This one thing will change how you promote your Doula services
If you’re looking for clients, hoping clients will hire you for support, trying trying trying and crickets… take an inventory of your life. Do you have support in your life, in your business? If you are, amazing. Still listen in, who knows, you might learn something. Note that there is a difference between hiring someone to help you and allowing yourself to receive support.
If not, why is that? What’s underneath the feeling of ‘I can do it myself?’
I know that just a short time ago, I wasn’t. I remember when Liv was born, and our mother’s helper was at the house. I was holding Liv, crying and she came up to me and said, “I’m here to help Nichole, let me hold her.” Even my husband has had to remind me (after each child) to allow people to help us.
When I dug into it for myself, here’s what I found.
We are conditioned to be tough, do it ourselves, and NOT to ask for help. There’s this FALSE belief that we shouldn’t ask for support, as though there’s a trophy for making it hard. What BS. All that does is keep us drowning, struggling. What we need, what we deserve, is to thrive.
For years, I was conditioned to believe that lie - this patriarchal society that we’re living in can do that to you.
But those of us in the birth world know that that’s straight BS. New parents (even 2nd and 3rd time new parents) aren’t meant to do this alone.
This applies to motherhood, parenthood, AND in business.
Here’s what this circular impact looks like with worthiness & receiving support:
We are conditioned to believe that we’re not worthy of support → don’t invest in support (a Doula) → Doula businesses remain small → Business owners carry the same belief that we’re not supposed to have help in our business, that we’re supposed to spend the bare minimum to grow our business, investing in ourselves is wasteful, selfish, etc. → and then we stay small, perpetuating this fabricated belief to keep us that way.
How different might it look if pregnant people understood the value and believed in their worth?
So how do we begin to unravel the deep rooted conditioning? How do we get through to the vast majority of the population that Doulas can help, help is important and we can allow ourselves to receive help? Because not enough people are utilizing Doula support, even virtual, and we know it.
We start by leading - by allowing ourselves to receive support in our life, in our relationship, in our business.
When we do that, when we’ve realized the impact of support, even virtual, we hold that truth in our body. We speak about it differently.
I know I do. And your people see that. They FEEL that.
We show up differently when we meet potential clients - online this would be the way that you speak in your IG captions.
We show up differently on prenatal consult calls - there’s a sureness in the way that we communicate our services - it’s no longer feeling like you’re trying to sell, or convince, someone to purchase from you.
Just because you’re a solopreneur, running your Doula business by yourself, doesn’t mean you’re supposed to do it alone.
Entrepreneurship can feel lonely AF, isolating.
We sit around and wonder if the emotional rollercoaster we’re on is ‘normal.’
And yet, we advocate for families not to do it alone… right? But part of our job is to guide them through allowing themselves to receive our support, to flip the table on societal conditioning.
And if you aren’t walking the walk, talking the talk and experiencing support, how can you fully, 100%, put your entire belief system behind what you’re offering?
That’s a big part of business success - getting clients, making money - belief.
And not just ‘I’ve witnessed the power of doula support belief’ but a belief to your core.