Business Birth Story: Doula Marketing Expert Darcy Sauers
Ever wondered how to serve more women than just your own clients and students? Both Darcy and I share the same passion for expanding the birthworker community to serve more women and change more lives.
In Episode 26 of the Birthworker Podcast, I'm joined by Darcy Sauers from The Doula Darcy, who is sharing her insight and experience from combining her extensive marketing experience with her passion for birthwork to coach other doulas from around the world.
In this interview with Darcy, we chat about:
What sparked Darcy’s passion to serve postpartum women…
Darcy’s prior career and how it set her up for insane success in birthwork…
The key to success as a female entrepreneur…
… and a whole lot more!
Darcy Sauers: I am The Doula Darcy. That's how everybody knows me on social media and my website and everything. I am a doula business coach now, but it definitely did not start out that way. After graduating college, I majored in mass communications and got a job at an ad agency, and I was just a marketing executive, an advert. I worked in a bunch of different capacities and I worked in Manhattan. I mean, that was my dream job. I grew up in Maine, so my big job dream was to work in Manhattan. So I did that. I hated it, but I did it. Yeah. It worked.
Kyleigh Banks: That's funny. It's worth saying something right there that you made your dream come true and you hated it. That happens a lot more than we think. But on the other side of that, sometimes it's interesting, sometimes we want something so bad only to realize when we get there that it's not going to bring you the happiness that you thought it would.
Darcy Sauers: Right. I know. And actually a funny part of the story… I grew up in Maine, in the woods, and it was in the 80s, so I was like I just want to live in a city and go to malls like other 80s kids. So that was my big dream, to work in Manhattan. And if you could tell little 80s-Darcy that today she lives in the woods of New Hampshire in sweatpants and loves the fact that she never leaves her house. Oh my God.
Kyleigh Banks: I love it. You would be so ashamed of your future self, but here you are.
Darcy Sauers: Yeah, I'd be like, what a loser and not a success.
Kyleigh Banks: Isn't that fascinating?
Darcy Sauers: Yes. But oh, I love my life. So anyway, so I worked in New Jersey at different ad agencies and here near me now in Portsmouth, New Hampshire for 10 years. And I loved it. It was exciting. It was different every day. That was my identity. I was a marketing executive. And then I got pregnant and I was like, well, I'll take this 12-week vacation and then come right back, put the baby in daycare. No prob. And I was like, I'll probably paint a couple of the rooms in my house that need to be painted while I'm home for 12 weeks, because I'm going to be bored.
Kyleigh Banks: What else are you going to do? Yeah.
Darcy Sauers: How else am I going to fill up that time?
Kyleigh Banks: Imagine.
Darcy Sauers: Yeah. So needless to say, I was not a doula before I had kids. I will say I was an active yoga person, a Yogi. And growing up, I was a competitive gymnast. So when I was looking at the fact that I had to give birth, I was like, well, this is an athletic event that I need to get through, push through, work hard, no pain, no gain. And then I was kind of like, I want to do this without drugs, just because I don't like the idea of… I don't even take Tylenol for a headache. One day I was like, yeah, you know what? I'm going to go have a baby and not take the drugs and I can do it.
And then the other thing was that people were like, well, having a baby is hard and you're tired. And I was like, well, I'll be fine. I am a successful gymnast. I am a successful marketing executive. I did well in school. I did well in college. You guys say having a baby is hard, but I will be fine. So to make a long story short, my labor ended up, after three hours of pushing, she was sunny side up, stuck. I have this bone abnormality, apparently. So I had a C-section. And then that was the whole thing of like, oh, well, at least you and the baby are okay. At least the baby's healthy. No one ever said anything about me. Like, oh, but you have this perfect, healthy baby. And I was like, yeah, but I feel like I got run over by a truck.
