← The Doula Darcy Podcast
The Doula Darcy Podcast
Doula Marketing on Instagram: Simple Strategies That Actually Work to Reach Local Clients with Molly Cahill
00:40:56
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- [00:04]
A
Welcome to the Doula Darcy podcast. I'm your host, Darcy, a business coach for doulas, and I love helping my fellow doulas master the art of marketing so that they can grow their businesses and help more families. On the podcast, I combine my decade of experience in Advertising with 14 years as a doula to empower other doulas with the marketing strategies and mindset shifts they need to attract more clients and create successful, fulfilling doula careers. Whether you're just starting out as a doula or you're looking to take your doula business to the next level, you're in the right place. Let's go.
- [00:46]
B
All right, everybody. So excited for today's episode of the podcast because I am bringing on Molly Cahill, who has been a friend for a while now. Like, I. When we were scheduling this, I didn't even realize, like, years.
- [01:01]
A
Years.
- [01:01]
C
It's been a long time. I don't even remember how we crossed paths.
- [01:04]
B
I think we just found each other on Instagram.
- [01:08]
C
The interwebs brought us together.
- [01:11]
B
I know. It's so great. And the reason we get to get along so is I think we both love Instagram and that. I think we bonded over that. So Molly is just an Instagram expert. And what I really love is beyond. There's Instagram experts are a dime a dozen. What Molly focuses on is helping a lot of chiropractors, wellness peeps with their local Instagram stuff. So you have a whole agency that do you. When someone signs up with your agency, you just. You take on and you do their social media for them.
- [01:50]
C
Yeah, we do the whole thing. So that's why I always tell people, I'm like, I have a very affordable membership that teaches you everything we do inside of our agency from beginning, start to finish. But I'm like, like you said, a diamond dozen. I'll see why I went viral one time. And here's the formula. I'm like, oh, come on, get over it. No, that doesn't. There is no formula. You know what I mean? Like, I can tell you because. And people hate that. I'm like, I wish I could tell you it's a science. It's not. We have the same posts we'll use for two different chiropractors. One will go viral, one won't. One. We'll post the same thing three different times. One time, it'll take off. The other time if, like, there's no. Yeah. Consistency. You know what the science is? Consistency.
- [02:28]
B
Oh, my God. See? And for my longtime listeners, they're gonna Be like, it's like listening to Darcy Topps. But I say that all the time. And the thing about doulas is and chiropractors and everybody you work with that has a local business. You don't need to even go viral. No, there's no point in going viral. You just want the people in your town to know about you.
- [02:50]
C
I don't want to misquote the stat, but I. When I was. I did a webinar back in about six months ago when I was prepping, I think it was like 90% of all active Instagram users are what they dub silent lurkers. Oh, so people are watching you. Especially with pregnancy. It's such a close to the vest. Like people are watching even when you think they aren't. I don't. And so it can be so frustrating to be like, I spent all this time creating all this content and it's doing nothing. But I'm like, I promise you, people are watching.
- [03:24]
B
Yes.
- [03:25]
C
Oh, I just had someone enroll in my membership who we started. She joined my email list in 2023. Three years. You know what I mean?
- [03:34]
B
Oh yeah. I same thing for my membership, for my doula village. Like people, I'll see they join like they've been on my email list. They've been like following me on Instagram for years. Which is another problem, which is good news, bad news. I love that you're talking about that. People are lurking and not necessarily liking commenting or engaging with posts, but they are still seeing them. The other thing is a problem that doulas have is that people are only pregnant for nine months. People are only like searching for a doula really for five, four, three months. You don't have that long time lurking thing to deal with. But I just say Instagram is a gold mine because women of childbearing age are scrolling and lurking on Instagram all day long. And yes, doulas need. You need to show up there so that they know you exist.
- [04:38]
C
I don't, I can't think of a. I'll be 40 this June and I'm trying to think like the kids say the vibes. So I don't know a more age appropriate term for it, but it's just truly where people go to check out your vibes. I don't know if that's another word I could use because what the service you provide. And this is why I love working with all of the different. I do anybody local who's health related. I have chiropractors, acupuncturist, doulas Massage therapists, MFR therapists. Your service is chiropractors. Yes, they're touching people. But with, especially with doulas, like it's such an intimate service. If I come to a website or even Instagram page and you've just got like a stock image of a baby or like a stock image of a woman holding a baby. I'm not hiring you. Well, stop. I'm moving on to the next one.
- [05:22]
B
Yes, yes. I say this all the time, doulas. You're getting hired to come see someone naked. Really?
- [05:32]
C
At the end of the day, More than that even.
- [05:34]
B
Yeah, more than. And I'm not going to hire you to come see see me naked if I can't get an idea of your vibes from your Instagram page.
