How To Build a Business Through Trust and Connection with Bianca Sprague

Bianca Sprague, founder of Bebo Mia, shares how she transformed a deeply personal calling into a thriving doula education business. A dedicated educator, author, activist, and doula since 2007, Bianca advocates for accessible pre- and postnatal care, reproductive justice, and mental wellness, work shaped by her experiences with postpartum depression and family care. 

She explores trauma-informed leadership, listening to marginalized communities, breaking down barriers for female and queer entrepreneurs, and why meaningful relationships, not trends or social media, are the foundation of lasting growth, equity, safety, and joy.

CONNECT WITH BIANCA SPRAGUE:

On Social @BeboMiaInc

BeboMia.com

Scholarship program here: https://bebomia.com/scholarship-application/

Use the code NIKA10 for 10% off all Bianca's courses.

Transcript

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Welcome And Meet Bianca Sprag

Nika Lawrie 0:18

Hey, and welcome back to another episode of This Is How We Rise. Today's guest is Bianca Sprag. She has worked as a doula and an educator since 2007. She founded Bebo Mia to make fertility, birth, and postpartum care more accessible and equitable. As a passionate advocate for reproductive health and justice, Bianca works to remove barriers and create more opportunities for women and queer entrepreneurs. And I'm so excited to have her on the show. I really think you're going to enjoy this episode. So here we go. Bianca Sprague, welcome to the show. I'm so grateful to have you here today.

Bianca Sprague 0:57

Thank you so much for having me. I love your show and it's it's exciting anytime I get to collab with like a new creator out in the world.

Nika Lawrie 1:04

Yeah, I'm always I love meeting people and networking and just kind of building that community. So I'm really excited that you agreed to join me today and that we're gonna get into a really great conversation. Before we get started, can you tell me a little bit about like who you are? For somebody who doesn't know you, tell me a little bit about your background. Um, I know that you are an educator and you have helped support Doula's kind of start their practice, but can you share more about what you do and what excites you about that? For sure.

From Medical School To Doula Founder

Bianca Sprague 1:36

I've had a like a really unlikely journey through my business. So I felt wildly changed after the birth of my daughter back in 2007, so almost 20 years ago. And my plan was medical school, and I dropped out of medical school and I decided to do my doula practice because of the relationship that I had in birth to my doctor versus to my doula. And I was like, oh, I don't want to be the doer of harm. I want to be the protector from harm. Um, so that was a massive shift, and in that I found myself now an entrepreneur, which was, you know, not not part of the plan. An entrepreneur with a 10-day old baby, which is just like bonkers, y'all.

Speaker 1 2:12

Insanity. Yeah, I can relate, but it's insanity. Yeah, it's like having two babies at the same time.

Speaker 2 2:18

At the same time, which they've grown together. And so, really, I started my business to because I was like, nobody is ever gonna feel like I just did. That was my why. And so it was actually a really great fuel because I just talked to new parents. I also was surrounded with people that were in the same stage as me, like people in the circle time and at the library and like all of that. And so I actually grew my practice really, really quickly from word of mouth. And then my practice grew so much in Toronto that I had to hire folks. But the doula training is like it's the bar is so low. Like the the trainings were just terrible. They're just a weekend crash course. Um, and I was like, I don't want people to work with my clients who have just taken a weekend crash course. So, so I I accidentally made a doula training like back in 2009, and and then it grew and I moved exclusively online in 2013, which was like way before the kind of it was normal to take something online. And so it was really cool because I had these years of growing a brick and mortar and a service business, and then shifting to like deeply understanding digital marketing, which started just local and then it was national and then international, and now we're in 56 countries. Um which was like honestly, Nico, when I stand back, I'm like, this is so not what I thought I was gonna build as I like pace being, you know, 26 with a brand new baby and a healthy dose of postpartum depression. But it it turned out uh turned out pretty well. So at this point, I still have clients that I see locally, like myself a private practice, but I train people who work in reproductive health injustice. So that's people who work with folks, preconception, in loss, antipartum, so during pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period. And I have a feminist business school so that runs alongside so that people can learn how to how are you gonna get people to come to your breastfeeding class? It's all well and good that you're excellent at your skill, but like we need we need butts in your seats.

