Media Manager Prepares Moms For Parenthood

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

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What's up everyone? Chris Guillebeau here. The show is called "Sidle School." It is all about creating freedom and security for yourself in a time of uncertainty or really in a time of whatever's going on in the world, so that you are protected, you are diversified, you have all the income you need to not be in debt, to not be dependent on a corporation or a government or an organization or really anybody other than yourself. It's all ultimately about self-reliance that you can do what is important to you. That also means being able to be a better person for other people, okay?

But it starts by being able to take care of yourself. So I recently told you about Brooke Thomas. This was last week, episode 1235. Brooke started an online meditation class right before COVID-19 hit. That caused her to be unable to do much at her day job, which requires physical touch.

So she went all in with the meditation experience and is now making several thousand dollars a month from the new program. Well, today I've got another story for you, another story of offline experiences going online. And it comes to us from the beautiful city of Sydney, Australia. After learning about hypnobirthing, which I had to learn about too for this episode and perhaps you will as well, after learning about hypnobirthing, a first-time mom conceives a service that provides tools and resources for anxious future parents. Her in-person classes are now online and she's reaching more people than ever before.

So this is a silver lining story if there ever was one. I'm gonna call it media manager prepares moms for parenthood. And this story is coming up after the shout out to our sponsor. Stay tuned. [Music]

It was only a couple of years ago that Australian Natalie Andrew gave birth to her first child, Freddie.

The event was one of the highlights of her life. She never felt more proud and empowered as she did that day. But reaching that state of mind was no accident. Natalie worked with a few other moms in her job as product manager for a TV station in Sydney, Australia. One of them told her that she loved giving birth and couldn't wait to do it again.

That was surprising to hear. Natalie had been feeling anxious about her pregnancy, especially the birth, and knew that many of her friends who became moms felt the same way. That's when her colleague told her about hypnobirthing. It's a set of techniques and tools that help future moms alleviate stress and anxiety around their birth, allowing them to fully experience the joy that bringing a life into the world offers. Natalie studied the techniques, and they worked.

When her son was born, instead of feeling anxious, she had a truly life-altering experience with only positive emotions. Upon doing some additional research, she found that one in five Australian women experienced trauma during giving birth. Furthermore, more and more pregnant women were working right up until their delivery date, often taking no time to mentally prepare. This knowledge helped Natalie give birth to a new passion. She knew that mothers everywhere could benefit from reducing anxiety from pregnancy using hypnobirthing.

She decided to teach a series of courses, sharing the strategies she learned and the piece that came with knowing childbirth is a natural phenomenon that sometimes needs medical intervention, not a medical procedure that's sometimes natural. With that, her side hustle approached its debut, and she called it prepared to birth. She spent a few thousand dollars in obtaining certifications. She had experience with websites from her day job, so she saved money by setting up her own and writing all the content herself. Soon, she began teaching a few friends for free.

It helped her get an understanding of the best way to structure a course, and the positive reception from her friends led to referrals for her first clients. When she started, Natalie taught classes and saw clients at home. She figured out how much to charge by researching what others did. Doing some quick math, she realized it'd probably be a while before she'd have enough money to pay for a dedicated space, so home would have to do for now, but it turned out not for long. Having worked in media for most of her career, Natalie was able to use her connections to create exposure.

When she heard that Meghan Markle and Prince Harry had used hypnobirth during the pregnancy and birth of their son, she managed to be featured on a morning TV show, talking about the practice. She used that same tactic to get mentions in a bunch of popular publications. Both avenues brought in customers. In less than a year, she was already making over $3,000 a month profit and had to rent a space to hold her sessions and classes. Everything was going well and she was feeling great, but then the pandemic known as COVID-19 hit the world.

How has she responded? Well, in a time where many people are out of work, Natalie and prepared to birth are working more than ever. Even in the age of social distancing, there are opportunities for her to grow. For one, Natalie knew that all hospitals in her local area canceled birthing classes. Most mothers groups were also canceling, which led to feelings of isolation, opening up a space for her to offer a service that can help.

She filmed a webinar with five of her past clients, talking about their positive experiences using hypnobirth. Then she switched to running sessions and classes using video conferencing instead of in-person. On top of that, she lowered her prices, since she knew many people are struggling financially. All of this means that she hasn't seen much of a drop in business at all, in fact, she's seeing that people need a positive mindset during pregnancy now more than ever. So while there is no due date for when the coronavirus pandemic will end, Natalie has still taken her side hustle to full term.

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All right, so what can we learn from this story? Well, I mentioned in the special series I did a couple of weeks ago with Dell Technologies, I mentioned in that series that some businesses are naturally positioned to thrive during the time of an event like the global pandemic, when so many parts of the world are on lockdown, but others can thrive if they choose to adapt, which is kind of what I'm more interested in because with the adaptation, you have to make a choice. And this story is an excellent example of adaptation. Natalie was only doing in-person classes, so the natural response perhaps, or what a lot of other people did, she could have just shut down and waited it out. And that's what even the hospital classes were doing.

Of course, the problem there is that pregnancy doesn't work that way. Pregnant women and perhaps their partners have needs now, like they always have needs. They're gonna have needs this week, next week, next month, beyond, no matter what else is happening in the world. That need is going to continue. So she was able to adapt or she chose to adapt, let's say, in switching to the webinars, in switching to the online video conferencing, realizing that she needed to drop her price a little bit, which is also going to allow her to serve more people.

So, as I said, an excellent example of responding to what's happening in the world while still moving forward with something you believe in, something you believe can help people, and also be economically viable for you. All right, thanks again, Natalie. And listeners, I hope you enjoyed it. Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. To find the show notes for today's episode, learn about hypnobirthing, learn about Natalie's work, come to sidehustleschool.com/1242.

That is one, two, four, two. If you've got a question or comment for the show, you can do that on that same site, and be sure you come back tomorrow. It's all free, it comes out every day. Tools and resources for surviving and thriving in the new economy. Thank you once again.

My name is Chris Guillebeau, this is "Sidusleschool." [Music]

from the Onward Project.