- [05:45]
C
Yeah.
- [05:45]
B
Or your website.
- [05:47]
C
Are you someone who skews more religious? Are you someone who's not. Are you someone who's into essential oils? Are you someone who's. That's all of the little things that you need to be leaning into. Oh my God, we both like to crochet. And we could talk about that while I'm in a 12 out of 10 pain. You know what I mean? Like these little quirks and personality traits. This is why I love Instagram and why it is. It's just like a non negotiable.
- [06:12]
B
Yeah, I think so too. In today's day and age. Like you are going. Someone is gonna go. This is another reason I say, besides the lurkers, keep working on your post. Even if no one. You're not getting the comments or the engagement. But also if my best friend says, oh my gosh, you have to go hire Jane the Doula. I'm going to go scroll back through Jane the Doula's content on Instagram. Your posts actually live for longer than 24 hours on Instagram as a doula. Really believe that? Again, just another reason. And I'm 50, so I remember the days when you had a small business and if. When I worked in marketing, if you wanted to let your potential clients get a feel for your energy, like your voice, the way you move, the way you look, you had to go hire a camera crew. You had to buy time on the local cable channel. Like you had to spend a ton of money to get the sound of your voice and the way you look out to your audience. Now the fact that we have our. These phones and we can do it free and instantly as doulas. I always say when I tell people that are interviewing me to be their doula, like this is like dating. You should interview a few doulas because it's you. You hire your doula when you have a connection with them. It's not like you're looking at lists of their resumes and certification. Nope. You're going to hire the one that you have a connection with. And you can use. You can make that connection happen faster on Instagram. Like, people are going to either love you or hate you. And you'll. You won't waste time interviewing with people that you don't connect with because they're not going to call you. And your interviews with the people that do connect with you are going to go so much faster and better because they've already scrolled back through your Instagram.
- [08:09]
C
Yes.
- [08:09]
B
Yeah. Again, we're on the same page. And this is why I like you so much. But one thing I really like, I said Instagram experts are a dime a dozen. And we all see the ads of, like, how they'll teach you their strategies and you know, how to get a million followers and all that. What I love about you is you are all about the local. And you've had this business for so many years helping local businesses grow, using Instagram. So what is it? Why do you think Instagram is so key? I hear so many people say you can't social media, like, you're talking to the world. You're not. It's not good for promoting a local business. What do you say to that?
- [08:52]
C
So the beauty of having a local business is just, like I said, your goal post is just so much different than someone who, okay, let's say you're like an Amazon influencer. Do you know how many pair of jeans you have to sell to make any money? You need to be getting hundreds of comments on every post to stay in business. Yeah.
- [09:13]
B
So.
- [09:14]
C
So your business model is just totally different because like I said, you're. You don't. You couldn't support that many clients. Right. So you need. So I love it because also, I'm not saying it. It's not important to not have a niche. I think a lot of people. Now tell me, do your people get hung up on their, quote, niche very often or do that you feel like being a doula and being in a local area is a niche in and of itself. That's what I think.
- [09:37]
B
But, yeah, I think for the majority of people, that's true. But like in cities like New York, Louisiana. Seattle, you.
- [09:44]
C
Yes, yes.
- [09:45]
B
Down.
- [09:46]
C
Yes. So, like I said, I think a lot of people get hung up on that. Like, that Word. They're like, oh, I have to be my niche. I'm like, your niche is you. Like I said, I know I mentioned a couple examples of are you more religious, are you more spiritual, are you bringing crystals to their birth, or are you bringing the Bible? Like I said, like, those are things that need to be in my opinion.
- [10:03]
B
Yeah.
- [10:04]
C
What makes people be like, oh my gosh, yes. Like, this is my person. This is the person I want supporting me through labor. So that's what again. And the bar, though, the goal post is just so much lower when you've got only a local audience. Right. Cause you're not worried about. You could have a thousand followers and you could have completely booked business. You could have 500 followers, probably have a completely booked business because you've just got this, like I said, this local. And I always use the word go to like become the go to practitioner.
- [10:32]
B
Yeah.
- [10:33]
C
Or the go to doula. And that's another reason I love Instagram is because not only from a, like I said, people get a feel for your vibes, but it's such an easy way to network, which is something that people often.
- [10:49]
B
You're like, no, I say this. Yes, all the time. Yeah.
