Episode 192. Business Birth Story & a Marketing History Lesson with Darcy Sauers (Doula Darcy)
The Business Birth Story series is back! This time you’ll meet Darcy Sauers, commonly known as ‘Doula Darcy’ on the interwebs. Darcy shares her story of leaving a fancy NYC marketing career to pursue her passion in the postpartum world. Then, she shares how she had to learn how to market her new postpartum doula business, leaning back on what she learned in her former marketing career. After about nine years as a postpartum doula, in 2019, Darcy realized the need to teach other doulas how to market… and the next iteration of her business was born.
Darcy and I hope you can join us this January at the Birth Worker Retreat in Clearwater Beach, Florida. Darcy will be leading sunrise yoga and teaching on how to work with your cycle to work smarter, not harder. See you there!
Ways to work with Nichole Joy:
Podcasting with Heart (NEW):
Podcast consulting application: https://nicholejoy.hbportal.co/public/64fa005ec70ae50024c65155
Birthworker Retreat Tickets: https://mailchi.mp/behervillage/birthworkerretreat
Black Birthworker Scholarship Application: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe2Cye69MQ01inIERCVj5AAbPBPvg7In7zisLdpFJqKM0_S_g/viewform?usp=sharing
Honeybook (CRM) trial:
Transcript:
Here are three things that you need to know before you listen to this episode. Number one, podcast consulting. So I'm now offering podcast consulting. I am holding your hand and showing you while you are in the driver's seat, how to put together your podcast. Whether you're gonna DIY, outsource, whatever.
We are going to be building podcasts together. If you'd like a spot at podcast consulting with me, there's an application link in the show notes or dmm me. My dms are always open. Announcement number two, if you'd prefer to learn at your own pace and all of it. DIY, the podcasting with Heart Self-paced course is now available.
I'm still in the middle of teaching it, so if you get the self-paced version, just note that as I teach the modules, they're being loaded into the portal. But that is an option. There's a link in the show notes. You can find out all the information.
Announcement number three. You've already heard me talk about the birth worker retreat. It's two and a half months away, so it's November. Our retreat is January 22nd, 23rd, 24th in Clearwater Beach, Florida. It is a birth worker retreat with a focus on MINDBODY business. I am opening three intensive spots.
Private one-on-one before and after the retreat. So if you plan on attending and you would like to book some private in-person time with me to get ish done, reach out to me, DM me ASAP to secure one of your spots, and we can book it around your schedule of when you're gonna be arriving and when you plan on departing from the retreat. Side note, also related to the birth worker retreat, there is a black birth worker scholarship available, so be sure to click the link in the show notes and apply if that's something that you feel like would be helpful for you.
As always, if you have any questions, my DMs are open.
Welcome back. I want to introduce you to, well, you may already know her, but I'd like to formally introduce you again to Darcy. So she goes on Instagram, on social media by doula Darcy. And I asked Darcy to come on the show today to tell us her business birth story. Uh, so we're bringing back the business birth story series.
And I. I'm going to be recording several of these with the different people who [00:02:00] are co facilitating and co hosting the Birth Worker Retreat that we are going to be hosting in January in Clearwater, Florida. So if you haven't yet heard us talk about it or heard me talk about it on the podcast, or heard Darcy talk about it, January 22nd, 23rd, 24th of 2024, Clearwater Beach, Florida.
There is a link in the show notes. And there's also a payment plan option through Clarna. So you can choose to set up your own payment plan if that's something you'd like to do. And there's also a Black Birth Workers Scholarship. Uh, so we'll be spending. Three days focusing on mind, body business. Um, it's mostly focused around birth workers.
This is kind of the thing that's like our common denominator between Darcy myself and Caitlin McGrace of be her village and Jodi Congdon. Am I saying it correctly? Yeah, I never say her last name, but I'm wondering Jodi Congdon of hip to heart. Um, so I've known Darcy for a while and I. You've been on the podcast and when we did the group interview, but I don't know your business birth story.