Speaker 1 4:27

I love it. You are like a powerhouse woman doing all kinds of amazing things. I I'm so impressed by it. One of the things that I was really excited about when I saw your information when you started connecting was that you were actually teaching a much more in-depth course and information for the doulas because I do I think they're such an important asset for women to have going through the birthing process. But then it can be so, you know, so scary. You know, it's like hiring the life coach, right? The life coach to, you know, help you give birth to a child. And for me, I had an extraordinarily traumatic childbirth. And you know, my yeah, I I lots of trauma from it, but I've worked through it quite a bit. But knowing how difficult that can be in specific situations and making sure that you have the right people with you at that time is so important. So having that that key education for them, like I just I commend you for doing that work and helping other we people like start their own businesses and do it that way too. I think that's such a great, great thing.

Trauma In Birth Work And Support

Speaker 2 5:35

Yeah. And and unfortunately, trauma is like probably, I would say, if I did a breakdown of like, why do people want to be do-as, a traumatic birth, either experiencing it or witnessing it of like their sister or their best friend or their mom or something, yeah, is the most people's why of why they come into this work. And it took me, I'm I mean, I'm glad I did. And we are the only doula training organization that offers this. But we have free therapy for all of our students and alumni because we don't want people who have had this traumatic birth and now carrying that in with their kids. Right, yeah. So yeah, but but uh it took me about 10 years to figure that out, which I was kind of embarrassed about in our in our training journey. Oh no, maybe like seven, and but still nobody else has jumped on it. And I was like, we nobody else is like making sure we have these well folks out there back in the very environment that was one of their biggest sources of trauma. So it's a good example of like actually listening to your people and modifying your business accordingly. Absolutely. Like solving solving the problems rather than like being like, I think you need this. They're telling you what they need.

Speaker 1 6:37

I love that. I think that's such a such a key piece. When you talk about like your your 20 years of experience and becoming a founder, what is the what are like two or three key takeaways that you felt you you mentioned a little bit about like listening to your people, like they'll give you the answers, but what are a couple other things that you've really found that have helped you grow this business over the last couple of years? Okay,

Shiny Object Syndrome And Founder Focus

Speaker 1 7:00

so here's 20 years, really. I should say it's a couple of years. Yeah.

Speaker 2 7:05

Okay, but here's my new one, which I knew really well. And then, I mean, we go through cycles as as folks, you know, women and and queer folks, we our body cycle, our, you know, where we have kind of the spirit and soul cycles. So I actually was very good at this in my 20s and pretty good in my early 30s, and then I forgot about it and I've like had to return to it. So here's my one of my biggest pro tips is when you are a successful founder, you really like bright, shiny things. And this isn't gonna go in the direction that most of you all think. Like, I've I you've probably heard this, like, put your blinders on. But I've been working with a new consultant, and he's actually keeps referring to it almost like in an using like addiction language, which I found really interesting. And he's like, Call me if you feel this urge, because we love learning a new skill. Like, I'll watch a YouTube video by accident, and they'll be like, Here's this cool new thing that you can do with AI. And I mean, I have my own politic like political beliefs about AI, but like let's put that to the side. So they'll be like, This is this new tool and like whatever, like this kind of stuff. And instantly I'm like, I go buy that software, I go play with it for the afternoon, and I'm like trying to like integrate this new thing. And so Khaled, my my consultant, and he was like, What happens for founders is you can see the hit right away when we do something like that. Like we get that like that zip, like we, or we like talk to our community and they give us immediate feedback, which is like feeds that that cycle of like, let's try something new, and then or like let's learn a new thing, or like let's buy a new course and like let's get a new whatever. And the things that you need to be working on are the things that pay out two, three, six, 12 months down the road. And they're really hard to stay focused on those things. And those are the things that lay out the foundation for like your SEO, for your community building, for your like, you know, whatever it is, your your plan, your strategic plan that's actually going to be revenue generating. But it's really fun to stay in this visionary, like talking to the people, which is really, really important, y'all. Don't get me wrong. So, I mean, that's kind of like two tips combined, but like putting the blinders on. If you have an idea, write it in your parking lot, circle back to it. You will probably have lost interest in that like 10 days down the road. I revisit my parking lot that I was so passionate about. Like, I was like, for sure, this is I know I'm putting in here, but it's coming out and it's gonna be built into the plan. And I like can't even remember really what I was thinking when I wrote that.

