← The Doula Darcy Podcast
The Doula Darcy Podcast
Turning Passion into Passive Income: How Doula Kelli Blinn Created Her Childbirth Education Course
00:52:10
In this refreshingly honest episode, Darcy chats with longtime 1:1 coaching client Kelli Blinn, a Columbus, Ohio-based birth doula and childbirth educator, about her journey from teaching private classes to launching her first online childbirth...
Loading summary
Transcript129 lines
- [00:04]
Darcy
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. Welcome to this week's episode of the Doula Darcy podcast. Excited to have one of my longtime one on one coaching clients here today with me, Kelly Blynn. Kelly is a birth doula and childbirth educator from Columbus, Ohio, and she has just recently finished creating her first digital course. And it's been, it's been a long time coming. I don't know, but we're both really excited about it. It's an excellent childbirth ed course. Kelly's. And I'll let her talk in a second, but Kelly's been teaching childbirth ed in person in the Columbus area for many years and, you know, incorporating it into her doula business. So I think it's kind of been on the back of your mind that if you recorded it, that opens up a lot more opportunities for you, but it's been a process. So even as you have a ton of experience actually teaching childbirth ed, this whole process of kind of birthing it into a digital course has been a long, grueling process. And I want. I invited you on today to just let's be real about it because I think, and, and I catch myself doing this too, like, oh, create passive income and then your life will just be great and it'll be so easy. But we, and I, I know a lot of other coaches and people and do that online and then we forget to talk about that part where before your passive income gets passive, where it's actually a bit of work. A lot of work.
- [02:24]
Kelly Blynn
A lot of work.
- [02:25]
Darcy
Yeah.
- [02:25]
Kelly Blynn
Yeah.
- [02:26]
Darcy
So, Kelly, first start by telling us about your doula business. Your birth doula. How long have you been a birth doula?
- [02:33]
Kelly Blynn
Yeah. Hello, everyone. And thanks for having me. Darcy. Yeah. So you did a great job introducing me. I am based here in Columbus, Ohio, born and raised, and I have been doing this doula childbirth educator work where I had a title and I got paid for it. I've been doing it for 10 years. So since 2015. But I, like many doulas, have been a doula longer than that. And before I knew that there was a word for it or there was a certification you could get. So since the age of 10, I've been obsessed with all things pregnancy, babies, how babies come out, all of those things. So it's really, truly been this very lifelong journey, exploration, to get me to where I am now. And my husband and I have two kids and I was stay at home mom to them. And so when they were young, I knew I wanted to get into the birth world, to the, to the birth world where I saw babies being born. Right. But that on call life does not jive well with being home with two small children. So I wanted to find ways I could still exercise that part of my brain and get kind of my fix, but how to be predictable or schedulable. And so becoming a childbirth educator and actually starting in the role as postpartum doula is where I started because those are things that you schedule on the evenings or weekends or if I'm doing a day shift where the postpartum client I can schedule it and get a sitter. So, yeah, I've been doing this work for a long time. The way I've done childbirth education all of this time has been privately. So it's me, the birthing person and their partner or whoever they are going to have in their birth space with them. And I really love doing it this way. There aren't too many educators in my area who are doing it exclusively privately like this. There are people who do group classes and they'll do one off sessions like one on one, but not their whole model being like the way I've done it. And so one thing that we'll talk about in talking about developing an online course like this is like validating your idea, right? Like validating your course idea. And something I had to work with you on in multiple one on one sessions was you'd be like, Kelly, you've been doing this for X amount of years with multiple clients and they write you reviews and they send you to their friends and you're doing like, you know that this worked like, so you'll probably, this will probably come up other times in our conversation, but I have been the one getting in my own way in this process. And it's humbling to say that, but I think they're important to say aloud because I think that's probably the case. If people really give themselves a minute to think about it, it's probably the case for a lot of people.
- [05:25]
Darcy
Okay, let's just dive right into that because I think that is what I have enjoyed so much about coaching you. You have always, from the get go, just said that and claimed that and known that in your own head. I mean, that's the number one reason everybody gets slowed down by anything, but especially entrepreneurs. It's yourself. Like you hold yourself back.
- [05:50]
Kelly Blynn
Yeah.
- [05:51]
Darcy
And whether it's procrastination or validation or imposter syndrome or whatever, but we, so many of us humans, it's just human to do this. Blame tech. You know, I don't know tech. I don't know how to do tech. I don't have enough money to do this. I don't have the time, I don't have this. Or you know, my husband won't let me do this or I have three kids, so I can't do this. Like you're just throwing up excuses and blaming other things that actually aren't. You know, those things may be true, but the real thing is you're scared. So I feel like. And maybe that's like, that's when you're ready to sign up for one on one coaching is when you realize like, oh, it's just me. It's not, you know, these other things are factors, but I'm my biggest, I don't know, hindrance to getting this done. So that's hindrance.
- [06:43]
Kelly Blynn
Yep.
- [06:44]
Darcy
Really? And then even when you face that, it's still. You have to work through that.