And oh, there's just so much to unpack about even my hospital stay. I didn't take any pain meds. Not because I didn't want to, I wanted them. But I didn't know you had to ask for them. I just thought the nurses would come every four or six hours or whatever. So I went a whole day, the day after my C-section with no pain meds. I was so miserable. And finally a nurse was like, well, if you wanted pain meds, just ask. And I was trying to be a good little patient and not complain. Anyway, so I was miserable.
In the hospital, we had an open revolving door of visitors. I didn't sleep for three days and then ended up back in the hospital a couple of days later because I had a fever of 102 and an infection. And then there were more sleepless nights because I was back in the hospital and then got home. And I will never forget getting a card from one of my great aunts. And in her little cursive handwriting, she was like, oh, Darcy, congratulations. You have a beautiful baby and these are just the best days of your life. And I was like, okay, well this is my 90-year-old aunt. She's been around the block. She knows. I was like, okay if these are the best days of my life, I want to die right now, because I'm miserable. I was physically just sick, in pain. My nipples were bleeding. It was winter here. I live in New Hampshire, so it was February, it was dark, it was cold.
I just, it's awful to say, but I had a miserable experience even though my baby was healthy, even though my mom came over, my mother-in-law stayed with us for a week. My husband was very helpful. I had help, but I had my inner voice telling me I was a horrible mom, because I wasn't enjoying every minute of it. It wasn't rainbows and unicorns. What's wrong with me that I can't just be thankful that my baby's healthy while I suffer miserably
So I had that whole experience. And then I also really beat myself up over having a C-section, because I was like, humans are to procreate. That's literally why we're made. And my body can't do it. I suck. And then it spiraled into, oh, you don't like this newborn phase? And my doctor, my OB told me at the day after my daughter was born, she said, the way this bone was in my pelvis, she was like, a hundred years ago, you both would've died. And so that at the time she was trying to make me feel better that my C-section was necessary. But that's a whole other conversation. But that stuck with me.
I remember loading the dishwasher one day and just being like, well, I'm not enjoying this. Maybe I should have died. So mentally, in my head, I was miserable. But I didn't show it. I didn't tell anyone. When my mom, who was around the whole time, hears me talk about it, she's like, I had no idea you were thinking these things or feeling these things, but I didn't want to say them out loud. And here I am on a podcast. This is what's hilarious. I didn't want to say them out loud to my husband, to my mom, to my closest people at the time. Because I thought that's what bad moms say. So what I know now, I was totally suffering from postpartum depression and just sleep deprivation really affected me then.
So spoiler alert, I didn't paint any of the rooms of my house on my maternity leave. And then it was time to go back to work, to this job that I loved. And I started having visions of my daughter. And the whole time, forgot to mention this, the whole time, I loved my daughter so much. I was so in love with her. I was like, well, I don't have postpartum depression, because I love her. I don't want anything to happen to her. And so in my mind, at that time, I thought postpartum psychosis was postpartum depression.
Two weeks before I was supposed to go back to my beloved marketing job, I started having these intrusive thoughts that she would die if I put her in daycare. I couldn't even bear the thought of being away from her, nevermind the intrusive thoughts. I was just like, I do not want this. So I talked to my husband and I was like, I think I'm going to quit my job. He was like, okay. He said, you're going to burn a bridge. You're never going to go back there. You'll have a hard time getting another job when you're ready. But he said do whatever you need to do. We looked around at our finances and I kind of realized we could financially do it.
So I did. I emailed my boss and I was like, I'm really sorry. It went against every fiber of my being to literally give them two weeks notice when I had just taken 10 weeks off. But they were actually great about it. In fact, I got an email from the CEO that I still have. He said, this is a decision you will never regret.
Kyleigh Banks: I love that. It's true.
Darcy Sauers: It's so true.
Kyleigh Banks: Yeah.