I know you have a background in marketing and that's about it. So, I mean, I don't know how much you've shared your business birth story with everybody else as well. Um, but yeah, I'm going to turn it over and just like, tell us the story. Like how did you birth your business? Oh my gosh. I love this question so much.
First of all, thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here and to see you in real life in January. That's going to be so much fun. Um, cause I live up in New England and New Hampshire. So, uh, Florida in January is just perfection. So it's going to be great. Um, so yes, as you mentioned, I worked in advertising and marketing right out of college.
That's what my degree was in. I had a job. I worked in Manhattan for a little while. I worked at a big ad agency in Princeton, New Jersey, and I just, I was in my twenties and I, I loved it. And I thought, this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to be this corporate advertising executive. Um, and then we moved back to New Hampshire and we were going to start a family and I was like, yeah, but I work in advertising and marketing.
And then I had my first baby, you know, and I was also a competitive gymnast as like in childhood and high school. And so all I went into birth. With was like this idea that, yeah, I think I want to do this without drugs, but more from like an athletic perspective, like that's my goal would be to do this.
And I think I can accomplish this and, and I was a gymnast and I was a straight A student and I went to college and I have a good job. Like people say it's hard. Uh, but I'll be fine. So yeah, so I actually had a really great labor. Um, cause actually I did a lot of yoga. So I kind of just settled into like some deep breathing and, you know, labored at home, got to the hospital.
I was already at seven centimeters. So I was like, see, I'm doing this. Um, and then she was. Sunny side up, I pushed and pushed and pushed for hours and eventually ended up with a C section and the OB came in, you know, the next day and said that just, she said, she's like, the bones of your pelvis, you have a very, she have a strange shape of one of the bones.
And she's like, so a hundred years ago, you both would have died. And I was like, Oh, uh, yay. Um, she was trying to make me feel better because I was beating myself up for having a C section. I was like, Whoa, what is my problem? I, you know, I'm, I'm a woman. We're supposed to give birth. So what's my problem if I can't do it?
So she was trying to make me feel better. And It made me feel better for like five minutes, but then I got really thinking about it, but that's a whole other story. Um, but I had been awake, you know, I labored through the night. And the whole next day, and she was born via C section at, you know, three hours of pushing, 6 p.
m. she was born. So I missed a couple nights of sleep. I hadn't eaten that whole time, mostly just because I didn't feel like it. Um, and so, it was like this long, you know, 24 hours of labor, and then a major surgery. I was exhausted. And then I was like, Oh, okay, well now my baby's here. Um, let's, I had, I had visitors constantly, like one would leave the, I didn't rest at all in the hospital.
Got home, ended up with an infection. I was back in the hospital. I had 102 degree fever. I just, to make a long story short, felt like crap. And obviously, of course, I should have felt like crap. Like I had, you know, I just had a baby, I just had surgery, I had an infection, I was sick, um, but I was in my head.
I was like, I'm doing this wrong. I'm not being a good mom because I just, I had a fever. I just wanted to go lay down and sleep, but I had to breastfeed every hour and a half. And I, I, you know, I thought I had to do all this stuff. And so, um, that just kind of got worse and worse and worse as the sleep deprivation kept going.
And. You know, a few weeks in, I remember like putting some dishes in the dishwasher and I was like, I'm so tired. Like, I just, I can't, like, I can't even keep the kitchen clean. And my mom was there helping me. My mother in law was there helping me. My husband was very helpful. I had tons of like people helping me.
But I wasn't voicing any of this out loud. And I remember putting a dish in the dishwasher and hearing my OB say, well, a hundred years ago, you and your daughter would have died. And I just thought, well, maybe, maybe we should have, like, maybe I'm not cut out for motherhood. Maybe that's why I couldn't give birth.