- [10:53]
C
So overlooked. Anytime I'm auditing, have my membership holistic marketing cabin on my monthly calls, I'll. If we have time, I'll be like, I'll look over your account if you want. Every single time I'm like, you're not doing collab posts. I always say I need to be doing collab posts. And that's more of like the outward facing quote, networking. And I'll explain that in just a second. But the behind the scenes networking is, I call it, we call it like outbounding gits, where you're literally just going to like midwives and lactation consultants and prenatal photographers. And the birth communities in pretty much everywhere are pretty. Even if you're in a small town, like you can find and you're commenting on their posts, you're reposting, you're sharing, you're supporting their business and that just makes you again become that go to person. Like, top of mind. Oh my gosh. You know what? I just had this doula comment on my post. You should go check her out. When one of their clients is like, hey, who do you recommend for doulas? Oh, I keep seeing this woman everywhere. Like that's what Instagram helps you do. So for our agency clients, at least once a month, sometimes some clients, we do it more than once. Just depends on what they provide to us. So for example, like our pregnancy and prenatal chiropractors, once a month we try to do a here's our like doula is actually one of the posts we do. Here's our recommended doulas in the area. And we'll do a collab post with the doula. And if they accept it, then it lives on both feeds. Yeah, it's different than just tagging for the people who don't know. Or we'll do here's our favorite prenatal massage therapists and we'll tag them or pelvic floor pts and we'll add as collaborator. And why would you not do that? What's better than one audience? Two.
- [12:37]
B
Seriously.
- [12:39]
C
Or three or four. So you can have up to five collaborators.
- [12:43]
B
So a lot of people break this down for me. Is this real or is this a static post?
- [12:51]
C
Either. So you could do it as a reel or. Now I will say we don't do single image posts very often for our clients anymore. We mostly only do reels or carousels. Quick sidebar on the carousels. You know how we talked about the silent lurkers?
- [13:05]
B
Yeah.
- [13:06]
C
I have dubbed.
- [13:07]
B
This is.
- [13:07]
C
If you Google this, you won't find it. This is a Molly term. Mollyism. I've dubbed it invisible engagement. And it's the algorithm knows when someone has taken the time to swipe through your carousel. Oh, you won't ever see that. That's not trackable. But it still is a positive engagement signal to the algorithm of. Oh, people genuine generally like her content because they take the time to swipe. So even if someone swipes through 10 slides of a carousel and doesn't stop to like it, that's still showing the algorithm to show this to more people. So that's why I like carousels. And that's why we don't do single image posts anymore because it's more time spent per piece of content.
- [13:45]
B
You're doing this. Oh, here's my three favorite chiropractors. Or three favorite. Each page of the carousel is a different business.
- [13:53]
C
Yes. And even if it's not a collab post, just, just it's like a. Say it's like a more educational type post. People are more likely to read like 1, 1 to 2 lines per slide than to read a really long caption. So. And yeah, so like instead of having one photo up with a really long caption, we don't do that anymore. We will parse out the caption on a carousel because people are then swiping through each Slide. I'm ADHD diagnosed, but I like, people think to say, they're like, oh, I am too. I'm like, okay. I, like, for real.
- [14:25]
B
Yeah.
- [14:27]
C
I think in 2026, we all have much shorter attention spans.
- [14:31]
B
Oh, yeah.
- [14:31]
C
And so that one to two sentences per slide. It's just way more likely to retain someone on your content that way.
- [14:38]
B
Yeah. Oh, my gosh.
- [14:40]
C
And I'm going to talk more about this, like, even more nuts and bolts of this when I present to your group.
- [14:44]
B
But, yeah, sorry, Molly's coming into my doula village in a few days. Here to give us all these tips. But I'm glad you're telling this now.
- [14:54]
C
Yeah. What I was going to say about the collab thing is a lot of people get all in their heads about it. They're like, oh, do I need to ask permission? Do I need to talk to them first? I'm like, who doesn't want free promotion publicity? And if. And most people, I will say, this is what we do in our agency if someone does not accept the collab request. So just so you know, let me just give you, like, the moral. If you're like, molly, I have no idea what you're talking about. Let's say you have two lactation consultants that you always refer to. Okay. And you're like, here's Darcy's most recommended lactation consultants in the XYZ area. And then right when you're about to post, there's like a button underneath that says tag.
- [15:38]
B
Yeah.
- [15:39]
C
So you tap tag, and then there's another button that says, invite collaborator. And so you'll find those two people invite them as a collaborator. Then they get a notification that says, darcy has invited you to collaborate on this post. If they accept it, it then lives on their page, too. But if they don't accept it, it doesn't mean they hate you. It means they probably didn't log on to Instagram and see it, or they
- [16:02]
B
don't know how to do it, or
- [16:03]
C
they don't know what it means. People have asked me to collab on stuff before, and I will have, like, just posted my post. So I'm like, oh, I'll wait, I'll go back and do it. And then I forget about it.
- [16:12]
B
Yeah.