- [06:52]
Kelly Blynn
Yeah. It's not immediate, or at least it wasn't for me. I think for some people it might be this revelation. Like you come to that and you say it aloud and then you wake up the next day and you're on fire. I think that can happen for some people. That whole. I can't think of the actual phrasing, but like the secret has more power when you keep it inside than if you were to say it out loud. Kind of along those same lines. But that wasn't the case for me. So I came to you for one on one coaching because I remember saying to you a long time ago, I kind of want there to be something like, like I. Like you're the button I push when I. Because I didn't want to. I did not want to go into a job anymore and do the nine to five, which I had done prior. I was happy to be an entrepreneur and to be my own boss, but that, that's its own struggle in many ways. And so I wanted you to be kind of Like a button that I pushed that is like, I want the accountability. I want somebody to give me a to do list when I want it and then I execute those things and get some praise from you and then go back on my merry way doing my own thing. So I knew I needed some kind of like touch point throughout the month, throughout the week, whatever that looked like, and somebody to help get out of my brain and help me think about it from a different perspective. When we initially started and do you have the date?
- [08:13]
Darcy
I don't. I should have looked it up.
- [08:14]
Kelly Blynn
We've done. We did like three months and then six months and then several months off. And so it's been a few years. I wasn't talking about this online course from the get go. The last several, the last several cycles has been laser focused on boosting the or like getting the course done, marketing it, building my list to tell more people about it. But there were multiple reasons why I reached out for what I wanted to coach.
- [08:43]
Darcy
And I think a lot of of doulas, birth doulas especially, will recognize that. Like, I remember when you first started it was that your kids were tweens and you needed to drive them around everywhere and you know, like being on call, the on call life. And I think this is so common. Like you, we do the work to become busy doulas and then we're like, oh my God, this is ridiculous. I can't manage this schedule, especially with the kids of any age. So that's what we were working around first. Like, how could you make this work? And what are the options? And then can you remember? Because I don't remember, like what made you decide and land on creating a digital course as your way to.
- [09:31]
Kelly Blynn
Yeah, there were, there were multiple things. So like I said, I did the classes and I still offer them privately, but that only allows me to work with so many people in a month. Right. Or so many people in a year because I have to set boundaries. And so knowing that childbirth education is something that a lot of people pursue. Right? Like knowing that I don't like being shoved into a crowded room with fluorescent overhead lighting with a bunch of strangers to take a class and a lot of pregnant people aren't graduating, gravitating towards that, where their body is literally not comfortable in that setting also, it's just not very convenient. So wanting to be able to get the childbirth education I was already offering out to more people than I could do in an actual week or month was a big one. Wanting to have some passive income and this Was the information that seemed to flow most naturally because I was already teaching what I thought the, the one of the areas where I was mistaken was like, oh, I've been teaching this six hour private class. It's no big deal to just like convert it to online. You know, I've. Well, I've made it. It's more than six hours and it, I've revamped it and it's better than what I've been teaching. It's now what I will be teaching. Moving forward in private, in person classes. But so there were different like approach as to why I wanted to do the online course. But yeah, the, you know, easily accessible, wanting to reach more people with the content I had already been teaching and that I can teach in my sleep. Having passive income at some point. And as many of us birth doulas know, like sometimes you're at a birth for three days. I mean, I don't do that anymore, but sometimes that happens. Sometimes you're there for 12 hours, but it feels like you've been there for three days. Right. So our energy level is so there's so much exerted in that labor birth space. And so let's say I've been at one of those really long, really draining births. But then I have to teach a class. Sometimes it gets canceled or rescheduled or sometimes I just go like running on fumes. And so there I wanted a way to be able to still make money and get this information out there from the perspective of a real life doula, but maybe not have to. My schedule so much when things did get busy or did get hectic.
- [11:55]
Darcy
Yeah. We also talked about. This is a way to. What? By having it your course online and not sucking up your time to teach it. It's a way to make it more affordable for people that maybe can't hire you to come in person or. Oh yeah, and we talked a lot about the south accessible. Yeah. Yes, because let's.
- [12:17]
Kelly Blynn
Yeah, sorry, let me elaborate on that actually. I'm glad you brought that up. So we have these deserts in the United States where, you know, people are traveling an hour or more to their closest hospital, let's say. And if, if they have a hospital, you know, in an hour's drive there might be a childbirth class, but it's like it's offered this day and this day and you just got to make it there. So maybe that's not accessible. Maybe you're a third shift worker, maybe you're a nurse. And so your, your schedule rotates all the time. You need something that's on your sched cycle and you need it where you don't have to drive an hour. So it's a big enough hurdle, mentally, physically, for that pregnant person to know that they have to drive that far for a prenatal visit or they're going to have to drive that far when they're in labor. But what can I do to help get them quality education and not have to be one more burden?
- [13:07]
Darcy
Right.
- [13:08]
Kelly Blynn
So. And then the other component of that. Yeah, we did talk about like rural areas here in Ohio, the state you're in, wherever you are, whatever state you're in, what resonate to this, you have pockets of wherever you live, where hospitals are not easily accessible or educators aren't accessible. But also, as a woman of color, I wanted to be a woman of color teaching this course. There's not too many of them online that I'm aware of. I mean, there's no way I can know every person that's doing an online childbirth course. And in the process of that, this course course, I had to not Google that because that would be another way I'm standing in my own way. But there's also not a lot of people here in central Ohio that are people of color doing one on one classes or that have now launched an online course. So I want that to be something that makes the course rise to the top too. That I am somebody who identifies as a woman of color. I have birth babies. I understand the inner workings as a patient, but also as a birth worker of what it can be like to birth while brown. Birth.