Darcy Sauers: So then I breastfed my daughter for, I don't know, 14 months or so. And then I was kind of like, you know what? All right, I've been pregnant. I've been breastfeeding for over a year. I'm ready to just have my body back. It was summer in New Hampshire. And I was like, I want to just go to the beach and have a margarita and just maybe that's what will make me feel like myself again. So I had a margarita, and then a week later I was like, I don't feel so good. Why am I throwing up? I got pregnant.
Kyleigh Banks: Yes, of course.
Darcy Sauers: Of course. So anyway, to make a long story short, I ended up having three babies in four years.
Kyleigh Banks: Okay.
Darcy Sauers: Three C-sections in four years. And the level of depletion that I felt for so long was, I mean, just from having three major surgeries and three babies that didn't sleep. It was awful. Somewhere along the way I started to work for other contacts from my marketing and advertising jobs. I was working from home, doing the nap time hustle. Just working at a few hours a day and at night to earn money to contribute to my family. One of the companies was Zenga. Did you have a Zenga blog, Kyleigh?
Kyleigh Banks: Yeah. I never had one myself, but I remember that. That's a throwback.
Darcy Sauers: So I learned so much working there. Oh God, I don't know when it was 2005, 2004, or 2003 when they were so hot. And blogging was the big thing. They were taking over Myspace and all that. So anyway, I was obsessed with talking to other people that were having babies. My mom would be like, oh, do you remember Jill from high school? And I'd be like, I barely knew her, but I'm going to find her on Myspace and tell her that if she's pregnant, it's going to be rough. So I was out there basically being a postpartum doula to anyone and everyone who would listen to me. But one day on a Zenga blog, I saw the words, postpartum doula. And I was like, oh, that is what I want to do. This fire was lit inside of me.
And in a very cool way, the universe was just like, here you go. I took a training in Boston. I was already a yoga teacher, so I took a prenatal yoga teacher training too. The stars just aligned. And I loved, loved, loved, loved my training. And I remember sitting there and this hotel conference room for three days the whole time just being like, this is going to be amazing. I'm going to have a job where I'm making a difference. I loved my marketing jobs and advertising agency jobs, because they were fun. And I got to go to free concerts and sporting events and all this fun stuff. But I've always had this nagging feeling of you're not saving the world, Darcy.
You're helping Microsoft analyze. My last job, I worked at this PR research firm and it was like, you're helping Microsoft analyze their press releases, their press coverage and comparing it to Hewlett Packard or whatever. So I was so excited to just be a doula and make a difference in the world and help someone not go through what I had gone through. That was my big thing. I remember driving home from my training, just singing along to the radio. I was so excited. And I got home that night, told my husband all about it, woke up the next morning and I was like, okay, I'm a postpartum doula. Come on pregnant people. All right. I remember just walking around the house like, okay, let's do this. And I was like, oh wait, I can't just go apply for a doula job and I can't wave my certificate out the window and have a line of random pregnant people show up.
It sounds crazy that I just didn't think this through. But I know from talking to other doulas, this is a very common scenario. I was just so excited to be a doula. I didn't kind of put it together that I needed to start my own business. But luckily, I had this marketing and advertising background to lean back on. So I was able to launch a business really quickly and start working, I think faster. And I replaced my corporate income quicker than most doulas do, just because I had this experience and expertise.
Kyleigh Banks: Was that like an aha moment for you when you were like, oh, I need to mix my old passion with my new passion to make this work?
Darcy Sauers: It wasn't, because I think the marketing stuff was just so ingrained in me. I was like, oh, I just need to do this.
Kyleigh Banks: Yeah.
Darcy Sauers: And I kind of was just like, oh, this is what doulas do. I worked as a postpartum doula for 10-ish years. I mean 12 years now, but probably four years ago I started to just talking to other doulas and meeting other doulas in Facebook groups. And they'd be like, well, I can't get any clients. I can't make this work. I have to go back to my other job. And that's when it clicked for me. I was realizing oh, my 10 years in marketing and advertising is what really helped me. And most doulas don't have that. So that piece took a while to click.
