Is There an Oversaturation of Doulas in the Birth Space?
Have you been stressing about an oversaturated doula market, what programs and equipment you need to start your birth podcast, or the logistics of hosting a membership?
If you’ve been wondering how to embrace your “competition” as a birthworker, how to start your podcast out on the right foot, and how to add the most value into your childbirth education curriculum, then get out a pen and paper, this post is for you.
The 3 questions we answer in today’s blog:
“How do I stop worrying about doula oversaturation?”
"What are the essential tools for starting a podcast for my doula business?”
“In my childbirth education membership, should I give the new members access to the live training replays, or should I just let them pick up where they've joined?”
Every Friday, I answer your biggest questions right here on the Birthworker Blog AND the Birthworker Podcast.
To submit a question for next week’s blog, click here.
Today I just got back from camping with a handful of my students turned friends, and I had such a blast. It got me thinking about how much I want to do in-person retreats, and I totally see that as part of my business in the future. I envision all-inclusive week-long retreats, where we can do maybe a doula crash course or a business crash course. What better place to do it than Costa Rica, right? Can you imagine spending a week in Costa Rica with your partner and your kids, where you can spend the mornings relaxing on the beach or touring the jungles? And then we spend the evenings together, piecing together your dream doula business, or your dream childbirth educator business.
I am so freaking excited. All I have to say is that I hope this wild moving-to-Costa Rica dream works out for me because I honestly can't think of a better way to spend my life. Raising bilingual kids on the beach, working alongside and teaching passionate, visionary women like you how to support birth and build thriving businesses. Pinch me, seriously, that is my dream.
Question #1: "I'm really struggling with the idea that having more doulas in the world is a good thing. How do I stop worrying about doula oversaturation?" -Haley
This is such a great question, but the question itself is rooted in scarcity. I want you to remember why you got into birthwork in the first place. It probably wasn't to make money, and it probably wasn't even to build a career. Most of us get into birthwork to serve women and mothers, and to help women have phenomenal birth experiences. If you can just tune into that and remember why you got into birthwork in the first place, I think that'll help you. You’ll realize that, of course, having more doulas is a good thing because that means more people spreading the knowledge and the idea that birth can be autonomous and beautiful, and women don't have to give away their power. The more people we have in the world spreading that message, I think the better.
That was the spiritual, mindset-based answer, but I have a logical answer for you too. Unless you live on an island with a population of 20 people, there is probably not an oversaturation of doulas in your area. I want you to Google the birth statistics in your area and just see how many people are actually giving birth. Do some math, and of course, understand that >10% (probably much less than that) of women are actually hiring doulas. Imagine if we can get the word out there that doulas exist. Most people have no clue they even exist before they get pregnant. They don't find out until it's too late. Take a look at the statistics to see how many people are actually giving birth in your area, then reassess and then see what you think.
I want to say, of course, that even if there is an oversaturation in your area, (which there probably isn’t) some other options include offering virtual doula support, online group programs, one-on-one coaching online, childbirth education programs, or even becoming a travel doula. Those offers will help you serve outside your community and help you reach a worldwide audience.
No matter if there's an oversaturation or not, you really should be building a sustainable business. If you've been here for a while, you know that that means in-person services, but also virtual offerings like live workshops, coaching, group programs, but also something passive like an ebook or a pre-recorded online course. That is my favorite three-pronged approach– live support in person, live support online, and then pre-recorded something online. You mix those three and it won't matter that there's an oversaturation, because you will absolutely build a business that will reach people, as long as you can nail the marketing aspect. Of course, I can help you with that too.
Question #2: "What are the essential tools for starting a podcast for my doula business? From the microphone to the editing software, what do I even need to get started?" -Giovanna from the Birthworker Academy
I’ll give you a couple of options: the cheaper starter option, and then the better, more expensive option that you can grow into. The very first thing you need is somewhere to actually plan your podcast episodes. You should be planning, regardless of if you're doing a podcast, blog, weekly Instagram Live, whatever you're doing, you’ve got to be planning ahead of time. That's how you’ll know that everything is working towards your mission, everything has a strategy, and you’re not wasting your time on things that aren't actually working. Planning is where you will start.
For planning, I use Google Docs, Google Drive (which are both free) and Airtable. Click this link to sign up for Airtable, totally free. You are going to absolutely fall in love. Side note: I know I've been hinting at hosting an Airtable workshop. I'm going to try and make it happen in February or March. It's the first one I'm ever going to do in 2023, so stay tuned for that!
For the microphone, the cheaper version that I started out with is called the Blue Snowball. It was really cheap. Did it sound amazing? Of course, not. But it was cheap, and I started with it. I used it when I had my other podcast, Our Birth Wisdom. You can go check it out and listen to the difference in the quality of the sound compared to the Birthworker Podcast. The difference is pretty insane. That being said, I don't want you to go out and spend too much money when you're just getting started, especially if that would put you in a tight situation.
Start with something cheap, then later on if you want to move to the expensive option, I love the PodMic, and that's what I'm recording this on right now. It can get a little expensive because you have to get a couple of different accessories. In the end, it could be a couple hundred dollars, but let me tell you, I’ve had podcast coaches listen to the Birthworker Podcast and say, "Kyleigh, the quality is unbeatable." The only reason is my microphone, the PodMic, is so absolutely worth it, especially since I went all in on this podcast. I have invested a ton of money in this podcast because we wanted to reach hundreds of thousands of people.