- [14:17]
Darcy
Yeah. And you. This gives you the freedom to bring this childbirth ed class to women of color, whoever. I mean, this is a.
- [14:30]
Kelly Blynn
Anyone, everywhere.
- [14:31]
Darcy
You know, we all want to help everybody, but when you're doing it in person, you can't. Well, you can discount it or do it free, but it then you, you know, you're driving somewhere, you're spending three hours teaching the class for free, which, when you can do that once in a while, great. But when it's a digital course that's recorded, that's loaded, you just have to send someone the link. It's so much easier to provide that to free for free or low cost to whoever you want to and as many people as you want to. So I just, I thought that was such a great goal of yours and reason and just another great reason to do this. And which brings me to the. We talked a lot about, well, how many kinds of childbirth ed there is. You know, the standard is like you Go to your hospital class. And it's like how to be a good patient at the hospital. So we talked and kind of in the conversation of like, well, who am I to have a digital course about this? Even though I've been teaching childbirth ed for years. But I think this is such a common thing we all come up against, like, who am I to do this? And maybe there are other courses online that are online childbirth ed. So we talked about what you could do to set yours apart. So can you talk about kind of your passion for childbirth ed and what it really came down to? We talked, you know, I talked you through. Like, how is yours different? You know, what is it about your version of childbirth ed?
- [16:09]
Kelly Blynn
And yeah, we kind of touched on it or I touched on it a little bit a minute ago. Like, so there. Yeah, there are multiple tiers to. Or multiple layers to that response as well. So we have said I was already doing this. So I knew that the need was there. I knew that there was interest and that I was good at it. And people, people liked what I had to say. I will say that this course is not. It's not in any way like bashing a hospital childbirth education course. But I'm very honest in it. That that's not ever my first go to in. In terms of a recommendation for birthing people. So I as a doula, like, it's a requirement if you are a first time birther to work with Kelly Blynn as your doula. I require you to take a childbirth education class. And this has been a long standing thing in my practice. Early on I didn't do that and I learned the hard way where that wasn't a great idea. So I'll tell people. You of course could take it through me, but I don't want it to. You can also just hire me as a doula. Here is my list of private educators in town. And they teach hypnobirthing. They teach Lamaze. Like there's different focuses. Right. Those are always my first recommendations. And I'll say, and then of course you could just go to a class at your hospital. But I always say that's not my number one recommendation. Now I can only speak to what I know here in central Ohio. So maybe you are in a place where the hospital childbirth education class is the top of the line. That is where everybody should go. And I and a little bit jealous if you're in an area where that's the case because that's not the case here. And prior to me becoming a childbirth educator I. We have three major, major hospital systems in central Ohio. I went to each of those three hospital systems and took their childbirth education class. Because what I thought I would do is just become an educator under that hospital system. Like, they would do the scheduling, they're doing the recruiting, the marketing. I just come in as an instructor. That was honestly way easier than the path I ended up taking. I took them and they were not good. They were kind of all the same. They were just a slight variation, one hospital system to the other. And like Darcy mentioned earlier kind of jokingly, but we're serious. It tells you how to be a good patient. It tells you, here's where you park, here's the ID that you need to bring to the registration table. And it's like it's. It wasn't a whole lot more than what you could just find on a website or a one page handout. And this was eight or ten years ago. So, like, there's a lot of information that they could have been telling. It wasn't a focus on physiological birth, which is what my course focuses on, how your body is working, how your baby is working with your body, and why it's this magnificent thing that we need to know about and stand in awe of. And it's not about, you know, this is where you put your stuff in the hospital room. And this is like, they aren't listing out different procedures that might come up or interventions or tools. And I go through that. So, like, there's an interventions and variations of labor section of the course. It's probably one of the longest sections of the course because I detail them full because you need to know what the heck they're talking about if these things come up. And a lot of times they do come up, whether that's in your birth references or not. Is it helpful to know maybe what term they're tossing around? I think I've really gotten off of your initial question. What was the question?
- [19:43]
Darcy
My initial question was about your passion, which is shining through right now.
- [19:47]
Kelly Blynn
Well, it's obvious.
- [19:48]
Darcy
Yes, your passion. You were saying that when we were talking in our coaching sessions that what childbirth ed came down to for you was making sure people realize they have choices every single step of the way.
- [20:05]
Kelly Blynn
Option.
- [20:06]
Darcy
Yeah.
- [20:06]
Kelly Blynn
Yeah.
- [20:07]
Darcy
So you even.
- [20:08]
Kelly Blynn
That's why it's called. Yeah, your birth, your options. And I even like created this cute graphic and sent it out to my newsletter for people to vote on what I thought was my top three course naming ideas. And I did. I went a completely different direction than you can use Any of those. Because I was like, the word options, it has to be in the title, because as I shared with you, I must say options a hundred times per module. Because I want. If you don't know you have options, you don't have any.
- [20:37]
Darcy
Right?
