Google Business Profile, Customer Journeys and More Ways to Attract Local Clients with Doula Darcy [Episode 162]

Molly: Google business profile, customer journeys, stuff to make sure you have on your website. Networking. Oh my gosh. We're covering so much in today's episode with my friend Darcy, also known as the doula. Darcy. She's a business coach for doulas, and even if you are not a doula, we purposely recorded this episode to make sure that the marketing advice that she talks about actually pertains to anyone who draws a local audience.

So, like I said, don't tune out if you aren't a doula, because like I said, we're talking about Google business profile and customer journeys, which so many people don't think about customer journeys. Talking about, you know, showing your face, like I said, networking, so many different things. So I hope you enjoy.

Hey, welcome to Holistic Marketing Simplified. This podcast boils down to the fact that we wholeheartedly believe that more humans need to know about holistic health solutions. And you didn't go to school to learn how to be a full-time content creator and show up on Instagram and do all of this marketing stuff all day, every day.

So let's come hanging out while we chat. All things easy in your marketing and my goal is that you shift your mindset around your marketing from a quote should to a I get to more dream patients and clients. Yes, please.

Dr. McCullen: Hi, I am Dr. Mg McCullough, an acupuncturist and energy healer in South Carolina, and I listen to the Holistic Marketing Simplified podcast.

Molly: All right, Darcy, welcome to the show. I'm so happy to have you. And so we were talking before we hit record. Yes. You just work with doulas, but everything we're gonna talk about applies to anybody who is like trying to get clients or patients, whatever word you use in a local brick and mortar area.

Doula Darcy: And something that I didn't tell you is that in my next career, I want to be a chiropractor, and I am obsessed with my own chiropractor, and every time I go get adjusted every two weeks, I give him free marketing advice.

So I feel like, well,

Molly: there you go.

Doula Darcy: I'm very qualified to be here, so thank you for having me.

Molly: Do you do, um, other stuff like acupuncture, massage? I,

Doula Darcy: yes. After I go to the chiropractor, I, my second favorite place is my. I have a massage therapist who does ACU massage. She'll put needles in the top part of your body, massage the lower part, and then switch and it's amazing.

90 minutes. Oh. And she'll like, take your pulse, look at your tongue, and be like, okay, here's what we're gonna focus on today. And it always feels amazing.

Molly: I have to kind of rein it in sometimes because I just like, because of the work that I do, I'm like, Ooh, I wanna try this and I wanna try this and I wanna try this and I wanna try this.

And I actually worked with a. Mg, shout out if you're listening to this. Do you know the difference in like TCM and CCM? There's like classical Chinese medicine.

Doula Darcy: Oh, no.

Molly: Yeah. Anyway, uh, she taught me a lot too, and she, she basically was like, you're doing too many things. You're giving your body way too many inputs to like, try to like, why are you doing 57 different modalities?

Dr. McCullen: Because they're fun.

Molly: I was like, because you know, there's something about the in person for me. Just like hands on stuff. That is great. But anyway, we'll dive in. So you, you own a doula agency and then you also, uh, are the founder of my doula village. So I'll just let you talk about that really quickly.

Yeah.

Doula Darcy: So, uh, well, I've been a postpartum doula for 15 years here in Dover, New Hampshire. And probably eight years ago I started to bring on independent contractors. So now that's a full agency. I don't even do any postpartum in-person postpartum work anymore, postpartum doula work anymore. I'm all now working as a business coach for other doulas.

'cause I had a previous career in marketing. Before I had my babies and went down the path of becoming a doula. So

Molly: tell me, I knew this, this was years ago though, that we talked about this. Yeah. So remind me what you did.

Doula Darcy: Yeah, so out of college I got a job at, I majored in marketing communications or mass communication.

I can't even remember what my major was. I got a job at, at an ad agency. In the late nineties and kind of bopped around to different ad agencies and marketing roles and different companies and even pr, public relations, and I loved it. I was in my twenties and I was like, this is great. I, you know, 'cause I got free concert tickets and all, you know, I was a media buyer for a long time, so I got all this free stuff from the radio stations and TV stations.

I thought it was such a cool job in my twenties. And then I had a baby. Yeah. And was like, uh, that job's stupid.

Molly: We

Doula Darcy: said, A, I don't wanna leave my baby. And BI was, I, you know, at the time I was working at a PR research firm. Like they, they, we literally analyzed companies public relations efforts. So I was like.

It felt so stupid to put a baby into daycare and then go say, well, Hewlett Packard, your PR didn't beat out Microsoft this month. So I was like, I need to be doing something where I'm helping people and my birth and postpartum experience as I went on to have two more babies just led me down the path of becoming a doula and wanna help other moms.