- [16:13]
C
And it disappears in your notifications. Like, you forget it exists. So we have it built into our process. We just dm. The people will be like, hey, we added you as a collaborator on this post. No pressure to accept. Yeah, no big deal. Sometimes they don't. I would say it's 50. 50.
- [16:28]
B
Yeah.
- [16:28]
C
It doesn't mean they hate you because I agree fully.
- [16:31]
B
Like, why would they be mad about that? You're promoting their business. And I love that tip because actually I didn't know about it. I didn't never think about that, doing that in that way. And what I love about and that I obsess over with my clients and members of my doula village all the time is the networking aspect of Instagram. In that again. When I started my doula business 15 years ago, Instagram didn't exist. I had to drive around town and go meet everybody, which had value, but it took a long time. And now when I'm in the orthodontist waiting office with my kids and I have 15 minutes just sitting there, I go network on Instagram. Like, I'll go comment on all the wedding. Sorry, maternity photographer in my town.
- [17:26]
C
Yeah, way back.
- [17:28]
B
Yeah, maybe I should start doing wedding photographers. So in 15 minutes you can cover a lot of ground on Instagram and make a lot of connections. And like you said, the one. And this is what I always say, the ones who are smart are going to be like, thank you, doula. Yes, thanks for sharing our post about our upcoming mixer. Yes, we'll share your post about your next thing. Be generous and yeah, your algorithm will
- [17:55]
C
learn that really quickly. You've probably seen this and it'll be like, oh, you like to look at birth community stuff in Cincinnati. Cool. And it'll just start showing you people you didn't even know existed.
- [18:08]
B
Yes.
- [18:09]
C
And you're like, oh, cool, like a home chef. Well, my clients might want that. Or.
- [18:14]
B
Yeah.
- [18:14]
C
Yeah. You'd be shocked how quickly your algorithm learns what you're looking for. I also, I've only tried this once and I haven't really dove into it too much. So y' all can all be my guinea pigs. Everyone who's listening. But you can ask ChatGPT, you can say, hey, I'm a, a doula and x, Y, Z city. Can you work in agent. You can say agent mode. Can you work in agent mode? And find me all of the birth workers in the XYZ community who are active on Instagram and it'll work. It takes. It's not going to be instant. It works in the background. Yeah, I've only tried it once and it gave me some people that I didn't know existed, that's for sure. Or you can even just go to Google and be like birth workers in XYZ City because sometimes their Instagram is not set up properly and you Might not be able to find them on Instagram. So sometimes you kind of have to reverse engineer.
- [19:04]
B
Yeah.
- [19:04]
C
Which I'll be teaching in your group. Make sure you're searchable. People can actually find you.
- [19:11]
A
Yes.
- [19:11]
B
Key.
- [19:12]
C
Yeah. You want to make sure people actually find you. Yeah, but that's, that's one of the most overlooked, I would say. I'm not saying that good content is not important, but like, I think a lot of people, I always say, before you go, save one more viral hook formula. Have you tried actually being social?
- [19:31]
B
Like, I was just going to say be social on social media. Like, it's amazing what you get from social media commenting. It's funny that you work with so many chiropractors because I always tell doulas, go comment on the local chiropractor. Because they. Chiropractors just. I swear to God, they teach networking in chiropractic school. I feel like chiropractors just get it. So anyway, they're a great.
- [19:58]
C
There's, there's like a lot of fertility acupuncturists out there too. And that's been like a new market I've been diving into. They're so lovely. They're like the loveliest people. Oh, yeah. I know. They have different blocks, different problems that my careers do. I thought it'd be one on the same.
- [20:11]
B
Oh.
- [20:14]
C
But if I'm. Yeah. If I'm zigzagging here. But this is another. I just would be remiss if I didn't tell your people, since we're talking all about local, that Instagram is so heavily. And I'm going to teach this more in your group. But I want to teach it here too, if that's okay. Instagram is so heavily keyworded now.
- [20:32]
B
Yes.
- [20:32]
C
That you can quite literally like whatever words or over your reel in your caption on your carousel. Those are now being indexed by Google, which is just bananas. I just started doing some trade with my acupuncturist. Does like cosmetic as well. And so literally the hooks I'm putting over the screen because one of the things she does is she calls it like a non surgical neck lift because it's like a bunch of like needles in your neck, basically. Scary. But what now I have to ask
- [21:03]
B
my acupuncture if she could do that.