And so to make a very long story short, I obviously had postpartum depression, later anxiety and, um, quit my marketing job because of, I was having intrusive thoughts about, um, well about everything, but specifically about putting my daughter in daycare. So I, I, like a week before I was supposed to go back, I told my husband, I was like, I can't do it.
Like I. Physically. I'm not going to be able to drop her off. Um, he's like, well, you know, do what you need to do. He's like, you're going to burn a bridge. You're not, you know, like, you're not going to go back to that. You told them you were coming back, you know, this marketing job I had. Um, and I said, I don't know, I didn't even care.
And so I did, I quit. And I actually got a really nice letter from the CEO of the company at the time. And he said, he sent me an email. He's like, Darcy, we're going to miss you. You know, you've been a great. Asset to the company, blah, blah, blah, blah. Um, but this is a decision. You'll never regret. Which I thought was really nice and certainly didn't regret it.
So my, that whole experience eventually led me to become a postpartum doula. I was, I became obsessed with telling my friends, with talking to anyone I met or knew who was having a baby. And I was like, listen, you think it's going to be rainbows and unicorns, but it is hard. Um, so it was kind of just like being a postpartum doula.
And then I started to, you know, I had another baby and I got a job through a former employer and I was working at home a couple hours a week, sorry, a couple hours a day while my kids napped for Zanga, um, which like. And this was like around the year 2000, they were very, if you were a teenager in the year 2000, you knew what Zanga was, um, it was a blogging website when blogging websites were huge.
Um, so I was working there and I read a blog about a postpartum duel and I was like, Oh. That it was like the clouds part. I was like, that is what I'm going to do. That is what I am meant to do with my life. And very quickly, my business birth story is like, I saw those words and then the universe was like here, a donut training popped up an hour from my house a couple of weeks later.
I think I was already a yoga teacher at that time. And then I just was like, well, now I'll add do the 40 hour prenatal yoga teacher training. It was like the. Pieces all fell into place really quickly. So in 2010, I became certified, trained, fully trained, um, as a postpartum doula. And that's when I started my postpartum doula business here in Dover, New Hampshire.
Um, and just, I, I loved it. I loved going into new mom's homes and first of all, just, you know, holding the baby so that they could nap. That was my biggest thing. Cause that I was just so tired. I had, I ended up having three babies in four years, three C sections in four years. Depleted beyond, uh, anything anyone ever should do.
So I just, I have, I still do have this amazing passion for helping moms in those first 12 weeks. So it kind of just blossomed from there. And then I was able to, and I kind of went through the same thing. The. Experience that I hear so many other doulas say that I was just so excited to learn that this was a job to learn that this was a career to take the training.
I've read all the books. I was just devouring information. I just so excited. And then I finished my training, got home. I was like, okay, I'm a postpartum doula now. And I was just like, Oh, wait a minute. I can't go on monster. com and find a postpartum doula job. I can't. Just, you know, there's no line of pregnant people here at my house waiting for me.
I kind of was like, I'm, I'm trained to everybody. Like, where do I go? So I realized, Oh, I have to get my own clients, but I was lucky in that I was able to lean back on that marketing background and, you know, use what I knew to really, Um, build up my own business, I think at a faster pace than most doulas do.
Um, so that was, um, great. And then right before, so in like 2019, I'd been at it nine years. I had opened an agency at a one or two other doulas that were like helping me. I was doing days, they were doing overnights and they were back, you know, backing up and taking some more day shifts and I, I remember standing in.
One of my clients living rooms, just answering, you know, we answer the same questions over and over again and have the same conversations. And I started to think like, I really want to help more than just one mom a day. And I thought there's so many, I know there's so many other probably. Families on this block or in this neighborhood that need to hear this information that I'm telling them, or that need to just feel this compassion that need to someone to nonjudgmentally listen to their birth story.
You know, I was, you know, I could probably throw a rock and hit five other families that need a postpartum doula. But I was like, how can I do that? How can I get this [00:14:00] out to more people? And I've. Also had been talking to other doulas realizing many doulas struggle with the marketing side of things with the getting clients.
