22 | Diversifying Your Lactation Private Practice

Annie: Hey, Leah.

Leah: Hello Annie. How are you?

Annie: I'm good. How are you?

Leah: Doing great. Doing great. Excited about our topic today cause it's something you and I both have some experience in so it's always fun to talk about.

Annie: Yeah. And that's diversification of your business and how to just find different ways that you can make money with your passion for lactation.

Leah: Yeah, and I think this is a neat topic to talk about because I think sometimes we get really stuck in the mode of just doing this one thing as the only way that we have to make money and to support our families, and we could actually use our passions for more things. So I can't wait to talk about that

Annie: Before we get into our content for the episode, this episode is sponsored by a tool that really will help you diversify and that is Acuity Scheduling. So is your calendar running around topless? Reign it in with Acuity Scheduling. I have to say they gave us different things we could say, and I was like that is so perfect for our audience. Although we would be is your calendar running around topless? Free the nipple.

Leah: I know. Don't try to put a cap on that.

Annie: Free the nipple with Acuity Scheduling. Handle all your forms and payments before your appointment so you can get right down to visit. And if you go to acuityscheduling.com/LBC which stands for Lactation Business Coaching, they're going to give you a 45-day free trial of Acuity and I guarantee you're going to give it a try and well before those 45 days are up, you're going to be like, yeah I'm sold. But I guess I have all this free time left.

Leah: Totally! I know. I love Acuity. We have been using it for over a year now, actually almost two years and it's definitely changed our business in so many ways and definitely allowed us to do the diversifying and freeing up times for more diversification. So I love Acuity. I'm definitely a big fan.

Annie: So I think I understand that your marketing tip has to do with diversification. So do you want to give that to us?

Leah: Yes. So there's two ways that you could actually diversify your marketing. So one aspect would be to make sure that you're diversifying the different ways that you do marketing. So you don't want to put all your marketing dollars and energy into just one form of marketing, so you wouldn't want to do everything just on Facebook or everything just Google ads, or everything just referral marketing. You really want to make sure that you're diversifying so that you hit just all the different aspects. You're never going to get everybody on one shot. So you really want to make sure you keep that diversified. And then also remembering that as you look forward to diversifying your business, you have an audience right now and that audience you can start offering new things. So diversifying what you're offering your audience is a way to diversify your streams of income. So I love, making sure that we're offering lots of different things. And if you've already built your audience, you're going to have a fresh crop ready to hear your new offerings.

Annie: I think that's a great marketing tip because I know I personally tend to stick with what's easy and what works when it comes to any marketing or advertising I'm doing for my private practice. And also get things just on autopilot and I'm like, Oh yeah, right. I think I have Google ads. Do I? Don't I? So having that diversification mind-set reminds you to also just check back on your channels and make sure you have them.

Leah: Yeah. And seeing what's working. I mean, like you said, you got to do what's working for your market and your population that you're speaking to, and you might see that, yeah you definitely get more business when you're doing more social media ads, or when you're doing more referral marketing, but you wouldn't want to completely neglect the other end. You have keep at least the doors open, keep at least a trickle going through.

Annie: Definitely. So on diversification. I guess we're throwing this word around. I know you're like, what do you mean? Diversify? I'm a lactation consultant in private practice. That's what I do. This is my job. So what is diversification?

Leah: So to me, diversification means to open up multiple channels of income. So you don't just have one channel of income. You've actually diversified your income by adding in different ways or streams of income into your business. So you're not just a one-for. I do a consult; I get the money. I do a consult; I get the money. But you have actually other ways that money is flowing into your company, and there's hundreds of different channels that you can pick or streams that you could pick from.
Annie: And really we think the big reason to consider diversifying your income - and there's a lot of ways to think about it - and we're going to go into what that actually looks like, but as we talked about in Episode three, you're going to have times where you're really busy and you're going to have times where you're really slow, and having those alternate streams of income can really help during those lean times. And so that might just be as simple as saying, Oh I offer home visits and I offer follow ups, but I never thought about doing a back to work class once a month. That's diversifying.
Leah: Right, cause you're just moving away from just the one model, one way that income's going to come in. But you can diversify just what you offer as far as consults, the types of consults or the types of classes that you offer. That's another area. But it definitely can bolster you during those times that you might not be having as much of your main source of income coming in and you have this bolster behind you that you don't have to worry as much. I know we all do, but you don't have to have as much panic mode

Annie: Because starting just with not relying on any one thing to make your money for you. So that could also just be... Something that I struggle with is I take insurance. So I ended up being really not diversified in the types of clients that I take. I can really get very heavy on insurance clients, but then that really means that I'm putting all my eggs in that insurance company's basket.