Speaker 1 9:44

I love that so much. I have I call myself like an idea fairy. I swear once a day I come up with a million-dollar business idea, but I cannot manage all the ideas. So I either, you know, I have a book somewhere, I don't even know where I put it right now, but it's like bright ideas. It's just a little notebook, and I write them in there and then I never look at them again. Like I don't think I have ever opened the book and looked at the ideas, but all my million-dollar business ideas are in there because I have to put my blinders on to be able to focus to grow the business that I want to grow. Right. And it's like I already managed two businesses as it is, and so it's a lot. And so I very much relate to that. I think so many of us are so creative and passionate and motivated that we get sucked into all these little pieces and want to keep, you know, want to go in every direction and build all the businesses, but you can't build all of them if you you can't build one of them if you're building all of them, right? So yeah, for sure.

Speaker 2 10:42

And and you will know if you're this kind of person, anyone listening to this. It's like if you have a whole bunch of like hob, like I have a hobby room, like an art room. I actually kicked, well, my daughter's 19, so she moved out. And like I was like, are for sure, like you're done here. And I immediately made the other bedroom my like art studio. And y'all, I have so many things that I was like, remember when I for sure thought I was gonna get into wood burning and I have like a bin of the all those tools. I love quilting, but I only make the quilt tops because the next steps are just like not interested. So I have a basket of the most beautiful quilt tops that all probably will never be quilts because I have this founder brain. So in your business, what like find a friend that you can call when you have an idea and tell them about it and then like drop it. But like solving that is such a critical, critical piece because you will just keep doing these surface things that feel really good in the moment.

Community Building Beats The Noise

Speaker 2 11:42

But like community building, I would say is my next biggest thing is like talking to everybody all the time because we have this idea. I know it's a little bit about what we're gonna talk about today, but it ties in is like we have this idea that if you build a website and you build social media because we think our ideas are so brilliant that like we're gonna be turning people away. Like they're just like, how can you not want this? And the only way right now to cut through the noise is by by talking to people, like what I did to you reached out, being like, hey, let's connect, let's do things, let's know about each other's work, and you really going back to that like grassroots, that phone tree, because we trust, we still very much trust each other when we like refer something or recommend something.

Speaker 1 12:31

I love that. I was so excited that you wanted to talk about that because I think it's such a key piece. And especially in, you know, this online social media, you know, the engagement world that we have. So few people think about the community and network that they're building, even just locally, right? They sit in their office staring at their computer, doing their social media posts, and then never go talk to the person next door to them that might be able to completely open up all the doors for them. You just never know. And so, really thinking about allowing yourself to, you know, it's a little bit scary sometimes, especially like I'm a diehard introvert, but going out there and like talking to the stranger, right? And like opening up that conversation and meeting those people and going to the events and talking to them is so key to building those relationships. I know one of the things that you had shared with me was that you had kind of stepped away from networking and building your community, and that cost you. Can you talk a little bit about that and then why you've become so passionate on the other side of it? Yeah.

