81. The Real Reason Your Doula Consults Go Nowhere

Your doula consults feel good. They’re emotional. Connected. Even meaningful.

And then… nothing happens.

If you’re getting ghosted after long, heartfelt consults, I want you to hear this clearly: it’s not your likability, your warmth, or your ability to connect.

It’s your structure.

In this episode, I share a moment that genuinely humbled me- despite selling nearly $5 million in my career, I found myself struggling on sales calls. 

When I brought it to my coach, I expected a small tweak. Instead, he challenged the foundation and reminded me of something every successful business owner eventually learns:

Sales calls are always the biggest needle mover.

You’ll learn:

• Why long consults don’t actually build trust
• Where doulas accidentally lose authority without realizing it
• How over-educating creates confusion instead of safety
• The simple consult structure that creates clarity, confidence, and decisions
• How to ask for the yes without feeling awkward or salesy

If your consults feel emotionally rich but don’t convert, this episode will reframe everything.

You don’t need to become a different person.
 You need a structure that holds the room.

🎧 Press play.

Struggling to grow your doula business? Tired of chasing pregnant mothers online? Imagine effortlessly attracting your dream clients and reaching the mamas you're meant to serve!?

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Transcript

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I don't care if you are brand spinking new like a baby doula or if you've been doing this for 15 years, at every single level, your calls matter. So if you refine one skill this quarter, make it this one. Welcome to the Six Figure Doula podcast. This is where confidence becomes currency. If you're a birth worker who's ready to stop overthinking, stop undercharging, and start leading like you mean it, then you're not here by accident. Every week we talk sales without the ick, money without shame, and building a business that actually holds you and your clients. Welcome home, Doula. Welcome back to the show. I want to start today somewhere really personal. So over the last two weeks, I have been in Florida with my boys. In fact, when this airs, we will be on a flight home. So bittersweet. There's always like half of me that just wants to stay on the beach, and then the other half of me that's like itching to get back into routine. And I am so blessed. And I I love that both of both Buffalo and Naples feel like home, truly. So I'm in Florida with the boys, and we spent a ton of time at the beach, which has been magic. Barefoot, sandy hair, like just sun-filled days where like time disappears. You don't even know how an entire afternoon escaped you. And I was there watching Enzo, and he was completely in his element, like running through the sand, yelling, digging, you know, sand flying everywhere, dancing around, splashing in the ocean. And not once did he stop to check and look around, like to notice who was watching him. Like not once did he adjust himself to blend in better, like be less uh disruptive. He was just fully himself. And I remember sitting there in my little chair, my beach chair, lounge chair, thinking, when when do we stop doing that in life? Like when do we start editing ourselves? And and when do we put on this performance instead of just being? Like what age or like what instance, what circumstance did every interaction become something to get right instead of something to feel into? Because as adults, like especially as mothers, business owners, we're constantly managing, like managing our energy, managing perception, managing outcomes. And somewhere along the way, that pure embodied presence gets replaced with overthinking. Makes me sad. And I could not help myself, and you're gonna laugh a little bit. I could not help but connect it to consultations and think to myself, the most powerful consults that I have ever been a part of, the ones that have felt so easeful and grounded, almost like an inevitable, they don't come from saying the perfect thing. It's all about presence. Like being so anchored in yourself and that other human that she can relax within your energy. That is what Enzo reminded me of on the beach. And here's the part that blew my mind a little bit. Presence alone is crazy powerful, right? But presence paired with strategy is freaking unstoppable. So when you show up fully you, grounded, embodied, unedited, and you have a clear structure holding that conversation, that's magic. And that is when sales doesn't feel like selling, it's when consultations feel like flow instead of something you have to force. And in my experience, it's when mamas say yes without you needing to push. So that, my friend, is what we are gonna talk about today. And before we get into it, I need to mention if your consultations feel long, like they drag on and take a lot of your time, or they drain you emotionally, or maybe you walk away and you're like, that went well, but then you get ghosted. I am confident when I tell you that that is not for a lack of charm. All right. Like likability by itself is not enough. What you need is a better structure that creates three things clarity, safety, and a damn decision. And just in case you haven't bought into the topic of this one yet, I will tell you, and I will stand in this truth and die on this hill. I just love that phrase for some reason. Sales calls are the biggest needle mover in your business, always, even at high, high levels. And now I'm about to tell you something that genuinely humbled me recently. Uh like took a massive hit to my ego, truthfully. So I have sold almost five million dollars over the course of my sales career. And I found myself struggling with certain consultations. And I have been working with a new coach. Shout out to Ben, life-changing, massive up level. I'm gonna make a long story short. So when I initially met with this new coach, I was expecting to walk away with a strategy tweak. And instead, he challenged the entire foundation of it all. And I felt my ego flare up. Like I remember thinking to myself, I teach this. Why am I feeling weird on some calls? And my coach hit me with something like, Lisa, I