They're awesome doulas. They have the compassion, the empathy, the skills, the education, the training, you know, all the certifications, but no one in their town knows they exist. So I thought, well, I could, maybe I could be. Like a marketing and business coach for doulas, but I thought that's not a thing who would do that.
You know, I can't do that, but that was in 2019. And so then in 2020, as COVID hit and at the very beginning. The world shut down, you know, no, you know, I had existing contracts that I left their house on Friday and Monday morning. They were like, don't come no one, you know, so I was just home and I started virtually, you know, serving them.
And so I thought, Oh, maybe I could, you know, I, the wheels started to spin. I was like, [00:15:00] maybe I could virtually help multiple families at a time. And I did do that for a while, but then I just, you know, then. It really, you know, it became apparent that this COVID thing was going to be more than two weeks of a shutdown.
Um, and I thought, well, maybe this is the time to go for this doula business coaching thing. So that's what I did. So I, I, um. Cut back on the, you know, I kind of finished up my contracts and I just took a couple virtual clients and then went all in on building the Doola Darcy into what it is now, you know, four years later.
So that's my story. I have questions. All right. Thank you for sharing. Uh, I didn't realize that you shifted to helping other doulas start. Well, yeah. Market in 2019. Cause that was like, right. Same time I did. Well, actually that's a cool part of this story. Cause I was like. Being a doula business coach doesn't exist.
And I think I started poking around on Instagram and found you. And I was like, Oh wait, okay. She's doing, you know, kind of a somewhat, you know, at the time in 2019, you kind of were, you have, you had programs for doulas. Just started that, that side of the business, I feel like, um, I was telling somebody yesterday, some woman I was in a meeting with, like right now I feel like I'm in the third building phase of my third business, but it was the first business was the pregnancy, the childbirth education, the virtual doula.
Second business was teaching other doulas and now I'm rebuilding the third business is teaching, you know, beyond professionals and beyond. Right. Like, let's say it that way. Entrepreneurs and, but at this time, right, that was exactly what was happening in 2019 with me too. So that is so interesting. I didn't realize that.
Well, I kind of forgot about that, but you like [00:17:00] stumbling upon your Instagram page was a key part of me being like, Oh, okay, wait. She's doing it. Okay. This, you know, it was kind of like validation. Like this is a good idea. I can do it. Um, and very similarly, I think this is an interesting piece. So when I started my postpartum doula business, I, you know, I finished my training.
It was got a website and I, I was like, I'm, I'm trained, I'm certified, but I still have some questions. Like I would love to shadow another postpartum doula, or at least talk to one about, you know, what you actually do in the home, you know, I just had questions and so I found this other postpartum doula in my area.
But my marketing experience and brain were like, well, no, she is your competition. You have to establish your brand as competing with her and set yourself apart. You know, show your differences from her or not. So that was my first thought, but I, then I kind of, you know, I started [00:18:00] brainstorming and then I was like, no, I'd really rather call her up and ask her some questions.
And I'm so glad I did this. It's Krista Malte, who is now one of our, my dearest friends were actually. Um, actually, this is very synergistic. She and I are presenting at the Dona Summit next week on collaboration over competition. Um, because we have, she was an amazing kind of mentor to me and then we just partnered on so many marketing efforts.
We had a, like a collective for a while together. Um, she's a dear, you know, one of my dearest friends now. It's been such a joy to think, Oh, that was so much more fun and easier and really beneficial for both our businesses for us to collaborate and work together. So fast forward to 2019, when I found you on Instagram, the same thing, I was like, Oh, she's already doing it.
Uh, that means I can't do it. I was like, no, that means I [00:19:00] can. Like that means that, that other people are interested in. Paying for these services. So, um, I just wanted to, because not everybody is going to resonate with me and not everybody's going to resonate with you. And there's others now, too, which is beautiful.
