Moving and Growing in Your Doula Business with Evan Cohen
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Transcript
Welcome to Dula Tips and Tits, the podcast where we cut through the noise and get real about what it takes to build a sustainable doula business. I'm Kaylee Harrod. I've been a doula informally for 14 years and full time for seven. Around here, we don't sugarcoat stuff. We talk autonomy, owning your worth, creating a business that works for you. No fluff, no burnout, just the honest truth on how to be your own best boss.
Let's get into today's episode. Hello and welcome back to Dula Tips and Tits. Today is another guest episode. Excuse me. And I am super excited to have Evan with me today. She is a full spectrum doula based in North Carolina. And she also does doula mentoring, which is fun. And I'm going to let her kind of share a bit about herself and the sort of work that she does. I just want to remind everybody that the reason we're chatting with a bunch of different doulas on the podcast is I want this to be sort of inspiration for you all, right? Like I want you to hear these doula stories and the way that they got started and the way things have evolved and hear kind of the broad spectrum of how this work can be done and the sorts of things that it can include and be inspired and learn about new doulas that you can like follow and get great ideas from. So that is our motivation and our conversation today.
Evan, I'm so excited to have you here. Thanks for taking the time to come. Thanks for having me. Of course. Do you mind sharing a bit about how you got started and like what your motivation was in being a doula in the first place?
Yes, yeah, I'd love to. So I found doula work in 2013, through becoming an abortion doula. And that is actually how I even learned like what the word doula was, I had recently graduated from college and had already become interested in care work in general. And doula work just felt like a natural next step for me. So I volunteered as an abortion doula for a few years. And then, and it's something that I still do.
And then in 2016, I took a birth doula training. And it was a light bulb moment for me where I was like, oh my gosh, this is a thing that people do that I can do where I can make a living. And I just hopped on the train and have been on it ever since. And so now I am a full time doula and a doula mentor. And really birth is my whole world. I'm also an herbalist and a placenta encapsulator. And so I have lots of other little hats that I wear, but birth is definitely the biggest hat.
I love that description of like different size hats because that is how our lives work as doulas. Yes, definitely. And it sort of changes through the years too sometimes where we're like, this used to be my biggest thing and now actually this is my biggest thing. I love that.
And I love that you're, I think it's always like fascinating to me the sort of like extra peripheral things. I don't know if that's a good way to describe them, but like herbalism and placenta encapsulation we all have different things, right, that sort of complement how we show up as a doula. And that's part of what I think is so magic about us is that we are so different and we bring such different like emphasis, right, to this work. That means also then pregnant folks can find the one of us that sort of like meshes with them the best, which is awesome too, you know, so.
Definitely. I always tell the doulas that I mentor that like you are your own niche, just like whatever you like to do, like that's what people are going to be attracted to.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know I had someone once asked me like, Who is your ideal client? And I was like, myself? Like, I mean, someone who likes lots of information has lots of questions. I'm like, I am describing myself to you.
Yeah. So, um, talk to me about how you went from being a doula and practicing as a doula to mentoring. I'm interested in that specifically because I think as doulas, I so frequently hear people with a lot of imposter syndrome, which is normal, who kind of feel like they're like reaching for this ever moving target of being experienced enough to teach other people and to mentor other people. So I would love to hear what that journey was like for you. And like, what made you feel ready for that quote unquote, right?
Yeah, that's such a great question. I agree. I see so much imposter syndrome and people never feeling ready enough. And I feel like that honestly is one of the biggest things that made me want to mentor and teach other doulas.