- [21:07]
C
But I literally, the hook over the reel is, did you know you could get a non surgical facelift in Cincinnati? So good. Oh, thank you. Because then if people are searching that. So the algorithm, this is, I feel like a very important thing to know about Instagram is the algorithm used to be. Oh, you're following. You're following Darcy. Darcy. Following Darcy. You're following Darcy. Darcy's content. It doesn't work that way. It's interspaced now. So whatever you are googling or searching the most, it will start to show it to you more, which is great and also very terrifying. And oh, my gosh, yeah, it's terrifying because I don't want to sidebar too much, but I always try to stay informed on both sides of the aisle when it comes to political things.
- [21:56]
B
Yeah.
- [21:57]
C
But oh, my Lord, if you start looking at one thing, then that's all is one view. And you're like, oh, no, this is how we all get siloed into this.
- [22:04]
B
It's so true. It's so true. I. I got sucked into watching a steam cleaner ad because it was just so satisfying the way it was cleaning. And now every time I log on everywhere, Facebook and steam cleaners, non stop. Every brand, every kind. Like, why?
- [22:26]
C
Here's how you use this to your advantage. So I recently found out after a year of stomach pain that I can't have gluten. We went to Disney World and I was like. The first time we went, I was flying blind and I was like, how do I be gluten free here? And I'm like, you know what? Someone's figured this out before.
- [22:43]
B
Yeah.
- [22:44]
C
So I went to the search bar on Instagram and literally just typed in gluten free Disney. Two accounts, tons of posts. I was ready, I was prepared. I was like, I got to Disney World and I was like, boom. And then my algorithm, what does it show me? Gluten free Disney. I'm like, okay, I'm over that. I'm not it. I already went, let's move on. You know what I mean? But this is how you use this to your advantage, is all of your content. Just needs to think with hashtags and keywords. People are always like, I don't understand. It's too much. I don't get to. I'm like, you're way over complicating this. It's literally this. If I was the algorithm and I said, hi, Darcy, what is this post about? And who would you like me to show it to? And if you can answer that question, that's what keywords and hashtags you use. So you're like, okay, this post is about how I can support during a VBAC for military spouses who are in San Diego, California. It's cool. There's My hashtags I use, I was
- [23:36]
B
just going to say, are hashtags dead now that Instagram has upped its keyword capabilities?
- [23:43]
C
I just did a post on this. You ask. They are, they're just used so differently. So it used to be years ago we could go into a client's insights and be like, oh cool. The hashtag Raleigh chiropractor got her 100 extra views. But it doesn't work that way anymore. Now it's more as they almost double as keywords in a way.
- [24:05]
B
Yeah.
- [24:05]
C
So I could still. If you're in a big site city, then you've probably got a hashtag that's like hashtag Raleigh birth community or something like that. Or hashtag Raleigh Doula. Like you could probably find doulas that way. If you're in a small town, you're not gonna. That's not gonna work. So people can still navigate to a hashtags page anytime. I've moved because we were military, that's how I always found my hair person. Like I would type in like hashtag Pensacola hair stylist or whatever. That's how I've always found photographers.
- [24:32]
B
Yeah.
- [24:32]
C
Because it's so visual. I'll be like hashtag Pensacola photographer. So that's still very much alive and well. But how we're seeing them use more now that you can only use five hashtags is like, again, like I'll use that. Maybe your post is about VBAC and you support like your niche if you're in a big area, like near militaries, like you support militaries. Because my husband was gone when my daughter was born and I wish I had to do. I had my mom and my best friend and they were great, but because my OB told me I didn't need one.
- [25:01]
B
Oh, that's a whole other podcast episode about.
- [25:04]
C
She goes, uh huh. Yeah, yeah. She goes, if your mom's gonna be there, you don't need a doula. Oh, my mom hadn't given birth in 30 years.
- [25:12]
B
Me and your mom's your mom. Like your mom, you don't want to see your kid in pain. Oh yeah, you needed a doula, Molly.
- [25:19]
C
Hindsight. But you know what I needed more was a postpartum doula. But I didn't know that existed.
- [25:25]
B
You and me both, sister.
- [25:27]
C
So here we are. That's how I found you, I think. Because I think we were thinking about having a second kid and I was researching all this anyway. Yeah, yeah. Different topic for a different day. But like I said, let's say you, like, maybe you support military spouses. You. This particular post is maybe about. And I don't know if people get that your doulas get that specific, but just the VBAC thing came to my brain.
- [25:49]
B
Oh, spot on.
- [25:51]
C
Yay. Thank you, brain. So your hashtags might be like, hashtag vbac, hashtag milspo, hashtag San Diego ca, hashtag San Diego doula.
- [26:02]
B
Oh, okay. Yeah. So still throw some hashtags on there even though Instagram has upped its keyword.