There's options. I couldn't possibly handle every single birth worker who wants business advice. Exactly. Neither could this 1 and neither could that 1. So, like, that's kind of the whole point of this and. I'm trying to go back to remembering when I first remembered engage. I just don't remember. I felt like it was just very natural that we would talk to each other and it felt very natural.
And it, you know, in 2018 I took my doula training, but I really quickly realized that being at the birth is not. My way of helping love it. And I'm passionate about birth, but that's not going to be my way of helping, not at this season. And I made my birth, my childbirth education class virtual, because I also couldn't be at, uh, anywhere outside of the house for that many hours away from all my little kids.
And then it just very naturally happened that people were like, teach us how to do this virtual, teach us how to do this virtual, teach us how to. And I'm like, okay, I am answering so many DMs. That I'm running out of minutes, I can't answer everybody for free anymore because I'm, I don't have enough minutes.
So I have to create a way to do this in a way that suits life, my life. And that just like naturally happened that way. And I remember thinking even back to digital doula, I have a journal somewhere where I was sketching ideas and I'm like, is digital doula even a thing, you know? And I was looking for people who were doing it.
I'm like, is anybody doing this? And I found at the time, like maybe one person who offered. Pregnancy coaching virtually and their accounts were not like actively being like she had a website, but I saw nothing on her Instagram, nothing on our Facebook. So I'm like, is she alive? Is she doing this? Is she around?
Like, there's no activity here. There's no energy in her space. And I'm like, well. Epic. I'm just going to do it, you know, but that's a really cool, I didn't know that. So that's really exciting to hear. Um, question. So I was thinking about you, you may have seen me talk about this stuff at different seasons of my business.
I talk about different topics when it comes to like business entrepreneurship. And so marketing, I really enjoy talking about too, but do you remember, like you said, you trained in 2010, you've got your certification in 2010, like what were the. 2010 days, the version of marketing that you experienced in 2010.
Like, what were you doing in first? What were the things that you were doing? Oh, I love that question. Um, Facebook, Facebook was where it was at Facebook. This was back when Facebook was like, really, there was no algorithm yet. It was just like logical. Exactly. And. [00:22:00] If I, you know, so I started to share posts that, Hey, when you have a baby, I come take care of the baby and take care of you and you can nap and people were like, this is amazing and would share it.
And then, like, I would have like, you know, I can't remember, but hundreds of shares, like today I post something amazing and it's like, no one, you know, it was just, I can't, it's even hard to explain the way Facebook was back then, but it was. You, I didn't, you didn't spend any money, but, um, even another part of my business that was, was that I eventually did some mom and baby expos and Facebook was huge for those because everyone saw the event, shared it and, um.
You know, it's like you didn't have to do much to get your posts seen. So Facebook was huge. Um, I had a very little, I bought a website template from GoDaddy that was like that five page template that, you know, it worked. [00:23:00] It was, it, I, Um, I, and then I pounded the pavement. I networked like crazy and I tell all my clients that that was hard for me.
I am an intro, I mean, yes, here I am on a podcast now, but I'm a true introvert. I don't like chit chatting. Um, but. I wanted to be a doula so bad. I didn't want to go back. I didn't want to put my kids in daycare. No, no shame on anyone who does, but I just, well, first of all, I had three that needed it. I, I would have had to make 400, 000.
So, um, And I just, I didn't want to, I, you know, the whole, I, I didn't want to go back to a cubicle. I didn't want to go back to a marketing job that's, that was fun and exciting. And I liked it, but I didn't feel like I was making the world a better place. Like, and now I had three little [00:24:00] kids. I want it. I wanted to make, you know, I think once you're a mom, you want to make the world better for your kids.
So anyway, I was, I reached this point where I was like, I'm not going back. So if I want to do this doula work, I have to go network. I have, I would give myself a little pep talk like Darcy. Okay, you're going to go in there and you're going to smile and you're going to chit chat and you're going to tell them, you know, you're a postpartum doula.