Leah: And that is not as a very sturdy basket.

Annie: It is not a very sturdy basket, and that's scary and you realize wow, if the bottom drops out of this, what happens? Do I have a cash business at all? And so for me, I really do need to challenge myself in my private practice to be diversified between insurance clients and self-pay clients. And that means most of my marketing goes towards my self-pay clients, to attracting those clients and are my offerings competitive and am I really doing enough to show that I'm not just some lady who takes your insurance, but I'm actually good at what I do. So for me, that's the fundamental diversification is just making sure that you're not relying on just one source of income for your business so that you can make it through those lean times or you can pivot if something really changes in your area. And then the second reason to diversify is coming up with a way to generate passive income for your business can also really help provide you with some kind of cushion, and we're going to talk in a minute about specific things that people are doing. But you'll see a lot lately is people are developing courses, or this is a reason why people will come up with continuing education offerings and make them available online, or write books. Writing a book is like the ultimate in passive income. And book publishing is never an area that where anybody except for Stephen King makes a gazillion dollars. But when you're working with a traditional publisher, those royalty checks ...they're nice, and if you're self-publishing, once you write the book and once you've paid for the cost of producing it, that's income and it might not be enough to quit your day job, because you also might not want to quit your day job. I don't want to quit my day job. I love my day job. Yeah. It's great. I mean, I'm doing what I love, but it is nice to have my books where that's also an income stream.

Leah: Yeah, for sure. I think that's so important to think about is just having more passive income that you're not spending an exorbitant amount of time on. You might've put in a lot of time and then you're just reaping the rewards of that, and I think it's such a neat way to bolster those times we might be a little bit more lean. It's just so, so important for us to think about because they come. We have to never forget that they will come. The lean times will come. They always do.

Annie: They are always going to come.

Leah: I think one of the ways you start to think about, well what would I even offer? How could I even generate passive income? I can't even imagine what that would look like would be to start to think about what are you most passionate about? You might have a niche that you're really passionate about, a certain population that you're really passionate about, a certain topic in your field that you're just like, this is what I live for. I just love this so much. I've researched it extensively because I just am so interested in it. So it might not even be something specifically lactation-field related. It might be that you are also really good at something else and you want to share that passion with other people. You might also really be good at QuickBooks, so now you've figured out how to do QuickBooks for a lactation private practice. (Hey! Hint, hint. If anybody out there wants to do this) You figured out how to do this and you've set up all the templates and you know how to make this work so streamlined. Man, can go out there and make a course. It takes a little bit of time to get that course out there, but then people can take that course whenever they want and you just have cash flowing in. I love the idea of finding where maybe not just something like, Oh I know how to help people with pumping. That's an awesome area as well. You can make a course on that as well, but you could also think of things outside of just our lactation field and how you've merged them into your work, because we're always needing that kind of help. We're always needing ways. I love finding courses that are lactation field specific on non-lactation issues, cause that's something that we don't have. You can find a lot of stuff out there about a therapy practice, how to run a therapy practice or how to do your 'whatever' with these different private practices, but there's not as much about lactation and we need more of that because I think a lot of people have merged their other fields or passions into their lactation work and that can be passive income right there.

