Episode 63 transcript:

Speaker 1: (00:01)
Hey everybody. And welcome back. So this week we're talking about the fashion nova business model. If you don't know what fashion Nova is, it's okay. I will break it down for you. Um, you may be familiar though with the cheesecake factory and they have, I don't want to say the same business model, but it's the same message that I'm going to hit home in this episode and why the fashion of a business model, the cheesecake factory business model are not a great idea for your birth business. And if you're not familiar with fashion Nova, let me explain to you what it is. So if fashion Nova is a online clothing site, mainly catering to women, but they now have, I just saw that they now have men's sections and they have children's clothes. Um, but it really started out a couple of years ago with mainly like Instagram influencers and certain, um, I guess celebrities.

Speaker 1: (00:51)
Yeah, because Cardi B was doing a fashion Nova line. Um, and it's very low price point clothing kind of trendier geared towards younger people. I would say. Um, the thing is, is they have so many things on their website. It is out of control. So the last time I went to their website, uh, was this morning I popped on just to, just to take a look. And when I originally talked about this in a post on Instagram last month, I did a filter just for dresses and I selected to see only dresses. There were 3,682 dresses this morning. I filtered for tops just if I wanted a t-shirt and there are like 3,500 and some odd tops right now. So the problem with this is that there's just way too much stuff, for lack of a better word. Some of it's really cute, some of it's, but the point is like, it's just too much, how much time would you need to sit and go through that website to decide what to buy?

Speaker 1: (01:52)
So it's overwhelming. And honestly, a couple of times I have been tempted to go to their site and find something fun or whatever. Some lounge wear something, a t-shirt, but I get so overwhelmed by the plethora of things that I close my tab and whatever I may have added to my cart. I just abandoned cart it's too much. And the problem here is that there there's too many options, right? And so what does this have to do with your birth business? I'm getting to the point I promise. And again, this is kind of like that cheesecake factory concept. If you've ever gone to cheesecake factory, they give you a book, the menu is a book and you will end up picking something most likely because you're hungry. You go because you're hungry. Right. But how long, how much longer does it take you to pick something when you've got this menu of like, I don't know, a hundred something different things that you could order, um, versus maybe a smaller restaurant that only has a select menu.

Speaker 1: (02:50)
It's much easier to make an order unless you know what you like. And I mean, at cheesecake factory, I kind of reached a point. I know what I like. Um, but I'm kind of broadly speaking about their business models, right? So the problem with doing something like this in your birth business is we don't want people to be so overwhelmed when they land on your services page or on your website, that they closed the tab that serves nobody. If they, if they go on your service page and there's just so many options, and there are so many different things that they look at it. And they're like, I really was kind of interested in this person, but when I go to their site, I just, don't, I'm overwhelmed. I'm confused. It's too much. And especially this year when we have a lot that we are consuming as humans, right?

Speaker 1: (03:38)
Meaning the media or what we see online, or just what's happening in our real life. We are experiencing a lot this year. So as a business owner where you can simplify choices and decisions for your clients is a really smart move. In my opinion, it takes a lot of work to get people to land on your website and to go to your services page, wherever they are out in the universe of the interwebs, you know, whatever they're searching for. If they're, you know, looking at Pash tags on Instagram, like hashtag Tampa doula, or hashtag, um, postpartum support or something like that in my area, or, you know, whatever, somehow they landed on your page, they got to your Instagram, you landed on your website. Um, or they went to, they found your Facebook group, you know, wherever they met you online, they ended up on your sales page or your services page.

Speaker 1: (04:33)
And they are considering inquiring working with you. It took a lot to get to that point. And what you don't want to happen is for people to feel so overwhelmed at that point that they leave, because if they leave chances of them finding you again, if they didn't click follow, right, let's assume they didn't click follow. It's hard to remember unless you're really captivated by something that somebody said or did on their Instagram or social media. And so we just don't want to take that risk, you know, not to say we want to try to convince them to buy something or force or whatever. That's just weird, gross icky. And we don't do that. Um, but I do think that it's helpful to simplify. Uh, it helps people to make the decision, right. So,

Speaker 2: (05:15)
Okay.

