Kristin Laffrey is an award-winning International Business Educator and Consultant, specialising in the maternal services industry. Kristin is a Chartered Accountant, has held Director roles on not-for-profit boards and has a depth of finance and strategy experience serving large organisations across Australia and the UK.
Beyond her professional achievements, Kristin is a mother to her two young children. Motherhood became the catalyst for wanting to use her experience and qualifications to advance maternal service availability to mothers worldwide.
In 2020, Kristin founded the Mothermind Business Academy, serving maternal service businesses to build strong foundations and strategies within their business to grow their impact and income. She is also the founder of the Booked Out Doula, an online business education platform supporting doulas to launch, grow and scale their doula business. Kristin’s mission is to provide world-class education to support businesses leading change within fertility, birth, postpartum, motherhood and parenting so that more women can turn their ideas into impact and create greater lasting change for women on their motherhood journeys.
Kristin Laffrey, Business Educator and Consultant
Kristin, welcome. What a journey you’ve been on over recent years. Take us through this journey of becoming a mother yourself back in 2019 to now having supported over 300 businesses worldwide leading change for mothers.
Becoming a mother in 2019 was such a pivotal moment in my life. Before having my daughter, I was very career-focused having spent 10+ years working in strategy and finance for some of Australia’s largest organisations. Although I loved my role as Finance Manager within a large ASX-listed organisation, becoming a mother was the catalyst for wanting to create impact and use the skills I had for a greater good.
No one truly prepares you for the moment you become a mother. They say motherhood is the undoing before the becoming and I know many women who feel called to serve within the maternal service space feel this shift themselves before then wanting to support others on their journey.
I knew immediately that I wanted to serve mothers and felt deeply called to improve access to support for women throughout their fertility, pregnancy, birth, postpartum, motherhood and parenting journey. In my journey of diving into maternal support, I connected with many incredible women serving within this space. Fertility coaches, doulas, birth educators, motherhood/parenting coaches, matrescence educators, lactation consultants, and sleep consultants, all building businesses to serve mothers on their journey.
Through my discussions with these women, there was one challenge that was holding them back from serving more women and creating more impact – the foundations and strategies within their business to grow.
That is when I began to realise that the same skills and experience I had built supporting General Managers, Vice Presidents, COOs, and Directors within large organisations applied to women in business. Furthermore, that skill set was a massive gap that was ultimately holding them back from turning their vision for impact into a profitable and sustainable business.
That’s what led me to this point today. Since starting my business in 2019, I have supported businesses in so many different fields – fertility coaches, lactation consultants, sleep consultants, childbirth educators, motherhood coaches, and doulas. There is nothing more fulfilling than being able to support women in creating change in this way.
What do you see as important when building a business, especially when you are building a business that is coming from a place of wanting to serve others?
One of the most important things is recognising that you can want to make a difference AND still charge for your services. You can love what you do AND still create a sustainable income from it. It’s important to recognise that it doesn’t have to be one or the other.
If you are wanting to create lasting change, not just for the women you want to serve but also for yourself and your family, it’s important to acknowledge what is essential for that to happen.
What I see time and time again as the most important factor for many women is that they want to serve women for years and years to come, they want to create lasting change, and they want to see shifts within the way mothers embark on their fertility, pregnancy, birth, postpartum and motherhood journey. You may have all the passion in the world however if in 3 years or 5 years, you still aren’t creating enough income in your business to support you and your family or you are burning out trying to get clients each month, the reality is that you aren’t going to continue. So, the key way to create lasting change is to build your business in a way that is both profitable and sustainable so that your business lasts for years and years to come.
Having worked with many women in business, what do you see as the key driver for creating that profitability and sustainability within their business?
Growing your business in a way that is profitable and sustainable comes down to two key elements.
Firstly, having solid foundations within your business. This means that your business needs to be set up for success. So many women complete a basic business overview when they complete their qualifications without realising that the foundations for starting your business aren’t necessarily the foundations for succeeding in your business.
You may have packaged your services however are those offers packaged and priced effectively? You may have a business name and logo however how is your branding positioning you and your services to stand out? You may be posting on social media however how effectively are you communicating your messaging to attract and book clients consistently? This can be the key difference between starting and positioning your business to succeed.
The second element that is essential for growing your business is having simplified strategies within your business. When supporting clients, we never just look at how to get the next client, the focus is always on building out repeatable strategies within your business to attract and book a consistent flow of clients.
The challenge I see for many women serving within the maternal services industry is that they know how needed their support is, however, because of this, they also just assume people will book their services. This can be extremely disheartening for many women when they launch their services and don’t have women booking their services. So often, it’s not because what they have isn’t valuable or people don’t want to work with them, it purely comes down to this – their strategies aren’t attracting and converting clients.
If you focus on solidifying the foundations within your business and simplifying your strategies, not only are you going to attract more clients and create more income, but you are also going to do so in a way that feels more aligned.
For anyone starting or growing their business and wanting to serve mothers in a bigger way, what advice would you give them?
The maternal services industry is truly in the infant stages of growth and there is no better time than now to position your business to become a leader within this space.
My greatest piece of advice is to get honest with what you want to create. Even if you are only working a couple of hours a week around your baby’s nap time or building your business alongside a part-time job, if you know you want to serve women for years and years to come and grow your business into something that can financially support you and your family long-term, now is the time to lay the foundations for that.
We need more women growing their impact and growing their income in the process. If you aren’t intentionally laying those strong foundations and strategies within your business, this is where I would suggest starting.
Alongside gaining qualifications and mastering the skills of being able to serve women, also implement the foundations and strategies within your business that are going to allow you to attract a consistent flow of clients and build your business into the incredible vision you hold for it.
For women ready to build those foundations and strategies within their business, what first step would you suggest they take?
I would recommend downloading my free Massively Intentional Action plan which breaks down my 4-step Client Attraction Process to support you with building out your strategies for attracting a consistent flow of clients (even if you only have 7 hours a week in your business). Also, make sure you jump over to Instagram where I share valuable content and resources to get you moving forward in your business.
Ultimately, the first step is to get laser-focused on what you want to build and then get clear on how you will get there. Your strategies are the pathway to get you to the vision you hold for your business so determine exactly where you want to be and then start taking the intentional action to bring it to life.