As I started, you know, 10 years into being a doula, I was talking to so many doulas all over the country and realizing they didn't really know how to get clients. They didn't really know how to market themselves in their local area. And I realized like I could have a, I could really, instead of helping one mom at a time as her postpartum doula, I could, if I'm helping other doulas with their marketing, I'm helping lots of moms get access to doulas.

So I really love it.

Molly: That's amazing. I actually had a similar, I dunno if I ever told you this, but when I had such a rough postpartum experience, I, so I always skip over this part in my story, but it's like. I made friends with my chiropractor and she asked me to help her with her Instagram and the rest is history because that's like a short version.

But it really started with me meeting with her and going, all right, you've got a couple extra offices in here. Like could we bring in counsel? Like what can, I was thinking about going back to school to do something. Um, like it was so funny. And then I realized, well, I'm really good at marketing. I'm already good at that.

I don't have to go back to school for that. Yeah. So I'll help people who are already helping moms. But it started with me kind of thinking like that definitely wasn't like where my brain went to initially. Right? Yeah. Like I was like, I wanna become a practitioner, right? Like I was looking at PA school and I was like, okay, Molly.

Again, my degree's in pr. So I was like, okay, you have to take nine hours of prereq. No nine, not nine,

Doula Darcy: nine years,

Molly: nine prerequisites just to apply. And then I was like. Wait, I'm also squeamish and can't do needles and like, so let's, let's turn this boat around. You know what I mean? So

Doula Darcy: yeah,

Molly: we have similar stories that way.

So that's really cool. So now you've got my, um, my doula village. Uh, if you wanna talk about that really quickly,

Doula Darcy: it's a membership community for doulas who need help with their marketing. And it has evolved. I mean, it's still that obviously, but the joke is like, you join my doula village for the marketing, marketing tips.

You stay for the sisterhood, like we have such a great community in there.

Molly: Oh, I love that.

Doula Darcy: I know. And we ma, I've made some great friends. Other friendships have blossomed. Like there's a whole side group that now is doing Secret Santa, like it's just so much fun.

Molly: Amazing.

Doula Darcy: Twice a year we do retreats in Maine.

And like hang out in person. It's the best.

Molly: Okay. I have to pick your brain about that after we get off the record because I've done Absolutely. I've done two retreats and they were amazing and then I also was like, oh my gosh, this is so much. It's a lot of work to hold space for that many people for that many hours.

Doula Darcy: Well, the cool thing about it is it is. And because I only invite people in my membership to come to the retreat, I already know them really well.

Molly: Ah-huh. Their

Doula Darcy: business coach. So I already know what they're working on. So it's, and I like them, so it's actually easier. And I'm in my zone of genius, like honestly like whipping out business marketing plans and

Molly: same

Doula Darcy: strategy I get it is lights.

It energizes me so. I would much rather host a doula retreat for the doulas in my doula village than go to an eight hour neighborhood barbecue. That would wear, that would wear me right out

Molly: and like, and the gosh, I was so grateful. But the women that came both times were just freaking phenomenal.

Doula Darcy: Yeah.

Molly: But my problem was I overstuffed, I felt like, I was like, oh, I gotta have every minute maximized. And

Doula Darcy: it's like

Molly: know, they probably just wanna go hang out on the beach for a little bit.

Doula Darcy: That's exactly what I did too. The first retreat I ever did, that's what I did. Over served like doing cartwheels every five minutes.

Like let's make this. And then I kind of realized that especially women. Just giving them a chance to be in a house where they're not in charge of anybody, no one's touching them, and they don't have to make dinner. They were psyched, so. Right.

Molly: I love it. Okay, so I wanted to start with inside of my doula village, because again, I, I know this is going to apply across all niches.

You're, I wanna talk about your newer doulas who are just coming in. The ones who are actually getting clients, what do you feel like is kinda like a through line there or, or just like different things that they're doing to actually get clients? Yeah, for like brand new,

Doula Darcy: brand new is not being scared to put themselves out there.

And really the mindset shift of. And this, I don't know, this is a thing in the doula world, I don't know if it applies to like chiropractors and other wellness practitioners, but they think I need more certification. The key to getting more clients. Yeah. No, that's is

Molly: universal.

Doula Darcy: Getting more, I just, I just need another training.

I just need to take another certification and that's somehow going to magically get me clients. And what they learn is it's marketing that gets you clients. It doesn't matter how many certifications that you have, it's that people know. You and your services exist. So I think that's like the first hurdle to get over.

And then once you know that and embody that, it's focusing on the tried and true marketing principles of, I talk about it as like building a foundation, making sure you have your Google business profile set up. Half of it is Google, like people are going to, the people that are hiring a doula are Googling doula near me.