I don't know if there was like a line that I crossed where I was like, okay, now I'm ready to start teaching. I just, I think after like five years of full-time doulaing, I was like, okay, I really feel like I have enough knowledge where I can support other people. And I always tell people when I'm mentoring them that I'm always learning. I learned something new at every single birth that I go to. And that yes, I have a lot of experience, but that I'm learning things from them as well. And I really love having like a collaborative and like community-minded mentorship style. But I think that like one of the things that made me most like excited about mentoring was seeing people burn out really quickly and have a really short lifespan as doulas and not have the tools that they needed to do it for the long haul and not have the confidence that they needed to feel like they were consistently showing up and doing a good job, like quote unquote, like in their eyes, like a lot of like doubt and fear and feeling like they were doing it wrong and just not a ton of positive role models in the doula world that weren't also burning themselves out. I felt like I was seeing a lot of like celebration of being at birth for like 24, 36 hours, going to like six births a month, things that I'm like, that is not how you are a doula for a long time. Like that is like how you burn the midnight oil or like, yeah, pedal to the metal and like decide to go back to school and do something else because that's not a sustainable like long-term lifestyle. And so really, I feel like my passion lies in teaching people how to be doulas for the longterm because we need doulas. We need doulas that are confident. We need doulas that like are in this and that are building community. And that, yeah, I just really want people to find their place in this work, to find their confidence, to find their voice and not to feel like they're never finding their footing or are doing this for a year or two and then feel like they can't figure it out or that it's too hard and they figure out another path.
Yeah, I mean, this is where we are so incredibly aligned. I mean, on other levels, too, lots of ways. But I think it's such a unique space to be personality wise. So many of us are givers, right?
And we're like, it is sort of a space that requires someone to show up in a really selfless way in the process of birth. That doesn't mean you don't take care of yourself well while you're there and after and before, right? Like that's the thing that I think is so unsustainable. If like, yes, some births are hard, right? And some births, I come home, like every muscle in my body is sore, you know? I just did, I had a birth center birth, I guess like, was that maybe 10 days old maybe? And she works out, like she is so strong. And the only thing that was helping her push and give birth was tug of war. And her husband was like, are you sure you can tug of war with her? And I'm like, listen, I am pretty strong for like one minute at a time. But I came home and I was like, my rib cage is so sore because I was not going to let her not give birth to her baby, you know? But also like, holy cow, she is incredibly strong, you know? And so there are times where we do stuff at births we're there for longer than we expected or whatever. That is part of the ebb and flow of this. But when you don't have good scaffolding around that, then that is not sustainable. Or if you're showing up at every birth super early because you're trying to prove yourself to them, that's also not sustainable. And I would argue, honestly, if you feel like you have to show how much you're worth, even that demeanor is not sustainable because that's exhausting even without the physical exhaustion of that, you know?
Yes, I totally agree. And there's no world in which this work is not extremely hard. Like it is super hard. Like you said, like you come home and you are exhausted, or yeah, you are with someone whose birth goes every way that they were hoping that it wouldn't. Or there's some very challenging experience that happens. And that is the reality of this.
And yes, we have to feel supported within ourselves, strong within ourselves, like set realistic expectations within ourselves. Like there's so much foundation that is needed to show up for, for this work. And yeah, sometimes like the boundaries get pushed. Or like you said, we're at a birth longer than we were hoping because we're also humans and we care and we are, yeah, deeply, deeply caring people. It's like why we're in this, which I also think is why it's so hard for doulas to set boundaries. And why so many doulas come into this work with really wobbly boundaries that they, they don't figure out where they land until they have enough experiences where they're like, oh, I can't go into an induction when the fully balloon is in. Like, I have to wait, like little things that like, you just don't know unless you have an experience doula supporting you or enough experiences that you learn to do it differently.
Well, and I sometimes take for granted that like, the learning curve of that is kind of through not having boundaries usually, right? Like by being like, oh, I shouldn't do that again, right? And I think for myself, for many years, I was like, yeah, we all learn as we go, and then we set better boundaries. But the reality is that that's not always the outcome of that, right?
And so sometimes, we are not setting good boundaries, and we just burn out in the process of even learning those boundaries, you know? So like, while there are some things about doula work that have to kind of evolve with you over time, there is some stuff that you can learn before you start to set yourself up to be more successful and to be less on the burnout path from the beginning, you know? And I think you and I probably align in that we're like, please don't have the like couple years of very hard learning curve that I had or that we see. I would love to help you skip that if possible.