So, and I mean, I had done a lot of like networking and chamber of commerce events and stuff in my marketing. You know, advertising days. So I did have that experience, but what I loved was it actually ended up being easier. I had such, um, it's Michael Hyatt that says marketing is really just about sharing your passion.
So I used to have to go to these chamber of commerce cocktail parties and talk to these bankers and you know, about ad revenue, blah, blah, blah. Like. It was torturous, but like going into a chiropractor's office to talk about why his patients need to also be having, you know, having a postpartum, that was not, that was my passion.
I could talk for hours about it. So, um, it ended up, I was like, Oh, okay, this isn't so bad. So to answer your question, it was Facebook and person, personal connections in my community with other. People that were dealing with pregnant people, you know, so the chiropractors, other doulas, um, the photographers, all those people.
So yeah, Instagram didn't exist. Networking for, with people who are not in the industry. So one of my past lives was, and not like actual souls past life, but like this life, [00:27:00] I did residential mortgage lending. I was residential first and then moved to commercial and managing, um, real estate funds, you know, commercial real estate funds for.
Private equity investors and such. And so anyway, back in residential lending, everybody's, the networking was like, that's where all the realtors were and it was all men. And I was like young and not married. And I'm like, that's a recipe for disaster. Like nobody's taking me seriously. I should write to network and happy out and they're like, Hey, it was like, I hated it and skin crawl.
I would sweat . They have these rules where you can only have one lender per group and one realtor per group and everybody comes and you share all the cards and you're like, if you have a lead, you send it to her.
And it doesn't even matter what relationship you have. And I just felt like I hated doing those things. So I, I get it because now if I got something not working, it's just, it's different, it's different. And so, yes, I remember that. Um, and it was awful and I'm so glad we don't have to do that. And I know the cubicle.
It's like, choose your heart, you know, cubicle life is, it sounds like death to me. Um, it's torturous, especially with children and really young. And I, to think that I could be in a cubicle and I know for some people I don't feel this way, but for me to be in a cubicle while the kids are getting off school at three o'clock or whatever, they have to wait for me to.
Come see them. It's, I just can't. Um, so it's choose your heart. You know, it's going to be hard to show up on video at first. It's going to be hard to write a post. It's going to be hard to do all those things. Yes. But what's harder? Like what's pick your heart. Right. And to me, yeah. Um, agreed. Like you, you just, sometimes you do things that are uncomfortable, um, or with a goal in mind.
So. Another question I have is, I was even thinking recently about, and I used to write about this more on social media. Maybe I'll bring it back when I talk about marketing again of like the old days of marketing, when it was like, there wasn't even Facebook where you wrap your car and like the, the magnet stuff and the plastic and yellow pages.
Like my dad advertised in the yellow pages. That's it. Yep. Oh yeah. Um, so. When I worked in advertising and marketing, like before Facebook, but you know, before I started my doula business, before the internet, really you, if you were a mom who wanted to start a small business, you had to put up a ton of money to get like hire a videographer.
Take a day to record some videos that you and then buy the time on the local cable channel and it was really expensive and then you could also buy radio time and it was really expensive and people heard it and then forgot it and You know, or you could also, um, buy ads in the local newspaper. And I had one boss who was always like, uh, he, he liked when we put ads in the newspaper, he didn't like when we, you know, they would call us about all the, I don't know, the trash, like in the middle of the newspaper, like just the ads.
He was always like, we're not putting our clients in there. He's like, that's what people line their bird cages with. So, um, so I always share that perspective when I'm working with doula clients now who don't want to post on media, social media, or they hate social media or Instagram so hard. And I think it's free though.
And you can make a video in five seconds. From your phone, put it out there and it's like having a conversation with your dream client. And back in the nineties, you had, you had to spend 50 grand to get that same level and a budget, right? Like my dad started his tire store in 83. Born. I'm telling you my age, you already know his tire shop in 83.