Annie: Yeah. That's definitely what has motivated me, and so there are a lot of people who are bringing in these other disciplines and creating tech solutions or inventing products, and we still don't have the perfect breast pumps. So if you are able to do mechanical stuff, that is a growth area. That is a place where we could use you. But also you're doing research. Think of different ways to share it. So any of you that are doing research, you know that there are the traditional venues where you're going to present at a conference and present a paper and do it in an academic setting. There might be something else you can do with that research that is outside of the traditional box of traditional venues for speaking, and that could bring in revenue for you. Maybe there is an eBook that you can write that's applying what you've studied in your research that other lactation consultants would want to buy. So maybe doing some like community based work. The Perinatal Equity Foundation just put out a webinar that a bunch of us watched and I think it's still up. It's about community based lactation. So something like that where then you can take something you've done and that maybe you've got the academic way you're going about it, but something like that could also be turned into an eBook model that could be purchased by other community-based organizations that want to implement some of your practices. So depending on how that research was funded and what control you have over that. But just thinking about what you own and your intellectual property being valuable and there's nothing wrong with making money off of something like that when it's also going to make the world a better place. Just because it's going to make the world a better place doesn't mean you need to give it away for free. So just thinking about those things that you know and that you're doing well and that you love and that you've been asked to speak about.

Leah: I think all of us are always for more ways to support in different ways, and there's so many really, really amazing people out there doing great things that I think they could definitely share with us.
Annie: I mean, I'm an easy mark. I will buy all the things if it has to do with lactation.
Leah: I know. I am too. Any course that comes out, I'm like, I need to take that, especially if it's lactation-specific, and, and I love anything business-related, but I'm such a sucker. I'll buy all the things. So you guys, if you want to make some money, you can make it all off of me. Just make a course and I'll come buy it.

Annie: I'm literally your target audience.

Leah: I know. Right here, right now, I will pay all the money. But what are some other ways? So we talked about eBooks. I think that's a really creative way. Course creation is huge. So many people are putting out courses and I'm so excited about so many of them and I can't wait for more of those come out, and those could be geared towards other professionals and towards moms as well. I know there's a lot of new ones coming out geared towards moms. Might be breastfeeding classes or different kinds of support for different issues. I think that's huge. What else have you seen work for passive income?

Annie: I've actually seen some really fun, just little things that I really love. I'm going to give a little free plug to somebody I really like, which is Rachel O'Brien. She sells t-shirts and I totally wear her I speak Baby® t-shirt and I like to wear it when I go to tennis and my kids think it's hilarious. And there are other people who are just selling little products that just help

Leah: Yeah, or props. I've seen people who make different props for teaching latching or props for teaching different techniques or things. I've seen a lot of that come out recently. And if that's your passion, like knitting something or crafting something is your passion, it's so amazing to then turn that around and get to share it with us who are like no crafting here.

Annie: Parent handouts. Those are great and they can print things that we can share with our clients. I know there are people who are making those and they will personalize them for you. There's someone who does paediatrician letters that you can personalize and she'll put your info on them and she writes a brand new one

Leah: Oh, like a newsletter. Yeah. Yes, yes.

Annie: Like the Booby Buzz. And so she will do where you pay for the subscription and then she puts in your information, but she writes the content and it's really good, and I think she's pretty smart about being careful with geography. So she is not going to sell it to two people in the same geographic area.

Leah: Because that would look weird coming from two people. Yeah.

Annie: But there's room for more things like that, or if you love to write you can get paid to write. You can get paid to blog.

Annie: YouTube is a huge one too. Everybody's looking for good YouTube videos to share and you can get paid if that's something that you're interested in. I think that's another Avenue that some people have taken on.

Leah: Yeah, and there's some people who are doing kind of bigger courses, putting their videos, instructional videos behind a paywall and that is great. If you've got really good content, think about if you're really great at making videos, put one video on YouTube and then put the rest behind a paywall and make us pay you for those videos. I will pay you for those good videos. I don't mind doing that. In fact, I like doing it because I want to support the creation of content that is valuable. And keep in mind if you're somebody who likes videos and putting them on YouTube, YouTube is actually a search engine and it's the biggest search engine. It might even be - I don't know, don't quote me on this - but it's either the biggest search engine or the second biggest search engine after Google. So people are going to YouTube to search for videos on topics that they're interested in, and so don't feed YouTube, feed your business. Use YouTube so people can find you and then put a price tag on your work and ...

Leah: Yeah, because you spent time and energy creating stuff and learning and it takes a lot of years of experience to be proficient at maybe one specific thing. So it's valuable to us and like you, I'll pay for things. I think there's such a huge market out there that that is untapped, this untapped market. Like on Etsy you can get a premade, fillable form stuff and I can't remember the exact name that they're called, but there's like this whole market for creation of forms and maybe different tools and tips and techniques on paper that you could have printables or electronic versions and I think we could use more of that. I know we have a lot of people using apps, but there's still plenty of people out there that like to write stuff down, and so things like having cool feeding logs and stuff like that that you could give to parents. That would be even be something that could be a passive income.

