Alessia Citro 0:02
Welcome to the corporate dropout podcast. I'm your host Alessia Citro. If you're sick of the corporate hamster wheel and looking to feel inspired and empowered to live a high vibe life as your own boss, you're in the right place dare to drop out in 321. Before we start the show, I want to tell you about the business I'm launching. Starting a business can be hard work, but it doesn't need to be confusing too. And that is why I founded Theia collective a learning community for entrepreneurs. Learn from experts across law, finance, tax operations, marketing, sales and more and get the blueprint on how to set up and run your own business. Text biz, that's BIZ to 949-577-8709 or head to Theia dash collective comm to learn more.

Alessia Citro 0:51
Hello friends, I am back today with Kelsey Krueger who is a dear friend as well as a corporate sales dropout turned solo world traveler, which is what ultimately brought her to her purpose which is changing the way that doulas show up in the birth world. Today she is an entrepreneur of her own thriving birth and postpartum doula business here in Orange County. She also has a business partner who's alongside with her partner service families mentors up and coming doulas as she paves the way for better birth and postpartum outcomes. And today, she is back on the show with a mini episode to talk about what you want to look for in a business partner and how to set that partnership up to be a thriving one. So with that, Kelsey, the mic is all yours.

Kelsey Krueger 1:34
Yes. So I want to start off by saying I've gotten very fortunate, very grateful heart for being aligned with my partner, Rory. She's an amazing dear friend of mine and business partner. You know, I mentioned in the initial recording, we kind of came together with Divine Alignment serendipitous. I had gotten my download my dream of my calling to be a doula put myself out there starting reaching out to doulas anyone in the birth community that I can get connected with to lean on. And I got invited to do a meet up and three days later, I went and that's where I met Rory. So you know, you just that we don't believe in coincidences. I don't either. But it definitely was one of those things where I was put myself in the right place. But it was all because I started putting myself out there wasn't afraid to get uncomfortable. And, you know, that's where I found Rory. So, with that being said, you know, it was only a few weeks into us being colleagues or friends, whatever you want to call it, right, like fellow doulas that

Kelsey Krueger 2:46
we just found a lot was aligning. We know in our personal lives were similar age, similar lifestyle. You know, neither of us are married, we both had boyfriends. And we lived you know, I'm in Newport, and she's in Huntington. So, in our personal lives, we're like, wow, like we have a lot in common. Like, you're a cool person, let's hang out. So we started as friends really and leaning on each other and just sharing our doula experiences. She was starting to create her childbirth Ed, course series for families, and she's like, Hey, do you want to be listening here? And I was like, absolutely. You know, I find that like, My personality is I always be the helper. I'm a nurturer. So we were kind of doing that for each other. She was like nurturing me and helping me as a very new doula was a few weeks in haven't even taking my taking my training yet. And here I was being a soundboard for her childbirth ed. So naturally, we were just helping each other. And in the doula world, it's an on call lifestyle. So we take on clients, depending on your bandwidth, maybe it's anywhere from like one to six births a month. And you have to have backups, right? Like when birth happens a lot of times on the full moon, we have lots of babies. So Rory started asking me to be a backup. And I was very eager I want to experience and so I was like yeah, let's let's do it. I'm more than happy to back you up. And very quickly. Did we realize we were you know, being each other's backup. We're like, why don't we just like, formally do this together. This is better for us. You know, as a doula coming off a birth you want someone build a call and invent to and sharing the excitement. You're on this like adrenaline rush. It's a high like the birth high is real. And that's why doulas get addicted to going to bars. Because, I mean, I might be biased, but seeing life come into the world is pretty freakin awesome. It's, I think the best thing you can witness and be a part of. So we started just naturally doing that. And so we started to talk about like, how can we formally go into business together and we're like, Well, we know we can take on more clients. If we're doing this together. There's two of us So, clients now have not one, but two doulas that's a benefit for them. And we can do a shared on call iced, like a lifestyle of shared on call is going to be much more doable. So there's only things we're like, yes, like connecting the dots, this completely makes sense. So, um, you know, I think first and foremost, we naturally we're finding a lot in common in our personal lives. And that's so important, because if you don't like the person, you're not gonna hang out with them. We spend every waking moment together, texting, calling, or we're in love with the app, Marco Polo, we're just sending videos of each other back at like, I love Marco Polo. And so we want to hang out, and we want to spend time together. So that's key, it's a central, I think you said earlier, we were talking about this, it's like going into a marriage with someone. So you have to like them. And our values and our, like, our deeply rooted values are very aligned. I think if we had like, things, you know, that just didn't align in the sense of like, what matters in life? That wouldn't work either, you know, by no means are we the same person. But at the end of the day, when hard things come up, you know, we see eye to eye. And, you know, we kind of have the yin and yang balance, I'm the type A and she's the, the like, we always like the free spirit hippie, and she's the creative. You know, she's an executer. She's, like, so coachable. She's never used like Google calendar before, or like G Suite and I'm obsessed at Salesforce are, like obsessed with G Suite. And she's like, Sure, give it to me. And yeah, it's just been so fun. Because, you know, she brings a lot to the table, it's different than what I bring to the table. And so, like, for instance, I do all the Instagrams that Kelsey, just tell me what to post and I will do it, you know. So, we each have to bring something unique to the table that you know, when we're sharing work, okay? Who's taking on what and being able divide and conquer without really even have to talk me having to talk about it? It's like, okay, I already know that these are my strengths. These are your strengths, like, yes, let's let's lean into that versus like, sitting there trying to divvy things up and arguing about who does what, and then the mutual like, investment in it, right. So her and I both have now quit our our jobs that we were doing previously, we were both nannies. It's a lot of times common for doulas to have part time work as they're moving into being a full time doula, whether that's like being a server, or like I said, Nanny, and babysitting, etc. And we knew the goal was for me to make an exit out of Nan Yang, I love the family I was with, but I knew that my heart and soul was in our business. So that was essential. Because if I was only putting in 50%, and she's all in, we're going to start to really feel like the weight of that. And