And the way they got clients in the beginning was they would take all these used tires because he was primarily doing used tires, some new, but they would take a truckload of used tires to the flea markets on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, whatever it is, the flea markets were open and they run up at the flea market and sell used tires for five bucks.
And then if you wanted to get it. put on the vehicle, you come to the shop on Monday and I'll put it on. And that's how they started getting people to the tire store. And that was. They didn't have marketing money. It was, they were in the yellow pages and they use the, um, whatever the booth cost or whatever it was, and people would come on Monday, like, Hey, I bought this from you on Saturday.
Can you put it on my car? And so then they know that they can just come back here instead of going to the flea market. [00:32:00] So it's just funny thinking back in my mom, just one quick, funny things. I think it's, I think you'll appreciate this. I don't know if you've ever heard this. I talked about my mom, um, She, uh, is also a serial entrepreneur.
She's a creative and she has a lot of different creative outlets throughout her life. And at one point she, um, she's a hairstylist. And so she was one of the first Caucasian women in Tampa that was really big and doing hair extensions. So all the exotic dancers, all the strippers, like Tampa was kind of known and still kind of is known to be like a stripper hub, right?
So a gentleman's club hub. And she would advertise the business. Like she obviously had hair extensions, but She would make, because she's very creative, she would make sets, outfits to sell like, um, uh, what's the word? Costumes. She would make costumes like pasties with tassels and all this and G strings with like tassels and gems and crystals.
And she'd make these really ornate for the eighties. They were like killing it. Yeah. It's when I was little and I remember like, what are those? And she's like, they're Barbie hats, the pasties. And she was quick on her feet. And I'm like, why is there two that match? And she's like, twins. So she would make these outfits and sell them backstage at the clubs.
And so the women that were back there while she was back there selling costumes to the women, she's like, let's talk hair. No, she has, you know, 700, 800 hair extensions and braids and a thousand. And, you know, so anyway, it was just. You had to get so creative and back then, um, it is, I do find it really interesting.
The conversations we have now, like we're so afraid of putting ourselves out there and I'm sure you've seen us a ton too, but it's like. It's a free fricking broadcast channel. Well, yes. And it's funny because in the eighties and nineties, it was like, how can we get ourselves out there? How, what, like, what is something free we could do possibly do?
You know, the big thing was if you could get like a press release, you know, if you could get coverage in the, on the local news or the newspaper, cause that's free because it's news. Um, and now. It's funny to hear entrepreneurs, new doulas or doulas saying, I don't want to put myself out there. I'm like, but that, that's what you, that's the point.
And my funny story is we, the ad agency I worked at, uh, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, at one point, he was like, we need to drum up new business. Like we need to come up with an idea. And he ended up renting an ice cream truck and we drove around. Portsmouth, New Hampshire, handing out free, like, hoods, I don't know, you probably don't know what it is.
It's a little hoodsy cup. It's a New England thing. But we went to all, we just, playing the music of the ice cream truck and we just went into all the businesses handing out free ice cream. And he was like, maybe, maybe. The paper will see us and come like that was the goal. Like [00:35:00] do create some kind of, um, buzz that'll get a photographer from the newspaper.
And I, it's just funny to think like it was so much work. And we had to buy the hoodsy cups, pay for the rent, the. Um, ice cream truck and I think now it's like, I just make a real, it's, it's at your fingertips. It's literally at your fingertips. Yes. And I agree. So I do have another question too, is, uh, That was, that was fun.
I have a question about, I don't, you probably noticed this too, but I'd love to hear your perspective. Um, I felt like in 2018, 2019, when I was first really getting into the birth business, I'm like, where are all of the doulas? Like, I would see them at a local meetup or I would. Google and I would see some websites.
