Kyleigh Banks:

Welcome back to the podcast. You're listening to episode 23. This is a very special day because this is our very first three in 15 episode. We have officially gone two episodes per week, which is amazing. It requires a ton of work from my team and from myself honestly too. And so I'm just patting myself on the back and really honestly going hard in 2023 to hit my business goals. And part of that means putting out more amazing content for doulas like you.

And so these Friday episodes are going to be really special because I am going to be answering three questions that you have submitted, and I'm going to be doing it in 15 minutes or less. If you want to submit your question for next week's episode, go to birthworker.com/ask. There's also a link in the show notes if you want, but come submit your question. No question is too hard or too big, or too silly or too small. I'm really just super excited, like I said, to really help you as much as I can in 2023. I'm giving you my all this year.

So the three questions that we are going to dive into today have to do with getting serious about your doula business, starting a Facebook group and launching a birth course. So let's get right into it. Hey there, birth nerd. You're listening to the Birthworker podcast. My name is Kyleigh Banks and I am totally obsessed with birth and equally obsessed with business. And this is the show where I help women turn their passion for birth into a sustainable, profitable, and most importantly, impactful career. All right, let's get into it.

All right, our very first question is from Beth. And Beth asked, "Since it's a new year, I'm ready to finally start taking my business seriously. What are the first steps I need to take?" And so Beth, it really depends where you're starting. So just for the sake of this episode, let's pretend that you're already getting some clients in person, but you're starting to realize that it's just not sustainable. And so let's pretend that you're starting to look into stepping into the world of consistent income or online income. And so here are the first steps that I would take.

The very first thing that I would do is I would think about 12 months from now. So what does your family life look like 12 months from now? Are you on call all the time? Are you traveling the world? Are you homeschooling your kids? What does your family life look like? And then of course, what does your business look like? What offers do you have? How many births are you attending? Do you have any online offers, virtual offers? Do you have any coaching programs? Are you hosting workshops, online courses? What's going on? And so that's your very first step, is to really think about what you want your life to look like and what you want your business to look like.

And then when you have that nailed down, that's when we're going to start working backwards to figure out how to get you where you want to go. And so if your goal is, let's say one year from now, you want to be attending one to two births per month with only your dream clients while also coaching women virtually in some way. If that's you, here's where I would start. And I'm guessing that's you, because I feel like that's most people. At least that's most of the students or the members in the Birthworker membership.

And so here's a couple more tips. Here's where I would start. After you figure out what offers you want to create in your business, get really clear on your messaging to make sure that you're only attracting those people. You're only attracting the perfect client. You're only attracting the people who want to work with you and can afford to work with you. And then once you've done that, once you've nailed your messaging, then get really consistent on social media. And so I teach all of the social media stuff inside the Birthworker membership, but social media is everybody's favorite thing to learn because it feels really good to get off that content hamster wheel and to start just making content really consistently and really authentically, and then to see those results essentially immediately.

And so once you've done that, the next thing that you need to do is create an email list. And so the purpose of an email list is to get your followers off of social media and into your world. And then once all that is set up, you will then be able to systemize social media and consistently build that community online. And when that happens, that's going to free up a lot of time for you to then go and create the thing that's going to make you money. And at the same time, you'll have an audience that actually wants to buy from you when the thing is created. And so where a lot of people go wrong is they jump straight to making something like making an online course or a birth coaching program, but they don't have anyone to sell it to because they skipped the foundational parts.

And so don't do that. Go back to square one and set it all up in a really sustainable and strategic way from day one. And of course, when you're ready for help with all of that, I can literally show you exactly what to do every step of the way. So if you're ready for some help, if you want to just follow my framework, DM me on Instagram. DM me the word sustainable, there's a link in the show notes, and we can chat about your next steps.

All right, question number two. This is from Amberly. She's actually a member in the Birthworker membership, and she said, "I want to start a Facebook group for local moms to help me grow my business, how niched down should it be? Should I let other local birth workers join? Can I advertise my services inside the group? Tell me everything." And so this is a really good question, Amberly and if I could go back to my early days as a doula before I even really had my first clients, I would tell myself to start a Facebook group. And so here's what you need to know.

If you are building an in-person business, you absolutely should create a Facebook group for your local community. And so I would niche it down enough so that it's only actually attracting your perfect clients. For instance, me personally, I would've created a group called Home Birth Moms in South West Florida. And so if you're a doula who supports mostly VBAC moms or military moms, perfect, right? Make a VBAC mom group for your local community or a group that's military moms stationed in the US or military moms stationed abroad, right?

You only want to attract people to that group who are your perfect clients, people you love working with. And that is for your benefit in many ways because it doesn't feel very good to be the leader of a group of people who just don't relate to you on any level. So don't let that happen. And of course, those people aren't going to become clients. So make sure you're only attracting the people who you really want to work with. And then here's what I would avoid. I would avoid making a very general group just for pregnant women. So don't call your group Pregnant Women in South West Florida because you actually want to create a group where people stay beyond pregnancy.