When Meta Ads Stop Working

Speaker 2 13:37

So when I started my business, like Facebook was new, like not to date myself here, but that's okay. We're all there. So Facebook was new, and like for sure your business wasn't on it. Like, it's where you said, like, I had the most delicious bagel, or like, yeah, I'm trying to get a hold of my cousin. Has anybody seen them? Like, those were the updates that went on there. And so I think I was probably the first, one of the first doulas, if not the first, in Toronto to have a website. It was a one pager, but like that was a big deal. And so we were very used to like flyers, you know, word of mouth, free events at the community center, telling all your friends and hope that they tell their friends. Like that that's the like what small businesses were working with, right? At the time, because the only other things were like advertising in the phone book or the newspaper on the radio. And this was not that long ago, y'all. Like this is but but really those were very cost prohibitive for a small business. So I pounded the pavement because that's that was like normal. And so, and then I nailed the algorithm in 2021. Like I knew like if I put in or like 2019 to 2021, we had been like tinkering and learning and learning and learning. And so I knew like if I put in a thousand dollars, I'd get out 10,000. And so we just like fed the machine until we had a seven-figure business. And then if anybody had their business through their time, they know that in 2021, 2022, the algorithm changed like dramatically. And so all these people who had so much success and it was like printing money, we now had to feed the machine like 10 times more, and we were like barely breaking even. So if you were an entrepreneur in this phase and you think you just like suddenly got bad at it, and like what was wrong and your product sucks or something, it's not, it's just like everything dramatically changed and it's it's never really returned. And so I in that time, because we had just knew we could like feed Meta this money and spit out all this money, like the best, best bank machine or slot machine ever.

Speaker 1 15:44

I heard so many people refer to it as the slot machine of like the early 20s, right? Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 15:51

It well, and it is, and it does, it works on the same mechanism, right? Like, I I ran an ad last week and it did so well for 72 hours that I was like, oh my goodness, like y'all, I thought I was like back in my 2021 vibe, and then it's just stopped working since then. And so I I keep like upping it and upping it. So I'm like, I'm constantly playing with this, but it's it's never been a consistent, safe thing, especially in depending on what industry you are in. So working in reproductive health and justice, the world hates women and gay people, like we know this. And so I every time I put up anything, like even a fully dressed pregnant body, like a person who's pregnant, fully clothed, they they clock it as porn or as like health things. I can't like have if anybody knows about meta, I can't have my look-alike, not not my look-alike, retargeting because they say we're a health business. Um like it's a course, like it's not a health business, it doesn't meet the criteria. We're not like, you know, any of those. And so I'm constantly in reviews with Meta. So I say all of these things because I was like, we need to go back to grassroots because this is this is failing particularly my industry, and I'm not alone in that. There's lots of other industries in the same boat. And so that's where I was like, we went from a second seven-figure and we dropped down to like a couple hundred thousand, which people you might be like, oh, I'd love that, but like we we have the the uh infrastructure for a seven-figure business. We have our staff.

Speaker 1 17:17

We have that whole team, yeah.

Speaker 2 17:18

Yeah. So like that's a huge, huge, huge hit for us. So we had to like regroup, trim some fat, and then say, like, all right, back to the like pounding the pavement. And so we made that commitment in kind of two 2023, 2024, and we went back to you know how I started my business for the first six years until it was really normal to be on Facebook.

Speaker 1 17:43

I yeah, I've heard so many similar stories of that kind of that wave that came and went and and the rebuild afterwards, the struggle can be so hard. I know like we've talked a lot about the the ads, but can you talk about some of the like traps that entrepreneurs fall into when it comes to social media and especially like when it comes to building trust?

Speaker 2 18:05

Yeah.