Then I had a moment one day. I still love being a postpartum doula, but I was standing in a mom's living room. I was holding the baby and talking to her, teaching her about sleep or whatever. I was answering her questions and I just kind of got this wave of like, oh, there's only one person here. In a day I'm only helping one family at a time. Which is great, and they love it. I love it. But I remember we were in a big neighborhood. There's probably four other people that have had a baby this month. I somehow need to get them all together, or I'm answering the same questions over and over again. There's got to be a way that I can help more than one mom a day.
I first got the idea of like, oh, I'll record myself. That's when I made my first online course. Not really a course, but I was like, I'll just record myself answering these top 30 questions that new moms ask. I was like, that's how I'll make a bigger impact, by recording online courses and products. And then COVID happened. But even before that, I was like, I think the better thing to do would be to help other doulas market themselves. I mean, there's so many doulas who have the passion, the immense and incredible trainings and certifications and just the personality to be amazing doulas and have an amazing impact. But they're going back to their accounting jobs and whatever jobs, because they can't pay their bills. And the thing missing, it's not anything about them, it's just marketing. It's just that the pregnant people in your town don't know that you exist. So that's when I kind of pivoted and started doing more business coaching and online classes for doulas.
Kyleigh Banks: That's amazing. Sometimes when I tell people that I've cut back on taking birth clients… really, to be honest, I travel a lot. So let's say six months to eight months out of the year, I can't be on call because I'm traveling. But the other months that I'm here, I just take clients that are super aligned. And sometimes I hear people say, well that's not fair. You should take all the clients that want you. And my thought was, I don't need to serve everyone, but I could help create other doulas who know how to find those parents. Because the other doulas are out there. They're out there. It's not just Kyleigh and Darcy. Right? There's so many out there. And so how fun it is to be able to connect those people.
Darcy Sauers: Yes. Oh, absolutely. I mean there's a lot there that you and I aren't the perfect doula for everybody.
Kyleigh Banks: Yeah, big time.
Darcy Sauers: I mean, that could be another whole podcast episode in itself. There is definitely an idea in birth work that, well, you'll appreciate this. I posted on Instagram the other day about a doula that's earning six figures can do more basically pro bono work in the community versus a doula that has a sliding scale. So most people were like, yes, absolutely, but I got a lot of flack from people that were like, no, so that means that you're just paying people to do the work for you. And I'm like, no, that's like I can be helping one person. I can pay someone, I can donate money. The idea in doula work of it's our job to serve every single birthing person, well, if we did, we would all burn out and then not help anybody.
Kyleigh Banks: Absolutely. I haven't told you this, but we just closed the doors to Birthworker Academy. The December cohort, we offered $71,000 in scholarships. $71,000. That's more money than I made last year altogether. And it was like, no big deal just to write that off in one week. That's the kind of impact that's possible. Yeah.
Darcy Sauers: Yes, absolutely. Oh my gosh. Yeah. I love that.
Kyleigh Banks: Can I ask you, did your idea of recording the 30 questions that people ask you, did you ever actually record those or you pivoted first?
Darcy Sauers: Oh, I did. Yes. I did. And I sold it for a while. And still to this day, it's a more, it's an added value if you purchase the big package. Now I do a little bit of postpartum doula work, but I have an agency, so I have other doulas doing most of the doula work. So that's like an added value. If you buy the biggest package, you get that video recording.
Kyleigh Banks: Brilliant. Can I tell you something else? I don't know if I've told you this. We might have talked about this when we chatted a few weeks ago, but how cool is it that as your business grew and as your perfect ideal consumer pivoted from the mom postpartum to the doula, working with mom's postpartum, it doesn't mean you had to throw everything in the trash and completely start over. And that's really, really cool. I see doulas who want to start as one thing and then their passion changes. Maybe they start as a birth doula and then they're like, you know what? I just want to do preconception work.