Annie: Yes. If you've got those good graphic design skills and if you're really creative on graphic design, think about marketing yourself as a logo designer for lactation consultants, because we have really specific needs and I know you've been going through a bit of a rebranding looking for a logo, but logo designers who are making logos, you tell them what you do and they default to the things, the images we have seen a million times.

Leah: A million times.

Annie: And it's frustrating and they pick the same colours and they go for the same little thing. And you're like, I've seen an iteration of that logo 100 million times. We all have the same logo, which is fine cause we're not all trying to reach the same people. If I have an identical logo to somebody, say Leah and I could have the same logo for our private practices and our clients will never know. But if you're a graphic designer, if you're an artist and a lactation consultant and you might be like, I can come up with 15 logos that are great for lactation consultants that look nothing like what anyone has ever seen before.

Leah: Oh my gosh, I'd pay you $1 million right now.

Annie: Yeah, you're hired! I mean, we've been trying to get help with the podcast and trying to find somebody that can help us with our show notes, and you go to somebody and people just don't get it. You try somebody on Fiverr, they just don't understand lactation consultants.

Leah: And there's a huge market for that for sure. Like writing blog posts or not even blog posts, because that would be something you would write, but content for your website. That's impossible to hire out, like nearly impossible to hire out.

Annie: But I would hire somebody that knew about lactation and had those skills, so like being a virtual assistant to other lactation consultants. So say you have your private practice in your geographic area, but then you could work virtually for somebody else across the country or in another country. You're not in the same market at all, and that's a way to cover your lean times. It's a great way to expand what you're able to do and help somebody else without having it taken away from your own local business.

Leah: Right, and we're talking kind of farther reaching stuff, but even locally, I know a lot of consultants might sell things, or they might have pump rentals as part of their business as well as a way to bring in additional income. I think there's just maybe some ethical considerations that you'd want to have there.
Annie: Yeah, and I've been really going pretty deep into those because my new subcontractor wants to research us renting pumps cause we're in Queens, New York and we're having to send people to Manhattan, or they're having to drive all the way to Brooklyn and it's really far and so we're like, we're very centrally located and it could be a good idea. So we've been thinking, okay, what are the ethical considerations here? And the big one with pump rentals or any retail product that you are selling that your clients might want to buy is that to make sure you are presenting them with alternatives. So you could rent the pump from me or you could rent it from these two other places, and just to be really careful that there's a creep that can happen where I rent pumps and all of a sudden I've got more clients who need pumps. So that's the danger of things like that, and the other big thing that is the book I always refer back to and that I've been poring over is Legal and Ethical Issues for the IBCLC by Elizabeth Brooks.

Leah: That's a fantastic book.

Annie: She's an attorney and you have to own it. It's not really optional. And so she talks also about once you start selling things, these companies are going to want to give you things for free. So a big one is Spectrum. They really want you to learn how to use the Spectrum and they really want you to get involved in that and sell their flanges, which is good. My clients have a really hard time getting flanges for the spectrum and so I would love to make that easier for them, but Spectrum wants to give you a free pump. Don't take the free pump. Don't take the free anything, cause when you take something for free it engenders a warm feeling towards that company and you may think that you're impervious to it but you're not. Science shows that like you can't really fight against that, and so you have to be really careful with the ethics when it comes to anything where you're selling something to your clients as part of your clinical care of them, if you stand to profit.

Leah: Yeah. I think there definitely is a fine line, and I know some people, they have a whole business storefront where they have all the things - bras and nursing wear and all the gear - but then they also run their lactation business out of that store front, and they've tried to be as ethical about it as possible. But there are definitely considerations and just making sure that ... I love your point about making sure everybody has options when you're like I carry this, but you can also get it in these places as well. I think is a great way to manage some of that, but definitely read the book. So in offering any of these things, I think it's always smart to just disclose and be open about, yeah, I'm doing this, but I also have this side gig that I do this. I just want you to be aware of it. There's never anything wrong with just being open and letting people make an informed choice about any of the things that they might be exchanging money with you for.

