How TikTok Built My Birth Business
by Amanda Gorman
Zero registrations, my scheduling system reported in a mocking tone.
Unwilling to accept that answer, I pleaded with the dashboard, hitting refresh with the hope that it would get someone to sign up for my class. Still, the system replied with the same result: zero.
Offended by Squarespace’s attitude and disheartened by the results of my efforts, I opened Instagram for inspiration and distraction. As I scrolled and tapped the heart on other birth worker’s posts, I felt both envious and like a fraud. I had finished my certification as a childbirth educator, completed the mundane tasks of setting up my LLC and business license, and even acquired insurance that I wasn’t totally sure I needed.
Yet none of these actions yielded any sign-ups for my birth class.
I had changed my whole career path to one that focused on helping parents prepare for a monumental season in their lives. I guess I was expecting a Field of Dreams business model where if I built it, they would come. But they didn’t.
I shrugged my shoulders and then rounded them up and back as I typed the phrase, “how to find clients for your birth classes”. I read the articles and made a plan that I would execute over the next 6 weeks. My plan included: posting more Instagram carousels and stories, that 8 other birth workers liked, collaborating with other birth workers and prenatal yoga instructors on IG live, that 3 people viewed, and posting about my new venture and class offerings on Facebook that yielded another handful of likes and an encouraging comment from my Aunt Kathy.
At the end of the 6 weeks, it happened: someone signed up for my class! I was ecstatic and exhausted. After teaching the first class with that lovely couple, I went back to the marketing drawing board. I was very grateful to actually be guiding a paid client through childbirth preparation, but I knew that if it took 6 weeks of that much effort to acquire each new client, I was going to burn out fast.
Also, with every Facebook and Instagram post, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was an impostor, a little girl playing birth worker with my baby doll and pelvic model. How many clients would it take for me to become the real deal? Through my uncertainty and fatigue, I kept the wisdom I had learned in Birthing from Within in mind, asking myself: What is one small step I can take today to keep making progress?
Eventually, that question landed me in a very strange place: TikTok.
I kept reading and watching the advice of marketing experts who kept recommending the same thing that I didn’t want to hear: Get on TikTok. I deeply resented this suggestion each time I heard it, but eventually I acquiesced, turned on my camera, smiled, and pointed to text on the screen as I internally cringed.
Once per week I taught my favorite-and-only-client, and then the other 6 days per week, I made TikToks and Instagram reels. Then a funny thing happened: with each video I made, the amount of cringe I felt dissipated. Eventually, I actually started to enjoy the content creation process. I started to receive a lot of positive responses from viewers, and it provided validation for me as a birth worker. Not only did I start to like it, but I wanted to make TikToks everyday and everywhere, I would make them on a boat, I would make them with a goat, and in a car and in a tree. TikToks are so fun and effective, you see!
Some of my videos did well, and some did not, but instead of taking it personally when either happened, I approached it like Ida Twist Scientist. I took notes, checked my analytics, doubled down on what worked, and abandoned things that didn’t. My confidence as a birth educator grew as my followership did. And then, a few weeks into my experiment, I got another client…that I met on TikTok!
I would continue with this experiment for months while also experimenting with my birth class offerings, and my hypothesis proved to be true… in part. Just as I had theorized, I did find new clients through this new social media channel. However, I hadn’t expected to find that I would help more families than just those who joined my classes, or that this pathway would lead me to answer my heart’s question: who are you here to serve and help? The comment section of my videos and the direct messages from expecting parents in my inbox shouted a resounding answer.
Recent discussions with fellow birth workers have expanded who else I might be able to serve as I have realized over and over again that this experience was not unique to me. Many of my friends and peers have also been wrestling with how to find new clients without expending all of their energy trying to do so. These conversations and realizations have led me to create a course to share my knowledge and experience with other birth professionals. My hope is that anyone who takes this course will not only increase their visibility and find new clients, but also share their wisdom with parents via this new medium that enables messages to reach people farther and wider than I could ever imagine.