In most cases, you can find ways to repurpose all of that stuff that you've created. So for instance, for us, I have a ton of birth courses, a postpartum course, and mindset courses. And if you've listened to my story, or Darcy knows, I have pivoted also now to mostly supporting doulas. But I thought to myself, how can I use that birth course I created? How could I use that postpartum course? And I'm literally finding a way to actually change that from a course for moms into a curriculum that now other birth educators can go teach my curriculum that I've already created. So yeah, really the opportunities are endless if you're ready to just open your eyes and let them hit you.
Darcy Sauers: Absolutely. Yes. And that's really what you have to do is just think differently.
Kyleigh Banks: Yeah.
Darcy Sauers: And look at things differently.
Kyleigh Banks: Were there people that you saw five years ago that you looked at and said, oh, I want to do what they're doing? Were there people out there doing postpartum doula mentorship?
Darcy Sauers: No, no one was doing that at the time at all. At first I was like, well, could I even do that? Or, and then are there even enough doulas in the world to that this would be a good idea? Would there be enough? Would I have enough clients? And that answer is yes. Thank goodness there's a bazillion doulas out there. I mean, thank goodness for the world.
Kyleigh Banks: Oh yeah.
Darcy Sauers: There's still more babies than there are doulas, so we need more. But I followed people. I would say the first online business person that I saw and followed and admired, was Kate Northrop, who is, she actually started, she wrote a book called Money, A Love Story. She had an online course about getting out of debt and money, but she would post on social media about her life and how she just worked from her home, from her phone and her computer. And I was like, what is this? You don't have to have a nine-to-five job.
And that idea right there lit another fire in me. I was like, I loved the part of being a doula like that. I was my own boss, I could go to my kids' soccer games and take a day off if I needed it, but if I took a day off, I wasn't getting paid. And if I took a vacation, I wasn't getting paid. So the idea of having an online business really appealed to me. Oh, I can do this from anywhere. So yeah, I would say Kate Northrop, it was my first online business mentor.
Kyleigh Banks: When you worked at your corporate job, did you know all the things like landing pages and email lists? No. So you still had to learn something new?
Darcy Sauers: I did, yes. So yeah, because when I worked in marketing, I sound so old, but the internet barely existed. I remember taking, this was probably 1998 or something, and I met with somebody from Yahoo and I wish so hard I had a video of this meeting, because he was explaining to me... Remember on websites, there used to be leaderboard ads at the top?
Kyleigh Banks: Yeah.
Darcy Sauers: He was explaining to me how online advertising works, because that up until that it was like you bought a radio spot, you bought a TV spot. So the idea of online ad impressions and views and click-through rates, I remember just being like, wait, what? Go back. Tell me this again. So yeah, landing pages and email. I did work for an email marketing company at one point. So I did learn all that in the 21st century, in the early 2000s. But I mean the principles are still the same. A sales page is a sales page, whether it's on your website or on your TV spot or your radio spot or your elevator pitch.
Kyleigh Banks: Your webinar.
Darcy Sauers: Yeah.
Kyleigh Banks: It's all the same thing.
Darcy Sauers: It's all the same.
Kyleigh Banks: When someone told me that, that blew my mind. Someone was like, just do a webinar and read your sales page. And I'm like, wow. You're kind of right. You're taking them through that journey.
Darcy Sauers: Yeah.
Kyleigh Banks: Yeah. It doesn't have to be so hard, which is really cool. It gives people hope.
Darcy Sauers: Yes. And I do want to say, I've continued to learn, I think you and I both took Digital Course Academy with Amy Porterfield. I've had online business mentors and classes that have taken along the way, certainly to learn the intricacies of all that. And I love, I know you do too, I love geeking out on all that stuff.
Kyleigh Banks: Yes. I love investing in myself and putting myself in those containers. And I see you do it all the time. Going to mastermind events and it's just really cool. It's cool for me to look up to you and be like, okay, she's doing it. I should do it. This is something that's got to happen. And I continue to put myself in those spaces and my mind is just continually blown.