Social Media Traps And Low ROI

Speaker 2 18:06

So I mean, there's some really key ones that you know, please take these into consideration because it's safe to say you have been caught in one or all of them. But first, I want to say like you do not need a big audience to have a big impact. So, like when you're striving, because social media makes it look really easy to go viral. One of the things I do for fun is I look at, say, a post that might have like 17 million views, and I'll go over to that person's channel, and they still might only have like 2300 people or less, like 350 people. And it's just that post went viral. It didn't clearly get them more like followers or like engagement in the way that we're striving for. So the first thing I want you guys to know is that the people who consistently go viral on social media, they have studied virality and digital marketing and the science of it and the art of it and the fluke of it and the algorithms and colors and fonts and images, the way that you have studied whatever your skill set is. So whether it's coaching or birth work or you know, all the millions of incredible things, aromatherapy, like whatever your skill is, you know everything about it, and you've done trainings and you've read about it, and like, but something about social media feels like you should just use a Canva template and it will work out in the same way it looks very achievable to anybody, and it is not like again, you might fluke into something, but for it to be a consistent strategy for you. So I just want you to like really understand that trap around it. Also, the return on investment is so low in social media bonkers. So if you have a local business, like I would consider using social media kind of like your message board. Like, yeah, we've got this event. I can I have two client spots, classes coming up, make sure you have your this, like whatever your thing is, as how you're talking about you, but mostly talk about other people in your community on your board. And I'll I'll get into that in just a second. Another one of the traps is the entrepreneurial trap, is that we typically like you might love having a business, but the discipline around having the business is not there for most people. So, like you might work from home, but you're not like at home, like and so you're not available for lunch, or like you don't have 10 hours to like open the app and like lose yourself in it. Because social media will take as much as you give it, and it is something of like it's an attention seeker, like it's by design, right? That's how it makes its money is the longer you spend on it. So it feeds you the things, and I know that lately I've been just like really tired and run down, so I get sucked in really easily. So at night I'll just go to like check my stats for the day, and then I'm like 45 minutes just went by and I didn't take in anything. So I make sure that I do my social media stuff essentially when I'm like done work because I do know that the risk of it kind of sucking us in. And so those are like the major ones that take a lot of, I don't like using the word discipline because it's so like patriarchal, but like like intentionality and like clear commitments to yourself around, you know, what is this going to be for me? Because otherwise you're gonna spend hours and hours each week making posts that like really nobody sees, and like people who aren't gonna buy from you like like your cousin and your partner and your friend.

Speaker 1 21:46

I've had similar experience on old accounts that I've run. I've had posts where you know I've had like a quarter of a million views and tons of engagement and gotten zero, you know, financial zero like anything, you know, of no sales or no leads out of it. And then I've had posts where I've had 200 views and I've gotten two clients out of it. Yeah. And so, you know, you just never really know. I think definitely the virality is definitely there's the game to it, but it's not necessarily. The action that's going to get you the paying clients that you're looking for. And then I read a statistic the other day that the average, so for somebody who's using Kajabi as their course platform, the the the average person making six figures on Kajabi has between a thousand and ten thousand followers. So very, very small accounts when you're thinking about like big followings on social media, right? And so it really doesn't take that much. And then, you know, I'm a perfect example. I'm I'm kind of launching this new side of the business. I had a different one that I ran for a long time. And so starting fresh, I'm rebuilding everything. And I've through Facebook ads and stuff like that been able to build up an email list of about 3,000 people in a couple months versus having almost no following on social media. And so there's not always that specific need to like build that huge following right away if you learn how to, you know, work the machine the right way, I think, if that makes sense.

Speaker 2 23:24

Oh, fully. And your list you own, which is cool. Yeah. And so that's what I've been doing. So just as a test, if you guys want to know, I've I've found a really, really easy template. It's like just a one sentence that I have on a the only thing I tested was the color of the background, purple one, this like eggplant color. And it's just like one sentence that it really would appeal to my target market. They go right to the form. So I've spent about $400 in the last 30 days, and I've got 300 followers, 300 people on my mailing list. And like that's a way better effort for us because then we can nurture them, we have fun stuff, we can invite them to events, and like some people opt out, but like the majority are staying. Um and then and now I've used the like if I am gonna kind of use those meta ads and stuff, I now have folks in my funnel in my community, and that list is mine.

Speaker 1 24:17

So if like Facebook disappeared, um not dependent on the the trauma of TikTok a year or two ago, right? Like whether it was staying or going, all these people had millions of followers, but then they had no email lists. And so yeah, this time around, I've really focused on building the list opposed to worrying about my follow number. Um, you know, obviously you want to keep growing that, but that's just not the priority when it comes to really trying to build a business and make revenue.

Speaker 2 24:44

So yeah, I love and it is a trap. It's a trap. Yes, you will you will lose your day and it will not give you revenue. So, like, I don't know how many ways to say this. Don't get sucked in to like making your social media the center of your marketing strategy, especially if you're service-based, especially if you serve like a specific area, like if you're in Baltimore, like I I'm gonna tell you what you can do instead, and that will actually make you money and take way less time.