- [26:08]
C
Yes, but not like hashtag birth. That's too broad. It needs to be. Again, think, what is my woman, like, my person I'm wanting to support right now, searching on Instagram? Oh, maybe she's searching natural birthday prep. Maybe she's searching hypno birthing. Maybe she's searching. You know what I mean? Yeah. And that's the keywords that you want to weave in over your videos, on top of your carousels, in your captions.
- [26:36]
B
Yeah.
- [26:37]
C
In your hashtags and. Because often when I'm auditing local accounts, that's what I see. Like, I just had a student in one of my programs, and, like, they were using, like, hashtag moms of Instagram. And I'm like, but you don't want moms of Instagram, Right. Because you just want the moms that are pregnant where you live. Oh, I'm like, you don't. So, like, hashtag health. That doesn't mean.
- [26:59]
B
Oh, yeah, hashtag.
- [27:00]
C
Well, you know what I mean.
- [27:01]
B
No.
- [27:01]
C
Yeah. No, that's why I'm like, you gotta be specific. What is my person searching?
- [27:07]
B
Yeah.
- [27:08]
C
How do I tell the algorithm? Serve this up to them on a silver platter.
- [27:11]
B
Yeah, searching. Right. Help. I'm always saying, help Instagram, help you, help Google, help you. I can't wait to dive into this more when you come into my doula vill here next week. But before we do, for today's purposes, real quick, if a doula was going to choose between Instagram and TikTok, which would a local doula, which would you tell her?
- [27:36]
C
I don't know enough about TikTok to have. I think this is going to be a very biased answer.
- [27:41]
B
That's why. That's why I'm asking you.
- [27:45]
C
I don't do TikTok. I don't think. And I'm wrong. If someone knows better than me and you're like, no, actually, Molly, I'm killing it with TikTok. But I have seen from a local standpoint, it's just a lot easier to have A little bit more. I think if you want to go like the course route, education.
- [27:59]
B
Yeah.
- [28:00]
C
You could probably benefit from both. I don't even have TikTok. Is that bad?
- [28:05]
B
No.
- [28:05]
C
I told somebody the other day, they're like, will you be our social media expert? I was like, let me correct you. I know Instagram and I know organic Instagram and that's about it. I'm a one trick pony. And email, I think email marketing is actually really huge and I don't talk about it a lot but, but my
- [28:21]
B
point is I've hear doula say all the time, I hate social media. I don't want to do Instagram and Tick Tock. And you don't have to, you, you're, you don't have Tick Tock because you've had a successful business helping small health and wellness businesses for many years grow and get clients from Instagram locally.
- [28:42]
C
This is my area of expertise and I would say if you, if I scroll back two years, my views are probably. They've gone up a little bit.
- [28:50]
B
Yeah.
- [28:50]
C
But my revenue has gone up 120% every year.
- [28:55]
B
Amazing. Yeah.
- [28:57]
C
So like my views are still about the same.
- [28:59]
B
Yeah.
- [28:59]
C
But I've become like, I use that language that go to.
- [29:04]
B
Yeah.
- [29:04]
C
Known for this thing and that's what you can do as a doula in your area so easily with Instagram.
- [29:10]
B
Oh my God.
- [29:12]
C
So easily. Yeah.
- [29:13]
B
And I, TikTok just does not have that local capability the way Instagram does.
- [29:19]
C
And I would say typically for people who, where. When it feels like a drag, I hope I'm like, if you've lost me, if you've tuned, you're doing the dishes and you're like, come back to me. Come back to me here. If you hear nothing else, always return to your why.
- [29:36]
B
Yes.
- [29:37]
C
And your why is not because Darcy said I should post on Instagram.
- [29:42]
B
Right.
- [29:42]
C
Said I should. And it's on my to do list. Your why is I don't want another mom in my community to have the same birth experience I had. And right now she doesn't know I exist. And I'm going to change that.
- [29:54]
B
Yeah.
- [29:55]
C
And when you can flip that energy, don't you feel like it gives me like.
- [29:59]
A
Yeah.
- [29:59]
B
I'm like, yeah. Oh. And it, I, I love that you're saying this because I always tell people to come back to their why. And doulas, we have a burning fire in our gut to go help these moms. And Instagram is where you can go connect with them like instantly and for free. For free. And they can find you and they can lurk and then eventually hire you.
- [30:32]
C
My first job out of college was selling advertising in a newspaper. This was in 2008, and newspapers were already on their way out in 2008. And do you know how expensive just a tiny little ad was in the newspaper?
- [30:44]
B
And then it got, as my boss used to say, lined people's bird cages the next day like it was alive for an hour while they read it.