Darcy Sauers: Well, I think I just posted about that today. That's when you grow, I mean, as a person, but as a business owner, my biggest growth edges have happened because I took a leap and joined a mastermind. It's true. I compare it all the time, and this is kind of corny, but it is the absolute truth. Starting a doula business is like having a baby. You can't do it alone. You can, but you're going to be miserable.
Kyleigh Banks: Yeah, 100%. Yeah.
Darcy Sauers: If you have a doula, if you have a guide, if you have a mentor, if you have a coach, that's just better. And you save time and energy and money by putting yourself in rooms or programs or virtual rooms with other people that are doing what you are doing or doing what you want to be doing. That's how you grow. And I talk about this all the time, but there was a study of male versus female entrepreneurs. And I forget what the number one indicator of success was for men, but for female entrepreneurs, the number one indicator of success was whether they had a small group of other female entrepreneurs that they connected and interacted with. And I just think that's so true and so powerful. What I've tried to create now in my programs for doulas, let's all come together and learn this together, grow together. Because that's powerful stuff right there.
Kyleigh Banks: Yeah. The community continues to blow my mind. Both Darcy and I have communities for doulas and mine are much newer. And so I'm just learning some of these things for the first time. When I created my membership, I'm like, everyone's going to want the business course. And maybe they join, because it comes with a business course. But when they get in there, I ask them about what their favorite part is, it's literally the community. Every single one.
Darcy Sauers: Yes.
Kyleigh Banks: Every single one.
Darcy Sauers: It's so true. Actually it's funny, we were just talking about this in my mastermind group that went, because one woman was like, well I want to start a membership, but I don't have 12 video modules yet and I haven't created all this stuff. And all of us that had memberships were like, you don't need it. You just need to create the community. Because that is truly what everybody values the most because again, it's like when you have a baby and you go to the new mom support group and you're like, oh you guys haven't showered yet today either. Oh, that's how you pack your diaper bag. You order take out three nights a week too. You get new ideas from the other people that are in your same life stage. You get support that you're craving and you feel that sense of, oh okay, I'm not doing this wrong.
Kyleigh Banks: That's so huge. And that's one of the main reasons that I pay the big bucks for the masterminds that I'm in, is just to have, it's not outside validation in terms of I'm seeking someone to build up my ego. It's like, is this the right journey you'd go on and if they give me the thumbs up, I run with it. So I love that you mentioned that one.
Darcy Sauers: It's true. Yeah, exactly. I don't mean it to sound like, yeah, you go to those support groups to be like, or join a mastermind for people to pump you up. It's more like, hey, I'm thinking of hosting a new webinar. What have you guys found when you've done it? And what do you think of this idea I have for the title? It's just to get that instant feedback and is just so powerful. So as doulas, no matter where you are on your journey, I always say this, you need other doulas, you need to connect with the other doulas in your community. You need to join communities of doulas online. And yes, there's some bad ones.
Kyleigh Banks: I haven't found those yet. You're the only community I'm in on Facebook.
Darcy Sauers: Well, and I don't really know of any bad doula communities, but I’ve certainly been in some Facebook groups where doulas are tearing each other down. But find the spaces where you can make good connections, because it's so important.
Kyleigh Banks: You mentioned four reasons that communities are awesome and I'm throwing in a fifth. Collaboration. When you're a new mom with the new kids, you're just like, I just want someone to invite me to the park with them, right?
Darcy Sauers: Yes.
Kyleigh Banks: Join a community. So you have those women who say, hey Darcy, I'm running a summit next month and I know you, because you're in this community. Come be a part of this summit. Or hey, I have someone who wants virtual support, but I am full this month so I'm going to pass them to you. You can't have those types of connections if you just don't have those connections. You've got to put in the work first to join those communities or befriend those people and then opportunities that start falling from the sky.