- [20:37]
Kelly Blynn
Right. And that's what I feel like I was walking away from with taking those childbirth ed classes all those years ago before becoming an educator. I'm like, they didn't list anything, like different bodily positions you could be in or things you could say no to about having done to your baby after birth. Or, you know, maybe there are some things in your hospital system or for your unique medical situation where you can't negotiate and you can't really, you know, delay certain things, but you need to know that there is the option to have a discussion about it. And most times you can negotiate something. You can say, no, you can delay it. You can say, ask me about that in a couple of hours. Or really what I talk about is ask if it's an emergency. Hardly ever is it an emergency.
- [21:28]
Darcy
I remember learning that. So that was, you know, when I gave birth. I wasn't a doula yet. And I. I don't even remember where I learned it or heard it, but just the idea that you, you know, I thought you just showed up to the hospital and you just do what the doctor said and you, you know, I was the classic, like, I'm just gonna wing it, and I like my doctor. And no. So the idea that you can ask Chins is. I think we. We as. This is a classic thing of like, once you're a doula 10 years, you forget that your clients are starting way back here. And so just teaching them. Oh, yeah, you can ask questions. You can ask her to wait five minutes. Well, it's.
- [22:06]
Kelly Blynn
It's healthy. It's healthy and smart to ask questions. And probably you were the ideal patient for them coming in, but they just pushed through the system.
- [22:17]
Darcy
Oh, yes. You know, and I was a people.
- [22:19]
Kelly Blynn
Pleaser because you weren't pushing back. And it's not even that you're pushing back, but that's what I hear from some of my clients. Like, well, I just, I. I just want to be as low maintenance as possible. It makes me uncomfortable if they're thinking that I'm being really extra or asking a lot of questions. And I have. And then I'll say, you have to decide how uncomfortable you want to be then. Because if you're uncomfortable, like, mentally, emotionally because of this somewhat controversial conversation you think you might be having, think about what your body's going to feel like in labor. You're gonna be very uncomfortable or like think about how your baby's being impacted by this certain drug or this certain position, whatever, in their level of discomfort. So there's a lot that happens on like a chemical level. I think when somebody hasn't given birth one time, you do go through that experience and maybe somebody would still go through a second birth similar to how you just described your first. Like, I just like my doctor, it'll be fine, I'll do what they want. But oftentimes there's some kind of major shift that they're like, I, that wasn't great, or that didn't feel like I had much of a voice. And so that's another huge reason why I'm doing this. I want people to know they have options. If there are, if there is something that I, as a birth worker could see happen by the time I'm no longer on this earth, I would like for fewer people to have a first time birth experience that they need to have a redo. So my hope is that by taking a course like mine, by having a doula, by having a really great provider that feels like a perfect fit, whatever the scenario is, that somebody can have a first time birth and it's amazing, and then have a second time birth and repeat that. But what so often I see, and your story is a great example, is that they have a first time birth and they're just like, oh, like they're kind of like awestruck or just kind of not feeling like they were heard or they didn't know what their options were. And so then they get pregnant again and they, they want to redo. Yeah, that can still happen with the perfect childbirth course, with the perfect doula, whatever. But my hope is that, that we're seeing that less because we're getting those options out into the world because they're understanding the importance of a doula, because their provider has open lines of communication with them, lets them know their options directly. It's a huge, it's a huge ask to think that, you know, the next several years that changes. But I'm hopeful for the young people that are pregnant now. I'm hopeful for our children and how they're going to be coming up and understanding their options differently than you and I did.
- [25:05]
Darcy
I love that you said that because that is that, that right there is your passion and your passion is huge, huge. And that is what you have had to tap into when it got hard.
- [25:16]
Kelly Blynn
Yes.
- [25:17]
Darcy
While you were recording, you know, work, creating your course. And also I want to point out that you are not a fan of social media. You are not a fan of putting yourself out there. And that.
- [25:32]
Kelly Blynn
No, that was a big part of it, too. Staring at myself for hours, recording myself. And then thank God I wasn't the one editing it. But I would. This course wouldn't exist if I also had to sit and edit myself. Somebody else did that. But, yeah, so it's a. That's a stretch and that's something. Another thing I knew I needed some coaching for was to get out of my comfort zone. So it's not that you are like social media queen and forcing me to do that, but you did push me out of my comfort zone in that way. And if you, you know, if you know that you're not going to do a social media account, but you want to build an email list somehow, or you want to get on a podcast or whatever, like one on one coaching is going to help push you to do that. And there's a level of accountability associated with that that I knew that I needed.
- [26:18]
Darcy
Well, I wasn't fishing.
- [26:20]
Kelly Blynn
Social media is not my jam.
- [26:21]
Darcy
I wasn't fishing for a compliment there. I was applauding you because you like every step of the way. You know, when I was like, you really need. You were like, I want to do this without an email list. I. I want to do this without posting on social media. But you. We would tap back into your passion and you have done it all because you know, in order for someone to buy it, they have to know about it and that you're going to have to get. So you. It's been cool to watch you go from hating social media, not doing it, to realizing, like, this is what I need to do if I want to make this change in the world. And I always say that your passion has to override your fear. You know, when things get scary.
- [27:09]
Kelly Blynn
Yeah.
