Kyleigh Banks:                                         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. 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.

                                                       Welcome back to the Birthworker Podcast. You're listening to episode 52. I am pre-recording this episode because if you didn't know already, I turned around and went right back on vacation, so as you're listening to this, I am in The Bahamas. I am also on call for a client for a amazing free birth as you're listening to this. I hope I get to catch that free birth because it is one of my partner's best friends from high school. It's his little sister. I'm super excited. It's really special for me to be invited into this birth space with one of my partner's closest friends that has known him for so long. She's planning a free birth with her very first baby. You know I am obsessed with that. Super, super excited.

                                                       Today we are answering three questions. We're going to be talking about getting into birth if you don't really want to actually attend births, getting into birthwork, rather, if you don't want to attend births. We're going to be talking about Facebook ads and then we're going to be talking about becoming a childbirth educator and how to host a course.

                                                       I am talking a lot about hosting courses and creating courses lately, and I probably will be over the summer because so many doulas and birthworkers are finally realizing how special it is and how amazing it is to actually create your own childbirth education course. Not only can it instantly increase the price of your in-person package by $500 easily, but it's something that you could pre-record and sell passively, literally every single day from your website.

                                                       I'm obsessed. My students and clients are obsessed. My birth clients are obsessed because they can learn all of this stuff about birth simply by hiring me as their doula. They don't have to go also take childbirth education classes. Essentially, I'm the one stop shop for my birth clients. Honestly, it's just kind of a no-brainer. If you're in the birth world, if you're a birthworker, if you're listening to this right now, creating your own online birth course, or just birth course in general that you could teach in person or online, it's a no-brainer, an absolute no-brainer.

                                                       Let's jump into question number one, and this question is, "How do I get into the birth world without a medical background? I don't really want to live the doula lifestyle, but I would love to support women through pregnancy and birth." This is such a great question. This question is from Ashley. She sent it in at Birthworker.com/ask. We take your questions and we literally answer them on this podcast. Thank you for submitting this question, Ashley.

                                                       Essentially, she's saying how do I get into the birth world without a medical background? Then, I kind of want to be a birthworker, but I don't really want to attend births as a doula. I don't want to live the doula lifestyle. Ashley, I swear this could be an entire coaching session. You could come do a one-hour session with me or a three-hour session with me, and we would not run out of things to talk about with just these questions.

                                                       Let's take them one by one. The first question is, "How do I get into the birth world without a medical background?" It's almost irrelevant. Those are two things that can totally coexist. You don't need a medical background to be a birthworker. You never do. There are many ways to work in the birth community without a medical background, and honestly, there are many moms who want to hire people who don't have a medical background.

                                                       Definitely not the majority. In the United States, still 98, 99% of people are giving birth in the hospital. There are a lot of people reaching out to medical providers and medically trained providers, but like I just said, I'm on call for a free birth, so someone who did not hire a midwife or an OB or any medical provider, but it's her first birth and she hired me. You can absolutely get into the birth world, into birthwork without having a medical background. That's the answer to that first question.

                                                       Then Ashley goes on to say, "I don't really want to live the doula lifestyle, but I want to support woman through pregnancy and birth." This is where my three-pronged approach seriously comes in because what I tell my students and what I honestly need you to know, my podcast listener, what I need you to know right now, is that you can make birthwork fit your lifestyle, literally whatever that is. You can travel the world. You can stay home with your kids. You can move around the United States. You can live in an RV. You could never be on call in your life. You could only be on call certain days, certain times. Whatever you want your life to look like, you could make your birthwork business fit that. I promise you, 100%. This is my specialty.

                                                       I don't want you to conform your lifestyle to what you think a doula or a birthworker should do. That's the first thing that I have to say. The next thing is that the three-pronged approach that you heard about a couple episodes ago is perfect for you, Ashley. Maybe you don't want to live the doula lifestyle, but you still want to attend births here and there. Awesome. Why don't you attend five births per year, three births per year, 10 births per year, whatever you want. Do that because it's fun for you. Don't attend births because you need the money. Figure out how to make the money in other ways. Yes, you should make money when you attend births, you should charge, whatever, but that shouldn't be what you rely on for your income.

                                                       The second part of the three-pronged approach is online workshops or online coaching, anything online that's live. You don't have to be on call, but you still have to show up live. Ashley, can you host a workshop about breastfeeding? Can you host a workshop about how to write a birth plan, how to give birth at home with no midwife, how to have a free birth, how to eat the perfect nutrition to optimize your birthing experience in a healthy way? You could make so many different workshops.