Local Growth With 15 Minute Tasks

Speaker 1 25:15

Do you have a couple suggestions of people like how when you were building locally? I know you mentioned like doing the free workshops or hitting the pavement, but do you have one or two ideas or suggestions for people building in their local communities?

Speaker 2 25:30

Yeah. So one of the things that's will grow your business fast is to have more people talking about you. So if you focus on hitting some of those hubs, so because so many people find these tasks, then they're like trying to carve out massive, like I'm gonna have a marketing day, and they're like next Friday, and then something comes up or you're not feeling well, or your kid is sick, or something, and it's like we keep trying to do these like big kind of campaign days where you're gonna sort it all out. So here are my tips. They're all 15-minute tasks because I think that's realistic. You can do that like while your kidnaps, you can do that while you're waiting for pasta to boil. Like, just like they're doing these things in the margins because these little tiny actions are really helpful. So here are what here's the kind of order of what I would suggest is use social media to check out what's in your community. And I want you to think about all the businesses and and people that they might follow, like your target market or your ideal client or your dream customer, and really start thinking about it. So for me, I I do birth doula work. So I think about, well, they'd probably do prenatal yoga and they'd probably get meals delivered, and they'd have get a midwife, and they might start booking an IBCLC for so lactation. But they also might hire a dog walking service that they haven't, or talk to a realtor because they want to move, because that's what people do, which is bonkers with so many of my clients. I was like, wow, you're pregnant and moving. Those are two really stressful things. Um, and so I think about all those, you know, the baby stores, like car seat installation companies. Like, I think of all of those things. And then I go check out what's in my local community online, which is way easier. So you can kind of let your fingers do the walking and start like following them. And I would make sure I spend a little bit of time checking them out to be like, are they aligned, you know, socially, politically, environmentally, like those things that are important to me. I work almost exclusively with queer clients. So I also want to know my clients are gonna be safe if I refer them over to this brand or this company or this person. Um, so I do like a little bit of that kind of audit and then I follow them. And then y'all, I love them up for like a week. So I might follow 10 to 20 people because we all know, like I have a pretty big channel, it's like just under 30,000. It's not like wild, but and I only pop in occasionally and I still will notice when there's like the same person that likes and shares and comments, and they stand out to me. And so they will notice you. So it's like a really great, generous way to introduce yourself in your business so that you're not just like going up to them being like, Oh, hey, I know you like also serve pregnant clients, chiropractor. Send them to me. Like you've you've done a really nice, you know, act of service. People ask all the time, they're like, Hey, can you send this to your list? And I was like, I don't know you. I've spent 20 years building this massive list and lots of money and lots of love and hard space. Like, no, you can't mail something to my whole mailing list. Like, what? Right. So it's a it is a really great way to start. And and your clients will like it if you're sharing their stuff on the stories, or you're like, hey, the local baby store has like eco mattresses 20% off for the next three days, and you reshare their post. Not only is it really goodwill with that store, but you're you're educating and supporting your clients because you have the same clients. And so that would kind of be like your first, you could spend a couple of weeks doing this. And then I want you to think about what are some of the things that you could do collaboratively. And there's so many. You could do a podcast episode together, you could do a coat drive together, you could do a blog series, you could do a free class, you could do like there's sky's the limit. And there are kind of like easy entry ways to, you know, potentially get to know and do things in your local community because now we are building trust, right? So the first step, you just have to brainstorm. And then you could kind of decide what would make the most sense. So, like doing some kind of drive with the local baby stores and you have your branded box there, and people can drop off things and it's being donated to the local shelter. Like, that's a great way to put your business name all over the place. And again, you would pick something that would make sense for for you and your industry and your community. But like it might not make sense to have the baby store on a podcast, but like you could have the local chiropractor in my examples to be on your podcast. And so that's how you can like, you know, tailor those, but but just the planning and the listing of those can take us a bit of time. So rather than trying to like do this whole arc at one time, these chunks. And then you do need to go meet meet people. So you can DM