- [27:10]
Darcy
You tap back into that passion. And that is something I think you do and I do. And we. And I want to talk about it more. You know, we started this conversation around like, oh, you have to kind of get over yourself and get over your fear. Like, I feel like I do that on a daily basis. Like, some mornings, some mornings it takes five minutes. Some mornings it takes hours to be like, okay, here.
- [27:33]
Kelly Blynn
That's just real. Right? And you said that at the beginning, too. Like, let's just be real. Let's be honest. And that's, I think, why I've had a hard time with social media, because you can easily get in the trap of, like, watching or, like, seeing all these videos or getting stuff in your algorithm that may don't seem real. And, I mean, I knew that I wasn't gonna instantly become one of those posters that is like, I have a filter on every post and there's cute. Like, that's just not me. So I. I didn't wanna. I think sell out is maybe part of my issue. But also, like I've said to you before, I'm like, they're gonna get so sick of my faith. But you're like, kelly, stories are only there for 24 hours. They forget about you. They actually forget about you when they swipe away from you.
- [28:23]
Darcy
You.
- [28:24]
Kelly Blynn
And that's a good, I think, reminder for anybody hesitant about social media, or even maybe okay with social media, but hesitant about, like, boosting their presence to launch a course or whatever the case may be. They don't see you.
- [28:39]
Darcy
And if they don't care, how often.
- [28:41]
Kelly Blynn
Do you go to an account? Like, how often do you go into an Instagram account on their page and look past the first, like, six images that show up on your phone? Oh, very rarely.
- [28:54]
Darcy
Right.
- [28:54]
Kelly Blynn
A lot of times you are only seeing what the algorithm pops up for you and you see their stories. And so even if somebody was to go to the Kelly Doula, Kelly Blynn Instagram page, and I. Let's say I only had, like, a recurring 12 posts, it's like those 12 posts are going to be new for the people forever. So you talk about all the time. You'll say, like, work harder. Not work smarter, Works harder, not harder. Right. That can be, like, translated in so many ways. But social media is one of those. It's like you have the information, whatever your niche is, how can you repurpose it? How can you, you know, maybe you do just have 12 images on your. Your social media that you repost every 2012 days or whatever it is.
- [29:44]
Darcy
Yeah.
- [29:44]
Kelly Blynn
So, like, it's still there.
- [29:46]
Darcy
And you bring up a great point, like, how many people go to your Instagram and look past the past six posts? Not a lot. But the people who do are the people who are really jazzed up.
- [30:00]
Kelly Blynn
They want to see.
- [30:02]
Darcy
And so this is. This is when I get jazzed up. Like, that's why you have to show up authentically and not use a ton of filters and not wait till your makeup's perfect and your outfit looks great. Like, just show up and you're gonna trap in the people that want to spend six hours watching your childbirth ed course. That Want to learn from someone like you that obsessively talks about options in a good way. I didn't mean that to sound weird. You know, that just shows up as you are. So that's the great news. You just have to show up as yourself. So we could go on and on and on. But I want to talk about to the doulas listening who say, but I don't have six years experience teaching childbirth ed. I don't, I haven't. I don't. And I don't have time to go learn how to teach childbirth ed. What can they.
- [30:55]
Kelly Blynn
I don't want to.
- [30:55]
Darcy
Yeah, or yeah, I'm not interested or I'm a postpartum doula, but you have a couple different ways that doulas can work with you to bring passive income into their businesses. So.
- [31:09]
Kelly Blynn
Yeah. Yeah, thanks for bringing that up.
- [31:12]
Darcy
Yeah.
- [31:12]
Kelly Blynn
So I have an affiliate program where if you are interested, like, so there are different ways. So there's like, maybe you're like, what doula? Or what Darcy just said. Like, either you aren't interested in becoming a childbirth educator or you have that interest, but it's just not fitting into your lifestyle right now. But you want to know that there is a quality childbirth education option out there for the people in your community, for the people filling your calendar that are current, your currently your clients. So you could be part of the affiliate program and just be kind of referring them to my course in whatever way feels right to you or, and, or you could add this to a current package that you have. So like I mentioned earlier, I require my first time birthers to take a childbirth education class. So after we do the 30 minute, you know, free zoom video to see if we feel like a good fit, I send them a proposal. There are three options. One of the options is just doula support and they get prenatal visits with me and like email support, all of that. But there's no educational component to it. And then there's two other options that have various educational options attached. And so that's something that you could create that. That's something that you as a doula have been meaning to do on your to do list or don't know how to do. That's something I would be happy to have like a quick phone call or zoom with you because that was another area where I got in my own way of like setting up packages and setting up options. People want to know that there are options. Key word in my course. People want to know that there are options. Not just oh, she Just offers doula support and that is fine if that's all you do. But I think it's can make it really appealing coming in as a pregnant person or a pregnant couple saying oh, she has this, she has option A, she has option B. Yeah, at least two options. So that's, I'm not doing the, the most like beautiful way of articulating it. So to wrap it up, you can be somebody who refers people to my course and it's just like you're chatting with them at the yoga studio or at the park or they are on your calendar yet, but you know that they want to take a childbirth education course. However it makes sense to you to send them my way or if you want to add this as a childbirth education option to your existing package, but it's no work for you, that's what.
- [33:37]
Darcy
It'S going to do.