Speaker 1: (05:17)
If I were pregnant and I'm out in the world, which I'm not for the record and I land on your social media, I want it to be crystal clear, you know, how you can help me, how you can support me and what the opportunities are. Right. Otherwise I might get overwhelmed, close the tab. A kid starts screaming at me, or if I'm pregnant, for example, first time, or maybe I get nauseous, I need to run to the bathroom to throw up or, you know, whatever. Um, it, it just needs to be very simplified. I'll give you another example from my own experience as a consumer, that's not directly related to pregnancy and birth, but a similar concept. Let me explain what I mean. So I used to work with, well, I still have, um, various like spiritual mentors or I've worked with different types of healers in the past.

Speaker 1: (06:01)
People that have done, um, ancestral healing work and, um, past life things, things like that. Right? And so I remember going on certain people's websites and looking at their offerings and seeing you can buy this one type of session that does this for an hour and it's this much money, or you can buy this one type of session that does this thing, and it's this much, or this session is three hours and it's this much. And they have this menu effectively of all these different things. And it's clear to me that they have lots of tools in their tool belt, right? So as a healer, maybe, maybe they're calling themselves a healer. That's the door, that's the sign that they come on the door as a healer, they offer these one-off individual healing sessions or these things that go specifically to do cord cutting or, um, past life clearing regression, you know, past life regression something, I can't remember the title for that, or, um, ancestral healing or inner child work.

Speaker 1: (06:55)
And they've obviously done a lot of, or Reiki, you know, a Reiki session. The thing is as a consumer, when I look at that, I'm like, Oh, well, I think I want that one, but I also, maybe, I don't know. I kind of liked that one too, but I'm not sure what's best for me. Um, and what happens is I might book one session and that's great. And I have a really good session. The chances of me going back to book a different type of session, it depends on how the business owner really handles it from that point forward. But the point being is that healer has tons of tools in their toolbox, in their tool belt. Right. And what they've done is spread out where you're buying each individual tool that they have. And I don't think that that's a really the optimal experience as a consumer. And so if

Speaker 2: (07:41)
You switch gears

Speaker 1: (07:43)
And like shift your perspective and look through the lens of the business owner as a business

Speaker 2: (07:48)
Owner for you as a birth

Speaker 1: (07:51)
Professional, lots of doulas have tons of tools in your toolbox,

Speaker 2: (07:57)
Right? Jewel has love trainings and

Speaker 1: (07:59)
Certifications and learning. And that's one of the things I love about this industry is that doulas really have this lifelong passion and desire to learn and grow and be able to serve their families and their people, um, more and more and more in deeper, richer, and stronger ways. And I really, really love that. So doulas have tons of tools that they can use and their businesses. However, that doesn't mean that you need individual offers separate offers for each of the things that you,

Speaker 2: (08:31)
So for example, if you are a first

Speaker 1: (08:35)
Doula that also does Reiki, that also does re specific, like Rebozo classwork, I'm just pulling examples out of the, out of there, or let's, let's do postpartum, let's say you're a postpartum doula and you also do Reiki and you also do energy healing, other types of energy, modality, healing, and you also into herbs and you know, a lot about you're an herbalist maybe, and you use herbs for your clients during their postpartum healing. And you've also done training on different cultural ways to heal postpartum bodies, or even you've done training on vaginal steaming and how to help people recovering postpartum to do vaginal steaming, which is what, one of the current members of the dualism business mastermind. It's one of the things she does with her clients. Um, Melissa, I'll tack her in the show notes and she has a really great offer by the way, right now, not just for, you know, it's for doulas too.

Speaker 1: (09:37)
It's open to doulas to for virtual vaginal steaming, by the way. Really cool. So let's say you have all these tools in your tool belt. If I land on your website and I see all these different things, I might not know about all of those things. I might not know how all of them can help me, but if I just know that I like you, I connect with you. I trust you. And I want to hire you, bring your tools to that offer. And as a business owner, try to think about how you can best serve your client, what would be. So here's what my suggestion is going forward. Number one, simplify number two. And that doesn't mean stop doing the things with all of the amazing tools that you have. It just means to consolidate or simplify the offers, the ways that people can pay you and work with you.

Speaker 1: (10:24)
And number two, this is a big one. Think about your ideal, your client's ideal experience with you. Are they going to have the most ideal experience, the biggest life, life transformation possible if they only hire you to prepare postpartum soup, right? Or other healing foods? No, because you have all these other tools in your tool belt, you know how to do vaginal steaming, you know how to, you know, do all of these other things, maybe belly binding and you know, this and this and this and this, all of these things combined and your energy, give them an ideal experience. So think about it like that. And when, you know, when you're putting your offer together and when you're pricing, right? So like what would give them the best experience? And that's how I put together. My packages is an ideal experience. Now, will everybody be able to do that financially?