know your track record, but you are still struggling with certain sales calls. And my brain went to defend itself, but then he drove home a point, which was that refining my sales skills will 100% always be the biggest needle mover. And then he went on to tell me that just recently, like within the last month, he invested 30,000 in his new coach with the number one priority to improve his sales calls, not to refine his content, not to build a bigger brand, not to build out some crazy fancy funnel. We're talking 30k investment. And he said, Because if you can't convert conversations, everything else falls apart. So go ahead and and tell me that sales calls aren't the number one skill. Because they are. So if you're listening and thinking your consults aren't converting because you're awkward or you're not confident enough, it's probably actually the structure. Good news is that is fixable. So let's take a minute and talk about some like consultation sabotage that I see on a regular basis. Specifically, why long consults do not equal trust. So I think I see these patterns where dualists think if I give more of my time, they will trust me more. Or if I explain every little nitty-gritty detail of my package, they'll feel safe enough to buy. But what happens is this conversation drags on 60, 90 minutes sometimes, and it's jam-packed with a ton of education and yes, a lot of empathy. But then you end up with like a thanks, I'm gonna go talk to my partner, and then they completely disappear. So I just want to call out the fact that time does not create trust. Leadership creates trust. And a client, a prospective client, is not gonna feel safer because the appointment is longer or goes past the allotted time. They're gonna feel safer because you direct the room. So cap your consult. I think the sweet spot is between 30 and 40 minutes or between 35 and 45 minutes max. And when you're reaching that 45 minute mark, it better be because you're taking payment over the phone or, you know, digging into some more detail-oriented questions after you've already gotten a verbal yes. But if it's longer than that, you are very likely, and I pretty positive, that you are overexplaining in order to really like regulate yourself. So when you talk too much, it's important to recognize that you don't actually sound more helpful. You sound less certain. And that is a very, very tough pill to swallow because I've had to swallow it more than once. But practice will always yield progress. I also want to share with you some of the things that I've seen over the years where doulas will accidentally lose their authority on a consultation. So I call these like authority leaks. Really, really common one is listing options out like a menu at a restaurant. So saying something like, I offer A, B, package C, package D. But the truth is, clients absolutely are not looking for a billion choices. They want a path. It's so much more effective to say something like, based on everything you shared, here are the two best options for you. Let's choose what fits together. Boom. We've narrowed it. We've set them on a direct path from A to B. Another thing that I see, and I know that I sound like a broken record, but over-educating instead of diagnosing. So, yes, education is safe. And for so many of us, that is like our home base, but true diagnosis is that leadership role in action. So, what I'd rather you say is something like what I'm hearing is you want X, but you're terrified of Y. That's the real tension. Validate her. Let her know that not only have you been listening, but you've already been thinking about how you have a solution for her. Another thing I see is waiting way too long to talk about money. So there's a couple things here. First of all, if money is a surprise at the end of a consult, it's going to feel salesy. What I'm not saying is drop your price mid-consult. What I'm referring to is we have the ability to reach out prior to that consultation and offer a pre-call questionnaire or a survey or some way to check and see the readiness level of this mama. I also love setting an agenda as the call is opening up to really spell out the flow of the consultation and allude to the fact that you will be talking about what your support looks like and the investment attached. All we're doing here is setting expectations and really allowing that mama to take a deep breath and settle into her chair and relax. And finally, if you are ending a consultation without a clear next step, chances are the end of your consults are all super wobbly. So rather than softening or rambling or, you know, letting them decide later, I would much rather hear you say something like, from what you shared, I am confident that I can help you. Do you want to move forward today? Silence. So I'm going to give you like a tangible way to audit yourself for your next consultation and for every consultation after that. So in your consult debrief, ask yourself three things. Number one, did I lead the structure or did I follow their energy? Number two, did I make a recommendation or did I present options? And number three, did I actually ask for a solid decision? So I guess if we bring it back to my coach that spent$30,000 on this particular needle mover, it starts to make sense, right? Like you can get more inquiries, grow your visibility, create new offers. But if consultation conversion is weak, you are pouring into a leaky bucket and it is making a total mess. I don't care if you are brand spanking new like a baby doula or if you've been doing this for 15 years at every single level, your calls matter. So if you refine one skill this quarter, make it this one. And I want to assure you that if your consultations are not converting or they're not converting at the rate that you want them to, you don't need to become a different woman. But you need a structure that will hold you steady. And because I love you so much, I created a free consultation guide just for you. Yeah. Built by moi, a former corporate sales coach, turned doula, turned mentor. So it blends real strategy with real humanity. And I know you're gonna love it. So head to the show notes or DM me the word booked on Instagram. That's at the leastav, and I'll send it your way. Catch you next time.