- [33:37]
Kelly Blynn
It's just you talking about me or you don't even have to talk about me. Like it can be, let's say you have option A and option B on your website. Option A is simply your style of doula support. And that's it. There are the prenatal visits, the in person visits for birth, whatever your your package currently looks like. Option B can be all of that plus this class and what I'm offering for affiliates is 30% a 30%, what do you want to call it?
- [34:09]
Darcy
Affiliate commission.
- [34:10]
Kelly Blynn
Commission of my course, which evens out to about $110 per course. So it's not chalk change, my friends. Like it's something significant. So it's something that you would build into your current offerings or you know, I have a QR code I can send you that if, if you're more on the side of where you want to just kind of refer to it kind of organically and not such an official. But there are a couple ways for you to engage in that. So it's childbirth education from somebody who has birthed a few times myself, somebody who has been in a childbirth educator role for several years and who has attended births as a doula. And it's is attending births, that's the other thing. So when I was taking those childbirth classes at my three hospital systems in central Ohio, two out of the three instructors at those hospitals were retired and hadn't been in the birth world for several years. And so yes, they still had the knowledge and the experience experience but they were not in the day to day birth world anymore. And so that was off putting to me and probably it might have been to me if I was A pregnant person in that class. Like, well, this instructor doesn't even know what it's really like in the day to day to give birth now. So this childbirth education course is coming from me with all of these years of experience, but I'm still in it. I'm still doing that work. I'm still working as an educator one on one. And I'm still, still a tug reading first. And I have a good grasp on like what it's like right now.
- [35:39]
Darcy
Right. And you're a doula. And one thing we talked about, like, while your childbirth ad isn't overtly like you have to hire a doula, when you're pointing out that they have options from the beginning to end, it, it just comes up. And I, I told you, I remember teaching when I taught prenatal yoga and yoga for birth. I could see the wheels turning, like, as the more they learn, the more they're like, I need someone there with me. So if you're a doula listening.
- [36:10]
Kelly Blynn
Yeah.
- [36:11]
Darcy
This is, this is a great childbirth ed course to recommend because it maybe will make them realize they need to hire you to be their doula. And if they do, it makes your job easier because they're going to be well educated coming into their own birth. Which is why you, Kelly, have from the get go required that your birth doula clients take childbirth ed. Because it.
- [36:36]
Kelly Blynn
Yeah. So that could be a. I was.
- [36:38]
Darcy
Just gonna say so with, as an affiliate with you, they're not only earning $110, they're making their job easier as a birth doula down the road and making the world a better place. So saving the world. So it's a win, win, win.
- [36:50]
Kelly Blynn
Yeah.
- [36:51]
Darcy
And so how can they reach out to you? Oh, sorry. Go ahead. Sorry, I didn't.
- [36:54]
Kelly Blynn
Well, you just brought up something that I, I didn't think of or like a spin on it that I didn't think of until you said so that you could simply be an affiliate of mine and just tell people about the course in hopes that what they hear from a doula childbirth educator makes them realize they need a doula and then they'll come back to you because you're the reason they found the course in the first place. Or you're their local doula. Right. So say you're located in Alabama and somehow you're sending them to. Obviously they're not going to hire me.
- [37:25]
Darcy
Right.
- [37:25]
Kelly Blynn
As their doula, but they realize that they need it and they're going to be like going back to you who connected them in the first place. Or they're going to be going back to Google and finding who's closest to them. So that's a way for you to get the word out there, make some money easily and know that they're getting quality education.
- [37:43]
Darcy
Yes.
- [37:43]
Kelly Blynn
So to answer your question a minute ago, my website is simply Kelly Blend K E L L I B L I n n kellyblinn.com There's a page there about, you know, you can just hit the contact page and tell me in there what you are, you know, reaching out about, if it's about this. Or there's a page for the course itself. I'm at Doula Kelly Blynn all one word on Instagram and you can message me there, but the, the affiliate program, I'm still fine tuning a couple of the details as far as like the back end of the platform that I'm using to make sure everything's in place. But probably by the time you reach out to me, that'll be all good to go. And let's just have a conversation first. If you want to hop on Zoom. As a fellow Doula, I know you and I can chit chat all day long, but we can just try and keep it to like 30 minutes if you want to get to know me a little bit better, kind of one on one. There's lots of ways for you to reach out. So go to the website, follow me on Instagram, so send me a message. There's, there's lots of ways for us to connect and I'm probably not going to say no to any question you have. I'm just excited to engage with you and get this information into the hands of the people who need it.
- [38:56]
Darcy
Oh, I love it. And I'm so excited that your course is done. You have worked so hard. I can, I can attest that Kelly has poured her heart and soul into this course and that it is going to go out and do big things in the world. I'm so, so excited and I think this was a really cool time to talk about it because talking about passive income for me as a Doula business coach, I talk a lot about like getting ready and making it and what you need to, like, decide and then, oh, it's launched and now you have the money coming in, like, but we, I've never like, talked to someone like, okay, you just finished and it's going out into the world, so.
- [39:38]
Kelly Blynn
Oh yeah, it's fresh.
- [39:39]
Darcy
It is fresh. Very fresh. So, yeah. So it's been fun to talk to you. Thank you so much for coming on and sharing your honest. What am I? Experience. What's the word I'm trying to say?