Mm-hmm. Or chiropractor near me. Like, you gotta make sure your business shows up. So you need, so working on your Google business profile, and what I love about that is you set that up and then it's done, you know, maybe every six months you go add some new pictures or something. But you know, it's not like Instagram where you need to kind of pay attention often.

Then we do a lot around working on your website, making sure that's search engine optimized, that it's customer optimized, meaning I see a lot of doula websites that are very beautiful and have a lot of words about the beauty of birth and the importance of support, and that's all great, but. We also need to make sure people find that website when they're searching around on Google, and that once they're there, it's easy for them to contact you and book a discovery call and you know, do the next thing

Molly: and that customer journey.

Doula Darcy: Right? Yes. I, I am always saying that like, I think we design our websites in like, what would be this beautiful experience? Or even going back to look at your own website or your own social media posts, and I still do this too. You're so in your own business, you forget to look at it through the eyes of your customer

Molly: all, all the time.

Yeah. Just, just last week I realized that all of the buttons in my navigation menu were, were redirecting to my holistic marketing hub sales page. It's like, how long has this been broken? Right. You know, like,

Doula Darcy: yeah. Yeah.

Molly: No wonder

Doula Darcy: no one's calling me.

Molly: Yeah. No judgment. We get it. Yeah.

Doula Darcy: Because it's always, well, yeah, we're always changing and we're always evolving.

The other thing is that I teach and talk a lot about is networking. Good old fashioned coffee dates with the other practitioners in your area. And here's the spiel I give, like skip the obs and the pediatricians. Like logically you would think like, where are all the pregnant people? They're at the OBS office, but obs don't have time A to meet with you, B to talk about you with their clients.

Same with pediatricians, but I, I always throw it out to the chiropractors. I'm like, meet with the chiropractors. 'cause they're actually like talking to their patients.

Molly: Yeah. Yeah.

Doula Darcy: They're at, and they are other small business owners, so reach out to all those people. So for doulas, it's chiropractors, acupuncturists, maternity photographers, all those other people that also have a small business that aren't just.

On a client drip from the hospital like an OB or a pediatrician. So establishing real relationships with those people is such a huge foundation for your marketing.

Molly: Okay, I wanna ask follow-up questions to everything because, so can we start?

Doula Darcy: Yes. Sorry, I'm a fast talker. I get excited.

Molly: No, that wasn't fast at all.

That was actually, and that's such a beautiful ecosystem too. I often struggle with the fact that I am so laser focused in on Instagram. That I'm like, God, are people gonna think that this is the only thing they need? It's, and it's not. But I also don't wanna be kind of like a jack of all trades, master of none.

Like, I like that I'm really good at this one thing. And I'm like, okay, I know other people I can send you to for these other things. So what are some, um, common mistakes people make with their Google business profile? Like, is it, is it hard to set up, do you feel like, or do you think there's like a section that's often missing?

Doula Darcy: I think it's relatively easy to set up. I think the biggest thing is people don't know they need to do it. Oh. And they just don't have one. Where people are getting stuck now, is it doulas especially, 'cause we oftentimes don't have an office, so you have to put your home address and then there's this whole thing you have to send a video.

Like when I did it, well, I did it 15 years ago or whenever Google business profiles were invented, I just had to tell them my address. They sent me a postcard and I verified it. But now you have to apparently like send a video. You can do, but it's just, it's a little bit of a hassle.

Molly: I have one, even though I'm not a local business, because I have some local clients, I thought, okay, maybe I can still get away with this because I have a digital, um, mailbox.

So that, 'cause you know, you have to have your, your address and your email signature by law. So I. Have a digital post office that goes through somewhere in Cincinnati.

Doula Darcy: Yeah, they, it used to be like a couple years ago, a lot easier to get around this and now Google's really like tightening up on, you really have to prove where you are.

So one mistake I see is that doulas will just put the city, 'cause they don't want to mess around, but then you're not showing up on the map. You know when Google business shows the map of like, here's 10 doulas in your area, so it is worth the effort to get an address or get yourself listed. So there, there is a way to do it that to put your home and not have your actual address shown, but you're still on the map.

Molly: So we have, I'm sure you have this, I guess it depends on how tiny of a town you're in, but. We have a coworking, like a women's coworking place close by. Mm. And that's one of their services they offer is like, oh, address. Address services for people who, that would be huge. Yeah. That could be something to look into is like the coworking facilities.

Yeah. Because a lot of times they'll let you use that as an address, as long as it's close to, you know, the area you serve.

Doula Darcy: That's the thing you want it to be, the area you serve, maybe not necessarily where you live. So it really depends.

Molly: Okay, so location. What else? What about like keywords?

Doula Darcy: Keywords, yes. I think the other big thing is reviews.

