With January 2016 already behind us, we’re overdue in sharing a preview of our exciting year ahead. Setting an intention for a specific project, goal, or period of time is hugely important, so we’re pleased to officially announce Collaborative Entrepreneurship as the theme for the year.
We all know growing a business from scratch takes a ton of resolve and determination, but what we don’t talk about as much is the indispensable community of support that surrounds every successful entrepreneur.
So this year, we’re expanding on 2015’s powerful theme of the critical importance of self-care by exploring an important truth: a desire to see other doulas succeed is actually not enough – we really need them to succeed! Only then do we see our own true potential as a collective whole. Supporting one another and celebrating our successes is what thriving together really means.
Our second annual OneDoula retreat in Tulum, Mexico will follow this theme, giving all doulas a chance to discover how to transform their businesses to meet not only their own needs but also those of their families, clients, and greater communities. Last year’s self-care retreat was a huge success, bringing participants nourishment, motivation and creative ideas, and we expect this year will be even more incredible.
Community has and always will be number one for us. DTI was created on this foundation and without it we would not be here. Building a lasting community with our membership and other birth entrepreneurs helps our evolving growth. Masterminding with our network of like minded businesses and working alongside our members has proven to work time and time again. Network and be open to collaboration often will lead to unplanned successes. Put some strategy behind it and we all have something to celebrate.
DTI is on a mission to help support all of our members in realizing this success together through collaboration. We are all working together with similar missions-and together we are #DTISTRONG.
Business support
To keep the focus on entrepreneurship, we’ll also have a renewed commitment to business development for the doula. First of all, we invite our members to start promoting themselves through DTI’s doula locator. Our website is now receiving between 300 and 800 visitors per day, so you’ll be able to improve your own website’s ranking in search engines by adding your listing. DTI gets emails and calls daily to find out how to hire DTI doulas and this is where we send inquiries!
Speaking of search engines, page views, and visibility — this kind of targeted business support is taking the form of an in-depth DTI offering. We’ll be able to share more soon, but just know that our members will have the option of engaging in some one-on-one personalized coaching to take your brand and websites to the next level. Keep your eyes peeled for this announcement over the next 30 days.
MEMBERS: Let us give you a shout out!
DTI wants to know what’s happening in your area and what the DTI members are up to! DTI is YOUR BUSINESS PLATFORM! Send images of DTI gatherings by emailing hello@doulatrainingsinternational.com so they can be shared nationally. We will gladly link to your website, tag you on instagram, and so forth. Think of DTI as a part of your own business team and be proactive in keeping in touch with us directly.
If you don’t know who your ambassador is, check the website, or reach out to us, so we can make an introduction. Each DTI ambassador is in your area to collaborate with you and help make connections and plan DTI doula gatherings.
We’d also like you to give us an update on your current offerings so that we can feature you and your doula practice. For instance:
- DTI could give you a shout out on Instagram
- DTI could post a blog written by you and link your name and bio (helping build out your SEO)
- We are in support of your new offerings and can put them in our newsletters to both members and friends of DTI with a reach of over 1,700 people!
Get involved and make yourself known. We want to know each of you better and help you all sustain and grow your businesses. Be sure to catch us live on Periscope too.
Finally, we’d like to show gratitude to a couple of DTI’s most trusted collaborators by sharing a little about what they’ve been up to in their own birth based businesses. You know, the people who always are there to support DTI, who answer the phone when we call and who are RAD entrepreneurs in their own right. Support a sister when you get a chance…
Alice Turner of YourDoulaBag.com is creator of the 100percentdoula program which provides business guidance to doulas looking to create and grow a profitable business. The program is a combination of online learning, community support and live webinar trainings that are designed to fit into the lives of busy doulas. Check out the 100percentdoula course here. Registration started on February 1st. Proceeds from our affiliate fund will go to DTI’s scholarship program – it doesn’t get better than that! Thanks, Alice, for being a great supporter of DTI!
And thanks to Julie Olson from Plumtree Baby for your support as well. Plumtree Baby offers seven booklets for pregnancy, birth and early parenting education. Their resources are up-to-date and include many photographs, illustrations and interactive content to enhance education. We have been a long time supporter of Plumtree Baby and think that their materials are the way to go for all birth professionals.
Long time friend and DTI supporter, Amy Wright Glenn, author of “Birth, Breath, and Death — Meditations on Motherhood, Chaplaincy, and Life as a Doula,” draws upon wisdom gained as a birth doula, hospital chaplain, and award-winning teacher of comparative religion and philosophy in crafting transformative trainings on pregnancy and infant loss. Want a better understanding of how to best hold space for grieving mothers and their families following a miscarriage, stillbirth, and/or infant loss?
Amy offers a 10-hour, live, online “Holding Space for Pregnancy Loss” training twice a year and will be presenting 4-hour in-person trainings in Philadelphia PA, Amherst MA, and Pleasant Grove UT this spring.
Be inspired by their work and think about your own collaborative efforts. We hope you’re as excited as we are to see the year unfold and take us collectively to new and amazing heights. Thanks for reading!
xo
Gina & Tara