Exactly. I was on the fast track to burn out train. I was not doing the best job for myself for so long, which is definitely also what propelled me into mentoring. And yes, I absolutely want people to skip that phase and to not crash and to start off on a really, really good foot and to charge enough and to not give their services away for free and to have really solid backup.
And like all of these things that like, I don't think that people think about immediately. And it's so important to have somebody to support you on that journey. Because yeah, every new doula that I talk to wants to support people for free at first. And that's important thing to kind of push up against. Because it only takes a couple of words for people to realize that we should be getting paid. We should be getting paid well.
Yes. Well, and I think that space of like, like, I think this is something that, I mean, I will have this conversation probably until I die about like doulas, not giving themselves away for free because it, there's so many layers to it, right? Like I very firmly understand that our services are not accessible for everybody because of the cost of them, right? And I think that's an issue and we need to work on that.
But I don't think the answer to that is, is having doulas do it for free unsupported themselves, right? Like that is not the way to fix this because then we're having a burden that one person cannot bear and literally just their doulas are dropping like flies because of that, right? And so then we have this perpetual cycle of doing harm in the process of trying to fix the harm that's already there, right? And so I appreciate that like they're given the system that we have in the US, there's not a super easy way to have accessibility built into your business while also having sustainability built into your business, right? Like these two things can be at odds with each other. But I think that there are ways to build your business to the point of being able to offer some accessibility out of a place of excess rather than out of a place of either desperation, out of a place of lack because you're really like paying the cost of that or from a place that like causes you actually harm, right? Like I don't think that's actually a helpful way to support and fill that accessibility need. And so one of the things I talk about a lot is like my clients who can afford to pay me well, allow me to sometimes take births for lower costs, they allow me to have my class available to people who are on any kind of social services, right? Like they allow some of these spaces to be in the business that without those higher paying clients, I actually can't sustain that. I live in DC and it costs a small fortune to live here, you know? And so it's like, if it's my family surviving or other people's family surviving, I have to keep my family going and I can't like sustain me putting them last, you know? Like that's just never going to work well. Anyway.
It's so true. It's so true.
I always say to like the doulas that I'm entering is like, I don't care how you're getting paid. Like I don't care if like that client is the one that's paying you, but like you have to be getting paid. Like, yeah, you have to be coming like from somewhere. And so yeah, I have like a sliding scale. And it's laid out really clearly of like, you know, if you can pay this much, this allows me to offer births for a lower fee to others. And people are incredibly generous. And people do pay that higher end. And it does allow me to offer births for a lower fee as well. But yeah, and it does balance out and yeah, there's ways to make it work for everybody.
Yeah, yeah. I think the biggest thing that I sort of hone in on with the like not, not paying yourself enough or not charging enough is that oftentimes doulas are doing it from a place of feeling like they don't deserve to get paid well for this work or they're like not experienced enough to get paid well for this work. That space I will rail against forever.
And in a very loving way, because I'm like, I want you to value yourself, right? But also like this is not a profession, nor should there be any professions that you need to learn for free and actually at your own expense, right? Because births are not free. So if you're attending births, you're going to people's houses, you're being with them, you're feeding yourself, you're away from your family, these are costs that you in fact are paying. And really, in any other thing in life, if you were like, Hey, Kaylee, I'd love for you to go and support this family and pay like around $100 to do that. What like how and it's not it doesn't matter how much I adore that family or want them to have good support. Like I can't do that. Like how would that be sustainable for me and my family, you know?
But when we think about it, I'm just like, my time is free. And then I can show up for you for free. This really easy to be like, well, what is it costing me? I'm like, no, it's actually costing you a ton on top of costing you the like confidence to actually get paid for the work that you're doing, which is real work.