Ooh. Because I really think Google chooses how it's going to rank those Google business profiles. Part of that algorithm for that is reviews. You know, if there, if there's two businesses, one with one review and one with 27, they're gonna put the 27 reviewed place first. Because at the end of the day, Google wants to serve up good results.

Molly: Sure.

Doula Darcy: So I think focusing on having every client you work with submit a five star review on Google,

Molly: do you have a process for that or you just like

Doula Darcy: I do as we. Finishing up with a client, like we send them an email like it was so great to work with you. Please leave a five star review and I have, you can get the, you can go into your Google Business Profo profile and get the link to your reviews.

We put that link right in the email like, please leave us a five star review here if you were happy with our services. And I say, this is really helpful to get other moms and families to find out about our services. Please leave a Google Review and

Molly: yeah, people and people wanna help.

Doula Darcy: Yeah. Sometimes if I'm feeling organized, we'll send out another batch.

Like if people don't fill it out the first time. But it's

Molly: usually so they, they just have a baby after all, so they probably have to

Doula Darcy: Yes. And like logging onto like

Dr. McCullen: multiple

Doula Darcy: Right. Three sentences is very hard.

Molly: Well, I think that's another thing that, this is not just doula specific, but all practitioners fall into is.

And I'm sorry if you're someone who I currently work with, who I am, your patient who's listening to I, I'm not sorry though, you need to hear this. I, I think I've been disappointed overall at the lack of practitioners are so concerned about not being, I'm putting this in quotes, not being salesy, that they don't actually tell people what they need.

I think that, I mean, that's a whole other topic. Yes. But in terms of reviews, I think so many practitioners get in their head where they're like, well, I sent it one time, and they. Nobody responded,

Doula Darcy: and that must

Molly: be, oh, you did. You sent it one time. That's so funny. How cute. If it looks like my inbox, good luck.

So I think that people just automatically assume, like if I text somebody and they don't text me back, I don't give it a second thought because I'm like, oh, they're probably like me. They marked it. They're like, oh, let me reply to that. And then something happened and then,

Doula Darcy: right.

Molly: You forget.

Doula Darcy: That's what I always say that like, assume.

That they forgot not, but doulas tend to go to, I don't know if other practitioners are like this. Yes. Like they must hate me.

Molly: Yes. Yes.

Doula Darcy: They must not have been happy with my service.

Molly: Yes.

Doula Darcy: No, they're just, they just had a baby. They're busy. Yeah. They mom brain.

Molly: Yeah. I, that's, that is, I would say across the board.

What I see is like, oh, well,

Doula Darcy: but that's another way I get around that like. Even, you know, afraid to be salesy is like, please leave a review because it helps us rank on Google and helps other moms find out about this important service, not like, please leave me a review because I think I'm the best.

Molly: Well, and two, I don't know if this you're allowed to do this, but I love it when people actually give me example review.

They're like,

Doula Darcy: yes, I was gonna say, sometimes I'll do that too. Like, could you leave a review about how. Your husband felt involved or you know, remember something they said to you with doulas that's a little easier. Like we were just in their home for three months. Like, could you leave a review mentioning how great it was that we threw stuff in the C crock pot for you every, you know, like kind of lead a little bit, like here's what you could say.

Molly: And I know for practitioners who are seeing higher volumes of patients like the chiros, that there's a lot of automated software too that will do that for you.

Dr. McCullen: Yeah.

Molly: I see this with, with Instagram and with reviews, it's like, well, I had a sign at the front desk that said, leaves me a review. I'm like, well, that's great, but like all you have to do is be like, Hey, would you mind leaving me a review really quickly?

Or I say, this is what I tell all my clients to do. I'm like, literally like while you're rebooking them, say, Hey, could you just like hit the repost button on a couple of my posts?

Dr. McCullen: Yes,

Molly: that could be another good thing, like if you wanted to add that into your email. That's even a lower lift is them just tapping the repost button on some of your posts and Right.

It's literally one tap and then it's showing to all their followers, you know? Yeah.

Doula Darcy: Right. That's a, that's a good one.

Molly: Yeah. That's a great free low lift way to mm-hmm. Spread. Mm-hmm. Let's go, let's talk about more about the websites being, um, just pretty, versus, like I said, SEO likes making sure you're searchable, and then, like you said, it's very clear.

Who they serve and what the next step you want. Customer journey, I feel like is something that is, so this is again across the board. Mm-hmm. I'll come in sometimes and I'll be like, do you know how hard it is to try to even find out your name?

Doula Darcy: Yes.

Molly: It'll be like Grassroots Health. I'm like, we help families get healthier.

I'm like, I don't know what that means. What's your name? Oh yeah. What do you do? How do you help me?

