. So, you know, we have, um, real life happening. Um, it's the same thing though, right? Like you show up and you, it's very clear to me that you've been doing, watching videos, researching things and doing, taking action. Do you mind giving me one second to go turn this on for her
Be right back. Thanks. Okay. Thank you for that. That's fine. I think something that might be important to your subscribers for this podcast or even for the people in the membership to think about is I was afraid to do any type of coaching or a membership thing, not because of the money. Although I think, you know, I waffled back and forth and it's because I want to make sure it's a good value for my money, but because I was afraid I couldn't take on everything you taught and apply it. And so I was afraid that if I could only apply a little bit each time, it wouldn't be worth my time and money or even yours, but you've let me ask questions each month. And I've been able to like maybe owning a lean corporate one new product or one new service or creating one new digital class or one new freebie offer once a month slowly.
And that has been really nice to know that we didn't have to come in and do it all at once. And I'm sure there's other people that feel that way, that it might be too much to take in all at once. And you don't have to, if you take in what you can do and little bites and then do that and learn how to do that well, and that's how I was. That's how I learned apparently. And so knowing I didn't have to do it all at once was really helpful to me. Once I got in there and realized I could have access to the membership stuff that I could look at, you know, my biggest things are like the selling courses or audio audience expansion, your video library, um, any of those things, the toolkit, all of those things that you offer, our membership that come with that price are so valuable to me because I can go back and watch it when I need to, and then fix my program a little bit more or my offering or my class. And then in a few months go back after I've learned a little more and add to it. And to me that was really valuable.
I'm glad you said that because the integration part is so, um, you need time for integration, right? Like we can't just watch a sequence of classes in one day or even in a week and then snap your fingers and it's all done. It doesn't work that way. You know, like you do a little and you take your time and then you fix something. And like you said, you're continuing to tweak over time. Um, and I'm glad that you've received it that way too, because I learned that way too. You know, I used to watch classes and classes and classes and classes, and I reached a point to where I'm like, okay, this is all really helpful to sit on the sidelines and watch, but I need to start doing. And when you get into the doing, then you uncover the whole next layer of questions, right?
Like I watched the videos I started doing. It gave me that jumping off point, but I found that I still wanted support, you know? So finding ways to continue to offer support as business owners, I think really makes sense. And as you start to train doulas as well, you know, maybe something that you're looking at different ways to structure it is, um, and replay, you know, I'm a huge, replier, there are certain video modules of certain courses I've taken in the last four or five years that I've watched like seven times one module. No, it's true. Because each time you watch it, it's like the concept of like reading a book again, you know, like there's books that I've read multiple times and each time I read them, I have evolved and I have changed. So the next time I read it, I'm seeing it through a different lens and different parts of it hit me in a different way. And it's the same with courses, whether it's a course on, you know, business things or whatever else, like something different lands. And so I'm glad that it's received that way too. Um, I know sometimes our, our monthly live streams veer off of like business quote and we talk, so you mentioned manifestations, of course, I'm going to ask you like, um, what do you want to share about that? Cause you don't have to share everything of course, but like what do you feel comfortable sharing about your experience with manifesting in your business?
Okay, that's great. So I'm a Christian woman of faith. And so every time I heard the word manifestation will frankly, even like yoga, you know, I was like, ah, is that scary? I was something I'm going to go into. Um, but what I found is I can kind of blend the two together. So I'm always praying for things, but I never thought to really pray for my business, if that makes sense. Like, I always thought it was a person thing or pray for the big things, like what's situation going around in the world, you know, and there's always something local globally, or even in your country. And those are things that need that prayer. So I just thought my business doesn't need that. But you said something one day. I can't remember. And it was about like saying it helps you believe it and kind of helps the world work around it.
So I think you gave it more of a spiritual, but not in the way I would have received it, but that's okay. I took that and started writing in my journals. I want to be successful in my business. The clients are coming and I'll show this and it's even ripped and torn. It's been taped. I'm sure it's backwards on the thing. I want to be a million dollar doula. And so I wrote that a few months ago and then I had to take it down because it manifested so much fricking work I had to stop. And so about once a month, I take it and flip it over it. I need to catch up, please stop. And I just think each morning I get up. I love joy. So I start with joy and just, you know, this business will be successful, but it not because for me financially, I want to be able to help families.
I want to be able to be a light and a joy to others. I want to give to people that need money and support and resources out into the world and to do that, we have to bring it in. So although we were missionaries and you give a lot of your life to go live on $0, basically, you know, and build an orphanage and work with street kids, we're giving more now because it's the resources I can give back that way and I can still do these other things. So, um, that manifesting, I mean, I'll show it again. It's I want to be a million dollar doula. I mean, you might just say, I want 10 new clients. And I did that too. Once. I think you had mentioned that, right? The clients will come. I went 10 new clients for birth 10 new clients. And within 48 hours, my list was completed. And I was like, oh, so I haven't asked for that anymore.