Annie: Yes, and some of that is going to involve pushing back against… a lot of the resources and training out there about marketing and sales are really about creating this kind of...they call it a funnel. So your goal is you want to get your customers, potential customers into the funnel and convert them into customers and make them buy, and you want to upsell them and you're always trying to make more profit off of them, which is gross.

Leah: Doesn't sound good.

Annie: It does not sound good, but that's where people are. If you look online and you're like, okay, I want to learn how to do marketing, I want to learn how to do sales, that's what you're going to find.

Leah: That does not apply to what we do.

Annie: Does not apply to what we do at all, and it does not really apply to any kind of helping work that you're doing. If you're trying to make the world a better place, that kind of stuff doesn't really apply, and so what you want to do is you want to do the total opposite, which is to be transparent with people, say like with the pumps and not say, oh yeah, you need a pump and here you go. You want to stop that.

Leah: And you probably want an extra set of flanges. That's important as well. I have this pack right here and you can buy them all.

Annie: That yeah, if you buy three, you get one free. You're not doing any of that to your clients, and in fact you want to stop them at any purchase decision point and make sure they are making an informed decision and make sure that you are checking any potential conflict of interest. And if you're even hesitating, is this a conflict of interest? Just assume that it is and don't do it.

Leah: That’s probably a good assumption.

Annie: You're never going to do the wrong thing by not doing something just in case it was a conflict of interest. You're never going to be like, man, that really wasn't a conflict of interest after all. I really should have gone for it, but what you are going to regret is doing something, and then later having a guilty feeling like, I really didn't do the right thing, I was wrong.

Leah: I 100% agree with that.

Annie: You're also going to want to make sure that you're up to date on any kind of applicable laws or regulations around your business. So if you are selling products, do you need to pay sales tax in your state?

Leah: Yes, that’s so important.

Annie: If you are offering classes, do you have all of the right kind of insurance in place for that and liability and if you're thinking, I want to have classes out of my home, are you allowed to do that? Are there any zoning laws that apply?

Leah: Yeah, there's a lot of things to think about when it comes to this diversification. You always just want to check yourself because different regions and different States have so many different laws that revolve around some of these different aspects of adding on additional work.
Annie: Yeah, and it can apply to online offerings and there are laws about how you're allowed to market things online and what disclosures you need to make. And if you have people from other countries who are potential customers of yours, you may need to know about things like the GDPR and what disclosures you need to have on your website and how you're protecting the privacy of your customers. And these are not your client customers, but say I sell something to Leah, I need to make sure I'm protecting her privacy as my customer, even outside of her being my client. That client privacy is one thing, but there are laws around online privacy that just have to do with online marketing and online sales that you need to know about. And then also just being smart about your time management like we talked about a couple episodes ago, is that you might be an idea person and you've got an idea for every second of the day. This is my problem when I get out of the shower and I'm like, I just came up with eight things I want to do.

Leah: And I've heard a few Marco Polos from you on that one.

Annie: Yes, I know. I get out of the shower and I don't even brush my hair. And I'm like, Leah, I know what we are going to do.

Leah: I love it. I love it. I'm the same. I'm always generating these big ideas. But you have to be so smart about it because you can't take on the world because you'll one, burnout and two, you might not be able to follow through with what you've started.

Annie: And they're not all good ideas. They're good ideas right when I got out of the shower and then like three days later, I don't actually want to do that. That was dumb.

Leah: But you know what? Sometimes those ideas are great ones. I wish there was like this... Annie, new business idea. This idea funnel generation tool that we come up with all these great ideas and we start to package them into these little funnels that then people could, Oh I'm interested in having more diversification in this area and I'm good at that and then Annie and I will have 10 ideas for you of things that you can do. Hey, this is our new business model and then if you're like, Oh I'm good at my bookkeeping, Annie and I are going to have like, here are 10 ideas of things that you could diversify your income with.

Annie: It's an open field.

Leah: It's totally there.

Annie: I'm going to go you one better. It's an idea after market and we're totally going to create a platform where we can all sell our bad ideas to other people who want them. It's going to be like…

Leah: It's awesome. This is so good.

Annie: Done. I'm have to go because I need to do this.