Doula Darcy: Oh,

Molly: who is this random family frolicking through a field, like

Doula Darcy: always, always in a field. Uh, I could talk for hours about this 'cause I look at a lot of doula websites and then I feel like a lot of chiropractors purchase like a template.

Molly: Mm.

Doula Darcy: Website that's just very basic. You've gotta just put it on a platter. I, you know, if I see one more headline that's like. Empowering you through life's major transitions. I'm, you know, my joke is like, are they dying? Are they going college? Right? Are they, are they getting into college? Like, you gotta be specific, like, again, like not just like feel healthy.

Molly: Yeah,

Doula Darcy: no, like tell me exactly how you're gonna help me and tell me where you're located. That is my number one pet peeve. Looking at sites of providers, everybody, they're beautiful, right? They're standing in the field as the sun's going down with, uh, their five kids. But like,

Molly: no, usually it's not even that.

It's like stock images of random people.

Doula Darcy: Oh, yes.

Molly: I wish it was you. I it would be a step up if it was your family.

Doula Darcy: Okay. The doulas have their family photo. Yeah.

Dr. McCullen: Okay.

Doula Darcy: But we need to know where that field is. Yeah. Tell me where, like again, yes, your name. A photo of you looking straight on to the camera and the city that you are serving.

And I can't tell you how many websites I look at where those three things are missing. And guess what? Your customer. Your customer's not gonna go no looking through your website if you live near, if your service is within driving distance of them. But honestly, you're probably not gonna get people to your website if Google doesn't know I'm forever saying like, help Google help you make sure, yes, you're doing the things to your website to help Google.

Serve it up

Molly: to the people. The same thing with Instagram keywords. It's very similar to Google. It's, I think people overcomplicate it.

Doula Darcy: Mm-hmm.

Molly: And as I was saying on your show, it would be like, okay, pretend I am the algorithm and I'm like, Hey Darcy, you just created this post. What's it about? Who do you want me to show it to?

That's it. Yeah. That's literally it. I just, entire masterclass on keywords right there.

Doula Darcy: That's Well, same with your website. Yep. Who are you? Who do you help and where do you help them?

Molly: And do you feel like doula is a niche enough keyword to where like, like I said, I feel like there are more chiropractors than acupuncturists.

There's probably more massage therapists than anything, so it's kind of hard sometimes, like when you like look, thinking about all these brick and mortar different services, like functional medicine, whatever. Do you feel like with doulas it's more of a niche keyword or it just depends on your city?

Doula Darcy: Definitely depends on the city, but. I always encourage people to optimize their website for those keywords because here's the other thing I see a lot on doula websites is education about what a doula is. Doula is a Greek word, and doulas provide physical and emotional support, and that is so boring. A B, if someone's Googling for a doula, like they know they wanna hire a doula, Uhhuh, you don't have to teach them what a doula is.

They're already Googling doula near me. So you just have to have your location and your headlines and your meta descriptions and your, your keywords and stuff, and then talk about how you help them.

Molly: It's so important too. So this, this kind of, I feel like, ties into something you, you see it said that you see a lot is that people don't wanna show their face.

I would piggyback onto the showing their face is people feel like they have to be this like, professional version of themselves. Oh yeah. And I'm not saying there shouldn't be a level of professionalism. I, I just mean that this is like quite literally a very intimate service. Mm-hmm. Like you've talked about, and it is with my other, like you have your hands on people, they wanna know things about you.

Doula Darcy: Yes.

Molly: That go beyond.

Doula Darcy: Well, I, I joke with doulas, like they're ultimately hiring you to come see them naked as they're pushing a baby out. So like, they wanna like scope you out. But it's the same for massage therapists. Yeah. And I'm naked at my acupuncturist. I dunno about, 'cause we're, I'm doing massage too, but like, even the chiropractor, like, you're gonna grab my neck and crack it.

Like, I need to, I need to know you're legit. So I need to go to your website and see not just the stock website you bought from what Cairo websites.com, but like you and your family in a field like you and your scrubs at the front desk like, and the more that AI gets into this and AI images, and,

Molly: God, I hate AI images.

Doula Darcy: Oh, they're so bad.

Molly: It's a hill I'll die on. Even AI head shots, which I had a lot of people push back. They're like, well, ai. I'm like, Nope, nope.

Doula Darcy: No,

Molly: call me old fashioned. I have,

Doula Darcy: maybe if I'm hiring you to like look at my spreadsheets or something or do my bookkeeping, but crack my neck, massage my butt, come to my birth, like, no.

I wanna know if I see AI headshot

Molly: come out

Doula Darcy: like I'm out. Not gonna do it. I wanna know.