                                                       That's an amazing way to still work in the birth community, but not live, quote, unquote, "the doula lifestyle", which I actually don't even like this term, the doula lifestyle, because I just got back from a five-week vacation. I'm on vacation as you're listening to this again and I'm still on call and I'm still making money selling my online courses and pre-recorded workshops and stuff like that. Even coaching, still doing one-on-one coaching. You can make an income or a career out of birthwork in so many different ways.

                                                       Then that third part of the three-pronged approach to birthwork is creating some sort of offer that's passive. Not only do you not have to be on call, but you don't actually have to show up in real time at all. This is something that's pre-recorded, pre-recorded birth course, an online course. This could be something like an ebook that you sell passively from your website but, essentially the world is your oyster, Ashley.

                                                       Not only do you not need a medical background to get into birthwork, but you do not have to attend births at all to get into birthwork. You could do placenta encapsulation. You could do placenta art. You could do one-on-one coaching online. You could do group coaching. You could create a membership for moms. You could create a mother circle in your hometown, in your local area for pregnant moms, postpartum moms. You could just do postpartum work and you could know exactly the hours you work day after day. You could create an ebook or an online course and never actually speak to someone and just passively sell stuff from your website.

                                                       No more of this, "I don't want to live the doula lifestyle." Way more of the, "I'm going to make my doula business around the lifestyle that I want." That's what I want to hear from you. Not only you, Ashley, but everyone else who's listening to this. You who's listening to this, I want you to make birthwork fit your lifestyle.

                                                       All right. This next question is, "I'm having trouble finding clients. Should I be running Facebook ads?" "I'm having trouble finding clients. Should I be running Facebook ads?" The answer is absolutely not. You should not be running Facebook ads if you are having trouble finding clients in person. Running Facebook ads is a beast. I have spent tens and tens and tens of thousand dollars on Facebook ads. I love Facebook ads. I'm about to start a whole new strategy where I'm spending $4,000 per month on Facebook ads.

                                                       This is not me telling you that Facebook ads are horrible. This is just me telling you that before you are ready to run Facebook ads, you got to have your business completely figured out. You got to have a funnel in place that is going to lead people to essentially your offers in a way that people are actually going to buy your offers. Running Facebook ads can be expensive for someone who doesn't really understand the concept of running Facebook ads.

                                                       For instance, let me just say, let's say you have a hundred dollar ebook or a hundred dollar mini course that you want to run Facebook ads to. There's a chance that it costs more than a hundred dollars to get one person to buy that for $100. There's a chance that you're losing money and spending a bunch of money and losing money to get people to buy your stuff.

                                                       I teach about Facebook ads, first of all, in Birthworker Academy and then my on-call to online framework, which lives within the Birthworker Membership right now. I teach a module on Facebook ads but what I tell my students is that before you run Facebook ads, you need to have an offer that is already converting. It has to be already converting. You need to have essentially a freebie, an email sequence that is converting to something that pays you, whether that is a one-on-one coaching call or just like your doula packages or an ebook or an online course, whatever it is, you got to have it figured out and running super smooth organically before you're actually ready to run ads.

                                                       That is my answer for that question. If you think you're ready for ads, I would encourage you to jump on a coaching call with me, just a one-on-one coaching call with me. Birthworker.com/coaching. I do one-hour sessions and three-hour sessions. I don't do them very often because I'm so freaking busy, but that'll take you to a page where you can buy a session with me and jump in.

                                                       If you're able to purchase, that means there's spots available. I take them a couple days per week. Again, spots are pretty limited. If you have trouble getting in or if you have any questions about that, just DM me on Instagram and we will get you in. But running Facebook ads should not be taken lightly. You should be ready to at least spend, I would say, wow, depends what strategy you're following, but you should be ready to at least spend 150 bucks per month on Facebook ads, and you should be willing and ready to lose that amount of money because it takes some time to figure it out perfectly. Then that's on the really low end, 150 bucks per month. There's also a chance that I would tell you if you want to get some money out of this, you got to be spending 1,000, $2,000 per month.

                                                       I'm a big fat Facebook ads nerd. In case you can't tell, I absolutely love Facebook ads. I love everything about strategy and business, to be honest. That's why I created the Birthworker Membership because I... Yes, I love talking about birth every day and I do with my doula training program students, which is Birthworker Academy, but I'm like, "I also want to talk about business all day, every single day." I love that question. Keep giving us the big questions like that, the big advanced questions. I love it.