So maybe, okay. So my next suggestion to add onto the back of that statement would be with ease and flow.
So even bought a candle, I'm like, I'm glad that you do a candle invite.
What does it say? Because I can't read it.
It's um, lemonade and watermelon. It's nothing, it's nothing witchy. You know, I'm not into any of that. I thought, you know, it's peaceful and it's calming and it kind of helps me focus and set my day off. Right. You know, I love how you talk about walking in the morning. And, um, I've been moving my body and exercising. I'm 25 down 25 pounds down, but I feel like I'm kind of even evolving in this last summer. I feel like I took time off. I'm thinking about my body and health and I'm working as hard, but now it's almost like I'm working easier. I'm not there yet where it like is all just flowing in without any effort. But the virtual world and your coaching in this membership has changed dramatically. How I am like, I still look tired, but I have more energy and I'm excited and I know I can do things and I feel more accomplished and we are doing things. It is incredible.
I remember having that conversation a few months ago about working hard. I remember that coming up on one of our live stream too hard. Yeah. And I remember it cause I remembered thinking, okay. But what if it got to be a little easier, you know? And when we get to that space of being curious of, well, what if it looked like this? What if it looked different? What would it take for it to be more easeful? And it doesn't mean you don't have to work. It doesn't mean that you're like, okay, I'm just going to lay in bed all day and manifest being a million dollar doula. Like maybe some people do and me know. Um, but it means it doesn't have to be hard. You know, it means that I think gone are the days where we work ourselves into like the way my dad works, like working yourself down to nothing.
Like, hopefully those are days of past, right? Because we deserve breaks. We deserve joy. We deserve ease. We deserve flow. We deserve community and love and nurturing each other and holding each other up. And that is, sounds like really the foundation upon which your business is built. Um, and I guess I, I didn't realize that, uh, it makes sense to me when you say, you know, I'm a woman of faith and you are a Christian and we do talk a lot about spirituality stuff I do in the membership. And I'm glad that you're bringing up that perspective because, um, I'm not super religious, but I believe that, you know, there's these common threads, you know, it's the foundations that applied, you can spin it. However, usually, you know, and I, when I talk about a lot of this stuff in the membership or anywhere that I'm working with clients, I always lead with take what feels good, leave the rest or modify, you know, when I say universe, you might say God or Allah or whatever feels right to you and fill in whatever word feels good. Or if you don't believe that that's totally okay. Um, but I do believe that we are co-creators, you know, whether we're co-creating with God, with universe, with goddess, you know, we are co-creating our life and whatever it is you desire is exactly what's coming in. It's so exciting to me that you're like, it's happened so fast. I have to turn the sign around like that chuckle. Like that's amazing.
It is. It really is. And when you talk about, co-creators like you've even talked about womb magic, and I think I created three humans. And because of that, those three humans have now created other humans. Of course, I'm a bad-ass what was I thinking?
I mean, portal of magic in you, like I saw this song, I think we shared about this in the membership one time that, um, it was a meme, I think that says something like you have a portal of magic between your legs, that basically something goes and then outcomes, a human that is a magic portal. And I was like, oh, mind blown. Yes.
Yeah. We create something from scratch. You know, and again, for me, I feel like obviously there's an influence, a higher power that influences that and gave me those specific children, you know, and even with the losses, that's still creating life. And the fact that then I can also go and create other things. You know, I think as women, we forget the power we have. However, you look at it, like you said, you know, it just, I was always afraid to tap into that. And then even like parenting, I had, I was adopted, I was in an orphanage until I was two and I was adopted it to, by a bipolar mother. And so as she was not diagnosed. And so the fact that I am doing what I'm doing with parents with my upbringing is really either a higher power has a great sense of humor, you know, or there's karma or something, you know?
And I just think how many families we're working with. And when I just went to back to my high school reunion, that's what made me think about it. And I'm like, oh, I did drugs. I smoked all this stupid stuff. My father retired about a little country store. So I was the person that showed up at every party with the beer, you know, like, oh my gosh. And people were like, what are you doing? Like, well, I'm having fun in life. What are you doing? Because I'm taking care of people that really want our help really are appreciative of it. And then they don't need it after a while. And we grow beyond that. We move on to the next family. And because of that, that kind of constant, um, influx of families, maybe my ADHD, I don't know. It just loves that. I just love that we can do that with families over and over.