Leah: Create the new thing, but I helped you so I need to have a cut on that one.

Annie: Oh yeah, totally. Totally. I will get you a contract. This is what happens, so you have to be smart. That's why it's important to all those ideas to write them down so then you stop thinking about them and then you can come back to them at a more sane moment and decide like, yeah, I really want to do that, and other ones, I looked at them and I was like, do not do that. That is going to make things worse for you.

Leah: Right, right.

Annie: And then there's a book that I really… I don’t know, it's a little cheesy, but I like it and maybe
you've read it called Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert. It's her book about writing and she has this idea that I like. it is totally like woo and magical, and I completely agree with it, is that you might have a really good idea and then you don't act on it or you try it and it fizzles out for you. She's says, that's okay cause it's just going to go back out there and it's going to float around until it picks somebody else and then they're going to do it and they're the right person to do it. So you don't have to feel like I'm the right person for every idea that I have because if it's a good idea, it's going to happen. It doesn't have to happen through you.

Leah: Yeah, I think that's part of it. And don't be afraid to try some of these things out and if they don't work or they fizzle out or you just realize, gosh I thought I had a passion for this and I really, really don't. Sometimes our steps to success are up and down, or creating things. It takes some failures before you get some successes. And I think sometimes we get so hooked in I don’t want to try that because I might totally bomb at that and then what does that mean? I can't even do extra passive income so we just limit ourselves. So if you have a good idea and you feel passionate about it, throw it out there, try it and it may or may not work for you, and that's okay because that's how you're going to hone in on what is going to work for you in the long run, and it takes those failures to figure that out. I know that from experience.

Annie: Me too. And I think there are a lot of people out there who are listening who know that as well. But I want to live in this world where we're all having great ideas and making them happen because our ideas really make the world a better place. Yeah, we joke about how I'll buy anything but the reality is that I will and the reason I will buy things that other lactation consultants make is because I want to support them, and the only way to support them, really the best way is to pay them for the things that they're making. Pay them for their videos, pay them for their photos, pay them for their products, but also it's going to make me a better lactation consultant and then I'm going to have more space to create things I want to create. And I think there is a way where by making things and buying them from each other, we're going to raise the level of our profession and make us all better lactation consultants. When we're better at what we do, families are better served. So don't sit on that good idea you have, because it might just change my life.

Leah: Yes. Get it out there. We want to hear it. We're definitely your first customers. So send us an email as soon as you have it created. And as we wrap up today on this wonderful topic, tell us about your tech tip, Annie.

Annie: Yeah. So my tech tip today is about diversification and just recommending that when you are choosing a business name or your domain name URL, think about using something that's going to allow you to diversify. So I ran into this problem a couple of years ago. I had picked the URL Queens lactation consultant.com and then what happened shortly after was I started going to Brooklyn, and I was like, I'm the Queens lactation consultant.com. who goes to Brooklyn, and so that got strange and it was also really long and I'm not the Queens lactation consultant. So I recently switched to Citylactation.com which allowed me then to hire someone else because it's not just me, and then we can go to different places and we can go in the city. so that's my tip. just think about who you are and where you want to go, to be careful with anything like - because I do also conversely recommend location-specific domain names and business names because I think they are really helpful for marketing, but you want to be just really kind of balanced about is this going to hold me back?

Leah: Is it too narrow?

Annie: Is it too narrow? And that's what happened with me is that mine was too narrow. And so when you have your business name or your domain name, you can use that in Acuity to create custom URLs. So instead of Acuity scheduling.com/HJZ78*whatever it is - they put the gibberish - it'll be like citylactation.AS. {me} is the URL that you get. So that's really helpful in Acuity for that customization to know what your custom domain name is going to be. So that's my tech tip and don’t be afraid to change your domain name or your business name. Seriously. It's going to be fine.

Leah: You're a great example of that.

Annie: Everything is fine.

Leah: Everything is just fine. Annie has survived the changing of the names. That's awesome. Well, Annie, it's been great talking to you today. I can't wait to see what all you amazing lactation consultants out there start putting out into the world to diversify your incomes. I'm super excited about that. Annie, I can't wait till the next time we talk again.

Annie: For sure, Leah. Take care.

Leah: Thanks. You too. All right. Bye.

Annie: Bye.