Rerun: Is It Possible To Make a Full-time Salary As a Doula?
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Transcript
Welcome back to Doula Tips and Tits. This is one of our last rerun episodes. So we have three rerun episodes left. If you are new to the podcast, we are doing rerun episodes. There's some of our top episodes from the last two and a half years over the summertime.
Now, we're only doing this through about mid August. So you were coming up on the last couple ones, but that is what the last number of episodes have been through July, because I take a break in July and I hang out with my kiddos and I go on vacation and do things that are fun and relaxing and rejuvenating so that I can come back to this work with a little more excitement, a little more rest, a little more just rejuvenation,
right? Like some more stamina. So today's episode is making a full time salary as a doula. Is it possible? It is, it is possible. I want you to listen to this episode and then really take a deep dive and a thorough look at what your plan is financially to make sure that you are making this possible in your life because what leads to burnout almost every time is not getting paid enough and therefore not being able to sustain your life.
So enjoy this episode and I will see you in the next one. Welcome to doula tips and tips. This podcast is a place where we answer one question about doula work, both to support you and to help you support your clients.
I'm Kaylee Harrod. I've been supporting families in this perinatal space since my oldest was born, 12, nearly 13 years ago. I am a birth and postpartum doula, childbirth educator, La Leche League leader and a doula coach.
I love guiding and supporting doulas as they work out their doula business. It is a tremendous joy to be trusted in this way. Thank you for joining us on this journey. When we're thinking about sustainability for doula work, we have to take into account how much income this business will bring in for you.
Now, in terms of business success, we all have a different sort of metric, right? A different idea of what we need and want our business to look like financially. I would say that for the sake of this conversation, we're talking about having a sustainable income that is related very much to where you live and what your standard of living is, but also generally just the idea that if you want to be full -time in doula work or birth work,
that you want to be able to make a sustainable full -time income. And that should look like whatever it needs to look like for you, your family, and your area of the world, right? So what I don't want to do as we kind of dive into this is say like, doulas can and should make X amount of money because I don't think that it is that cut and dry.
However, I will say that it is possible and absolutely sustainable, more sustainable, I would argue, to make a decent amount of money in this work and also have like work -life balance and things like that.
Like you don't have to be a doula who attends five to 10 births a month in order to have some sustainability financially in this business. So I want to kind of dive into the nuances of that because the short answer to this question is yes, in my mind, you can be a doula full -time and make a full -time income.
What that looks like for you differs person to person. So in the coming weeks, one of the things that we're going to dive into a bit more is talking about doula burnout and also other services that doulas can kind of add to their packages or their menu of things that they offer in their business.
And a lot of times, if we're talking about wanting to be sort of, if we're talking about like percentages, right? Wanting to be percentage wise, higher on the end of things that don't require being on call, lower on the end of things that do require being on call.
That does look like being really strategic about what other services you might offer as a doula and what that might look like. Now, I firmly do not believe that every doula needs to offer every service.
I think that can be kind of a rabbit hole, rabbit trail, rabbit hole that we go down. That's incredibly unhelpful to think like, okay, every single person has to offer placenta encapsulation or overnight postpartum care or lactation services or whatever it looks like, right?
Everybody needs to be able to do that if they're going to be a doula. That is not the case. There is no list of required services that someone who works in birth work, works in doula work has to offer.
So the first thing to really solidify is that this work can actually look very specific to you. We'll be back in a minute after this message from our sponsor. The other thing that I want you to think about is what you even need in terms of income, because that's a huge part of this, right?
Is that we're all kind of defining our desired full -time salary in our own way, right? So taking an honest look at your life and saying, okay, this is the income that I need to be replaced in this work.
What does that look like? How do I get to that point? How much do I need to charge for services in order to get to that point? Do I feel good about charging that, right? And if you're saying to me, okay, Kaylee, I think I need to make like $60 ,000 a year and someone else is saying I need to make like $150 ,000.
That's a completely different strategy, right? Between those two people, the one who wants to make $150 ,000 needs to have a wider range of services. The one who wants to make $60 ,000 is going to have a shorter list of services.
So that is kind of the first step here to being sustainable in this work is to really decide what this work you want it to look like, even if you're thinking five years from now, but really having a definite goal and not just like, I hope this work makes money, right?
Because that really is kind of firmly putting it into the hobby category rather than the category of like lucrative business, okay? So I want you to take some time to think that through because that is something that you have to sort of work out.
I would love to hear from you and hear like, what are you thinking through in terms of sustainability? Just a little spoiler alert that one of the burnout things is not charging enough money. And so we're going to talk about that in a couple weeks when we get kind of into that burnout topic.
And so I want you just to start thinking about this so that when we get to that conversation, you're a little bit more ready to really like be honest with yourself and dive into it. Okay? So until I see you again, I wish you well -informed consent -filled doula work and birthing experiences.
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 hara 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.
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Welcome to today's episode, where we explore the potential of making a full-time salary as a doula. Is it possible? Absolutely, it is. I encourage you to listen closely and then take a deep dive into your financial planning to ensure this possibility becomes a reality in your life. Remember, the key to avoiding burnout is making sure you're adequately compensated, allowing you to sustain your life and passion for helping others.
Quote from the show:
“So today's episode is making a full time salary as a doula. Is it possible? It is, it is possible. I want you to listen to this episode and then really take a deep dive and a thorough look at what your plan is financially to make sure that you are making this possible in your life because what leads to burnout almost every time is not getting paid enough and therefore not being able to sustain your life. ”
I mention the ability to book coaching calls with me. Those can be found below:
30 Minute Coaching:
https://calendly.com/harroddoula/doula-coaching-30-minutes?preview_source=et_card&month=2024-06
60 Minute Coaching:
https://calendly.com/harroddoula/doula-coaching-one-off?month=2024-06
CONNECT with Kaely on TikTok or Instagram
https://www.tiktok.com/@doulacoach
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Kaely Daily is produced by Kaely Harrod of Harrod Doula Services
It is sponsored by The Birth Prep Blueprint Childbirth Class
Music by Madirfan: Hidden Place on Pixabay