And they're thankful and they're appreciative just like I am with you. You know, I think your, your support, your encouragement, your cheerleading, and even your crazy out there. Thoughts to me all played a part in what I do and I listen and I put it away for later. And then when I think, like you said, you go to the next level and you think, Hmm, that sounded like that was something I should go back and replay and watch. That does make sense. So yeah, it's been, it's been a crazy journey and I mean, I'm going to hit that million dollar mark. We're over 300,000 in receipts this year. So we'll probably hit the 400,000. I didn't even apply for the, what does it PPP loan, because I couldn't show a loss in my business. I'm like, if I apply, I'm going to have to pay it back because I don't have a loss.
Right. And who doesn't have a loss in their business, people that have learned to pivot, you had people that have learned to do something different and that's why it's working so well. And if it doesn't work in a few years fine, like you said, I'd like to move on to maybe some more coaching. I've written three children's books. And so I've been looking for an illustrator I'd love to teach and move around. I love to be a doula trainer, but I don't want to start one more business. We mentor our doulas when they come in. So I think I'm going to kind of do sort of a coach sort of what you do, but maybe even without the virtual part, because I can send them to you for that, that launching that this is how you can do, and this is the multiple ways you can do. Now I know so much more that I can share with people
And the impact, like the domino effect of all of these hundreds of families that you're helping. Right. So we've talked about this, um, in all these different spaces in the last year, plus like the domino effect, when you help families, it's not just helping that, those parents and that baby, but the people close to them that the friends of theirs that are having babies, that now they are thinking differently. And they're like, Hey, we learned this. Maybe you could try this. It might end up being a referral, but even if it wasn't even if it was just the domino effect of the people you're helping and really like their babies, that's a huge deal because we are impacted by our own births. You know, even if we don't think we remember them, it does impact us. I truly believe it does. And so when you guys are helping on the front line of all of these new babies being born, you know, that's, that's massive. And then they are going to have different experiences in the next 20, 30 years when they start to have children, if they decide to. Right. And it, that to me is like one of the coolest things is that domino effect. Yeah.
Yeah. And you haven't been in business in this long enough to see the generational yet. You've probably seen I'm having a second baby or whatever, subsequent, because I've been doing this for 25, 30 years with Annie's 24. So at least 24 years, I have people that have come to me that I helped them breastfeed as an infant. And they're like, my mom said, I got to call you, you know, help me. And so, and because we lived in Mexico and then all around the east coast, we have people calling us from all around the world and say, you helped my cousin. And I'm like, oh, are you in, you know, Ohio? And she's like, no, I'm in South Dakota and there's no one in my area. And so we just set it up virtually and I get to help them that way. And I could never have thought that I could help people all around the world until I started thinking virtually. I just never, I was already kind of doing it when I moved to Virginia, but I never saw it as a financial aspect of my business.
Yeah. Cause I mean, if, if what you were getting was anything like what I was getting the message even then, um, and my other clients have said this too, that the message from a lot of the birthing community was like, that's not possible. This is not how this is done. Not how you do it. Um, virtual birth classes in 2018 at first, there was a lot of people around me who were like, that's just not how you do it. And I'm like, well, I kind of have to, um, this is how it's going to have to be for me for right now. And, um, here we are, you know, there are loads of people I think when you are open up to it, there's people who have a feeling of like, would this work and is this even possible? And I think about that is there are people who do not like virtual of course.
And if you're somebody who despises it and you only want to be in person then like perhaps virtual, just isn't your jam. And that's okay. You can still build up an online platform that helps you get in-person clients. Like you said, your website is maybe 40% of people coming from your website for in-person stuff too. Um, but if you don't want to do virtual, it's not, it's still okay. But if you're like, I kind of want to, but I'm not sure if it's possible. The goal of this whole series of this informal series of birth, the business birth stories is to show people that like, yes, it's possible. Of course it is. And not just possible. Um, the kind of, for a lot of people right now necessary for different reasons of how comfortable they are being in person, or if you're in an area that's just not in person at all. Like you have clients that are out of state anyway, and they want you because their mothers went to you of course, or there's no one in their area. So for a lot of people, virtual is required still.
Right? I think with COVID too, who knows if it's going to really eventually go away or we all thought it was coming back down, but it's kind of peaking again. And so those of us that already have that part, if things do lock down again, all I have to do is take that up one more level and then I can live off of that part too. If I had to, if I had to drive down person that my clients, my doulas could do the same thing, I would just have to teach them all how to do it. So that gives us power that we didn't have before. So then we're not like a victim of COVID, you know, we're not, um, trapped in that. Um, you know, I think if you were in a, like a minority situation and you can't afford this, virtual gives you an option.