- [30:55]
C
So just a quick spot story about the returning to your why my sister in law has my nieces are 10 years apart, so she was not able to nurse my oldest niece, but she was determined to breastfeed the second one. She's a very private person. She lets no one in. I've been trying to hug her for 10 years. She's just a very. She's not one of those, oh, I'm going to go to this lactation circle. Hell no. Like, she would never. She'd rather die. Yeah, she learned how to breastfeed by watching reels on Instagram.
- [31:27]
B
Amazing.
- [31:27]
C
I'm not kidding. And I know that story sounds like it suits my narrative, and it does, but it's true. And so I asked her for some of the people she followed and she gave me the names. And I'm like, okay, so this is what I always teach my students. I'm like, imagine if latching with Grace was one of them. Imagine if latching with Grace was like, oh, I should post today. Like, it's on my to do list versus, oh, there's a girl who's wanting to learn how to nurture. Like, it's such a different energy.
- [31:52]
B
Yes.
- [31:52]
C
And you want to show up because
- [31:54]
B
you're like, oh, tapping into your passion for why you do what you do is going to help you create better content and give you the dopamine required to actually go do it.
- [32:10]
C
Yes. Yes. And listen, I do this. I teach all this. It's so easy. If it's too hard, you're overthinking it. If it's too hard, you're trying to not be yourself at the end of the day. That's all true. And I still, I'll just be very honest. There's still days where I'm like,
- [32:25]
B
so
- [32:26]
C
I'm not saying I'm not trying to paint a picture. Like, I don't want you to think, oh, if I don't feel like sunshine and rainbows every day, I'm doing it wrong. Because there are going to be days where you're like, I don't want to do this. But it does help to always return to why you're doing it.
- [32:39]
B
Oh, sure, absolutely. And that is going to be so much more motivating and like I said, create better content than. I have to post three times this week. Like a robot.
- [32:52]
C
Yeah, yeah.
- [32:53]
B
Okay, so tell us about your. You told me you have some free pinned post templates. Yes. And we can put the link for those in the show notes, but tell me what they are.
- [33:07]
C
So Instagram now allows you to. I can't. I think they've been around for a year and a half or so. I can't remember. Instagram allows you to pin like P I N up to three posts to the top of your profile. I love this because I think of them as a mini website for you. So when someone lands on your profile, they immediately are like, they don't have to leave the app. They don't have to click on the link in your bio to look at your website. And I don't even know. Do you even teach your students to all have websites or do you.
- [33:35]
B
Oh, absolutely.
- [33:36]
C
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've heard different schools of thought.
- [33:39]
B
So I'm of this school of thought again. If they're going to come, you're gonna go see them naked or you're gonna go into their home two days after they had a baby. You need a website. Like, you gotta be legit.
- [33:50]
C
No, I agree with you. I just know some people are like. I would say if you're just getting started, this is like a great free way too.
- [33:57]
B
Right.
- [33:57]
C
You don't have your site yet.
- [33:59]
B
Yes.
- [33:59]
C
So I have in. Can I have canva templates that for pinned posts where you can plug in your photo, your services, your, your. There's even a slide that you might look at it and go, oh, Molly. This is more geared towards like chiropractors or acupuncturists. But I would urge you to still follow the slides because there's one that it says common conditions we treat. Okay. Obviously yours would be a little different language. They could be like common. Like, that's where you can put this stuff like VBAC or maybe homeopathy. Yeah, maybe you use homeopathy. I don't like any. Yeah, PTSD or like traumatic one that
- [34:37]
B
comes up a lot is like doulas only support unmedicated births. And that's just not true. Like, you could be like the types of birth we support. Hospital, home, epidural. Yeah.
- [34:48]
C
Inductions.
- [34:49]
B
Yes.
- [34:50]
C
C section. Like, I'm sure you could support all of that. Right? Yeah, that's great. I'M glad you mentioned that. So I would urge you just to not skip that, thinking it doesn't apply to you because like you said, people, it helps them just see themselves reflected in your. Your services. Right. They're like, oh, yes, yeah, there's a slide for some testimonials. There's a slide for how to work with you. There's slides for what that process looks like. Okay, first, maybe we just get on the phone and then maybe we meet for coffee. And then everybody, I'm sure, has a slightly different process. Maybe you take a deposit or maybe you let people make pay. However that is, I would put all of that in the pinned post. And there's templates for this. We have recently changed our strategy. We used to create three pinned posts across the top, which is how many you can have. We've recently been combining it to only two because these are carousels, typically. Because we've been leaving that third spot for something time sensitive.
- [35:48]
B
Ah, yeah.