Speaker 1: (11:18)
Um, you know, or whatnot, maybe not. And for people that maybe can't commit to the ideal, you know, all the bells and whistles experience, perhaps you have something that can help them in a different way that meets them where they're at, right? Like a paired down version that you might create something custom for them. Or you might just have something that's a lower price point that you can offer that something they can do on their own time, like DIY style. So for, in our example, what that might be is you might not be in their kitchen making all of the postpartum things, or you might not be the one who's, um, who's standing there helping them do the vaginal steaming, but maybe you DIY style it. Maybe you teach them, maybe you have a recipe book or ebook, or maybe you have, um, a way that you can, like, what Melissa's done was just really creative and really incredible, I think is virtual ways that she's working with people to help them DIY right now a lot of people are DIY a lot of things, right?

Speaker 1: (12:10)
Because people are home and figuring things out, streaming virtual. Um, so we're getting creative and innovative and that excites me. And so she's found that she has a way that she can work with people to help them. DIY they're steaming. She is knowledgeable and I'm not, I'm not like an expert at this, so I may be getting some of this wrong. But my understanding is that she has an intake process that people fill out, it's all done virtually and she can help them guide them towards what herbs would be best. And she sends them there. Basically when they work with her, she sends you a package of herbs and then guides you virtually through doing your own steaming, whether you have a seat or whether you're doing it in some other way, she guides you through how to do that. Um, and I asked, and it was clear to me that she doesn't have to see you naked just in case you were wondering.

Speaker 1: (12:55)
Cause I was, I've never done vaginal steaming, but I think it's really, really, really cool. So think about what your main offers would be and the whole thing. And then they may be experiencing things that they didn't even realize would be helpful to them. Right. So if they had no idea about belly binding, didn't think it would be helpful. You're like, Oh yeah, it's, it's part of what we do together. Now. This is part of the experience with me. Then after the fact they might be like, wow, I'm so, you know, they were probably going to be so glad that they did that, that they had that experience or you being the one in the kitchen, preparing bone broths or soups or other types of healing, nutritious foods and things to help them heal, which they might not have thought about. Maybe they thought that all they needed was a snack grazing station at their house to make sure they're getting their calories and proteins in which you know, that stuff's important too.

Speaker 1: (13:46)
But, um, not a lot. I will say of the birthing population is really aware of how important postpartum nutrition really is up until now. I wasn't either, you know, and almost all of us, I do not have the time to do that ourselves. And so we might not even think that we need that. But then after the fact realize, wow, that was really impactful. And what's happening is you're not just having, offering this incredible experience for your clients, but you're also opening their eyes to all of these other ways that they can have a better experience. And then they're going to start talking to their friends and they're going to start telling their people, Oh, you need to talk to so-and-so or, Hey, have you ever tried vaginal steaming? My postpartum doula just did that with me over zoom. And how cool is this? And that's what we want.

Speaker 1: (14:33)
Right. We want to, this goes back to the hashtag. I talked about like last month, I think it was, or the month before do listen to manner of really helping people around the world learn about what doulas do. So it really, you know, everything is, um, everything goes together, right? They're all connected. And so then the third thing I would suggest when it comes to this and one of this is really tied to number one, which was simplified, but make it easy for people to make a decision. So that's why we want to simplify because it makes it easier for people to decide. Sometimes there are just so many options that we reached this point where we're kind of, um, frozen and we make no decisions, nothing happens. We just don't do the thing because it's overwhelming or it's confusing, or we don't understand it.

Speaker 1: (15:20)
And so if you make it easier for people, it's not saying that more people will buy it saying that the people who were considering buying it will be easier for them to make the decision and buy from you and invest in you versus sitting on the fence. Like, I don't know, I'm not really sure this isn't clear. I don't want to bother them. I don't have time to call them or, you know, I have a million things going on today and then I forget just make it easy. And I'd love to hear what your thoughts are on streamlining and consolidating your tools in your tool belt into a few key

Speaker 3: (15:53)
Offers,

Speaker 1: (15:56)
Sorry, phone call, probably a sales call right in the middle of recording, but to his life. Um, I'd love to hear how you're really streamlining your offers. Now I will say, too, if you are further along in your business, this might be a little bit different, right? So like it's been a few years now, but I do have a couple of different things. I don't have two offers. I don't ha you know, I have a couple more than that, right? I have birth courses, but if you look at it in another way, there's a couple of legs of my business that are really, um, a couple of routes that are the same tree, right? And this was an analogy that I heard on, um, on a business planning session last week with the mastermind that I'm a member of is they, these are really routes to the same tree.