It is a real job. Like you wouldn't just be like, I'm going to volunteer at Target for the weekend, you know? Yeah, even if Target is desperate for employees, right? And it's so easy for us to be like, obviously, I wouldn't do that. I'm like, but that's what you're doing. Like you work for yourself. And you're like, I'll do this part for free. You would never ask anyone else to do that for you. You know,
I think about it whenever I pay someone to help me with my taxes. This is a really specialized thing that I cannot do and why would I ever be like, can you do this for free or expect someone to offer a really specialized skill for free?
And I think too, so much of what my doula fee is going towards is towards being on call. Being on call is indescribable how challenging it is and we get used to it. We learn to ride the waves of it and it is fine. It is a lifestyle. I've been living now for eight years and I'm still going strong and where I would say like at least half of my doula fee goes towards just this lifestyle of not being able to be spontaneous or travel or without planning far in advance. It's totally fine. I don't mind living this lifestyle. Obviously, you have to be okay with it to be a doula, but I don't think that people often realize that that's what so much of our fee is going towards until they're consistently on call for a long time.
Um, yeah, when, you know, when I was, it was probably, I think this baby is like four or five now. Um, I was charging under 2000, which in the DC area, like, whew, just not sustainable.
And I think I was, I was maybe charging like 1500 or 1,000, 7,750 or something like that. And I had two clients who were lawyers and they had a really, really long birth that ended in a C-section that they didn't really want. Like it was this whole, like very long drawn out scenario in the early days of COVID. And so I couldn't leave them, you know, like there were lots of layers there. Yeah. And I remember her saying to me, like, okay, take us, for example, if someone required us to be able to just be called, like just called and consulted in the middle of the night, we would get paid so much money to just be willing to get that phone call, you know? And she was like, you are not only willing to get that phone call, but you literally stop your whole life for who knows how long, which impacts all the other parts of your business and your personal life and drop everything and come to us and then have to recover from that time and then do it all over again. Right. And, and her, she spent like probably the last like five hours of her labor where she was epiduralized and no progress was happening. And we were just like becoming good friends, right? Being like, this is why you need to charge at least $1,000 more than you charge now.
It's so true. It's been so humbling having, yeah, in my earlier days, having clients be like, you aren't charging enough.
Yes. Like, why? How are you living on what you're charging? You know, and I, they were really like, but you only take three people a month.
Like, where do you live in this area? Yeah. It is not sustainable. You're right.
It's really validating, getting that insight.
Well, and I think I mean, one thing that they were saying is they're like, they do social justice, law work. So like, she does a lot of nonprofit stuff. And she's like, this is the heart that we have to write, but you like, like for us, you know, she was like, we could have afforded to pay you $1,000 more than this easily, right? Like, that's not a huge difference for us.
But also, if we know we're paying you even more than that, so that some families who can't pay that are getting your services, that is very much up our alley, right? And so she was sort of like the people who can pay $1,800 or $1,700 or whatever I was charging, she's like, they can also real easily pay $2,500. Those people are not in the like, oh, $1,800, like if they can't pay $1,800, they can't pay $2,500. But if they can't pay $2,500, they're also probably not able to pay $2,800. You know, like, you're not really accessible to the folks that can't pay much, right? The people who are paying for your services for sure have more than $1,800 to pay you. And she's like, obviously, there are some nuance here, right? But she was like, mostly the families who are hiring you can afford to hire you for more. That is 90% of your demographic of people, they're homeowners in Northwest DC, right? They're like, have a million dollar house, they can pay you $2,000, right? But also, then you have some space to be like, okay, you guys have a really tight budget, how can we kind of finagle the package or the services to fit what you need, because that couple extra $100 matters for you. But you have the bandwidth for that, because the folks who can pay you well are paying you well. And you feel like appreciated. And you feel like well cared for by those people, rather than leaving being like, I don't know if I can keep doing this, which is the feeling when you're not doing
Exactly. Oh my gosh, there's so many layers here. And like, yeah, I was mentoring a doula the other day and she said she had this realization where she was like, I realize my ideal clients aren't people like me. She was like, I thought that they were like, I thought my ideal clients would be like my friends or like people in my community. But she was like, I think my ideal clients are like people in Asheville who can pay for my services and like might not have been the people that I had originally thought.