And so maybe you want people to join preconception, and then maybe you want them to stay through pregnancy, birth, and all through postpartum and maybe into motherhood. You want to help foster those lifelong friendships. You don't want to create just a place for people to come and get information for free for a few months before they just leave the group and never talk to anybody again. And always remember that the benefit of a Facebook group is the community. So instead of posting in the group once per week about your services, instead of doing that, engage with the community every single day and help the other women engage with each other too. Help the other women become friends too.

And so why is a Facebook group a good idea anyway? Because through running a community like a Facebook group, you are going to start to be seen as a leader in the birth space. And when that happens, you find more clients, you help more people, and you make more money. But don't start a Facebook group as a way to make money, please, because it's not going to happen like that. Don't start a Facebook group as a way to make money. Start a Facebook group to build an authentic community, and then you can watch your entire business grow sustainably over a long period of time. That's the magic.

Okay, question number three. She says, "I want to create an online birth course. Can I create it and just sell it for my website all year long? Since I work with pregnant women, they need my course all the time, and I don't want them to have to wait until I launch again." And so this is such a common thought. So this is a really good question. We're going to be talking about launching courses versus having evergreen courses. And the reason this is such a common thought is because people think, "Well, women need my course all year so it's not fair to close my doors to people who need me?" And that makes a lot of sense.

You might even think, "If my course is always for sale, I'll sell more, I'll make more money." But I'm going to tell you why that that's not necessarily the case. And so here's what I recommend. When you create a course for the first time, and let's just for the sake of this answer, let's just say it's an online course. You're selling it. Let's say it's an online birth course, you're selling it for 200 to $500. The thing is that it's really important to know that when you're creating a course like this, you need to create some kind of buzz to get it off the ground to make your first, let's say 50 sales. And so that's why I recommend launching your course with a full on promotion, which means you're going to have an open cart day, a ton of promotion for a week, and then a cart closed day.

And then what I want you to do is I want you to close the doors. Shut the doors, turn off the registration page, and work with those students live, in some capacity, for the next four to 12 weeks. Because when you do that, when you close the doors and focus 100% on your students instead of selling, and if you do that for that first cohort, you're going to get invaluable feedback that will absolutely 100% make your course better. You are going to get amazing results for your clients and with that comes some amazing testimonials.

So through that process of launching a course for the first time, you'll also collect all of your data and you'll kind of create your first baseline. You'll say to yourself, "Okay, I'm capable of sending this many emails and making this many sales and having this many people get on my live workshop and having a sales page conversion rate of this amount. These are all the things that I did to get those sales." And what you're going to do is you're going to go through that process of documenting it, then you're going to go through the process of launching your course at least two more times. So right now you've launched it three times. And then every time you're going to try and tweak your sales process to make it a little bit better, right?

So maybe the first launch you did a webinar. So a webinar if you don't know is like a free class to your audience, and then you sell your course on the back end of that. That's my favorite way to launch. So maybe that's what you did your first launch. So maybe the second time, instead of a webinar, you're going to do a three day challenge. And then maybe the third time, instead of those, you're just going to do an email launch and you're going to sell with an email sequence or maybe do like a prerecorded sales video or something. And all the while during each of these three launches, you're continuing to make your course better and better, and you're collecting testimonials from your clients.

And then after that third launch, that's when you're ready to take all of your data, pull all of the best pieces, and then piece together what we call an evergreen funnel. And an evergreen funnel is a strategy that sells your course all day every day. You can't just put it on your website. I have to let you know that. There's a lot of strategy included and actually way more strategies needed with evergreen courses and evergreen funnels than doing a live launch. So just know that for when the time comes. It takes a lot of strategy, a lot of tweaking and trial and error. And then after you do that, and only after you do that, will you open up your program for people to join at any time.

The thing here is that sometimes we have this false assumption that we can just create a course and put it on our website and it's going to sell, but that is absolutely 100% not the case. And you'll actually more than likely see a conversion rate of two times higher when you launch a program live. Meaning if you do the cart open and cart close and that special buying period with some special bonuses, your conversion rate is going to be two times higher.

So as a recap, let me see if you can picture this. You need to create a course. Live launch it at least three times, and then figure out your best sales strategy, probably pulling pieces from your last three launches. And then and only then do you put all of that together in what we call an evergreen funnel.

I hope you love those really quick tips. Business topics are some of my favorite, and so I am going to absolutely love these Friday episodes, I just know it. And hey, the last thing that I wanted to say is that if you were listening to this episode and you were just thinking, "I just want to find a way to package up my obsession for birth, and I just want to find a way to impact the lives and the births of moms all over the world." And if you have been thinking, "I am ready to build a freaking legacy," then I want you to shoot me a DM over on Instagram at Birthworker podcast. Shoot me a DM with the word sustainable, and let's chat. Let's chat about what that might look like for you. Let's chat about how you can actually get there faster and with a whole lot more fun.

So DM me the word sustainable. You can also click the link in the show notes to head to my Instagram at Birthworker podcast. But only do it if you are ready to go from side gig doula to full-time birth worker. And if you're ready to quit your day job, stay home with your kids and make a lasting impact on lives all across the world. So head to my Instagram through the link in the show notes, and I cannot wait to hear all about your goals. Thank you so much for listening. I hope today was helpful for you, and I will see you right back here next week.