- [35:50]
C
Or maybe you had a post that did go, quote, viral and people are like, what does that mean? It just. There's no number. It just means I normally get 200 views and I got 2,000. You know what I mean? If there's something that really, like, maybe you had a really cool birth video that you want to make sure is pinned up there to, like, for people to see. So we've been leaving. That third space is more of a fluid. Like, maybe you're doing. Oh, like a workshop. Yeah. Or a giveaway with a local chiropractor. Maybe you're doing a. Like you said, a workshop. Or maybe you're doing like a meet and greet. Or you're going to be at a local. What do they call them, like health fair or something. That's what you can leave for that third spot. We do carousels because like I said, you can have up to 20 slides on a carousel now. So you. Yeah, we mostly just been doing it as two posts. So yeah, those templates are pretty easy. Plug and play. We also have a done for you pinned post. Offer that at the time. I don't know that I'll make sure it's not like, quite ready yet. Right now we've just been testing it with people we already know. So if you're like, this looks great. I've downloaded your templates and they're sitting in my email. Oh, I'll have. I'll make sure Darcy has that link. We'll create them. Someone on our team will create them for you. Because if you go look at my profile, Mine need to be updated. I'm like a cobbler's child. But I love the pin posts because, like I said, they're even great for if you're in a really busy season. Like, maybe your books are closed and. Oh, yeah, you just want to post once a week just to. Yeah, I call it my bare minimum.
- [37:24]
B
Like, show you're still alive. Show you're still open for business. Yeah.
- [37:28]
C
Yes. Your pin posts are a really great way to be. Like, okay. Like, I didn't have to leave Instagram, which is what Instagram wants. And I would highly suggest part of those pin posts being some type of call to action. And that the last tip I'll just leave with Instagram is making sure that customer journey. I'm sure you talk about this. You probably have an episode you can refer back to. But, gosh, some of y' all make it so hard to figure out what my next step is. Do I dm? Do I go to your website? Do I.
- [37:56]
B
Yes.
- [37:58]
C
Are you available Tuesday at 2? No. But can you do Thursday at, like. I'm like. And then I've lost interest.
- [38:03]
B
Yes.
- [38:03]
C
So some easy.
- [38:06]
B
Yeah.
- [38:06]
C
Next step in the customer journey.
- [38:08]
B
Yeah.
- [38:09]
C
Don't make me guess how to work with you.
- [38:11]
B
Don't say, reach out. That's my new pet peeve. Just reach out.
- [38:16]
C
I had a client, I was on a call with him. He's out. Anyway, this is a couple months ago. And he goes, no one's DMing me. I'm like, it doesn't say to DM you anywhere. Why would you? Because I just figured people would know. Why would they know?
- [38:27]
B
Oh, you gotta be so specific. Oh, my gosh, Molly, this has been so good. We'll put all the links down below. But you. Like I said, you. You work with a lot of chiropractors and wellness professionals. You'll work with doulas and they can join your membership.
- [38:41]
C
I told Darcy I might have a doula joining my team soon too, which is exciting.
- [38:45]
B
But I. I think you might be getting flooded with calls because I hear so many doulas. I just want someone to do this for me. So Molly is your girl. So, yes, thank you so much, Molly, for coming on today. Did I miss a question? Did I forget to ask you something?
- [39:04]
C
No, I think I would just say I love chatting with you. So if you want to reach out. Molly Cahill. Molly. My Instagram is Molly Akhil, and that is spelled C, A, H, I, L L. I had this cute girl DM me. She goes, do you know I've Been listening to your podcast for a year, and the whole time I thought you were saying like the letter K and then like a hill, like, nope. C, A, H, I, L, L. So Molly, AKA Hill is my Instagram come say hi. Your doulas are great. About that. I would say I get the most dms from people being like, I heard you on Darcy's, like, yeah, awesome.
- [39:38]
B
Yes, I know the training. So you did a training for me and for my doula village years ago, and I think that's what they're DMing you from because it's I. We refer to it all the time. I'm like, go watch this video. It's so good. So I'm excited to have you come back and do that with some more updated.
- [39:55]
C
Even diving into messaging, which we didn't talk about at all today, which excited about.
- [40:00]
B
Awesome. Yeah. Because Instagram is evolving and changing and it's so good. So I'm so excited for that. So. So anyway, thank you for taking the time today, Molly. Everybody go check out the show notes. Get all the links and resources we're putting down there.
- [40:14]
A
Thank you for tuning in to the Dula Darcy podcast. I hope you found this episode valuable, and I'd love for you to join me on the next one. Let's keep the conversation going. Shoot me a DM on Instagram Hedula Darcy, or join my free Facebook community, the Doula Marketing Group, where we dive deeper into growing your doula business. If you enjoyed the episode, please take a moment to rate and review the podcast on your favorite platform. Your feedback will help more doulas discover the show, which in turn helps more families find the doula support that they need. And I believe that that is how we save the world.