And I was like, yes, exactly. Like there's such a spectrum of like, yes, working with people that can pay for your services so that you then can work with maybe people and more directly in your community or like younger moms or single moms or it's like, yeah, finding that that balance is just so important. And then one reason I also love mentoring is like, if I meet with a family who are like, we really want a doula, but we can't afford what you're charging. I'm like, well, I'm mentoring doulas who are in their first few birds who yes, they're not giving their services away for free, but like they are charging way less than me and I trust them because I'm mentoring them and they have like me in their back pocket. And it's like this really awesome like symbiosis that I've created where I'm like, let me recommend you to like somebody that I'm mentoring. And then my mentees are so excited. These referrals, people are really excited to like work with a new doula, help them in their process, like work with somebody who's who they can afford. And then also like, yeah, I feel like it's this really awesome cycle. And not everybody that I mentor lives here in Asheville, but some people do. And so it's really sweet to like build and create these communities that like make this work work for everybody. And know that knowing that there's like a doula for everyone, there's like a family for everyone too. You know, like we can always, we can find families that match us too. It really is like such an intimate job. And like, yeah, it's so important to find that like alignment within all of it.
Yeah. I mean, I do think part of my, I think another thing that we align on probably is that part of my motivation in adding folks to my business this year was the thought that like, I have an overflow of people coming in. And if they a like are due when I'm already fall or be like can't afford my services and you're a newer doula or, or even an experienced doula but don't have the marketing capital that I have or don't have the like networking relationships that I have. I can actually help funnel those people to you in a way that does up your sustainability, right. They're still getting someone that's amazing that I trust that like you said has access to me if my like skill set is what they're looking for. But also like helps continue to kind of be a jumping off point for these doulas right where I'm firmly always with my team like I can be your stepping stone right like I don't need to be your final destination if you're wanting to be a thriving independent business.
Absolutely. Right. I am 100% for that. In the meantime, if you don't have people coming in at a high enough rate. I am happy to be like hey I have some folks right you can interview with them if they fit with you like amazing wonderful great. These are people that I don't have space for anyway right so it's not a matter like as a doula I'm not a person that's like what I really dream about is never going to birth and just making loads of money from other people going to birth right but it's more that like I have this inflow of people that I can't take anyway and I would love for part of my like practice of giving back to be you benefiting from my marketing work over these last couple years and my work of getting to know people and all of that, which is another way that we are sustaining this field as a whole and it can feel like really lovely and amazing to be able to do that like non financial exchange as well, you know.
Yes. Oh my gosh. There's so much like reciprocity in this work that is also not financial that is building community and connecting people and supporting people on this journey. It's like, yeah, we all just need each other so badly.
Like we cannot do this work alone. And I feel like my mentorship is really community-based and yeah, connecting newer doulas with each other as well, because yeah, this work can be really isolating. And so I love that you're doing that. I love that you're supporting other doulas in that way and using the skills that you have built over the years and being this jumping off point for people. That's awesome. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
So I want you to share a bit about your community because I want the people who are listening to hear about that. Is it something that's local to you or can people be anywhere doing it? Like give us some details.
Yeah, absolutely. So I have a doula mentorship program called Cacun doula mentorship. For transformation for newer doulas. And it is in the mentorship itself is going to be transforming a bit in the new year. So far, I've been doing it as nine week cohorts. And the structure is going to be changing a bit, but it's going to be the same sort of content and community based program where there's live calls with me, there's classes on topics such as creating doula contracts, burnout, finding backups, doula partnerships, navigating inductions, interventions, the difference between supporting people at the hospital and out of hospital, really everything that honestly, like doula training, you just don't have time to go into. And so I find that oftentimes people will finish their doula trainings and be really inspired, but feel like a deer in the headlights of like, what is next? And then they're like spinning their wheels trying to figure out where to go. And so I've created Cacun to be that next step for people or if they did their doula training a few years ago and just have never felt like they knew where to land, it's that landing point. And so it's been really amazing.