Darcy Sauers: Exactly.
Kyleigh Banks: In my case, very quickly. So I like to say it's possible for it to happen very quickly to you too.
Darcy Sauers: Yeah, well I mean even on a smaller scale in your community, make sure all the other doulas, because that's where you said their fault, they got another inquiry, they're going to pass it along to you. But if you don't ever put yourself out there and go meet them, you're not going to get those leads.
Kyleigh Banks: I feel like you can tell someone that a million times, but they don't believe you until they are the doula that's full and is like, I'm literally looking for anyone who's good. Please will a good doula just reach out to me, because I have so many clients and I just need someone. And yeah, that's me now. And it's hard to find those people. You know why? Because they went back to their old job, because they weren't making enough as a doula. So it's this full cycle of just the work that Darcy's doing is really, really important.
Darcy Sauers: Oh, thank you. And I wanted to say that when you were saying you look at stuff I do and admire, I totally admire this stuff you do. I get emails from you and I'm like, that's really well-written email.
Kyleigh Banks: Thank you so much. And right back with you. It's like the website offer that you created, so freaking cool. And it's just really cool, because some things I don't have capacity for. And I know that there are people like Darcy out there who are doing the things that I can actually send my students to also, which is so funny because some people will look up and be like, aren't you guys direct competition? And as long as both of us don't see it that way, which we don't, it really leaves room for some awesome collaboration.
Darcy Sauers: Yeah, well I know it's true. And I learned that early on in my doula career. Reaching out to now Krista Malte, who's like a dear friend of mine, but she was the other postpartum doula in town. And me coming from a marketing background, I was like, okay, well she's the competition. I have to position myself and sell myself against her. But then I was like, I kind of want to know what she does actually when she goes into someone's home, I have all these questions.
So I ended up calling her and we collaborated. We still do, actually. We literally just went to the spa together a couple weeks ago, because I was like, we need a work vacation. So I mean, we did so much together to raise awareness about postpartum doulas in our community. I never could have done that on my own, but doing it with her and with some other doulas, it was so much better.
So I've just taken that into now reaching out to you. Or I could say, oh, well Kyleigh is coaching doulas, but we're kind of doing different things in terms of exactly what we're doing with doulas. It's just like choosing a doula. You choose who you energetically connect with and some people want to choose you. Some people want to choose me. There's plenty of doulas to go around.
Kyleigh Banks: So the people listening who love you, will you run through all of your offers and give us the down low on where they can find you and what kind of communities you have?
Darcy Sauers: Yeah, and I actually wanted to also say the other cool thing about connecting with you, is you invite me to be on your podcast. I invite you to come speak at in My Doula Village and the Birth Boss Summit and all that stuff, which just makes everything better. So that's better than if I just ignored you. I don't even know which one of us reached out first.
Kyleigh Banks: It's so true.
Darcy Sauers: And we just DM'd each other on Instagram.
Kyleigh Banks: Yeah. Simple, easy. We're just real people. But I will have to say, there are some times where I do see other people out there and I get a little stab in my heart like I feel in competition. But I really have to remind myself, and this is actually a relationship that I look back at, what if I did that about Darcy and we wouldn't have this relationship. That helps me release that a little bit. But it definitely still happens to me.
Darcy Sauers: Oh, me too. I'm not going to pretend that it doesn't. And another thing it does, I'll get people that are doulas that are like, oh, my friend is a vet, but she needs to market her vet practice, could you help her? And I'm like, yes. Sure I could do that. But then I'm like, no. Stay in your lane. There's got to be a business coach out there for vets.
Kyleigh Banks: That's so funny.
Darcy Sauers: Just do stay. So to answer your question, so I have a free Facebook group that you mentioned. It's called the Doula Marketing Group. And it's an awesome community. I always feel like I should knock on wood, it's very positive. I share marketing tips in there and it's a really great group. So go find that on Facebook. And if you head to my website, thedouladarcy.com, you can download my free cheat sheet on how to get more doula clients, which has some great tips in there.