If you were in a relationship, that's not, we've had people that couldn't come to us in person, but when a childbirth ed, because of, uh, maybe a situation in their home, right. So they could do it virtually in their own convenience of their home, and then still feel empowered when they go to have that baby. So if you can't have extra people in that birth room, don't, you want to know that you got all the information you could take in that was appropriate for what you're doing, you know, either specified to you because we offer that we can teach one-on-one, I can do this with the client and give them specifically, I'll even do the research at their hospital for them. Or they can just pay the a hundred dollars and look at the class whenever they want. Right. So it gives you so many different options.
I just think it's really, it's really made it easy for us. Um, it's it is difficult to manage all those back forms. And so watching you go, I'm going to go to a new platform. I'm going to try, this has helped me because then I'm like, oh goodness, it's not just me for that as well. And the world out there is changing. People are creating new platforms, new digital, and virtual experiences that we never knew of two years ago, companies that fully didn't even exist are now million dollar businesses. So there is always an opportunity to be unique in your field to be the one trailblazing in your field or the one to do something a little different, you know, it's not, it's not done that way. Okay. Well, why is your way different than mine? Let's try it. If it doesn't work, then you're like, okay, you're right. But if it works, then that's great. And it uplifts all of the virtual or all of the doula field when we are excellent in our field, it makes other doulas look good. So let's raise each other up as women, as business owners and encourage one another again, that's my, uh, my extrovert coming out. It's so
Good. It is because you're absolutely right. And that was a lot of like the message. I think, as, as it's time, this episode airs could probably have been a couple of weeks ago on that, on the podcast that I was like, thinking about how it keeps the birthing community at large, it keeps us so small when we think small about business, when we think bigger and when we expand and do it our own way, we're breaking out of that pattern of staying small. And we're allowing everybody to expand, not just businesses, but the birthing population. We are helping them rise because we can reach them and meet them wherever they're at. You have a suite of products, different price points, different ways to access content and information and support. And that's how we are creating the connection and helping people rise. So I love it. Um, and kudos to you for always being willing to show up and willing to try something different, willing to do things that are challenging at first, um, and doing them your own way, because here you are, um, writing things on paper and they happen so fast that like, you have to take down your paper
To turn it over. Yeah. Thank you. I appreciate that. It's nice to have someone encourage us along the way, too. You know, not just as a business owner, as a woman, you know, I love it. That my kids call me mom boss, that they've started saying hashtag mom, boss, that vacation this year was paid for us. You know, that we, we rented a house, we put our kids up and no one had to pay anything. I love that this, this business, what you have helped me scale up to has provided the freedom and the fun to do the things. But we even did like a three-day training with our team completely at a beach house. Like who does that? I just, I just love what we've created. I love my team. I love my people. I love that. Um, you've been a part of that and I, yeah. And next thing for me is actually a podcast myself. I just got a coach for that. And we're talking about that. I hope I have enough things to share and talk about and to be able to help, you know, just, you know, the business owner, the small business owner that maybe didn't believe kind of like the little train that could, or whatever, something like that, you know.
Well, we need to talk about that. Cause I saw that in your messages. And I was like, oh, I don't check my Facebook messenger very frequently. Um, I have notifications turned off on my phone. So the only thing I get notifications for is a boxer. And I only check Facebook to go to our communities. Like I go straight to the premier coaching center or the membership community and straight to my other client community. Um, so I sometimes miss those, but we need to talk about the podcasting thing on the next live stream. Um, but also I wanted to say too, it's been an like, it's such an honor to be in your corner. And just to be part of, even if it's a little part of being on your team and, you know, helping in whatever way I can. I mean, I do feel like what I said earlier, I'm going to hold truth to that. That it's, you could have done this all of course. And you could have had all the answers, but it's like, anything else, like parenthood, like running a business, like you could do it yourself, but sometimes it's, it's just more fun when you, it feels better to when you have people to support you along the way. It really does. And I, I tested that for myself too.
Right. Thank you. And sharing your successes to hear other people go, woo. It's pretty exciting, you know, and it inspires others. And then that's, I very much have been inspired by other people in the membership and
Sometimes sharing your crummy stuff too. You know, we share our successes because we want to cheer each other more than we want to be in the vibration of success and the vibration of celebration and joy. Um, and sometimes it's crap and sometimes we have to share our crap because when we look around and realize, oh, we're all kind of sitting in crap today. Right. And that's okay. And that's also a normal part of it. Um, so yes. Thank you. And thank you for coming to hang out with me today. I know you are a hashtag mom boss, um, and got 17 people to go tend to and million dollar business to run on the way in the works. Um, so I appreciate you being,
Thank you so much for having me. Thanks
Christy. So I'll see you soon on our live streams.
Okay, great. We'll see you in the membership people. All right. Bye. Bye. Bye.