- [39:53]
Kelly Blynn
Yeah, you're sharing my honest experience. Yeah.
- [39:57]
Darcy
Your experience. Yeah. With creating this course and getting it done. So congratulations to you. And people can also email you at. Hello, Kelly Blynn.
- [40:07]
Kelly Blynn
Yes. And really, I'm happy. I'm no business coach like Darcy, but I'm happy to answer questions if you have been interested in doing an online course. It doesn't matter the topic. Right. There's the general bones of what goes into making something like this. And I happen to be married to a professional videographer and editor, and so he gave me some tips on lights to buy and a microphone to use, and those made a huge difference in the quality of my product. And you don't have to do that. But like, like I was saying, all the different ways you can find me, I want, I want to be accessible to you at helping you get over whatever hurdle it is to making your course or making that passive income and helping you stand in your way less than I did so that you can, you can get to the other side of the rainbow a lot faster.
- [40:56]
Darcy
Yeah. And the. Well, that you're kind of offering an easy path to passive income. That. That's a thing. Maybe that's a whole other podcast. Like becoming an affiliate for things you believe in and feel strongly about is a, like a very baby step into passive income. I mean, if you're earning with you $110 for every sale, that's. That could be a lot that you know. And you make it easy. You're. You just give them a unique or your system makes it easy. It's. If it sounds complicated and hard, she'll just.
- [41:27]
Kelly Blynn
It's not, it's not complicated.
- [41:28]
Darcy
No, you'll get this unique.
- [41:29]
Kelly Blynn
The most complicated part, the most complicated part is on my end and even my end isn't that complicated because of the platform. Right. So it really requires you to say yes and then decide in what capacity you want to share this information. And I can help talk you through that. It's new to me too. Like, I am an affiliate for other brands. Very, very low key. I do a good job of that at some time times. But this is new for me too, so we can learn together. If you make just one sale, you get $110. If you make multiple sales, just think about that money that could be coming in so that you could say, I'm not taking any births in the summer because I want to be off and I make all of this money from course sales. Like, I want to take the month of December and January off around holiday. Like that could. That could be still allowing you to be making money and not burning out. This work has such high burnout rates. Right. And that was another reason I want to do the course in this fashion, because I do it privately. I can't do as many courses as somebody could do, you know, if they're doing big classes or I can't do as many classes because I'm doing them privately. But I don't. I wanted to find ways to get the word out there, share these options, continue to share my passion and my love, but not be burnt out.
- [42:50]
Darcy
Yeah. Oh, my gosh.
- [42:51]
Kelly Blynn
So that's an affiliate opportunity is a great way to do that too.
- [42:56]
Darcy
And being with your kids more in the summer has always been a goal of yours as well.
- [43:02]
Kelly Blynn
And so, like, yeah, that's happening.
- [43:05]
Darcy
Yay. Scaling back on birth work, you know, in person, birth work and social media. I know you love getting your social media scheduled out in advance so you don't have to worry about that.
- [43:15]
Kelly Blynn
Working on that so that I can choose truly. So I can truly be free to sit in the sun or go to the pool or whatever. It's going to look like week to week with our kids.
- [43:23]
Darcy
Yeah.
- [43:24]
Kelly Blynn
And that could be your reality, too. And I did all the work for you. You didn't have to do the work. So let me share that gift.
- [43:32]
Darcy
Yeah.
- [43:32]
Kelly Blynn
Honestly. And you know, know that they're getting this amazing opportunity that they can watch it on their couch, they can listen to it podcast style if they want.
- [43:42]
Darcy
Yeah.
- [43:42]
Kelly Blynn
There are some. There are a lot of visuals that go with the education that I offer, but it's not like they're not seeing birds or anything. So they could consume my course just audio style if they really wanted to. So that opens up more ways that they could consume the information. And like Darcy said, if you know that they're getting childbirth education from a doula, then that's going to make your role as a doula with them easier, I hope.
- [44:09]
Darcy
Yeah.
- [44:09]
Kelly Blynn
Because they have a better understanding of what it is to have this baby.
- [44:13]
Darcy
Right.
- [44:13]
Kelly Blynn
Yeah.
- [44:14]
Darcy
Well, that's one thing you. Sorry. Now we're really getting into it. I'm remembering all this stuff you talked about when you were first starting out as a doula. You just said yes to every client and you. Then you realize that was a mistake. And why was that?
- [44:31]
Kelly Blynn
A couple reasons. So I would just say yes to everybody because I was so excited to fill my calendar and to have the opportunity to see somebody give birth, that's just like a breathtaking, breathtaking experience. Right. So I was just so, so excited to be in the space. Friendly. Like, I had been obsessing over this since age 10. Now I got to do it. So partly that and then partly because I, I of course valued childbirth education, but I didn't know how important it was that it was separated from my role as a doula. And what I mean by that is that I had some first time birthers who I didn't learn until after the baby came or it was like in the midst of labor that they hadn't done a lick of preparation. And I'm talking no books, no podcasts, nothing. And they come to find out hired a doula because, oh, I just thought that you would tell us about that or I just figured you would tell us. And I'm like, you're in between contractions right now. And this is not, I'm not allowed embellishing on a story like, you know, she had an epidural, so in between contractions, she was pretty chill. We could have a conversation like this, very different if you're unmedicated, but I would say, oh, is this something that came up in conversation with your provider or is this something that you referenced and blah, blah, blah, and she's like, oh, no, we didn't do that, or no, we'd never had a conversation with our provider. We just thought that having you, like, we would just kind of learn it in the moment. And they were winging it.