Collabs That Create Real Trust

Speaker 2 30:18

them, you can like let them know I would love to do some collaboration. I've been following what you do. I think it's really great. And here's my favorite pro tip because sometimes for introverts, I'm wildly introverted. Like, I obviously I spend a lot of time talking to people, but I spend a lot of time recharging and like filling that battery back up with silence and alone in my studio that has all my half-finished crafts. And so you instead of what you might, if your business is smaller than theirs or you're newer than them or something, instead of coming in with that, like, please can I have some of your clients kind of like vibe about you? I want you to imagine that you have all the clients you're ever gonna serve standing behind you. So all the people you're gonna cook for, or all the people whose dogs you're gonna walk, or all the people like whatever it is, and you're making sure that that person, provider, brand is a good place to transfer them. So then you can make a list of questions that's actually interviewing that person. Because I know if somebody came to me and was like, hey, listen, I do, you know, something with babies and they came to like interview me, I would take this way more seriously than if someone was like, Hey, I know that you've got a really big private practice. Can I, can you refer your clients to me? Um but if they came and were like, what are what do you do for newcomers? How many languages do you speak? Like, I notice you don't have any images of fat folks or or people living in bigger bodies. Are my plus size clients gonna feel safe coming to you? Like whatever feels important to you. I would be like, Oh, wow, okay, sorry, yeah, oh I do. And like, you know, I kind of feel like, yeah, for sure. And I would take it really seriously because I could see that they are taking care of their clients. So they run, yeah, they run a tight ship. And so that can very much change, like, because sometimes people aren't sure what they're going in to ask for. And then you can say, like, if you like their answers, you'd be like, I think it'd be really cool for us to collaborate. I was thinking this or this. We could do a food drive, or we could do a like an event in the park one Saturday afternoon. And then they could see, like, oh, I'd like to do a food drive because I don't really want to do an in-person event or something like that. Um, but you can see like those little tiny bites, and then you actually have exponential growth after those, like, you know, rather than trying to hit every every potential client in the city or your region or your town, this works rurally or in the cities, you now have the local butcher talking about you, or the if that makes sense, or the local chiropractor talking about you.

Speaker 1 33:01

Absolutely. I think, yeah, that that key is the nurturing piece and the relationship piece, right? Going back to that community piece that we were talking about earlier, really investing in them like you would a lead, right? Yeah, making that a warm connection.

Speaker 2 33:18

Yeah. And it you do have to do the last

Introvert Friendly Networking That Works

Speaker 2 33:21

step. And this is what like people we've been like promised that we can run our business in our like pajama pants on our couch, and unless we're seeing clients or unless we're actually doing the delivery of our thing. And like for the most part, you can, but like I do one-on-one consulting and I do I take a couple like in person where we're actually like sitting at a table together. And I was working with a gal, her business is so good, she had so much to offer. We did all of this arc, we got really cool stuff together, but she wouldn't just go introduce herself. So she was like, This isn't working. And I was like, Have you gone into these 15 stores that we listed? Like, have you gone in and like said, like, hey, by the way, I'm so and so. I've emailed and I've been like sharing your stuff and we've talked about this. And she's like, Oh, I don't really want to do that part. And I was like, this isn't gonna work. Like, yeah, they need to see you're a real person. You can get a lot done behind your keyboard for sure. But like that trust building and that community building, like we are social people. We need to make eye contact with one another, even though we resist it because that skills like attribute a little bit.

Speaker 1 34:29

Absolutely. I think you know, one of the places that I actually really love to connect with people is on airplanes. And I know that's weird, but like I've met some of the best contacts just sitting next to a stranger on the plane and starting to have a conversation and you know, relationships that have changed my whole business career from it. And so I I think just having that, even though it's scary, just rip the band-aid off, go out, start the conversation. And like most of the time, people, it's you know, it's like we talked about the animals are just as scared of us as we are of them. Like other people are just as scared to like have that conversation and start it as you are. And so if you can just push past the fear and be brave and just get, you know, go in the door and start the conversation, it can change so many things.