Speaker 1: (16:39)
So I have a route that speaks to pregnant people, and I have two versions of my birth course, um, that they can choose to, to, to take, right. There's a first time, a first time moms class, and there's a VBAC moms course. And then the other route of my tree of my business works with doulas. And when it comes to doulas, I do have a couple of different things, but they're starting to, they're starting to be consolidated. Right. And so what that looks like is I have my very low price point, um, content tool kit that I released for black Friday. And then I have two main ways that people can work with me. I have the premier coaching center membership, um, that is currently not open for enrollment, but it will open some time early next year. And I have the dualism business mastermind, right?

Speaker 1: (17:27)
And so there are different types of experiences that serve a different type of doula or where you're at in your business. Like they meet you in different places and for the level of support that you're looking for, right? So the premier coaching center is a little bit lower level of support, but it still has a group component. And some, um, you know, of that group with me of support and lots of courses, it gives you a lot of tools and price-wise, it meets you where you're at, um, in a different way, the mastermind is a deeper, private one-on-one experience, more intimate, small group and private experience with me that goes six months. And we work together in a different way. Now I will say that the mastermind people members have access to all of my courses also. So that's just an added bonus to them, but there's no curriculum per se in the mastermind.

Speaker 1: (18:19)
It's more of a support level. Now, there are times that mastermind members have questions about something like sales pages. For example, perhaps they're working on something and we're working on a sales page. I might refer them to a specific module in one of my courses that really breaks down how to create a sales page. This sells, they will go watch the module and then come back and I'll support them through putting the page together. For example, it's just different levels of support and meets you in different places where you're at in your business and over time that starts to take shape. And that, that starts to become clear. Um, so that's something that I want to leave you with, and I'm really excited to hear how you assess where you're at right now with your business. Do you have a services page that has like 30 different offers when somebody lands on your website, are they seeing a million different messages or is it very clear what you do?

Speaker 1: (19:11)
And if you ask your audience to name, here's the challenge for you, right? So I would love for you guys attack me in this. I'm going to leave you with this challenge. Somebody did this a couple of months ago, and I thought it was really bright, really smart, because it gave you a good idea on how clear you're being with your clients, about how you can help them or potential clients, your community go on your Instagram or Facebook or wherever you're at online and ask your audience to either answer a question box in your ID stories, or post it to Facebook and ask them to put comments in three words or three examples of what comes to mind when they come to your page. Like, what do they think your page is about? What do they think your company's about and see what they say?

Speaker 1: (19:55)
And ideally when people start submitting those and tag me, I want to see right. Like tag me in it so I can see what's going on with you guys. Um, ideally what will happen is you'll start to see the same things over and over again, and then you'll realize, okay, it's pretty clear, but if people are coming up and they're like, Oh yeah, this person, she talks about, um, yoga mats. And, and sometimes she talks about, um, I don't know, smoothies. And sometimes she talks about, uh, hoop earrings, or, you know, or they're not really clear, like one week you're selling shoes one week you're selling, um, necklaces and the next week you're selling energy healing sessions. And the next week you're selling, um, I don't know, um, workshops, like, I, I mean, it's, is it all over the place is what I'm trying to get at or are their answers really, really kind of all in line with each other.

Speaker 1: (20:40)
And I did this, I did this exercise a couple months ago, cause I was like, Oh, that's interesting. Let's see what people think of my account. And it was really cool to see that pretty much everybody was saying like Berthy things, birth business things and business inspiration, VBAC stuff. And it was very, yeah, it was very on brand. It was very neat. It was very much the message that I want to get out there. And I do not want to have a fashion of a business model. I do not want to have a cheesecake factory business model. Now I do have interests. I like hoop earrings. I like yoga mats. I gave birth on a yoga mat one time. Um, I like tennis shoes. I like sneakers. I like those things. And sometimes I talk about them. Um, but that's not really, um, that's not really my business offerings, you know? So tag me, I can't wait to hear about it and I will see you tomorrow live and doulas going digital for after the episode, meet me there so we can chat. I want to hear what you think of the episode and how you're moving forward with this information. All right. Have a beautiful day.