Like people have said that they feel like through Cacun, like they have found their community and their people and the doulas that they resonate with because the people that come into Cacun are people that resonate with me. And so it's a really sweet group of people that are very social justice minded, very inclusive, really just amazing and inspiring doulas who really want to make a big impact for the long-term. And it's been awesome to be able to support these people on their path and just see their confidence shift and their mindset change and then realize like, oh, I actually can do this. Like this doesn't have to be just like a dream or a side hobby. Like this can be something that sustains like me and my family for like a long time. And so yeah, I really want to instill that confidence in people and help them realize that this work is possible and it is sustainable and you can change people's lives without losing yourself in the process. And yeah, it's awesome. It's like the most amazing, like kind of like next journey for me in my birth work world, because just like after attending birth for so long and I'm now so inspired and passionate and loving supporting these newer doulas. And I never want to stop attending births. Like birth is my love. I just love being in that space so much. I love supporting people. And I feel like that's a big thing too. It's like I think having a doula mentor who is going to births and really in it as well. And I love like going on my mentorship calls and being like, I was at a birth yesterday and this is what happened. And this is what I learned. Like this is what you could do in this situation. Or like this is what I could have done differently.
Just being like super real and super honest and very approachable, I feel like is my mentorship style and the way that I love to support people on this path. Like I never want to feel like I'm like on this pedestal and like it's like this place that like they're trying to reach and it feels like so far away. I want to feel like we're all in it together and like really learning together and supporting each other and that they can ask me anything. And there's like no silly questions and we're just yeah in this community together.
Yeah, I love that. And I love how you talk about it.
I mean, honestly, the name cocoon makes me so happy. But like one of the things I sometimes say is I like still do love my clients and I do love doulas as well, right? Like it is such a like, natural outpouring of this work to be like, let me like doula you through these early years, you know. And I do think the part of our work that is like done by ourselves usually can be so isolating. Even just being like, is that how you would have done it, right? And like, some of us kind of naturally, either through like people that we meet, or like if there's if we live in an area that has a ton of doulas, like DC, we are saturated with doulas. And so, you know, so there's a lot of people that I like initially just organically built relationship with where I could be like, this is what's happening. Like, oh my gosh, you know, in the midst of a birth or afterwards or whatever. And that is part of the sustainability of this work, because we have to have some folks where we're like, guys, this birth was so weird, you know, or like, oh my gosh, let me tell you, my client had an awesome be back, you know, like those things that other people in our life are like, what? I'm like, I am talking about vaginas and placentas.
Yeah, exactly. We literally have to have other doulas to talk about this stuff with because like, Other people don't want to.
Yeah. I feel like my partner could be a doula at this point.
Oh, yeah. How did the episodes get up to you?
You know, like he like knows the questions to ask now. Yeah.
waters has hurt. How many hours has our water been broken? Yeah.
Exactly. But yeah, they shouldn't have to just hold that role. Like we need each other.
Yeah, we had, there was a time, I'm sure you experienced this too, that like you share that you're a doula and people's birth trauma comes out to you, right? And we were in like a small community many years ago in school. And one of the moms knew that I was a birth doula and like had some birth trauma. And apparently she was like really looking forward to sharing it with me at this particular event.
But then I was at a birth and my husband was there and she was like, is Kaylee coming? He's like, no. And she was like, let me tell you about my birth. And he was like, no, but he was like, what was I gonna do? He's like, so I was just like, that sounds hard. And he's like the whole time being like, why am I a substitute for Kaylee in this moment? He's like, this is not my thing. But I like it. Like you were ready today to unleash this trauma to somebody.