Molly: Well, and the sad thing is, God, they've gotten so good these days. It's kind of hard to tell, but it's. Yeah, that's, that's like a hill I'll die on. And I know I offend a lot of people when I say that. I'm like, well, sorry.

Well maybe you shouldn't, or maybe it should. Um, I also see people who have head shots that are like 20 years old. I'm like, okay, let's actually, that would be a perfect, um, I did wanna just like really quickly talk about professional photos because I think they're very important. I don't know if that's something that you teach.

Doula Darcy: I think it's really important to have professional headshots or photos of you on your website so that they look good. Please don't take a headshot in your car with your seatbelt on. I see a lot of doula websites where it's a selfie from their car. Yeah. So at the very least, get your friend who has the best iPhone to come over and take some photos of you in a clean shirt.

Molly: Well, it's such an investment. It's not something you have to do all the time. I mean, I haven't had, I haven't had photography in like. Gosh, over a year, and I'm not planning on, I mean, maybe I'll probably update 'em next year or something.

Dr. McCullen: Yeah.

Molly: It's not something you have to do. Yes, it's an investment, but it just has that subconscious signal of professionalism.

And like I said, you're probably like, Molly, you're contradicting yourself. You just said you don't have to be, I just mean like you don't have to be like so buttoned up and give zero personal details about yourself. People wanna know you as a human.

Doula Darcy: Mm-hmm.

Molly: But there's also, like I said, there are these little signals that.

Be like, wow, she knows her stuff. Like,

Doula Darcy: yes, well, like you, it's all that subconscious. If subconsciously, if you see a professional photo of someone face on versus a selfie in their car, like subconsciously, it's like, yeah, uh, that wo that one over here that's professional is more professional. I'm gonna hire, you know, people make those, I hate to say it, but we're judging people instantly.

A photo is worth a thousand words. So

Molly: you, I always think about thi this as like, oh, is this your side business? Like are, or am I going to actually be your dedicated? You're in, you're all in.

Doula Darcy: I think it does, again, come down to you wanna show that you're a real human. Especially now with AI stuff like, so I think professional headshot doesn't mean like glamor makeup and expensive outfits, but good quality.

Molly: Yeah. Yeah. You want it to be you. I will say, um, now where you can do the car stuff is talking head videos in the car on Instagram? Oh, absolutely.

Doula Darcy: Yes.

Molly: Phenomenal. Those are gonna perform great. Like, that's such a great thing. Like say you just left a client's house and you're sitting in the driveway and you're like.

I just left a client's house and I, or I just, I just put dinner in the crockpot for one of my, you know,

Doula Darcy: yeah.

Molly: Mamas who had a baby 10 weeks ago and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like that kind of stuff does well in the car. That's fine.

Doula Darcy: Oh, I listen, I do a lot of my content in the grocery store pickup line.

While I'm sitting there waiting. I just like time for a story, time to make a reel while I sit here, and yes, I agree 100% because then people are seeing like, oh. She's a real person that goes to the grocery pickup line just like I do. And you know, that's the time to really show your authentic self. And, and the other thing is, I think for all wellness practitioners, the more photos you have on your website back to the website, the better.

Because at the end of the day. You're gonna hire somebody for these services who you feel a connection with. You are not going to choose the massage therapist based on their list of credentials. 'cause again, you're gonna be naked on the table, like you wanna get a sense of them as a person, and you're gonna go with the one that you feel the most comfortable with.

And you can only get an idea of who you're gonna feel the most comfortable with via photos and videos.

Molly: Yes. Like not a random person with hot stones down their back or a random, you know,

Doula Darcy: generic, you know, facial massage of a model.

Molly: I feel like the last thing we didn't really dive into a little more, we'll wrap up here is like, let's go back to the customer journey part.

Mm-hmm. Can you kind of explain what that means? Because I feel like that's, and not just for doulas, but in general. Yeah. Like what that means essentially.

Doula Darcy: So back in my ad agency days, we would do a thing, and we would even include this in the client presentations. We called it a day in the life. And so do we be like, okay, our ideal customer is a woman who's 40 years old.

She has two kids and she has a job. You know, we'd lay out who the customer is. She wakes up in the morning and she gets her coffee, and then she turns on the Today Show. And so your ad will show there three times a week, blah, blah, blah. And then she gets in her car and listens to such and such a station, or this podcast or, you know, we would track that all out.

Then obviously the, your goal as the business is to show up in the life of your client. So what's the journey your customer takes literally on a daily basis? Like where in town do they go? And that's what I mean. That's why I'm a huge proponent of networking. Like if you're an acupuncturist, you wanna make sure you're.

You've been networking and your cards are at all the local massage offices, all the chiropractor offices, all you know, all the doulas like you want to be seen when your ideal client is out and around town. What are the health food stores? What are the, you know, vegan coffee shops? Like where in town are they hanging out?