Speaker 2 35:18

Yeah. And if you just practice, like I've been practicing doing it like in the grocery store lineup. Like I would have just been like waiting for the belt for my turn. And now I just find a way to talk to people. Okay, yeah. Full disclosure, I moved from Toronto and I now live very rurally in Atlantic, Canada. And the the community and the culture, the like what's normal here is you talk nonstop to strangers. And it's been so helpful. Like when my friends can come visit me from Toronto, they're like, Do pe are people lonely here? Like, why do like I'll just go in to pay for gas? And we've had like a 15-minute conversation like and they know where my parents were born. And I was like, no, that's just what it's like here. So it's been really helpful for me to just like do brave things because it's now just like you just if you're around a person, you're talking and you just pick up some conversation, and so that was really great. But if you live in a place that's not that's not normal, taking a friend with you who like and then they talk about you, so it's a it gives you more authority because somebody else is saying, like, whatever. So I had a couple friends, they were we would call each other our networking friends, they were more extroverted, so it was easier for them to walk up to like a circle of people at one of those like women entrepreneurs that are all like randos in her room. And so they would walk up and they'd say, Hey, this is Bianca. She's a birth duelist, she's amazing, she serves mostly queer folks, but she also does, you know, something really succinct. And before we went in, they would check in to be like, what's coming up? And I'd be like, Oh, I'm, you know, have an opening or like there's a class that we have starting at the clinic or like whatever. And then they'd be like, Yeah, she's got this amazing class that's like protecting fat folks as they go through their reproductive health journey. And so some would be like, Oh, my sister's plus size, and like that would be awesome. Do you have your cards? And it was like a really great entry point. And then once, you know, my friend would do it, I found it easier to walk up to be like, Oh, this is my friend. She's a trauma therapist, and she does blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So that's like a pro tip that can be helpful if if it's just crippling anxiety, the idea of going out and introducing yourself. Take a take a buddy that would maybe just be something supplementary to you.

Speaker 1 37:42

I love it. These have been so helpful, all of these tips and just good ideas and and you know, it it doesn't have to be really difficult. It just has to be, you know, go out and take those actions. Yeah. If there is one thing from our conversation today that you want the listener to remember or really have them stick with them afterwards, what would that be? What's the what's the key thing that you want them to remember?

One Metric That Actually Matters

Speaker 2 38:08

I want you guys to isolate the thing that gets you the most clients and keep doing that. So this might be a networking thing, it might be blogging, it might be a meta-ad, whatever it is. But that's like a really helpful tool. So, what we started with with that like you know, shiny, bright, shiny syndrome. Um, that that you we're we're running businesses and we need to do that. So, if like if you've never got a client from TikTok, like maybe look at do you actually need your TikTok channel? Because if you can isolate what does generate clients directly, not like eventually it will trickle in. I want you to stop doing everything else and just do that over and over and over again until you've hit the business size that's your dream.

Speaker 1 38:55

I love that. It's putting those blinders on, right? Just focusing. Yeah. Yes. Before we leave today, Bianca, first, I just want to say thank you again. All of this information has been so helpful. And I love the work that you're doing. It's really, it's really impressive. And I just commend you for the work you're doing.

Courses And How To Connect

Speaker 1 39:13

Before we leave, I know you have a course. Did you want to share some information about your course and how do listeners connect with you and just find you online and follow along?

Speaker 2 39:24

Yeah, so we offer, you know, different courses depending on where you want to specialize, including our business school, which starts in October. So you can find us on any of the social channels at Babomia Inc. I find Facebook and Instagram to be kind of our stronger channel. So you can head over there and find us. And we have a discount code, which I'm assuming will be in the show notes, and you can get 10% off of any of the courses that we offer. And our full spectrum course runs September and March. So the registration's always open for that. And it's a life changing program that will help you know start and build a birth worker business.

Speaker 1 40:02

I love it. Well, thank you, Bianca, so much for being here. I really appreciate you. Thank you for having me.