So I'm like, okay, there are doulas here, but where the hell are they on social media? Like nobody's on social media. I felt like meant collectively a lot, not all, but a lot of doulas were like in the dark ages. And I'm like, where are you guys? Like you're unfindable. And then I felt like there was this big movement that.
Let's give ourselves, can we give ourselves a little credit? Yeah. Like I think you and I both were, and others were really helpful at helping bring them front and center. Bring you out of hiding. Right. Yes. Yeah. Like you have to do this. And now they're killing it. Like I see birth workers killing it on Tik TOK, on Instagram, thousands of views and reels and like, I don't care about engagement, but I care about getting the message out.
And the message is getting out. Yes, absolutely. And, and social media is such a great tool to do it. Well, and just from like an evidence based, uh, perspective, that's where our clients are. They are hanging out on Instagram, social media, TikTok for hours a day. So as doulas, we have to be showing up there.
And like you said, we are now, but still some aren't. I mean, I always talk about, you know, I'm, I. And engaging with doulas on Instagram all the time and checking out doula. And it's like some, some you go and they have like three posts and they haven't posted in six months. And, and actually you were saying this about someone you were looking up, you know, if they, if you haven't posted in a few months, you assume like you assume they're out of business.
So, you know, we, that's a big thing I talk about is that, you know, you need to be consistent. You need to not only create an account, but. You know, post every couple of weeks, take the pressure out of it. And one of the easy things that I think people will appreciate if they hear this episode, it's like the way I look at social media sometimes is not so much.
I have to promote, promote, promote, sell, sell, sell, but this is a. Container where we can have conversations virtually. What if you walked into a building and there were, if you had an expo, if you were able to attend an expo with pregnant people of any moment of every day, what would you say? What would you talk about?
What would you share with them? What would they need to hear? You have the opportunity to effectively, you're like creating your own little mini expo here. And that's all it really is, is talking and getting your message out. And it's a channel that you can use to broadcast your message. One off, right?
There's multiple there's podcasting. There's Pinterest, which is not really social media. Um, it's a search engine, but then there's different social media platforms. And there's all these ways that you can create that experience without having to get a vendor booth without. You know, like ways that people can feel you when you're not there.
Yes. When you don't have to be physically present every single moment, but you can, you know, put a little deposit into the, into your space like that. So, um, yeah, I think that's, that's something that could be really helpful to remember for anybody who feels like, Oh my God, I don't know what to post. I don't know what to post.
And if you get up in your head about it, then yeah, [00:39:00] it's going to be more of that. I don't know what to post. So I won't post, I don't know what to post. So I won't post out of the loop. You just. Frickin post something. Yeah. What would you do if we were sitting across from each other and I were pregnant, which I'm not, but what would you tell me if I'm like, Hey, what do you think I need to know?
I'm 12 weeks. Like what would be most helpful? Talk to me. Right. I know. It's very, and it's a great chance for doulas. You know, I talk a lot about how, you know, we're not selling cars. Uh, we're selling our energy really are, you know, no one hires a doula. People hire their doula because they connect with them.
They connect with their personality, their energy. And yes, they're true. Credentials, but at the end of the day, you choose the doula that is going to see you naked or this going to come into your home. Like, it's a very personal decision. So social media is a great place to get your authentic personality and energy across for free.
Um, versus, you know, it's a lot harder to do on a business card or, uh, you know, email, um, unless you put a video on it, but, you know, I think. And yes, we all love to hate social media, but embracing it for what it really can do to help you be a doula is leverage the tool. Yeah, you know, leverage the tools that you have that we didn't have access to early on in the business days or our parents or our grandparents, they didn't have access.
So why are we not leveraging the tool and it's, you know, we're talking for birth workers, but I. Even outside of the birth worker industry there. I speak to a lot of people who are healers and yoga instructors and, um, all kinds of other, um, industries. And it applies across the board because we are so wrapped up in our heads, but I do think it gets to be a lot easier.