Yeah, they are. They hold a lot alongside us.
It was like, that is the first that I was like, okay, well, it had to happen. So here we are.
Yeah. But no, I love that. So if people want to get in touch with you and hear more about your program, what is the easiest way for them to do that?
Yeah, they can find me on Instagram at Big Cat Birth, and my website is bigcatbirthbotanicals.com. Oh, I love that one. So, I love when people just send me a DM. I'm happy to have a conversation. The door is open, so people can just reach out to me directly.
Yeah, I love that. I think part of what I always encourage folks, like those of you listening is to reach out even just to have like more of your Instagram feed be amazing doulas who is, who are sharing information with you, right? Like, if you're kind of feeling out what would make sense in terms of mentoring or coaching or any of that kind of stuff, you're feeling a bit like isolated in this work. It's not that you have to know for sure that you want to jump into Evan's program or my program or any of the various programs out there. More that like our content can also help you get to know us. And then similar to our doula clients, you're kind of finding who is a good fit for you. How do we approach this work is our personality and communication style in line with yours, right? Like those things matter in terms of trusting someone in your business space, just like they matter in terms of trusting somebody in your birth space. And so I do really encourage you to go and check out her content on Instagram so that you can get a sense of how she's doing this work and even just be inspired by it, right? Because I think that goes a really long way in terms of building our own confidence of like, Oh, Evan is doing it. Like I'm doing it. I'm not off base here. You know, like that is also very, very important in the midst of this work.
So most definitely. Yeah. Evan, thank you so much for taking the time to hang out on the podcast today. It has been lovely to finally chat with you in person while in person on zoom. Yeah. Yes. Thank you so much for having me and awesome. Of course. Yes. And listeners, you will hear a episode with just me on Friday and then we'll have a guest thanks for joining us for this episode of the doula tips and tits podcast. If you learned something today or had an aha moment, we'd love for you to share that on Instagram and tag us at her rod doula so we can celebrate alongside you. If you found this podcast helpful, we would so appreciate you taking a second to leave a rating and a review on your favorite podcast app that helps other doulas find us as we do this work together. This podcast is intended as educational and entertainment. It is not medical advice or business advice. Please consult your own medical or legal team for your own needs around your health and your business. We'll see you again soon.
As you grow in your doula business you have to give yourself space to change and move. That means shifting things in your business. Today’s guest, Evan, shares how she’s evolved her services over the years and what her business looks like today!
Quote from Evan:
“I think after like five years of full-time doulaing, I was like, okay, I really feel like I have enough knowledge where I can support other people. And I always tell people when I'm mentoring them that I'm always learning. I learned something new at every single birth that I go to. And that yes, I have a lot of experience, but that I'm learning things from them as well. And I really love having like a collaborative and like community-minded mentorship style. But I think that like one of the things that made me most like excited about mentoring was seeing people burn out really quickly and have a really short lifespan as doulas and not have the tools that they needed to do it for the long haul and not have the confidence that they needed to feel like they were consistently showing up and doing a good job, like quote unquote, like in their eyes, like a lot of like doubt and fear and feeling like they were doing it wrong and just not a ton of positive role models in the doula world that weren't also burning themselves out. ”
Meet Evan Cohen
I come to doula work with deep care and intention, and a passion for advocacy and helping you see how powerful you truly are. Living in the mountains of Asheville for my whole adult life, I have a strong connection with the abundance that this land has to offer, as well as the community at large. As an activist, I strongly believe that everything and everyone is connected, and all of our actions impact one another and the earth. With the values of harm reduction, trauma-informed care, gender inclusivity, and a dedication to anti-racism work, I aim to create a safe and comfortable container for anyone who enters
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Doula Tips and Tits is produced by Kaely Harrod of Harrod Doula Services
It is sponsored by The Doula Biz Blueprint Self-Paced Class for Doulas Launching Successful and Sustainable Businesses!
Music by Madirfan: Hidden Place on Pixabay