Like literally, what's the journey they take throughout town? How can you get your business there? But then what podcasts are they listening to? What Instagram accounts do they follow? What music are they listening to? Like, what are the ways that you can show up? That's how I look at the customer journey.

But then also, okay, they do hear about you out and about on Google, uh, whatever. You know, part of that customer journey is like, what are they Googling? What keeps them up at night? What blogs can you write that will show up when they're Googling their burning questions? And then once they do find you, what's their journey?

In your world, like, can they book a call from your Instagram bio can? How easy is it to book a call from your website? What you know? Does your website encourage them? Tell them what step you want them to take next? Um, or is it just a bunch of pictures of stock, photos of hot stones on someone's back, and a bunch of words with your phone number at the bottom?

Like the other thing about a customer journey is make it easy. Don't, a lot of doulas have, I don't know if this holds true for others. Yeah. But it's like reach out to craft the ideal package for you with no like link on the reach out, no phone number or email like,

Molly: yeah.

Doula Darcy: It's like this vague DM me for more info.

Like No, be specific. Be really clear and always, always. Tell them the next step you want them to take.

Molly: Well, and the hard part too is I'm like, oh, can you meet Tuesday at two? No. Could you do Thursday at five? I'm like, there's so many softwares now. Even Google has a free meeting scheduler like that. You can put like, here's a link to book a 15 minute call with like make it so clear what you want that next step to be.

Then I recently did this with another chiropractor. We've been like collaborating on some stuff. I was like, do you want me to be like a mystery shopper for you? Like, honestly, I was like, I can come make an appointment. Um, 'cause they had a request to book link. She's like, yeah, that'd be great. Like, try to make an appointment, see how long it takes them to actually call you from one of my offices.

Doula Darcy: Oh.

Molly: Kind of, you know. Um, so like, you could even do that, like almost have a friend be like. I want you to like mystery shop me. How hard is it to book an appointment? How hard was it? Super clear. What next step you wanted me to take? Because I feel like with your agency, right? Like a little different than somebody just contacting you directly,

Doula Darcy: right?

But I love that mystery shopper idea. I'm always telling doulas like, call five friends, tell, ask them to Google doula near me and send you a screenshot of like what comes up. And you know, if you're not there, if your Google business profile doesn't pop up, if your website doesn't pop up, whatever, like you're gonna work on that.

But I love taking that a step further and be like, actually go to my website and s you know, try to hire me.

Molly: I know I met, I met this chiropractor. I've spoke at a master, a chiropractic mastermind last. When I get to the Mastermind, it was small. It was like maybe 20 chiropractors there and like, it just so happened there was one from Cincinnati.

I was like, oh gosh, I'll have to come see you now. After looking it up. It was like 40 minutes in traffic and all that. So I was like, I didn't, but I was trying to book an appointment on the website and it kept like. Redirecting me and all these, and I finally gave up. I was like, what? Like I, I'll call them later, and then I never did.

Doula Darcy: Yes. That's the thing, right? Yeah. You've got, you know, if someone is on your website or if someone is on your Instagram, like you have got to seize that opportunity.

Molly: Mm-hmm.

Doula Darcy: And if it's too hard or takes too long, yeah. They're gone.

Molly: Right now I'm trying to hire a photographer for our family. Uh, we're doing like a family lake vacation in May.

Mm-hmm. And. The ones that have been hard to like, I'm like, eh, moving on. I got more issues from

Doula Darcy: Yeah, it's so true.

Molly: Yeah. That's too difficult. Next. Yeah.

Doula Darcy: So I'm always like, you could be the best photographer at that lake. You're not gonna get hired

Molly: Uhuh. So yeah, same applies with all practitioners, so. Okay.

Anything you feel like we didn't cover? Or like bigger common mistakes that you see.

Doula Darcy: I would, and I know this is probably preaching to the choir of your audience, but the other thing I think I see people not taking advantage of is. What I call the 15 minute networking on Instagram.

Molly: I did not tell her to say this, guys.

Doula Darcy: I think, actually, you said this on my podcast and I was like, I say this all the time, but I, this is what I do at the dentist, or if I'm waiting in line at the bank, or if I just, you know, have 15 minutes before I have to leave my house, go on Instagram and be social with the other practitioners in your town.

You can't even imagine the impact that that has.

Molly: Yeah. Leave comments, repost their content. Share their posts to your stories. Um, I even like doing this with things to do in your town, like influencer type accounts.

Doula Darcy: Yes.

Molly: Um, there's like, you know, for us, we have like sensei scoop now that one, you know what I mean?

You'd have to

find

Molly: the ones that kind of cater more to your niche, but

Doula Darcy: Right.