Kelsey Krueger 8:00
it would have felt like, you know, I'm not carrying my weight. And she is and ultimately, I just don't think that would have worked out. So both being all in and being able to have real conversations. So we give each other feedback naturally, you know, we're like, kind of call each other out, like, Hey, I didn't really like how you handled that client situation, you know, that wasn't really cool. And we're, we're close enough friends, it's similar to how you and I are like, we can be real and keep it real. And you know, within the day, we have each other's best interests in mind, but being able to, to give that feedback and not feel bad. And hey, like we're doing what's best for the business and for our clients. And, you know, we want to be happy. So we're so blessed to be doing this work every single day. So we use the NA had Sandy weigh on the podcast, we use our gratitude journal. And every single day we wake up and we say each other, I am so grateful for this life, I'm so blessed. And I get like emotional actually, because it's it's true. Like we we manifested this We're really big in manifestation and gratitude. And there is not a day that goes by that we don't express that to each other. So I think being rooted in something like that, whether you're a spiritual or a believer, being able to come back to like your why and really lean in on that when things get tough because things get sticky. So that's got to be strong for both of

Alessia Citro 9:24
you. And then from like a, like a pragmatic standpoint to and setting up the partnership. You created an entity you have an operating agreement, like, you know, the I wanted to be a lawyer when I was growing up, which I know that's weird. If you're a kid and you want to be a lawyer, I guess it was my love of arguing but like I always think that way like always get it in writing always. So you you guys did that too, because that probably allows you to work with a lot more peace of mind, right? Yes, absolutely.

Kelsey Krueger 9:49
So it was very easy for us to be like oh my gosh, nothing's ever going to go wrong with our partnership because we're best friends. However, business minded me was like, I want this Peace of mind because no matter what we'll never have to worry, Karen, right, another previous podcast guest, which is just I love the alignment of all these connections. That's just how I feel like my life works and spoke with her. And she highly encourage it no matter what, like, even if it's a business that you're not even launching, and maybe you're not even making money, just have that. So we create agreement, formally between us. We each individually have our own LLC, because we have our independent businesses. And we work with the same accountant and it makes things really easy. Actually, we haven't, you know, thankfully, run into any major issues between the two of us, but if we did, we're set up for success. Both of us are,

Alessia Citro 10:45
yeah, I love that, you know, going back to the marriage analogy, it's like, you know, you need to, I honestly feel like business partnership is maybe like, even a bigger deal than picking the right spouse, right? Like, you have to have the same values, you have to have good communication, you have to really like each other want to spend time together. And you know, you need to be able to get things like in writing so that both parties are protected. So I love that. Well, this was great. Thank you so much for coming back. Before we sign off if people did not listen to yesterday's interview, go back and do that. It's a great one. And where can people find and connect with you or work with you if they are expecting and local here in Orange County?

Kelsey Krueger 11:23
Yes, thank you. Um, so my business is wombs in bloom OC, so I'm on Instagram. That's also my website wombs in bloom oc.com. And my partnership business is Soulshine birth. So you can also connect with us there. We're always taking inquiries. We love to just hear from expecting moms and postpartum moms. And you can chat with us DMS, fill out an inquiry on our website.

Alessia Citro 11:49
Well, thank you again for being here. I appreciate your time. So much so glad that we refound each other and then we'll see you back here next time. This episode was brought to you by Theia collective the learning community I found it for entrepreneurs text biz, that's BIZ to 949-577-8709 or head to Thea dash collective calm. That's THEIA dash collective.com to learn more. Thanks for listening to the show. If you enjoyed today's episode, please help me get the word out about the corporate drop out by screenshotting and sharing this on social. I would appreciate it so much if you would subscribe and leave a five star rating and review as well. And I do this show for you and I want to hear from you. So tell me what is it that you want more of text me at 949-541-0951 or slide into the DMS at corporate drop out official or Alessia Citro with two underscores until next time