- [45:56]
Darcy
Yeah.
- [45:57]
Kelly Blynn
I don't know about you, but I don't want to be doing that while I'm pushing out a baby. So. And then I. The other kind of side to that coin was I learned that, I learned the hard way that I am going to work best with you as a doula. We're going to work the best as a team. If you, you quite literally have skin in the game as you're birthing a baby. But you need to have stuff in the game ahead of time. You have to have your head and your heart ready and so does your partner. Well, that's a whole other podcast, like preparing your partner. Right. So that's. Those are the reasons why it feels better to me to know that they're taking a course. And will I work with somebody who's a first time birther and they are taking a standard hospital childbirth class? Yes. But my prenatals with them as a doula or my conversations with them as a doula look way different because I am just Assuming they're not getting that grade of an education, you know, they're not getting. They're not learning about the physiological and wonder that is birth and that positions matter and that lighting and environment, the presence of others matters and that you can say no and that you have options to, you know, delay a procedure or not having it. All those kinds of things. Those are presented to you in the average hospital class where I am. And so I'll just tailor my doula support to them differently.
- [47:24]
Darcy
And then, I mean, that's a lot of pressure on you as a doula to be in between contractions, like educating them about, you know, positions or this.
- [47:33]
Kelly Blynn
Is what a forceps is. Like, they said they might get the forceps out and they're like, you know.
- [47:37]
Darcy
Yeah.
- [47:37]
Kelly Blynn
So that's not. You're not retaining that. What's going to happen in that situation? And what did happen with these clients? I'm referring to push, no pun intended. Push came to shove. They just did what the doctor said because there was no time to use that brains acronym, which I talk about all the time. There was no time to do that and say, what are the benefits, risks, alternatives? There was no time to download what the definition of a certain procedure or, you know, instrument meant. It was just like, we gotta get the job done. And the provider often is presenting it to the patient, as in, this is what's happening. This is what we do. It's often not presented in a way that isn't an option or that it is an area for discussion.
- [48:24]
Darcy
Right.
- [48:25]
Kelly Blynn
And I don't think that a lot of providers intend to come into that space that way and just say, this is how we do A, B and C. And you will do X, Y, and Z. They're just in the. They're just in their job. This is their 9 to 5. Right. They forget that you've never done this before. And so they are just expecting you to go through the motions because that's what they think everybody on the labor floor is doing. Right. But wait till you take the Kelly Blinn course and you're like, wait, I have an option there. Yeah. Or wait till your client takes this Kelly Blinn course and they come in with you as their doula and it's like, wham, bam, this is a different patient.
- [49:07]
Darcy
Yeah.
- [49:07]
Kelly Blynn
They are educated. They wanted to have a discussion about this. They knew that, you know, this might not be the right fit for them. Even though it's hospital protocol or it's provider protocol, if it's not an emergency situation or if it's not something that's life threatening to one of them, then you can have a discussion about it.
- [49:27]
Darcy
Yeah. And I love that this course opens doors for even doulas who.
- [49:32]
Kelly Blynn
Yes.
- [49:32]
Darcy
Aren't childbirth educators to make that happen.
- [49:35]
Kelly Blynn
So a lot of doulas aren't childbirth educators and they don't want to be. And I understand that. And I think stay in your lane. Know what you want to do. Stay where you're most passionate or where you feel like you have the most bandwidth. But what's so great about these two things is that they, they will always be in need, people will always be having babies, and they will always go hand in hand. Yeah. Childbirth education and dual support court are always going to go in. So there's no, like, expiration date on this information. My, my childbirth course is evergreen enough that I'm not referencing, you know, something from today that they will, that will be applicable in a year. It's, it's an evergreen subject matter. Just like doula support is an evergreen subject matter, meaning that it will always be needed. And.
- [50:25]
Darcy
Yeah. And that's so good and so inspiring. So thank you for sharing your. Authentically sharing your entire process with all of us.
- [50:34]
Kelly Blynn
I don't know how else to do it. I'm just authentic. So thank you for having me and for, you know, facilitating this conversation. I really hope that whoever's listening feels encouraged and inspired to, you know, do the thing that might be standing in your way. That feels scary. So whether that's like booking the one on one coaching, whether it's doing the path of income, whatever that looks like, or starting the course, or getting a camera in front of you and just playing around, listening to your voice, looking at your face like baby steps.
- [51:06]
Darcy
Right?
- [51:06]
Kelly Blynn
If it all will come, you just have to start somewhere.
- [51:10]
Darcy
Love it. That is the key right there. So thank you, Kelly. Everybody can head to kellyblend.com that's Kelly with an I or helloellieblend.com to send her an email. And thanks so much for taking the time to talk to us today.
- [51:27]
Kelly Blynn
Thank you.
- [51:28]
Darcy
Thank you for tuning in to the Doula 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 thedula 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.