Molly: A hundred percent.

Doula Darcy: Yeah. Even just like. My favorite restaurant, like

Molly: yeah,

Doula Darcy: if they post a pic, I'm like, I love this place. Good. Like, or that looks so good. Like just, it takes three seconds. But then there's Dover doula showing up under, you know, everyone.

Molly: Yeah.

Doula Darcy: In front all,

we

Molly: do this for clients on our top tier package in our agency, and this was so funny 'cause years ago, this was my, my mistake in training one of our clients was like, Hey, could y'all stop commenting? Like, this is the best burger I've ever had 'cause I've never eaten there. And I was like, oh my gosh.

I was like, we're not supposed to be doing that. It's supposed to just be like. It's not supposed to be misleading. I was like, I'm so sorry.

Doula Darcy: Yes. Well, yeah, that's the thing. Tell the truth.

Molly: Yeah. Well, and I always tell people too, I'm like, if you land on the post and within three seconds you don't know what to say, just move on to another one.

Yeah. Like, if you're like, oh, what would I, what would I say here? What would I put, what would, I'm like, move on.

Doula Darcy: Move on. '

Molly: cause I have found that if you don't set a timer, like you said, oh, when you're doing this, 'cause you know, years ago I didn't have a team and I was doing this for clients. Yeah. I'd be like, an hour later I'd be like, oh my God, where did.

Where am I? What day is it?

Doula Darcy: What just happened?

Molly: So we aim, we aim for clients on our top tier. I like your method of just 15 minutes when you have it. Yeah, we aim because it's a service they're paying for and it's a deliverable, right? We aim for three businesses a day, Monday through Friday, right? So we try to like leave a comment on at least three businesses a day, Monday through Friday, repost if it's appropriate.

We don't, we don't push the re, like we're not gonna like square peg, round hole if it doesn't make sense. But if it's like naturally like, oh, this weekend there's the. Farmer's market starting back up in the spring and I think my people would be interested in this. We'll repost it or share it to your stories.

Doula Darcy: Exactly.

Molly: I mean, the snowball effect of that is insane. Yes.

Doula Darcy: Well, and it's funny, li listening to you, maybe I have to hire your agency. 'cause I was realizing, I, I'm not strategic about it. Like I don't have a time slot on my calendar every week for doing this. I used, but I used to do it, it so much more when my kids were in middle school.

I was driving them around everywhere, like putting a hundred miles on my car every afternoon and never leaving my town. But you know, sitting in the pickup waiting line, sitting in the orthodontist waiting office like that is when I really grew my Instagram for my local doula agency. 'cause I. Had a lot of downtime and I was like, well, I'm not just gonna sit here.

I'm gonna grow my business. And now they all have their license. So I'm realizing like, I lost that strategic part. Yeah. I gotta get back to it.

Molly: Yeah. Instead of just scrolling, like, that's a great way. Right. Or if you don't have time to post, I'm always like, we don't have time. Like, like That's a great way.

Doula Darcy: Yes.

Molly: Grow your business. So how can people find you?

Doula Darcy: They can find me on Instagram at the doula, Darcy. I love connecting with people, so send me a DM if you heard this episode, and then my website is the doula darcy.com, and I have my own podcast, the Doula Darcy podcast. It's very easy to find me. Just Google the doula, Darcy.

Molly: I know my daughter, my 9-year-old has decided she's started sewing and she wanted to make, I don't, oh, I don't sew. It's comical. I can't help her. My husband helps her, like her bobbing got messed up the other day. And I was like, yeah, this is why. This is why I don't do this. She was so frustrated. I heard her upstairs like punching a pillow.

I was like, good job girl. You get it out. Yeah. So my husband's the one that figured out the bobbin, but long story short, she wants to start sewing scrunchies for the farmer's market we have here.

Doula Darcy: Oh yeah.

Molly: And so we're like, oh, we should come out with a business name. And she was like, well, what's your business name, mommy?

I was like, well, it's just not like K Hill marketing,

Doula Darcy: but it works.

Molly: It's not very original. Clear over Clever. Right?

Doula Darcy: Exactly. Yes. So thank you, Molly, for having me. This was very fun.

Molly: Thank you for listening to Holistic Marketing Simplified, and hey, you know how every podcaster at the very end of their episode asks you to rate and review their podcast?

Well that's because it's super important. These podcasts take a lot of time and heart and effort to produce, to bring you free information. So in order for me to be able to continue doing that, we need more people to find out about the show. So if you could please just take like two minutes out of your very busy day to leave me a rating and share this on your Instagram stories and tag at Molly a Cahill.

C-A-H-I-L-L-I would greatly, greatly appreciate your support. I know your time is valuable and I can't wait to see you in the next episode.