First planning, then the microphone, now you’re going to need a microphone stand. There's honestly tons of cheap options on Amazon. The one that I have now is a little bit more expensive, it's called the Blue Mic stand, and I love it because it's actually beautiful. I wanted a beautiful mic stand in case I started doing YouTube so that it looked good on video. But really any podcast stand on Amazon is going to be great to start out. You also need something called a pop filter, and it's this little thing that goes in front of your microphone so it doesn't make popping sounds when you say P's. Sometimes you can even find a microphone, microphone stand, and pop filter in a little bundle, so definitely look for that.
When it comes to editing, I like GarageBand. It's free, it's amazing, but it's a little hard to get used to. I gave up on it once, but then I came back, and I'm so glad I did. There will be no need to ever switch away from GarageBand, so that'll just be free forever. Next is podcast hosting. You’ll upload it somewhere, and your podcast host sends it to all the different places people can listen. You can upload it the free way on Squarespace. Once you upload it to Squarespace, it will send it to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, all of that.
So Squarespace would be the free option, and then the better, more expensive option is the Buzzsprout. I absolutely love Buzzsprout for so many reasons. If you guys are interested to learn more about podcasting, shoot me a DM on Instagram, just so I know. If I get a couple of people that are interested, maybe I'll do a whole post on really everything podcast related, like a deep dive. But Buzzsprout starts at $12/month, and it’s definitely worth it all day, every day. I would actually skip Squarespace, the free option, and go straight into Buzzsprout, and just make that investment. It's really that good.
Then the last thing is marketing. For marketing your podcast, you really just need Canva. You can use Canva for the social media graphics, but also for the podcast cover art. Every week if you release a podcast, go create an Instagram post, make it beautiful on Canva, put it on Instagram, and that's it. It's really not that much.
I actually wanted to add on a couple other things that are not necessary at all, but they are going to take it up to the next level. One of those would be a transcription service. The cheaper option for that is called Otter. Love Otter, and I still use it sometimes. I pay $99 per year for Otter, so awesome. Since I pay the yearly fee, I don't even notice it. I don't have to pay month after month, and I can just upload the audio and get a transcription. Now, the quality of a transcription from something like Otter is not really that great. Now that we have a budget, we actually use something called Rev, and I actually pay money to get each individual episode transcribed. I pay $1.50 per minute, but when you do it through Rev, it's 99% a perfect transcription, so you spend significantly less time actually going in, and editing it. Whereas with Otter, you're going to have to go in and edit the hell out of that.
And then the last thing that I'll suggest that’s not 100% necessary, but it is next level, is sound panels. You want your room to have zero echo. You actually want the room to sound weird as hell to you when you're talking in it, because there's zero echo. That's what you're looking for. That will really help with your podcast quality. Honestly, that's probably why my podcast has such good quality too, is because I have nine large sound panels in my podcasting room. Buying professional sound panels is not cheap, but there is a cheap or free option which is literally grabbing the pillows from around your house, and just putting them around your microphone and around your computer. Again, not necessary, but it is going to make the quality of your show a lot better.
Then my last hot tip is to check Facebook Marketplace and buy things secondhand. There's podcasters that go out of business all the time, and that's not to scare you, that's to excite you, because you can go buy their stuff for cheap. All in all, I would say, plan to spend minimum of $100 to get started, but if you really go all out, it could be as much as $1,000. Of course, I love podcasting. I think it's worth it all day, every day. I would do it every day of the week, I swear. I would put the money in, because it's given me such an amazing return.
Question #3: "In my childbirth education membership, should I give the new members access to the live training replays, or should I just let them pick up where they've joined?"
This person has a membership, so they probably have some pre-recorded videos in a portal. But then they also probably do weekly or monthly live sessions, and they record those sessions for the members. She's asking if someone new joins, should they get access to the library of all the past replays? The answer is that there's actually not a course platform out there, that I know of, where you can only give someone access to the new content based on the date they joined. As far as I know, that's not even possible. But if you really, really, really don't want people to have access to the earlier live trainings from before they joined your program, you could always email out the replays to the current members or students and not upload them to the course platform, so they would just have to go to their email to get their replays. So that is the workaround for that.
To be honest, I don't recommend that. I recommend you just giving access to all past replays to anybody new who joins your program or your membership because it's the easier option for you as a business owner. I am all about making this stuff easy. I didn't do it easy at first, but you bet I am making it easy for myself going forward, especially now that I'm pregnant. Make it easy on yourself.
Another reason that I recommend giving access to all past replays is because I know that not a lot of new members or new students are going to go back and watch those past replays. Especially if you're still putting out new content every week or month, they're not going to go back. They're going to have enough content moving forward. I say just let them have it, make it easy for everyone, and hey, it's an extra bonus. You can use that value on your sales page, and make it known that when they join, they get access to the entire past training library. Such a good idea, and such a good way to increase that value.
The last thing that I want to mention before you go is that if you want your questions answered by me every single step of the way, and if you want my exact framework for turning your passion into a sustainable business where you're supporting moms in person, but you're also serving them worldwide through online offers like workshops, childbirth education programs, private coaching, or group programs, if you have been thinking, I'm ready to build a freaking legacy, then you belong in the Birthworker Membership.
That is my business-focused membership for doulas, midwives, lactation pros, and other birth nerds. If you are ready to go from side gig doula to a full-time Birthworker, and if you're ready to quit your job, stay home with your kids, travel the world, and impact lives across the globe, then this membership is for you. Click here to join today.
Also, I just want to let you know that next week, the doors are actually opening to our Childbirth Educator Program. For five days next week, you can jump in as a founding member, and you can save 50%. Just make sure you get on the waitlist ASAP. Then get excited for this Monday, February 6th, 2023. That is when all of the details will be available for you. So mark your calendar for Monday, February 6th. And if you’re reading this after then, head over to my website and check out the Childbirth Educator Program since it’s now live!
I hope you found this blog post helpful! I’ll see you right back here next week!
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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.