And then I have a membership for doulas, my version of a mastermind called, My Doula Village. It's only $49 a month. And it's another really great community where you have access to me at a very affordable rate as your doula business coach. We have a guest expert every month. So Kyleigh, you were a guest expert a while back. I need to have you back in 2023, I think.
Kyleigh Banks: I'd love to.
Darcy Sauers: We have a Facebook group, so that's a great community. And then I have a bunch of just self-paced online classes for doulas, how to get clients, Instagram for doulas, take your postpartum doula business virtual. I get this question a lot, because I'm a postpartum doula. Most of my classes and my doula villages are for birth doulas and postpartum doulas. It's not just exclusive for postpartum doulas.
Kyleigh Banks: Do you have any lactation consultants in there too? Or just doulas?
Darcy Sauers: It's just doulas. Definitely some doulas who are also lactation consultants. But yeah.
Kyleigh Banks: Amazing.
Darcy Sauers: Yeah.
Kyleigh Banks: The last thing I want to say is that Darcy also does VIP days where you can get her for three hours. And I did that once right before I launched Birthworker Academy for the very first time ever. And I swear in those three hours, Darcy and I planned out 52 weeks of podcast ideas and everything else I needed content-wise for the entire launch and really for the entire year. So thank you for that. And if anyone else wants to do a really deep dive, go check out her, maybe shoot you a message on Instagram, or what’s the best?
Darcy Sauers: Yeah, shoot me a DM on Instagram or on my website, you can find the link to book a VIP day. I love doing those because I always say that is my superpower. Get me talking and within 10 minutes I can be like this. You should do that. The marketing ideas start going, and I loved yours because you blew me away. You showed me your spreadsheet, you had so much going on.
Kyleigh Banks: Spreadsheets are my love language. And any of my students in my programs are laughing right now because I give people spreadsheets up the wazoo.
Darcy Sauers: And it was fun to kind of work out how that Birthworker membership was going to be. Very cool. And I remember having a moment at this time, like I'm helping her create something that some people would view as a competition, but I was like, no, this is totally different than what I'm doing and this is going to be great.
Kyleigh Banks: It is really cool how similar they are. So my membership, I meet with everyone weekly and it essentially comes with my business course and it's over $150 per month. And then Darcy's is just structured, her Facebook group is amazing. She does monthly guest speakers. And do you do monthly calls too?
Darcy Sauers: Yeah, so I have office hours where you can pop in and ask me questions and then every other month I do, I teach something or we just have a doula Zoom where you can come and talk about an issue with a client or we had the best conversations at a recent one. Somebody had a really tough client birth interaction with the hospital and even something with the partner and she was, at the end, she was like, I don't think I'm going to be a doula anymore. But we all, again, just the benefit of a group and a benefit of a group of doulas. We talked with her and she was like, okay, she took a break, but she's like, okay, I'm not going to quit. So I was like, we saved a doula.
Kyleigh Banks: Amazing. Yes, I mean those little things right there. Like you said, if she didn't have a community, she would've quit, but instead she's probably reassessing her boundaries, reassessing clients, reassessing the advocacy stuff and becoming a better doula.
Darcy Sauers: And it was really powerful, even for me to just hear from other doulas, like, oh, a similar thing happened to me. Here's what happened, here's what I did, and here's how many weeks I took off. Just to hear like, oh, this just sometimes happens. It's not anything she did. So it was cool. So get yourself a community, everybody.
Kyleigh Banks: Yes. That's the lesson here.
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Meet your host, Kyleigh Banks, a side-gig doula turned CEO of a multi-six-figure birth-focused business. Her passion? Teaching birth nerds, like you, how to build an incredibly successful doula business that allows you to quit your day job, stay home with your kids, and most importantly, make a lasting impact on the world.