                                                       Okay, this last question is, "I'm an experienced childbirth educator with my own comprehensive curriculum. What software should I use to host my online course?" This question is from Kayla. So Kayla is essentially just asking what should she use to host her online course? My answer is super easy. I think I talked about this last week or the week before, but I would use ThriveCart. Hands down, no question, ThriveCart. Don't even go look at anything else. ThriveCart is literally amazing. Not only does it host a course, but it is a checkout software also. It is literally phenomenal.

                                                       Birthworker.com/ThriveCart is the link that you can go to. It's what I use for all of my checkout carts, and I use it for some of my courses, not all of them. Some of my courses are actually too deep and too comprehensive that they need actually a way more expensive software. For Birthworker Academy and Birthworker Membership, which are, again, too comprehensive for something... Just a normal online course. Within Birthworker Academy and Birthworker Membership, it's essentially at least 10 or more different courses in one.

                                                       It's really... There's a lot to it. There's hundreds of hours. I'm very proud of it, but it needs something that costs 200 bucks per month to host, whereas ThriveCart is a one-time payment. It's five to $700 depending which tier you choose, and you never have to pay again. The problem with other course platforms like Kajabi, for instance. Kajabi is something that you have to pay for month after month after month, year after year after year. You never stop paying. Kajabi, I think, starts around a thousand bucks per year, whereas ThriveCart is literally just something that you purchase once and you're done essentially.

                                                       What do I host in ThriveCart? I host all of my birth courses. If you were ever a student of the third trimester checklist, or the birth plan blueprint, or autonomous birth academy, or any of my birth courses, those are hosted in ThriveCart. Then, also, if you are a student of the Birthworker.com childbirth educator training program, that is also in ThriveCart.

                                                       In case you're wondering, "Kyleigh, okay, but where do you host Birthworker Academy and the Birthworker Membership?" Those are hosted in a platform called Searchie. Searchie is... I pay $200 per month for Searchie. It is well worth it, worth every penny. It's a little bit hard to navigate. Again, it's for those really big comprehensive courses.

                                                       I'm going to get a little bit crazy, but stay with me for a second. If you think of online courses, there's a course which has modules, which has lessons. There's three layers, the course, the modules, the lessons. The Birthworker Academy and the Birthworker Membership have way more than that. They need way more layers. There's phases and then courses, and then modules and then lessons, and then the lessons have lessons. It's almost like it needs a full website, so that's why I use Searchie.

                                                       One of the best things about Searchie is that all of the content is searchable. When I upload a video to the Birthworker Academy or the Birthworker Membership portal, it is searchable. There's a search bar at the top. You can go in and literally type, "How do I choose my niche? How do I create a contract? How do I not be a victim to what's going on in my life right now? How do I make my Instagram bio?" You can type in those things and it's literally going to pull up the videos that mentioned those words. It's like Google. It's like a Google search platform, but for my courses. That's why I love Searchie. Definitely would not, not, not recommend it for someone who's just starting out, essentially ever. It's definitely going to be something that's more comprehensive.

                                                       Kayla, ThriveCart. Go to Birthworker.com/ThriveCart. Maybe down the line when you create something that is really extra comprehensive and need something a little bit bigger, that's the point that I would turn to something like Searchie.

                                                       All right. Thank you so much for listening today. I will see you back here on Wednesday for another amazing episode. If you have not left a rating and review for the show, that is hands down the best way to support this show. After you leave a rating and review, go ahead and take a screenshot and then upload it to Birthworker.com/review. You're going to enter a little bit of information, you're going to upload the screenshot, and then I am going to send a little goodie bag right to your door, no matter where you live actually. We send a little envelope filled with some goodies to your house, whether it's in Colorado, Alaska, Vietnam, New Zealand. We have sent goodie bags to literally everywhere across the world. If you want a little goodie bag from us, go ahead and just leave an honest rating and review for the show.

                                                       You could find all of the links from today's podcast episode in the show notes. Birthworker.com/ThriveCart is one of them. You can also find a link to ask a question in next week's episode. Whew. That was a lot today. Thank you so much for listening. I will see you right back here next week. I hope today was helpful for you. If you have any questions at all, you know where to find me over on Instagram at Birthworker Podcast. I would love to chat with you, see what your goals are, and honestly, just see if I can help you get there any faster or with any less stress. That is my number one goal, for sure. All right, everyone. I will see you right back here next week.